Sick as a Dog

I hope that everyone had a good Thanksgiving Holiday. As for my companion and I, we had about six dinner appointments and we just ate until we were full. My companion was sick for half of the week. He had food poisoning from a bad "bambino" (its like a calzone). So that kind of put a damper on week but he is better now and we are ready for this week filled with the Lords work!

     Last Monday, we had a little brief meeting in Rigby about our Thanksgiving day. We emailed in the Family History Center there and then we went to lunch at Bambinos. It's a really good little Italian place and when we were paying for our food, a lady jumped in front of us and paid for our meal! #blessed. We spent the day with the Rigby south elders; Elder Harris and Anderson. We went to Rexburg and went to the DI to drop of the crap that Elder Franks left in the house. We went back to Rigby and played basketball for the rest of p-day. We went to dinner at the Grover's house and spent the rest of the night there. They have 3 kids who LOVE missionaries. We played games and just hung out. It was really fun. They have a little puppy who looks like little baby Butters! He was so cute!

     On Tuesday, my companion was sick so, he just slept for the most of the day. I cleaned up a little bit around the house. We went to meet with Bishop Peterson of the 2nd ward to go over the ward directory to see who's where in the ward. After that, we went to play basketball with one of our investigators but he didn't show up until we had to go home.

     Wednesday, we had district meeting up in Swan Valley. We talked about goal setting again, and I gave a training on "Simplifying". As of right now as a district, we have 5 baptism dates! After our district meeting, we went to the local diner and had lunch with the Thane Elders. Since nobody was home because of the holiday and our dinner appt and lesson cancelled, our Ward Mission leader told us to go home. We had dinner at the Grover's again and we played games, and hung out with their family.

   THANKSGIVING! Like I sad in the beginning of this email we had about 6 dinner appointments. In the morning, we went to the Young's home early and their 15 yr. old son wanted us to play games with him and his sisters. We played "Egyptian Rad Slap" for about an hour and then we feasted! It was really good. We then went to the Call's for another dinner. Sister Call made me some pumpkin rolls just for her and Bro. Call was a little mad at her because she didn't make any for him, haha. Next we went to Bishop Peterson's in the Clark Ward and they gave us some banana cream pie to take home. We went to our ward mission leader, Bro Cox and also we had some more pie. Finally, we went to Bishop Miller's of the Perry ward and gave us yet more pie. Later that night, we went to the Rigby stake center to hang out as a zone. We played a big game of capture the flag throughout the whole church and that was fun. Our team won so the others didn't want to play anymore. We finished the night by playing volleyball with some members.

     BLACK FRIDAY! Unfortunately, we did not do any Black Friday shopping. We went to Bishop Miller's house to go over his ward directory with him. He has a lot of less actives in his ward but has a good WML and good ward missionaries that are doing their best to bring them back. We shoveled a lot of driveways because we got tons of snow Thanksgiving morning. We had dinner at the Mabey's again and they made us breakfast! We had pumpkin chocolate chip pancakes. We went to the Cole's for the rest of the night and their daughter, Carly, is finally back from Ecuador. (and she came back engaged!)  It was fun catching up on things. She showed us a song on YouTube and its called "A Christmas Hallelujah". I encourage all of you to listen to it!

     Saturday, We just contacted 3 referrals and had dinner at the Darrington's. We watched "kid history" with her kids, haha. We had a lesson with Jack he asked us some really good questions. The lesson went good and have another one this coming Saturday!

     Yesterday, we went to the Clark Ward for my first time since I've been here. We went to the Perry Ward hoping that one of our investigators would be there, but she wasn't. We went to the YSA ward and they were all so happy to see us there again! We had dinner at the Wilson's and our lesson with Jakob got canceled so we went to visit some less-active people. We told them to check out the new LDS Christmas video that they just put out and you should all check it out too! Its a real tear jerker!

     Today we are up in Afton, WY again and we are hanging out as a district. We are going to Pizza Hut for lunch, bowling and then the Afton sisters are making us dinner!

    Well everyone, thanks for all you do and hope that as we celebrate this upcoming Christmas season, we will remember the real reason. I love you all and hope that you all have a good week! If you can do a favor and especially pray for my brother Logan. He is having the same issues I was dealing with, haha. Are the Browning boys that bad to train? hahha just kidding. Thanks again. You're the best!

                                               Elder Browning

 Little Baby Butters (His name is Turk)

 

 Big Papi Schaerr and Sister Clift -  straight thuggin.

 Our Sister Training Leader gave us this for a Thanksgiving gift.

 Sister Call's famous pumpkin roll

 Saturday Sunset

 Sunday Sunset

Casting out the Devil

Hello everyone! This week was probably the busiest week in the mission so far! We ended up contacting and finding about 5 referrals, finding 2 new investigators, and setting a baptismal date! My companion and I work so well together and can feel the spirit so string as we do the Lords work!

     Last Monday, my companion and I went to Idaho Falls and we did a lot of shopping! We went to the mall, target, cabelas, office max, winco, walmart and the thrift store. It was really busy day and we both bought matching comp ties and comp socks. We also bought some matching Christmas ties that we will wear on Christmas day! Ron Fisher took us out to Freddies and boy was it so good! We went to the Thancker's house for a FHE lesson and we got one new investigator. After the Thacker's, we went to the Young's and had another FHE lesson and they invited us over for Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday! We are really excited!

     On Tuesday, I was on exchanges with Elder McTavish and we were in Ririe for the day. We had 20 referrals that he wanted to contact but we ended up just seeing some less active people and taught a couple lessons here and there. That night, we went to the Perry ward and we played beach volleyball with on of our investigators, Dally and she really had a lot of fun. So as we were about to exchange back, we got a call from elder welling and told us that someone in Ririe was literally possessed by the devil, no joke. So us 4 missionaries went to the house and gave her a priesthood blessing a blessed the house. It was a crazy experience that I'll never forget, haha.

     Wednesday we had our district meeting down in swan valley. It was super fun because elder franks was not there. All of the missionaries in our district could tell that I was having a better time with my new companion. Elder Schaerr and I were on splits in Swan valley. We went to lunch and played pool, haha. We visited a couple of people and that night, we taught 2 lessons with another investigator we had. It was a good day!

     Thursday, my companion had to go to Idaho falls because of a meeting we had. So I was on exchanges again with Elder Anderson. He's a little bit on the awkward side but we got a lot of stuff done. It ended up snowing like 4 inches that day so we did a lot of shoveling for people and was my first snow storm! We had a lesson with yet another investigator name Ale. The lesson went really good and we have another lesson with her this coming Saturday. Later that night, guess what? We taught another investigator named jack! HE is super cool and at the end of the lesson, I set a date with him for December 12 at 2pm! One of the youth in the 2nd ward went with us, Eric Peterson and he is probably the funnest kid I've ever met!

   On Friday, we helped out at the senior center. My companion and I made lunch the house and it was super good. We played basketball with Tristan Cole's was a lot of fun. He is planning to turn in his papers in the early spring. For dinner, we had dinner in a pumpkin and was strange but good. It had rice, beef, carrots and peppers in it. Later that night, we helped put up drywall at someones house.

     Saturday we cleaned the house and threw a lot of Elder Franks stuff that he left behind away. We contacted 3 referrals and also received 2. We had dinner at the Gunderson's and she is like our missionary mom here in Ririe and she'll get whatever we need and she loves the missionaries! Later that night, wee helped out a non members house put in a bathroom floor. She literally made us watch the college football game that was on their t.v. because she doesn't really know the rules of us missionaries.

    Sunday was a sunny beautiful Sabbath day. We went to the 3rd Ward for the first time I've been here. We also went to the Perry ward an a elder who just got home gave in homecoming talk! His dad told me he has sister who lives in Naperville! So if anyone of you who knows a 'Marlis Moon" who lives in the Naperville area, please let me know! We had another lesson later that night with jack again and he is progression really well! 

  Well, this week was really busy for my companion and I and i hope it stays this busy! Thank you for all the support you not only give me but also my brother in Brazilian also my family. May you all have a great thanksgiving and hope that you get some good deals on black Friday! God is good! I love you all and until next time!

                                                      Elder Browning

 

Companionship Unity

Elder Wellington - Zone Leader

 

 

New and Improved Star Valley District

Cooking Up a Storm

 Swan Valley Sunset

A New Zealand Companion

   HELLO EVERYONE! I want to thank you all for the prayers this past week because Elder Franks is finally gone and I couldn't be happier and I have a new companion! His name is Elder Teokotai and he is from New Zealand. When he got off the transfer train, I knew right away that we were going to get along and have some fun! (and do the Lords work of course). This week has been really busy with transfers and new companions. Its starting to get really cold here and today the mission president called us to remind us to be safe as we drive on the roads today since we are supposed to be getting big snow storm. It's gonna be legit! Let me give you a run down of what my week was filled with.

     So last Monday we had to go to Rigby because my companion didn't want to go to Rexburg because all he wanted to to was pack. We went to Big Judd's for lunch with a couple of other missionaries. Like I said, we had to end P-day early because he wanted to go home and pack which he didn't end up doing. But, we did go to the Lords house for dinner and had to help Lynzee decorate a paper turkey for one of her classes at school. Me and brother Lords just watched the football game haha, while sister lords and my companion helped Lynzee.

     Tuesday was so nice because we dint do anything because my companion literally spent the whole day packing. So what did I do? I took advantage of that time to catch up on my sleep. It was very much needed. We had Los Albertos for lunch with Tristan Coles. My companion went to visit a couple of families before he left the next day. That night, we had our Missionary Fireside and it couldn't of been and better. About 40 youth showed up from the stake and we divided them up into companionship and had them teach investigators. Everyone had so much fun and they want to do it 3 times a year now since they loved it. At the end of fireside we showed a couple of videos on missionary work and 2 returned missionaries bore their testimonies on their missions and it was a huge success. So while I was in Rigby last Sunday we stopped to see this little Spanish family and we talked with a 13 year old girl in the family. I got a phone call from the zone leaders on Tuesday night and said that the girl that we saw kept asking where I was and and she told the zone leader that she had a crush on me! Flirt to Covert I guess. Haha!

     Wednesday was the day I have been waiting for, for a long time. It was Transfer day! Elder Franks is gone! MY new companion is super chill and is literally the best. We got all of his stuff and did a little shopping at Broulims and then headed to the Coles to hang out with them. We went to the Bowers as well to introduce them to my new companion. We went home so he could unpack. Then we drove to Palisades and ended up going to Thane because he had to do a baptismal interview. We got back to Palisades and taught one of the members in the valley who wanted the discussions again. We taught him the restoration and he enjoyed it very much.

     Thursday we did weekly planning and it was actually fun this time. We had lunch at Los Albertos with the zone leaders and then they switched cars with us because we need a 4 wheel drive when we go up to swan valley. We had dinner at Dan Fergusens again he cooked us 'pine hen' that he killed that morning. They tasted like the chicken nuggets that Lynda Clark make. The Jorgensens invited us over for cake and ice cream because it was one of their kids birthday. We went over to the Calls and played a couple games of ping pong which my companion is really good at. He beat Brother call 6 games to 1.

     Friday we just help Vanessa finally burn that giant pile of sticks in her yard. We had 2 dinners that night and I'm pretty sure that I gained about 10 pounds haha
     Saturday was Sy's baptism and it was perfect! Everything went super good and elder franks even came up which no one seemed happy to see him. We went to Los Albertos for lunch with Tristan and Sister Coles. We then went over to their house to rake leaves and burn some trash they had in their yard. We had dinner with Bishop Sutton in the 1st ward and he took us to Chick-fil-a in Idaho Falls and man it was so crowded!

     Sunday we gave talks in the Shelton ward and I gave mine on " How can we have the Holy Ghost as a constant companion". It was a good talk and everyone seemed to enjoy it. We visited the Kauers later that afternoon and gave them a quick lesson. We went over to the Thackers and watched a quick video on missionary work for their 3 boys who are planning and preparing to serve missions. We then went to the Coles for the rest of the night and talked about scriptures.

    Well, that sums about my whole week! I hope you enjoy this one and cannot express all the love and support you show for me each and every week! I love you all and we''ll talk to you next week! God is Good!

                                                         Elder Browning

 Sy's Baptism

 Me and my buddy Brady

 Another sweet sunset in Ririe

 Elder Horne and I. He was in Rigby for 6 months and is going to Blackfoot to be a zone leader.

 Cool Ririe sunset on Thurday night.

 Playing ping pong at the Calls house

Happy Transfer Week!

Happy Transfer week everyone! This week was another stressful one. Just as I thought that everything was fine between the both of us, my companion freaked out on me a couple days ago about the dumbest thing!

     So on Monday, we went to Rexburg and it rained all day and was very cold and wet. We ended up spending most of the day with another companionship, which was fun because they were super cool! We actually did a lot of shopping at different stores because my companion was looking for a coffee supplement. (Don't ask!) We went to contact a referral and they are less active. They wanted us to come by this Thursday and start the discussions with him and his wife. He wants to gain back his testimony again and start coming back to church!

     Tuesday was also very wet and cold. It even snowed a little but wasn't enough to stick. We did a lot of contacting on our referral list. Most of them weren't home but we did stop but one lady's house and we were there for an hour talking on her door step in the freezing cold because she wouldn't stop talking! But she was very nice and she wasn't interested. For dinner, we went to our stake presidents house, President Foster. His brother, Bradley Foster is in the quorum of the 70 and he spoke at this last general conference. We stopped by one of our potential investigators house and she is a foreign exchange student from Germany. Her name is Bella and we are going to give her a German Book of Mormon.

     On Wednesday, we went to Palisades in the morning and we went to see a couple of people. We visited a non member and we talked for a while and she wants to check out the Book of Mormon so we are going to see this week if she got around to it. We went on visits with the old ward mission leader and saw the Sargent's who the mom is a member but her daughter is not. We had a very good visit with them and are going back to visit this Wednesday. We had dinner at the Hollands (part member family). We taught their daughter the first discussion and have a return appointment this Wednesday for the second lesson!

     Thursday we had zone training in Rigby and it was very long but good things were taught by the zone leader and sister training leaders. After zone training, we went to the family history center and I finished my mormon.org profile and you should all check it out! We had dinner at a young couple house and they were super big into hunting. They showed us some of their hunting videos. After dinner, we headed back up to Palisades because we were doing exchanges and I went up to Thane, WY with Elder Vogt. While we were driving up there, it snowed really bad and Thane got 2 feet of snow!

     Friday, Elder Vogt and I went to go visit some of the people in his area. We spent most of the time in the Star Valley Ranch and we gave 2 priesthood blessings to people who were sick. We did a service project splitting wood for a guys who just had surgery on his knee. I had to stay in Thane again for another night because my companion had to do a baptismal interview for a girl that was getting baptized on Saturday. We had transfers calls and i'm staying in Ririe and getting a new companion and my companion is going to Pocatello.

     On Saturday, the interview was supposed to be at 8am but the girl ended up going missing and we didn't know where she was. We eventually found her, did the interview and then headed back to Ririe. We had to help Sister Cole's rake her leaves in her gigantic yard. It was a lot of leaves but also a lot of fun because her whole family helped and was super fun! We had dinner at Dan Fergeson's house and he made us potatoes, salmon, corn and elk steak. Dan is the hunting king and had killed every animal you can think of. We spent the rest of the night at the Lords reading some scriptures. While we were driving home that to go home, I accidentally spilt some food on the car floor and my companion flipped out on me, was slamming the doors, and was swearing at me. He told me to never talk to him again and so he called the zone leaders they met me  at like 11:30 that night and I went to Rigby for an "emergency exchange". 

    So on Sunday I spent the day with Elder McTavish and was super fun. They're are so many good people in Rigby. In the afternoon, we went on visits with Elder Scotty Sincere (he served here in Rigby for 10 1/2 months). It was so fun and he was super cool! Elder Sincere has the record for the most baptisms in this mission and that number is 65.

    Well, I hope that you enjoy this one! I'm excited to be getting a new companion and hope that he is super chill but loves to work! Thank you all for all the prayers in my behalf! I know that Lord is always with us and he is just one prayer away! Until next time!

                                                                         Elder Browning

If you are sending mail. Send it to the Ririe address until December 18th.  PO Box 152, 378 2nd West Street, Ririe, ID  83443

 7 by 6 point Elk

Snow in Thane, WY

Dinner at Dan's

A long 3 months!!!

Hey everyone! I cant believe its been already 3 months! Its been hard, but I know that the Lord has blessed me for making it this far! This week was filled with Halloween parties and a lot of service!

  Last Monday, we were in Rexburg we went to "Port of Subs" for lunch where we got some coupons form a member at a dinner one night. While we were waiting for our food, I saw Liza King, as you saw the pic in my blog. She was a bout to give me a big hug but I quickly greeted her with a handshake and she was confused at first but then she realized that I was a missionary and she couldn't give hugs, haha! It was nice talking with her. We went to Walmart and we saw our neighbor, Sister Bowers and she insisted that she paid for our groceries! While we were shopping, a missionary mom whose son is serving a mission, loves missionaries and gave us both hugs! We had to help Sister Bowers take her groceries out to her car. When we were about to leave, she gave us $15 each for dinner. So with the money she gave us, we went to Wendy's with eh zone leaders and had dinner! We went to the Lords later that night and we read scriptures with them.

  On Tuesday, we overslept and so my companion got mad a t me because he said it was my fault. The alarm didn't go off. We had our final lesson with Sy and it went very good. We went to the library to make his baptismal programs.After that, we went to hang out with Sister Bowers and the kids that she babysits. We had to go to Idaho Falls because I had a doctors appt. We went to the Lords house again and we watched Bible videos until we had to go home. 

  Wednesday we had district meeting in the morning in Palisades. It was our last district meeting because we have zone training this week and transfers on November 11th! During district meeting, we talked about goal setting with the people we have dates with. As a whole zone, we have 39 baptismal dates and baptisms. The zone goal is 89 by next week and I don't know if we will accomplish it, but we certainly will try! Absolutely nobody was home and so we went to the bishops house to print off a map of the swan valley area. We saw an old lady who just turned 94 years old! She is a member but her daughter is not. The daughter name is Susan and she has 9 cats and 4 raccoons. We taught Susan the restoration and challenged her to read and pray about the Book of Mormon. She said that she would do it and we are going to follow up with her this Wednesday. We went on visits with Bro Jacobson and we saw a member whose name was Eric. He wanted us to teach him the lessons again and he is super chill. We went the Hollands house to share a message with them. Her daughter is about 11 years old and we are going to start the discussions with her and her step dad and mom want her to get baptized. Her name is Avi, and she is super shy. We have dinner with them on Wednesday and they live in a really big and super nice house.

  Thursday was my 3 month mark and it honestly been the longest, hardest, most stressful 3 months of my life. Good thing that transfers are next week because i'm ready to hopefully stay in Ririe and lead out the area. Please pray for me that I can get a new companion who I can actually get along with! We did weekly planing and then we had to run to Rigby. We had dinner with the Call family and it was really fun. She bought us pumpkins to carve and I carved mine and it was supposed to be Darth Vader but it ended up looking like and "E-wok". 

  On Friday, we helped Vanessa again trim the rest of her trees and we tried to burn the big pile she had but it was too wet. We probably have to go over there one more time to cut one more tree and burn the wood pile.We went to Sy's house for dinner and we had his famous Italian homemade pizza. It was really good. Sy knows where Plainfield is because he said that there used to be civil war troops that fought there. After dinner, we drove to Menan to help out at an elementary school with a Halloween party they were having. We helped out with the Plinko game, the haunted school bus and the javelin arena. It was really fun and the kids that were there had a good time. 

   Saturday was Halloween and we did some service. We contacted one of our referrals and her name was Cylee. We think she is a member but she is looking at other religions. We helped at the Lords clean their house. We seriously deep cleaned the whole house and their house is super big. We were there for about 3  hours and then we went to Subway to set up an appt for our new investigator and her name is Dally. She is excited to start the lessons. We had dinner with Sister Cole. After dinner we had to go to the Rigby Stake Center because since it was Halloween, we had to be "locked in". We watched the "Cokeville Miracle" and was super good but kinda weird. I recommend watching it! The Thane elders spent the night with us.

  Yesterday a very good testimony meeting. In the Perry ward, Lynzee bore her testimony and it was very cute. My companion was in a pissy mood all day because I told him that he was snoring? We had dinner with one of our WML and after that we hung out at the Cole's foe the rest of the night!

    Thank you all for your prayer that you end my way! As I get in this missionary mood, I am thankful for all you do for me. Some days are hard, but I know that the people who truly care about me, are the ones who will be there with me every step of the way! Until next week I love you all. Please send letters and packages to my address for the mission office! Transfer calls are this Thursday and I don't know if I'm getting transferred or not! Hopefully I stay in Ririe! God is Good!

Elder Browning

 Gigantic Carrot

 Ririe Sunrise

 Star Valley District

 Pumpkin Carving at the Call's

Halloween Pumpkins