Last few days!

I'm super excited to see you all again. 

 

I'm going to work really hard my last two days so don't be surprised if I come out of the plane on a stretcher.

Ok, maybe I won't work that hard. but I am going to work hard. The job ain't over till it's done, after all.

 

I'm just about done packing and I'm confident I can make the weight restrictions without leaving very much at all behind. Part of that would be because I packed up and shipped a total of three more boxen this morning. It was pretty pricey, $42, but I'll take that over a $175 overweight fee. :-)

 

So, my Friday plans are currently as follows:

8:00- temple trip, baptisms for the dead OR possibly endowment session (we'll see).

12:00 lunch

1:00- register for my classes

4:00- prepare

4:30- party time!

8:30- me time

10:30 sleep until I can't anymore

 

My testimony has grown so much since I saw you last. I know like never before that the Book of Mormon is true and that Jesus Christ is the one and only Savior of the World. This is the True Church, these are the Last Days. The Lord is hastening His work- cutting it short in righteousness- and I'm proud that I was able to be a part of it. The Name of Christ will soon leave my chest, but it will never leave my heart.

Love, Elder Brown

A week of surprises

It's been a week of surprises.

 

Tuesday morning I was surprised when I recieved my flight Itinerary. I began packing and sorting and weighing that evening.

 

President Craven called Elder Thompson and myself Tuesday evening. That was a surprise in itself, but then it got even more so. I was reassigned to Gastonia, North Carolina, to be in a threesome with the Zone leaders. I guess technically I qualify as a Zone leader now. It's been a large adjustment. The reason this came to pass was that an Elder from Brazil was transferred up to our mission. I guess he was having trouble with the language and so they brought him back stateside. President and the assistants prayed real hard and for some reason decided that Elder Thompson would be the best option for him, so I got booted out. Now I'm a Zone leader. Hoo buddy.

 

Friday, we had a hallowe'en Trunk of Treats (like a trunk or treat, but inside, and only one trunk). The ward put it together and pulled it off with style. We were mildly surprised to be sent home with a large box of bags of chips and some candy. It was a good day.

 

Another pleasant surprise came today when I sat down at the computer here in Gastonia's Family History Center and it let me compose an email! 

I donated my bike to Elder Egnew, the Elder that came up from Brazil. He was in need of one, and I wasn't, so I gave him mine.

 

Love,

Elder Brown

Arriving home

Elder Brown will be arriving home to Rexburg, Idaho Thursday, November 8th.  Those interested in attending sacrament meeting when he is speaking, please come 11/11 at 11am to the Rexburg East Stake Center.  Wahoo!!

Baptism!

Good news this week!  Trudy's getting baptized!  This Saturday, actually at 2pm.  It's a happy story.  She asked me to baptize her.  She'll be the only person I've ever performed the ordinance of baptism for.  That makes me happy.  I get to finish my mission with a hard-earned baptism.

Mission tour

We went to mission tour yesterday and a member drove us there. He's a chapter president for Mensa, and he spent the whole trip up there trying to subliminally recruit me to join. 

 

Mission tour was amazingly good. lots of profundity and we learned a bunch. Elders Carlson and Bowen of the 70 and their wives spoke to us. We learned our relationship with Abraham is like unto a Grandpa, and that pure testimony is the statement of things learned by the witness of the Holy Ghost. We also were trained on several missionary-work-related things. A very powerful meeting, all told. When it was over I thought my brain was going to shut off from overload, but it didn't. God knows our limits and never gives us more than we can absorb.

August 20th

So, Monday and Tuesday were fairly boring this week. Wednesday, my bike was making funny noises so we took it into the shop. Turns out I broke a spoke on my back wheel somehow. Easy fix, half-hour wait. While we were waiting there, we got a text message asking if Elder T. Brown was going to be at transfers soon. This was about eleven thirty, when transfers happen at Statesville. So we called them up and asked about it. The conversation went something like this:

 

"Is Elder Brown coming?"

"Was he supposed to?"

"Yes"

"We didn't hear that he was supposed to be transfered, so, no, he won't be there anytime soon."

"Oh, he's getting transferred, alright. Can he be packed by three?"

 

Elder Brown wasn't too happy about that. He told them off and said the earliest he could be ready was Thursday morning. They didn't like that, either, but that was the way it was. We spent the rest of the day going to see people, saying goodbye, and packing. Thursday morning we drove him up to Gastonia so he could meet his new companion, Elder Hughs. Now he's serving in Mountain Island, still in our zone. However, in all the hustle and bustle, we forgot to get our church keys and area map from him. Oops. It's been fun the last few days.

Release date

Elder Joshua Brown's release date will be Nov 7, 2012!

Rock Hill, SC

Lots of news this week! Wednesday, I drove to the city of Statesville, from whence I was taken with the departing missionaries unto the city of Charlotte, yea, the land of Hilliard. And from thence I was driven unto the city of Rock Hill, in the land which is called South Carolina. And the names of my companions are Elder Forsyth and Elder Brown. Now, behold, this did cause no small stir among the people of Rock Hill, for behold, now they have three missionaries, yea, even Elders Brown, Brown, and Forsyth. We joke with them that we should open a law firm after our missions.

 

Then, on Friday, the temperatures soared to 105 F, which was fine, because we were either teaching or inside all day. We had district meeting and then met President and Sister Craven, who have hearts of gold. Then we got stuck waiting for a ride back to our area (about an hour drive) and had to cancel both dinner and our evening appointment because traffic was moving at the lightning speed of 500 feet in 25 minutes. Bummer.

 

It got pretty toasty the last couple of days (100+) but we had an awesome thunderstorm last night that cooled things down a bit.

 

My new adress is:

1926 Brookstone Way Apt 101

Rock Hill, SC  29732

 

 

New mission president-President Craven

I'm being transferred; don't know where to but it'll probably be my last area.  Excited; been in Weddington six months and, as much as I love it here, I'm ready for a change of scenery.

President Thomas reminded us that we need to welcome and support President Craven, our new mission president.

Say hi to everybody for me.
Love, Elder Josh

6 1/2 sq ft of pizza

So we said goodbye to Elder Muirbrook this week; he's now in Sweden sharing the gospel. Brother Furner in the ward took him to the mission home, and he flew out at 6:30 Thursday morning. He will be missed.

 

This week we moved a 900lb stone table made of, well, stone (travertine, to be specific) for a lady moving to California. We actually helped move a lot of stuff. We had a great meeting on Wednesday, an all-day training on missionary work. We learned a new finding idea which should be very successful. Had 11 missionaries at District meeting this week, and afterwards went to a pizza restaurant and, between the eleven of us, ate 6 1/2 square feet of pizza. (that's a lot of pizza!)

 

Love, Elder Joshua Brown

Bits from the last few weeks

May 28: Everything is going well here. Elder Muirbrook joined us this week. He's waiting on tenterhooks for his Visa to Sweden. He's going to be a great missionary and Sweden is lucky to have him.

 

Our last Zone Conference with President Thomas is this week, on Friday. Sad, but exciting at the same time.

 

June 4: Zone Conference was fabulouss. I enjoyed it very much. A zone is two to four districts (a district being two to six companionships).

 

It's been pretty warm here, though it's cooled down a little in the last couple of days. It's quite pleasant here, actually.

 

June 11: The work in Weddington is still slow. We have the same two investigators, and Smitty finally came to church last week. He was supposed to come yesterday, too, but he never showed up. We're going to visit him tonight and find out what the holdup is. :)

Elder Josh Brown

Dug a grave

So, transfer news: Neither I nor Elder Johnson will be transfering this time. However, we are still going to go to the transfer meeting because we are recieving and training a visa waiter. It's going to be a team effort.

 

Now, this transfer wll only be 5 weeks instead of 6 because in six weeks we are getting a new Mission President. So I will still be in Weddington, but probably only 5 more weeks.

 

Friday, we dug a grave for a less-active lady who had to put a dog down. She talked to us the whole time and I think it really touched her heart. Tonight we're going over with her home teachers to introduce them and see how she's doing. 

 

Love, Elder Brown

Miracles are real

We have a great story this week. On Friday, we tracted into a Chinese lady named Crystal. We weren't able to communicate very well, because she has trouble hearing English, so she got her laptop out and we used a language translation program on it, and we were able to briefly share about the Prophet Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon with her and invite her to church. We had to find a ride for her though, because she doesn't have a car yet. Thanks to the Lord's tender mercy and a string of small miracles, we were able to connect her with a family in Waxhaw who speaks Mandarin Chinese. They gave her a ride to church on Sunday and she loved it! The Waxhaw Elders will be teaching her on Friday, and she'll attend there, but I'm just grateful that I was able to play a part in her conversion

 

Miracles are real. They do happen. I know this because I saw one. There was no way that finding Crystal and getting her to church could have gone so smoothly and easy without the Lord's help. So there.

 

Love, Elder Brown

Bacon grease does not shine shoes

Elder Stanley, one of the assistants, came on exchange with us this week. He was quite a help, and showed us several ways we could become better missionaries.

 

So, after a long lapse in fun stories, I finally have one again!

Smitty, our main investigator, was very hesitant to read the Book of Mormon because, as he said, "I'd rather be a 100% right [with only the Bible] than 50% wrong". We sat down with him on Monday last week and began to go in the same circles that we usually do. But this time, something was different, and we had the spirit with us, and we were able to get him to pray about it. Such a sincere prayer! He waited for 3-4 minutes on his knees to get an answer. He didn't recognize it but he got one, and we were able to help him recognize it after the prayer. On of the last things we heard him say was 'it should be alright to read the Book of Mormon.' :D awesome. we were going to meet with him again on Wednesday but his wife had a baby (healthy baby girl, 7 lb 10 oz) and things got a little crazy, so we rescheduled for today. I'm excited and hope he's read!

Oh, and I spilled bacon grease on my shoe today. that was awkward. :D There's still a little in the seams but I got it off. Note for future missionaries: bacon grease does not shine shoes. 

 

Love, Elder Brown

All I did was sit down

This transfer cycle Elder Thomas is going to go open a new area that's never had missionaries before. :D Ho boy! Glad that's not my job.  I know he's going to do a great job of it, he's a great missionary. I'll be staying as senior companion, getting a new companion and working it up in Weddington.

 

We taught Smitty, who is our best baptismal prospect, the restoration lesson over again and he said he believes the Book of Mormon is true. We invited him to be baptized and he said he wants a solid confirmation before he fully commits. 

 

I broke a chair this morning. all I did was sit down. I'll send a photo of the wreckage next week, it's kind of intense...

 

love!

Elder Joshua Brown

Baited breath

Happy Easter this week!

 

Conference this time was powerful!  I told several people that it was a bit like sitting down to a bowl of Cheerios and finding out it was really a four-course dinner with steak and ribs. It was good, I learned a lot and felt the Spirit strongly. One of my favorite lines was that trials are not to punish but to polish. I also liked the talk about how folks oughta write missionaries letters. :D

 

Transfer calls are this weekend. Both Elder Thomas and I are waiting with baited breath to find out what's happening. I know that after this transfer things are going to really speed up. I'm recommitted to work hard and help the mission as best as I can during my last five transfers. we will go onward, ever onward!

 

Love, Elder Joshua Brown

Insert dancing and rejoicing

We had an LTM (leadership training meeting) this week, to which all the missionaries in Charlotte were invited and we learned a bunch about how important the spirit is in missionary work. We have a good appointment set up tonight, with Wendy, which we hope will go well. She's our best baptismal prospect right now. Oh! I found out that Beda G., from Gate City Spanish, got baptized with her daughter Miraya! YAY! I was extremely happy *insert dancing and rejoicing*.

Love, Elder Brown

So...you know how bike tires are supposed to be round?

Wendy didn't make it to church this week but we have an appointment with her tonight, and we understand she's still really excited about getting baptized.

 

So, um, you know how bike tires are supposed to be round? Well... my front one isn't round anymore... in fact, it looks more like a Pringle than a tire. :) I wrecked it trying to get on the road on Saturday. Brother Brown, the member who's helping me with the brakes, is a bike guru and said he'd take a look and see what he can do. Don't worry; no serious damage to me. Only things that broke are my front tire and my pride. :D

 

Elder Larson got his visa Monday after my email and shipped off to Argentina on Thursday. As far as we know, he got there alright.

Love, Elder Brown

"Lord, you are awesome"

We did indeed have a lot of fun adventures last week. We weren't able to get a picture of the Plan of Salvation that we drew because the police officer asked us not to. I was a bit sad but not enough to argue with the police. :D

 

We had Hap and Wendy, two of our three investigators, come to church. Yay! Wendy is a member referral and is doing well. Her life had fallen apart and now she's trying to understand her relationship with God and is searching! I am confident that she will be baptised.

 

Hap is also beginning to progress much better than he has in the past. We introduced the Doctrine and Covenants to him to help him understand the Priesthood and it worked! I was a little apprehensive about sharing the Doctrine and Covenants but it really helped him a lot.

 

Things are going a little more smoothly within our companionship. Elder Thomas still gets a little frustrated with me from time to time but we're getting along much better.

 

This week when we taught Annie, our other investigator, we asked her to pray and she just jumped right into it. during her prayer, she said "Lord, you are awesome' and it was really cool the way she said it. It made our day and we all wrote it in our journals that evening. It was funny.

Love, Elder Brown

Adventure and drama

Howdy howdy howdy!

This week has been a fun one, full of adventure and drama.  Well, honestly, it was pretty boring until we were biking home on Thursday night.  Elder Thomas broke his back tire on a cement pipe (it was either the pipe or oncoming traffic, and he chose the pipe).  He was able to ride it home, but the wheel snapped in two places so he didn't dare ride it further. Friday we got a ride to the bike shop and Elder Thomas ordered a new rear rim, then we walked around and stopped by a couple of old investigators, saw Hap, and walked home.  In order to trim off some travel time, we hopped a fence (that was fun) and I only got a little bruise from it.

Saturday brought more fun.  We had a great idea for proselyting activity that wasn't just knocking on doors; we thought it would be good to draw the Plan of Salvation on the sidewalk in the park. Only problem with that, at least that we could see, was that to get to the park we'd have to go through the greenway, which, because we were on foot, would take an extra 20 minutes.  Well, apparently Elder Thomas knew a shortcut through some woods that the greenway runs through.  So we went bushwacking.  There was, in fact, a shortcut, but it wasn't accesible because we've had a lot of rain lately and the creek was flooded.  So we went around...a lot.  Probably 1/2 mile of woods have my foot prints in them.  All kinds of thorny pricklers in those woods, too, of course.

Finally we made it to the park and we draw out the Plan of Salvation with sidewalk chalk.  It was beautiful, too.  We had a lot of fun drawing it.  Just as we were putting on the finishing touches I looked up and there was a big black man standing there watching us.  It took me a second to realize he was wearing a police uniform.  He was real nice and cool about it, but he told us we were defacing public property and we could have gotten in a lot of trouble.  He told us if we cleaned it up he'd call it off.  So we did.  Bummer.  At least we didn't get in trouble.  We also didn't bushwack back.  We took the greenway home, even though it took longer.

Sunday night, we went tracting and at this one door, an old guy with a really cool beard answered the door with a double barrel 1/2 gauge shotgun.  I thought it was a toy until we were talking about it afterward.

We aren't having tons of success but Hap did finally come to church.  Pretty decent victory there.

Tell everybody I said hi.
Love ya'all
Elder Joshua Brown