Getting sick, you find some, you drop some!

Hi Everyone,

This was a crazy week for us!  We worked really hard this week and managed to find 3 new investigators!  Unfortunately, we also had to drop one of our most promising investigators.  Her family has not been supportive of her meeting with us and told us (in no polite manner) not to come back.  That was rough. 

On the plus side though, Bo is still on track for his baptismal date, and he committed to live the word of wisdom!  That is usually one of the toughest ones for investigators.  He is also coming to church this week, and we might have another family at church too!  

This week I studied the Christ like attribute of diligence and my diligence was definitely tested.  I got sick near the end of the week.  It started on Thursday afternoon with a sore throat, but I continued to diligently work through it, even after the congestion came Saturday morning.  I developed a fever on Sunday, and so we finally decided it was probably best if I don't pass it on to anyone, so I rested on the Sabbath.  We still did some online proselyting, but we tried to limit my physical contact with people.  We were able to get in touch with a few less actives, which was good.

Probably the best part of the week happened on Wednesday!  We stopped by a former investigator, and found not them, but a Hispanic family who is super prepared!  With my limited Spanish and Oscar's small amount of English, we were able to have a small conversation in which we were able to get them in touch with the spanish sisters on facebook.  Apparently she was praying to know how to improve her relationship with God just before we knocked on the door!  I love being an answer to prayer!  We had dinner with President Knight after that and we discovered that they know the knights pretty well, and Oscar actually works on President knight's ranch!  #miracle  The Spanish sisters had a great lesson with them, and they might be attending church here!  If this keeps up, Buckingham might become a Spanish/English hybrid branch! (Not really)

I love being a missionary!  Best wishes, and merry Christmas!

Elder Brown

District meeting

 Random Christmas parade in Dillwyn Saturday morning!

First snow, New Companion!

Hi everyone!

This week was pretty good, although it got a bit chilly near the end.  We had transfers on Wednesday, and I am now the Senior companion!  Elder Weir is now serving in Harrisonburg and I came back with Elder Newton!  He is from Kuna Idaho, and has been out for 4-1/2 months. This is his second area.  I didn't expect to be senior companion at only 6 months, but ok!  He is a cool kid, and I think we will get along great.  I helped him move into the apartment and got him settled, and then we went to work!  We have done a lot of tracting the past few days, and it started snowing on Friday!  It snowed on Saturday as well.  It appears winter is now in full swing here in Virginia, and while the temperatures are higher than back in Montana, the humidity makes up for it!  It has been a bit chilly, and I had to pull out the thermals and my big winter coat. 

We had branch council on Wednesday night, so elder Newton got to meet some of our most solid members right away!  We are starting to really make a concentrated effort to work with the less actives here and we are working hard to find anyone and everyone who is interested in the gospel.  We had a surprising lesson with a former this week, and he is now on date to be baptized on January 6!  That gave me a nice boost amidst all the snow tracting.  Over all, it was a pretty good week. 

I wish you all the best, and don't forget to #LighttheWorld!

Elder Brown

My new companion Elder Newton

Last picture with my old companion Elder Weir on Wednesday (Transfer day)

First snow fall in Virgina on Friday Dec 8

Awesome Exchange in Canada! (Not really)

Hi Everyone!  
We had another good week here in Buckingham.  We had exchanges with the Sandy River A elders, and we went to their area. We were doing really well on miles, so we decided to go out to a part of their area they had never been to!  Alberta.  No, not Alberta Canada, Alberta Virginia.  It was great!  It is a tiny town, almost a ghost town.  Most of the businesses there are old and abandoned, but some people still live there.  Apparently that is where they have a big Brunswick stew festival every October (it's in Brunswick county).  We went there both days, and had some good lessons.  It was great, I really enjoyed it!  We also had a branch christmas breakfast on Saturday, it was great!  The food was really good.  

In other news, we had transfer calls on Saturday.  Elder Weir is out!  I will be staying here in Buckingham and picking up a new companion on Wednesday. Should be a good time!  

Until next week,

Elder Brown

My District

Exchange pictures (with a tank!)

Smallest Park I've seen