Short and Sweet

Aug 15, 2011


Hey Family,

I just talked to you a couple of days ago! But a lot has gone on in the last couple of days. We had a successful week and a busy one as well. We're starting to teach more and fill our schedule which is fantastic news for the Hudson area. Also we set a baptismal date with our investigator Harvey! It happened last night and it was amazing.

Harvey is a African that speaks French. He's been looking for the truth for some time. The light of Christ speaks volumes with his character, and i have always been a fan of this guy. He hasn't been to church yet, but we had a really good Joint Teacher at the last appointment. So hopefully that will solve his fears for coming to church or at least be able to break the barrier. We also picked up 3 new investigators. Gene and Barb are an older couple, probably 50's, but they know God sent us to their door step. We found them through the area book. Missionaries in the past have taught them, but due to miscommunication, they were dropped for no good reason. They're going through a hard time right now and we testified boldly that this gospel was for them.

We've also been working with a part member family, the Albright family. It's hard to see broken families, for it truly takes a toll on the kids and their behaviors. The kids were pretty grumpy. Josh and Christian, two teenage boys 14 and 13 had really no interest talking about God. We spent some good time just relating with them. Josh really likes NBA basketball, so as you know i was all over that topic. And Christian really likes Halo, so i was over that discussion as well. It really helped them soften up and listen. I think they have our trust now.

Well Zone Conference is this week. We'll be training the missionaries in our zone. We also made a zone logo! I'll send it too you.

Well family sorry this is short. I keep praying for all of you. I wish Carly Boyce the best! I can't believe Jordan is engaged. I have the best cousins and it's sad to see them fly away with their soul mates. Sigh..it must come.

Scripture Matt 22:35-40

Love,

Elder Browning

Busy as a Bee

Aug 11, 2011


Hey Family

Sorry for the late email. Elder Horgmo and I have been running all over the place! It feels great to be as busy as we are, however every missionary needs a day to rest. We had ZLC this last monday which was amazing. Then on Tuesday we helped a companionship in Chippewa Falls. We've burned a lot of miles the last 3 days.

Zone Leader Conference was wonderful. It was all about the relationship of the district leaders and zone leaders. We've figured out a big hole in our mission--we haven't been using our district leaders to their fullest potential. It was very helpful and useful training meeting. President Clements is a very smart man and is definitely qualified for the position. He has a style that i love and gets straight to the point. I understand his style more than President Howell's. Zone leader conference is pretty intense. There are so many good missionaries and i look up to a lot of them.

We then went to Chippewa Falls and helped a struggling companionship. We saw so many miracles. It was just a hard knock door day but we saw progress in their area. The Chippewa Falls elders were grateful for the help and encouragement. It has been a special treat to be able to help missionaries. I have a strong testimony of exchanges and strengthening missionaries. The Chippewa Falls elders had hope after our exchange which was cool because they were really down in the tubes before.

Haha funny side note, when i was on the exchange we got in a huge Bible bash. Now i usually don't try to accelerate these conversations but after talking to people all day, and feeling very bold we told her how it is. I felt like the missionaries in the Book of Mormon battling with the unbelievers. I felt the power and authority and we had no fear. It was a stubborn lady that believes the Bible is all we need. We basically told her she's limiting God to the Bible. I'm so grateful for the restored gospel because these people have no idea what true doctrine really is. We have the truth! We spent a good hour in a heated dicussion. I'll try not to do it again, but sometimes you have to defend the faith. =)

We had a cool Zone activity. Right after our district meeting we had a conference call with the whole entire zone in prayer. After the prayer we went out has districts to work in one area - 3 districts 3 areas. It helped with the zone unity and it helped build faith. It has felt great not to work in our area. The Lord has still blessed us despite out efforts in our own area.

The work in Hudson is going great. We've seen a lot of small miracles which has given Elder Horgmo and I hope. About two weeks ago we really lost all of our investigators, but the past week we've picked up 4 new investigators! The Lord will bless his servants if they do the simple things, stay obedient and find. Why is that? Because those are things we can control. Things we can't control,for example, we can't control our investigators coming to church. They have their freedom to choose. The Lord will bless us and make a way though for it to happen.

Hey one cool side note about our latest investigator (Mike). We had a chapel tour with him Monday. Mike was a referral from Sister Crowski in the Virgina ward. The cool thing here is Elder Horgmo served in the Virgina ward for 7 1/2 months. Once sister Crowski knew elder Horgmo would be my companion she knew it was a sign from God and she had to introduce the missionaries to Mike. Cool details that the Lord is obviously over. The church tour went well. He's a super awesome guy that needs the gospel. Sis Crowski came all the way from Virgina (3hours away) to fellowship. Member referrals are always the most promising.

Another Investigator we picked up this last week her name is Amber. She has a two kids and had tons of questions about the after life. We taught her the plan of salvation and how families can be together forever. We tied in the Restoration and gave her a Book of Mormon. I love teaching people who have a real desire to learn truth.

Just last night we had a crazy experience with one of our investigators Roxane. She's been dealing with health challenges and actually she received 3rd degree burns on her legs from lawn chemicals. We talked to her a couple times throughout the day and as the day went on she got more and more sick over the phone. As we showed up, a man next door told us an ambulance came and picked her up 20 minutes before we arrived. Thinking we had come too late to help we thought to visit her in the hospital and give her a blessing. We did, and she was so grateful to see us. Her husband had no idea what was going on due to work, and she really had no support or help. I was able to give her a blessing and it was a powerful experience. President Squire (stake presidency) was with us also.

I love you family! Thanks for the pictures of Julia. I'm keeping her and the family in my prayers. I'll be writting you soon!

Scripture 1 nephi 6: 4-6

Love,

Elder Browning

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

Hot, Humid =Horrible

Jul 25, 2011

Hey Family,

This week was probably the worst week I've had in the Hudson area. Well it's on my top 5 worst weeks on the mission. The weather had no mercy, we suffered greatly, and of course we tracted like mad dogs the entire week. That's how it always works out i guess. The Lord must try our faith. Our teaching pool has shrunk to a tiny teaching pool. What happened? We're still trying to find out what happened. So this week we really had no fruit so this letter might be a short one.

As i said before, our teaching pool is small. We have 1 progressing investigator and 5 others to consider investigators. Yikes, this means tracting in the hottest month of the year- yippee. We move on to those who have a sincere desire to improve their life and come to Christ. Tim and Roxane (investigators) invited us to have dinner at their house. They then showed us a 2 hour sermon of their pastor. I'm not sure if they're trying convert us or what. Tim and Roxane are the sweetest people you'll ever meet, and both have degrees to be ministers. But we will move on if they don't keep commitments.

One good result from our 20 hours of trackting in the hot weather was a potential guy named Denise. He's confused about all of the different christian religions and it makes sense that there would be only 1 christian church. Denise's biggest hang up is why bad things happen to good people so we whipped out the plan of salvation and gave him a bigger picture to look at. Denise liked the idea and said he would pray and read the Book of Mormon.

We're also meeting with Brother Dixen's mother and giving her a church tour. It's amazing to see this family grow in the gospel. Brother Dixen joined a year ago and now is working on his mother. Can i tell you its all about the members! We can't do anything as missionaries. Our best resources as a missionary are #1 the Spirit, #2 the Book of Mormon, #3 the Members, and #4 Technology. This makes a lot of sense because we tracted our hearts out the last week with very little success. A couple nights ago i was wondering if we were doing something wrong and that the Lord was holding blessing from us because we lacked in a certain category. I know the Lord will bless us for our efforts, but the days sure do seem discouraging when you have an empty planner which forces you to tract all day everyday.

We went golfing again today. I really enjoy golf! I still have a lot of work before i get to be an average golfer but something is relaxing about the sport. I'll be starting this up when i get home.=) We're also getting a new car on Wednesday! Right now we have a 2009 mazda 3, and we are pretty excited!

Well family i love ya, and i told you this email would be short and sweet. Wish me luck in the heat. I got Carly's wedding annoucement last Saturday. Crazy!

Love,
Elder Browning

Another Great Week!

Jul 18, 2011

Hey Family,

Despite the extremely hot weather, this week has been another eye opener. Josh Hudson was baptized yesterday and confirmed. Then i was able to attend the temple for another sealing. This makes it two times in 2 weeks - not a lot of missionaries get that luxury. It actually has been really nice being so close to the St Paul Temple. It approximately takes us 20 minutes to get there.

Josh Hudson has entered the waters of baptism. Elder Bowen baptized him and i had the privilege of giving him the Holy Ghost. Being on the mission i have learned the importance of the Holy Ghost and how real and sensitive it really is. It was extra neat because the Hudson Family is a broken family. Sister Hudson's husband past away years ago, and she has 3 kids at home with Josh being the oldest. Can i tell you this is wonderful news for them? They will soon have a priesthood holder in their home. The Hudson family was baptized a couple years back but it took Josh a while to make the commitment. He finally did and what a wonderful sight it was. As i confirmed Josh a member i promised him that if he stayed true to his covenant he would be an example for his family and help take care of them with the priesthood. I was really drained after the confirmation/blessing because i tried my best to be in tune with the Lord and exerted all my energy to say what the Lord wanted.

Also I was able to see the Weaver's get sealed. They're an older couple that Elder Bowen reactivated a year ago. My Testimony of the temple continues to become more refined.

This last week we were in our own area for a total of 3 days. Where have we been? We've been working with other missionaries in our zone. Elder Bowen and I are really big fans of blitzing other areas and sacrificing our own time in helping other missionaries. It's a great opportunity to get to know the missionaries in our zone which allows us to help them and their personal development in becoming more excellent servants for the Lord. We usually spend the night and go on a mini exchange or split and work in their area and then have PPI's. I have really learned to love other missionaries. We're all in this together and i've been able to make some great friends in the process. Because we're also on the road, we eat out a lot. I'm not going to complain here, but it's pretty hard to not go broke in the last two weeks of the month. HAHA

The weather has been crazy. Sunday was a hot humid day. It's really hard to describe the feeling of 90% humidity on top of 90 degree weather. Let me just say it's not a comfortable feeling! It feels like I'm in the amazon jungle over here, and I'm definitely not in Idaho. Wednesday we had the biggest thunder storm. Boy the storms are crazy here. Lots of homes had flooded basements. You know how a typical movie has a thunder storm and it just sounds perfect? Yeah it feels like I'm in a movie here with the weather. Right as the thunder sounds the lighting follows then seconds later the rain comes- just like your typical movie.

The last two weeks i've been working on my golfing skills. Now i can't do too much because it's expensive, but i think i'll pick up this sport when i come home. Grandpa Eliason has always had an influence on me!

The basketball hoop looks legit! I hope you guys have some good games coming. Remember me in spirit.

Love you family and hope the dry heat treats you better than the humid heat. Pray for me to survive this week. We're doing a bunch of finding this week, which means a lot of door to door contacts and I get to work on my farmers tan =) I'll be drinking lots of water. Alright i just memorized a sweet scripture, Alma 5:7. Check it out!

Love,
Elder Browning

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

Miracle Baptism!

Jul 4, 2011


Hey Family,

Whoa, that's all i can say about this week. I don't know if i have ever seen the Lords hand as much as i have this very week. We had a baptism! Crazy i know and out of the blue. Jon's heart was softened and we were able to baptize him before the month of July. It has been a week of adventure and change. At Zone leader conference we had the chance to meet our new Mission President, President Clements. I know he's been called of God. Oh and i'm over the hump--it's been a YEAR!

Jon's Baptism! To start with the story, Jon was an investigator that has been investigating for about a year now. He's 19 years old and his girl friend is a member of the church. For the longest time we've been trying to get this guy baptized because really, nothing was holding him back. I mean nothing! Jon's so legit he's taking a Book of Mormon class for school and will be attending BYU Idaho in the winter. Elder Bowen and I couldn't figure out why he didn't want to be baptized. We invited him several times in the past, but he always came back with "I didn't receive my answer yet". We then received revelation to teach him about missionary work. Does it seem weird to teach a investigator about this topic? I think not! It was pure revelation from the spirit and something I'll never forget. He pulled us aside and told us he was thinking a lot about that and his girl friend has been thinking about going on a mission. We basically told him that his talents and abilities were needed in the Kingdom of God. And so this last Thursday, Jon decided to be baptized-- the 30th of June! Our mission was also looking for 1 more miracle baptism to reach our goal for 60 baptisms! The whole mission was praying for Jon when we invited him to be baptized on Wednesday. Revelation again, because he told us for some reason that that date felt right. Jon knew he was supposed to be baptized in 22 hours time (3:00 pm Thursday). He accepted and we began to coordinate the baptism in less than a day! The ward was wonderful, members came and supported Jon and his special day.

What was really cool was Jon's parents were able to make it. They are very busy people but the Lord made it happen. Jon's parents are very supportive in his decision to be baptized. Elder Bowen baptized Jon while i had the responsibility of teaching Jon's family and the ward members the restoration lesson in between the actual ordinance and the Holy Ghost talk. As i taught the restoration with Elder Berns, there was a lot of hype in the air because Jon's parents have their own faith and are very strong in that. The members were a little timed i guess you could say in being bold. It was a little more stressful because Jon's family were staring me down sitting on the very very front row. Despite the pressure, Elder Berns and I were able to testify and teach the restoration lesson in 8 minutes. After Jon came in, he was a new person, and he had a new light about him. I look back and i know that the Lord really did give this miracle to us. The bad news it wasn't number 60. We finished with 58 baptisms for the month of June because two baptisms didn't go through. My heart was broken after all the hype and hard work to try and send off President Howell with doubling our baptisms. Oh well, we're going for a repeat for 60 in July.

Jon's confirmation went well the following Sunday. His parents again came and supported his confirmation. Jon's father came up to us and thanked Elder Bowen for the blessing, and then he commented " I think i have something that i can learn here. We'll have to have you boys come over one of these days". Sweet! We would love to teach Jon's parents!

As for other Hudson news, we had a surprise investigator show up at church. His name is Josh and the missionaries taught him before in the past. He's 25 years old and is looking for a church. Haha the Lord blessed us again! He's so legit and he's giving us a ride to St Paul next monday for a specialized training! We haven't even known this guy for a day yet. We believe he'll get baptized.

We met President and Sister Clements @ zone leader conference. We met him his 3rd day in the mission but most missionaries won't meet him till the 11th of July when he tours the mission to meet every missionary. I was blown away by President Clements! His whole way of communication and teaching style is brilliant! He's very similar to President Howell. He's very meek and humble but intelligent enough to draw attention. Everything about him i love! We are in great hands and i can't wait to get to know him more! He's very personal and just has a style about him that i love.

My face is totally sunburned! P-day was great today! Elder Bowen and I were able to go to the Hudson ward party and play some football/softball. We wore normal t -shirts and shorts! It felt good to just have some fun and get some sun shine on my white albino legs. It might take me awhile to recover.

Man you travel a lot being a zone leader. Last week we were only in our area for 4 days, and this week looks similar. We'll be going on exchanges with our struggling teams.

Well family i know God performs miracles! I know this is his work and his true living church! Love you all! Stay cool!

Love,
Elder Browning