Family!

Jun 27, 2011

Hey Family,

I'm flipping out right now. As I've been reading i have become very aware and a little frightened of the experiences the Browning clan has been going through. I'll be praying for you all so much this week! As for my week it has been a mind game more than ever! It's funny to think, but I've been thinking of home lately and i know why now, my family is in trouble! I'm trying to stay focused but it's been a little tough and receiving the latest news from home doesn't help. So much is going on over here too with the transition of presidents and our goal for 60 baptisms which continues to make huge head way! I'm mentally exhausted from everything.

This last Sunday the Minnesota Minneapolis Mission had a wonderful event- the farewell of President and Sister Howell. It truly was the talk of the members here in Minnesota. The spirit rang true in my heart at this fireside. The fireside was a complete hit and President and Sister Howell both gave outstanding talks. Sister Howell talked about the combining forces of member and missionaries efforts. Something that stuck out in particular was MMM stands for MISSIONARIES +MEMBERS = Miracles. It is a true statement. Our members are the best here! We have the highest rate for retaining recent converts, 80%, in the central area (which consist of 18 missions). We are proud to be MMM.

President Howell has been known for developing average missionaries into great missionaries. He talked about the Doctrine of Christ, which has been his main thought for the last year. I have truly benefited from his inspiration on applying the Doctrine of Christ with the missionaries, which makes perfect sense. You have to convert the missionary before you convert the investigator. Stake Presidents through out Minnesota came and attended the fireside. The temple president came as well! The building was packed! At the very end, every single missionary that was in attendance came and sang "This is the Christ". This has been a tradition in the Minnesota Minneapolis Mission. We sing this song together after every meeting with the Howells. It was a fitting ending and great finale. There were close to 100 missionaries, so it took some time for us to scrunch on the stage and the bottom of the stairs. But after the awkward pause to the program, we made it.

President Clements arrives this Wednesday. We're pretty excited. It's crazy, the Howells leave the same day and they'll meet with each other for 2 hours and that's it! Man this really is the Lords work.

Now for the work in Hudson. We'll be teaching Michelle tonight and inviting her to baptism, also Josh hudson -our date set- just passed his interview with President Howell. It was cool seeing President Howell again. We had also a really cool experience with John. We taught him about missionary work- we recieved revelation to do this. This experience was probably my first real hands on exposure to pure revelation. After we taught him about missionary work he pulled us to the side and thanked us and told us he's been thinking a lot about missionary work. He wants to join, but we think his parents are causing a bit of problems. We found out his concerns though which is really good progress.

I'll be praying for you all extra hard this week! I love all of you so much! My scripture this week: Jacob 6:4.

Love,
Elder Browning