The Manwich!

Spiritual thought:

Why is Serving Others Important?

http://www.mormon.org.uk/johnd

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

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

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

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

Observing the Sabbath day.

Spiritual Question and Answer:

How Can I Strengthen My Faith in God? Through Communication with Him.
Just like a relationship with any other person, in order to gain a relationship with God you need to communicate with Him. By doing so you can come to know that He is your loving Heavenly Father and that He listens and answers your prayers.

S___ came to church with her husband, and her friend as well, they all enjoyed it a lot. We helped her with her Questions on the sacrament but she has more questions, and we will see how it goes!

Address unknown is a project that the first presidency just recently started in most missions. Basically Mormon techies find Less Active members addresses that are unknown because they moved without the knowledge of any other church members, and their files were not transferred. The techies use software, internet, etc. to find where these people might possibly live, and then missionaries go to the address and get as much information, and teach people in the area. The Full time missionaries report miracles that happen as a result, and any information on the lost-member. 

We haven't found anymore people to teach, but we have some good ideas on finding that we want to try out soon. Not sure about when we can talk on mothers day or how yet, I will try and find out soon!

One scripture in the bible that talks about man becoming as god is Romans 8:16-17. It talks about being children and heirs of God. Just as a child grows up and starts his/her own family, so it will be in the eternal realm and in the spiritual sense. Other scriptural evidence is found in the Book of Mormon, D+C and teachings of modern prophets. 

Scriptures that relate to the Sabbath being Sunday, and not Saturday are after the Ascension of Christ, the members of the Church, whether Jews or Gentiles, kept the first day of the week (the Lord’s day) holy as a weekly commemoration of Jesus Christ's Resurrection (Acts 20:7; 1 Cor. 16:2; Rev. 1:10); and the observance of the seventh day was eventually discontinued. The change from observing the last day of the week to the first day of the week is not as important as the concept/principle of the Sabbath. In either case, the Sabbath is symbolic of the mighty works of God. (i.e the creation of the earth, the deliverance of Israel from Egypt, and the resurrection of Jesus from the dead) The original apostles of Christ held the 1st day of the week (Sunday) as the Sabbath. As they were given the authority to guide the church of Christ I think it is safe to assume that they were doing it right. Further evidence can be found in the words/teachings of modern day prophets and in the rest of the standard works. 

Sorry I don't have any photos this week, I forgot my card reader again, so I can't send any! I love you guys lots, and hope you all have a great week!

Elder Brown

April showers drench unprepared missionaries!

Q:  Is There Life After Death?

A: Yes, Because of Him

This Easter, ponder on the significance of what Jesus Christ has done for you.  He lived, He died, and was Resurrected. His body and spirit were reunited, never to be separated again. Through Christ all of us will live again. We will receive a resurrected body of flesh and bones. It is His gift to all mankind.

 I wasn't able to write to you yesterday as it was a bank holiday and the library was closed. This last week was very good. We were able to get two of our investigators to come to church, S___ and R___, and they had a great experience! S___ has a big concern with the sacrament, because of what she was taught about it when she was young, but we are going to address it with her tomorrow, so hopefully that all goes well. We were able to help out a new family that just moved to the ward, the Hamiltons, and the father told us he would set apart at least one time a week in which he will always be available to go with us to teach, or meet with us, etc. I am really excited to work with him, and he seems to trust us a lot already, which is wonderful! 

Our finding this week didn't go very well, but we are hoping to pick it up this week by contacting a somewhat active family that we felt impressed to start working with. Neither of us have met them yet, but we talked with our ward mission leader who thinks it is a great idea. The work here is really starting to pick up, and we have gotten an assignment from the first presidency of the church, which they call the "Address Unknown File." I think it sounds like spy work, but I haven't had a chance to read over it just yet!

My trainer goes home today! Along with Elder George, my first zone leader, and many others I know. Crazy how fast time goes!

I can now play the tetris theme song on the piano. Elder fisher can play guitar by ear, and I know enough about the piano and guitar to be able to tell what notes are what. I can go from one instrument to another, It is pretty cool! We can figure out nearly anything together!

 We were trying to find a less active, and instead found her pet!

I am getting seriously fit compared to before! All of that walking, and we have been downing about 15 eggs a week as a companionship! my health is doing good, but April showers drench unprepared missionaries! We got caught in a serious downpour with lightning, thunder, and the whole shabang! And I didn't have a coat or umbrella, or anything! But I am still not sick! My allergies are starting to act up though! Another springtime curse!

I love the pictures from home, and just so you know, I haven't been homesick yet, and I don't think their is anything you can do, say or send that will make me homesick. Of course there are things I miss, but the gospel is so real to me that nothing even phases me anymore. I have reached a point/attitude in my life, that I never thought I could, and it surprises me every time I think about it! Thanks for sending me Easter treats, I am excited to receive them. And thank you so much for being a wonderful support to me and the other kids! I had a member ask about our lineage and I told her about Amanda Barnes Smith (who, if you don't know, is actually pretty well known by church members. Her story is in the missionary library book "Our Heritage") and how she is one of my ancestors, and she told me to tell you that you come from "good stock!"

Anyway, love you guys lots, here are a couple pictures one is a really nice worldly object, and the other is a real-life minecraft company!

Elder Brown