One after the Other

Talofa family!

 

So, just to get the bad news out of the way, it's been one sickness after the other for me it seems. I was feeling better at the beginning of this last week but since thursday have had stomach issues. I was hoping today would be better but when we were playing sports this morning I started getting really dizzy and was losing my vision so I stopped. I've been light headed since. Hopefully it's just a bug that's running its course. I'm going to buy some healthier foods today - fruits and veggies mostly. Get some good natural fibers to help clean me out. My body might just not be used to as much protein as I've been eating recently. haha. I hate that when I'm sick, it's usually for a while. And, it's not bad enough to cancel everything but always just annoying enough to make life uncomfortable.

 

Well, anyways, I had an interesting day on Wednesday. I was on splits with a greenie and his 2 week missionary in the spanish ward. Luckily, they both spoke fluent spanish and english haha. I thought I would do okay, but my spanish is pretty bad. I could understand a fair amount of what the missionary was saying since his enunciation was clearer but the members and investigators we visited spoke too quickly for me to understand the conversation. It was fun though. The few spanish people I've worked with on my mission just... get it. They catch on to the doctrine we teach. Like the fact that the book of mormon is a 2nd witness of christ and adds to the testimony of the bible. We were talking about the Book of Mormon to one woman and she said (in spanish) "oh so it's basically a 2nd witness. Like the bible, but from america." She was a pretty cool lady. Strong spirit. She'd already read all the way to Alma 42. She bore her testimony to us about the things the missionaries have been teaching her. pretty cool. Shes getting baptized in a week or two.

 

Brother Hawkins asked to move his baptism to September. We were talking about prophets with him and he said he can't say that he believes Joseph smith was a prophet and doesn't have a testimony of thomas s monson. He said he wants to believe that before he gets baptized. Which is good! Too many people get baptized before they're ready. He's going to read joseph smith's history and watch/listen to some of general conference. I have the joseph smith movie so we're going to watch that with him too.

 

Pauga had a lesson with Moli and her family while I was in the spanish ward but I taught them in gospel principles on Sunday. We had 2 less active families in church as well and they came to our class. We talked about sacrifice and its huge importance as members of the church (or just plain followers of christ). Many of the people there shared stories from the scriptures about sacrifice that were especially meaningful to them.

I gave the analogy that each of us have our own little "altar" of things we sacrifice. It could be reading our scriptures, going to church, our calling, etc. However, there is a large table of things behind us that we don't give or aren't willing to give. It could be something as simple as saying prayers twice a day. I talked about how God is grateful for all that we sacrifice... but, he wants us to, step by step, clear off that table behind us.

 

One thing that's interesting about all the Browning missionaries that have served here is that we've all worked with separate groups. Jeren spent a lot of time working with the spanish, I'm working with the Samoans, and grandma and grandpa dealt with a lot of problematic individuals. haha. I wonder if we have family here? I've ran into several brownings on my mission but haven't had the time to find out if we're related or not.

 

Anyhoo, transfers are next week. President is doing them differently. The downside is we go straight there and the ride situation is going to be tricky. However, we're going to know where we're going and who we'll be with by Sunday night. I'm probably not going anywhere, but you never know. President is also apparently opening up 16 or 17 new areas.

 

And with that... I'm out!

Peace!

Love,

Elder Nelson Browning

26 Weeks

Talofa!

No worries dad, Talofa is Samoan :) Talofa lava!

 

Well we struggled a little more this week - had some bad food one night and been fighting getting sick the last couple days. It hasn't been bad but just enough to be a nuisance. Dinner last night gave me some ginger shot drink stuff. felt it burning out my ears. haha. It helped though. I think part of it is not getting enough veggies in my diet. I'm not a big pill person but I'm not against taking a multi vitamin while in this ward.

 

Thanks so much for the package! And I got Aubree and Ryan's letter. The ampetheter where Aubree had girls camp? If it's the same one I'm thinking of, I built a lot of it. Sheldon Packard had an eagle project at I think the same camp with that really long slide and we fixed up/replaced most of the benches in the ampetheter.

 

So the Torres family is going to be out of town with the family things for the whole first week of August. But! They want to get baptized as soon as they get back. So Saturday the 10th is the day. Brother Hawkins should still be good for the 3rd unless he wants to stay with the group.

 

Oh feel free to use my stickers if you'd like. I'm not sure what to do with them anyways. It's a neat little collection but not really of any use unless you actually use the stickers. haha.

 

Jordan Lewis is home?? Man. It doesn't seem like he left very long before me. Crystal said she's starting to see people her age come home now too. 2 years seems long when you're looking at it but it's really not long at all in the grand scheme of thing. If life is but a "blip" on the heart monitor of eternity, a mission is just a few pixels of that blip.

 

I have to miss another talent show??? Dang. Well, I guess it'll just be another year where I don't get to make a fool of myself. haha :)

There are 2 missionaries that I'm pretty good friends with that got their appartment broken into a couple days ago. There wasn't much to steal besides a bass that one of them had.

 

Well I'm getting kicked off in 20 seconds so I'll talk to you next week! Or maybe in an hour. ha!

Love,

Elder Browning

Talofa!

Talofa! We had a fairly decent past week. We're getting the ball rolling and more people excited about missionary work. We started splits with the elders quorum and high priests this past week and had a lot of success. We were able to each visit a less active family as well as some potential non-member Samoans. One, the one that elder Pauga visited, has a baptismal date now set for August 3rd along with Moli and Sabrina's family. So we're super excited about that. If things go as planned, we could end up with like 6 people being baptized on that day.

Both the less active families were supposed to be at church but they didn't come. One's wife had to take their only car to work last minute and left her husband babysitting the kids but we're unsure about the other. The nonmember Samoans that I went and visited on splits arent interested right now, but because of the whole culture, they're super open. They said "come over we'll barbecue for you!" So we're thinking with more fellowship, they could come around. Our ward mission leader and some of the ward missionaries are going to continue visiting them.

 

We're thinking of visiting members grouped by area and keeping a record of their progress in their missionary efforts: people they know that come to mind, things they're going to do, commitments we leave, follow up, etc. That way we stay organized between visits.

 

How's President Van Cott? What can I say about him knowing that he reads my blog... haha. He said in interviews this past week that he wont have the time to follow my blog any more though. Apparently he looked up a lot of other missionaries in this mission too. He's young but doesn't let that deter him at all. He's the fiery type that likes to do things and not sit around in meetings or in the office. He might be a bit rash but I think he means well and cares about the missionaries and the work. I like his desire to get out and do work himself. Only thing that seems to not be going well is all the office/organizational work. We just barely got a call from the office today to find out our address so they can forward mail. It's been what, 3 whole weeks? Poor Pauga has been waiting for a package for a while. haha. Those letters you sent 3 weeks ago? Still don't have them. Also, supplies from the office (copies of the book of Mormon, pass along cards, pamphlets, etc) are being picked up monthly instead of weekly. So it seems a little messy in that sense but otherwise okay. I'm not going to use the word "change" because he doesn't like missionaries saying he's changing things haha.

 

Anyways, I don't have a ton of time left as a missionary so I don't know if I care very much about getting my slacks fixed. They just need to survive a few more months because then we'll be in suits after general conference. I'm surprised how nice my shirts still are. Still white!

 

There's so much goodness in the end of the Book of Mormon, especially chapter 7 and 10 of Moroni. Chapter 7 is probably one of my favorite chapters in the Book of Mormon. I think verses 40-48 go hand in hand with verses 32 and 33 of chapter 10

 

Until next week! Fa soifua!

Love,

Elder Nelson Browning

Independence Week

Talofa! I'd ask how everyone is but it sounds like Aubree and Megan have been under the weather. Or food. Or something. That's no fun :/ I've been a little sick myself - probably just trying to adjust to the Samoan food. I've hardly seen any food that I recognize besides white rice. haha. It's all really good though! We had a raw fish dish last night (hey look I rhymed!). It tasted good but didn't sit well with me this morning. Friday through sunday I had cold like symptoms - runny nose/cough/sore throat which is weird for this time of year. I should be on the up end though.

 

Well it's fun being in the Samoan ward but there really isn't a lot to do - just visit/hang out with members. The Torres family (the family of 5) are continuing to do well. They understand everything we teach and we've been able to answer all their questions. They had some extended family issues so they had to cancel our appointments this week but still came to church and we taught them 2nd hour in gospel essentials. All the two kids and Sabrina are pretty much golden and her husband is pretty solid too. Only the mom is hesitant. However, she really wants to know. She just doesn't feel like she knows yet. She's in 2nd Nephi right now and is continuing to pray.

 

Oh just to clarify, my mission assignment is still english speaking so I don't have many language resources besides my companion. But, the ward speaks mostly in Samoan so I'm going to try and learn all I can. He and I are going to make flash cards and stuff to help me practice. Mostly we're just addressed as "Elder" and most people can say "browning." A lot of the kids call me "brownie" haha. Palauni is what my name would most likely be in Samoan. There's one kid who calls me "machine gun." He's only like 12 though which is crazy that he knows that. haha

 

We had FHE with a family last week and I got assigned to play piano. haha. I wonder how often that's going to happen in this ward.

 

What else... food? Unripe boiled bananas, rice, chop suey, curry stuff, corn beef, chicken, pork chops, other unique looking meat, manioka and taro, etc. Pretty much every meal you end up using your fingers at least part of the time haha.

 

President is making a lot of changes and the church made a few as well. We're now allowed to wear tan slacks or khakis. Also, backpacks are no longer allowed world wide. This doesn't mean we can't use them over the next few months, but they want all missionaries to switch to shoulder bags. We can have a backpack but they don't want us using it for proselyting and stuff. Check out "lds.org -> resources -> missionary -> dress and grooming" for details. We've been asked to all get shoulder bags over the next several weeks. If you wanna help me out with that I'd really appreciate it :)

 

That's most of the new stuff. We played volleyball and basketball with the ward on the 4th. I got a pretty big complement from one guy. He came up to me and said "browning I didn't know you could play volleyball!" I'm always hesitant to play with Samoans because they're usually all pretty good. It was pretty fun though.

 

I love you guys! Alofa atu :)

 

Elder Palauni

Fa'a Samoa!

Talofa aiga! Ua mai oe?? (Hello family! How are you?)

 

So guess what!? I'm Samoan now! Who'd a thunk! Not me! Crazy huh?? It was the last thing I expected to hear "in the Inland Empire Samoan ward, Elder Pauga, and Elder Nelson Browning." Elder Pauga is SUPER tight. We were so excited to be serving together that he ran over to me when we were called and grabbed me in a bear hug and threw his Samoan flag around my neck.

All the missionaries were able to talk and get pictures since the mission was splitting. I know very few missionaries in this mission since most that I know stayed in Rancho (lots of green missionaries in San B and Rialto) but it's all good. I'm the 2nd oldest missionary in my zone. Wow.

 

And this all means... I'm in the Redlands mission! My area is HUGE! Even with the boundary changes, we still span 4 missions in the IE Samoan ward. It goes from out west in Pamona (Arcadia mission) through Rancho Cucamonga, San B, Redlands, Yucaipa, and all the way out to the Palm Desert. And southward, it covers Riverside and goes out to Norco and the border of Temecula. Our dinner is actually out in Norco tonight so we're going out there after this. It's too bad Gma and Gpa aren't still out here! That'd be really cool. Guess we all had to be in a row but not overlapping huh? Jeren, then the grandparents, and now me. Wowzer! Riverside, are you sick of us yet? haha

 

Man. I'm still super hyped up about all this. Only downside is that Polynesian wards are generally slower since you can only find investigators from members that know other non member polys. However, President Van Cott announced that we are no longer going to tract! Hallelujah! (not a big deal since I'm in a Samoan ward but it's still interesting). I needed the push to visit member families more often anyways. I've always talked about doing it more but haven't really made much of an effort to do so.

 

So just a note, in Samoan, g's are pronounced like the letter n. So Pauga is pronounced "paunga" but the "guh" sound from the G is faint. Their alphabet only has 17 letters so everyone has a hard time with "Browning" even though they all speak at least some English. There's no "ing" sound. So I'm Elder Palaugi :) (Pa-la-oo-nee where la-oo sounds like "loud"). Or, "fa ene ene" (means "to make brown" haha) or even "Keke" (brownie HA).

 

I had to hit the ground running come sunday. They asked me to bear my testimony (in English) and it was SO COOL to say "Brothers and sisters, talofa!" The people are hilarious, especially the older ladies. Also, They asked us to put together a musical number last minute so we were going to sing I stand all amazed. But they found out I played some piano so I had to accompany the musical number in Sacrament meeting! I only messed up once though so it was all good haha.

 

We have one family that we're teaching. It's a family of 5. Moli (the mom), Sabrina and her husband Alex, Marco, and Omar. They're pretty solid. They want to wait until the first week of August to get baptized though. They could get baptized as soon as next week though. We'll see what happens over the next few weeks.

 

We also taught the cousin of a family who is staying with them before going to school next week in Vegas. She's open but not super receptive. We'll only be able to meet with her one or two more times so we're hoping to get the ball rolling (or seed planted) before she leaves.

 

Well I'll try and send a few pictures too. We're working out hard every day trying to not get fat! It's so hot that I'm not going to have a problem though. It was 105 on Saturday (we were outside all day for a samoan holiday. If I hadn't been wearing lava lavas and flip flops with my white dress shirt I would have really struggled. It got to 110 yesterday. Luckily it cooled off a tiny bit today to 102 or so. We helped a guy move this morning and I'm not used to having sweat literally run down my face. haha.

If you're wondering, we live in San Bernardino and spend a lot of time in Rialto (it's super ghetto down over heres bro!).

 

Alofa atu! Fa soifua!

Elder Nelson Browning (Nelesoni Palaugi)