Some Questions Answered

Dear Family,

I'll start off answering your questions.  :)  We have choir practice on Sundays in one of the MTC buildings (where we have Sunday devotionals) at 5:15pm.  We only sing at the Tuesday devotionals at the Marriott Center (where BYU plays basketball).  However, the sister missionaries will be singing in one of the sessions of General Conference.  Elder Williams only came with me the first week and since then I've had to go on splits either with Elder Jardine or Elder Garlick.

The barber shop is fine, I've only had my hair cut once so far.  It's pretty generic with the haircuts.  I would cut it myself...but that's against mission rules.  For good reason- I saw how one elder's hair turned out when he had another elder cut it.  Pretty horrible.  haha

I haven't heard too much about the food in England but one English elder told me a couple things about word differences in England.  Pants means underwear there so you say trousers instead.  Cookies are called biscuits but they are also called cookies too, so yeah.  I'll let you know if I find anything else out.  My favorite food here so far... hmmm....that's a tough one.  I like the sweet and sour chicken with an egg roll and rice pretty well.  They have some good pastas too (but they're not as good as mom's alfredo).

My favorite hymn is "Come, Thou Fount" even though it's not in the hymnbook anymore.  Another song I really like is "The Morning Trump".  It's on one of the CD's we put on my iPod before I left- you should listen to it because it's awesome.

As for getting access to Facebook and iPads, I have no idea if that will be a part of mission or not.  I wouldn't say I'm excited about it- I probably won't be until it brings something great about for me on my mission.  I feel like there are better ways, but who knows.  If I ever use it, I'll let you know.

My jobs are the same every week.  We have jobs every Saturday.  Our job is to do the janitorial work for our entire residence hall and the tasks we do vary from week to week.  Usually I change the garbage bags and take them to the dumpster, but last week I had to clean the toilet bowls.  :(  I've seen other missionaries doing weeding outside in the garden areas (which are all over the place) but my district hasn't ever done anything except clean our building.

I was amazed to hear how the ward is contributing to my mission.  I had no idea.  That is such a blessing- people so generous are truly rare.  It makes me want to do the same thing for missionaries in my ward someday.  Please thank everyone for me and let them know they are loved.

I'm glad you got the Slovak keyboard!  I already have the luggage scale, I think.  They  have a bunch of scales in all the maintenance rooms here anyway so I'm good there.

Something I wanted to tell you about that I'm really excited for is what I'm using my second journal for.  I decided to look for and try to remember the times when I have received revelation, miracles or blessings that show the Lord's presence in my life.  As I thought on it, I realized there was more than I thought.  As the days went by, I kept finding more and more.  I have a feeling that being able to review my journal after I have written it will bless me immensely.  It will help me remember what's important and where my testimony comes from.  It will help me to build further upon what I have because that is how the Lord works.  He helps you build upon what you know, little by little, sharing His light as He touches your life.  Eventually you come to see his finger everywhere in your life.  Then, one day, we will meet Him again and witness the fullness of His glory.

I also wanted to give you a bit of an idea how my teaching and language skills are coming.  All of this last week we have taught every discussion without even bringing any notes.  Our plans are more like general topics that we role play as a companionship until we feel like we can talk about the subject comfortably.  Sometimes we've gotten to a lesson and realized that (after we were done) that he spirit led us to talk about things completely unplanned.  That's really what needs to happen in order to teach people though.  So, things are progressing well.

That's about all I have to share for now.  If you have any more questions, I'm happy to answer them!  I love you all very much and I hope things continue to go well back home.  I know you are working hard- all of you.  Remember that my heart is with you while you labor.  :)  Thanks for everything you do; my family is the first of my blessings.

With Love,

Elder Brown