Iona Bound

So to start off this email, you should probably know that I will be getting transferred to the Iona South Stake after serving a total of 5 1/2 months in the wonderful Idaho Falls Central Stake. I can't believe how fast time goes by especially as a missionary. It's been a tough couple months, but I feel like things are only getting much better. I've come to realize that serving a mission is hard, but in the end, it's all worth it. The experiences you have and the friends you make are only the sweet tender memories you will cherish for lifetime. I am super excited that I am getting transferred. It will be another fresh start and getting another companion, learning new faces and teaching more people. My new companion is Elder Martin. He has been serving in that area and on his mission for 6 months. He is from Houston, Texas and is the most polite person I have ever met. It's going to be a good transfer. Iona will be fun. It's a little farming community and everyone says its a lot like Ririe, so i'm excited to have my farming roots back. Here's what happened this past week;

We played softball on Monday with our zone and the Ammon zone. We also played with our recent covert and her friend that is starting to come back to church. It was tons of fun and our recent convert just got her temple recommend and she is planning on going to the temple sometime after September and wants me to go through with her. We helped out at the temple on Wednesday night and sanded the gates since they are getting ready to paint them. We had a couple interviews with the mission president and he told me that I will be staying in the new mission. He said today in an email that his heart is tender that he has to send half of us to the new mission. The new mission president should be really good too. He is from Oregon. We then spent the rest of the week doing a little service around the area and saying goodbye to all the amazing families in the Central Stake. I think that is all for this week! I will let you know of all the new adventures next week! Thank you for all the prayers this past week. God is Good! Oh yeah, happy fathers day to the number 1 dad! 

Love you all,

Elder Browning

P.S. I will send you my new address next week so you all can send me letters. There are more pictures of the families that I am seeing tonight so they will be on next week.

 

 Helping sand the temple gates.

 The Staley Family.

 Our recent convert, Treycin Marsden.

 The amazing java workers.

 The Hart Family.

 The Hebdons.

Stake President and his family, the Stewarts.

Last round with Melba.

 The Wahe Family.

 The Kisleys.

 The Staffords.

 

The Baby Whisperer

 

A Whole New World

Hey everyone! This past week has been crazy and super stressful. We had an unexpected couple of cold days this week which was a nice break from the heat. So here's the scoop.

We finished painting the house we've been working on. They are taking us to go get snow cones tonight. Since school is out now for the summer, we have been focusing on contacting all of the overage youth in the stake. We have a lesson with one of them tomorrow who we have been trying to get ion contact with for the longest time. Our recent convert, Jason called us the other night and told us that he caught his fiance cheating on him and the house that we all have been working on, he's not going to be living there anymore. He surprisingly has a good attitude about the whole thing. On Saturday we had the privilege of having Elder D. Todd Christofferson from the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles come and speak to the whole mission. The majority of the meeting was question and answer that the elders and sisters asked. He is super funny and learned a lot of good things from him. Yesterday, Dominic passed the sacrament for the first time and he did an awesome job. He's moving to Alaska for a long time so it was good that he was able to do it. The rest of the night was good. I think that's all for this week, sorry it was short again. I would ask to keep me in your prayers this week especially. Things have been stressful beyond imagine with everything that has been going on. Thanks for all you do! God is Good.

Elder Browning

 

 IPM Selfie

 Look at all those Chickens

 Elder Bushman; the man, the myth, the legend.

 The finished project.

 

 

 Missionaries from the Joliet Stake: Elder Banez - Naperville 3rd Ward, Sister Sanchez - Joliet 2nd Branch, Elder Browning - Joliet 1st Ward, Elder Carter - Bolingbrook Ward.

 Star Valley District.

 Elder Frankie-J.

 Elder Green.

 All the missionaries that came out with each other.

 Hoffwang and Brownpiece.

 The Crew.

 AP Elder Bradfield.

 Elder McPeek and AP Elder Welling

 

 The Shrine.

 These members at dinner made us put these dentist things in our mouth.

 Gigantic strawberry.

 Pictures at the Wahes'.

Service & Pizza

Just to start off by telling you that we did a whopping of 32 1/2 hours of service this week. It's been crazy and real fun for me, but as for my companion, he hated it but we are just only getting started. It also has been super hot this past week and it's supposed to get  even hotter. This week was all about service for people all over the Central Sake. We spent the most of the time in the 31st ward helping a family build a fence. On Tuesday and Wednesday, we were there for 12 hours both days.  We then we went to the soup kitchen on Friday and then helped scrape of siding on someones house on Saturday.  We had pizza almost every single night so i'll be taking a break from it for a little while. I got to go to dinner with Mike Clark and his family and it was so good to see them again. We also had transfer calls this week and we are both still staying in the same are until at least June 21st where we are having a mid-transfer. So as of right now, I will most likely be in the new Idaho Falls Mission, but anything could happen.

Yesterday was hot. I bore my testimony twice in both wards and then we saw Melba again. Hopefully things will get better. This week we have two apostles coming to the mission; Elder D. Todd Christofferson and Elder Quentin L. Cook. We get to go to a conference with Elder Christofferson on Saturday so I'm stoked for that. That's about all for this week. Thanks again for everything. God is Good.

P.S. Please send mail to this address until June 21st. The Mission Office wants the missionaries to get their mail quicker so they are having people who send missionaries mail, to send it directly to them, thanks! the address is:                   2206 St. Clair Rd

                                               Idaho Falls, Idaho 83404

Vi amo tutti

Elder Browning

 

 At the Zoo

 Idaho Falls Zone

 Carne Asada Fries Burrito at Los Albertos.

 One of many projects.

 One of our ward mission leaders sent us this.

REPORT, REPORT!

Howdy howdy everyone. I'll start off this email by thanking mother nature for giving us the warm weather we've been having for us to ride bikes in. It makes it so much easier because a lot more people are out walking around so we can talk to them and because you get a nice tan while you're at it!

This week was good, still trying to find a way to work with my companion, he started to keep a 'progress record' of me, whatever that means, but all is good and hope that thing will get better. We had good district meeting and it was about getting our investigators to see the importance of keeping the Sabbath day holy. We did a couple practices of inviting them to church. The focus of this week was trying to find new investigators, but haven't found anything yet. Hopefully by the end of this week, we can round up a new couple people. We went to a talent show for one of our ward mission leader's daughters and she sang a couple songs and it was really good. On Saturday, we had a couple lessons and then helped the bishop in the 11th ward paint his bedroom and mow his lawn. That night, we had dinner with a super cool young couple and we were there about whole night talking about his mission stories and playing with his drone helicopter. We are doing service for them tomorrow and Wednesday. Yesterday we gave talks in the 11th ward and it was my best one yet. I had the privilege to ordain one of our recent converts, Dominic a deacon yesterday. We had two dinners yesterday, one with a member of the stake presidency and the other with the stake president and his family. We ended the night by going to the Wahes and having a bonfire and playing soccer with the family. 

Today we are going to the zoo with one of the families in the 26th ward and then we are having dinner again with the stake president and his family. Well, that's about it for this week, I love you all and thanks for all you do! 

Los amo a todos

Elder Browning

 

Sister Erin Timothy. She served in this mission and we saw her at a missionary homecoming yesterday at one of our wards.

Sugar cone s'mores.

And the Lord, God said unto me

This week was very uneventful for us. It raid almost the whole week which meant that we had to stay inside or get rained on and most of out appointments canceled. The fist half of the week was good. Probably the only solid lesson we had was with our investigator, Dave Hamilton. He is a non member and the lady he is dating is a member and also his next door neighbor. He wanted to read the Book of Mormon in an entire week but realized that it takes more time to actually get into. But he is making good progress and set a goal to get baptized in the fall!

We had a 'Mission Tour' with whole Idaho Falls area had Elder Wilford W. Anderson from the Seventy come  to address us. It was a very spiritual meeting and I learned a lot of good things. We had a couple interviews with the Mission President and then it stormed the rest of the night, so we called it a day. Yesterday, we gave talks in the 26th ward on Apostasy and the Restoration. Later that night, we went to see Melba and then spent the rest of the night our ward mission leaders house. 

Sorry for the short email. Things are super stressful and only hope they get better. Thank you for all you do and hope that you have good week!

Los amo a todos!

Elder Browning

 

 Our neighbor gave us free shish ka bobs

 Cake and Milk

 New bike Helmets?

Dinner with the Blacks

Favorite worker at the new Java Express. She challenged me with to get a soda with all of the fruit flavors; challenge complete.

​22 elders and sisters came out with us last July, only 9 of us are left.

Rain Is A Good Thing

Hey everyone. We had a lot of meetings this week which makes everything super tired and stressful. We also spent the last couple days of the week inside because it rained and riding bike sin the rain do not go well with each other. We had a zone training on Thursday and it was mostly about being a happy and successful missionary. We then walked with half of the zone to a Mexican restaurant in the the middle of downtown Idaho Falls. We then had a lesson with a new investigator in the ysa ward and then we we got home, we were told by a couple of other elders that the investigator didn't like the way we taught, and they felt like we were interviewing them, doesn't make any sense, but who care?

I went on exchanges on Saturday with Elder McPeek. It was awesome because he was in the same MTC district as me and now he is my Zone Leader, crazy. We worked super hard and taught a lot of lessons. We did a whole bunch of service that day and was good to help this people in need. Yesterday was fantastic. It rained most of the day so we were inside. We had dessert at our ward mission leaders house with two other elders.

That is all for this week. Sorry this email was so short! Thanks for all you do and all the prayers you send my way! God is Good! 

Los amo a todos

Elder Browning.

 

 Super long, long board

 Idaho Falls Zone