Monday, December 30, 2013

Illness and Chocolate!

Sounds like you guys had an average EPIC christmas with the family and friends! Meanwhile I was here dying of illness, and eating chocolate which probably didn't help. I am not even close to finishing off the chocolate. People keep giving us more!
Did nothing this entire week, because of the illness, so no good stories or pics, sorry about that. Elder Lamb and I both loved our stockings, they are really cool, I was hoping you would do them, and you did!
 
Send me some of those pictures of the frost and snow, we don't get anything but wind, rain, and illness! I would love to see some of them.
Sorry about the skimpy email this week, but there isn't much to say really! Hope you guys have a great week, and I love you all so much! You would not believe how much i really love you guys, I didn't realize how great of a family I had, until I left them for a while, and saw other people's families! Have a good one, and don't gain too much weight!
Love Elder Brown

Thursday, December 26, 2013

Sick but going strong

This week was pretty good, I don't have any really cool stories this week, but on Friday Elder Green and I were on exchange. It was pretty funny people thought that we had some sort of class system or something because both our names are colors.
It was raining pretty hard, so we decided to knock this huge flat complex building. It was 24 floors, 144 doors. Out of those doors we taught 14 people! It was pretty epic!

I got over 60,000 calories of chocolate for Christmas. The chocolate over here is soooooo good!

I have been pretty sick. I have been trying to treat it, but it just fluctuates a lot. Sorry, not much time to talk. I will Skype on Christmas.

Elder Brown
 
Elder George, Elder Lamb Elder Manucci, Elder Brown at the Perez family home.


 
 
 
Elder Brown, Elder Manucci, Elder Lamb Elder George
 
Elder Brown, Elder Manucci, Elder Lamb, Elder George
 
Elder Lamb and Elder Brown doing a service project.


 

 

 

 

Monday, December 16, 2013

A reminder of our family!

 We are teaching two free masons. J_____, the 65+, wheelchair bound mason man, is doing well. Teaching him is slow, because he talks a lot, which is pretty funny, because he always says the same things. I think he might have a slight case of amnesia, which might cause a problem. We have decided that the best way to teach him is to either read to him, or watch videos, so it will be pretty different, but I think it will be great! He would love to come to church, but he can't drive and he can only use a specific vehicle for his wheelchair anyway, so we offered to find someone who would give him a lift to church in his own car. He was like super stoked for it. Anyway we found a member who said he would love to help, but J_____ won't be available in the mornings on Sundays until January.  At least he is interested and we have it figured out. The other Mason is M____. He is the Partner(not married but living together) of a La woman. Their family is so great, and they are really ready to be reactivated. We taught him the restoration and the plan of salvation, and he loved the lessons. We committed him to baptism, and he said that if he gets an answer that the BofM is true, he will hunt us down until we baptize him! He won't commit to a date yet, but he will when he gets an answer!
We gave F____ a Baptismal date for Jan 18th, and she accepted! We are hoping to give the same date to her parents soon.
Our ward Christmas party was Saturday, and it was great. We went through our phone and sent the same text to every Less Active, and every investigator in the phone. A lot of them we don't even know, because they have been in the phone since before I ever got here. We had like six people show up and a bunch send us texts back saying thanks, but they are busy. It was awesome. Elder Mannucci was surprised to see some of them, and he was like how did you ever get them to come!
 
We will be at a members home for most of Christmas day.  I get an hour at whatever time would be best for you to Skype. Not too late in the day, or too early in the morning for me though. Remember you guys are seven hours different.
 
My companion, Elder Lamb is also taking driving lessons right now. It is a lot harder to pass a test in England. The test is like way long and the roads here are crazy!
 
This week was non-existent! It went so fast, I don't even know what to do! Got to go to the temple, and man was it epic!! Learned quite a bit.
 
Glad to know that you guys are still living life the way I remember it! You guys all make me laugh so hard!
 
A rice bag, sounds like a wonderful thing to have right now! I have been getting Hardcore sick again, and last night we were out in the most rubbish weather! I was soaked to the core! YSA sounds like it is still a blast! As always! Give my regards to those who know me!
  
I have to tell you guys, We had a Dinner Appointment yesterday with the Compton Family! They are a huge family, like ten kids! Anyway, they reminded me so much of our family, and all of our crazy experiences that we have day to day! It was Great! I miss you guys, and I love you all! This week went by so fast that I didn't get any pictures at all! 

Guernsey is an Island that is really far away from the rest of the mission, it isn't in our zone. It is like the outcast area! LOL! It is closer to France than it is to England. President Millar was talking to us at one point, and he told Elder Lamb about a new sister that came in not too long ago. He said she was way too attractive to be a missionary, so he sent her as far from the rest of the elders as possible. He sent her to Guernsey!

Have a great week,
Elder Brown


Monday, December 9, 2013

Charlie Brown's Christmas Tree

Sorry about last week. We didn't have internet access. I made it up with loads of pictures this time!
We haven't had any snow yet, and probably won't for a while! It feels a lot colder than 50 degrees. The cold here is worse I would say, because it is really wet and you don't get the snow that comes with it!   However it is warm enough for Elder Lamb and I to run about 10 minutes to the gym and back at 6:00 every morning in shorts and a t-shirt! The first time we did it was about 2 weeks ago, and it took us 15 min there and the same back. we got it down to 9 once, but we get about 10-13 usually.

I got the Christmas package two weeks ago, wrapped it up and put it under our tiny little 3 ft. Christmas tree. It looks like Charlie Brown's Tree, it is so skimpy, but it is better than most missionaries get!



This is our flat decorated. 
 


 Here are pictures from a wedding that we were the ushers for
 


 
This is a picture of the river at low tide, to show you how different it is!
 
 
 This is a castle that is down the street from us.
 
 
I didn't get to watch the devotional! I never even heard about it! I wonder if it is because of the time difference that they don't announce it or something!
 
Should be able to Skype on Christmas, I don't know what time it will be at yet, but I will try and find out from the members who have us booked for meals!
 
Missionaries don't get days off! But there is no public transport on Christmas, or boxing day (the 26th of December is called boxing day over here, and it is almost bigger than the 25th! That's when the majority of presents are opened) so we can't do much proselyting, and no one wants to be taught at that time most likely, so probably a day off basically!
 
I love you all and miss you lots! We currently don't have any progressing investigators, because we can't get anyone to come to church! We are teaching two free-masons. One is an elderly guy who is a self referral, and the other is the boyfriend of an inactive member. We are hoping to have 7 baptismal dates by the end of this transfer which ends on Christmas day. 5 of those will be a F____ family, who all have been taught everything, but just need to come to church, and quit smoking, get married etc. They will take a bit of work, but they have great potential. The other two are an African couple, who we have only taught once, but we both feel good about them. So hopefully the work will explode here! we had a great Zone conference a couple weeks ago, where Elder Tuxiera of the 70 did a presentation. Absolute rebuke, with a lot of mind blowing simplicity to make us all excited! We also get to go to the Temple Tomorrow, and have a Christmas dinner with the Mission President! Pretty exciting stuff!
Hope you have a good week!