Elder Tanner Brown: The Ox Grind (April 15-21)

Hymn of the week "Battle Hymn of the Republic" (Elder Coombs Favorite)

Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord;

This week has been really good. Our area book has been a mess and most of the stuff in it hasn't been updated in years. So we have been going to every single contact in it. We go and visit all the members to get to know them, see if they are active and who needs our help. Then we visit all the people who have seen the missionaries in the past 3 to 4 years and see who is interested and who is not. We have visited almost all of the out lying towns near Brainerd already.

He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored.

This week is called the Ox Grind, as kind of a code name. Elder Coombs and I have noticed that there are quite a few Oxen statues around the Brainerd area. It is very symbolic to us going out and seeing all of the inactive members and literally gathering Israel. Just like the Oxen under the temple baptismal font, we too are trying to gather all of gods children and bring them to one place. The temple. We are trying to get all to become worthy to visit the temple so that they too can make promises with God, so that they can progress. Nothing will stop the progress of the Lord, and certainly not stupid reasons, that keep people from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

He hath loosed the fateful lightning of his terrible, swift sword;

His truth is marching on.

Tuesday we went over to the Pillager area. We visited all of the members, and found that some had moved. We have had the attitude that we are doing all of the boring work, so that missionaries in the future will not waste there time trying to visit someone who doesn't live there anymore. We met a guy named Ken, and he is retired now. He has a really cool wood style house, with all sorts of Big Game trophies and Fish racks. He goes fishing everyday between the months of May to October, and he told us that on our P-Day (or any day) we are more than welcome to go fishing with him. We might go fishing later in May with him, on one of our P-Days. He is a really good guy and we know that we can get him to come back to church. He honestly just has gotten in a habit of not going to church.

He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat;

After talking with Ken, it got me thinking. It is really easy to degrade your testimony. It starts with the little things, and when you stop doing those little things then it becomes, easier and easier to keep doing other things. It may start out with us stopping our prayers. After that becomes a normalized we start dropping everything else. When watching Conference, you will notice that they asked us to continue doing the simple things and to take them seriously many times. We like to share a message with all the less actives to see if they are ready to come back to the truth.

He is sifting out the hearts of men before his judgment seat.

On Wednesday, we got to meet the others In my current district! We have a whole bunch more really solid missionaries. We only got to meet over Skype but that's better than nothing. Than we got to do service for 3 hours! We first helped Sister Bench move a couch out of her apartment, and then when we finished that we headed over to the food bank. It was a busy day there, it must of been because they were handing out candy for Easter. Oh, and then we got to teach mission preparation. Honestly teaching missionary preparation is one of my highlights each week. We teach it so that it is fun and it makes them actually interested. To be honest, I wasn't a big fan of mission prep at home. I think having missionaries teach it, gives the students a much more accurate understanding of what missionary work is. Also we ask them what they want to learn. We gave them each a Book of Mormon to give out to one of their friends too. We made sure they understood that it doesn't have to be awkward and that it shouldn't be fake. A really simple and short testimony and an offer to have them own a copy will do so much. If they don't read now or care right now, you never know if they will pick it up later.

Oh, be swift, my soul, to answer him; be jubilant my feet!

Thursday, we spent the whole day in Pine River, which is about an hour north of Brainerd. We visited a few less active and active members. One of the members we visited are the Hunt's who own three companies currently and they have a really cool science shop (like straight out of Big Hero Six) and another shop that they hired an artist to go crazy there. The artist turned one of the bathrooms into this sweet Egyptian Throne Room. You feel like a King in there. And, all of the symbols on the walls have meaning! They went through and actually wrote stuff in Egyptian hieroglyphics! There was a bunch of other stuff there that was cool too. We also found out why there are so many Oxen around the Brainerd area. There was a fundraiser that sold these ox units for a couple thousand dollars, and you could buy one and then customize it yourself. There was 22 sold, but we have only found a few.

Our God is marching on.

Friday on our way back down from Pine River we found a large statue of Paul Bunyan and also a really cool Smoreas Bench. They were just to cool, so we had to stop to take a photo next to them. We then traveled all the way down to Princeton for exchanges. We spent until Saturday afternoon there and traveled back. On our way back we stopped by many of the members and nonmembers on our map. We were able to hand out two copies of the Book of Mormon and the Bible to some referrals too. One of them self referred from 2010! So we figured we would find out if they still wanted one, and they did. Some of the stuff you find is just crazy. But missionary life is so crazy, it doesn't really surprise me that the referral could be buried. We also got to visit the largest lake in Minnesota (or one of them) and the view was beautiful. It was about 65 degrees so I pulled out my short sleeve shirts.

In the beauty of the lilies, Christ was born across the sea,

On Easter day we got to have dinner with the Haslams which was good. I was so happy to have a good meal on Easter. They gave us Easter baskets too! I already loved this family a lot, and now this! Cool miracle just happened too! Sister Haslam asked us to go see one of her ministering sisters and we might just have 3 new people to teach! This is exactly why members are really the key to an effective area. Without member support were stranded out here. I challenge all who read this to think of someone, and refer them to the missionaries. They will seriously be so grateful for it! I have heard and seen many miracles happen from referrals, and to be honest almost all baptisms out in our mission come from a referral of some sort.

With a glory in his bosom that transfigures you and me.

I think the main thing I have learned this week, is that every member is very important. It is up to all of us to bring forth great and marvelous works. Missionaries just do the "dirty work" and teach the specifics, and help serve all. I love you all and remember to send a referral to those missionaries, they will be glad to have it!

As he died to make men holy, let US live to make men free,

While God is marching on.

-Elder Brown