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

Baptism!

Me and the district Elders

This week was pretty good! We had a fitness activity on Friday, that went pretty well. We only had one non-member there, but because it is going to be a weekly thing, we are hoping to get more and more as the weeks continue!
Faith's baptism on Sunday went very well, her parents were there, as well as her sister. Her mom was crying a little and kept saying how proud she was of her. Faith's family is planning on coming to church next week to see her conformation, and we are hoping that they will be our next baptismal dates. They have already expressed interest in it so it should be good. None of our investigators made it to sacrament meeting, one of them, M__, was ill, but was planning on coming. We are hoping to extend a baptismal date to him as well. He is probably the most committed of all of our investigators at the moment.
I am doing well, we had a great exchange with the Zone Leaders on Saturday, and it was really nice to work with Elder Mannucci again, and see how we have improved since last time. Elder Lamb and I are hoping to have a great week this week! We have set some really good goals for working more effectively and in better unity, and we are both excited from the exchanges we had. I always have interesting door-knocking experiences, but none of them seem funny or crazy anymore, because I have done it so much! We met this African guy, who had probably the coolest name I have ever heard! His name is Chill!
Our family history being in England I would love to come back and visit England with you guys after I get back, it would be really cool!

 

Transfers are on the 5th.

 

Last blogs pictures of the Knife was Brother Hammonds he

 

 got the knife from the Philippians. His wife is Pilipino, so he bought it when they were down there at some point. It is pretty cool innit!

  

I love you all!!!!!!!!! Love hearing from you guys too! I attached a few photos. Unfortunately I don't have one with faith in her baptismal clothes, because we were doing last minute prep, and elder George baptized her, so he has a photo, but I'm not in it. I will send it to you when I get it though.

 

 Picture of a diagram of a street with a LA on it, needless to say it was more confusing than the following statement: when the lots of just you give their is a dogs don't know!

 

 

 The pictures are of faith in the armor of God that we made for her! They are a bit creepy, because her eyes turned out red, but that just makes it better!

 

 

Can't Believe it's been 6 months!

One of the scriptures I like is 2 Nephi 31:13

13 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, I know that if ye shall follow the Son, with full purpose of heart, acting no hypocrisy and no deception before God, but with real intent, repenting of your sins, witnessing unto the Father that ye are willing to take upon you the name of Christ, by baptism—yea, by following your Lord and your Savior down into the water, according to his word, behold, then shall ye receive the Holy Ghost; yea, then cometh the baptism of fire and of the Holy Ghost; and then can ye speak with the tongue of angels, and shout praises unto the Holy One of Israel.

compared with Moroni 10:3-5  they both talk about spiritual witnesses, and receiving the Holy Ghost, or the "baptism by fire."

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. 
 

If we don't receive the holy ghost, we can't speak with the tongue of angels meaning the spirit, for angels speak by the holy ghost (see 2 Nephi 32:2-4).

 

F__ is going to be baptized next week, so that more of her friends can be there, she wants more of them to come and a lot of them couldn't come this week! I haven't been able to get in contact with anyone in the tower yet, but we are hoping to go there and stop by soon. Here are a couple more of my favorite scriptures:

  Leviticus 2:5-7 (not exactly Spiritual but I like it) lol

 5 ¶And if thy oblation be a meat offering baken in a pan, it shall be of fine flour unleavened, mingled with oil.

 6 Thou shalt part it in pieces, and pour oil thereon: it is a meat offering.

 7 ¶And if thy oblation be a meat offering baken in the frying pan, it shall be made of fine flour with oil.

 

Doctrine and covenants 19

 15 Therefore I command you to repent—repent, lest I smite you by the rod of my mouth, and by my wrath, and by my anger, and your sufferings be sore—how sore you know not, how exquisite you know not, yea, how hard to bear you know not.

 16 For behold, I, God, have suffered these things for all, that they might not suffer if they would repent;

 17 But if they would not repent they must suffer even as I;

 18 Which suffering caused myself, even God, the greatest of all, to tremble because of pain, and to bleed at every pore, and to suffer both body and spirit—and would that I might not drink the bitter cup, and shrink—

 19 Nevertheless, glory be to the Father, and I partook and finished my preparations unto the children of men.

 20 Wherefore, I command you again to repent, lest I humble you with my almighty power; and that you confess your sins, lest you suffer these punishments of which I have spoken, of which in the smallest, yea, even in the least degree you have tasted at the time I withdrew my Spirit.

 

28 And again, I command thee that thou shalt pray vocally as well as in thy heart; yea, before the world as well as in secret, in public as well as in private.

 29 And thou shalt declare glad tidings, yea, publish it upon the mountains, and upon every high place, and among every people that thou shalt be permitted to see.

 30 And thou shalt do it with all humility, trusting in me, reviling not against revilers.
 

It is crazy that I have been here for 6 months already, I still don't even know what it feels like to move! LOL I will probably be out of here on the 5th of February! I know nearly everyone, and I have knocked most of the streets! Hahaha, just kidding, there are plenty of streets that I haven't touched!
 

I uploaded a few photos for you! The first few are me and elder lamb holding an exact replica (same size, shape, and materials) of Sir Edwards sword. One of our investigators, B__, showed it to us.

Elder Lamb



 

Elder Brown

 

 

 

The last two are of me and elder lamb holding a Pilipino knife that one of the members here showed us. It is specifically designed to go into the side of a person easily, and come out with all of the insides, including a few ribs, not quite as easily! Hope that leaves a nice mental image in your minds! LOL

Elder Brown

Elder Lamb

 

I love you all so very much and miss the Wasabi crew as well. I can't wait to see you guys again!
Elder Brown

Investigators coming to church!

This week was good, but could have been quite a bit better. We did some service for a lady in our ward, which was really good, because she is one of the ones we knew hardly anything about, but it turns out she went on a mission when she was younger!
We are hoping to get to know more people, and organize some activities, because this ward doesn't have very many at the moment, and we would like to have more things to introduce people in a different way.
We had three investigators at church on Sunday, M_, B__, and F__, which was great! It has been a struggle to get people to church recently. We are finally getting a few people to progress, and we have had some really good teaches with some people that we have struggled to work with! F__ is all lined up for her baptism this week, and we are hoping it will help her family to keep the commitments we have given them!

I love you all so much, and I hope you guys have a good week! Don't really have any pics or videos to send this week sorry!

Elder Brown