Enjoy Thanksgiving

This week was pretty crazy too. It was really fast and I don't remember a lot of it, but we taught a lot and found pretty good new investigators. We have several people who have baptismal dates, but none of them have actually come to church yet, except Ava M. We're working on that, though.

 

Our best new investigators are the Ortiz Daughters. All three of them want to get baptized, though only two are old enough to be convert baptisms. The youngest is eight and will be a ward baptism. Right now they're aiming for the 31st December, but that may change after they talk to their mom about it.

 

We ran into a pretty hardcore AntiChrist. We all bore testimony to him but to no avail. He'd done a lot of research into our religion (not just ours, though) and decided that Buddhist was the route he should take. He openly attacked the Book of Mormon and the Prophet Joseph Smith, and denied that Christ could change the past. I'm really proud of Elder Bentley, though, because he stood up to the guy after I'd already made up my mind not to bother with him. Elder Bentley bore powerful testimony many times and, if this was the military, I'd put in a recommendation for commendation for courageous action in battle. He's a good missionary.

 

Most of our new investigators are due to Elder York. He has a gift for talking to people and beginning to teach without really letting them know he's starting to teach. I'd put in a recommendation for promotion in for him, but this isn't the military. :D

 

I'm really impressed with my companions and maybe someday I can measure up.

Thank you for your love and support! I love you, and don't forget it. Enjoy Thanksgiving! but don't enjoy it too much. :D We have three dinners on Thanksgiving day and I think I might not make it... but here goes...

 

Love,

Elder Joshua Brown

Everything I knew about missionary work

So, this week, everything I knew about missionary work got put in a jar with Spanish and turned upside down and shaken around. Still waiting for some of the mud to settle. It may be in suspension, though...

 

Monday, we cleaned like crazy because we knew that Elder Alonso of the Seventy was coming to visit and we knew he would be checking our apartment (President told us). We cleaned so much that I got blisters on my hands from wringing out rags. 

 

Tuesday, we got up early (5:30 am) to go to mission tour and learned a bunch, on the way there (courtesy of Hugh B. Brown), at various trainings while there (including a special training from Elder Alonso and a powerful testimony is Spanish from his wife), and then also on the way back as we discussed everything we learned during the day. We were back at the apartment around 3:30pm, and we waited there for about ten minutes for Elder Alonso to come inspect our apartment. He came, pronounced it clean, and left. President and Sister Thomas also came, and Sister Thomas didn't find anything to chasten us over, so it must have been sufficiently clean (the Mission office had our apartment's carpet cleaned while we were at the meeting. That probably helped a lot).

 

Then we had about half an hour until our appointment with someone (I actually don't remember their names), so I thought we could sit down and discuss what we learned during mission tour. It was a good thing we did, because about fifteen minutes into it, the door opens and in walks Elder York, one of the Spanish missionaries, with the assistants (of whom there are currently three), carrying a bed! I was extremely confused. My bed works fine, so I couldn't figure out why we were getting a new one. I asked what was going on, and apparently Elder York's companion was going home because of headaches (he hopes to come back out, though), and Elder York is now with us! The rest of the week was kind of a blur. 

 

I'm suddenly senior companion for Gate Field Spanglish Area, learning Spanish and still trying to sort this whole thing out. I've never been so busy. We showed up at this week's district meeting without suits on because we had to rush over straight from a lesson. But we're having a blast, working our brains out, and somehow still getting in on time every night. Miracles have flowed in plenty this week as we've done our best to make it work.

In other news, I'm tired. And I think I have good reason to be. But I'm also having a great time. Elder York is another one of those amazing missionaries who just does missionary work.

 

Love, Elder Brown

Don't give up

We're working hard, but not a lot to show for it. Most of our really cool investigators have fallen off of the map. We do have at least one ray of sunshine, though. Three daughters of a less-active member of the ward have requested that they all be baptized. So we will still have a white Christmas!

Love you all! Don't give up!

Elder J Brown