Wild in West Saint Paul(February 17-24)

Tuesday, my last day in Crystal I actually went on exchanges with Elder Larsen and spent the day in Medicine Lake. We taught some good lessons with some members. I was also able to pack up everything, and clean the apartment a little, to leave it nice before I left. We had dinner at the Gauthier's, which was nice. It was great to at least have a goodbye for them.

Wednesday was my first full day in West Saint Paul, and it went great. We started with a Missionary Coordination meeting, and he took us to Chick-fil-A for breakfast! Then I was able to unpack, and we signed me up and had an orientation for a service called Neighbors Inc. We had dinner that night with some members that own an Audi, and he picked us up and showed off his ride to us. It had some power to it! After dinner we had a lesson with Joey (member) and we read from the Book of Mormon with him. Turns out he is actually the brother of a member from Brainerd that I knew. Small world!

Thursday, we started off the day with District Council, and then all squaded up at Costco to get some grub. After lunch we headed over to FMSC (Feed My Starving Children) and did that for a few hours. For dinner we went to an elderly member couples house, who where both from small towns, so it was nice to talk with some country folk. 

Friday, we worked at Neighbors Inc. in the morning, and we assisted in the Thrift Store. We were able to weekly plan, and then in the middle of planning we reached out to a guy named Opap, that me met earlier that week at Walmart, and he gave us his number. Well when we texted him to see if he wanted to meet, he said he wanted to meet right then! So we drove over and gave him a bible and Book of Mormon and taught briefly what the Book of Mormon was, and set up a time to see him the next week. We headed over and were a little late to dinner, and we had a tasty meal. Pizza and salad, can't go wrong. 

Saturday we taught this guy named Jacob, who is a lot of fun to talk with. He is a cowboy, and is a salesman at Bootbarn at the Mall of America. He was actually a self referral from months ago, but told us that he was thinking more seriously about being a member of the church! Then we did some stop by's but with no success... but we were able to call a less active member and we went by. He had us over, and decided to cook us some shrimp while we were there. We actually had a pretty cool spiritual experience while we were there. He was able to say a prayer for his friend who's father had recently passed away, and it really inspired the member to try harder to live all the commandments. After that we went over to Opap's and taught the restoration to him and he loved it! And he promised to come to church!

Sunday morning we had church and we had Opap with us! He participated and enjoyed sacrament and class! Really excited for this guy! After church we had lunch and studies, and did some stop by's. For dinner we went to the Owings, they are a great family who feeds missionaries a lot. They have 2 daughters and two sons, (one of which is serving a mission right now). After dinner we packed and went to Yanni's house and met Greg. I will tell you more about them later. Then that night we went to the Crystal apartment so we could have our adventure the next day.

Monday, we explored some tunnels under Minneapolis, hence why we stayed in Crystal the night before. We hiked in to find the tunnels, and then looked at and explored the tunnels to find some graffiti. We also went shopping at a couple of record stores in the area and checked out some thrift stores. Didn't buy anything, but it was fun to look around.

 Tunnel pic with Elder Galbraith, (my new companion)

My Last Week in Crystal 😥(February 10-16)

Monday, was a pretty typical Preparation day, with Shopping, Squading up, eating out and so forth. We ended off the night with a member dinner, and working on some projects.

Tuesday, went Street Contacting and we were able to pass out 10 copies of the book of Mormon in an hour! We talked to a lot of people and our new missionary was excited and surprised that we had so many positive conversations. That night we had dinner with a member, and then we took that member joint teaching with us, to the Tahiro family. We taught the plan of Salvation to them and it went alright. Their kids are hard to teach, because they are so rowdy.

Sunday, we had a good day! We had a couple lessons, with some members, and committed them to help in normal and natural ways in missionary work. The way we have been teaching has been super effective in motivating the ward to help others to come closer to Christ. After our lessons and dinner, we had a Mission Presidents Fireside, and it was really good! I love to listen to people's conversions! The unfortunate news came that night though... after Mission Presidents Fireside, President Barney pulled me aside, and asked if I could go to West Saint Paul, in a couple days. Basically a missionary had to go home because of some unknown medical issues, and because we are in a trio, he would like to have me go and keep West Saint Paul open. So next week, you will hear about my new area!

Love y'all!

-Elder Brown

With Melvin at Mission Presidents Fireside

Zone Conference lunch

Who's Your Daddy? (Feb 3-9)

Monday we went to the Mall of America! We all bought tickets to go on the Roller coasters! The MOA has a big theme park in the middle of it, and we had a lot of fun riding on all of the rides! I was so tired that night though, I was thoroughly pooped. Luckily my vertigo didn't kick in and I was fine.

Thursday, was the big day! We picked up our little greenie, and had our trainers meeting. It was actually pretty funny! We don't know who our kid is until the announce it in person at the meeting. There was probably 8 or so new Elders, and we kept trying to figure out who our new companion would be. Welp turns out our companion was the last one! His name is Elder Wilson, and he is from West Jordan, Utah. He is Visa-waiting to go to Botswana and Namibia, Africa! I just thought it was kinda funny that someone who is going to the Dessert of Africa waits for 6 weeks in Minnesota of all places. 

Friday we got a date set! We were able to talk to Marlon again and taught the Restoration of the Priesthood to him! At the end we were able to testify of baptism and set a goal for him to be baptized on the 29th! I'm so excited for him!!! We started on Friday by doing service at the shop, and it went pretty well, and we threw a lot of stuff away. We were able to give a blessing to a inactive member, and they were super nice. After our blessing we served at the New Bethel Church, and after serving food for an hour, we got to eat ourselves, and we went and sat with those who we served. It is a great service, because we can come whenever, and we get great contacts. 

Our new companion Elder Wilson

Trainers Meeting

Dropping off Elder Loane.

 Talking to the Zone Leader's

Miracle Week (January 27- February 2)

Wednesday, we taught the Tahiro family again and the kids don't know much. The grandma is visiting right now, and she was so happy to see that we were reaching out and teaching her grandchildren. She was happy to see them learn, because they don't know much about the church. We were also able to work at the car garage again! We took tires off the rims, for most of it and then moved motorcycles and organized more of the shop.

Friday, we had our last lesson with William. He has officially moved to Wisconsin hopefully we will get to hear from him when he is baptized though! After our lesson with him, we went to the Tahiro's and painted their basement for a couple hours. Afterwords we went to the church and filled the baptismal font. The Bishop's daughter was getting baptized, so we went to fill the font for him. We were able to do some planning during it. While filling it, we realized it would take longer than 2 hours (they told us it only takes 2 hours to fill) so we started boiling water, and turned on some cold water in the font so that it would actually fill up. The boiling water made it a pretty good temperature. I feel like every baptismal font has a problem with the hot water.

Saturday was another busy day! We met up with Marlon again! It has been a journey with my friend, as he hasn't had the most stable communication with us. (Lost phones, unpaid phone bill's, etc.) We spent a lot of time in downtown, and had appointments with many of the members that lived there. Well one of the appointments fell through in the morning leaving us the perfect opportunity and time to visit with Marlon. He lives in one of those places that keep his identity disclosed, so that is why we have always needed to call to meet.  In an act of faith, we walked in the apartment complex and asked the receptionist to let Marlon know we were here. So first miracle is that she actually did! Second Miracle is that Marlon is coming to church tomorrow, but not only that but his girlfriend wants to come too! He talked to us later and said that ever since he has met with us, and started reading the Book of Mormon his life has gotten better. He has a stable job, he is dating again, and he just feels happier in general! God is good! God will lead us to those who are prepared and wanting to learn and change. That night we had basketball again, but it was different this time. We had a trainer come in and we just did drills for most of it. It was much more organized and we got to connect more with the kids that come. In the middle of it, I got a call from Elder Layton, and I was able to talk to Penny, back in Aitkin. It was good to hear from my old friends again. 

Sunday we had Alonzo come to church! He liked it a lot more than I thought he was going too! He loved just how friendly everyone was and he just had a good time. He wants to come every week now! After church, we had a lesson with some really awesome members. Apparently Elder Hardwick knows the members parents really well, because his family lives in an area that Elder Hardwick served in. We had dinner with a family that had 4 funny girls ages 4-11. They were a lot of fun to teach.

Zone Breakfast picture

Boiling water to put into the baptismal font