Headed to the West Coast (of the mission)

well you probably should've guessed that we have transfers coming up this coming week and I unfortunately am getting transferred. I'm honestly super bummed about leaving this area. it's has been a real treat being able to serve in this stake. the members here are awesome and the work here is great. don' worry though, i'll be back up for the baptism we have this saturday. i;m going back to idaho falls and covering part of the ammon west stake and back in a walking area, so all is good there.

this week was pretty good. we taught our investigators monday night the plan of salvation and he loved it. he agreed to everything and is progressing super well. later that night we had family home evening lesson with the woodhouses and the smiths who are a part member family and taught them about enduring to the end. it was a good lesson.

we found a new investigator on thursday and he's 11 years old. his mother is less active and wants to come back to church but it's hard for her because she has no commitment. it'll be a long process but she's working on it slowly but surely. we also had to help one of our members 

in the stake make a student council video for her campaign.

other than that, all is well here in zion. thanks for all you do! the church is true.

elder browning

elder taokotai is leaving for home tomorrow

pig farming

good lookin' out for us :) 

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

lei se fun

Hey! All is well here in Rigby, we don't have much time today because we've been running around getting some things done. We are in a in another winter weather advisory and supposed to be getting a couple inches of snow later on today.

Our investigators are doing well, we were able to teach all but one this week and their baptism's are all ready for next month as of right now and just hoping that things will continue to go well for them.

We are having a mission broadcast from salt lake and some new changes are coming to the mission. Thanks for all you do! God is good, and Christ loves us all.

Elder Browning

Low Hanging Fruit

So this was hecka crazy! We started off the week by teaching our new investigator, Benjamin and taught him the commandments. He's a super fast learner and knows a lot about everything already so we set a baptismal date with him for january 28th so hope things will turn out good there for him and his family. As we were leaving, the mom gave us a referral for her sister that has a nephew that just moved in from them and wants to take the discussions, so now we're teaching him and taught him the other day and set a baptism date for him on february 11th.

We taught our other two investigators this week and were also to set baptism date with them as well, one for february 25th and the other for february 11th as well. The work is going really good here and the members are awesome. We are meeting with all the yw, primary, and relief society presidents in our stake this week to see what names they have for us to stop by so this week is all filled up with that going on.

Thanks for all you do! The church is true and God is good! Hope y'all have a good week!

Our investigator, Benjamin

Black charcoal masks for smooth skin

<3

#ICE_GANG

Hey fam, how y'all doing? It's been a pretty crazy week here in Idaho. The weather has been played a major role in missionary work. We had to stay in for a few days due to the temperatures being in the negatives. All is well though.

We found a new investigator this week while we were knocking on a door. He is a 9 year old kid and hid mom is a member. She told us that she wants him to be baptized as soon as possible. He even came to church yesterday for his first time. He'll probably get baptized at the end of this month.

Life is good here in the Rigby South Stake. The work is finally starting to pick back up and the members are awesome. We got a booked week with appointment lined up ever single night filled up. Hope you all have a good week. God is Good, the church is true and Jesus Christ loves all his children.

Elder Browning

Splashin' on New Years

Hey hey hey! How is everyone doing? Not too much to report here on this end of the US but we're managing to survive the cold temperatures and the snowy weather. We were able to find a new investigator at one of our dinner appointment this week. His name is Jesse and he's 9 years old. His mother is less active and wanted us to start teaching them them the lessons. We have the first lesson with them this Thursday and hoping things will turn out well/

Other than that, on new years eve, we went to a church building and got together with a bunch of Polynesian families and hung out for a couple hours. We had a 3 on 3 basketball tournament and my team ended up up winning the whole thing and got $10, so that's fun.

We moved apartments this week and we are back in the boundaries of our stake. We live next to a farm and have cows that wake us up every morning, so life is good.

All is well in the Rigby South Stake. Hope y'all have a good week and had a good start to the new year! God is good and the church is true.

PS. Our new address is; 3894 E. 200 N. #2 Rigby, ID 83492

Elder Browning

Reppin' the new jacket.

A Christmas Blizzard

Ayyeee, all is well here in Rigby. This is going to be short email btw, so heads up. We did indeed have a white Christmas and was what everyone wishing for. This is going to be short email btw, so heads up.

This week was trying to see people before they left for the holidays, but we managed to catch a few home and share some scriptures with them about the reason for the season and all that good stuff. It snowed here the last half of the week and on top of that, the winds started to blow in and now we have lots of snow drifts and it's still blowing, hahah. Don't you worry though, we have a Subaru Legacy and has 4 wheel drive (most of the time). We only got stuck once and ended up in someone's yard yesterday since the roads were bad and the snow was way deep, we got 20 minutes later and life is good.

Hope you all had a good Christmas and have a happy new year. The church is true and Christ lives.

Elder Browning

PS> If you are going to send mail in the next week to me, hold off, I may be getting a new address.

Dinner with one of our recent converts

Dinner with the Munn's

A White Christmas

 

YESH

So this week pretty slow. We started off the week by getting strep throat, and that lasted for about a couple days. On Tuesday, we had our Christmas Zone Conference and had a few training and then they did a slideshow and then the talent show. It was a pretty fun day.

We had a giant snowstorm that happened on Friday and it snowed about a foot and then some. Our mission president texted all the missionaries and advised us to stay inside for the day so we ended up having a lesson over the phone with one of our less actives. Then it got really cold and has been ever since.

Our recent convert, Dustyn got the Aaronic Priesthood yesterday and he will be able to pass the sacrament in a couple weeks. It amazing how the gospel can change lives and see the blessings from living it. That's it for this week. Thanks for all you do. Remember to serve 25 ways over 25 days this Christmas season, use the #LIGHTtheWORLD and check out the viseo on mormon.org

2 Nephi 17:14 -  Therefore, the Lord himself shall give you a sign—Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and shall bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.

Elder Browning

Spent the night with the Salmon Elders

Deep in the heart of Rigby

Rigby Rush

T'was a good week in the Rigby South Stake. Yes, we are still contacting those lists with the part member families, prospective elders, and unbaptized children. We are have more and more success with visiting each of the ward council members and seeing who they think we would have the most progress with. 

We had exchanges this week and I was with Elder Pukahi again. We were able to teach a couple lessons and see a few people and make appointments. That night as we were about to go to bed, the power went out. One of the power lines exploded and there was a huge fire. We decided to drive around town and it was dark. The power ended up coming back on a couple hours later just before we were about to freeze to death. All is well

We had stake conference this past weekend and had a general authority and our mission president come to both sessions. One of the talks that were given talked about how being obedient brings us the blessings of heaven. It was probably one of the best conference's I've been to.

Well, that's about it for my week. I love it here in Rigby. I love the people and love the work. The church is true. God loves all his children and Jesus Christ lives. Thanks for all you do! Don't forget to serve 25 ways over 25 days and use #LIGHTtheWORLD and check out the video on mormon.org

Elder Browning

My dude Tobin

The best VC Director, Sister Reed

3 wise men

Snowed like 4 inches that day

Happy December

We started reading the Book of Mormon as a mission again and this time we read one chapter a day so we are able fully 'feast upon the words of Christ'. We were able to finally teach our new investigator this week and taught the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It went really well and she's a really smart 10 year old girl.

We are still contacting our part member family, over age youth and prospective elders lists. One lady we contacted said we could come back. She has a few kids that aren't baptized and hopefully things turn out well. We attended two Christmas parties things week and they both emphasized the #LIGHTtheWORLD video and ways we all can help out doing service this month.

That's all for this week. God is Good. Christ lives and loves every one of his children. Be sure to check out the new Christmas video on mormon.org and use the #LIGHTtheWORLD.

Elder Browning

Decorating at the Woodhouse's

Shoutout to the Green's for taking us out to lunch.

Zone training pic.

Happy Thanksgiving

Que hay de calabazas,

It finally snowed a couple inches here last night so life's good. The week was really slow due to the thanksgiving holiday and it was hard to see a lot of people either because they were out of town or they told us to come back after the holidays. We were able to see a couple people who were home and were able to share a couple messages with them.

Thanksgiving day was good. We had 3 dinner appts. and they're was a lot of food. We got a lot of left overs and now our fridge is full of meals for the week. We also played football that morning and about 40 people showed up to play and it was a blast.

This morning, as a mission we were able to finish the Book of Mormon and were to put Moroni's promise to the test. 

3- Behold, I would exhort you that when ye shall read these things, if it be wisdom in God that ye should read them, that ye would remember how merciful the Lord hath been unto the children of men, from the creation of Adam even down until the time that ye shall receive these things, and ponder it in your hearts.

4- And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost.

5 -And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things.

God answers all payers, in his own time and in his way, but he does answer them. That's all I've got for this week. Thanks for all the prayers and support you send this way! God is Good. Christ lives and loves each and every one of us. Check out the new Christmas video on mormon.org and use #LIGHTtheWORLD

Elder Browning