Double Baptism, Thanksgiving!

Hi everyone!

This week was awesome!  It started off with zone preparation day which included a thanksgiving lunch with President Smith and his wife after doing service at the mission home.  It was awesome!  I included pictures of it last week. 

During the week, we had a really good lesson with Marylene, a new investigator.  We taught her the plan of salvation, and she was taking notes!  She has great potential.  We also had a really good lesson with Amanda, where we read Alma 32 with her, a fantastic chapter on Faith.  She said she felt something as we read it, and of course it was the spirit.  I love that we can have a member of the Godhead with us to testify of the truths we teach.  

We had thanksgiving at the Autens new house with Sister Henshaw and some of their extended family.  They put on quite a spread, and it felt a bit like home.  And of course the best part of the week was the double baptism on Saturday!  Joseph and Flo both are now members of the Buckingham Branch of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  I baptized Joseph and Elder Weir baptized Flo.  We also did a musical number with the spanish sisters, who came to the baptism for Flo.  Then yesterday Elder Weir Confirmed Joseph and President Knight confirmed Flo in Spanish.  It was awesome! 

I hope you all have a wonderful time!  After #ThinktoThank for Thanksgiving, it is now time to #LightTheWorld before Christmas!

Elder Brown

Awesome Exchange, Service in Yogaville!

Hi Everyone!

This week was awesome!  We kicked it off with district meeting on Tuesday, followed by probably the best exchange I have had on the mission.  We had so much fun!  And we found 4 new investigators!  We had a model area exchange here in Buckingham, so we had the Sandy River A (Burkeville) Elders both come over here, and we did a lot of work.  We ended it with a bang doing service in Yogaville Wednesday morning!  We help the kitchen staff prep the community lunch, which gave us a great opportunity to answer questions, build a relationship with the community, and share the gospel.  We ended up teaching the restoration to a lady over cutting tomatoes!  We also took the other elders up to see the lotus temple briefly.  

We had baptismal interviews with both of our investigators who are on date.  They are ready, and will be baptized this Saturday!  We helped an older member move on Saturday, and we had Flo and Joseph at church on Sunday, after which we had Potluck!  Delicious!  We watched the Young Single Adult  Face 2 Face last night with Elder Oaks and Elder Ballard.  I loved it!  They had a lot of wise counsel, and they are hilarious!  Also, we had a zone thanksgiving lunch today at the mission home, it was great! 

I hope you have all seen similar success and joyful experiences, and I wish you all the best!  The gospel is true, and brings joy and peace that can be found nowhere else!  Until next week,

Elder Brown

Serving at the Community Lunch in Yogaville

A Brief trip to the Lotus Temple in Yogaville

Zone Preparation Day

Golden member referral, Zone conference!

Hi everyone!  Sorry for the long email this week, but this week was pretty solid.  We got three referrals this week!  One was from a member.  Sister Wier called us up and invited us to dinner with her childhood friend, with whom she had been discussing the gospel.  She wanted a Book of Mormon and a KJV Bible, and came with a lot of questions!  She was very prepared!  Initially she wasnt sure she wanted to take the discussions or read the book of Mormon, but we were able to resolve her concerns and assure her that the best way to answer her questions was through the discussions.  She has a lot of potential, and I am so excited!  She really seems to be searching for the truth, and I am so happy that I have the opportunity to show her the way!  

The second referral was from Facebook!  We were teaching a guy over Facebook, and about half way through the lesson he was like, "hey can you teach this to my sister?  She would really like this!" We were so excited!  He gave us her info, and she is receiving it very well!  We got the last referral from Mormon.org just the other day.  It didn't have much info with it, but we will try to contact them tonight or tomorrow.  

We also had zone conference this week, which was awesome!  We had a really good discussion about the ways that we have seen success using Facebook, we had a really good training from President Smith about the importance of having the spirit and an awesome training from Sister Smith on goal-setting.  We also got to sign a painting of the temple, signifying our commitment to the 100 day challenge to become more converted to the savior before our temple trip in January!  Also, we had a representative from Salt Lake visiting.  He gave a training on vehicle safety and replaced all the tiwis.  (A tiwi is a little box they put in the car to help us avoid accidents, speeding, reckless driving etc)

We picked up Joseph and Flo for church with Brother Krebs, and the Spanish sister missionaries came all the way out here from Chesterfield to be at church with Flo.  It was really good for her.  Needless to say, things are going pretty well out here!  I hope you all have seen similar joy and success in your efforts!  Until next week,

Elder Brown

Facebook is poppin' off!

Hi Everyone!

Can I just say, I LOVE online proselyting!  It is seriously the best!  People are (usually) so much more respectful over Facebook, and are typically more willing to talk!  We have been messaging just about everyone we can find out here, and we are seeing a lot of success!  We now have a new investigator because of this, we have set multiple appointments, and we have many more to come!  It is such a good way to not only find people but also keep consistent contact!  What an amazing tool the Lord has given us! 

We have also found a less active member over Facebook!  He lives in our area, but we don't have his records.  So this is basically the only way we could have found him!  We had dinner with him and his family.  They are all great.  He has a few concerns he is working through right now, but he wants to come back to church, and is starting to study and pray a lot more. 

Joseph and Flo are doing awesome too!  Flo is a lot more open with us now, and Joseph is so excited about it that we can't help but laugh at his enthusiasm!  He jumps from pamphlet to pamphlet and tells us his favorite points.  He also realized he didn't have all the pamphlets yet, and pretty much hounded us for the last couple pamphlets.  He is so ready for it.  They are both coming to church next week, and the Sisters who have been teaching Flo are also coming to the branch this Sunday to be with Flo.  Should be good!  I am pumped to see what happens next week, and I sincerely hope all of you are doing awesome!  Until next week,

Elder Brown

Zone Preparation Day!

Some people are so chill online!

Staying in Buckingham, Halloween!

Hi Everyone!  
We had transfer calls on Saturday, and Elder Weir and I are staying in Buckingham!  This last transfer was actually 7 weeks, because there was a mission president conference on the six week mark.  So to make up for it, this transfer will be 5 weeks.  

This week was good.  We helped out with the branch fall party and with Spooky Hollow at the Historic Village.  We also split some wood again for Sister Jones at Brother Henshaw's place.  We had some success with online proselyting this week!  We decided  to message some people on facebook whose profile said they lived in the area, and we were able to set 3 appointments!  Unfortunately, 2 are during Preparation Day, but I am still excited for it!  I would rather teach than do anything else!  Unfortunately, they both fell through.  But we will try to reschedule. 

We gave talks on Sunday Oct. 29th.  We spoke on some of our favorite conference talks from this most recent conference.  Elder Weir spoke on Elder Rasbands talk "By Divine Design" and I spoke on President Eyrings talk "The Lord Leads His Church".  I highly recommend studying both of those talks.  They are really great!  I guess the branch really enjoyed our talks, because we got a lot of compliments!

I have grown quite close to Brother Henshaw.  He is just a great guy.  He said we were probably his favorite missionaries.  That always makes you feel good!  Anyway, I hope all of you had an excellent week too.  The gospel brings so much peace and joy, and sharing it brings even more!  

Wishing you the best of luck this week,

Elder Brown