Monday, February 24, 2014

A Nice Scene From England's Shores.

 
We didn't get to teach most of the people we met last week, because they all flogged us on the return appointments we had set. (flogged means they didn't show up and didn't tell us that they weren't going to be there) E__, our Baptismal Date doesn't want to feel pressured, so he no longer has a date, but he understands what we are teaching and he wants to find out. He just thinks that he needs, personally, to read the entire Book of Mormon, and understand it before he can sincerely pray and ask if it is true. So he will probably be slow progressing, but he is committed and has been coming to activities and church. He was sick this Sunday, but still came to see us just before church was over!

I am doing great! We just struggle to find anyone who seems to be committed, but we keep trying. We have been flogged by a lot by people we have set appointments with, so we are going to try family history more as a focus for this week. Hopefully we will be able to find people that way.
We were counseled in zone conference to start using it in finding, but I don't really have many ideas to go on!

My companion and I get along well, but because his parents don't have email, he doesn't have much to do while I write home, so I try to use less time! Sorry!

Here are couple of pictures of me and my newest companion and the Wildes right after we fixed their fence! They moved to Leeds, so I probably wont see them again! 

 
Elder Wilkosz my companion from Poland with the Wildes.
 
 
 We have found a few polish people, but they always say not interested, or they seem golden and we set a return appointment and they don't show up, or we get their phone number and they never answer, or hang up! We have one of the largest populations of polish people in the UK here in Southampton, but they don't seem to be effective. We found one polish lady last night, who seems promising, so hopefully she will be home when we come for the appointment we set with her!

Me and Elder George. I got to see him at zone conference!
 
Here is a scripture to look up Read 1 Peter 1:1-10, it essentially outlines the steps we take to perfection, and what order the Christ like attributes seem to go in in terms of progression! It goes pretty deep when you cross reference it with other stuff, but I won't blow your mind with it till I come home, when I can properly sit down and show you! Maybe you can figure it all out!I love you guys so much! Hope you guys have a great week!
Elder Dailen Brown

 

Monday, February 17, 2014

32 Lessons in one week a new record!

Spiritual thought for the week:
God is our Heavenly Father
All Human Beings are Created in the Image of God
As spirit sons and daughters of Heavenly Parents, we all have a
divine nature and destiny. All of us are looking for happiness, but as
we come to know our Heavenly Father, we can find true joy. If you want
to know if God is there, give a simple prayer and find out for yourself.
"The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God."
Romans 8:16

All the rain in England hasn't affected me!  We had a few flood warnings, but we weren't worried about it at all because we are on the second floor. It overflowed quite a bit down in weston area, but up near Bitterne where I am, it wasn't even unusually high. It looked basically the same as usual. We had a ton of wind though! and lots of rain! some of the other missionaries in england had a bit of service to do, but we weren't hit too bad.
 
My Health is great, and life is good! This week was pretty good. We had quite a bit of success in finding! We had 32 lessons that we taught this week, which is the record in this area for the time I have been here (I don't know about before). Most of those were in the street too! However, getting people to come to church and commit to changing in any way has been pretty hard in this area for the last few weeks. We set a goal to be more patient with people and to have greater faith that they can change their lives.
We picked up a new investigator this week, who we taught twice already he came to church and he accepted a date for Baptism for the 16th of March on the first teach! That was pretty exciting, but we will have a bit of work to do with him because he doesn't have any core beliefs or values at the moment, at least none that he will admit.
No service experiences this week, but we will probably put up a fence for some members because the wind blew it down! 
Thanks for the love and support and all of the wonderful letters!  Thank you guys so much! 
Love you all lots! No pictures this week, I didn't take any sorry!

Monday, February 10, 2014

The Plan of Salvation Pizza!

My new companion is Elder Wilkosz. He is one of the five missionaries in the world from Poland! He has been out for 20 months, so I have another "old man" in mission terms! He is a great guy and is very obedient which is good! He has only been a member for about 3 years, and none of his family are members!

We have already found some good potentials this week, but unfortunately a few of our most solid potentials and new investigators dropped us because their families/spouses don't like the idea of us meeting with them! We have set a goal to ask better questions in finding and to avoid using yes or no questions always. We are thinking of teaching English to polish people sometime in the future if we can find enough people who would be interested.
 
Elder Wilkosz used to serve in Southampton ward one year ago and loves seeing how his old area is doing, and he seems to enjoy being in an area that he knows a little bit already! We didn't have any investigators at church yesterday, but hopefully we can change that soon. We had 3 less active members come though!
 
Yesterday we stopped a lady at the bus stop and began to talk to her. She was a young single mother. She said she was shocked when we stopped her because she has being thinking about God and the purpose of life a lot recently.  It wasn't even her bus stop but she had to get off because the bus was done for the day, and then she met us! She told us of a recent experience in which she had a lot of things work out well for her when normally they wouldn't happen. She got a letter in the mail at her flat, which she just moved into, that was addressed to her and said that she was going to be given some vouchers/coupons for brand new furniture to furnish her new flat! When she opened the letter she felt a sort of presence behind her and heard a voice telling her everything would be ok! That was a pretty good contact! She doesn't live in our area though, so we referred her to Southampton.
 
The pizza went great, it went pretty long though, so next time I do it I will probably try to shorten it and have a pizza for us to eat in the oven, while teaching! I attached a photo of the pizza! 
 
The Plan of Salvation Pizza!
Onions represent pre-mortal existence, Earth life with all the ham as people, and the Spirit World That has both spirit prison and spirit paradise.
The pineapple that looks like the sun is the Celestial kingdom, Red peppers that looks like the moon is the Terrestrial kingdom, and the pineapple star is the Telestial kingdom.
 
Thanks you guys so much! I love you all, and I will talk to you next week.  Hope you guys have a great week!
Elder Brown
 
 

Monday, February 3, 2014

No Transfer, New Companion!

 

Look what I found!  


                          Elder Lamb, Elder Mannucci               Elder Brown, Elder George

 
Thanks for scanning the recipes for me. I am making pizza for the Mexican couple Elder Mannucci and I found ages ago! Elder Lamb and I bumped into the wife at a bus stop, and were talking to her and suggested that we come cook for them sometime! She got super excited, so we have planned what we are going to cook, and have decided to make a pizza at there place and teach the plan of salvation to them by using the toppings to make a diagram of the plan on the pizza! I will send a photo of it next week!
 
We picked up a new investigator that we taught twice this week! He is from Mexico City. He has been taught in the past and his brother is a member. He wants to learn and has tons of questions, but he doesn't think he will ever join. We are hoping he changes his mind.
 
I'm not being transferred. I'm still in the same place, and still the District Leader's companion for another 6 weeks! Elder Lamb is going to be a Zone Leader, and I am getting a polish companion Elder Wilcosh. We were both pretty surprised at the transfers. The entire ward thought that Elder Lamb was going to stay, but we are both excited for this upcoming transfer. I am pretty happy with the opportunity to continue to work with some of the people here.
 
This week was pretty good. We did a lot of work with Less-Active Members and some Recent Converts as well. Unfortunately only a small percentage of our investigators that committed to come to church actually came, but it was still nice to see a few people there. Faith was confirmed this Sunday, and her father came to see it. It went very well, and she is doing great.
 
Elder George and Faith
 
We got loads of potentials that we are hoping to get back with this week. We will just have to stay on top of them all!

My sore throat came for a while and then left again, it just comes and goes but it's nothing huge. My clothes and socks are holding up well. I haven't had to replace anything. My prom shoes are destroyed though! I can't believe how far into school you guys are right now, it makes me realize how fast time passes! I will miss Brother Depratu, it's very unfortunate.
  
I love you all so much you guys are wonderful. I have attached a few photos for you. 
 
Two king like breakfasts I had this week!
 
 
The coins are a cool thing I figured out when I first came, but it took me a long time to get all the necessary coins for it!
 
 
Look at the shield it makes.

Have a wonderfull week!

Elder B