March 11, 2013
Hey family!
I don't have a lot of time to write but I'll hurry hurry! We had a fairly busy week and have seen a lot new windows opening up. We met with Roberto and he is super interested; got ahold of a book of Mormon and was already done with 1st nephi! He and his wife prefer spanish though so we transferred them over to the spanish missionaries. They were at church with the spanish ward yesterday. Also, a family that Elder Whiting started teaching a month ago finally kept an appointment with us and we had a good lesson on the restoration. Robert, the dad, has worked on Sundays all his life. But starting this week he will have sundays off. What a miracle! He, his wife Veronica, and his kids (ages 9, 8 and 6) are all going to be at church this sunday. So theres 3 investigators the are progressing steadily towards baptism, along with the 8 year old that will technically be a child of record baptism. It's fun having all 3 boys there; they ask a lot of questions!
In district meeting we spent longer than expected trying to set a goal for the district. Nothing really seemed to apply to everyone and give everyone an opportunity to stretch. Finally I thought of asking everyone to push just slightly more for less active visits with well-thought-out lessons for those visits and then asking for a referral from those less active members. The district was averaging 7 or 8 lessons and a total of 20 member referral requests each week. So I set a goal with the district for 10 less active lessons and referral requests from all those visits. Talking to everyone and getting their reports last night, we totalled 10 less active lessons and 30 referrals requested, which means we met our goal exactly. And, 3 of the 4 companionships got at least one potential or referral from those visits! Ours was a referral for another ward but at least it was a referral! So that was super exciting to hear.
We haven't been getting fed as much as I was in the other areas I served. I've probably averaged about 6 meals a week as a missionary and now we only have 3 or 4 a week. Kind of a bummer. I might actually start using that cookbook more. haha.
I went on an exchange with one of the missionaries serving in the Tongan ward on Thursday. Quite the interesting culture. Dinner looked a little sketch at first (weird potato/yam things, sausage things, some other meat dish, discolored ribs, etc) but all of it was really good. Often the members just drop off dinner or give the missionaries money for dinner but when they do have them over they don't eat with them; they let them eat first and then eat after they leave. Kind of an awkward but supposedly polite thing I guess. We ended up having 3 desserts that night (ugh) because all the other members we visited offered us dinner and dessert. We were able to turn down the 2nd dinners but not the additional desserts. haha. Oh well. That's why I exercise regularly.
My bike is in good condition and we've been using it more. It coasts better than elder Whitings; he pedals more than I do. The ward is actually about 3 miles wide and 5 miles long so biking is almost necesity to get to the southern part of the ward. Whiting said he walked once and it took an hour. It's that large because most of the bottom two-thirds is industrial. They decided to stick like 3 complexes on the southern end of our area though. haha.
The sisters in the district serve in the San Sevaine ward so they probably know the Braby family. I'll have to ask sister Folsom.
It's probably not a coincidence that you mentioned Javin. I was actually wondering about him this week and was going to ask if anyone knew how he was doing. If you run into him or Austin miller again you'll have to let them know I'm thinking about them and that Austin needs to write me BACK! haha.
One of the families that we have been and will be doing laundry at most weeks will let us use their computer to email so that we have a little more time. They're a young couple and he's working on his degree - bio technology or something. He was preping for a test today and will be gone next week but we'll probably start doing that the week following.
Anyways. I love you guys! Happy birthday again to miss Katester :)
Love,
Elder Nelson Browning
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