Serving Wisconsinites (May 11-17)

Tuesday we had a service project for an older couple and we finished building his wall and reinforced it with gravel and dirt. We worked for about 3 hours digging and pouring and then, we got treated to Nelson's ice Cream! It was so freaking delicious! They give you soooooo much! I only ate half and I felt sick, so I saved the rest of it, and then it was till Friday that I finished it all. 

Wednesday we had a pretty chill morning, we had a Council with some of the other missionaries, and then we went to the dealership to get our car checked up. Turns up the check service light was on for no reason... and it only took em almost 2 hours to let us know that... *sigh. We were just doing boring missionary paperwork while we were waiting so whatever. After all that though we had lessons all night! 3 of the lessons were with families I hadn't met, and one of them was nice enough to offer food. She baked us fresh bread and we picked it up the next day! 

Thursday we worked hard all day! We went and cut down a big old oak tree, for the Donohoe's as well as move a bunch of other stuff. We tried to get a bonfire going for him, but it ended up just smoldering. After a few hours there, we left and had a Zoom lesson in our car on the side of the road with the Bishop's family. Definitely felt strange. Mobile Missionaries I guess. Then we went straight over to the Burton's and went and did service for them. Turns out they love Kalispell, Montana! They have done the Bob Marshall as well as some mountain Biking competitions in Missoula. We ended up cutting down a bunch of young trees out of their yard and having a big old bonfire! We got it all cut down pretty quickly, and burned. It took about an hour with the 3 of us. After service, we went home and had two scripture studies with a few members. It's nice to have service projects fill in the gaps.

Friday was pretty boring we did lots of calls and tried contacting a bunch of people. One cool thing happened though! We decided to post on all of the local community pages and asked them if they needed any yard work done or mowing, because we wanted to help those in the community, especially the elderly who need stuff done in their yard. And we got a lot of responses! Like a lot! So this next week should be full of even more yard work and service than this week! I'm basically landscaping again

Saturday we did lots of service again. We did service for a guy we met over Facebook in Oakdale, Minnesota with some other missionaries, and we shoveled a bunch of rock for three hours, and he gave us dominoes pizza. That was super nice of him! At about 1:30 we headed back and we had a few interviews with some missionaries over video chat, and it was nice to be able to have some real talk, some one on one with them! I'm truly blessed to lead over some of the best diligent missionaries! It's hard to be out here right now, not very many people are expressing a lot of interest, but I know I'm being blessed with many service opportunities for the moment! Speaking of which we did more service for another person we talked to the day before on Facebook. And... she also needed rocks moved. So Elder Hart and I went over and got it all done in about 45 minutes, which was nice. We then went home and had "virtual dinner" we the Sister missionaries in the Woodbury area. They are weird. But I guess we all are. Then we had lessons with Ashley, Linnie, and Maria. We typically have lessons with them 2-3 times a week.

Sunday, was a great day! We had our church meetings in the morning and then we had a wonderful lesson with Linnie right after.  We had Lunch and then a lesson with and 11 year old we are teaching with his mom, and talked about personal conversion and agency. Afterwords we headed over to the church and my companion and a Sister missionary recorded a song of guitar and violin, for a video. It was like an old Irish song, they got it down like the second try... then Sunday evening we didn't have a ton, which was nice to kinda rest a little, because this week was really busy and it was nice for me to remember what is important to me... so overall this week was great, busy, but I'm tired now and I'm glad I have Monday

BONFIRE

 roggy friend.

Service projects

Nelson's Ice Cream

Big Moves (May 4-10)

Mountain Biking,

Monday we went mountain Biking, and it was soooo fun! They actually have a semi decent trick section of the trails. I'll put it this way, its pretty decent for not having a mountain to build it off of. It was super confusing what direction we were supposed to go... but we had a great time anyways. We also met a member and her son Shamus. He is highly functioning with autism and he kept telling us about his Fortnite name "DJGangstaBeast". We ended up just befriending him and spending an hour with him as we were doing laundry. It was honestly so awesome to be able to serve the mother during that time. She said that she has been searching for a way for her son to socialize again. So now we will be teaching and talking to him over messenger.

Us and Shamus (DJGanstaBeast)

That night we had a couple lessons! One was with Opap, the guy I was teaching in West Saint Paul. He was super happy to talk with me! He wants to be baptized in June, and loves the Book of Mormon! So excited for him!

Tuesday was a great day. We had a great balance between personal time, helping an elderly lady with her yard work, lessons, and contacting people who had met with missionaries before. The service was a great time we got two solid hours of sun, and they gave us some really delicious cookies after! We had a lesson with Star (lady in West Saint Paul as well) because we are trying to get the new missionaries to contact and teach everyone that I have been working with. And too make the day great we exercised in the morning as well as at night. 

Wednesday was a long day, because we had Zone Conference... that means I sat in a chair from 10 am to 3:30 PM listening in a Zoom meeting... ugh. Worst part of quarantine is the unnecessary Conference calls. Afterwords we had a service project with some members of the Congregation, and they had a lady with them that was interested in a message of hope! It was a nice way to brighten the day after the long meeting.


We worked for 3 hours planting a lot of trees and cleaning up the yard. Afterwords we rushed home so we could have our lesson at 8, and then another lesson right after.

Planting trees

Planting trees, and the view.

Thursday we became the full-time movers again, and went to all the apartments once again.... lots of time in the car... and my back loved moving everything up and down 4 floors in Eau Claire... but... at least I got a good story out of it all! Elder Johnson the old timer that is in charge of the housing came along and drove the UHaul truck. Well he decided to buy us all lunch, but we were driving a truck and trailer, and he was driving a U-haul, so logically he decides to walk through the drive thru of Cluver's. He ended up getting in trouble because its unsafe... but they took it any way and then walked it out to us. I don't know why I thought it was so funny. I just do!

On Friday we had a lot of calls with other missionaries. We were checking up on them and seeing how they were doing. Turns out all of the missionaries here are doing well! We also called a lot of local congregational members, and asked them if we could meet them. I just got here to Hudson, so I am looking to meet them all! I also had an amazing time reading the scriptures! I learned so much about Abinadi the prophet! He faced all opposition and testified simply of Jesus Christ. There was a moment where he actually turned the heart of the evil King. But because King Noah surrounded himself with so much hate, he wasn't able to make a clear decision. Sometimes who we choose to surround ourselves with will be a deciding factor in our lives. Be smart.

Saturday we had 5 lessons. We stacked up with a lot today, because of Mothers day. We didn't want to have lessons that day so that people could spend time with their mothers or kids. We also did 3 and half hours of yardwork for the Donohoe family. We cut down trees, raked leaves, and trimmed young trees. We got a lot done! Nice thing was another family bought us some Papa Murphy's pizza to pick up after! 

Sunday we had church service with two families and then because it was Mother's day, we didn't have any other lessons, other than with Linnie. I had a really amazing spiritual experience from that lesson. Email me if you wanna hear the full story. That night we made videos for one of the people we are teaching. We decided to kinda teach a little what goes on in our church buildings. So we made some goofy corny videos about what goes on.

Elder Johnson buying us Culver's in the drVideo call with Elder Larsenive thru

Video call with Elder Larsen

"The Promised Land"

Hey everyone... I've been slacking on my weekly emails but hey consider your self lucky, because I'm writing them now!

Wednesday was my last day in West Saint Paul. We ended up just packing all day and we had a few lessons that night.

On Thursday was transfers! I am now in Hudson, Wisconsin! I have been fortunate enough to serve in a leadership capacity... because it will help me stay busy during this Covid-19 crisis. Right away on Thursday we did some yard work, and then we overviews the two zone pages and made game plans to accomplish that social media marketing. Then we also had 3 lessons, and one in particular that was powerful. A man, has really been struggling with some issues, has made the commitment to be baptized! We promised that he would recieve the help from the holy spirit as he committed his life more to God. I feel that he is about to discover the same truths I have come to know️

Friday was a long day. We had Mission Leadership Council, and it was all done via the zoom app and it was sooooo long... it lasted from 10:30 till 3:30. Thank goodness we were sitting on the couch, otherwise we would have been so uncomfortable. Then after our Council conference, we went and dug out a trench for a member. He apparently wanted it for his garden? I don't know, but we did what he asked, and it was good to be outside working again! Then we headed home, and we were so tired... mentally stimulated from the meeting and physically from digging. We ended off the night with weekly planning and planned out most of our activities and events this upcoming week. Needless to say... I slept like a rock.

On Saturday we helped everyone in the Zone move in some new furniture! Elder Johnson (the mission housing coordinator) has recently decided to purchase a bulk amount of new beds and frames, tables desks, drawers, and pretty much everything an apartment needs... which is amazing, because we need new stuff desperately in the Hudson apartment! It's not livable, so it was nice to receive new stuff. So Saturday we drove hours and helped move in all the new stuff in the apartments. We started off helping out in Eagan, and then worked our way all the way out to Barron...We finally got home at about 5... yeah we were out moving stuff for 8 hours... I hope it was worth it. That night we had a lesson with a cute little family and I did a magic trick for them! The little girl accidentally told me their card tho. We also filmed Elder Hart singing and posted it on the Facebook page, and then we had another lesson to end the day with Joe. He's hilarious .

Sunday we had church with Joe, and is so great to talk with, because he is really good at retaining information. He remembers like everything we saw which is about the opposite for most people . After church we just had a lot of meetings with local leaders... and the told other people what we learned in the meetings. Basically a bunch of boring meeting information stuff. Someone has to do it I guess... the best thing we did was take a walk outside! It was soooooo nice outside.

Anyways love y'all 

-Elder Brown

Pics: New Companion Elder Hart, Trench, countryside road picture, us and the sisters

We did a service by digging a trench

Countryside road picture

 Elder Hart and Elder Brown

My new Companion Elder Hart and the sister missionary's