Elder Jaren Brown: Dec 10 Update - Exchanges Every Day, First Snow!

Hi Everyone! This week was crazy busy and pretty legendary! We literally had some kind of exchange every day this week! We just feel really good right now. We feel a sense of faith and peace about the mission goal of 280 converts, and our teaching pool has picked up, and it seems all the elders in the zone are doing ok. There are always troubles and hiccups and things that need to be addressed, but that's just the nature of the work. It's called missionary WORK for a reason. Other than the usual though, things are going well here. Let me give you a few highlights:

We played a super fun game (sort of like signs) with the branch at FHE on Monday, and it helped bring everyone together!

We were with the Fall HIll (Spanish) Elders in our area on Tuesday, and Elder Knight and I had a great time! We got several meaningful contacts that morning on UMW, and then this afternoon we knocked on a door where a guy answered and said he was on the porcelain throne! That was unexpected

. We left him a card. We also found a hispanic that night in some apartments that they were pretty sure didn't have any hispanics. The second little miracle of that night was Ariel! We knocked into her, and she works with some members at staples and wants to come to church! She's not very religious, and was really glad we came and talked to her

Wednesday was work days and interviews here. Unfortunately, President got caught up in interviews and couldn't come out, but it was still a great success! I went with the Culpeper Spanish Elders into the hermana's area, and found a couple potential referrals for them. Working with Elder Bonner is always a great time! We also had a good lesson with Valerie, and President Smith got to talk to her for a bit, which was really good for her! We have started working with a hilarious guy named Travis, who has a very colorful background. He is pretty funny, but unfortunately doesn't seem to be progressing much right now, so we might have to adjust his teaching schedule. We will see what happens there.

Thursday was a great day! We were on exchanges with the Stafford Elders, and went tabling on UMW together, which was a great success! We continue to learn how to do it more effectively. I was with Elder Katoa, and he is a great man! He is already a super good teacher, and teaches very simply and clearly. He said he learned a lot from me, which was good to hear. I'm really not a great role model, but I'm glad to have helped him. We taught Amani and passed her off to them. We also popped into institute for a bit after dinner with Lydia at panda express! We taught Travis again after we left institute.

We met a couple new people to start teaching on Friday. We taught Justin, who is a freshman at UMW and very shy but interested! He actually came to church on Sunday! He seemed to enjoy it. We also taught Liam, who is pretty interesting. She believes in God and likes religion, despite having same-sex attraction. She is really neat, and we see a lot of potential in her! We also started an exchange with the Fredericksburg Elders that night.

We had an interesting exchange on Saturday, it just kinda felt weird. We had a good day though overall. We had breakfast coordination with Bishop Meppen, and his wife is an excellent cook! We also found a couple neat people. We had the Branch Christmas Party that night, and it was a blast! We are well-liked among the branch, and it went really well.

Sunday was super interesting! Church went well, and we had Justin and Amani there, and it started snowing! We got a few inches over the course of the day, and the cars were grounded, so we walked! It was a blast, we walked over to Travis and taught him and then shoveled snow for Brother Bowler and his neighbors. We also video chatted with Chris and Valerie to read the Book of Mormon together, and (former) Elder Noorda and (former) Elder Pennington joined in! It's been a great week.

Plus, I got to go to a member chiropractor for free to get adjusted! It was sweet!

Have a good one!

Elder Brown