Transfer Week!

Hi Everyone!

This week had a lot of upsides, but also a downside.  Starting with the upsides, we kicked off the week with zone preparation day, after which we did an exchange with the zone leaders!  We headed downtown and did a lot of work on Virginia Commonwealth University, street contacting and talking to as many students as we could.  It was a ton of fun!  Plus downtown Richmond is pretty cool.  We also had some really good lessons!  2 of our investigators are now on date for baptism!  The same 2 investigators also came to church this week and seemed to enjoy it!  

Now for the downside: Unfortunately, I will not be staying around to see the fruits of my labors.  After just one transfer in Brandermill, I will be transferring to a new area.  Keep tuned next week to find out where I will be!  I was hoping to stay here for six months, it's a great area!  I'm sure my next area will be great too, though.  I have grown a lot spiritually this transfer, and this new area will help me to continue to grow.  Until next week,

Elder Brown

Feb 19 Update - Power Trio, Zone P Day!

Hi Everyone!

This week was awesome!  But it was also really busy, once again!  Elder Swain has now joined our companionship, so we are a trio!  I love it, it's a lot of fun and it makes the work easier in many ways.  There are also downsides of course, as there are to everything, but I think it's great!

We had a lot of lessons this week.  We found 4 new investigators, and Charles is still doing well.  He is slowly gaining a spiritual witness of the Book of Mormon, and he is now asking us for material to read and study and when to meet!  

We also have a teenager we are working with who is a straight up miracle!  He has been looking for a church and wants to improve his relationship with God!  His mom is now reading the Book of Mormon we originally gave him, so we gave him another one.  He also came to a baptismal service on Saturday, and he absolutely loved it!  He definitely felt the spirit, and he talked to his friend about it later that night, who now wants to learn more and come to church with him!  The miracle continues!  

We are also working with some less active members in the area, and we had dinner with Elder and sister Barkume (a senior missionary couple in our ward) last night.  They are hilarious!  And they make really good food.  

Today was zone prep. day!  We went to the zoo, which was awesome!  And then we played sports at the stake center.

Elder Brown

Valentines Day Elder White and Elder Brown

Elder White and Elder Brown Valentines Day

We went to the Zoo Feb. 19th preparation Day

Feb 12 Update - Trusting God will always lead to success!

Hi everyone,

This week was awesome!  I have really been trying to let God guide me more and to be really faith-filled as I go out and find.  I guess it's working, because this week was full of miracles!  We found 8 new investigators, most of which came with a confirming witness that God led us to them.  It was super cool! 

We had a couple days where we had success on every single road we tracted.  We also gave a blessing to one of our investigators to help him gain a witness of the truth of the book of Mormon!  It was awesome! We had one of our new investigators at church too, and he loved it! I have noticed we do really well at finding and teaching, now we just need to work on keeping consistent contact with those we are working with. 

It was a great week, I hope you all find similar success!  If you are not finding success, try to give it all to God.  Let him guide you, and I promise you he will lead you to amazing success!  

Elder Brown

Midlothian and Richmond west zones at the DC temple!

District

District

Doing the work for both the living and the dead!

Holy Cow guys,

Every week here is so busy, I don't even know what the highlights are anymore!  As I was looking back through the week, I saw that the temple trip was on Tuesday.  I feel like that was forever ago, just because we have done so much since! So yeah, this week was great!  Our numbers were fantastic again.  We found 5 new investigators this week, and we had a baptism! 

But let's start with the temple trip on Tuesday!  Wow!  It was such an awesome experience!  The DC Temple is absolutely breathtaking, and the visitors center is amazing as well!  Just like all other temples, the spirit I felt in there was very strong, and I had the privilege to participate in ordinances for my first cousin 5 times removed (I think) who is deceased.  That was an amazing experience, and I received some very cool answers to my questions.  I absolutely love the temple, and I would definitely recommend visiting the temple to everyone, member or not!  If you are not a member, you can't go inside, but just being on the temple grounds and in the visitors center is an amazing experience!  We had long bus rides to and from the temple in DC traffic, and I decided I never want to live anywhere where I have to deal with that that kind of traffic.

The rest of the week was great too!  We had some definite miracles, and a lot of awesome lessons!  We also had Shaun's baptism on Saturday!  It was an awesome experience, and very well attended.  Very spiritual, and it brought me great joy to see his change of countenance and as he shared how he felt about it.  Then he got confirmed on Sunday and we stood in on the circle. 

We also attended Clover Hill's sacrament meeting with one of our investigators, and it was seriously made for him!  Everything that was said was exactly what he needed.  Those were two of the best testimony meetings I have been to! 

I love you all!  Continue being awesome!

Elder Brown

Sweet temple picture ruined by a ray of sunshine or was it?

Elder White and I in front of the temple

A model of the temple grounds in the visitors center

Shauns baptism!

Shauns baptism!

A funny no soliciting sign we saw this week