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.

 

 

 

 

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

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!

 

 

 

No weight gain this year for Thanksgiving!

I am going to miss Thanksgiving holiday,  I totally forgot about it because they don't really do it over here, so I don't know if I'll have much of a Thanksgiving. Elder Lamb and I went running this morning, and I just about died, I am so out of shape, but at least I won't gain ten pounds at Thanksgiving this year!

Work has been going well. We got this new investigator. He was a self-referral. He called the chapel and luckily brother Jackson was there to answer! He said he has a Book of Mormon, and that he had the Deseret Book magazine and wanted to buy some books from it! We called him a few days later, he said he wanted three books in specific: "The Mormon Codex," "The Old+New Testament, by Gerald L. Ogden," and "The Joseph Smith Papers!" If you don't know already, those books are like heavy, deep, doctrine. I think the Mormon Codex talks about scientific laws combined with Gods laws, and how miracles are performed, which has to do with molecules and stuff! ( If you want to know a bit about this I could send you some scripture references that would blow your minds! Or you could download and listen to Cleon Skousen's atonement talk) Anyway we said we could try to get those for him, and then we asked him if he would like us to come by and teach him more. He said he would love that. He is wheel-chair bound and doesn't get out much, so he has lots of time to read and discuss! We met him at his home, and he is pretty cool. We gave him a triple-combination, and Truth Restored, by President Hinckley for now, and told him he could order the books he wanted online from the website in the magazine, or on e-bay, etc. He was so grateful and excited about the books we gave him for free. He is totally a Free-Mason, and we were a bit worried because of that, so we called President Millar and asked him if a Free-Mason would be allowed to get baptized. He said that it isn't a problem unless he is a grand-wizard. So we are totally going to baptize a hardcore Free-Mason! Hopefully we can help him get to that point, but the only thing that might be a problem is that he is confined to a wheelchair, so obvious concern there, but if he is committed enough he will totally do it!

 Our other investigators are really busy, and it is hard to get in contact with them unfortunately. We had three less-actives at church, and one 11 year-old investigator.  She has been coming every week, but her family have never come. She is ready for baptism, and the rest, except her dad, want to eventually, but it will take some work for them to be ready. Her mom has a smoking problem, and her sister and her sisters boyfriend need to get married, because they have a kid.

  

I forgot my camera cord and card reader, so I totally can't send pictures. I only took like three pictures anyway and they weren't that good anyway. This week was pretty much all over the place and it flew by!

 

If you want to read a good book that will be possibly the most exciting book you have ever read, buy "Visions of Glory" from Deseret book.  Elder George said that even if he knew nothing about the church, and he didn't have a testimony or even a basic belief in it, it would quite possibly be the most exciting book he has ever read.  I can't read it until I am off of my mission, but it is on the list!  

 

I love you all, and I am sorry I didn't give you any pictures this week, I will try and repent so that I can do better next time! Hope you all have a great week!

Elder Brown

 

Great new companion

My new comp is Elder Lamb. He is from Ireland, but virtually without an accent. He sounds more American than anything else. He has been serving the same amount of time as Elder Mannucci, so about 18 months. We get along great, he is super fun! He is more committed to exercising than Elder Mannucci which will be a good thing for me, hopefully. He likes music a lot, and he wants to go to school for engineering in medical robotics, as in like "I-robot" style prosthetics. We have decided that we should end up working together after the mission which would be cool.
Nothing super interesting this week, it was all over the place, so the work wasn't great this week, but we had a cool roadshow in our stake that all the missionaries were a part of! We did teach M____ and his family the plan of salvation and it went pretty well. We are teaching them tonight at 6:30 the restoration and committing to baptism so it should be good.

I don't have a lot of time to e-mail today because  the library was closed, so we all had to share the chapel computers, which means we couldn't take too long sorry.

 

Me on the Itchen River Bridge 

 

Elder Lamb (My new Companion) on the Itchen River Bridge.

 

A giant boat train we saw this morning! At our flat on the Itchen River

Random information:
-England doesn't have Veterans day but they have something similar. It is called Remembrance day and it was November 1st.
-No snow yet, but that's ok.

-It takes a while to get stuff like packages from the office, because we can only get it at zone conferences, etc.

 

This is a picture of a sign on someone's door saying no JW's and No Mormons. Had to laugh at that one! 

 

 

 

I love you all, and hop you have a great week!

Elder Brown

Training is over!

It may seem peculiar to others, but in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints we take on whatever responsibility we are called to, which responsibility we neither seek nor decline, for we believe that the calling has come from the Lord through his appointed leaders. We are happy to serve, with all our hearts, wherever, whenever, and however the Lord wants us to (D+C 4:2). In so doing we find we are blessed with the skills and qualities that we need to fulfill these sacred duties and so we grow as we serve (Mosiah 2:17). That is how the lord bulids both his kingdom, and his people!

 

This week was pretty good, we found more people, and we are finally getting some teaching appointments set up! I have a great feeling about where the work is going to go pretty soon. Transfers is Wednesday, and my training is over! Elder Mannucci is going to be Zone Leader with Elder George, which is funny because it means he will still be in the same ward, and we will go on exchanges! I will get to see him at least once a week! My new companion is going to be Elder Lamb, who is from the same MTC group as both Elder George and Elder Mannucci! It should be pretty cool, because they will all know each other already. I can't believe it has already been 3 months! It is so weird!

 

Elder George and I doing Dishes

 

If you want to build your testimony, bear it often! Also study every day for an hour or so. If that is too much, then do less, but when you study the scriptures everyday it becomes more and more exciting, and it becomes easy to lose track of time!

 

We haven't had any snow yet, but it is very wet which makes the cold seep into your bones no matter what you are wearing! Very different kind of cold from back home.
 

Thanks for all of your love and support! You guys are great. Here are some pictures of us eating fattening foods. 

 

 

My favorite service project so far is trying to break apart an old desk for someone. We did it with our feet. It was pretty funny especially when Elder Fingerle was unable to break the wood! It just bent, It was more like a cardboard piece then wood. Then he tried a thick piece that was to thick and only hurt his foot but he finally got a piece that broke.

 

 

This is a picture of the worst waffle I have ever seen. It looks like a five-year-old made it! Basically a waffle with peanut butter M&Ms and chocolate drizzled over the top with ice cream on the side!

 

 Hope you guys have a great week! Miss you lots!

Elder Brown

The Church is True, and nothing can change that!

It is crazy that you guys studied Doctrine & Covenants 138 extensively this week, because I did too. It was one of my favorite morning studies so far! Our miracle investigators were pretty sick on  Sunday, so they didn't make it. We haven't seen them since the first time, but I think that they will be great! This week flew by! I don't know why it went so fast, but it did. We did a lot of knocking, but we had very little success. We finally met with a potential investigator that we found knocking a few weeks back. He is from Chile, and we taught him the restoration lesson. When we introduced the Book of Mormon to him and had him read the invitation and promise in Moroni 10:3-5

3 Behold, I would exhort you that when ye shall read these things, if it be wisdom in God that ye should read them, that ye would remember how merciful the Lord hath been unto the children of men, from the creation of Adam even down until the time that ye shall receive these things, and ponder it in your hearts.

 4 And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost.

 5 And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things.

 

The spirit was so strong, and it was absolutely silent. In Preach My Gospel and 12 weeks (the missionary training booklet) it talks about being comfortable with silence as you teach, it is referring to this kind of silence. It was comfortable, powerful, and no one wanted to break the silence. R_____, the new investigator, took the invitation and committed to reading and praying. It was a great lesson, and it rejuvenated and excited both me and Elder Mannucci! R______ lives quite close to our flat, so that will be nice!

If a week goes by and we don't have a spiritually uplifting experience, it becomes so hard! That is what keeps you going on a mission. People ask "how do you do it?" And that is the answer. If the church wasn't true, no one could do what we do! Without seeing miracles, and watching the amazing change that you help others make in their lives, you wouldn't be able to serve a full mission. You probably couldn't even do it for a month!

 

The church is true, and nothing can change that! I can honestly say right now, that nothing will ever make me believe otherwise. I know God's plan and I refuse to reject it. If someone was to come up to me with a gun to my head and threaten to kill me if I didn't deny that the book of Mormon is true, that Joseph Smith was a prophet, that we have living prophets and apostles on the earth today, that this church is the one and only true church of Jesus Christ, or that God loves and cares about ALL of his children and wants them to become as he is, I would not deny it. I would rather let them take my life!

 

Hopefully that doesn't happen, but I am just saying If it did I am ready!

 

We were knocking on doors, and when it got a little later in the evening on Halloween, people started to open the door with a box of candy ready for little kids. We were like "sorry we aren't trick or treaters!" Many of them were like "oh well, take some candy anyway!" It was awesome! 

The time changed here a while back. We got an extra hour of sleep, but it didn't feel like it, which was disappointing! Oh Well.

 

 

 

I am developing an amazing taste for church music but what goes on in my head is always some crazy epic EDM version of some of my favorite hymns. I am going to have some of the coolest productions going on when I come home! My next Ep will be EPIC and spiritual at the same time. It will be entitled "Mission Accomplished" most likely. I honestly can't wait! 

 

Dinner appointments are epic! Think about how much food Mom always made when she had the Elders over, now multiply it by 6 and cut the number of people eating it down to 4 and add three bottles of soda in the mix. That is our average dinner at a members house! Somehow I have managed to be eating all of that, and still losing weight which doesn't make any sense!

The most unhealthy thing I have eaten here is pictured below! We got it with our Fish + Chips at a local shop. It is a deep fried Mars Chocolate Bar! It was so heavy! We split it and each of us only had a half of it, but it destroyed us for nearly the whole day. Elder Mannucci and I went proselyting and we could hardly walk up a slight incline! It was one little greasy fried chocolate bar, and it took us out for half a day! I couldn't believe it. My fat American side says it wants more, but I don't think I can take it!

 

One real weird thing will be when I come home and I am using slang form over here instead of USA slang. Like, I miss you to Mate! INN'IT

 

I think what I miss the most is the freedom to take a break and do something I want to do with out feeling bad about it. I can't even sleep in when I am sick without feeling like I am wasting the Lord's time.

 

Elder Mannucci in front of a poster of a new game that he can't wait for!