Oct 8 Update - General and Zone Conference, finding those who are prepared, and trying to kindly stop teaching those who are not..

Hi everyone!

This week was great and very busy!  Let me just give you a few highlights.

We had choir practice (the Fredericksburg zone missionaries are going to record some Christmas songs to play on the radio!) on Tuesday morning, and also had a great lesson with Sara, where we taught about temples and family history!  It went very well, and she is excited to study it further, we were also able to give a blessing to a member's grandma, who is not a member.

Wednesday was a great zone conference!  We did a lot of skill workshops, and the AP's trained us very well!  It was very interactive and fun, while still being very spiritual and learning a lot!  We had an exchange with Elder Ellsworth and Elder Bonner, and I learned a lot!  Elder Bonner is absolutely fearless about talking to people, and very in tune with spiritual promptings!

We had a lot of great meaningful contacts at the University of Mary Washington on Thursday, and yet again on Friday!  We also had a great lesson with Valerie, resolving some concerns, and getting her back on track.  We had another great lesson with her on Friday as we began the new member lessons, and UMW was popping! 

We had some great lessons, and met the most prepared man I've met in my life!  He asked us what we teach, his jaw literally dropped at the first vision, and he actually stopped us to testify that it was true!  He was super stoked to read the Book of Mormon, and we put him on date for baptism right then and there!  He had never felt the spirit strongly in his life (though he yearned for it) until he met us, and was overjoyed at the promise of the gift of the holy ghost after baptism.  He was so cool!  We were pretty much on Cloud 9 for the rest of the day.

Then Saturday and Sunday were general conference, which is always amazing!  I found it interesting that there was a common theme of the need to improve our personal conversion to Jesus Christ and remain firm through the many increasingly difficult trials which are to come.....that's a bit scary!  But also really exciting! 

In other news, we got a referral for a schizophrenic, and we did not feel good at all in his house.  He is definitely not accountable, but wants to join the church super bad (when he is on the positive end of his mood swings).  He also calls us a lot, so we are trying to find a way to either kindly explain to him that while he is welcome to read the Book of Mormon and come to activities, we with be meeting with him....or just seek to end the conversation on a good note, dropping off the contact.  It was a pretty interesting weekend.  Lamar came to conference, and he absolutely loved it!

Anyway, I hope y'all have a magnificent week, I know I will!

Elder Brown

Elder Larson, my new companion and I in a giant chair.

Cool view of a river behind our apartments