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!

 

 

Miracle investigators

Mount Everest is one of the most challenging mountains to climb and many have been defeated by the task, but Erik Weihenmayer succeeded- even though as a teen he went completely blind! When asked how he overcame all of his challenges, he said I just stayed focused and took a step at a time and refused to give up! This is what God has directed us to do in Mosiah 4:27. We don't have to be fast, we just need to move steadily, following divine guidance from our father in heaven, and we will be surprised at how high these "mountains" can take us. Psalms 19:105 and D&C14:7.

 

This Week was pretty good. We taught a less active couple who were really cool. They still have very strong testimonies, but for some reason they aren't coming to church regularly. We are trying to figure out exactly why, but I think part of it might be school, and the wife had to go to the hospital as well. I believe that they will become active soon, as long as we continue to help them do so.

We got three new investigators this week. One came to church and was a referral from one of the Ward missionaries. The other two were a miracle! Last night we rang their flat bell, and the let us into there home. It was a couple from Mexico that just moved here at the start of October for school. They actually come from a place very close to Mexico City! They were extremely nice, and very interested because they have been looking for a Christian church to go to since they got here. They don't have a specific denomination, and in the past they have just gone to whatever seemed good. They are excited to come to church on Sunday, and they committed to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it. They gave us both of their phone numbers, and were just great people. They never stopped smiling and actually gave us some chocolate!  We were absolutely shocked at the invitation in, and definitely about the chocolate.

 

Elder Manucci and Elder Brown in Sailor hats

 

 

I am pretty much over the sickness, but it wasn't anything big for me, it was just annoying to have a dry throat in the mornings, and evenings.

 

Interesting story about the bank card. As you know, it doesn't work in the shops(or at least that specific one, I haven't tried since) but we needed it to get our prepaid train tickets. The office had to prepay for our train tickets to zone conference, because they were expensive and we didn't have enough money. We had to go to London and switch there in order to make it to Staines. So I have seen the London waterloo train station. Huge, absolutely huge!!!! anyway, in order to get the prepaid tickets, we had to use a card for identification, and then enter a passcode. Well neither me or my companions mission card worked, so we tried the one I have from home, and guess what! It worked. I don't know weird. It of course only uses the card for ID, but it still should work in shops I don't know.

 

A sign just outside of the London train station. (we had to go through London and change trains to get to zone conference. The sign is quite famous, The Book of Mormon Musical. One of the biggest ones in England!

 

 Elder Brown and  Elder Rolz (from Germany). We were on exchange.

 

Picture of the Library, finally checking out the right book.

 

I don't miss school at all. I get to study the scriptures for two hours a day, and every time it is really good. That isn't sarcastic either. It is really, really good! 

 

I got asked by another person who visited our ward, if I was related to Sister Brown. Said I was fairly certain that their is no relation. Crazy how I met a member of the ward she is serving in. Small World!  

I am getting some of my piano skills back surprisingly I am not as slow at reading music as I thought. Still have a lot of work though. I am getting better quickly!

 

Having tons of fun here! We played chair football, which is football(soccer) with everyone vs everyone, and if the ball touches your chair you are out, and have to sit down. If the person who got you out gets out, you are back in! Got pretty intense last Monday! 

 

They do celebrate Halloween here. Josh, my recent convert, went to a YSA dance for Halloween, and he went as Santa! LOL for Halloween! He is so cool. I was telling Elder Mannucci about how much I miss homemade doughnuts. You guys are lucky! Even if I had the recipe it would take me three hours to make, which I simply can't do! Oh well! I have my raisins! Say hi to Myndi and Caleb for me! I got the seminary classes letter a few days ago. It takes a long time to get to me because it was sent to the office and then to me! I will send a letter back as soon as I find time! Prepare for an epic answer to that question!

 

I love all of you and hope you guys have a great week. Update me on the situation with the government if you can I still don't know much!

  

 

 

The "man walk/challenge."

Melissa's baptism was great, I am so glad to have had the opportunity to perform my first baptism! I really felt the spirit there, and I know that Melissa did too. However, when we went to fill the font the boiler tripped, and can't be fixed till Wednesday this week, so we had nice cold water for Melissa.

 

Elder Brown, Melissa, and Elder Mannucci 

 

 

Funny story for you. We went on exchange, and Elder Probst and I ended up lost in east Leigh, looking for a bus stop. We eventually just ended up walking back to the Southampton flat in the avenue from there. It took us nearly 2 hours. Elder Probst and I are now officially men. We are calling it the "man walk/challenge."

  Elder Probst and I right after our long walk

 

Not feeling a whole lot better yet, but its getting there. Elder Mannucci is getting quite sick though, and well, he is just struggling hardcore. He feels like his entire body is ready to shut down on him. I can't complain, an I don't want to because it feels so selfish when people around me have it much worse. 

 My favorite door rug/mat

Finally started reading Jesus the Christ, and man I love the gospel!    I love you guys, and hope you have a great week!

Elder Brown

 

 

Sore knuckles! and sickness!

This week we had stake conference and our mission president had one of the talks. He talked about Jacob 5, and how the promise that God will hasten his work in his time is being fulfilled now. He is hastening his work, and now truly is the time for members and missionaries to work together. It was awesome. 

 

I only have a few pictures this week, and they are all of a rainbow that I saw one morning. I will for sure send you a picture next Monday! I will be dressed in white!

 

The rainbow went All The Way Across The Sky. taken from our flat balcony early in the morning.

 

 

I am trying to practice the piano more, when ever I have the time, and I wish I had some music to play. Mission is going good, but we really need to find new people to teach! Unfortunately we are teaching almost no one. We have been knocking on so many doors that Elder Mannucci keeps saying his knuckles are so hard he could kill someone with them. 

 

As for transfers, our district is totally changed. It used to be Elder Mannucci(District Leader) + Me in Hamble River Ward, Elder Lam + Ng (chinese elders) in Southampton Ward, Elder Buglass + Munson in Southampton Ward, Sister Nenadovic + Bolinder in Winchester Ward, and the zone leaders Elder George + Fingerle in Hamble River Ward. The district opened two new areas, Hedge End and Romsey! Because of this, the district was split. It is now Elder Mannucci(DL) +me in Hamble River, Chinese are the same, Munson+Buglass replaced with Robinson(right out of the MTC)+Probst, New elders in hedge end are in the Hamble River ward, they are Elder Clark +Elder Rolz(Right from the MTC as well). Zone Leaders are still the same as well. The sisters are now Sister Nenodovic+Swain, and they and the Romsey Elders are in their own district. Which is kind of funny, because Romsey and Winchester are in the same ward, so district meeting must be like a correlation Meeting instead! The new elders in our district are great, and  we already have had a lot of fun! 

Our next Transfers won't be until the 13th of November, I think, so who knows if I will move or not. If I don't, I will be here until the end of January. The transfer date after November happens to fall on Christmas day, so we are going to have two transfers in a row where no one will move.

  

I did hear about the whole government shutdown thing. In fact the new ward mission leader forced me to watch the news with him to hear a little bit about it. I don't understand much of what is going on, or how serious it is because all I heard was Obama's speech on it that basically bashed on the republicans and did nothing else! I would love to have more details on it, so it would be great if you guys could explain the situation and the impact of it for me! I didn't even think about the national parks being shut down! That is huge!

 

We have never spoke in church! We just bear our testimonies on fast Sunday! We have a  Baptism coming up, and yes we probably will use buckets again! But it is worth every bit!

 

There is only one funny story/situation that I can think of right now, I had Kraft mac + cheese for the first time here and we didn't have butter, so we had to use margarine. It was still good, but It was Elder Mannucci's first time. He was like halfway through his bowl when he said this tastes like it is very unhealthy, and I told him it was basically death in a bowl, and he was like, " what the heck, why are we eating it then! This isn't pasta! This is a disgrace to Italian invention, why do the Americans have to turn something great into an abomination. Pasta isn't even that hard to make! Why would you eat this!" or something like that. it was pretty funny!

 

I miss Pot stickers, but that is ok, we have tortellini all of the time! In fact last Monday we went to ASDA (Wal-Mart here is called ASDA) and there was Giovanni Rana (which is the number one brand for Italian foods in the world as it says on the package, confirmed as such by my Italian companion) Tortellini on sale for £1 which is way cheap, it is usually like £3 or so. We cleared them out! We only left about three in the store! It will last us weeks!

 

I am getting pretty sick! I almost threw up this morning, and my throat is killing me! It is really bad in the mornings, and GSE doesn't seem to be working, but that is understandable, because I don't have time to take it every three hours. In fact I only have the chance about once or twice a day. I tried some cough medicine we had in the flat, but it has the same problem, it is supposed to be taken every three hours. I have been drinking herbal tea in the mornings to sooth my throat, and it helps, but it seems to be getting worse every day!

 

Anyway, one more funny story for you. We were heading to the Edwards's house on Sunday, and we were supposed to be there at 5. we got there at about 4:50, but Elder Mannucci called Tina and said that I had fallen and hurt my ankle and we needed a ride. When she came running out with Mellissa, we jumped out from behind the Hedge and scarred her! It was great.

  

I love and miss you all!

Elder Brown