Monday, April 27, 2015

I feel like I'm in Africa!

By the Thames River


London is totally different!!!!! It is like serving in Africa, but with really good public transportation and a few British people. Our ward is like 90% black, which is sooo much fun!

I know how to say hello and other greetings in like 4 African languages, I love foo-foo (an African food, kinda like mashed potatoes, but totally different at the same time, served with soup usually) and Jalaf rice (African deliciousness). 

I can say hello or how are you in Polish, Russian, Bengali (Bangladesh), whatever language they use in Zimbabwe, Kincongo (Congo), Mandrin Chinese, Bulgarian, Swahili, Tri (Ghana), the language of Seira leone, Jamaican, and in languages from two tribes in Nigeria. I don't think I missed any, but I might have. Either way you can see the cultural diversity!

I love this place! It is sooo much fun as a missionary. If you speak African to an African they go crazy and love you and ask you if you have been there, and you say no, we just have a lot of friends from there in our church, and every time, virtually every single time, they ask, "Where's your church!?" And then you teach them and every African who overheard you talking to them comes up to you afterwards and asks if you have been to Africa, and you do it again!!!! It is soo fun. 

This will definitely be my last area. President pretty much told me that. My departure date is currently July 22.

We didn't get to see the new investigators this week, but we will keep trying to contact them. We have a bunch of new people to see soon as well. M__is doing well, they weren't at church though because it was stake conference and they didn't make the effort to go that far, just like the rest of our investigators. It was a good week overall, and I am having tons of fun! 

We are going into central London today, so I will have tons of touristy pictures for you next week!

Here is a picture by the Thames River



 This is a Car accident we saw while Elder Hare
 was taking a driving lesson

The next three pictures are a crazy experience in Peckham
We found a bathtub next to our flat buildings rubbish bins, and so we carried it up and because we live with two other elders we pranked them by putting it in elder Ocando's bed with his blankets and everything. They got home before us though, and when we got back we caught them red-handed as they were moving it into my bed! We caught them on video and everything. Because we got back late I didn't have much time to sort it all out, and so I just slept in the bathtub on top of the bunk-bed. It was super uncomfortable, but I got some funny pictures out of it!



Monday, April 20, 2015

4 new investigators!

We had a really good week. We got 4 new investigators, 3 of them are from one family who we found and taught in about 45 minutes. We basically stopped her in the street and talked with her and then felt that we should teach her then and there. (This means start with a prayer, teach a lesson, extend a commitment, invite, and end with a prayer). So we invited her to sit with us and she said, "why don't we just go in my flat and talk with my family? I live right here." We were like, " Yeah, we can do that!" It was really cool. The other investigator was found virtually the same way. Super cool! 

We shared this miracle with some missionaries in our zone and the next day they had a flogged appointment, and said to themselves, "we can't get discouraged, if the zone leaders can do it, we can do it". They ended up teaching one guy in their chapel, just pulled him off the street and gave him a chapel tour and got a return appointment. also they called a potential, met with him the same day and he has a baptismal date. They were so excited to share it with us. It is great to see people follow your example and increase their faith!

M__ Baptismal date is the 16 of May right now, but it may come up sooner if all goes well with his mom. He was christened in the catholic church, so his mum seems to think that is all he needed, but we helped her understand. I don't think she was paying much attention when she was first taught, and I think that she was baptized because of fellowship more than having a testimony. We have to work with her on that, but she has come to church twice in a row without us coming to get them, so that is good.

As for our goals, I don't think we accomplished them every day, but we have tons of phone numbers for people and had loads more return appointments than before. Setting goals like this really changes the way you work and helps you achieve much more.

I already know the day I am going to leave to come home. It will be the 27th of July. I lose about a week of my 2 year mission, but that isn't too bad a lot of missionaries lose a transfer because of visa issues.

Only rich people in England have dishwashers and dryers (for clothes). It is super weird. They all think that it uses to much energy and stuff like that. So I have only had one area with a dishwasher, so I have gotten used to washing by hand. It really isn't bad when you don't have many living with you.

Hope you have a great week!
Elder Brown


Elder Brown with his giant pancakes  

An Epic playground





Monday, April 13, 2015

Baptism!

This week was pretty good. We were able to solidify our baptismal date with M__ (9 yrs old), his mother was the main concern. She is Less-active and didn't really understand why he would need to be baptized again, but we explained it to her, she prayed about it, and then she asked M__if he wanted to be baptized and he said he did, so she is allowing him to. She also came to church with them this Sunday, which was great to see. 

We are really working on building up our teaching pool right now and we set good goals for the week to not only have 10 gospel discussions a day (which is a mission goal), but to have 10 contact details/potential investigators a day and also to get 2 return appointments each day. We feel that these are achievable and also that having these goals will shift the focus from just getting a gospel discussion in it's minimum definition to really trying to get contact details from people, even if we have no time to teach a full gospel discussion.

A few areas in the zone raised their vision in finding this week as we invited them to get 10 Gospel Discussions a day, and it was good to see the improvement. Other areas seem to really be struggling though, and their key indicators have not changed very much. We discussed with the assistants in accounting and they gave us great invitations and help, which we will apply immediately.
I was able to be on exchange with Elder Wagaman this week while Elder Hare went with Elder Ocando to work his area with him. It was a great exchange; Elder Wagamon is a good missionary and has a great desire to work and to work hard. He is assigned to a Spanish speaking ward here and is doing ok, but he needs to learn quickly because he will have to take over the area in 3 weeks when Elder Ocando goes home, but we gave them the specific invitation to speak to each other in Spanish, even in the flat. They accepted to do so, and I am sure it will help.

We didn't see R__ ( from the Easter tour) yet; he cancelled, but we rearranged for this week and will call him today to confirm it. No new investigators this week but hopefully we will get some soon.

One really cool experience this week was a gospel discussion on the street with a lady. She was a bit hesitant to talk to us because of the world's view of us, but she began to see that our beliefs are very similar to hers and she tried to find something that was different in our core beliefs. The trinity was the conflicting doctrine. We explained why we believe they are 3 separate people that are 1 in purpose, and by the end of that 45 minute conversation and after her many questions and our many scripture quotations and expounding of doctrine, she said she was "refreshed" and that she was "full." Super COOL. We straight up filled her with the spirit!! When she said refreshed it reminded me of Peter's words in Acts 3:19-21 
  19 Repent ye therefore, and be convertedthat your sins may be blotted outwhen the  times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord;
 20 And he shall send Jesus Christwhich before was preacheunto you:
 21 Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began.
The youth theme is pretty cool this year. I downloaded all the music when it first came up on lds.org. It is actually pretty good. They make it better and better every year.

I hope you all have a great week! LOVE YOU LOTS! Sorry, no photos. I will repent! It is just really hard to pull a camera out and take pictures when you are super busy and used to Guernsey views!
Love, 
Elder Brown

Tuesday, April 7, 2015

New Companion Elder Hare!

We had a great week, but it was super busy again. We had District leader council to organize and carry out on Tuesday and then zone training we had to plan and present Friday, and then general conference and our chapel tour on top of that. It was a great week though! tons of fun!

This next week we can finally focus on our own area. It seems to have died a bit because of all of the planning for the zone we had to do. But the rest of the transfer, we don't have to worry about nearly as much, so things should pick up here soon.

I had a great Easter, it didn't really feel like Easter, and it flew by, but it was good anyway. We did a cool chapel tour on Saturday where we took people around the chapel on a path through Christ's final week in mortality. We started with palm Sunday and ended with resurrection Sunday. It was super successful, especially for being last minute and completely organized by us.

The sisters were talking to an African guy, and he decided to come to the chapel to take the tour, and while they were speaking to him a guy, named R__, saw them out the window when he was in McDonald's, and felt like he should follow them, so he did.  I ended up taking him through the tour, and we will be meeting with him on Wednesday this week! It was super cool to hear him describe how he found the chapel and why he came.

Love you all! Have a great week! I only have 1 picture for you of my companion, I haven't  had anytime to take any others really. I will forward some from my companion. Not only did we meet Elder Bernal (from the district 1), but we had him speak at our Zone training! He is in our ward until the end of April, and we will probably take him on teaches with us.

Elder Hare my new companion

                                                    Elder Bernal       Elder Brown              Elder Hare