Spiritually Uplifted

Jul 12, 2011


Hey Family,

This week was full of the spirit! The number one highlight would be that i witnessed a family get sealed for time and all eternity in the St Paul Temple. It touched my heart at an unreal level. I also learned a lot about leadership and being able to love missionaries even though you have every reason to judge. Also our Ward is in full force! When i say that i mean they're inviting their friends to dinner appointments and just sharing the gospel! We also have a baptism this Sunday! Josh Hudson will be baptized at 6 o'clock.

Saturday morning i had the chance to see the Dixen family get sealed in the temple with their two kids. Brother Dixen is a recent convert that just hit his 1 year anniversary. It's been quite the journey for the Dixen family and they are converts to the church. Sister Dixen joined in 2007 while Brother Dixen was a little more difficult to convert but joined 3 years later. Their family conversion has helped me see how the Gospel truly does change families for the better. Before Brother Dixen converted to the church, he had no intentions of joining. He was one of those guys who would ask the really hard questions trying to trip up the missionaries. After a long 3 years of taking lessons and attending church, Brother Dixen prayed and knew he had to be baptized. For a while he read the Book of Mormon secretly in his workshop (he didn't want his wife to know). Now the Hudson ward calls him the church Nazi.

We went through the endowment session with him. It's an experience I'll never forget and will make it on my top highlights for my mission experience. Then when the Dixen family came all together in white i was overcome by the spirit and i could not stop the tears of joy. This is what missionary work is all about and i knew they would be together forever after this life. How grateful i am that my family is sealed. It brings me so much joy and my comprehension has improved on this subject.

We also had the chance to witness President and Sister Clements. They focused on the same material they taught us at ZLC. However i learned to appreciate them even more and my full trust is with them. Our Oakdale Zone did a good job of welcoming the Clements family. We made poster boards and a journal with pictures and personal letters. We also gave them a giant poster board of an oak tree with descriptions of sacrifices our missionaries would make to help the Clements family. It was cool organizing, delegating and preparing these materials for what our zone could do to welcome our new mission president.

Last Tuesday we had a bit of a problem with the Menomonie Elders. Originally, we went over to the Menonmonie's apartment to drop off supplies and materials and we tried calling their cell phone but no answer. We then walked into their apartment and found both of them sleeping in with the lights completely off- it was 9:15 am. Yikes! Both of these missionaries are trunky! One is about to go home and has checked out while the other has 2 transfers left. Elder Bowen and I prayed for guidance on what approach we should take with these Elders. The following day we had PPI's which is a private priesthood interview. Elder Bowen went in one room, and i went in another. There was a lot of pressure what to say and what kind of approach would work. I was a bit worried about performing this interview, and i had a prayer in my heart. The interview went well, and to show our love we took them to lunch. Something i've learned recently is loving other missionaries no matter how odd they might be. I look at strengths before i look at weaknesses. I never did that before the mission, and it's something i hope i will do forever!

The work in Hudson is going way good! We're picking up investigators left and right! Eight weeks ago, we had a weak teaching pool. We have flushed every single investigator on the old list and replenished an entire new set of investigators. Josh Hudson will be baptized this Sunday at 6:00 o'clock. We're pretty excited for it! Josh has come out of his shell and has expressed his feels towards baptism. He announced it in priest quorum last Sunday which is a big deal because Josh has been shy about the whole conversion thing with others. Elder Bowen will baptize him and I'll confirm him the same day of his baptism (we got special permission).

Tim and Roxane came to church last sunday! We made an agreement with them on going to their church sometime this week. Both Tim and Roxane have degrees to be ministers, and so basically they know their bible like i know my cereal--very smart. They seemed to enjoy the ward. They commented that what stuck out the most to them was the feelings of love and unity between the ward. It was cool to see how every talk, lesson, and hymn was right on track for what Tim and Roxane needed to hear. The entire meeting was focused on prophets and Elders Quorum talked about family relationships.

We taught Josh Pritchett yesterday, and he actually picked us up from our training meeting! Man you know when a investigator is legit when they give you rides back! We've also picked up what could be families! We've been teaching a couple of people and there might be potential. Tonight we'll be teaching one of our new investigators Lori with the Schramm's.Our ward is doing a great job! Our ward has really strived to get non members at our dinner appointments.

Well family i love you all! Keep going strong. The basketball hoop will be a great investment of fun summer evenings. I can't wait to see pictures. I was also touched and the spirit overcame me as i read about Tanners' expereince on HT. HT was my testimony's foundation of the restoration. Keep me updated and it would be cool if Tanner wrote me a hand written note!

Scripture of the week John 16: 33

Love,

Elder Browning