Hello!

Sept 28, 2010

Dear Family,

I'm so happy to hear from you all and the happy news from you mom was great! Sounds like the Browning's have been a mad house the last day. I hope Dad had a wonderful birthday despite the chaos. I've been praying for all of you and hope you all have a happy month with conference coming up!

So the lord works in many ways, we've received a new investigator who's actually accountable! Sue,she's single and is about in her 30's. We found her while we were biking around. Yesterday we talked about how to recognize the Holy Ghost and the fruits of the Holy Ghost. John Doolittle is a recent convert to the church, and he was our joint teacher with his wife. They're our new ward missionaries.

So Minnesota has been making weather headlines. We've received a good 8 inches of rain here in Rochester. We got caught in the storm on the 22nd. Haha it came down hard! We biked for cover from the buckets of rains and wind! I felt it was a hurricane category 4! We stopped at a local K-mart and tried to save our scriptures, the rain was too much however. My scriptures have slight water damage on the top right corners--from new testament to bible dictionary. What a sad day. I bought myself a box with a lid, so that this scenario will never happen again. My slip on Ecco shoes took a pounding, after 3 days they were dry. Haha i've never been so wet from the rain! We continued to our appointment and didn't let the rain stop us from the work!

We Had a zone p-day/mini zone conference. President Howell gave some fabulous training on the core doctrine of the gospel of Jesus Christ, which was perfect for me because I've started to wonder on less important things in my studies each day. Really, all a missionary needs is the basics. I'm grateful for the lord sending me to Minnesota because i get to dig at the doctrine in my own native language--which is nice because my testimony is constantly being attacked by other faiths. The core of the gospel: Faith, Repentance, Baptism, Gift of the Holy Ghost, and Enduring to the End, are fueled on the Atonement of Jesus Christ. You can really spend all your life studying these 5 principles. So Tanner and Josh,go for the gold!

We received new phones! Wow, they're nice and we have texting! This is going to change missionary work. The church did a study with confirming appointments with a text, and they have found it to be more effective keeping appointments from falling through. These phones have a full sliding keyboard and all. I'm looking forward to the change. We also had pizza to top off the day, then played basketball!

Well Family i love you all. I've never been so excited to watch General Conference. Make sure you invite somebody to listen to the prophet of God. Listen and take notes!

Love,

Elder Browning

Re: Hello From Shelley

Sept 20, 2010

Hey Family

So i received your letter mom, and I'm very concerned about your health. That's the last thing i need on my mind! I'll fast and pray for you! I love you mom!

This week we received a bunch of potentials. Weekends are definitely for proselyting,there was actually a strip of houses we got return appointments with, cool! We'll see how this week goes as far as adding to our investigate pool. We're really trying hard to follow up with everyone we come in contact with that seems to have an interest in the gospel. Our goal this week was to receive 3 new investigators, we fell short but got a solid 1. Art is his name, really cool down to earth middle aged man that has struggled with drugs and worldly things. He's striving to change each day, and basically is willing to listen to anything we have to say. We'll be teaching him the restoration this week. As far as Stephanie, we haven't been able to make contact, so I'm afraid Satan has attacked her heart, I'll keep you updated.

Our ward activity was on the 18th. We had 9 non members attend the social out of 80 people. We were expecting double the numbers, but hey if one investigator had a good experience, we feel it was a success.Our investigator Kristina came with her friend and daughter! We had a delicious BBQ dinner with a church tour. Kristina was impressed with the church structure and I'm hoping she'll come to church next week. Kristina actually first just wanted us to come and teach her daughter about God, but we've been able to teach her as well. We'll teach her the restoration this week.

A miracle happened on the 16th. We found Quentella, a former investigator who dropped us a month ago. We've been working on the area book the last week and tracked into her new apartment. We tried her old home last sunday and nobody answered. We found out the real story why we lost contact with them. She wants the missionaries to return and visit with her. This was my first ground zero investigator, so it was a tender mercy to find them again. She actually pulled up into the driveway when we were walking back to our bikes. The Lord works in miracles.

Well family i love you all. I miss you. Let me know how the cougars are doing, I heard they lost to AF =(.

Mom i'll continue to pray for you. and i wish you the best. =)

Elder Browning

Second Week in the Transfer

Sep 13, 2010

Hey Family!

 

   So it's my second week in the transfer. Our district has changed, but we're still kicking.

 

Our new district leader is Elder Sechser, he's from grace Idaho! He's totally different from Elder Payne, but none the less a wonderful elder. He's been out 9 months and a strong cow boy attitude character. There is a new elder in the district- so I'm not the youngest anymore. It's hard being a greeny, missionaries don't give respect to the new kids on the block. Pride is the number one issue in missionary work i think. I want to make myself a promise never to be puffed up with pride when i get older and more wise.

 

We Picked up two new Investigators- Viccent is his name, way cool guy, i can totally see him as a bishop one day! We can thank the sister missionaries for the referral. It really is a team effort. Without referrals, nothing would progress. We jump on referrals like tigers on deer. President Howell  told us to treat referrals with care and be prompt to contact.  Tomorrow we're visiting a referral from temple square! 

 

Investigators are hard to retain. Stephanie hasn't answered our calls for a week. Things are not looking good. There is nothing worse in the world when your investigator makes progress then drops off the face of the earth and ignores you. Satan is real, he attacks when our investigators are almost at their peak. Luckily, the Lord is over all things, so I'm staying positive.

 

Our big ward activity is coming up this Saturday. Rochester 1st ward has been planning this for 6 months now. The dinner will be pulled pork- Bro Dali is in charge, and I've had his meat before-i'm so excited! There will also be folk band playing live music in the background. After the dinner and entertainment, there will be a simple church tour concluding with root beer floats in the gym. It's a very chill environment and us missionaries will be social butterflies. Brother Levitt is the ward misson leader, I have so much respect for this man,it will be a success.

 

I bought a jacket at JC penny, It's been getting cold. It's a 100 dollar jacket that i got for 60bucks. It was a must, i went without a jacket a couple of times in the rain/windy Minnesota climate.

 

I love you all and hope you guys have a great day/week!

 

Love, Elder Browning

Second Transfer

Sep 6, 2010

Dear Family,

 

Hey! So my second transfer is on  its way! What a crazy week its been!

 

So Sep 1 was a transfer day, we had 2 Elders leave our district. I'm grateful for my trainer -Elder Payne, he taught me so much and i do appreciate his patience with me. I met my new companion- Elder Barker. He's a way cool Elder and so far we've been getting along. It's my first experience with a new "style". I need to open my bubble for missionary work and look into different methods. Your second companion is your greeny breaker. Elder Payne warned me about the difficult stage this is for a missionary. I'm still taking pointers and ideas, but i don't want to be babied or bossed around. Elder Barker and I had a good conversation about this because i could sense a little bit of that ugly stage. I want our companionship to be awesome and i'll do everything in my power to make that happen.

 

Sep 2 was surgery day at the Mayo Clinic! Elder Payne was excited to get rid of his hernia at the world known Mayo Clinic Hospital. It really is a nice facility, and i'm a kid at a candy store walking through the spacious hallways and over looking the city on the 19th floor. Brother and Sister Moulenouxe-members of our ward- played the Dad and Mom role. I'm so happy they were able to make our day easy. They gave us rides to the hospital, bought us lunch and took care of paper work etc. I love members. They have a son who's serving a mission and well they hope someone would do the same for their son if anything happened. I hope you all do the same for missionaries in your area. It takes off the stress and makes us more efficient as missionaries. We were at the hospital from 6:30 am-3:00pm, and enjoyed our stay, relaxing in the family waiting room.

 

I'm definitely growing in the area. We met with Brother Levitt and talked mission strategy! We've been waiting to get this ward mission plan going, but we've been busy with the ward activity that's on the 18th. The ward has been putting a lot of effort into the activity and i hope its a good turn out. We'll have a really really good dinner -smoked pulled pork- with a live band playing, following a church tour for the non members. It's a non threatening activity that will help non members see our church.

 

Everyday i find myself stretching myself. It's easy to talk to everyone on the street, where as before it was a little frightening. I'll be sending some pictures that i took awhile back. We're at the church emailing today because of the holiday. I'm glad the Washington DC trip was sweet. Right now i don't have the best feelings for other religions, but i know we all worship God and need to keep him in everything we do. I started laughing when i heard about the throw up trip. I can totally see it! Just like a domino effect, once one child throws up, the next one has only a matter of time before he or she does!

 

Love,

Elder Browning