I'm going to be a step dad!

so this past week we had zone conference with President Trayner and in my interview he told me that I was going to be transferred and that from here on out I am going to be Senior Companion. This is very cool and humbling, so I found this out last Thursday, transfers aren't until next Tuesday. He didn't tell me where I was going but he did say I was going to move. Last night I received a phone call from President Trayner saying that I was getting transferred to Endinburg North which is the same ward just a different area. Its the area of the other elders that live in our apartment, and to top it all off I'm going to be finishing the training of Elder Bennett who arrived last transfer, which means he's technically my Step-Child, in the mission. So I've been here for 1 1/2 transfers and I'm training! I'm a little nervous but extremely humble that the Lord and President Trayner trust me with these responsibilities. Other than that not a whole ton has happened. Just hoping that the mail box this week and next week will be full of presents and cards.


It's a little weird asking for Birthday presents, and maybe I won't get any of these but the thought is there.

Elder Browning

Conference Weekend is the BOMB in the Mission Field

Not a whole ton to report this week...other that yesterday started my BIRTH MONTH!!! GET EXCITED! Presents all day everyday....I can dream can't I?

And what a better way to start my birth month than by listening to the Prophet and Apostles at General Conference. I'm not quite sure what it is but I love Conference. I love going to ALL five sessions and strangely I love going to church for it and being in a suit all day. I learned many things at Conference and I cant wait to put them into practice here in the field and when I get home.

Link to General Conference HERE

So I do have some exciting news, one of the investigators we have been teaching just recently obtained their birth certificates and now can get a marriage license so they can get married and baptized. Get Excited!

Its still getting hotter and hotter and sadly more humid too. I am so glad I will only have to experience one Summer here in South Texas.

OH! I forgot about the CRAZY storm we had on Thursday! In Edingburg (where we live) we just got torrential downpour, like a chicagoan rain storm, but in McAllen they got crazy winds, hail and rain and flooding. It destroyed the subdivision of the Mission Home, so friday morning we were helping to clean up the mess. It was weird seeing the Mission Home with out any windows nor leaves on the tress or bushes and to see 2 feet of the golf ball sized hail which looked liked snow. Crazy day and Crazy storm. But all is well and we are all safe.

Love You,

Elder Browning
200 West LaVista Avenue
McAllen, TX  78501

At least my garlic farts will keep the Vampires away

So if you're a little confused by the title don't be. yes i have garlic farts and yes there are a ton of vampires in south Texas...ok maybe not but i like to think so. so to explain just a little bit about why I have garlic gas....the other day and a majority of last week I wasn't feeling well, a mix of allergies and the dryness here, i was at a members home (Spanish member) and they were telling me about taking a clove of garlic every morning. I didn't really believe them too much but he brought out his i pad and showed me all the health and medical benefits of taking a clove a garlic everyday. surprisingly i have felt a lot better, the only down side is garlic burps and garlic farts and if i sweat a lot, which i usually do, I smell like garlic. the prices you pay for crazy Mexican witch doctor-y.

As for the bike, all is good. it was just a screw that held a essential part to the bike on, i took it from another bike we had lying around in the house and CTR Bikes sent/is sending me a new screw. so no worries, It's starting to get super hot here.

Right now we haven't had any baptisms, we are still waiting for this one family to get married and for their kids arm to heal. Somehow i got roped into playing piano at the baptismal service yesterday and I'll be playing the organ in the Spanish ward after conference. That's about it! not a whole lot going on. this past week we have just been finding people to teach.

I cant wait for conference this weekend! After becoming a missionary I have really come to love this great weekend and the words of the prophet and other leaders of the church!

Love you!
-Elder Browning

200 West LaVista Ave.

McAllen, TX 78501

A little lesson on Murphy's Law

this week started off normal as usual. nothing too exciting. we had zone conferences this week and I learned a lot of things I can apply to myself to become a better missionary. On Saturday we had a Bi-Stake 'Helping Hands' service project. We went to a underprivileged subdivision/trailer park and cleaned up and did some repairs and did some heavy duty lawn work. It was a ton of fun but really weird because we all had normal clothes on for the majority of the day.

Mormon Helping Hands Transform Colonia Conditions link HERE

The package that my family sent came and as I opened it I was greeted by a friendly cloud of cocoa! half of the packets opened up and exploded in the box. So I spent the next few minutes cleaning everything off. I didnt realize how much of a pain cocoa powder is to clean up. its so fine and gets everywhere!

now for a little lesson of murphy's law. Murphy's law states that anything that could go wrong does. well it all started yesterday morning. I woke up with a very sore throat (im hoping its PND and not strep) which doesnt sound bad but i was asked to sing in a trio during relief society. then as we cam home from church and headed out, i was remembered that my bike broke down the night before so i had to fix that. then after fixing my bike and going out, we were ready to head to another appointment and a screw fell off of a major part of the bike, so i had to carry it to a members house so we could go home. (like from our house to the vissers, or blacks) and then it started to rain...it was a day of wrongs but i think it was also a time god wanted to see how i would react to these things.

oh and i forgot to mention, in the past 2 weeks i've had to use my gift of music. not playing the piano, but singing. I have sung 1 solo, and 2 a capella trios which i have sung the lead. its been fun and have been able to share the gospel through music.

love you and thanks for writing me every week!

ps. no more cocoa in future boxes unless they are sent in something other container.

No one said it would be this cold here!

so there has been some adjusting here in the apartment. my new companion and I get along fairly well, he is just sometimes a little over eager...what are you going to do. this past Friday and Saturday it was in the low 40s and it was really windy and rainy, unfortunately we are the only companionship in our zone that don't have a car. so we bundled up the best we could and hit the road. needless to say, buy the time we got home we were wet, sore and cold....nothing a bit of cocoa couldn't fix. we are looking and working really hard to find new people to teach but nothing has been working. we are hoping for some success this week as it is spring break, we are hoping to meet a few family that are willing to listen to us and let the gospel change their lives. that about sums it up for this week. i forgot my camera again so pictures will have to wait for another week.


Love you all, and hope to here from you all soon! this past week i officially completed 10 months!

Meatastic Monday

So not a whole lot happening here. We had a baptism yesterday of a professor from UTPA, he told us before he called us over to begin teaching him he did some research about our church and prayed to know if Joseph Smith was a prophet and he got his answer. So teaching him was fairly easy, yet we saw his testimony grow and his character change in the few weeks we've been teaching him. Yesterday was also stake conference, which was pretty crazy. The talks were the same for both session, but half of the speakers only knew english so someone wrote it for them and they just read it, so needless to say the spanish session was pretty unbearable to be part of, luckily we had to step out and and prepare for Paul's baptism.


Today we are have a bbq and yes the main ingredient is meat and bacon, hence meatastic monday. last week meat was fairly cheap so we bought about 6 pounds of it in hopes to cook it during the week. but then we decided to have a bbq instead, sadly it is raining but hopefully it will lighten up later. if not the meat must go on, its been marinating all night!

 we have transfers this week, however i dont think i'll be moving this time.

as for my spanish...the area i'm in has more english members and a handful of spanish family, so right now i'm about 60% english speaking 40% spanish. its actually helping because i have to be able to switch back and forth so i need to know both really well



Loves
Elder Browning

Week 1 is done and accounted for!

I have officially been here for one week, though it feels like I've been here for months. My bike arrived and I use it EVERYDAY OF MY LIFE! The first few days it was hard solely because my butt was not use to it, but now I'm doing OK. The work is great here, we are having two baptisms next week and hopefully 6 more for the month of March! I will send pictures next week. Along with pictures of my companion and apartment companions. There really hasn't been much going on other than that. Our area is pretty urbanized, but other areas in the zone are pretty rural and there are quite a few trailer park subdivisions.

One cool things about being in the states is that we have furnished apartments and kitchens.  Elder Jackson (apartment comp) and I cook almost every night, out of a little cookbook his mom sent him.

You can tell everyone that I can't write them through email but I can write them through the Post. Also, Hot Chocolate is a big thing in our apartment so if you could drop a hint to Nick Black that would be great!

Love you guys so much and laugh at the fact that its 80 degrees here and its the end of February.

-Elder Browning

I'm here!

so I'm here and I'm safe. I'm in the Edingburg west area which, along with 10 other missionaries includes the entire city of edingburg, TX. My companion is Elder Giron, from Fontana, CA. There are a lot of differences being in the US and especially being in a new mission. The way everyone teaches and shares the gospel is completely different. I feel it's going to take some time to getting use to.  Anyone can email me, however I will have to hand write them back, I know....tough nubs! (Could you put this on my blog and let people know that I wont be able to email back?)

So far I like the area. I'm on a bike and my area is mostly english. Since there are not 2 different missions, we talk to everyone and we as missionaries are assigned to at least 2 wards (one spanish and one english). I really dont have anything to report solely because I just got into the field on Friday. Thursday was a crazy long day. I met 4 other elders at the airport in Dallas. President and Sister Trayner are really great! I have a feeling I will get along just fine here. Well I guess that's it for this week.

I hope to hear from everyone soon.

-Elder Browning
200 W. La Vista Ave
McAllen, TX 78501