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

Monday, January 5, 2015

Time to Blast Into 2015 with Strength and Confidence

Hey mom and dad :) .  I got your second package this week, so I was really happy about that.  Thanks for the food and such--I laughed at the random instruction manual in Czech in there.  I take it that was dad's addition, based on the topic of the manual.  I'm glad people ask after me--if I'm forgotten by the time I get home, it'll make me a little sad haha.  It's weird to think about all the Sister missionaries who went out at the same time as me, because they're all starting to go home.  Tough luck for them.  Thank you for the pictures; they're really good.  I love seeing you all (and no, you hadn't sent those yet, so you're not losing your mind).  I'll send one of me with the P family in Doncaster and some of the food they gave us.  This week wasn't slow at all, actually.  We had an amazing week with loads of success, and our district (Elders Williams, Pohorelicky, Baird, and Diaz) is really rocking it.  We were just at the chapel all day for New Year's watching movies (I really liked How to Train Your Dragon 2).

We had some really amazing miracle lessons with people this week.  One of them was with the family of a man we met a month or so ago that came to church once.  We were unable to teach him after only a couple lessons because the people he was staying with weren't to positive towards us and he wanted to respect them.  He got his own house and a job, and has been waiting for his family to arrive from Slovakia before moving into the new house.  Well, they arrived, and we were blessed to find where they lived.  We taught his wife, who was really excited about what we taught and had to say, telling us she'd talk to her husband about whether they'd come to our church or not.  The next lesson there was with her and her son and his partner, who had come from Bradford to now live with them.  They enjoyed the lesson a lot (as did we), and we left them with Books of Mormon.  Yesterday we went there again and found out that they had wanted to come to church, but one of their other sons (someone we were already actually teaching and has moved in with them as well) had a vehicle accident because of some ice, and the car was totaled (he was miraculously fine though).  They tried calling our branch president for a ride, but he was already at church when they called, so they were really disappointed they couldn't come.  O, the father of the family, has diligently been reading the Bible every morning for years, but his wife told us in this lesson that in the morning he had actually read the Book of Mormon; wow!  She herself had also been reading, along with the new son that had recently moved in.  We gave them all the baptismal challenge, and all of them accepted it.  The two sons aren't married to their partners, but we'll get some weddings in the works, and that'll be awesome.  The wife wants to come to church and see how it is before accepting a date, but they bought a new car yesterday, so they should be able to make it on Sunday this week. 

Also, I came to church and loved it, so he's looking really good for his baptismal date this month.  Lots of miracles all around!

Thanks for being the awesome parents you are.  You serve as a great example of what it is to raise a family in righteousness, and I'm so grateful for the effect that's had on me.  Your work and effort, but mostly your love, has guided me to finding where true happiness and joy lies: in serving God.  You're the best, so keep it up :) .  We finished 2014 strong, and now it's time to blast into 2015 with strength and confidence in where our hearts lie.

Love you so very much,
Elder Brown






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