7 months and a dog named Rupert

Cross another week off the calendar. Today, I have been out for 7 months and the time does really fly by! I remember when I first got to the mission home and thought that the mission was never going to go by this fast. Anyways, so this week was alright. We are still struggling to find new investigators. We are still teaching a lot of people that need to be baptize, it would be awesome to teach more! We had district meeting on Wednesday and talked a lot on Charity being the pure love of Christ. It's hard being in a district where there are only 4 people and two of them are the zone leaders. But, we make it work. We rode bike a lot this week contacting a lot of the referrals we had. It's super warm here in Idaho Falls, so that's a bonus. We watched the restoration video twice in a row on Tuesday with some of the less active families we are teaching. They both enjoyed the video and felt the spirit super strong during the lesson we have with them. Yesterday was good. We had a lot of church, as usual and had a couple of lessons that went super good.

Quick story about yesterday. So we kinda have a backyard in the apartments we live in and we are on the bottom floor. The guy above us has a pug that he is super rude to. The dogs name is Rupert and when we opened our back door yesterday, Rupert came down and chilled with us because he doesn't like his owner. The dog loves Elder Hoffman because he fed him corn dogs. When we got back from dinner last night, we came home and when we opened the back door, Rupert was sitting right by the door waiting for us to come back. Elder Hoffman let him inside our kitchen, hahah. So that's the funny thing that happened this week. 

Thank you for everything you do and hope that everyone has a good week! God is Good! 

 Te amo! 

Elder Browning

 

 Rupert in our kitchen

1 Corinthians 11:11

    Well this week sucked. I caught the flu on Tuesday afternoon and was in bed until Friday morning. My companion went on splits with people and taught a couple lessons. We did go to Chick fil a and we ran into Sister Heather Ball and her mother, Sister Peterson. It was good to see them and they were super happy to see us.
     A random couple came up to us and each gave us 5$, which is super good for a missionary because any amount of money is good for us.
     When I thought that I was all better from the flu, I woke up Saturday morning with pink eye. Both of my eyes have been super red since Thursday and everybody thinks that I'm doing drugs.
     We had a baptism on Saturday morning for a less active family who are now coming back to church.
      Yesterday we taught the 8 year old primary class and they were crazy but it was fun. We also gave talks in the Rose Park ward and talked about covenants.
     Sorry again that this email is short. I cant thank you enough for all the support that you guys show! Hope that you all have a good week!

 Elder Browning

Sleeping on the couch

Hello everyone. I'll start off by letting you know that I have been sleeping in the living room of our apartment every single night because Elder Hoffman has been snoring so loud! I now know what my mother goes through every night when my dad snores. I woke this morning and my back was in so much pain, haha. This week was not so good. We had most of our appointments cancel on us so we ended up teaching about 3 lessons for the whole week. One of our baptism dates dropped. He is still going to get baptized, but he still needs to finish up some legal things before he does. I had my first district meeting where I was the one in charge. I gave a  couple training's, and so did everyone in the district. At lunch, I saw one of my investigators and she told me that she misses Elder Teokotai and I so much! She  is going to invite us to her wedding because she wants us to be there.

I went on exchanges with elder green and we taught a couple of lessons. We had dinner with a single lady and she was from Hawaii. It was like I was eating with Grandma Josie because she was crazy like her. She made us have ice cream topped with potato chips. It was alright but elder green liked it, so it made her happy. Yesterday, we spent 9 hours at church. We had a lot of meetings and 2 missionary farewells to attend. I was a very tiring week! I think that's all for this week. Sorry I didn't have much to say! I love you all and if you could please pray for us that we may find some new investigators to teach! God is Good! 

   Te amo, 

      Elder Browning

 ​Here is your 6 1/2 month mark photo.

BBB

Hello everyone! This week went by way faster than we expected! We spent the majority of the week teaching people at the visitors center. We even watched the 63 minute Restoration video three times and got better every time we watched it. Two of our investigators that we showed the video to, both cried because of the spirit testifying of true restoration of this gospel. If you haven't seen the 63 version of the restoration, I recommend that you watch it! 

   We had Zone Training with the new zone and all I can say is that this zone is 10x better than my last zone back in Rigby. We are all so close together and we all get along super well. Last Monday, we got together as a zone and played basketball, volleyball, and gator ball. There were about 25 missionaries at the stake center and it was really fun. 

   We had dinner with Ron Fisher and he took us out to a barbecue place and the ribs they had were really good. Not as good as Portillo's though, haha. We went to a pot luck for one of our wards and about 10 people showed up. It was sad because everyone said they would come, but oh well. 

   We had our usual Chick-fil-a lunch appointment with the Spanish elders and some kind lady paid for our meal. 

   We have a baptism coming up on the 20th of February and this guy is ready. He's been baptized in 7 different churches and said he has felt nothing all those times. He is wanting to actually feel something and I know that this is the true church. 

   The Superbowl was yesterday and unfortunately we didn't get to watch it. It was a slow night but we did teach about 3 lessons. 

   Today, Elder Hoffman and I are going to get ukuleles and one of the Spanish elders is going to teach us how to play. We have our first district meeting this Wednesday and with me being the district leader, I will be taking care of things, haha. 

   I think that is all for this week! I hope with the new ward/boundary change back in my stake, that this will be a blessing for all! You are all the best! Thanks for all you do! God is Good

    Elder Browning

 ​P-Day napping with the ginger.

 With the Zone Leaders. (This is my whole district).

Walking home in the cold, dark night.

Muy Loco

Hey everyone! I cant believe its February already and that I've been out for 6 months! Time has been going by so fast. I'm now in the Idaho Falls Central Stake and its a lot different from Ririe. There are so many people compared to my last area, we don't have a car so we have walk everywhere. This week has also been super stressful because my companion doesn't really know the area so its hard to go places when we don't know where to go, but we are starting to learn the area things are going a lot better.

 Well, the fist two days of this past week, we spent them packing and saying our goodbyes to everyone. Elders Schaerr and Latu came up and spent Monday night with us to chill while they also helped us pack. We played basketball with all the youth Monday afternoon and then we went to the Coles to hang. We were all up super late that night trying to get everything in 2 suitcases. 

     When Wednesday came, we went to the transfer spot and I made my way to Idaho Falls. We had a transfer meeting with the IF zone and this zone is way better than our zone in Rigby. There are a lot of really good missionaries and everyone is ready to do the Lords work. On Wednesday night, we went to the IF Visitors Center and I got to do my first baptismal interview. I got to do the interviews for a family of four and they all got baptized on this last Saturday. 

     Friday, we met with one of our investigators and taught him the law of tithing and the low of chastity. He is getting baptized on February 20th and he couldn't be more ready. That afternoon we had another lesson with family of four who are all non-members at the Visitors Center. The lesson we had was super spiritual. That night we had permission to go back to Ririe and see of of our investigators we taught get baptized. It was such humbling experiencing to see how far Jay has come and now making the covenant to be baptized. 

     Sunday was a slow day the ward we went to was super small. We did get to speak during third hour of one of the wards about member-missionary work. For dinner we ate with a really cool young returned missionary couple. Oh I forgot to mention, we have the Spanish elders living in our apartment and they are super funny. They teach us Spanish here and there so its fun. 

     That is all for this week! Thank you so far all the love and support you give. 

Until next week! God is Good! 

    Elder Browning

 (Click on any image to enlarge)

Orange Leaf Shots