300 Days

November 19, 2012

Hello Family!

Once again, it was a busy but not very productive week. haha. Tuesday we had just gotten back from District meeting and the Assistants called. Luckily it was just to tell us that we were going to trade in our car to get another one since it had passed the 50,000 mile mark. So we ended up spending Tuesday detailing our car. Well. Sort of. I did my best to buff out some scratches that previous missionaries had put in and we cleaned out any garbage or what not and vacuumed the inside. So. That ate up the afternoon, but we were still able to see Janeen in the evening. She has a testimony already. She would finish some of our sentences or say what was coming next in the lesson. She knew that faith was the 1st principle of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and she knew that baptism comes after repentance and receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost after baptism. She wants to be baptized, her health is just a big issue. She wanted to come to church but ended up in the E.R. and was on doctors orders not to leave her home for a week. She had walking pneumonia. She has been to church several times in the past, just not while Elder Grill and I have been teaching her. Technically she has been to church enough in the past to be baptized, but we and the zone leaders feel like it would be good to get her to church at least once if not twice while we are teaching her before she is baptized. She also needs to completely quit smoking but she has a strong desire to do that too so we're thinking she will make it to the waters this year.

 

Tuesday night I went to bed thinking "ah crap. I'm getting sick." And sure enough, I was pretty under the weather Wednesday through Saturday. Sore throat/head cold thing. It wasnt bad enough to put me out of commission but it was just enough to make life slightly miserable. haha. Also Tuesday evening, we got a call from the woman conducting the whole missionary choir. She was changing the music so we needed to go down the hill yet again. Bleh. It worked out since we needed to swap our vehicle anyways, but then that day was pretty much shot. We met with Vera and talked to her about the Plan of Salvation. I'm not sure if I've mentioned but it seems like all hell is moved against her. Or at least was. She's doing a lot better. But she lost her uncle 2 weeks ago and another friend the week before that. She said the knowledge she has gained in the past few months has made it a lot more bearable.

 

By the way, I gave my jacket to someone that doesn't have a coat. Or didn't and now has mine. I know I have a lot of sweat jackets back home so it wasn't hard to give it up. However, I am now without a jacket if we're doing service. Not a huge deal since I have a sweater I can put on and also because we don't do much service out here, but I wouldn't mind a replacement sometime in the future, especially when it gets colder this winter. Maybe my black Element one if Jeren hasn't claimed it. haha.

 

We've been teaching a woman named Barbara. I mentioned that last week right? Well the Westside missionaries always struggled to get through to her and I can definitely see why. She always loops conversations back to her terrible past and why in the world her family and husband completely disown and want nothing to do with her when she's given them all she has both physically and emotionally. Elder Grill has gotten more stressed out with each visit and just about dropped her when we visited yesterday. It is hard to teach her when she starts to get "emotional" as she calls it. "It's just an Italian thing," she says. Haha. We're not going to give up on her though. Elder Grill and I are going to kind of switch roles. He likes to take the lead in talking at lessons but in this case we're going to switch a little.

 

Anyways. That's been an adventure. The music that was changed for the choir was a lot more difficult. It went from being mostly just hymn arrangments to like Sally Deford stuff. It's not difficult music, but difficult for most "sing the melody" missionaries. I was worried that the missionaries would not be able to learn this new music in 3 practices. Actually, I was fairly possitive about that fact. Elder Grill and I voiced that opinion and got rebuked for lacking in faith. Ha. Elder Grill said he felt like Levi Savage. Anyways, she called us a day or two later and said she couldn't stop thinking about what we'd said and had decided to cut out 2 of the hardest of the new pieces. So. I didn't said I told you so, but I wanted to. haha. Anyways. The Saturday practice went alright. The missionaries were starting to get their parts down by the end (I just belt out the bass part so that they can hear me haha) so I think by the end of next practice they'll have all the notes down for sure.

 

We met with Sister Wall again. We talked about the gospel of Christ with her. It was another touching lesson. Towards the end, there was a pause where she was kind of staring off into space. When she looked back over at us, she said "you're here, right now, to teach me. Me, Jeri Wall." It was pretty cool.

 

So I read Isaiah this week. Quite a bit of good stuff in there. I'll probably take some more time to go through it more in depth later. I came across a passage that made me think of Brooke Porter. 57:1-2. Don't remember what it says off the top of my head, but I wrote it down so that I would remember.

 

Well that was purdy much our week. I don't know if I emphasized how thankful I am for the presents you sent, but I truly am! I love Paul Cardall so flippin much. I have his Hymns collection as well. Our district always listens to the cd you sent me whenever we have to drive down the hill together. It's super great :)

 

I love you guys! The church is true!

Love,

Elder Browning

 

p.s. oh so the subject of my email.... Elder Grill keeps a tally for how many days he's been on a mission. He is about to hit 200 so I was curious how many I've been out. Sure enough, it's been 300 days. or was yesterday. Or will be tomorrow. I don't know. Close enough. haha