Elder Zachary Brandon Brown
England Leeds Mission
Lister House, Lister Hill
Horsforth
Leeds
England LS18 5AZ

Wednesday, August 7, 2013

A Real in the Mailbox Letter

I'm rooming with 3 elders, my companion Elder Williams (from Idaho Falls), Elder Jardine (from Brigham City) and Elder Rasmussen (sort of from Virginia).  They're all way fun guys to be around, but one of the coolest things is that when we all saw each other (the other two Slovak Elders included) we felt like we recognized each other.  Every one of the Elders in our Slovak district are so familiar to each other.  Elder Jardine especially looked so familiar when he walked in the first day.  I almost stood up and was so excited to see my friend... until I realized I had never met him.

Elder Williams is a pretty chill guy, but he's actually really funny too.  He also has a great understanding of the gospel and has had some really valuable input for the two discussions we've had with our first investigator (which were entirely in Slovak).  He was a wrestler in high school and had a 3.8 GPA so he knows how to work hard.

Our district is different like that.  There isn't a more hard-working, dedicated and focused group here, I think.  When other missionaries are out in the halls socializing, we're studying the scriptures or the language.  I know this will bless us in our progress.  We've all also been working really hard to SYL (speak your language) with each other.  Whenever possible we use the Slovak we know to talk.  It can be difficult because a lot of what we know is pretty religion related, which doesn't come up in a lot of normal conversation.  Even at the MTC we aren't constantly bearing our testimonies..haha.

We've had two discussions with Martin at this point who is an investigator each Slovak companionship meets with every two days.  We can only speak in Slovak while we are in there with him.  So far we've taught him to pray, had him pray with us, challenged him to pray daily, given him a Book of Mormon, challenged him to read Alma 32 and asked him if he would like to prepare to be baptized in 2 weeks.

The days at the MTC are really long, but Starsi Ferrell (a missionary to Slovakia who just left today- he was delayed leaving because he broke his foot) said that starting today the grind begins and time passes quickly.  He's a really good guy and he was our reference for all our language questions.  We'll miss him even though we only knew him for a few days.

The food here is alright but... it messes with everyone's digestive systems big time.  Especially the orange juice.  So, I've been eating carefully.  Haha.

I listened to the most profound and inspiring talk I have ever heard last night.  It was entitled "Character of Christ" by David Bednar and was given at the MTC at Christmas sometime before I got here.  Never has a talk been so applicable or brought the Spirit so powerfully to me.

Dallin H. Oaks' daughter also came to a fireside and played her violin mixed with giving a talk.  She has a master's degree from Juliard, so you can imagine how amazing the hymns she played were.  That combined with the spirituality of a General Authority's daughter made for an excellent fireside.

I don't want you to worry because I'm happy here.  This is where I'm supposed to be, of that I am certain.

1 comment:

  1. What a wonderful blessing! You are all in our thoughts and prayers!! xo Cari

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