Lots of little Miracles!

What did your family go through for you to be here?

As you learn about your ancestors you will be inspired by the faith and determination they had to follow their dreams.

Through your Family History work you will be able to find out the stories of those who came before you.  It is through their faith that those who came before you were able to accomplish many great things, and it is through your faith, in your Savior Jesus Christ, that you can leave a legacy behind for all to remember.

I am still having good old pasta, stir-fries, curry, chocolate cakes, candy, egg muffins, cereal, and anything any member decides to feed us! I don't know how, but I have still managed to slim down! I weigh more, but I am slimmer! I would say it is all of the walking, but we have buses now. I thought I was rid of the long walks, but Saturday night we had a fun experience. 

The flat looks like a house on the outside.......HAHAHA i'll send you a picture next week! The area is really nice here, lots of diversity, so it's nice to talk to all sorts of people. We have been having good success so far, and saw loads of miracles this week. Just little things, but undeniably influenced by our Father in Heaven. One time I prayed for Elder Smith to have inspiration on who to text for an appointment the next day, as it was 9:30 PM already and we hadn't found anyone to come with us yet and it was a single Less Active sister. Elder Smith had decided to just try one person as it was getting late. He texted Brother McKenzie, who replied almost instantly with a yes I can for sure. The appointment was at 1:30 on a Tuesday, so most people aren't available, but he happened to be free at that time this Tuesday! Also on top of that, we found out after the teach that he is her home teacher, and hadn't been able to get a hold of her, because her phone number changed, but now he has all of the information he needs again, and she came to church on Sunday because of the visit! EPIC RIGHT! All sort of little miracles like that everyday! The ward is great, every member we have asked to teach with us has been willing to and has given us a time that they are available, if they couldn't do the time we needed. Super excited to serve here! 

I am hoping to buy a nice suit here, and some nice shoes for Sundays as well. I want to get a few slim fit shirts as well, as most of the ones I have now are actually starting to look a bit big for me! Especially the short sleeved ones. Either I keep slimming down, or I am getting used to British style too much! You could either just get me something to surprise me, or put a bit of money on my card to help out with the clothing. It's up to you! Just don't break the bank on postage this time!

 Elder Smith my Companion

Elder Smith and Elder Brown

Living in a Mansion!

How Do You Smile When Life Gets Hard?
When you choose to serve the Lord today, you can feel His love.
When you go through your hardest challenges, pray for opportunities to serve. As you choose to serve those around you, the Savior's love will become more apparent in your life. Feeling of the Savior's love will help to wipe away feelings of complacency and discouragement. It is through serving God's children that you can feel pure joy in your life.
"And behold, I tell you these things that ye may learn wisdom; that you may learn that when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God"
- Mosiah 2:17 -

This week has been crazy, fast, and successful! Elder Jackman and I went out with a bang! The move went well, I got to see a few missionaries I have worked with in the past, so that was cool. My new companion is Elder Smith, from Utah. 

I am in Maidstone 2 which is the west half of Maidstone itself and goes all the way over to West Malling, down to Kings Hill (which is super posh). The River is the border between our area and the other Elders in the ward. Our district is just the two companionship's and we are in the same ward! So much smaller than what I am used to. Our flat is freaking massive! It is basically 1/8 of a mansion! A lot of big houses in England get converted into flats because there is such a need for housing, and they never tear anything down, they just reuse it. So basically our flat is half of the first floor of a 4 story mansion! The flat is about a five minute walk from the chapel and a 3 min walk from the high street in the main part of town. We travel by bus, so I don't have to walk nearly half as much! I am the senior companion by one transfer, so Elder Smith is out just over 10 months. 

 

Here is a photo of me and Elder Smith we took this morning, and also some nice cars we saw while we were on the bus, and also a photo of London Victoria from the train. We had to leave our mission boundaries to get to our area from Staines.

 This is a photo of London Victoria from the train. We had to leave our mission boundaries to get to our area from Staines.

We saw some nice cars we saw while we were on the bus

My heart is good, but we are still waiting on the blood pressure! They are sending me the information through the mail.  

The area here is so nice and the work is great! We have no Baptismal dates........YET, and no progressing investigators..........YET, but we have some solid potentials, tons of former investigators that we can stop by. People actually walk in the streets here, so we have plenty of people to talk to! The ward here is relatively small, but they all seem very nice, and the lessons in church were really good. We had a good dinner appointment with a young couple named the Connalys. He is from Ireland and she is from Utah. Brother Connally knows Elder Lamb's Parents! We taught 5 people in the street on the first day I got here, and have since then taught 12 or so more people some Less actives, some from the street and knocking on doors, and others were sit down appointments, etc. One member in this ward gave us 14 referrals and is going to take us with him to another area and give us even more! He's Philipino and his first name is Philipino, how epic is that! 

Ward activity a slip and slide and water balloon fight

Bunnies that have the priesthood Ha! Ha!

It looks like it's giving a blessing.

 Show message history

Moving on to Maidstone

Spiritual thought: How do you receive comfort in trials?

The Holy Spirit can provide us with comfort during the difficult times in life!

Whenever you go through trying times, or need a helping hand in life, you can pray for strength.  The Holy Spirit can bring you those feelings of peace, love, joy, happiness and encouragement.  He will help us overcome feelings of fear and doubt.  It is through the impressions of the Holy Spirit in your life that you can feel true joy!

Turns out my heart is perfectly fine as far as they can tell, the cardiogram was about 20 min, and is the same kind of process as an ultrasound. Elder Jackman kept on joking about how I was pregnant! It was pretty funny. He got to see on the screen how my heart was working and he just said it was really gross-looking. After the cardiogram was done they had me do a treadmill test, where the intensity increased every three minutes. My heart rate was totally normal, but my blood pressure was really scattered! They said there wasn't really any obvious pattern in it which was strange. They put a 24 hour blood pressure monitor which took my blood pressure every 30 min or so. Every time it went off it beeped and then had this whirring sound as it pumped up the arm cuff, so that was interesting, especially doing missionary work! It went off twice while we were teaching a guy named T_. He is our newest investigator, and is really cool. He lost his wife two years ago and really wants to know more about the Resurrection.

This is me holding up the blood pressure monitor and giving a thumbs up. We went on a bike ride to this tiny lake, because the cardiologist said to try the bikes again while the monitor was on, so they could see what goes on with my blood pressure. I had to record all of the activities I did and the corresponding times and how I was feeling as well. the bikes didn't take me out half as bad this time, so I am not sure what's going on.

 

 

We finally got J__ to church this week! After 6 Sundays of begging and pleading we had decided to stop teaching her and about three days later, she texted us and was like, "Ok, Alright, I can't stand it anymore, I'm free on Sunday! I'm coming to Bracknell." We were a bit shocked, but it was nice to finally have her come. 

We haven't seen S_ for a long time, so I have no clue what is going on with her. Haven't heard from or seen M_, I hope he is ok. The ward is doing well, we are finally getting to know a few more of them, we decided to just spend a bit of extra time going up to everyone after church and talking with them. We got a few Dinner Appointment's out of it as well, which was good! 

I'm moving on Wednesday and so is Sister Brittain. I'm going to Maidstone 2 which is really far East, and Elder Herrod (one of the missionaries in the photo I took when we went up to Oxford two weeks ago) is moving to Maidstone to be the Zone Leader. Sister Brittian is going to Orpington which is in the Maidstone zone as well, so we will see each other every once in a while still. Elder Jackman is follow-up training a missionary who has had a really rough time and wants to go home. He was originally going to train, but President gave him this as a special assignment. Moves are always exciting, so we'll see where the next area takes me!
       
     Sister Anderson, Sister Brittian, Elder Jackman, Elder Brown,                       ,Elder Tauman

The beard I was wearing in last weeks photo was made out of yarn, we used it in a zone training presentation as part of our Lehi costume about 5 weeks ago. it took me about 2 hours to make total time, but it was worth it! We couldn't find any fake beards that were under £20! Ridiculous right! 

Serving a mission has been the best decision of my life. Their is no greater work or experience that can be had in this life than that of serving a mission! 

Thanks for all the support you guys! I love you all. 

Elder Brown

Elder Jackman

Elder Taumen 

                      This two are of the really posh Wellington college                                          close to our flat!

Fun wishing British people a happy 4th of July!

 One of the missionaries in my group, Elder Glasgow is from Arizona, and he is a lot of fun, one of my favorite missionaries to hang out with. Anyway, I found out last Monday that he knows Seth! (My cousin) They went to the same school! 

Elder Brown, Elder Glasgow, Elder     Elder Jackman

The Cardiologist appointment went well, they took my blood pressure, just like the GP did earlier, but they didn't see anything this time. The doctor wants to do more tests later, so I am seeing them this week on Friday morning to have an Ecco Cardiogram, or something like that. 

M__ got kicked out by S__ and we haven't seen her for over a week now! M__ is homeless in Reading wandering around somewhere, which sucks because he was really stating to progress. Just on Wednesday he told us that he read all of Alma 32 and prayed for nearly two hours on Tuesday night! he really wants to change, and he set his own baptismal date for the 31 of December,  but now we can't see him at all. He has the Reading elders phone number because he bumped into them a few weeks ago, so it is all up to him. I just hope that he can get through and keep the desire to learn! 

D_ was working again, so he couldn't come to church, but he still wants to learn and is excited about baptism. We brought J_ to the Temple with us for a musical fireside about the Resurrection of Christ, but she doesn't have a baptismal date anymore! She has concerns that we can't figure out!

I attached some photos for you! I went on exchange with Elder Tauman and we had fun messing around on our preparation day! He is from a tiny little island off of Fiji

Elder Tawman and Elder Brown Lip syncing several  songs 

Elder Brown, investigator, Elder Jackman at the London Temple

British

Friday was a blast over here! We went contacting and said happy 4th of July to every single  person we saw! I was surprised to find that most of them were happy about it actually! There were a few that just didn't respond and a couple who said, "We don't celebrate that here!" We had some people say it back to us and say "God Bless America" as well. it was pretty funny!

Love you all tons, and just want you to know that I am doing great, excited to continue serving for the next year or so! 

Another Baptismal date this makes Three

Hey guys, sorry I don't have much time this week to email, but here is a bit of what happened, I'll talk to you more next week! 
This week has been pretty good. We got another baptismal date with S_. She has been taught for a while and the only struggle is to help her be more committed to trying to find out if what we teach is true. Our other two baptismal dates are doing well also. D_ has been very busy recently, but we are seeing him this week, and J_ seems to be getting more and more interested in the message. We are seeing her tonight and hopefully it will go well. I called Healix about the appointment with the cardiologist and they rescheduled for this thursday, because we missed the last one.
We went on exchange with Farnborough this week, and Elder Wetsel and I learned from each other and had a lot of success. 
I am doing well, I am very excited to help people progress, and am trying to do my best to help people come unto christ!
Hope you have a great week!
Elder Brown

Exciting and crazy week!

We are having tons of success here at the moment, and loads of fun. I have had nothing but sun for the last month or so! It is really nice, a little to warm in a suit though!

We haven't seen a lot of animals, except pigeons! THEY ARE EVERYWHERE! they walk right up to you in between your legs fly around in busy parts of town! They are just so comfortable around humans! It's Weird!!! 

D__ is doing well, we haven't seen him this week unfortunately. He had a lot of extra work this week! J__ is doing great. She came to our Saturday session of stake conference and it really helped her a lot! We had Elder Moriera, the area seventy speak to us. She went up to him afterwards and  said he helped a lot, so that was cool. Then last night she texted us with two refferals to teach her friends! AWESOME! I'd say she felt something at conference! Haven't seen S__ and M__ for a long time, but we set an appointment finally for tomorrow afternoon, so hopefully it goes well! 

Some photos of classic Crowthorne 

Elder Jackman 

Elder Brown

My week was exciting and crazy! On exchange we had a hedge take off our side mirror of the Zone Leader's car! 

Elder Grice and I had to save the sister missionaries because they didn't have their flat keys, and broke a different key in their lock so we didn't get home until 10:00 pm. 

Elder Jackman and I had an interesting experience this weekend after stake conference on Saturday. We got caught in downtown reading at 10:30 pm. lost, without a phone or our flat keys! Reading is like a 20 minute train ride away, and is a massive city. We weren't sure if we had enough money for a train any way. Drunk people everywhere, full of sin and darkness at that time of night! The Zone Leader's saved us and we slept in the reading flat that night! GOOD TIMES!!   

It is so weird to think of me being halfway done! I am not quite there yet, a few months to go till then but still. It has gone by fast! You honestly don't know how fast it has gone! Thanks for the info on the biking problems, but I think we are starting to figure out what it really is! I saw a general practitioner this week and she referred me to a cardiologist. She thinks I probably have Postural Hypotension, or something similar. She took my blood pressure a bunch of times in different positions as well as going from one position to another. My blood pressure dropped about 23% when I stood up from lying down on the bed! You should have seen her face when I stood up. She was so surprised that I thought SHE was going to faint! I think she thought I was just unhealthy and lazy at first!

Anyway, I love you guys and hope you have another good week.  I attached a few photos for you! We made pancakes with Jerrie on Saturday for dinner just before stake conference.

 Elder Jackman and Elder Brown 

Record of Book of Mormons in one day

This week was great for us! We got another baptismal date! A Filipino lady about 30 years old, a friend of Michael, our recent convert. She is due for baptism for the 12 of July! Turns out that she is the reason Michael ever found the gospel as well. Missionaries had talked to her on the street and she gave the pass along card that they gave her to Micheal, and he called the missionaries and asked to be taught! Crazy right! We talked with D__, our other Baptismal Date, and we are going to try and bring him to the visitors center at the temple soon! Gave out a bunch of Book of Mormon's and had a bit of a competition with a member on how many we could give out in one day. Our record so far is 12 and his is 25! He is so cool! 

We did service for a part member family, the husband is a non-member, and he drove us around in his BMW M3 convertible, which is actually quite a nice car! It doesn't look really cool, but it is quite fast and just feels nice! The service we did was basically to tear trees out of his garden and pile them up. It was pretty fun actually, and I felt like a beast. He was super impressed with our work, and we are hoping that it will open him up to being taught. 

I love you all, and hope you have a good week. I will let you know how the doctors appointment goes, hopefully it isn't anything serious! I attached a few photos for you! Sorry, no photos of me or Elder Jackman yet, but tons of food photos! We made some pretty epic dishes!

Mangoes, red pepper, onions

 The note says "that determines your attitude in life"