Duluth! (October 7-13)

This week has been crazy!

On Monday we had Zone Pday, and we went around and enjoyed the nice 70 degree weather, and explored Duluth a little bit. We went to a big tower in Duluth that overlooks the city and we watched the boats come in and out of shore. It was pretty awesome. 

Tuesday we had Zone Conference which lasted all day, then for the night we had a member lesson in Superior. Not much happened.

Wednesday, we had our exchange with the Superior Elders. I was with Elder Wright for the day, and he was a pretty quiet guy. He goes home in a few weeks and he is working really hard right now. We ended up teaching someone who got referred to them.  She is an elderly lady and super nice to us. Then we did some finding as well as the usual interview that goes with an exchange. After our exchange we went shopping at a Walmart, which was awesome, to be in again, and then we got home in time for Mutual. 

Thursday, we had a lesson with Maddy and invited her to be baptized! She really wants to, but we have to wait on Parent permission for now.

Friday We had a lesson with Travis and we had his mock baptismal interview. He has a few more things he has to do before being baptized so excited! He will most likely be battling in November or December. After we taught him, we taught Maddy again. We taught her about the requirements for baptism. She is all ready to go, and has a very strong testimony of the gospel. She loves it and shares it with all those around her. So awesome! We are just waiting still on parent permission.

Saturday, it snowed! We had service in the morning outside and we stacked wood for 3 hours. The snow wasn't bad, it was just really muddy. After service we showered and warmed up, and traveled to the ranch. We had a Hayride there and it snowed while we were there which didn't make for the best experience, but I still had lots of fun!

Sunday, after church we drove down to Onamia, because Travis had his baptismal interview, because we needed to bring a phone down so he could be interviewed over video chat. Everything went well, except for the ride down. My suit pants ended up getting ripped pretty bad on the bottom leg. But I didn't get to "torn" up about it .

Anyways love y'all!

-Elder Brown

Squads Picture

View from the Tower

Elder Layton found a slide

Snowing at the Hay

Travis Baptismal interview

On the Hay ride

The hay ride

Brady's Baptism (October 14-20)

On Monday we had the Duluth Zone Leaders over, and they spent Pday with them. We played Villainous a couple times, and I got them hooked on it too! They said that they never thought that board games were that hype, but then they realized you just got to play the right ones. For our proselytizing time we had a service project for a member, and we stacked wood for 2 hours. He then fed us some really good Mexican food! Afterward we went back to Aitkin and played games, talked and wrote letters to family. It was a great PDay.

Tuesday, I had my exchange with Elder Harline, and it was interesting. He is allergic to things Minnesota is known for... Cats and Dogs, dust, and Mold! If you didn't know, every house here is moldy somewhere, because of the intense humidity and constant rain. If you don't run fans then your place will get moldy, which I think is really dumb. Anyways the reason I mention this is because Elder Harline had a rough time. Our bathroom this last week had gotten really bad with mold, (see the before and after pic) and so when he took a shower it gave him really bad congestion. Then we went and saw Stan, and he has a really hairy dog. Then after lunch we traveled down to Crosby. We visited a member there and their grand kids were making a blanket and every time they lifted it up to straighten it out, it would move all the dust over in Elder Harline's face. I felt bad, but it was pretty funny.

Wednesday, we took it upon ourselves to clean the mold off the ceiling again (we had done it just a few weeks earlier too). I attached a before and after picture so you could see the difference it makes. The only way we have found that works for cleaning it, is using a foam mop, to scrub it. We also had our weekly planning and called up a lot of people that we had needed to. That night we went out tracting, and that was a good time.

Thursday, I started the day off with District Council and we had a good time with that. We had a training by some pretty funny missionaries, so they had a good time teaching us. After District Council we had a member take us out to McDonald's, and then we had them take us up to their house. We worked on building a lean-to on the side of their house. We got the roofing frame all finished up, and cut the 2x4 in the way the member needed them. It was a good time, and we helped them out a lot. When we got home we discovered that one of our outlets was molding out too! The apartment has just been falling apart it seems. We didn't have much food in the apartment so we ended up going to DQ for dinner, which ended up being inspired, because someone named Mary was there. We had met Mary last Saturday when we did the wood stacking project, and she is a friend of one of the less-active members here. She is super nice and pretty quiet but she said as we talked to her last night she really enjoyed it, and wants to meet up again! I guess satisfying my hunger for Ice cream is a really great thing!

Friday, we had a lesson cancel on us but we still had some service to do in Crosby. It was really awesome though because at the end of our service project, this inactive member, we have been helping, asked us if we would teach her daughter! It just goes to show that if we support the lost Sheep, that they will reach out when they feel ready. After our service we went back to Aitkin and we cleaned a blind lady's backyard up. We cleaned up her dog's poop and then mowed the lawn. Then we cleaned her white fence up. After we had dinner and Maddy and Tyler came over and we ate together and had a lesson with them. It went super good and she asked a lot about priesthood blessings. She wants to get baptized so bad! She just has to wait on parent permission right now.

Saturday, I got the opportunity to go back to Brainerd! We had a flat tire that we had to go fix so we went and fixed it in the morning before the baptism. We went over to the church early. We helped set up, and I talked to some of the members before the baptism. It was so good to see them again. Elder Coombs came up from Hudson Wisconsin, and was able to baptize Brady! I was so happy to see him again, and was happy he was able to baptize Brady. It was just amazing! After the baptism we went to lunch at the China Buffett, and a member paid for all of us! So nice of him! Then we went back home to Aitkin and we visited with Grandma Piecek and she put us right to work. We cleaned out her cupboard for her and it was full of random things, for us to sort out. 

Sunday was Elder Layton's Birthday, so after church we went home and he opened up his presents. After that we went out tracting for a bit, and did some weekly planning. Nothing really that noteworthy, other than a birthday.

Love y'all

Exchange with Elder Harline

Mold Clean up

Mold before and aft

Brady's baptism

General Conference (September 30- October 6)

This week has been pretty black and white, meaning I had a really great day, or I had a terrible day. Satan just like to suck the fun outta everything don't he.

On Monday I went out to Bobby Johnson's place because he wanted to take us out to eat in Brainerd. When we got there we ate at a Pizza Ranch and he invited the Brainerd Sisters to come as well. It was good to see them again. Afterwords he needed to pick up some wood for the Hayride from Fleet Farm (basically a Home Depot). He brought his brother-in-law Aaron along. He has a mental disability, but is still pretty much fully functioning. We had a good time messing around with him! We ended up not really having much of a Pday, and instead we hung out and talked to members all day, but I didn't mind too much. We taught Madyson that night but, it didn't go very well. We met at a DQ and there was loud music, and she was really tired. So the spirit wasn't really there and she said she didn't really remember anything we said. However it ended up being a good missionary moment because a lot of her friends saw her there, and asked about it the next day!

Tuesday we rid a lot of service. First thing in the morning we went over Bobby Johnson's place and collected, cut, and stacked wood for him. After a couple hours, we went inside and ate lunch and watched the Glenn Beck conversion story! It was super good food, and the conversion story was awesome! Then we went down to Mel's Mercantile, and we took down and completely dismantled a wall. It was a lot of fun, and luckily for me I didn't step on any of the rusty nails. After that we went home for dinner, and we ended the night with Ray.

Wednesday was a cold day with wind and rain, and it just so happened to be the day we had nothing to do... also we couldn't drive anywhere because we needed miles to drive to Duluth. So we walked around and tried to talk to people for way to long... but ya gotta do something.

On Thursday we started the day off with some service at Brother Simons house. We finished the project that we started last time, when we buried the augur. He made us some really good burgers too! We had another lesson with Madyson, and if I didn't know any different, I would have thought that she was a member. She shares pictures of the temple with her boyfriend every day, she is still reading the Book of Mormon everyday, she teaches her friends and family about what she is learning. She is inviting them all to come to church and to meet with us, etc. etc. The only problem right now is her dad doesn't want her to change religions. Since she is under 18 we have to have parental permission, so we will have to work with the parents, but Maddy is solid! 

Friday I went down to Onamia and we taught Travis again and he is all set for his baptism next week! So excited!!! When we got there Travis didn't show up, so we walked over to his house and he was very very pale. He was really dizzy and his blood sugar had spiked randomly. We gave him a priesthood blessing and immediately he got up and walked over to the couch. He regained color in his face and he checked his blood sugar and it was perfect! It was said in the blessing that Satan would use his Travis's health problems to distract him, but as he had faith he would push through. Awesome experience! We were able to get a ride with a member and he had to get back up to his place right after work we weren't able to see anyone else down in Onamia. Bit it ended up working fine because we were able to make it to our dinner on time. We thought we might've had to delay it.

Saturday was alright. We had a great start, because Brother Point took us to get some brunch at the Roadside Cafe. They had some pretty good food. I was expecting a really great day, because of General Conference, but we couldn't stream it on our phones, the church wasn't set up, and there are no computers there. So then we frantically searched for a way to get it and we found a smart TV with access to YouTube. So we were able to stream it from that, but it cut out and flat out didn't work for the majority of it. I only got to hear President Oaks talk, and Elder Cook's talk.  It honestly really made me annoyed. After Conference we did our weekly planning and we went over to Grandma Piecek's to let her know we couldn't make it that next Tuesday. She of course made us some food because she can't let us leave till she feeds us.

Sunday, we watched General Conference, and got the video to work this time, and we watched it with Travis, he said the Elder Uchtdorf's was his favorite, he loved the idea of missionary work! After the first Session we cleaned up everything and headed over to the DeCent's where Madyson was watching, because we wanted to watch at least one Session with both of the people we have been teaching. That night we traveled to Carlton so we would be in Duluth for the next couple weeks... which I guess you will have to read the next letter to see why! Love y'all

Watching conference with Travis

Watching Conference with Travis

Chess with Ray

The trip to Carlton was pretty. 

Exciting News! (September 23-30)

Monday, this week wasn't our Preparation Day, and we went over to Crosby and did a lot of service. We helped an inactive member with her store Mel's Mercantile. It is a thrift store and she needs help organizing it, so we will be going every week for a couple hours. Then we had a lesson with Madyson, who is awesome! It was a first lesson with her, and she has already gone to church twice, and read to the Book of Enos. She is awesome, and super prepared for the gospel!

Tuesday we had our Preparation day, and the Grand Rapids missionaries came down to go mountain Biking. In the morning we went over to Grandma Piecek's and did some service for her. Then we went out Mountain Biking and unfortunately Elder Black crashed into a tree, but he is fine now. That night we went over and we got dinner with a member and then we did service for him as well. We were honestly doing service most of the day, but we at least got to do some biking.

Wednesday, we went to the Rusty Gun, and talked a lot with the Non-members who work with the member. Todd (one of the nonmembers) really really likes us, and he gave us this little fire starting kit, that meant a lot to him. He is the type of guy where everything he owns is very valuable to him. I was shocked. We also helped a member move, to a house a couple blocks away, and that took a little while, because she had the most food storage I have every seen in my life, and she lives by herself.

Thursday, we went down to Onamia, and we taught Travis and saw a couple of the members down there. We had Brother Simons drive us down and joint teach with us, and he connected really well with Travis, which was great! He is excited to go to General Conference next week!

Friday we went up to Brother Simons place and did service for him. He bought a two man Augur and none of us actually knew what we were doing. We ended up burying the augur so deep we couldn't get it out. Like 6 feet under, rip. So we spent the next two hours digging around it and lifting it out of the ground. Not fun, we then learned from our mistakes and dug the other 6 holes in 20 minutes. So much time and work, we could have done it by hand in the same amount of time. We had dinner that night with the Hatchen's and it was good, we left that night to go down to Princeton.

Saturday we were in Princeton because there was a baptism for a gentleman who Elder Layton taught while he was there. I was really happy that Elder Layton was able to be there, and see a lot of the other people he taught while down there.

Sunday, after church, we did all of our weekly planning, to see what we would be doing for the next bit. That night we played chess with Ray and I got the news of where I will be going next transfer... I will be staying in Aitkin another one! The only difference is that I will be the District Leader, so now I have to go over to Duluth once a week for exchanges. It will be good because the work her in Aitkin is a little slow. It will give us more to do. Either way I am happy to be here another transfer to see some baptisms, and to keep teaching these people I have grown to love! Anyways love y'all

-Elder Brown

Roasting Starburst

                                Elder Layton's baptism.

Beating Ray at chess

Out in Nature (September 17-24)

On Monday we had the Carlton Elders with us, and we went and camped out at the Mountain Biking Park, and we went biking, we called family and we played some games at the picnic tables. We also had the Brainerd Sister missionaries there because half of the park is technically in their area. After spending the majority of the day at the park we went to McDonald's and talked with Ray, and some of the other people that walked in, to finish off the day.

On Tuesday I had my official exchange day with Elder Fletcher, and we went and talked to Stan for about an hour, and we both almost fell asleep during the conversation. Stan had a stroke 9 years ago and he has almost made a full recovery, however he still has trouble speaking and he talks in a really monotone voice. We managed to pull through and once we left and started walking again we got woke up. Then after we had lunch we went to Crosby to do some tracting and we also played on the great big playground for a little bit, to get re-energized. And sometimes when people see missionaries have a little fun, we seem more approachable to them. We finished off the night by having dinner with a nonmember and we were at the American Legion. It was her second time, and she wants to take us again with her husband Charlie. She has been so awesome!

Wednesday we did a little finding in the morning and then we decided to go over to the Rusty Gun, which is a gun shop owned by a couple members. Elder Layton loves talking to them because they are his type of people. One of them, Larry, is a paranoid, army vet who believes in a lot of really far out conspiracy theories. One of them is a half blind man, that left his old life behind and bikes everywhere and chooses to live his life almost like a homeless person. He likes the idea of survival, so he only brings bare necessities and bikes to Florida and back to Minnesota. Then there is Shawn the member, and he is a Gun nerd and knows just about everything about guns or relating to guns. Needless to say it's a bunch of Gun loving crazy rednecks. I love it, I think its hilarious, and Elder Layton gets along, probably a little to well with them. Then that night we had mutual and that was my time to shine. The youth here really like me, and so I was able to have a good time with them, and really build that important missionary relationship. If they see that the mission is fun, it will help them to make that decision to serve.