Moving on!

This week was pretty good, although we have street contacted in the same place for tooo long I think. I recognize most of the people there, and I have stopped most of them multiple times. Very few people listened to us on thursday this week. Thursday was pretty rough. We had no appointments planned at all that day, so we had to do finding for 8+ hours! And because I have knocked nearly every road here, and it isn't very effective, we street contacted in Bitterne shops for most of the day using our whiteboard. By the end of the day, we were so fed up with the ingnorance of most of the people, so we changed our whiteboard to suit the situation! LOL (I attacehed a photo of it). But, I don't ever have to work that area again! I'M MOVING!!!!! I'm going to Reading stake! I thought that I wasn't going to move, but Elder Wilkosz and I are both going. He is being a Zone Leader in Welling (near London). This area is having a total switch. Elder Kopishke, Elder Mannucci's companion is now the new AP, which is cool, and Elder Green is also moving. So this ward is geting 4 missionaries switched on them!
They released Brother Whitehead? Wow! He has been Scout Master for so long, I thought that would never happen, but due to circumstances, I guess it makes sense. He is still in scouting though. That is clearly his calling! 
A few people here speak like pirates.  I haven't really thought about it too much. A lot of people here drop there t's and h's and no one pronounces their r's. Southampton becomes sou-ampon! The people who talk like that are basically poor people. But thankfully these are the people who seem to listen to us because they are humble, They are hard to get progressing, but when they finally begin to progress the gospel benefits them and they begin to change!  
I will let you know who my new companion is next week but this is where I will be at.
The Reading stake covers Witney, Oxford, Abingdon, Littlemore, Emmer Green, Newbury, Reading, Basingstoke, Bracknell, Farnborough, and Woodley. It is about 50 miles North of where I am and closer to London. 

 Elder Wilkosz

Did I ever tell you to look up "Mr. Mormon - The Solar System and the Scriptures?" if not you should check it out, It is really mind-blowing! Anyway, love you lots and hope you have a good week!

Singing in the Street!

Spiritual Thought:

How Can I Find Strength in Hard Times?
Have faith in Jesus Christ and rely on Him

When we rely on the Savior, we can overcome even the
hardest of times. Remember to trust in Him and know that
with His help you can do all things. There is no trial in life
that we cannot overcome when the Savior is by our side.

Philipians 4:13

 

We had a good week! Tried out a new finding idea. Nerve racking, but it was fun! We went to our busiest street, and started singing hymns and literally preaching to people like in the good-old days! It was funny to see some peoples reactions,  and I think I saw a guy videoing us as well. We had a LA member come up to us as we were doing it, and we set an appointment with her for this week, said a prayer with her, and she got pretty emotional. Most of the people who came up to us were a bit contentious though, so I'm not sure how effective it really was. We found a few promising families who we have appointments set up for this week. We started teaching a few people who seem like they will keep their appointments, so hopefully things will start picking up with them, and we can find some more soon as well. Thanks for all the prayers!
I am doing great, I feel like I have been able to improve a lot this transfer, and I feel a bit more comfortable in every stage of the work. We prayed with a young family in our ward after teaching them the restoration. We prayed to know who they can share the gospel with. The spirit was very strong, and one of the daughters in the family got very emotional after/during the prayer. She told us that as we knelt she thought to herself that no-one will come to her mind, but as we prayed she saw vividly in her mind the face of a coworker. It was a powerful experience and we will see what the outcome is!

I know that the Lord is with us, and I can honestly say that there is no doubt in my mind that the gospel is true! We were talking to a lady on the street in the dark at about 8 pm one night, and she said something like you don't know, you only believe, and I responded with "I am 99% sure, I almost know," but when I said it I felt like I was lying! I was shocked really. The more I think about it, I come to realize that there really is no doubt in my mind anymore! Honestly no doubt at all. The mission has really changed me. A lot! Thanks for bringing me up the way you did. You and Dad don't know how good you are!
We have had really nice weather this week! Tons of sun and very little rain! I even wore a short sleeve shirt for the first time since I first got here. We usually find out transfers on Monday, but because I am the district leader's companion I often hear it on Sunday instead. I am telling you right now, with the spirit of revelation, that I am going to stay a bit longer! Elder Wilkosz was told that he won't finish his mission in this area, and he only has two transfers left after this one ends. If he goes Zone  Leader he will go now, If he trains he will go now, and I doubt that he won't do one of those two, so I am probably still going to be here! We'll see though, you never know!
I am glad you guys have had success back home, hopefully the people being taught can and will change.

I love you all so much!!! I miss you tons, and I am glad you guys are all doing well. I hope you guys have a wonderful week!

Love Elder Brown 

 

 Elder Dailen Brown on Exchange with Elder Ye a Chinese Missionary

 

 This is one of the finding tactics we have done a few times over the last few weeks.

 

 

Changing is hard to do!

Spiritual thought: How Can I find Peace in my Life?

Watch this link  http://mormon.org.uk/patrice

Patrice loves the feeling of singing at the top of her lungs in Australia's theaters, but she's most grateful for the feelings of peace that come from knowing she will see her loved ones again. God gives her the strength she needs to endure the trials of life and remembers what matters most.

"Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." - John 14:27

The Southampton district Feb.2014
Back row-? ,Wilcosz, Manucci, ?, Green, Brown, Ye
Front row-?, ?, ?, Wilson, ?      .

 

I am supposed to start using family history in my missionary efforts. The biggest problem is that I have gotten so used to not introducing it that I forget that we were even going to try, and I can't help but think about how I would react if someone came up to me about family history. I probably wouldn't be all that interested initally, so I don't have much hope for success using it except with older people! I will do my best, but I don't know how involved our ward is on it or not.

This week was pretty good. We had a lot of street teaches and lessons, but we are struggling to find people who are committed enough to change. It seems like the majority of the people we speak to undersand what we are saying and what we are clearly and bolding testifying of, but they just don't want to change or find out if we are teaching truth! We have a lot of people say they will come to church when we invite them, and they seem sincere, but then they don't come and we can never seem to get in contact with them afterwards. We are going to focus on seeking refferals from members this week to see if we can find part member familes and friends who will be open to the gospel and allow the spirit to touch their hearts and help them to change.
I am focusing on simple teaching, using preach my gospel and testifying to try and help people to feel the spirit and our sincerity. We have been able to get more lessons, but havn't had much success yet. Hopefully we will be guided to those who will accept the gospel.

Elder Wilkosz is pretty tall! I'm not sure exactly how tall, but 6 ft. 4 inches sounds about right! The sunset picture from last week  was taken down in Weston on the coast-ish. It is near the large flat-tower I knocked with elder green! 

You know six weeks goes by so fast in the mission field! 6 weeks is one transfer! I have been here for nearly 5 transfers now, and it went by so fast! 

Wow, glad I am here and not there, the weather sounds intense! When I tell people I am from the states they ask where? and I say, Montana, kinda north west, and there like, oh wow, did you hear about the snow and freezing! Some of them mentioned that Nigra Falls froze!? I don't know, but either way they all think I come from a place where it is always the end of the world! Here it is like spring, we have had a lot of nice sunny days, with a few bouts of rain, but it hasn't been to bad for the most part.

I love you all, and hope you have a wonderful week! 

Here are a few not so serious pictures of the district 

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

 

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!

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

 

 

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