God Works in Mysterious Ways

Ahoj, mom and dad :).  

Thanks for the awesome responses to the email I sent you, this will be awesome.  I'll be using them for sure, and I may make it into a book translated into Slovak with my language study time--we'll see :) .  All the Slovak missionaries are supposed to be working on it, so it should be fantastic.  By the way, I passed my theory test this week for driving, so soon I'll be moving on to the actual driving test.  I'll let you know when I get an exact date on that.  I did get your package, which was quite good.  Thank you so much!  The fruit leather turned out great--you could be making money off of that.  I ate it all already.

This week was pretty awesome, if packed with a lot of extra meetings.  They did, however, do a load of good, and our branch has seen some great things from all the work and new ideas.  As you've gathered from the email I sent you, we're working on getting people inspired to action by using some things they've not encountered much of, then applying it to them.  Using the couple stories I already had heard and could remember about our ancestors, I've already been sharing a message about the effect people can have on their posterity.  Church attendance this week was up, including a less-active member and several of our investigators.  It was interesting to see that as we shifted our focus to sustaining the members and rejuvenating the less-actives this week, our investigators progressed along with the members.  We've also found a couple new people to teach thanks to the efforts of our amazing Slovak recent converts.  Lessons were down, but progression was up.  God works in mysterious ways. 

In Doncaster this week, the English missionaries had a baptism, and we wanted our investigators there to be able to come and see how it all is.  One of them ended up being able to come, and she absolutely loved it.  She told everyone that she was "very happy" (she has some decent English skills), and had a lot of other positive things to say.  This included telling me that if she gets baptized she would want me to baptize her, she'll come to church next week, and that my rendition of "Nearer, My God to Thee" (I've played around a bit with some of the hymns on the piano and have my own versions that I sometimes play during the prelude before meetings, which is what I did at this baptism) is just like something she sang in her church in Slovakia and that she loved it.  Wow.  Another one of our investigators in Doncaster who couldn't make it had us over for a lesson after the baptism.  It was the same one we had an outdoor lesson with the other week, so we did the same thing again and had similarly good results.  One of her neighbors came over at the end of the lesson, and we invited him to come pray with us.  Our investigator convinced him to say the prayer, and he ended up nearly in tears by the end.  He had previously gone to a different church, but left it after some things happened that he didn't like and hadn't prayed since.  He was so happy after this prayer that I think if he'd been smiling any wider, his eyes would've disappeared.  He's going to come over to her house from now on whenever we're teaching there, which has the added benefit of being able to go in the house since we'd not be alone with a woman.  Two of our investigators who came to church are now beginning to work with us to arrange their marriage, which should happen at the end next month if everything goes according to plan.  Their baptism would then follow in the weeks after sometime, and both we and them are excited for it.  One of the other people we're teaching who came to church is getting very close to his own baptismal date, so we were overjoyed to have him at there on Sunday.  This next week is sure to be filled with miracles as well, so we're praying, planning, and working hard to play our part in bringing God's children closer to Him.

Thanks for your help and love :) .  You're truly the best, so don't forget it!  Have a miracle filled week, too.

Love,

Elder Brown

A Special Project that Needs Your Help

Hiya, mom and dad :) .  I've just been in a special meeting with President Pilkington (our mission president), and he's given me some specific instructions to make an exception and e-mail you today.  We have been discussing some branch needs and have devolped a series of plans that we are now going to be implementing.  One of these involves compiling a book of people's conversion stories (including those who are less-active) and getting some excitement back into them. 

This extends even further, however.  We want them to realize what kind of legacy they are leaving for their descendants, and thus need some help from you.  We need the stories of those descendants of ours who had very humble beginnings.  They do not have to be church members.  We need the stories of how they began making decisions and choices that put their families in a better position for the future, leading down to us and the good standing we are currently in.  They were not electrical engineers, secretaries, nurses, businessmen for large corporations, or anything like unto it.  Rather, they would have been the lowest of social classes who desired a better future for those who came after them.  Farmers, factory workers, laborers.  We are here today with the oppurtunities we have thanks to them.  I need to know about them. 

Who are they?  Where are they from?  What did they do?  Why did they do it?  How does it connect to us and our oppurtunities that we now have?  How have you yourselves played a part in doing the same thing for your posterity?

I will be sharing these stories to these Slovak people here in England, showing them what an effect they can have on their families though the beginnings may be small.  We are showing them what their best efforts can actually do.

We have been instructed to e-mail you today so as to enable us to have this information by next Monday when we do our weekly e-mailing.  This is a way for you to become involved in a very close way with the work we are doing, and it's also an oppurtunity to learn of how we came to be so blessed.  Get the whole family involved in this, if you can.  Let everyone know for me (aunts, uncles, cousins included), and forward what you would like of this e-mail to them. 

This will play a huge part in building not just individual people but a whole nation that has for centuries been downtrodden and looked down upon.  We are giving them a chance at a better life, and over time this will change an entire culture of people's fate.  It all starts now, though, and we need the stories of those who did a similar thing for us.  Please help us out and get as many of these stories as you can to us by Monday, as we need to get this rolling as fast as possible.  You can continue in following weeks to send stories (I will print Monday's off from the computer, and can do so with following ones or they can be sent through the post), and I will gladly begin using them.  Here's a chance to be a direct part of a Sheffield 4 miracle--don't let it slip by!  You'll leave your own mark on the beginnings of these people's legacy.

Please share this with the whole family--all input will be treasured.  E-mail time has recently been extended to an hour and a half, so don't worry about reducing what you receive from me in my weekly e-mails.

I love you so much and hope you can help us out with this :) .  I'm excited to see what awaits on Monday.

Much love and thanks,

Elder Brown

A Pretty Awesome Week

Hi mom and dad :) .  

Thanks for the email and pictures, I love seeing you :) .  I can't believe I've lost another relative while I've been out here.  It's all happened within these two years (well, really the past few months).  My prayers are with you and the family.  So...I prayed for you to have some huge apples this year, and look what you get...HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!  Ha just kidding, but that would be pretty funny.  Hooray for another missionary friend!  I'm excited, she'll do way good.  My companion's uncle opened up the stake she's going to, fun fact from Elder Moreira.  

This week was pretty awesome in a lot of ways.  We ended up finding and scheduling 3 new people for baptism, one of whom we haven't even taught yet.  What happened was that we were teaching a lesson about the Restoration with the brother of member (who was there in the lesson and actually referred us to him in the first place), and also in the lesson was another one of our scheduled investigators.  After we asked the brother (somewhere in his 50s) if he would be baptized and he agreed, we were talking about a day to do that.  Then the already-scheduled guy (the member's 27-year-old son) tells us to wait a second, goes out the door and calls someone to come over.  A guy I'd street contacted a couple days ago comes in, and is told to sit down by the son who called him in.  The son then asks him when he's going to get baptized.  We scheduled him then and there before even having a lesson because of another member's work that was going on.  This man recently arrived from Slovakia to live with his brother-in-law, who happens to be our Elder's quorum president, who then started telling him about the church.  They were reading the Book of Mormon together when something from it came up in discussion and led to this man's decision to be baptized.  Essentially he'd decided to get baptized before we'd taught him anything as missionaries because a member was talking about what he knew to be true.  That's epic.  Another cool lesson was taught in Doncaster outside on the sidewalk in front of a lady's door.  We couldn't go in becuase there was no man in the house, so we set up a couple chairs outside while she sat in her doorway, and we went from there.  It was one of the most interesting lessons I've taught for sure, because the whole street is basically full of Slovaks, and they kept wandering by to listen.  One man stayed in the lesson for most of it, agreeing with everything we taught and vocalizing it.  Another man came out of his house a couple doors down, sitting in his own doorstep to unobtrusively and discreetly listen in.  One of the most miraculous moments was when I was about to tell the Joseph Smith story.  At that moment, the noisy street was rather suddenly clear of people, and we were able to teach and testify about it in an environment where the Spirit could be present in earnest.  Coincidence?  No way.  I call that a miracle.  Our church attendence was a small bit better than last week, so progress is being made.  We're still working hard on that one. 

I can't wait to hear more from you, so I'll look forward to your letters.  Love you lots and talk to you later :) .

Love,

Elder Brown

Reactivation and a Fireside

Hi mom and dad :) .  Thanks for the email and inspiring picture.  I'll be sure not to fly into any glass doors this week.  There was a baptism this week (M) from Elders Williams and Pohorelicky, and I was taking the pictures, not having them taken of me.  I'll see if he can send me the pictures or something.  Thanks for the package, I can't wait to get it :) .  Any mail puts a positive spin on any day.  Even the food advertisments.

This week has been good, and has involved shifting some of our focuses.  We've been working more with the members and less-actives, trying to really lift them up and imbue them with some strength to endure trials and such.  It's been a lot of work, but there have been some great miracles.  One of them was with the mission President's fireside on Sunday evening.  We invited tons of people and many commited, but only 4 ended up coming.  Three daughters of a member couple came with us by bus, and F from Rotherham came with Bro. N.  He's the one who was the first branch wedding we had, and he's so solid.  He has like 3 different hard-labor jobs, but he still comes to church even if he's dead tired after working all night.  He absolutely loved the fireside, and then got to meet President Pilkington and shake his hand.  It was an inspiring meeting for him, and the whole car ride home he was telling us how he knows this church is true and that people need to take it more seriously than they do.  He said you don't find people like this just anywhere, and that it's something to be treasured.  What an amazing man.  The three daughters (one who's investigating, one who's a recent convert, and one who's like 6) made the effort to even come to the fireside early. We as missionaries had to be there to practice a song an hour early, and these three came that early with us so they would know the way.  It was some real dedication, and they all enjoyed the fireside as well.  I wish more people had come, but those who came left spiritually filled, uplifted, and content.  We've also been working with a less active man who is planning on coming back to church in a couple months time.  He wants to work some things out with where his life's at first, but then he wants to start coming back to church.  In the meantime, we're working with him, keeping in contact and striving to uplift him and give him strength to overcome some big challenges.  He would have a big impact on many other people if he were to return to activity, so we're really hoping he keeps going strong with these changes.

Those are two of the highlisghts, and this week we'll be working hard again to finally bring a full room of people to church.  I love you very much and keep you in my prayers as I strive to build God's kingdom here.  When you see blessings in your lives, let me know about them because I know they're coming.

Love,

Elder Brown

Nine Scheduled Baptisms!

Hi mom and dad :)

This week's been really successful with our teaching, finding, and scheduling.  We currently have nine people scheduled for baptism, four of which we gave dates this week.  Each one of them has a unique story about how it led to that (it's four people and three different households), so I really don't have the space to tell you about it here.  I'll go for a brief-but-awesome summary.  The first is an 18-year-old who moved to Darnall about two weeks ago from Slovakia.  One of our other scheduled investigators is friends with him and referred him to us, so we took her with us to the lesson and it went great.  He accepted the baptismal challenge straight away as well as a date, and he seems really excited about everything.  The next is a lady Elder Frahm and I found a long, long time ago but never were able to teach because of various reasons (including that she was NEVER home), but she recently moved to a different house.  She's friends with one of our other investigators who lives on the street she moved to, which was a really good common ground to talk about.  Throughout the whole lesson about the Restoration I could see her connecting with thing after thing that we were saying, the Spirit of God really lighting her up.  She was so happy by the time we left, and she also accepted a baptismal date.  The last two, who we scheduled yesterday, are the wife and daughter of a member in Doncaster.  They both have been taught for a while now, and they both love the Book of Mormon and have testimonies about it.  Our lesson was about that, and in the end we tied it to what they needed to do because of it.  The mother accepted the challenge first, and then her daughter did as well.  Also in the home is a couple who also wants to be baptized but just need to get married first.  In other words, we're teaching some really great people who want to do some great things.  The absolute biggest focus we have is to get them to church, which is something we're praying, fasting, working, and teaching for with all the tools we can.  Hopefully we see some resulting attendance.

Thank you for your prayers.  They were very much heard this week.  I thought about it through the whole week that someone must be praying really hard for us and our people, because miracles have been flowing in earnest.  I'll have to let you read my journal about it sometime.  Thank you so much.  I love you with all my heart and pray for you as well.  Look for the return blessings, because they're on their way.

Love you!

Elder Brown

Many Difficulties but Plenty of Good

Hey mom and dad :) .   

I don't know if I like how transfers went.  My companion is still the same as last transfer, which is really good because I like him and couldn't handle a difficult companion on top of everything else.  There are a lot of struggles in the branch right now, and a huge portion of the load falls on me.  There are many things out here I never thought I'd ever encounter on my mission, but there it is.  By the way, Leeds (where Elder Frahm got sent) is really far away from here, so anyone found and taught there won't be a part of this branch.

In spite of the many difficulties and challenges we face, there have also been plenty of good things to be grateful for.  We taught a lot of lessons this week, scheduled some surprise people for baptism, and found some new people to teach in both Sheffield and Doncaster.  Church attendance was a huge disappointment (easily the most difficult commitment to get people to keep), but the rest of the week was pretty successful.  In one lesson in the Gleadless area of Sheffield we were teaching a lesson with some people we found there a while back when their 22-year-old son came in, who we'd not taught before.  He stood there for a bit, listening, then sat down.  He asked us why so many people said bad things about this church, and this led into a really good conversation.  He listened well and asked further questions that were also quite good, in the end telling us about an experience he'd had with another church (the one preaching against us).  Basically, the pastor of that faith showed up at their house one day before church and verbally forced L (the name of the guy we were talking to) to come.  Immediately upon entering the building, L felt terrible about the atmosphere and things that were going on there, so he ran outside and walked all the way home alone in the dark.  He asked me what that was, and I explained that it was God warning him to leave, and that he'd done well in following the prompting.  L listened more to what we taught, and when we invited him to be baptized, he readily agreed, accepting a date as a goal as well.

We also ended up scheduling the 25-ish year old brother of a lady we scheduled a couple of weeks back, which was a total surprise.  We went there with Brother N to teach her, but she wasn't home and her brother was, so we started teaching him.  Our Elder's quorum president wandered into the lesson partway through and ended up bearing great testimony of baptism.  Also present was Ludo's (the one we were teaching's) father, who was baptized back in December, and he was a fantastic support as well.  God was there in strength, so it felt quite right to offer him the baptismal invitation as well, which he accepted, and then accepted a date as well to work towards.  In essence, good things are happening in our teaching, but we need people to be taking steps of their own by doing things like coming to church.  That's what we're really working for and having a hard time coming up with results, so we'll keep pursuing that as best we can.

This week's been busy, but it's been good as well.  I know God will help us with the things we need as long as we keep striving to do and be our best.  Thank you for your prayers; they are heard by God and felt by me.  I'm so grateful for you, and I love you very much.  I look forward to reading your letters :) . 

Love you lots!

Elder Brown

Big Changes and a Full Planner

Ahoj, mom and dad :) .  You're right, this is transfer week, and holy cow!  Things got crazy.  Elder Sindylek is going home, so Elder Williams will finish training Elder Pohorelicky in Rotherham, leaving the flat we've been together in our whole mission.  Elder Frahm got transfered to the Leeds 3 area to build a Slovak area there--that one was a huge shock to us all.  He'll be in a tripanionship, which means he'll for sure be training the new MTC-trained Slovak-speaking missionary coming in mid-transfer.  What does this mean for me?  I'm all of a sudden in a 2-man flat, the area Elder Williams and Elder Frahm have been covering now has to be absorbed into either our area or Elder Pohorelicky's, and I'm losing my mission father (E. Sindylek), twin (E. Williams), and son (E. Frahm) all in one fell blow.  Dang.  This'll be a really interesting transfer.  We're trying to get things arranged for the Rotherham Elders to get a car, because that way I don't have to take on an entire area (leaving me to cover two entire large cities and 14 individual areas by myself) and Elder Williams can continue teaching his investigators.  Crazy stuff, but I'm sure it'll all work out.

Aside from all that, our week has been really good.  We've found some good success both finding and teaching in all of our areas, which is fantastic.  I've never had so many potentials in my planner--I've got the rest of this week to try and fill the last page available, because that's what I'm on.  We scheduled a couple more people for baptism this week, and as for the others who were all previously scheduled, they all still are.  We had to reschedule a couple of them because they needed a bit more time, but they'll come around soon enough.  I'll send you pictures when it happens.  Our last branch baptism from a while back ,Pavol and Margita, came to church this week after a couple weeks of missing, which was fantastic to see. Margita's doing a lot of missionary work with her friends and family, and she also brought a lot of great thoughts up in Relief Society.  Hooray!  It's always great to see things like that happening.

That's all I've got time for this week (sorry for the shorter email, I had a lot more to read from other people's emails this week).   Thank you for all of your love and support.  It makes the hard times easier and the good times better.  I'm excited to hear from you next week and tell you what this new one has brought for me.  Love you much!!

Elder Brown

My current mission family

Elder Sindylek's last week at church group picture.

Us with the Sheffield 2 Elders, one of which is leaving the zone