May 27, 2013

Hallo!

The Champions League final zwischen Bayern and Dortmund was this weekend. Literally everyone was watching it. Except us. Haha. But it was all anyone was talking about at church on Sunday. Some big Dortmund fans in the ward were getting trash talked a little bit in Ward Council and stuff... Pretty funny.

Well, let’s see what I can remember about this week... It was good. Haha like always. But we had District Meeting in Düsseldorf on Thursday, and that´s always good. Today´s a Zone p-day in Düsseldorf so I´m here right now actually. I like this city a lot.

We had some good lessons with one of our investigators this week, prepping for baptism. But then, I also had a split with another greenie in Wuppertal, so that was fun. It actually was really fun. We just had an eating appointment and a member appointment, so it wasn´t too crazy. Wuppertal´s tight. Look up "wuppertal schwebebahn"... yeahhhh haha. Pretty sweet. 

On our way home on Friday (I think)... we were on the bus, and a lady came up to us and asked about our nametags (in English!) haha, so I was already excited. But then we just talked about what we did and she had a bunch of pretty deep questions about life and stuff.. so I really enjoyed that conversation. But then she gave us her number so hopefully we set something up there. I would very much enjoy that .

Nothing too crazy happened this week. We really just set up appointments and keep ourselves busy most of the day, and there´s often a lot of travel time, so nothing too crazy happens. Just missionary work. Haha it´s really fun though. I´m looking forward to the day here in Düsseldorf. 

I did hear about the tornadoes in OK... One of the members told me about it. He also said something about a flood? (maybe talking about the same thing... Idk) but yeah... that´s no good. Hopefully all the crazy stuff back home is done for a while. 

Say hi to the ward for me in testimony meeting or something. And tell them to give the missionaries referrals haha. 

Well, that´s like all I can think of right now...

Anyways, love you guys!!! Schöne Woche noch

Elder Brown

(Dinner appointment at a member's house on an exchange)

May 21, 2013

Hallo!

It was Pfingsten (Pentecost?) yesterday, and everything was closed, so we moved our P-day to today, so sorry for the heartache of no email yesterday. Haha but that´s another thing that I like about Deutschland, they have holidays all the time, and actually observe them. The first day I got here was a holiday, and we asked a guy on the street what it was, and he said, "the Erste Mai!" ... The first of May. Haha. So tight. 

But anyways, the week went well, let’s see if I can remember what happened. On Monday, I did indeed hit H&M, as well as Deichmann, and C&A. I very much enjoy shopping here.

On Tuesday we had District Meeting in Düsseldorf which is always fun (and provides great nap time on the Bahn). Then we spent most of the day traveling to and from Monheim for a lesson with a guy. He´s cool, wants to quit smoking (like everyone else). Gave him a blessing, it was cool. Then that night we had a lesson with the investigator who´s our main focus right now. He´s super tight.  Told us he reads his Book of Mormon every night and takes notes on his laptop. Pretty cool. But he now has a baptismal date for June 29. We´re excited. 

Wednesday was Frankfurt for trainers and greenies and that was tight. Train ride to Frankfurt is realllllly long but really pretty. I slept most of it. The meeting was tight though. Got to see all my MTC buds so that was cool. Didn´t get home til like 22 so that was all we did that day. Thursday we met with the less active member who teaches us German. He´s such a boss. He gave us a news article about a bishop in Utah that scared off a robber with a samurai sword. Kinda cool. But then I have like no idea what we did the rest of the day. Met with another investigator who also wants to quit smoking. But he´s a really cool, chill guy. Lessons with him are cool. 

Friday we met with an older member in a nursing home that we go by once a week. Probably my favorite person in the world. He´s so awesome haha. But then we went by another less-active member. He´s a guy that´s super tight. He´s got tats and guns and knives all over the place, and he makes jam. But that was fun. And he gave us jam. It´s delicious.

Saturday was a mission-wide finding day and we bombed it pretty bad so we´ll move on to Sunday haha. Sunday´s always great. Ward is super cool, had an eating appointment and it was good. Then went home and planned. Good chill day. 

Yesterday was a great day. We had a Pfingst Frühstuck in the Gemeinde and it was off the chain. Had like 5 nonmembers there so it was even better. Side note, if I´m not 300 lbs by March 2015 it will be a small miracle. Took the sacrament to a lady in the ward with some health problems... Then visited an older couple with a member of the bishopric and gave them blessings. It was a good day. 

Other than that, I´m loving it here. Deutschland is awesome. The ward is super cool, and I just like it a lot.

 I hope everyone has a schöne Tag and wish everyone well for the kommende Woche.

Love you guys!

Elder Brown

Arriving in Germany

P-day in Solingen

Scenery in Solingen

May 13, 2013

We Skyped with Elder Brown on Mother’s Day so his letter was kind of short the next day – a picture is attached – it was great to talk to him and he looked and sounded great!

Hallo!

The past week was pretty good. We´ve been having some pretty good success, and have two pretty solid investigators right now. One of them came to church yesterday and really enjoyed it, so that´s cool. He´s from Kosovo. He´s a really cool dude and we´re looking forward to meeting with him more often. 

Our other investigator didn´t make it to church because his girlfriend was sick, but he´s really cool too and really interested in the church. He´s German and he´s really cool and pretty funny. Those are always fun appointments so I´m looking forward to that. 

Other than that, we work a lot with less-actives and our young adults. Just to kind of help lay the foundation for the future of the church here in Germany. But I really enjoy that especially. We have some super tight, interesting less active members. And then we have three really strong YSA´s that are super cool. It´s fun working with them, and helping them talk with friends and stuff. 

Other than that, I just really like Germany. I love train rides to and from Solingen, they´re super cool. Went through Köln the other day and that´s a super cool city. The food is wonderful. I don´t know how I ever lived without pomm-döners. The Haribo factory in town is also very convenient haha. 

This week is looking like it´ll be pretty busy. We’ll lose a day because of our trip to Frankfurt this weekl, so we have to fit everything into one less day. That´ll be fun. 

Well, if you guys ever have any questions about Deutschland, let me know! I feel like my emails are really boring... haha. But I love you guys, and I hope everything is going well for everyone!

Auf Wiedersehen

Elder Brown

May 6, 2013

Hallo!

My first email from Germany... kinda crazy. But I´ll get right down to it I guess... Also it´s telling me I´m spelling every word wrong so that´s kinda annoying. Haha but whatever. 

Well, the first week was pretty dope. We landed Wednesday morning and got right down to business. Me and my bud Elder Rogers went out contacting with an elder who was going home, so that was cool. My lone contact was asking an old dude dragging a bag if I could help, and him replying "es gibt kein Gott" {There is no God}... pretty tight haha. Then he started going through the trash. Then we did a bunch of awful paperwork and ate pizza with President and Sister Schwartz. They´re super cool. But then we went to the super foreign Holiday Inn Express and passed out. 

On Thursday morning I met my trainer, Elder Allen, and we headed out to my first area... Solingen. It´s up in the northwest part of the mission, right next to Düsseldorf. It´s a really cool place.. probably about the size of Denton... but Deutsch haha. That took most of the day... Then we went and helped a Nigerian lady paint her apartment. 

Friday, we went to the other city in our area, Remscheid, which is about the same size, to see some less actives but didn´t find any of them. Then we went and helped Esther again. Three YSA´s {Young Single Adults}.. or JAE´s auf Deutsch, have helped us with that... They´re all super tight. A couple are preparing for missions so that´s really cool. But after that, I had my first döner (basically the equivalent of a hamburger in America as far as availability, cost, and healthiness go...) which is basically a gyro. They´re soooo good. I will be eating many haha. 

Saturday we had district meeting in Düsseldorf... District is cool. We went on splits and did a finding day there. I went with an Elder who´s on his last transfer. He´s from Bountiful, but he went to UNT before the mish and spent some time in the YSA ward... - Elder Hall. Also, finding here is a tad difficult. Then we had an appointment back in Solingen... and it was kinda crazy haha. I don´t even know what to say. We went through the 15-step program to quit smoking.... 

First Sunday was really cool. There´s about 70 active members, and they´re pretty sweet. Lots of English is spoken here by the way... so that’s nice. Still learning a lot of Deutsch though. I gave my testimony and introduced myself auf Deutsch. They all said I did wonderful haha. Then we had a dinner appointment that lasted from after church until planning time basically haha. It took like an hour and a half to get there switching buses and everything, but it was great once we got there. It was with the ward mission leader. We had a barbecue and we didn´t even eat like half the meat, and we ate a lot. So that was nice. 

But today we helped the Nigerian sister again... it was cool. 

Anyways, Deutschland has been tight so far. That´s about it for today

Auf Wiedersehen!

Elder Brown

April 23, 2013

Hayden's address will change now that he has left the MTC. See the sidebar for his updated address.

Hallo!

Well, here it is, my last email from the MTC... Pretty crazy. Everything we do this week, we're like, "this is our last.... blah blah blah" haha. Going to be bittersweet next Tuesday for sure. But the past week has been really tight.

This week was cool. We have choir practice before Tuesday devotional, so they're always setting up while we sing. Everyone always speculates when they're setting up a teleprompter haha, so we were all like, it's gonna be an Apostle, it's gonna be an Apostle… And it was this time!  Elder Richard G. Scott came and spoke to us for Tuesday night devotional. It was so tight. They don't tell you beforehand so it was pretty cool when he came in. The choir sang, too... so I got to sing "Nearer, My God to Thee" in the presence of an apostle. Pretty tight.

He talked about prayer, and it was soooo good. And at the end he said "I feel impressed that I should give an Apostolic blessing on those of you learning languages... that through study and faith, you won't just learn the language, you'll master it." It was pretty sweet, especially since he hadn't talked at all about languages or anything. And then after the closing hymn, he got up and beat the sister giving the closing prayer to the pulpit and gave a little P.S. I don't really remember what he said but it was pretty funny.

Other than that, the week went well, just like all the other weeks. Our district hosted [the arriving new missionaries] last week, and we are again this week. It's pretty fun. And it makes you feel experienced haha. BYU Men's Chorus came for devotional last night and it was really good. But that's about it.

Next one will be from Germany. Crazy. But until then, love you guys, thanks for writing while I've been here. You guys are the best.

Auf Wiedersehen

Elder Brown

April 16, 2013

Hallo!!

Erste, Happy Late Birthday to the Grifsta, thought of you on Sunday man.

But anyways, the past week went great. It's kinda hard to write emails that I feel are interesting because we literally do the same thing every week... but it's a great same thing. Past week was good, though. Our Sunday devotional was with the Church's Director of Media, and he talked about the growing ad campaign by the church (largely in response to the Book of Mormon musical haha). It was really interesting. It's pretty crazy how much the Church is willing to put in to spread the Gospel (his point was that the Lord "hastening his work" didn't just mean more missionaries). But a lot of the talk was about how the Church has a huge ad presence in England right now and will be pushing further into Europe soon, so that's exciting.

Two weeks left... So weird. The MTC has seriously been one of the craziest, hardest, most rewarding experiences ever, and I know the mission field will be even crazier. It's going to be a really bittersweet morning on April 30th. But I'm so excited.

Had a weird experience yesterday. Our teacher told us about the terrorist act at the Boston Marathon, and it really kind of took us all aback. You forget what it's like to live in the real world here, literally. It was just really weird. Made me think a lot about President Kimball's quote about us being set apart from the world. But anyways, I'll keep those in Boston in my prayers.

MTC is going great, only one more email from in here! Love you guys, hope to hear all about how everyone is doing!

Auf Wiedersehen
Elder Brown

April 9, 2013

Hallo!! General Konferenz Wochenende war sehr, sehr gut. We literally just watched General Konferenz and then did whatever we wanted haha. It was awesome. On Saturday, we watched the morning and afternoon sessions, and then before Priesthood session a bunch of the elders from the Zone played hacky sack for like an hour. It was really nice to have a weekend to kind of unwind a little bit. But Konferenz was sweet! I loved Elder Cook's talk and Elder Uchtdorf's from Priesthood. Powerful stuff. But watching Konferenz in the MTC is pretty sweet. It was pretty funny when Elder Anderson (I think) made the comment about the "bulging Provo MTC"... Everyone laughed because that is very, very true. More people come every Wednesday than the last. By the time we leave, this place is gonna be crazy. But Sunday was even better! We watched morning and afternoon session just like Saturday, but then we had choir practice (yeah, I'm in the choir, whatever) and this week we're singing an awesome arrangement of Be Still, My Soul. Ich liebe dass Lied . So that was tight, especially after watching Konferenz. But then our Sunday Night Devotional was with Vocal Point, and it was pretty tight. They just sang hymns and gave testimonies about missions and stuff, but it was awesome. They said it was their first time at the MTC, so that's kinda cool. But that was basically the weekend for us. 

I blew it pretty bad in March Madness this year. I haven't even been thinking about it though haha... The first email I got about it I was like "wait, what?" Congrats to Dad though. 

Today is halfway in the MTC. Pretty crazy. It really has gone by so fast. We're all itching to go to Germany. But we're also enjoying the time here. By the way, I've gained 6 pounds since I've been here haha. Pretty tight. 

 It's hard to think of groundbreaking things to share about the MTC... I'll try to write things down throughout the week for the next one. But thank you guys so much for everything! Love you guys, the MTC is awesome, keep writing, the Church is true.... 

Auf Wiedersehen 

Elder Brown