Holidays are always Busy! (December 3-8)

Tuesday, I had Missionary Leadership Council, and it was okay. There was a lot of talk about numbers and statistics, which got a little boring after an hour... the whole thing lasted from 10-4 so it was a lot. It was really good to see my friends again, especially Elder Merrick Johnson again. It had been 6 months since I had seen him. After the Council we went back to our areas and I had a dinner with this sweet elderly lady. Then we had a lesson with Marlon that night and we were late to his place, but we were still able to have a lesson with him. We taught the Restoration of the Church and he loved it! He invited us to come again on Friday.

On Wednesday, we had the opportunity to teach a high school class! It was really awesome! We got to teach for a little over an hour, and we taught parts of the Restoration and Plan of Salvation. There was a couple kids there that were asking really earnest questions! It was a really good missionary moment, because we got them thinking about what is really important, like having a family for eternity. After teaching them, we went home for some lunch and we helped our neighbor move in. They were moving some things so we offered our help and got to help them out, especially with the Big coaches, and tables. We then had a lesson with Charlie and we showed him the Christ Child video, and he really liked it! We encouraged him to follow the Light the World program. After his lesson we had dinner with some members at Costco and it was yummy! They then gave us the Costco Cash card, and gave us the extra on the card!

Thursday we started off the day with a lesson with a member who was baptized a year and a half ago. He is a little awkward,  but he has all the right intentions. Then we had lunch and then service at PRISM. We only stayed for an hour, because we went to see an elderly member at one of the elderly persons homes. We sang Carol's with her, and helped her wrap some presents, it was just a good time. We then were able to give a lady a bible. She requested one from a missionary in another area, and then was referred to our area! We were able to give her a Book of Mormon too, and she wants to take the lessons!🏻🏻🏻 Then we had dinner with the Gauthier's (people who fed us at Thanksgiving) with the Zone Leaders and we had Breakfast for dinner! Super super yummy! We then ended off the night with some good ole church ball!

Friday we were able to serve at the New Bethel service again and we brought the Zone Leaders with us, because they had nothing going that night. We all really enjoyed it! After the service we met up with Brother Gisme who drove us to see Marlon with us! We were late again, which was kinda frustrating, but we were still able to have a lesson with him. We taught the Plan of Salvation to him, and he really wants to come to church. Unfortunately he has a bus pass, but the buses only go in Minneapolis limits, and our church is in Crystal. We are setting up a ride for him next week though!

Saturday was interviews with our Mission President, and that was pretty good! We celebrated by making some jalapeno peppers that were super tasty! Then we spent pretty much the rest of the day with the sisters! We drove over to an African ladies place and she got us some subway to eat. We talked and listened to Christmas music with her. Good times. Then we had a lesson with a recent convert that just moved in, and he loves to serve people! After our talk with him, we drove over to a kid we have been teaching the past bit. Unfortunately there was a month where we didn't get much contact with him, but we were able to talk to him again. Then we had dinner with the sisters as well, and so they drove us over there. 

Sunday after church we had a lesson with a guy named Nhia, who is a blind member, he had one of his workers listen in on the lesson and he said that he believes the Book of Mormon because it talks of Christ! After our lesson with them, Elder Hardwick and I had dinner with a member family, the Youngquist's. The parents are the ones that live in Aitkin during the summer. It was awesome to connect with that family, because they know many of my friends in Aitkin! After we had dinner we got to watch the Christmas devotional with another family here. It was my companions first time ever watching a Christmas devotional! He liked the music because it was a little different then typical Conference music. The thing that made my day was that I got a letter from Tyler Decent, one of the youth in Aitkin! He wanted to let me know how much he appreciated my service there. He really made my day with his simple act of service. Don't forget to let others know that they are important to you!

Pics: Mission Leadership Council (MLC), and a sunrise.

The Christ Child (November 29-Dec 2)

Hey all! This is going to be a short one today.

As we enter into this season of festivities, we need to remember the one who started this all, Jesus Christ! This week as I have been able to go to numerous members homes we have watched the Christ Child video with them. It is not only moving to watch the video itself, but to see its spirit touch others lives. By far the most common scene that stands out to people was the sacrifice of the wise men, being completed with them being able to see the King of Kings, and the realization that he is and will always be our literal savior. One of my favorite scenes that makes my skin tingle is the angelic visitation to the shepherds. I never really remembered that the savior was prophesied and that people of that time were truly waiting and looking for signs. We like them also look for signs, but we look toward the return of the savior, not the first ministry. Because of my great interest in and my studies of videography and love of film it has been amazing to see that the church would produce such a high quality video in honor of all those who were a part of this great event. I don't feel that they favored any one character and that they all had equal importance to the building up of Jesus Christ. The way they told the story impressed me a lot too! Anyone can tell a story but it takes someone inspired to tell a story with no words. The audio, angles, and points of focus where all so well designed in showing the human characteristics. 

Anyways I really loved these past couple days! Love y'all!

Elder Brown

Weird Car we found

Thanksgiving! (November 25-28)

Monday, I accounted with all the Sisters in the morning... so the morning was a little boring. Nothing wrong with the sisters, it's just all about the technical stuff so it's not that interesting. After lunch we went over to a lady that we met last week and racked her backyard which is always good! I love doing service, because its always consistent. I always feel I am doing something right when I do regular service. We had a lesson with a family that the Sisters are teaching and there was a couple of little kids running around and they were hilarious Then we had Taco soup with at a members house, and they made some really yummy cornbread! For the dinner message we played Grategory... which is basically Scatterglory, but about things we are grateful for. 

Tuesday we had District Council in the morning, and then we prepared for our Hot chocolate stand! It didn't take too long and we got everything gathered and set up by 2:15. We then had the stand running till about 4:30. Unfortunately it was kinda dead in the park and we only talked to 20-30 people. We were really hoping for more foot traffic but, this was kinda our trial run, to see how we can improve it. While we were at the stand I got a call from the Laie Sisters and they called us to send us a referral they got! One of the sisters was Sister Leato, from my MTC district! It was super awesome to talk with her a little again and see she is still a baller missionary! Shortly after the call we had to leave early and give a blessing to one of the members close by. We thought we were going to a dinner after, but they didn't remember about us, so when we called them to confirm they said naw... and then our Book of Mormon referral texted us her address and she lived quite a ways in to another area so we referred like you are supposed too. So our night went from, busy and full of appointments, to nothing... so we made the best of it, and grabbed some grub. We took care of a few personal needs, and then did some Facebook Proselytizing to finish off the night.

Wednesday we were able to visit that referral that the Sisters gave us, and he was super cool. He didn't really want to meet weekly because he has a lot of bible studies he goes to, but when we asked he we could help him serve, he invited us to help him at a volunteer event that night! After we talked to him we got our tires replaced on our car, because the tires were so bald! They literally had no tread on the back right tire . After we got the tires changed we headed straight to the Mew Bethel church where the service was. It was a super dope service because we made lots of good friends with friends of other Faith's, as well as the people we were serving! We will be doing this service a lot more from now on! After service we headed to the church and had a great lesson with a 17 year old that has been taking the lessons for years. He said this is the first time he has really opened up about his true concerns and feelings! And at the end, he said he didn't want us to think he wasn't still interested. He told he still wants to meet but that we now know what is holding him back. Really awesome day. God is good!

Thanksgiving we played Turkeybowl (Football) with the Ward Members in the morning, which was really fun! We then balled up, played games and called family after we got all cleaned up. A member, the Gauthier's fed us a great Thanksgiving dinner and I got to sit in their sauna chair and it was nice. I wanted to just pass out.

Love y'all talk to you next week

-Elder Brown

Pics: Priest Statue in the Sculpture Garden, Special Stone at the Church Building, sunset, Hot chocolate stand gang, and Thanksgiving dinner.

The Kingdom Grows! (November 18-24)

This week has been awesome!

Monday was my first Pday in Crystal and we went to Squad up with some other missionaries. We played a round of Villainous, but had to end it early because our dinner came up. We had dinner with the Bishop and his family, and he has a pretty cool job. He knows about all the technology that will be releasing in the next couple years. The inner tech nerd came out and there is some pretty cool things to come. 

Tuesday we had Lunch with a guy named Rob Johnson and it ended up being a dope contact! He is a hight school teacher and he wants us to teach his class for an hour, and talk about why we are serving our missions, the start of the church, and the persecution of the church when it started compared to right now. I have a really good feeling about this! After we met a recent convert at a golf place and took a walk with him. We had an awesome talk about the plan of Salvation and how the atonement is central to us fulfilling God's plan for us. We had Dinner with a single member and we were supposed to have a Joint teaching thing with him, but we already had something going on with the Zone Leaders in there area. Kinda unfortunate because I hate turning down Joint teachers. The lesson we had was super cool though. He has a brain injury but he has some awesome Spiritual gifts, and feels the spirit really well! Unfortunately for him with that he feels opposition at a greater level too.

Wednesday morning we went to Feed My Starving Children and that was super dope! We had so many missionaries with us that we opened a second station. Elder Hardwick and I decided to go with the smaller group because no one else was so, we hung out with the sisters. We went to Chick-fil-a for lunch and we had a good time with our server Mark! After lunch we did our weekly Planning. We had dinner with a member that was not very pleasant, but I am glad that they were at least willing to feed us. Nothing wrong with them, they just don't clean the dishes... so yeah... We had Mutual after and they had this super dope Mini golf night that they set up, and we got to play with some of the youth! Good times

Thursday, we had nothing in our plans, so we contacted every nonmember and recent convert, that we had Phone numbers for (a lot of people). We got in contact with a few people that we made plans to see later this week. We had a service called PRISM that we go to, and it is a food shelf. I didn't enjoy it to much because there was really nothing for us to do there. After a long day of stop bys we got to finish the night on a good note. We played churchball. Work Hard, Ball harder.

Friday we had Zone Conference, and it was really long... I was just so tired by the end. The beginning is always really good, because our Mission Leaders give their trainings in the morning, but the afternoon we had car safety, and a winter depression training, and it was soooooo boring. After our Zone Conference we had a lesson with William again! He is so prepared for the gospel! He said he is willing to live any commandment, because he knows that heavenly father will bless him. He has so much faith! After our lesson about commandments with him, we went and saw someone named Marlon. It was a miracle finding him! So there was a Guy named Mark, and he had referred himself to the Elders a couple months ago. He was visited by the Elders, but he wasn't really interested in the gospel, he kinda just wanted a handout. Well, on Thursday when we were contacting everyone, we texted Mark to see if he wanted have a short lesson with us. We got a response but it wasn't Mark, it was Marlon. Mark sold his phone to Marlon, and Marlon said he was very interested in us coming by to Pray with him, and to talk about Jesus. We had an awesome lesson about the Book of Mormon with him, and he said he already thinks that Moroni's promise is true! He wants to meet once a week now!

Saturday we went to a members kid getting baptized. We showed up an hour early by accident, but it ended up being fine, because there was a children's choir practicing in the chapel, so we just got to listen in to that. After the baptism we went to lunch all together, which is always a good time. After lunch ch we did a lot of stob bys for possible interested people in the downtown area. We had a lesson in downtown that we went to for a returning member, and we ended up talking about temples for an hour with him. We then had dinner with a member at a really great Mexican place called Teresa's! After we ordered they had our food ready in 5 minutes it was crazy fast for the sit down style that they were. Then we went to the church and crashed a Single Adult activity. They were doing a little Thanksgiving dinner for all the singles. Well apparently they were doing a game night after in the primary room, but we didn't know that. Elder Hardwick was telling a funny story to me and the Sisters in the primary room, and all the sudden people came in a few minutes at a time. So we ended taking over and turning the whole thing into a comedy club night!  It was super funny because all of the people there are super awkward (hence why they are single) and most of them had "different" senses of humor... it was super funny to watch it all go down hill, and then we left to play ball with the nonmembers that showed up later for Basketball. I was dying cause the whole thing was super awkward to be a part of, and then we left 

Sunday, after church we had a lesson that we taught with the Sisters, Sister Elkins, and Sister Sellers. We went in thinking we would be teaching a blind member, but he had someone there who was a nonmember and he wanted to learn more! We gave him a book of Mormon and he accepted it and we also taught him about it for half an hour. So awesome! After that lesson it was like 3:30 and we still hadn't eaten lunch yet, so we ate a little bit. It was kinda weird because dinner was at 5, but we were super hungry. Anyways than we had our dinner and after we made Pass along cards and set up all of our supplies so we could be ready for the rest of the week.

Love you all!

-Elder Brown

  

I found a sign with my name on it.

Actual service in "Feed My Starving Children"

 "Feed My Starving Children" Group Photo

Golf night on Wednesday at the church

Zone Conference

Mission Presidents Fireside with Melvin.