A New Baby Sister and a New Companion!

Aug 1, 2011


Hey Family,

I have a new baby sister! This is great news, grateful to hear that Julia and Mom are healthy and doing well. This whole situation is surreal. Julia will be about a year old by the time i see her! The pictures are darling and i await more patiently. What a blessing to have a new child in the home. Julia is innocent and straight from heaven.

This news adds a lot on what happened this week. Transfer calls were today and I'll be staying in Hudson for another 6 weeks. My new companion is Elder Horgmo, and he's been a zone leader for a month. The Hudson ward and I are sad to see Elder Bowen leave. He's one of the best missionaries this mission has seen and I've learned a lot from him the last 3 months. Now i'm going to talk a little bit about Elder Bowen and basically praise him for a minute. What an awesome missionary. Since he's 25 years old he knows the real purpose of being out here. He's super bold and cares about each individual. I have learned a great deal from this Elder. I hope one day you'll be able to meet Elder Bowen. We had a great run together, and now it's my job to step it up and lead the Oakdale Zone.

I'm happy to be able to stay in areas for a sufficient amount of time. I've been able to develop a lot of friends and good relationships the past 2 transfers. This will be another growing transfer, but that's what the mission is all about. Our zone was sliced big time in transfers. We knew this transfer would be interesting with this being the 1st transfer change for President Clements, so we didn't know what to expect. Every team was changed except for one. I'm looking forward to building this zone and improving the unity of the missionaries. I have enjoyed working with missionaries and handling numbers and helping with transfers, i have grown a lot these last couple of months. I'm coming up with goals for this transfer that will help me improve.

This last week was tough, due to the fact we've lost most of our investigators. We don't have a lot going on right now, although the two transfers have been fruitful with two baptisms. The best surprise came to church. A potential investigator! His name is Eli, and a great big tall black guy we met tracting. People tell us they'll commit to come to church all of the time, but they usually go back on their word and don't ever show up. So we didn't think anything of it when he said he'd try to come to church, but he made it! Our ward is super friendly and a missionary minded ward. Tons of people introduced themselves and welcomed Eli. I love 5th Sunday's because everything revolves on missionary work. Two weeks ago we brainstormed ideas with bishop on what to address on our wards combined third hour meeting, and our efforts paid off i think.

Something else that happened last week-- we had a lesson with a drunk woman on her porch (that was interesting)! She's commited to read but was she really all there? Time will only tell. We also did some service for a non member at his farm. There is nothing better than rolling up your sleves and picking beans! The farms are beautiful out here and it reminded me a lot of home. The roads are tiny just like Shelley Idaho roads.

The Monical family just had a recent complication (last week) with their family. Their family has been dealing with an abusive father for some time, and now they'll be going through a lengthy court case and a ugly divorce ( they have 7 children and their son just returned from his missionn). I did not see this coming, because the father and whole family were happy sitting in the church 2 weeks ago. The father was actually a ward missionary that worked with us, and there was always a weird spirit around him and i now know why. Our ward has done a terrific job rallying around the Monical family- for that's part of the covenant that we made when we're baptized that we must bear each others burdens. Elder Bowen had the great idea to cook for the Monicals. So instead of them cooking for us, we cooked for them (scary i know two missionaries in the kitchen). They were humbled and grateful for the service and love that we showed. It makes me so warm inside when i do simple kind acts of love. I know the Savior would have done the same thing.

Well family with a new baby, i love you all! I can't wait to hear the updates with baby Julia. Continue to pray for me as i pray for all of you. My scripture of the week would have to be D&C 50: 23-25. It talks bout obtaining the light of God to chase away darkness from us.

Love,

Elder Browning