A week of nothing

Hey everyone! This week was very slow and very uneventful for us. A lot of people made their "last vacation runs" because school starts up here at the end of the month. This week was focused on a lot on contacting. We were able to get rid of some names that the missionaries have been working with before because they are not interested or progressing anymore. It was kinda good to clean up some of those names off the list so we can be more focused on the rest of the people to contact. We are still in a slump trying to find new people to teach. We have potentially one new person we are going to try and see tonight and hopefully we can get things happening with him. Other than that, we had a couple lessons with a few people but most of them are less-active. We went to a mission prep last night and talked about "How to talk to People". It was good sharing some experiences we've had as missionaries had with people we come in contact with. Well, sorry for the boring week and the short email. Thanks for all you do! God is Good.

Elder Browning

 

Search and Rescue Squad

Well this week was slow and hot. We didn't do a whole lot of teaching this week, not sure why. We are kinda in a slump right now. But we are still going full force and doing the best that we can. We only had one exciting thing happen this week and it was crazy. So on Tuesday night at around 9:30pm, we were playing basketball with all the neighborhood kids and one of the parents came out and told us that a 5 year old little girl in their ward had been missing for a couple hours. So I teamed up with the stake president's son and my companion went with another guy and we searched the whole neighborhood for this little girl. We then went to this big field and then got out on foot with flashlights to continue looking for her. In our group we had a 13 year old boy with us and suggested that we say a prayer, so I offered the prayer and not even two minutes later, a gentleman stopped his car and told us that the little girl had been found and she was safe.. The little girl went to her house with her mother not seeing her come inside, she went to her room, into her closet, put blankets on top of herself and fell asleep. I'm here to testify that the power of prayer is real. Answers to our prayers come in the Lords timing and it just happened to be that our was answered right away.

Yesterday, our recent convert, Robert got the Aaronic Priesthood and he is exited to pass and bless the sacrament with his dad. That's all for this week, thanks for all you do! God is Good.

Elder Browning

 

 Went to the wedding reception of one of our recent converts.

 

 At our WML's house for this guys birthday.

One Year

Another good week here in the Iona South Stake. It was hot once again but that didn't stop us from doing our missionary work. We contacted this one lady from our progress record on Tuesday and she was straight up crazy. When we got there, she told us to go away and then as we were about to leave, she came running out the door and wanted to talk with us. She is a member of the church but is inactive. She claims to be half Baptist and half LDS. Anyways, she kept asking us who sent us to see her and we told her that we were just contacting people on our progress record. She insisted that we give her a priesthood blessing. She wanted to hold our hands while we gave the blessing to her but we told her that we do blessings by the laying on of hands so after much negotiating, we put one hand on her head while she held the other. Then she asked us a whole bunch of questions and she would let us answer any of them. Not sure if we are going to contact her any time soon because she was a hassle.

We had our first zone conference with President and Sister Nelson on Thursday and it went pretty good. We had good training's from the AP's and some from the older senior missionaries. Our mission president challenged all of us to start reading two chapters from the Book of Mormon everyday as a companionship. He promised us blessings and miracles in doing so. We started this morning and it should take us all the way til the end of November.

I hit my year mark this past Friday and it's crazy on how fast your mission actually goes. I burned a white shirt as a tradition that missionaries do once you hit a year. It's been a roller coaster ride of ups and downs getting this far but I'm thankful for the opportunity to be serving here in Idaho Falls.

Well, thanks for all you guys do! God is Good. 

Elder Browning

 

 

I swear, Idaho has the best sunsets.

Went out to breakfast with the Cole Family(from my first area)

Burning a shirt on my one year mark!

Ammon Famalamily

Well, it's been another hot week here in Iona South. The temperatures here have gotten up the high 90's and its only the start. We are still on bikes but things are starting to pick up in the area. Elder Crosby and I started to go through the area book and go visit the people that the missionaries in the past have been working with. We contacted some of them in the wards and had a little success, but hopefully we can get things going again. We visited Robert and Desiree a couple times this week and we set a baptismal date for Desiree for August 6th. We're not sure if she'll be able to stop smoking by that time but we set it for her as a goal that she can work towards. She really wants the gospel in her life and we know that she can quit her addiction so she will be able to enjoy the blessings of the gospel.

On Saturday, we went to the Visitors' Center with one of ward missionaries and we watched three new stories from 'Meet the Mormons'. The are brand new stories that the church just came out with and can only been seen at a visitors center so I encourage all of you who are close to a visitors center and watch them. Yesterday was super long for us. We spent 12 hours at church with meetings and all and then we went back to the Visitors' Center and participated in a 'Pioneer Days' concert. The rest of the night, we correlated with one of our ward mission leaders. I hit my year mark this week, so that's crazy. That's all for this week. Thanks for everything you guys do. God is Good. Y'all have a good week.

Elder Browning

Quick update: So my trainer, Elder Franks finished his mission this past Wednesday and he emailed me this morning and he told me that he is getting married sometime on the future! His girlfriend, now his fiancee, were writing each other t he whole time while he was on the mission and now they're getting married.

New Idaho Falls, Idaho Mission.

 Ammon Fam.

 ​These guys were protesting against circumcision? Not sure why.

 ​It looked cooler in person.

 ​Missionary tooth 

 Flying high.

 Sun-chip of Idaho.

Browning means "relish" in Russian

It's been a good week here in the Iona South Stake. Fist off, we had the baptism and confirmation of Robert this past weekend. It's amazing to see the progression of him and his family as they have gone through this process of learning of the gospel. His wife Desiree, is still on track to be baptized here in the next couple months but is still struggling to overcome her smoking addiction. We gave her an "Addiction Recovery Booklet' and every time we're over at their house, she's always looking at it, so it's good that she wants this change in her life. On Wednesday we had transfers and I got another new companion and his name is Elder Crosby. He is from the Pasadena area in California and has been out just under a year. He's super cool and we work so well in unity when we are teaching. I feel like this is going to be yet another good transfer. Other than that, we did some service for on of our ward mission leaders' and then had a couple good lessons the rest of the week. That's all for this week. Sorry for another short email. Hope y'all have a good week. The church is true, God is good!

Elder Browning

 

 Giving one of ward mission leader's sons a haircut.

 

 ​Roberts Baptism

 

 ​Bonfire at Dr. Bobs'

Deep in the heart of TEXAS!!!

Well, this week was another busy one. We taught a lot of lessons to mostly less active members, but they are progressing very well. We started off the week on Tuesday by teaching 7 lessons that day. We went on a church tour with one of our investigators, Robert. He told us that he wanted to move his baptism date to something earlier and so he getting baptized this coming Saturday. His wife on the other hand is trying to overcome a smoking addiction. She will eventually get baptized in the future so she is doing her best to progress. We taught them more during the week and Robert is ready to make this next step in his life. The rest of the we just taught lessons.

 Yesterday, we went out with out teaching with our mission president and taught Robert. We also had transfer calls last night and I'm staying in Iona South and Elder Martin is going to Challis to train, My new companion is coming from the Twin Falls mission and his name is Elder Crosby. Anyways, that's all for this week! Thanks for everything y'all do! 

                       The new mission office address is:                My address is:

                        351 W. 14th Street                                         4839 Madison River Road

                        Idaho Falls, Idaho  83402                              Idaho Falls, Idaho 83401

Elder Browning

 

 Fourth of July sunsets

 ​Went up to the top of Lincoln Hill to watch the fireworks.

 L.D.'s pets

 ​Robert and the fam

 

This was our day last Tuesday

HAPPY FOURTH!

Hey everyone. Hope y'all are having a great fourth. Today for us missionaries, it's an all day p-day for us and our mission president is letting us stay out til' 10pm tonight so we should be able to see at least some fireworks. This past week was super busy as usual. We ended up teaching about 30 lessons and unfortunately haven't found any new investigators yet but we had 2 with a baptismal dates and one of them is due to change because he wants to get baptized sooner. We are taking him on a church tour tomorrow so it should be good for him and his family. We also met with our new mission president this past Friday. His name is President Brent Jay Nelson from Woodburn, Oregon. He and his wife are super excited to serve with us. 

I went on exchanges with Elder Teokotai on Tuesday and it was really fun, just like old times. We went to lunch with one of our bishops in Ririe and he was crazy happy that we went out with him. That exchange was way weird with all the things that happened, but it was a good change to be in a different area for a day, especially with Elder Teokotai. We went to this block party on Saturday and they made us sing karaoke and we sung "Jesus wants me for a Sunbeam". It was fund and even had a standing ovation. Yesterday was really good. We had the chance to bear our testimonies in three different wards so we could get to know the people in the stake. We had a lesson with one of our investigators and taught him and his family the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It was about a two hour lesson, which is good because they asked a lot of good questions. This morning we went to a breakfast with the 7th ward and we were in charge of cooking the pancakes. Today we are going to a zone activity at six, hanging out and watching Disney movies. Thanks for everything you do! God is Good. Y'all have a safe and good holiday.

 

 

 President and Sister Nelson

 

 

 Exchanges

Flipping Flapjacks

 Riding home in a golf-cart with our investigator, Robert.

 Top of Iona Hill. (On the way down, my tire blew out and had to walk down, hahah).

 It also hailed while were were biking.

We had turtles for dinner.

New way to proselyte?

Dinner with the Smith Family