Oh how I miss the taste of pumpkin!

Oh how I miss the taste of pumpkin! The sweetness of that squash like deliciousness formed into the art of a delicious pie! Gahh... they don't eat pumpkin over here! they don't think it tastes good, instead they have Christmas pudding, which is basically the nastiest excuse for a chocolate cake that is more raisins than anything else! But that is ok, I don't mind at all! I like raisins, yes I do! (I am trying to convince myself!)

When working with less actives, Don't get too upset when things don't work out, that is something that I have had too learn. It just makes you want to do less, and it makes everything worse. Remember that prayers are answered, but it is done on the Lord's timing, not ours!
One of the members have a dog. The dogs name is ringo and she is obsessed with shadows, so we always hold our hands out and watch her go nuts!
As for M_____ our 14 year old investigator, she is doing.........great!!!!! We extended a Baptismal date last night for the 12 of October and she accepted! We are super happy! As for exercising, I have been doing push-ups, sit ups, planks, lifting weights, and a lot of walking! Walking doesn't make me tired, but my shins hate me sometimes! 
I have used my umbrella, but it hasn't been bad. We are going to have a few weeks of hot weather soon, according to the weather reporters! I am not missing the frost you have back at home at all!

A month to me feels like one flippin' day! How can one week go by so fast! It feels like just yesterday I was e-mailing you! 

 

#iwontbemovingoutofthisareaforatleastsevenmoreweeksbacauseiamstilltrainingialsohaveafeelingthatiwillbehereforlongerthanthatbutireallydontknow

hahahahaha try to read that one in under a minute! I will also have the same companion for at least 7 weeks or so because he is training me, but after that who knows. He is the district leader here and he has been here for about 9 weeks now. He says that he tends to stay in one area for a long time, his last area he was there for 8 months!

  

I miss you all, the work is going slow right now, but we are hoping it will pick up soon, and we are going to do our best to make sure that it does! I am thinking at least one baptism a month for this ward will be good.We have two so far set up for October, and we are hoping to pick up some new investigators soon.
The 2nd of October we will have 6 missionaries in the same ward! We finally got a ward mission leader. There hasn't been one in this ward for nearly three months! We can't wait to work with him, because he knows a lot of the members, including many of the 300 or so less-actives we have in the ward!

This is a picture of my companions English smile

 

This is one of my favorite street names

 

My trainer's Trainer, My trainer Elder Manucci, and Me

 

 This last picture is of me, my father (my trainer), and my granddaddy (my trainer's trainer). They do this whole posterity thing her in the mission field. Your trainer is your dad, his trainer is his dad and your grandpa, anyone you train is your son, etc. And when your companion goes home, it means you killed him. I have two brothers, and I am an uncle, I think, and I probably have a few uncles as well. my grandpa is dead, but I got to meet him because he came and visited (even though I am pretty sure it isn't allowed! I don't know). It can get confusing, but it is a really fun way to refer to people!  

I love and miss you!

Elder Brown, the consumer of raisins, and the one who misses all things of American taste! LoL JK   

 

 

5 weeks in England

 We are teaching a 14 year-old girl named M______ and her mother has had her named removed from the church, and is working to come back. Her mother, T_____, wants to be an example to her daughter, and she is doing a great job. M______ only has a few lessons left, and she knows that the church is true, but she hasn't committed to a date. Last night, we showed her the testimony of the Book of Mormon by Elder Holland. She hasn't gotten far into the BofM, but she has a testimony of it. We asked her the baptismal questions (without telling her what we were doing), and she did great. She wants to watch general conference before she can say she believes that President Monson is a prophet, but she believes that God would still call prophets today. She also said that she wants to have all of the lessons before she gets baptized so that she doesn't do something bad without knowing it. I literally laughed at that, and explained to her that that is a good thing because we aren't allowed to baptize her until she has had them all! She laughed and was like, "oh, ok, that makes sense!" I then explained why we set baptismal dates with people early on, and that it is a goal for the investigator to work toward. I told her that she doesn't have to feel ready to get baptized for us to set a date, but that she should feel confident that she will be ready by the date we set. I then told her that Elder Mannucci and I were going to pray about it and I asked her if it was ok if we could set a date the next time we taught her. She said that it was ok. I expressed to her that we want her to feel comfortable, and that we don't want to rush into anything, but that we also feel confident hat she will be ready after general conference which is the first weekend in October. I think that she feels much more comfortable now that she understands a little more. We also picked up a new investigator through a member. We ate dinner with the member, Kathia, and her friend, T_____. She asked us about why we don't drink coffee or wine, etc. So Elder Mannucci and I taught her the word of wisdom lesson, and committed her to live it. She came to church on Sunday, which was awesome. It is not very often when you teach a commandment as your first lesson. It is usually the Restoration or the Plan of Salvation. So it was a little weird, but the spirit was there, and Kathia, the member was a huge strength, and it was the first time that Elder Mannucci and I had taught in nearly perfect unity, which was funny, because it is also one of the few lessons that we haven't practiced teaching together. Tania, the investigator seemed to understand quite well, and she expressed that she thinks she could live it pretty easily! We are going to teach her at Kathia's house again on Saturday, and Kathia has invited another friend who has expressed interest in the gospel as well. Kathia is a GOLD MINE! She is also the one who introduced us to the Spanish family that I talked about previously. And the best part about it is that she has only been a member for a few years, and she can't speak English extremely well, but that doesn't stop her! Working with members is the best way to do missionary work, so keep it up! You don't know how much the missionaries will appreciate it!

 

We are also teaching an Excommunicated member. He is probably in his sixties, and his name is J____. He has had all of the missionary lessons multiple times, and he knows everything is true. He is one of the most active people in the ward, and he isn't even Baptized! He just has to work with the bishop and stake president, but the bishop told us he will be ready soon, and that we should just continue to teach and strengthen him. He is one of my favorites because he used to work in a bakery, and every time we visit, he bakes us an amazing cake!

 

Jaren  keep up on the piano. Don't ever give it up! I seriously regret it because so many missionaries in the MTC were really good, and one of my zone leaders, Elder Fingerle, from Germany is really good. Every time I hear someone playing I want to play, but I am not very good. I still know the basics, and have been getting better. We also have a guitar in our flat, and we play it while waiting for food to cook! I knew some of the basics for guitar from watching tutorials this summer, and I am picking it up better as well! But that is not why I am here, so I don't spend a lot of time on it, only when we have a little free time while cooking lunch etc.

  

So elder Mannucci made this Italian desert, called tiramisu, for district meeting on Wednesday. He wanted to do something special, because he felt like it was a disgrace to have tiramisu without a specific reason. So, he told everyone, including me that it was Elder Fingerle's b-day on that Wednesday. The sisters in our district actually bought him a present and I brought the party poppers that I got from a member on my b-day and we organized this huge surprise for him. His b-day is actually October 15, so it was a month early. I think the funniest part is how much elder Mannucci laughed, because no one knew that it wasn't his b-day until the very end! We also did a fake interview with him about the experience!

 

Speaking of b-days, I got my gift Saturday night, thanks so much for the camera card! I don't have any worries about space at all now! Also thanks for the sour-patch kids! You know they are very different from American ones! They have a purple one and a yellow one! The green ones are a very gross color, because they don't use a s much die, I think! but they are still very good!

 

I also attached a pic of the average meal we eat in the flat when we don't have a dinner appointment! I love having an Italian companion!  I actually made this one, but still!

 

 

I love you all, and thanks for the b-day cards from the Acton's with all the signatures it means

a lot.

Love Elder Brown, Your favorite missionary from Montana serving in England!

One month as a missionary

Remember I said I would send you a picture of Josh, my favorite Investigator.  He was baptized on Saturday, my first baptism, and Sunday was my one month mark!

When we filled the font, we had to cool it down by adding buckets of cold water, because the water was hot, and we had to speed it up because the water was slow. It took over 3 hours in total time to fill the font!

 

 

This is a map of the Area I will be serving in.

 

 

 

I am in the Portsmouth Zone. Here are some photos of  the missionaries in my Zone.

 

 

 It is starting to get colder here. Saw a bolt of lightning the other day, and my companion was like, wow, it has been a long time. Apparently they don't get much lightning here in England! Haven't received my b-day package yet, but the mission office is always busy though, so who knows when I'll get it. 

 I went on my first exchange on Thursday, with a Chinese elder. They are there to speak to both English speaking people and Chinese, so I didn't speak a whole lot, with some people. It was fun though. I left my toothpaste , and Elder Lam, the one who took my place in Hamble during the exchange tried to tell me I forgot my toothpaste, but I couldn't tell what he was saying for a long time. It sounded like "too-pas!" I haven't learned a lot of Italian, but we do randomly burst out saying things like "Pizza!, Pasta!, Tortellini!" in an Italian accent just for fun.

We work with the zone leaders quite a bit because they are in the same ward as us. We have 4 companionships in our district, and then there are the ZL's as well, so we have about ten missionaries that I get to see fairly often, at least once a week. We are about to get some elders for our district, and also some sisters, for both our district and our ward! The district might get split up though depending on the way things go. 

 

I haven't had any weird foods.  I had kidney once, but it wasn't that weird, because lots of people in Montana actually eat it.  In fact most of the stuff I have had is very similar to what I ate at home, and at Wasabi.  I have had a dinner appointment almost every night. I think there have only been like 3 or 4 nights so far without one.   I love the people here so much! We do a lot of tracking, but we are hoping to work with members a lot more.  The members here are wonderful, and totally willing. The problem is we don't know them very well yet! 

Work with the missionaries! they will love you. And when members work with the missionaries it makes everything easier, and miracles happen! 

 

I always have prince of Egypt music stuck in my head and we sing it all the time, because it is the best mission approved music ever!

They don' have labor day here, but there was a bank holiday one of the Mondays. It makes bus travel really inconvenient! 

I have had so much soda here, everybody has soda for Dinner Appointments, it is awesome, but unhealthy. Turns out that Pepsi is actually pretty good. It is one of those things that gets better the more you have it. Either that, or it is just better her in England. Everyone here loves Pepsi, and Coca-Cola. They don't have Root-Beer here though! it has to be imported, and the only place to buy it is a small international shop, that is too far for me to get to. A member actually bought some for us though, and either I haven't had root beer for too long, or they make it better here, because it was soooooo goooooood! The cans are printed in like Pakistani or Hebrew or some weird language, because the ingredients list is in symbols!

My favorite food I've eaten, is this pasta I made at the flat! We bought this pesto sauce, that is red pepper and cheese pesto. Pesto, by the way, is not a sauce that has basil in it like we thought.  Words from an Italian missionary, "pesto in Italian means crushed, and a pesto sauce is just a crushed mix of any ingredients you want!"

 

We had this coconut that we bought, but we didn't realize we didn't have a hammer to open it with, so we had a fun time dancing around and chanting  with towels on our heads and then used a cutting board to open it. That is how missionaries open coconuts!

 

This is an MTC picture of the Kimball Zone

 



2nd week in mission field

Thank you for sending me a package, you guys are the best! I haven't got it yet, but hopefully I will get it soon. I got a b-day present from the member family I was with for district p-day last Monday. As soon as they heard it was my birthday, they went up and made me a gift with a card and everything. I was shocked! Here is a picture of all the stuff they gave me.

 

 

 

 My area is pretty large, one of the biggest in our zone. Most people I meet have a British accent, and most are white, but there are some people from Spain, and we are teaching a family that speaks Spanish and very little English. I met a few people from Zimbabwe and other places in Africa as well.We walk and use buses a lot! The zone leaders drive us around a lot, because they work in the same ward as us. But they have to find a flat in another area, because of complications, but still see them often. We have district meetings every Wednesday, but when it comes to meeting with other missionaries, we just do accounting by phone. We have district P-day sometimes as well. On p-day we e-mail usually, and we play sports and such. We actually don't need to shop at all today, because we didn't use most of the stuff we bought because my companion has been quite sick for a while. We played a game last p-day. It is weird, some kind of Italian game little kids play. We also played stick-pull, Classic Joseph Smith game!

 

I met a sister Brown at the MTC. We took a picture together, and also one with the other colors in the MTC. She said she went to Kalispell a lot to go shopping. 

I am teaching a young man named Josh he is progressing quite well. I will send a picture of him to you next week, I don't have one with him yet. I am teaching the Spanish family, and you saw the food they made for us! We had a challenge given to us from the Zone leaders, to have at least two new investigators by the end of the week. Our personal goal was actually three, but my companion hasn't been feeling well, and on two days this week we had to stay in the flat to let him rest. We still got 1 teach done on both of those days, but it was rough. Anyway, I didn't think we could get 2 new investigators, and this was  Saturday at noon. I started my fast after lunch, and I fasted for my companion, that he might have the strength to go out and work, and that we might be able to get new investigators soon. Sunday evening we taught a family, who we had been trying to get with for a long time. We finally were able to catch them at home. They were very receptive, and the father and mother both are excited to read the Book of Mormon, and they are earnestly seeking for truth and understanding. The father has a lot of good questions, but a few of them go really deep, so we have to be careful. He has told us that he has talked with a ton of religious people, and discussed things, and tried to learn, but we are the first to be totally honest with him, and we are the first to have answered any of his questions with an answer that he feels is true. The lord works in mysterious ways, and he truly does prepare people for his gospel. Teaching by the spirit is key, and studying, listening and discerning are more important than anything else I can do.

My feet hate me, and they hurt at the end of the day, from walking, but they are doing much better. I have used GSE, and it doesn't seem to be helping, but I found some foot powder in the flat, and it seems to be helping. I think a combination of the two is eventually going to do the trick. My nice shoes are not so nice anymore, They got worn out in the MTC a little, but I still get comments on Sundays when I wear them, that they are really nice shoes. My other ones, the more sturdy walking shoes are excellent, my feet feel much better in them, and they still look great.

 

They don't have labor day, or memorial day, or a lot of things. I have gotten a lot of strange looks when I mention any of them. Walmart is called ASDA, and AXE is LYNX. Lays, the chips, are Walkers, and they are called crisps. There is so much weird stuff here!

 

The weeks are not long for me they go by so fast it is ridiculous! I feel like two hours ago was last Monday! not really, but it is going by faster than any time in my life ever has so far!

 

Mondays and I have a love hate relationship. I can't wait to email, but it is overwhelming! with all the letters I have to write. I also love to play sports and stuff, but I get too excited to teach people sometimes, that I almost wish it wasn't p-day! Weird right?! 

 

My companion is the district leader, and the zone leaders used to live in the same flat as us, but they had to move because the land lord only wanted two people living in one flat. They still are around us quite a bit, because they are assigned to work in the same ward as us. Anyway, before we ever leave to go work we always say a prayer. In order to choose who says the prayer, we basically do rock paper scissors, but instead we either do a dragonballZ version, or a Lord Of The Rings version. Every time we do it I think of Karissa and her geekyness.  

 

Recycling is huge here! Don't get caught putting plastic into the rubbish bin! Traffic here is ridiculous, and I am in a "small" city.The keyboards here are weird too, the @ key is swapped with the " key. There are more differences, but there just small inconveniences for me. I literally hop on and off of buses. We hold out our hand, and the bus stops. We get on, and show our bus pass, sit down, press a button to stop at a bus stop, and get off! The bus starts moving, before you have a chance to sit down, and if it is full enough, there are people standing up. they drive on the wrong side of the road, they spell things wrong (colour, Labour, Centre, etc.), signs are weird, road lines are weird, and people drive like maniacs. If a sign says drive slow in this area, people go 40 mph. There are traffic lights at every crosswalk, and intersections are totally different also. Have fun , and I love you all. I will try to take more pictures, but we don't have a whole lot of time to do so.

 

With Love,

Elder Brown

First week in the mission field

We traveled to my area with the zone leaders who actually lived in the same flat as mine, but they got kicked out because the land lord only wanted two people to live there, so we had to help them pack up and move out. It took five hours to get to the chapel in London, where we met the mission president, and our companions. Then it was another two hours to my area. We didn't get to do any proselyting on the first day though because we had to help the ZL's move out, and then I unpacked, we planned and then I went to bed.
We have already had pasta twice. I loved the b-day card, but it was a little embarrassing because we are having district p-day, so all of the district elders and sisters are here, so when I clicked on the link it started playing.
I actually had chinese food on friday, but the family who fed us was acually from peru, and they speak spanish as a first language. We are teaching a spanish family as well. They were introduced to us through the family that fed us on Friday. 
It's nice, my first b-day on the mission is on a p-day, we are eating breakfast at members house, and I get to wear jeans for most of the day! On top of that we had some really good spaghetti with the zone leaders on sunday. My companion made it for us. He is the district leader.

The attached picture is of the meal I had on saturday night with the spanish investigating family that we are teaching. The father made it. It is a traditional spanish meal, and we ate it the traditional way, straight out of the pan! It is hard to teach the family, because I don't know spanish, but Elder Mannucci speaks in Italian, and they can understand most of what he says.

First Day in the mission field

I have been assigned to the Hamble River area. My new companion is Elder Mannucci. He is Italian, and he loves pasta. This is the view from my new flat. The photos were taken from the balcony.

I worked cleaning up my Flat and helping previous elders pack up their stuff. so I haven't gotten any real experience yet, this is my first day.

One week in the MTC

We were visited by Elder Ballard of the quorum of the twelve apostles on the first day. And by both Elder Holland and Elder Nelson on the second day, I got to shake both of their hands, but not Elder Ballards. THREE APOSTLES IN TWO DAYS!!! It was awesome.

The arch way looks so much cooler in real life, because the temple spire is right in the middle, but you can't see it in the photo. Elder Romney is the one in the photo. We had a pagent that we walked in singing at the end of. 

 

The food is great, we had hamburgers an fries for lunch yesterday, and some really good salmon for dinner, so I have already had fish & chips. I am uploading some photos from the plane, and the MTC.  My MTC companion is Elder Romney, and yes he is related to Mitt Romney. He is his fourth-cousin, but he has never met him. He was born in the US, but lived in Mexico. So he has dual citizenship and speaks both spanish and english fluently, without an accent.

 

Roomate name tags at the MTC

Elder Green is from Lehi, Utah and he had an awesome sort-of faux-hawk style hair swept to the side, kind of like I used to do mine. He just got it cut and came into the computer room here at the MTC. it is really short, and weird to see. Elder White is his MTC companion, he is from England and he has the proper "posh" accent. I always think of Harry Potter when he talks. He really knows his stuff, and he is good at talking about the gospel. Our MTC district is Nephi, and our leader Elder De Beer. Elder De Beer is from South Africa. His accent is very fun to listen to and he is a pretty goofy guy. He knows when to be serious though. He jokes about how Africa doesn't have food and planes and stuff. He is white, like Karissa except with bleach blonde hair. It is funny because there are two other Elders from places in Africa and they are both black and don't speak English well at all. Elder De Beer is fluent in English. The other two Elders from Africa tell him that he is not from Africa because his skin is white. They joke around quite a bit it is pretty funny. Elder White likes the same kind of music as me which is typical of someone who lives in England. He thinks I'm one of the coolest  Americans he has met.

 

Elder Romney is in the middle with Elder Brown.

 

 

Here at the MTC, the days are long. We seem to be in the district classroom forever. We exercise for an hour each day. So far we have done regular work outs, played basketball, Rugby, football (soccer), volleyball, and Ping-Pong. We do this around the world Ping-Pong, where we run around the table counterclockwise and take turns hitting the ball. We have played with about six people at the same time. The Elders that told us about it have gotten up to 20 or so on the same table. the rules are the same as regular Ping-Pong, but after two faults, you are out. when you get down to only two people left playing, you stay on one side of the table instead of running around, and you have to spin after every hit. At about 2:00 in he afternoon, I am ready for bed, but I have to push through until 9:30 before I can go up to get ready for bed. My throat is still a little soar, but not as bad.

 

Once I got off, in Minneapolis I was with a group of other missionaries for the rest of the time, so it wasn't a problem. The Amsterdam airport is massive. we had to get from one side to the other in about two hours, and I think it took about 45 minutes to get to our gate. 

 

It has only rained a little since I got here, but it doesn't matter because while we are at the MTC we don't go outside a whole lot. I just got back from the store, ASDA, which is like Europe's Walmart partner. Just bought some sour patch kids and some body wash. I ran out of the stuff I brought this morning, so it was perfect timing. I bought the sour patch kids because Elder White who is from England said that they don't sell them here because he had never had them. When he first said that I almost cried, but turns out he was wrong! 
More pictures while at MTC.