Heart is full

February 20, 2012

Hey Family,

This week has been a great experience. I'm so grateful for Elder Tanner Browning, his willingness to serve the Lord. He will be a diligent missionary.  You have all been in my prayers and I'm happy to think we're both wearing the Browning name tag at the same time serving the Lord. I know it’s been hard but it's worth it! When you were all in Utah dropping off Tanner, I was at District Meeting giving a training in Aitken Minnesota. I announced that my brother Tanner was getting ready to head in the MTC that very moment . I showed the picture you gave me of him to everyone. The senior couples loved it and thought he was such a cutie! I'm proud of my brother!

The work in Twin Ports is going good. We had a great week again getting investigators to church. We had 5 investigators come to church. I have nothing but high expectations for this area with Church attendance. This key indicator is really the best way to gauge future baptisms. Missy (our date for march 10th) is getting back into the swing of things. After falling a little bit from stress, she's been stronger than ever! She received a witness that Joseph Smith is a prophet. We watched the Prophet of the Restoration with her and her main fellowshippers. She's doing a great job being that example for her husband (less active member) because he doesn't have a desire to really come back to church and be active.

Our newest investigator Daniel is super legit. He's a member referral. We invited him to baptism and he said yes! He was so excited to come to church. He called us Sunday morning and expressed how excited he was to come to church. We're looking to set a date with him this week.

This transfer has gone so fast!  Elder Olaveson gave a talk in sacrament meeting and he did a great job of turning the topic “loving thy neighbor” into a missionary topic.

This week will be an exciting one. What i'm looking forward to is a youth conference in Virgina, Minnesota this Saturday. We've been invited to speak to the youth about preparing for missions for a whole hour. I'm really looking forward to this and i obviously have a lot i could say because I live and breathe this 24/7. I can't wait to unleash the missionary spirit! hehe. I'll also be going on a baptism interview tour on Wednesday night. I'll be traveling across North Minnesota- probably 200 miles total, to give 3 interviews.

Our district is finishing with 3 baptisms this month. Our goal was 5. We're a little disappointed with our baptisms here in Twin Ports, and we know we need to pull our weight. Hopefully we'll have a couple of baptisms in March. The weather continues to be warm here! When will winter come? It's almost march!

Well thank you again for the emails, I really do appreciate you all giving me updates. I know you had a lot going on this last week so thanks for keeping me informed. Now i understand that i won't get as much attention now with Tanner being out, but i totally understand-- i'm willing to share the love. =)

Love you all have a great week!

Elder Browning

Big week in many ways

February 13, 2012

Hey Family,

What a great week it's been for the Browning family. I just loved hearing of the aftermath of Tanner's farewell party/talk. Thank you for taking the time and updating me on that. I know you all have a lot going on with crunch time. I really felt the spirit as i read Tanner’s talk.

Thank you so much the for package of love you sent me! I enjoyed the pictures so much and the letters were amazing. Thanks for everything!

I'll make this email quick:

We had a fantastic week. We were anticipating a big week, but we exceeded that. We found 10 new investigators, and taught 25 lessons this week. This is really big for the Twin Ports ward! We were able to fill both sides of the progress record for the first time in this area. It's a really exciting time right now, and we have a lot of potential. We had a good week for investigators to come to church but only five of them came, which was a bit disappointing. We were expecting 9-10. Church is a really hard thing for people, but it really does show their level of commitment.

We finally got a hold of Missy, and she's been going through a lot right now. Ever since she moved, her spiritual side has been lacking. She's been dealing with problems in her family. We were finally able to contact her the other day and found out what was going on. The whole week Elder Olaveson and I were worried. We have pushed her date back to March, and we made a weekly game plan with her. We'll be involving her bishop’s family more this week with service and teaching. We'll also be at another members tonight for FHE with Missy. She still has a strong desire to be baptized thankfully and with this game plan we should get her up to speed.

Zone conference was great! President and Sister Clements are so high on the spirit, and i respect them so much. We learned more about extending commitments with love. I learned a lot. We were told we need to be more real with our investigators and express our love to them.

For two days we’ve had 5 other missionaries at our apartment. We're out of food because of it haha but we had a good time. Great week!

Well I'm excited for Tanner. I love you all and will keep Tanner in my prayers and you all!

Love,

Elder Browning

Another warm week

February 6, 2012

Hey Family,

It's sunny and bright outside. I have been so blessed! No one has seen Duluth this warm. It seriously feels like spring is around the corner.

I'd like to share an experience we had yesterday. Elder Olaveson and I were doing area book work. Basically the point of the area book is to contact former investigators and other contacts that have already been introduced to the church. Elder Olaveson contacted a lady just at the right time. She was having a bad day and she was praying for guidance, her past history has been a lengthy one. Her husband was a member, but she never did join the church. Elder Olaveson was the right guy for her as she knew that this was a sign from God. What's funny about this is Elder Messenger and I stopped by 3 weeks ago to see her. She wasn't interested at the time due to a tragedy. We have an appointment with her this week and we'll let you know how it goes. Small little miracles, i forget to share these because they happen so often on the mission.

It's a really exciting time for me on the mission. 

Twin Ports is about to explode! We're pretty close with a couple of leads to new investigators with members. Some of them have already come to church! It's was neat to see a part member family that were working with come to church! Yes! Things are happening here, and we're just trying to work hard and stay focused. Missy and Cortney are falling off the boat a little bit. We helped Missy move last Monday -she was grateful for the help. The ward turn out was really good. They did not come to church and it was a little disappointing not seeing them. We had 5 investigators to church though. We continue to push and stretch ourselves. We had to drop an investigator though this week, a very kind man. So kind he fed us every week. He would not pray in front of us, and would not come to church. Sometimes you have to bite the bullet and let investigators reflect on their own.

District Meeting was a growing experience. My district has 3 sets of senior couples and 3 sets of missionaries. A total of 7 teams=14 missionaries. District meetings are always a whoot. The newest senior couple is just funny as all get out. They're from Mapleton Utah! Small world. Our district is probably the largest in the mission! We also have the most experience with the age and wisdom of the senior couples! It's been a great experience for me working with senior couples, and it's a lot different than just regular missionaries.

Zone Conference is this week. I have a deep love for my President Clements. I stand by him 100%! Twin Ports ward is hosting the Zone Conference. It will be interesting on Thursday because other missionaries will be coming around the zone to stay at our apartment. We''ll probably have 2 sets of missionaries with us. Elder Olaveson and I plan to treat them well with a good breakfast in the morning.

Hope all is well! Love ya’ll! Tanner's last email will be next week! Crazy!

Love,

Elder Browning