A Typical Day at Church

Hello mom and dad!  

About the Ferrari--its not even the nicest car I've seen out here.  I see all sorts of sports cars and super cars all the time--Aston Martins, Audi RAs, Mercedes, Lamborghinis, Porches, Jaguars, Bentleys, Rolls Royces, and so forth.  It's a massive gap, though--either the cars are really nice, or they're hatchbacks.  There's like no middle ground. 

I probably won't see the sessions of conference I missed, unfortunately.  There's no way to effectively work that in.  A typical day at church involves us arriving by bus with some members and investigators, saying hello to a few people, then getting started.  I usually am involved in translating, be it from English to Slovak or the other way around, and if it's not me, it's one of the others.  There's always a mix of English people speaking and Slovaks, but the Slovaks are getting more and more involved, taking more responsibility in teaching or giving talks.  When I first came to the mission, it was usually a mix of Slovaks and missionaries or English members taking care of the sacrament, but now it's just the Slovak members :) .  Hooray!  It makes me so happy to see men who I've helped change their lives now able to bless and pass the sacrament.  I don't attend priesthood quorum classes after splitting from sacrament meeting, but rather translate in Relief Society.  I've been doing that since serving with Elder Frahm.  Hearing women like A teach the women from the manual is the most amazing thing, because she couldn't even read when we first started teaching her.  She has such a great testimony, as well, and so even though she's not the most fluent with words or the most familiar with where things are in the scriptures, the Spirit is really there when she teaches.  I always make sure to have said hello to everyone in the branch before leaving, but lately that's been getting harder and harder to do since the attendance has been increasing (a positive thing, for sure).  I used to play the piano often for the Sunday meetings, but I've not been doing that for a long time because John Nettleship (son of Greg and Brenda) does that.

A bit of sad news is that M didn't make it to her interview because she ended up drinking coffee in spite of the replacement drink we got her (called Inka).  Her daughters want to wait to be baptized with her, so they're all going to have to be rescheduled and give it another go.  It's really hard for her to quit drinking coffee, so keep her in your prayers.  Her son, M Jr. (about 13 years old), though is now scheduled for the end of April--he's a really good kid and has been attending church regularly for a while.  He's just very active and rarely is in the lessons we have.  We talked to him the other day in a lesson about that, though, and so we're going to try to be seeing him quite often this week to get him ready for an interview on Saturday.

Some good news is that S (over a year ago called as a branch missionary but got a job that required him to work on Sundays) should now be coming to church again with his family because he seems to have gotten the opportunity to have Saturdays Sundays off starting this upcoming Sunday.  We had a great lesson there last night with him and his kids (a couple of which are baptized as well), and that's the picture I've attached.

I mentioned last week the good things happening in Doncaster, and we went there this week and ended up scheduling the couple for baptism that came to church last week with L.  We didn't see them at church this week, though, so I'm not sure what happened there.

I've got to get going pretty soon here, but I want to remind you that I love you very much and am working my hardest out here.  Many missionaries tend to slow down at the end of their missions, anticipating their return home.  That's not me, though; it's not in my nature to be like that.  I've never been a waster, nor do I intend to ever be one.  So no worries there :) .  I hope you have a great week!

Love,

Elder Brown