happy birth week

 this week was kinda long, we ended up teaching one of our new investigators on monday night and taught him the restoration. he understood everything pretty well and he'd even been carrying the book of mormon around with him in his jacket pocket and been reading it every time he has a chance too. he does have a smoking problem though and he i living with his fiance but they have a wedding date in mind and should be getting married on february 14th. on tuesday was my birthday and it snowed a couple inches so we had a snow day as a mission and since we couldn't drive our cars, we walked to one of our bishops house who just lived a couple miles from where we live and we went tubing on the four-wheeler around their block a couple times until we got cold and then we just hung out around the house. that night, we went to mutual and played 'tennis ball dodge ball'. it was an interesting game and don't think it was a smart idea since there was kids that kept getting hurt.

on wednesday, we had a worldwide missionary broadcast that the apostles and church leaders talked about 'teaching repentance and baptizing converts'. they also changed our missionary schedule so that we are more flexible with our scheduling so that we can stay busy during the slow hours of the day. they also made our preparation days two hours earlier so that we are able to get things done and have time later in the day to email and play sports. it should be a good change but we'll see how things go. that night, we taught two of the three investigators and they are progressing well. they are both getting baptized on february 11th and one of them and his mom came to church yesterday for the first time! on thursday, we had to go to idaho falls for a doctors appt. for my companion. when we got back, we had dinner with one our our ward mission leaders house and ate with a family that used to be in the joliet ward about 8 years ago. it was good to see them. later that night, we went to the stake center and got to play some basketball since one of our less actives was there playing so we got play a couple games with him. 

on saturday, I woke up with strep throat again so we went to the doctors to get medicine and all that good jazz. we tried to see one of our potential investigators but i guess we came too late and told us to come next time a little earlier. later that night, we went to the Farleys who are a recent covert family. we made homemade rootbeer and watched a church movie with them. it was a good night. yesterday we gave talks in the garfield 1st ward and gave mine on personal conversion. everyone seemed to enjoy what we had to say and he are a couple things from that talk.

a quote by sister bonnie l. oscarson, "True conversion occurs as you continue to act upon the doctrines you know are true and keep the commandments, day after day, month after month."

a quote by elder david a. bednar, "Knowing that the gospel is true is the essence of a testimony. Consistently being true to the gospel is the essence of conversion."

well, thanks for all you do! the church is true and by small and simple things, great things are brought to pass. y'all have a good week and see you in six months :)

elder browning

 

Sledding on Tuesday

Our investigators ben and josh

Dinner with the Landermans

making homemade rootbeer