Tuesday, May 27, 2014

The Manwich!

Spiritual thought:
Why is Serving Others Important?

It Teaches Us Important Lessons

John plays rugby, works as a sales manager, and is a father. As a child he was taught important life lessons through giving service and continues that trend with his family today. Service helps us learn to be more Christlike to those around us.

This week was ok, most of the appointments got cancelled, and nobody seemed to want to talk to us, but M__ and S__ are doing well. We haven't seen Either D__ since last time, and no-one came to church, as it was another bank holiday, so they went on a trip! It was Elder Fisher's Birthday on Saturday, and M__and S__ made a cake for him on Thursday which was nice, and the Thairs made him a cake and had us for dinner on Saturday night. On Monday we made Manwiches! I sent loads of pictures for you this week, most of them just explain what the manwiches were like! The full meal was about 2690 calories each!

Elder Fisher

 
Birthday meal on Monday in celebration of Elder Fishers Birthday
 The Manwich




I love how organized your ward council is with helping the missionaries for teaching! Do the missionaries a favor, and keep it going, don't ever let them stop doing it. It would be so helpful to have a ward council like that!

Correlating with the ward isn't too bad with two sets of missionaries, the sisters just get all the DA's, Except the occasional one that we get, and the members just go on a teach with us if we are lucky enough to ask them at a convenient time for them. 

This week was lined up and planned well, but it all fell apart on us, so we were left to try and sort it all out. This week is looking just as good though, so hopefully it works out this time.

The Mangoes and Jerky were a great treat, and no we didn't eat it all at once, actually we still have a few mangoes left. We even used them in a stir-fry at one point, with egg noodles and plum sauce with some chicken and onions. It was soooooooooo good! the jerky went by pretty fast though, I think it took us about three days to down it all! Thanks so much! 

Glad you are ok from the drunk driver incident! It's really cool how everything worked out! I am glad that Heavenly Father is taking care of you guys! This is a picture of my initial response to the information about the accident.


When I was studying this week, I was in the Book of Mormon, and one of the people who had recorded stuff briefly in the book of Jarom (it might have been Omni, I can't remember) mentioned that if anyone wanted to know the more part of the history of the wars of his people they would be able to search the large plates of  Nephi. It made me think of how cool it would be to have that record to read as well, but too bad we can't! It would make a cool movie!
Elder Fisher drew a picture of a joke about Pontius Pilate. Then had Elder Brown's sister Katrina color it.


I love you all, and I am glad you are all doing well! Keep on being great!
Elder Brown
                                               
                                                  

Elder Fisher and Elder Brown     


                                                     The ingredients for the Manwich



and Dessert


First Step
Cook the Hamburger and Chicken burger


Stack the burgers with cheese in between

Wrap with bacon 




Cook the pizza



Tempura fry the Meat



Put it on the pizza


Add the vegetables




 The Manwich is ready

 

Tempura fry the candy and french fries



Now it is time to enjoy!







 Elder Fisher couldn't finish it.


I did. 


Elder Fisher loves to make faces




Monday, May 19, 2014

Study Isaiah! It's a commandment!

Spiritual thought 
How Can I Be Freed From Guilt? Through Jesus Christ

https://www.lds.org/bible-videos/videos/go-and-sin-no-more?lang=eng

When you feel burdened down by guilt, remember the Savior. He loves you and wants you to succeed in life. You may be surprised to know that no matter what you have done He still loves you and you can change.  He sees you in terms of who you can become, not in terms of who you are

Our investigators are doing very well, and we met yet another person through S___ and M___. Her name is Do__ (not to be confused with the Do__  we met through her, who is a Less Active, but a different one) We have seven appointments already set up for next week, which is a lot more than we have had so far. We also will be doing service for a member this week as well, and have at least one activity at the chapel, so this week should be great. I have had some pretty good studies recently as well, so life is just going great! Did you know that Jesus Christ has commanded us to study the words of Isaiah? I didn't realize it, but he actually commanded it (directly as well as through prophets!) Nephi also said that in the last days it will be understood by all men, as if it were plain! I thought that was interesting as most people still find it very hard to understand. Maybe he is speaking of a future day down the line. 
We haven't done any service this week that I can remember, but we did finally hear from the stalker girls. Apparently her phone was broken and that is why we couldn't get her to respond to us. She is busy this week, but said she will text us next week! 
I will try to get more picture of us for you, but for the moment, more cool looking vehicles!



 Do you remember the Top-Gear Episode with the Mclaren MP4-12C, (the super car that has an air-brake in which the spoiler goes up to help the car slow down, and has a ridiculous braking capability and acceleration is pretty epic as well) well here is a picture taken out of our flat window a few days ago.


Next week is another bank Holiday so you will probably hear from me on Tues, but we are hoping to get permission to use a members computer and spend the day with them as it is very close to Elder Fisher's Birthday, which is on Saturday the 24th. So you might hear from me Monday, but we don't know yet.

The area is going great! We have a new investigator named De__, who we actually met back in march, but he has been very busy and hard to get a hold of. We finally got to teach him and he is really excited about it all! He is 21, and he keeps telling us that he wants to become a missionary like us! We told him he can, but he first needs to read and pray about the Book of Mormon and then get baptized! he said he would!

I went on exchange with Elder Wetsel (from Idaho) on Tuesday this week, and his family has sent him a few Rubik's cubes/puzzles. He had a 4x4, but it broke, so all he has now is a 5x5 and a Rubik's dodecahedron! I solved the dodecahedron in one exchange on my spare time at lunch and dinner and just before bed, I felt pretty accomplished. There is a new Rubik's cube that a member in my last stake showed me when I was in Southampton. It is all one color, and no piece is the same size, but when it is solved it is a perfect cube. You probably solve it the same way as a normal one, but it is really hard because it isn't a cube when it is mixed up, instead it is a weird shaped object and is actually bigger than it is when it is solved. (a bit like the all-spark from transformers!) I would love to get my hands on one of those sometime! I will attempt the 5x5 when I go to Farnbourough on exchange again this Tuesday

I love you all, 
Elder Brown

Monday, May 12, 2014

Just Pictures

Just some little puppies, without their eyes even opened yet!


Thank you guys for the email, I love you all and it was great to talk to you yesterday For Mothers Day! Thanks for sending the photos too. I sent you a few photos also.

This photo is of some awesome Metal work outside of a metal recycling factory that we walked past this week at one point!  

This one is of a car painted with the classic Pontiac fire bird paint job, but the car isn't even a Pontiac  If you look closely enough, you will notice that there is a bulldog on it where the fire bird's head should be, and I thought the name was interesting as well!


Thanks for all the prayers, and the support!

Hope you have a good week!
Elder Brown

Tuesday, May 6, 2014

Stalked by two teenage girls!

Spiritual thought:
Does God Really Love Me? He Does and He Always Will!
http://www.mormonchannel.org/video/mormon-messages?v=3446112587001

In this new Mormon Message it shares the story of a man who is a former addict, and repeat convict.  It shares how Jesus Christ is always willing to forgive, even when we may feel that we do not deserve to be forgiven. He continually reaches out to us, because He loves us.

It was another bank holiday on Monday so sorry this is late again!  S___ and M____ are doing OK  They aren't counted as progressing investigators anymore, and they have a lot of things that will need to change before they can get baptized, but their desire seems to be increasing. They didn't come to church because they went camping over the holiday weekend, but they should be coming next week. We met a friend of theirs who we will start teaching soon, and another friend she knows is a less active, who asked us to re-teach her! So that is pretty cool. 
We got stalked by two teenage girls on Tuesday. We were walking back to our flat from Finchampstead which takes about 45 min or so if we take a shortcut through a forest path (which is often quite muddy!). Before we got to the path we saw these two girls, and I thought to stop them, but didn't because they looked like they were under 18. As we passed, they giggled a bit, but we just thought it was because well...they are teenage girls, what do you expect! When we turned onto the shortcut road/ path, they did too, and Elder Fisher joked about how they were following us, and we laughed about it. But about 20-30 min later, they finally caught up to us and asked Elder Fisher for his number! What a stud! He is so attractive that he was worth a 20 min walk in the mud! We gave them our number, and that night they texted us and the conversation quickly turned to the gospel and we asked if she would like to meet. She said yes, and asked if a friend (who is a guy by the way) could come too as he was very interested in what we share! We tried to set up an appointment, but we haven't heard back yet. That was pretty different!
Mother's day, we can Skype.  Brother Boyle, who is an american, is the stake patriarch! He is a really cool guy, very fun! We will Skype at about 3 pm which is 8 am your time, We get an hour just like at Christmas time.

I love you guys lots, I have attached a bunch of photos for you.  Most are self explanatory, so I won't tell you all the details. 
Elder Brown

May the 4th be with you! Millennium Falcon





 Look at the small cabin it is on wheels


The ward mission leaders crazy kids!




Worldly objects


h