December 30, 2013

Hey!!

Well... I don't know what to start with now, but it was sweet to talk last week! It seriously was so awesome. And yes, I was able to see Amanda and Brian and Olivia on the iPhone. You guys were just on top of your technology game, I was impressed! Haha.

But Christmas was great, thanks for everything! But all I know about Elder Langford's comp is that his name is Elder Young and he plays the euphonium... and he knows about Brother Bowman, which I guess is kind of a natural thing for someone who plays the euphonium. But yeah, that's all I know.

But just want to say thank you to everyone for everything you've done for me in the past year, whether it was a letter or a package or an email or a prayer or anything. It all means so much to me. This year has definitely been an interesting one. I will probably look back on 2013 as a year where I learned more than ever before. It was really hard, even before March 20th, and I had a lot of opportunity to learn from challenges. I've gained a lot in regards to my testimony of Jesus Christ and his Gospel, and I'm so grateful for that. The examples of, and relationships with, my friends and family have always been a huge part of my life, and that hasn't changed even as I've been on the other side of the world. Thank you for that, and for the support you give me. 2014 will be just as challenging I'm sure, but I'm grateful for the opportunity and for the countless things I'm sure I'll learn.

Have a great New Year's everyone, and I hope 2014 has great things in store for all of you!

Tschüß!

Elder Brown

December 23, 2013

Hello and Merry Christmas!

Crazy that it's time to say that again. 2013 went by very fast. That's really wierd. But that's sweet that Griff is back, I'm sure you guys are having a great time.

But that's awesome that Guyer won again. I'm sure it's a fun time in Denton right now. Sounds like BYU is living up to expectations haha.

I'm glad you enjoyed the pictures, I thought that would be a nice Christmas present. The internet cafe we use here in Oberhausen is.... nice, so it isn't the easiest thing in the world to accomplish. But alas, I pulled it off. 

That would be sweet if Sister Weiland was teaching Sunday School again... at least for the kids in that class. She was the best Sunday School teacher ever. Tell the Weilands hi for me next time you see them. I miss playing ball up at the church with them a lot. 

But things are going well here. I like this area a lot, and it reminds me a lot of Solingen. But as is the case for most in the winter time, we've been trying to meet with the members a lot and not freeze to death, so that's been fun. There are some really cool members here, so it's fun. We also helped with move on Saturday, and I actually always enjoy that, so that was fun. But this week is looking really good, we feel like we're gonna have a lot of fun for Christmas. So don't worry about me!

But things are going well, hope you guys have a great Christmas! I love you guys and am so thankful for everything you do and for the opportunity I have to be in such an awesome family! Until Wednesday!

Elder Brown

< We got to Skype with Elder Brown on Christmas and he looks and sounds great. He says Hi to everyone!>

December 16, 2013

<Short email today, but…hey… we got some pictures!>

Hey everybody!

Sounds like you all had a good week! Things were good here, anxious for Christmas though. Sounds like the Christmas party was good.... Brother Barnett's fajitas.... oh man. It's kinda ridiculous how much I miss Mexican food. But our tacos are alright.

But the week was good, not super eventful. We had Zone Conference, so that was good. We went to the Düsseldorf Christmas market afterwards and sang, so that was cool. But we had ward council on Wednesday and they want us (the elders) to sing at the Christmas service on Christmas Eve... they want us to sing an American Christmas song... but basically all the German ones are just translations of English ones haha. Except Silent Night. That song is like sacred here. So we'll see what we can do there. It'll be interesting for sure. 

That's sweet that Guyer's going back to state, hopefully they can pull it off. I'm hoping someday I'll make it to a Bundesliga game here. I've been up in Dortmund country most of my mission, but there's Bayern fans everywhere. And a lot of people here are FC Schalke fans here as well. Just in case you want to honor me in any holiday FIFA playing ;)

But not much to report on, and we'll talk next week, so I'm gonna try and get some pics on here. 

December 9, 2013

Hey everybody!

That's crazy about the weather... It was pretty funny this week actually. It was kind of cold and windy and we had a lunch appointment with some members. At the end of the appointment, she asked us if we'd heard about the storm that was coming that afternoon. We hadn't, and she told us that a storm was supposed to be coming that was gonna be huge, and that they'd never had a storm warning like this in a long time of living here. So we're all like dang... but then nothing that day really happens. But then late that night, Zone Training for the next day in Dortmund gets cancelled, because of the storm. So we just assume it's coming later than expected. And then the next day it snows for like 2 minutes and then the rest of the day is really nice... by German December standards. So we were just like... well, our plans got ruined for nothing haha. So that was a fun day. But it's actually been fairly nice here recently. It's pretty cold, but that's about it. And it rains every now and then, nothing too bad.

That's sweet that Olivia's bday is this week! Tell her Happy Birthday from me!

My birthday was good. We did indeed make tacos, and they were delicious. I did get the Fuzzy's seasoning, so that was in one of the packages I've already gotten haha. But that was a wonderful addition to the bday tacos. I bought myself a new sweater and some gloves... So thanks!

My area is an existing area that got an extra set of elders - aka me and Elder Langford, who was already here just split it with is old companion. 

But other than that, things are good. Trying to keep everything going in the winter... visiting a lot of members, which is always fun. But things are rolling along. I hope you guys have a good week!

Elder Brown

December 2, 2013

Hey everybody!

Yeah, I'm pretty excited for my birthday on Wednesday, we're making tacos! Haha it'll be great. 

The transfer went well, and I did indeed spend Thanksgiving on a train/at a train station. We got to Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof at about 11 and I got to Oberhausen (the city right next to Mülheim where we actually live) at about 5. So that was fun. My new companion is way cool. He's from Provo and his name is Elder Langford. We like a ton of the same music, and his favorite band is Brand New... so we talk about that a lot. He was at a bunch of the same concerts as me last year which was kinda funny. But yeah, things are going well there. He's also super tall so I look tiny all the time. 

Oberhausen/Mülheim is pretty sweet. In case you didn't learn it in your research, it has the biggest mall in Europe, and 2 others that are up there as well... so that'll always be a nice P-day fall back plan. The ward is way cool, about the same size as Solingen, so nothing too new there. Way cool people though. I'm excited. I've met with a few of them and all the appointments have been fun. We've got the Christmas party this week too so that'll be fun.

Sounds like you all had a good Thanksgiving week - I did indeed have a Thanksgiving dinner/lunch in Darmstadt that the senior couple there made. It was wonderful. 

My new ward, Mülheim ward, is actually in Dortmund Zone/Stake so that's a little something new. It's right on the border of Düsseldorf Zone though and we have Zone Conference in Düsseldorf next week so that'll be fun. It is very much like Solingen in appearance/people/weather though, so that's good to be back to something I'm accustomed to.

But other than that, just getting settled in here right now. Looks like we've got some good things happening here and I'm excited to get going.

Have a great week everybody!! Love you all, 

Elder Brown

November 25, 2013

Hey everybody!

Crazy that it got so cold there, and that you said it was colder than here at some times. That's pretty cold. But as far as news goes, there was a little surprise this weekend. We had transfer calls... and I'm going right back up where I came from haha. Not exactly Solingen, but pretty close. We'll be opening a new area in Mülheim an der Ruhr. Sounds pretty classy so we'll see. But that was a pretty big surprise. We call it getting "ghosted" when someone is only in an area for 1 transfer, and now I get to join that group haha. But this 6 weeks in Langen was pretty crazy. It was extremely hard, 6 of the hardest weeks of my life... but at the same time I love this place and I'm so grateful I had the opportunity to serve here with Elder Squires and to work with this branch. The members here are really awesome and I learned a LOT about myself and who I want to be in the last 6 weeks, regardless of how hard they were. I'm excited for yet another new experience though. So yep, there was a bit of news there.

The meeting with President Osguthorpe and Elder Ridd was really good. President Osguthorpe just talked a lot about teaching and how to make progress with investigators, and Elder Ridd kinda took on the other parts of missionary life, like exercise and study and obedience. He made a couple missionaries come up and do pushups and situps and jumping jacks super fast for a couple minutes, and then was like, if you think you can't do good morgen sport in 30 minutes... you're wrong. It was pretty funny. I've actually done pretty decent on that though so wasn't chastened too much. 

Olivia's "this is incredible" made me laugh. Reminded me of Elf... "that's shocking!" I've found myself quoting that movie a lot in the past couple weeks. Can't believe Christmas time is already almost here. As far as Thanksgiving, I know a couple members who are doing Thanksgiving dinners... but they're American so yeah. But lucky for me I get to take a nice long train ride on Thanksgiving! Wooooo. Haha it'll be fun though. The senior couple in Darmstadt is actually making a Thanksgiving meal for us after District Meeting on Wednesday, so don't worry, I'll still be taking part. 

That's unfortunate about the BYU games. Sounds like the basketball team should be set up pretty well. I met Elder Emery the other day, he's a pretty cool dude. That's sweet that Payton Dastrup switched his commitment though. And thanks for the basketball scores haha, those will come in handy. 

I collected all the packages at the meeting on Tuesday, thanks for everything!! And since I got transferred, along with a lot of the missionaries in the district, we'll be eating the brownies today in Darmstadt. But really, thanks for all the stuff, it was sweet. And be sure to thank the Young Women for me, they sent me a little package with some candy, and some wonderful smelling hand sanitizer.

Anyways, the week was great. Had a great time with Elder Squires, and I'm going to miss him a lot. Like I said, I've learned a ton here in 6 weeks. Excited for the new challenge, but not really looking forward to packing up and shipping out again. I'll get over it though. Thanks for everything you do, and have a great week! Love you all,

Elder Brown

November 18, 2013

Hey everybody!

85 degrees..... I can assure you that it is not 85 degrees here haha. I can imagine that that is nice though. It's getting pretty dang cold over here. Getting closer and closer to the 0 mark on the thermometer (Celsius of course, but still...) Probably won't be too much longer before we start to see some snow. We'll see though.

We did get to go to the temple on Saturday, which was awesome. We actually went up pretty early in the morning and did confirmations for a baptism session. It was a ward temple trip so it was just us and members of the ward. So that was sweet. Two Americans doing confirmations in German of people with French names... it was beautiful. But then we were also able to do an endowment session with all the adult ward members officiated by our branch president and his wife.. so that was pretty cool. 

I did receive the first birthday package and it was wonderful. The Take-5's are already gone. 

That's sweet that Stake Conference had a lot to do with Hastening the Work... ours here in Heidelberg did as well. It's pretty nice to be a missionary now and have that as a resource in our interactions with members. It'll be interesting to look back down the road and see how these changes take shape. Pretty exciting. 

Well, it was good to have some good news about BYU sports... I'm glad the basketball team is looking good. I miss BYU basketball probably more than football. Crazy that the season is already starting up again. That's too bad about Todd Christensen... dang. 

But yeah, this week was good. The temple was a highlight, but we had fun. This is the last week of the transfer... which is insane. Time goes so fast. But we have the opportunity tomorrow to meet with President Osguthorpe, the General Sunday School President, tomorrow for a missionary meeting. It's just Frankfurt Zone, Langen, and Darmstadt districts so that will be pretty sweet. We're excited for that. 

But other than that, I hope everything is going well, and that everyone has a great week. 

Tschüß!

Elder Brown

November 11, 2013

Hey everybody!

Pretty quiet week here in Langen as well, so we're in the same boat there. But it was still good and had some good stuff happen. Just keeping it going haha. 

We had a pretty solid dinner appointment last night. We went over to a couple in the ward who are way cool. He is American, retired from the Air Force, and she is from here, maybe Austria... I don't know, she speaks German though. But they made us the biggest steaks I have ever seen in my life. I ate a LOT of steak and I still had like a fourth of it left. So we'll be eating those for lunch when we get back to the apartment. But she made some delicious potatoes and salad too so it was pretty solid. And he had gotten A&W Root Beer, either from a base here or from America, but anyways, we had it and it was wonderful. And he gave us a couple to take home so those are also waiting for me. They are way cool though, so yesterday was a good day.

Stonebriar... it's going to be crazy going there and NorthPark again because Germany does not have that kind of mall. They have little malls every now and then, but nothing like those places. Most shopping here is done on the Fuß, which is kind of like a big outdoor pedestrian plaza, kind of like the Southlake Town Centre.

Germany doesn't do anything really around Thanksgiving that I know of. Except our Elder's Quorum is having a Turkey dinner on the 29th for a Voradventfeier... Advent is the beginning of December as far as I know. I'll get my holiday knowledge straightened out here sooner or later. But as you read in that article you sent me... Germany takes Weihnachten seriously. I'm pretty excited. 

I haven't seen anything too historical or crazy since I've gotten here, but one little sobering but kinda cool thing they do here (Germany that is) as a memorial for the Holocaust, is in front of houses where Jewish people lived during the war, they have little tiles on the sidewalk for every person that say if they escaped or were killed and when they were taken from their homes and stuff. So that's a pretty eye-opening thing to see when we come across them. 

Too bad about the BYU game... I'm pretty sure I've given up expecting the football team to come through so I'm not as devastated as I would be before. My mind has shifted to basketball now haha. March Madness is coming up again! In like 4 months but whatever!

The work is going well. Pretty slow, and kinda frustrating at times, but it goes forward anyways. The branch is really cool and I love the members.  We'll keep going haha. I'm having fun, and time is flying. I can't believe it's already the middle of November. 

The language is going good, by the way.

But... anyways, that's about it from my side. Hope everyone has a great week, and know that I love you all!

Tschüß!

Elder Brown

November 4, 2013

Hey everybody, 

My November has also gone great so far. Halloween wasn't anything too special here... we taught English class to an older member in the ward, so that was fun, and then we watched On the Lord's Errand auf Deutsch for language study... pretty exciting stuff.

Thanks for the email addresses! I'll have to ask Landon if he's met an Elder Cottle (my friend Hayden) because they're in the same mission. He said (Hayden) that he thinks he's met Carina but he can't remember for sure. Cool connections though.

This week was good here in Langen. Still a little slow, but starting to pick up. We have started teaching the wife of one of the members in the branch, and that's been fun. She's from the Philippines, and she's way cool. We're excited about that. And then we met with a lot of members and had some great appointments. One of the sisters in the ward is from France and we made crepes and they were wonderful. I told her about Flip Happy Crepes and it made me want to go to Austin haha. But we also had some cool experiences talking to people on the street. We printed off a big QR code to a Mormon Message and just went around asking people to scan it, and one guy did. He then watched the whole video and we gave him a Book of Mormon. It was pretty cool. We'll see where that goes. Then on the way back from District Meeting, we were walking back to the apartment and two girls told us to come and tell them happy birthday... so we did haha. Then we talked about what we do and the Church for a couple hours. So we'll also see where that goes. Lots of potential... now we just wait and see what they do. So is life. 

Oh yeah, fun fact. President Uchtdorf used to be the Stake President here. Kinda cool. A member couple showed us a picture of them with him a while back and he looked way young. It was kinda funny.

I loved Dad's mission stories, I've definitely had many similar ones here. I need to start being more detailed in my journal, I've been pretty basic so far. New goal for the week. 

But yeah, that's about it right now. Things are going well. Have a great week everyone, and I love ya,

Elder Brown 

October 28, 2013

Hey everybody!

Happy Halloween! Good ole Trunk or Treat... Yeah, I definitely want to do a trunk or treat next year wherever I am. I know that they're having one in Darmstadt (bigger city right below us, also the biggest ward in the mission) and we're way jealous. It would be way cool. I'm sure Olivia will have fun with that though.

But yeah, things are going great after getting settled down here in Langen, I'm excited to be here. 

The week was pretty good. One of the slower weeks I've had on the mission as far as teaching goes (the area's kind of a work in progress) but we actually were pretty busy. We helped a couple times with moves, which is always nice to do some good manual labor haha. We helped one family move within the ward boundaries, and then helped a new family move in, so that was cool.

But then I also went on a split to Darmstadt, and that was fun. Fun fact for the day: The piano that President Uchtdorf tells the story about in the "Lift Where You Stand" talk is the piano in the Darmstadt church building... so yeah, saw it, it was sweet. I also stayed in Langen on a split and that was interesting finding my way around. Luckily the area's pretty small. 

The weather has actually been surprisingly nice, but it's starting to get colder and rainier. It'll soon be time to break out the big guns as far as clothes go haha.

But yeah, that's about it at the moment….love you guys, have a great week!

Elder Brown

October 21, 2013

Hey everybody!

Hello from Langen! Transfers went about as smoothly as you can hope for, so that was nice. Just packed up all my stuff, and then jumped on a train from Düsseldorf to Frankfurt early Thursday morning. That takes about 2 hours. Once we got to Frankfurt Hbf, we just kind of hung around there for a little bit talking and getting lunch with the other missionaries getting transferred. It was a cool opportunity to see some people that got transferred away from Düsseldorf  while I was there, as well as some people from my MTC group. So that was fun. 

The branch here is actually larger (as far as attendance) than Solingen was, which is kind of interesting. It could possibly become a ward pretty soon. And they are so cool. I'm way excited to work here. They are just way excited to help us out and they're just overall pretty tight. I like it here already. I'll probably end up doing less at church (sacrament, lessons, etc.) here than in Solingen. Did I tell you guys that I taught Elders Quorum the first Sunday of last transfer in Solingen? That was pretty fun. Just me by myself haha. Chapter 17 in the Teachings of Lorenzo Snow.

Yeah, leaving Solingen was pretty sad. There are some people there that I will definitely never forget. And serving with Elder Anderson will definitely be one of the highlights of my mission. That kid was so cool. 

The first week was pretty solid. My first day here we had a great appointment with a young member couple and ate some delicious waffles. They eat their waffles/pancakes with applesauce a lot in Germany. It's delicious. Then we had our English class at the Church and I talked about corporate citizenship with a Ukrainian guy for like 30 minutes and helped him out with some pronunciation (sp?) so that was pretty tight haha. Then we had a coordination meeting with our Ward mission leader, who is way cool. 

Friday we had Zone Training in Heidelberg, which is a way pretty city. My MTC comp, Elder Renn, is in this zone, so that was great to see him again. Then that night we had our Bibelkreis, or Bible circle, at the Church, and it was way good. One of the members taught about Genesis 3, and it was way interesting. Saturday we helped with a move for a family. Elder Squires and I had a good time constructing an Ikea double bed thing. We kinda hit a road bump at the end and it was us and 3 members debating what was wrong with it and then we just said "We'll get it next time" and went home haha. It was fun. 

Sunday was great, Church was really good, like I said, the gemeinde [ward/congregation] is great and were super welcoming. We had a lunch appointment with a couple which was good. Talked about Elder Nielsen and Elder Ballard's talks. Then we went to the birthday party of our ward mission leader's son and that was fun. 

But other than that, things are just going great. Elder Squires is really cool. Love you guys, have a great week! 

Elder Brown

October 14, 2013

Hey guys!

First off I guess. Transfer calls were this week... and after almost 6 months in Solingen... I'm gone. Kinda sad, but at the same time I'm excited. I'll be serving in a town called Langen, in Heidelberg Zone. It's about a 20 minute S-Bahn (the slowest type of train) ride from downtown Frankfurt... so that's pretty cool. The town is super small though (like 30,000 people) and it's just a branch there. My companion's name is Elder Squires, who was actually in Solingen for 3 transfers before me. So that's cool. He is District Leader. Really weird to be leaving Solingen though. Haven't really wrapped my head around it yet. 

But other than that, the week was pretty quiet. We had a really unexpected death in the ward, so we helped a lot with the funeral preparation and stuff. That was pretty sad. I had a pretty good relationship with a lot of the family, and it was pretty rough on them, so yeah... pretty sad. But the funeral service was really nice. 

But as far as Halloween here... I think they do it, but it's nowhere near as popular. The only time I ever talked to a German about Halloween, they weren't very big fans and just saw it as a money-maker. I think that's probably the view of a lot of people here. We'll see though. 

That's good that BYU had a good game. Hopefully they can settle into a good rythym and finish the season strong. When does basketball season start? I've actually missed BYU basketball way more than football... Kinda surprising. I loved going to those games. How's the team looking this year?

Stanford.... come on. I'll have to talk to Conner about that one. Haha, that's crazy. And I heard Texas beat OU pretty bad... that means BYU is better than OU right??

But yep, biggest thing on my mind is transfers right now. Just crazy that I'm leaving this place. I have loved it, there's been the fair share of ups and downs but it really has become like a home to me. Elder Anderson has really become one of my best friends, and I hope we see each other again sometime in the next 18 months. I'm excited for something new though, and to serve kind of in the middle of everything. I think that will be cool. We've got a lot of appointments with some of the members lined up for the next few days, so I'm excited for that. It's been a good time here. 

Keep being awesome, I don't really need anything right now. Life is good. I'll let you know how transfers go!!

Tschüss!!

Elder Brown

October 7, 2013

Things are going really well here. The weather's nice today, and has been fairly nice for the past week. We had a nice busy week and, in spite of one day spent trying to beat a pretty bad cold, we had a lot of fun. Transfer calls are on Saturday and I'm really just focusing on making it a good, fun week here just in case. I really have loved it here.

That's cool that they broadcast Priesthood session this time, I bet that was nice. Did you still get ice cream though??? That's what's most important. But I did get to see the majority of General Conference. Saturday morning session is on Saturday night here, and we watched that in Köln, but got there late because we had a Zone street display in Aachen that went a little late. We watched that one in German because of some technical difficulties, but I still understood most of it. And then Priesthood was on Sunday morning, back in Düsseldorf. That was good, I really liked President Uchtdorf's talk in that. Then we watched Saturday afternoon session, which I thought was awesome. Elder Nielsen, Elder Holland, and Elder Ballard's talks were awesome. Exclamation point. Then Sunday morning on Sunday night haha. Still haven't watched Sunday afternoon. Really liked Elder Oaks' and President Monson's talks. Those were all in English, btw. 

That was also really cool because one of our Young Single Adult’s roommates came for the Sunday morning (aka night in Germany) session and was like taking notes and everything. Pretty cool. During Elder Oaks' talk she leaned over and said "he's good" or something like that haha. Pretty cool. And she was watching it on an iPhone in Russian. Technology is pretty cool these days. 

The temple a couple weeks ago was indeed in German. It was really cool though, understood basically everything and didn't really have any problems. 

Gosh dang it Rangers..... Oh well. Maybe next year. Good about BYU though. 

That's awesome about Olivia. Man, I can't wait to see that crazy kid again. 

This week was good though. We met with some cool people and just had a good time. I've really grown to love the people here in Solingen, members, less actives, investigators, crazies, the whole bunch. It'll be interesting to see what happens this weekend.

But that's about it. Love you guys!!! Hope everything goes well this week That's about it! Bis nächstes mal!!

Elder Brown

September 30, 2013

Hey!!

Well that was a better way to start off the email than last week... hopefully the Rangers can pull it off. We did get to go down to the temple on Saturday, and that was awesome! I really like the Frankfurt temple. It's in this little town outside of Frankfurt called Friedrichsdorf, and it actually looks a lot like the Dallas temple, both on the outside and inside. So that was cool. Our new member was there to do baptisms, along  with another Young Adult member and her brother, who just turned 12. So that was a really good day. 

Oktoberfest hasn't started yet, but it's definitely big here. I think it's the biggest down in Bayern, in Nürnberg Zone, but I'm sure we'll still have plenty of celebration here. 

You guys better go to the State Fair and eat a bunch of fried stuff! Haha I miss grungy American junk food so much... All we've got is McDonalds... So sacrifice for me. 

This week was pretty good. Things are pretty slow at the moment, but Elder Anderson and I are just trying to keep going forward and try to make things work. It's been really hard getting appointments to go through, so that's been frustrating, but we're still having a good time, and we're building a good relationship with a lot of the ward, which is good. We've got a lot of people that are right under the surface, so to say, and we just gotta bring them out haha. I think this week will be good though. We're excited. 

I can't think of too much that I need at the moment, I trust your judgement with whatever you feel like sending haha. And yeah I know, but sometimes you just need a break from the Haribo!

But that's about it from my side, hope you all have a great week!!

Tschußßß

Elder Brown

September 23, 2013

Heyyy everybody!

Death, taxes, and BYU football crushing the souls of their loyal fans: the three certainties in life. 

That's all I'll say about that haha... but I'm glad that everything else seemed to go well this week! I still think it's so cool that you guys are working at the temple, I hope that's still the case when I get home, that'd be sweet. Elder Anderson and I are hoping to get down to the temple this Saturday with some people from the ward, but we'll see. 

Oh man.. Mr. Chopsticks. I miss that place. It has been far too long since I've had some good sushi. 

That's cool that you had a missionary work sacrament meeting, we're having one this week hopefully where we will all speak for a short time about our missions and then our ward mission leader (coolest guy ever, professional drummer, knows Eminem and Madonna and Phil Collins and stuff) will speak about member missionary work. So that'll be good. 

Glad to know that it isn't just BYU blowing it, and that the Rangers are also doing their best to let everyone down. Haha, man I miss being a part of the ups and downs of sports season. 

But this week was pretty solid. Elder Hawker (new DL in Wuppertal, super cool dude) and I were able to meet with our recent convert's friend on a split, and that was way good. Taught about the Restoration and the Book of Mormon. It went well. Visited an old investigator at the request of his member friend and he might have some interest in starting again, so we'll see where that goes. We had a pretty solid adventure on Saturday. A member of our bishopric gave us a list of names to go by in a city in our area called Wipperfürth. So we did. It took two hours by bus to get to Wipperfürth, and then we walked for an hour to get to the first name. She didn't live there anymore. And we were in the middle of nowhere. Like literally we had no idea. So then we just waited for an hour or so for a bus, took some sweet pics, and then took the bus all the way back. That was our whole day haha. And there's still some names on the list so we might do it again. We'll see. 

But we're excited for this week, we've got a lot of good appointments set up so we think it'll be successful. Things are still going really well with Elder Anderson. His parents are from New Zealand and they've got a condo down there so we're gonna go chill there after the mish. Hope that's cool! :) 

Don't need anything at the moment... Just candy I guess haha. Things are good. 

Love you guys!!

Elder Brown

September 16, 2013

Hey Everybody!!

The week was great here in Solingen! Kind of slow as far as the work goes... tons of cancelled appointments and stuff, so that was kinda frustrating, but Elder Anderson and I have fun anyways. We did get a lot of appointments in with less actives though, so that was good. We're also really trying to do better work with the members, so we've been meeting with them more and talking about missionary work a lot. That's been good.

One of our investigators was sick this week, so we weren't able to meet, but it was still pretty awesome. We were at a dinner appointment with a family in the ward, a really cool younger couple in the ward, and I was telling her about how the week was pretty frustrating because we didn't have much contact with investigators. Then like ten minutes later, our investigator texted me and said that while he was sick he had read the whole Book of Mormon and that he wants to be baptized.... Pretty cool haha. So that made the whole week a lot better. 

Other than that, things are slowly picking up. We're going to start meeting with one of our new member's friends tomorrow, so we're excited about that. Other than that, we've got a good amount of member appointments for the week, so we're excited. 

Yeah this transfer was pretty crazy... there were only about 14 or 15 companionships that stayed the same out of 120ish... so yeah haha. Still haven't been a part of it though.  <The mission had a very large transfer this past week, highlighted in a Church blog – over 150 missionaries at the train station at one time>

Welp, that's about all I got. Things are going well here, I'm loving it. I bought some sweaters and a coat so hopefully I won't freeze to death.

Have a great week everybody! 

Tschußß!

Elder Brown

Elder Brown and his new companion, Elder Anderson

September 9, 2013

Hey everybody!!

First off WASSUP BYU!! That's so sick. Man, I bet that game was awesome. I do miss me some BYU sports haha. Man... that's awesome. They better do the same to Utah. My best buds out here, Elder Divver and Elder Blackley, are both Utes so there will be a lot riding on that one.

Elder Anderson is the man. We're having a ton of fun together and we're excited for the transfer. He's from South Jordan and came here from down in Nürnberg Zone. He's a stud. The other elders are here, and they're cool too. They live way far away from us though. Like a 30 minute bus ride. 

Everything is going good here. Like I said, Elder Anderson and I are getting along super well and things are looking good. We have one investigator who is super cool and has a ton of potential. Other than that, we're just working with all of the less actives and members that we always have. I love the ward here, they're so awesome. 

And, a little bit of cool news, one of the Young Single Adults here got her mission call this week. She's going to Winnipeg Canada English speaking. So she's really excited about that.

But that's about it as of right now.

Love you guys, hope everything is going well!!

Tschußßß

Elder Brown