El fin se acerca y hay poco tiempo.......(The end is near and there is little time .......)

Welp! This is the last week of my mission and I'm not really sure what to think. This past week wasn't that great and we don't have a ton of stuff set up for this week. We have our quarterly interviews with President and then I have my farewell dinner and interview with him 3 days later. Not exactly sure what we are going to talk about on Friday so...we'll see.

Like I mentioned above, it was a pretty trying week. The great BIG family of 12 that we found doesn't want to progress. But there is another family we are working with that has received their spiritual confirmations that they need to be baptized. It's so funny seeing all the excuses people have to not get baptized and the reason people don't want to be members of the Church of Jesus Christ and receive blessings and the scariest invitation we make is to pray to God and ask him, and most people don't do it because they don't want the answer he is going to give them. I am SUPER happy that this family was able to receive an answer to their prayer and better yet, every single member of the family prayed and received a personal answer. The mom told us yesterday and in another visit that we have been able to quench a thirst that she didn't know she had until we showed up....that right there, is the gospel and the Spirit in full effect!  Well I think that's about it. Just preparing myself for this week and what's to come.

Love
Elder Browning

Conference Weekend

this weekend was amazing...no?!? I received answers to prayers and questions that I brought to conference. I did miss have a big breakfast party but we made due with some wildberry pancakes. I kinda didn't leave myself any time to write you a recap of the week but just know that everything is going GRRRRREAT as Tony the Tiger would say lol We found 2 more families this week and all three families that we are working with came to church....that 15 people in total!!! WE practically tripled the branches....ok maybe not....but we got close. It's so great to see so many things happening and coming together as my 'tour' comes to an end. I only have 2 Sundays left ....holy cow where has the time go. Has hard as i try to slow down time, it just gets faster and faster! Not fair, I don't want to leave! Thanks for all you love and prayers!

Elder Browning

ps. we are still celebrating my birth month here in Laredo! you're all more than welcome to add to the partyness!

You're Invited......

....to my month long BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION! That's right it's that time of year again where Elder Browning turns one year older. I'm going to hit the big 23 this year....that just means that I'm SUPER OLD! at least in my eyes and all the other missionaries' eyes, especially all those whipper snapper 18 and 19 year olds. But who cares....I had a picture of me by our mail box and i was going to tell you that I would be waiting here everyday till I go home but my camera wasn't working so I'll send it next week.


this week has finally we have seen the light at the end of the tunnel. we had a super rough week last week and this week was about the same. we have really been struggling to find people to teach and then to find them again after the first lesson. we have been praying and fasting to do the Lord's will and then the miracle happened. We had talked with a memeber to go out and visit her and her family after church....while at church she told us that she would not be there, but previously we had made plans to work with one of the other members that live out there....in Las Lomas about 22 miles from Laredo. we asked if we could still come out and visit him and he told us that he actually had a family he wanted us to meet. So we meet him and followed him another 10-15 minutes out after making our 30 minute trip already and we pull into this super run down house.....we walk up start to introduce ourselves and do the whole bit and then we ask....so how many kids do you have....we see that there were a lot running around and playing and they said 9! that's ALOT and then you have the 2 parents and the grandma that lives with them....and their not a hispanic family.....9 of the 12 are of baptismal age and the 9 of them accepted to be baptized the 28th of April! this truly was a blessing and a miracle from our Heavenly Father. This was truly a trying few weeks but the Lord is always faithful to his faithful servants. I am so glad that among everything else that is going on here that we stayed diligent and faithful and worthy to receive this blessing. I am so gratefull that we have a loving Heavenly Father that listens and answers our prayers. I am also grateful for the Atonement and the changes that it allowed me to make in my life to that I could finish serving the Lord and find this beautiful family. I know that this is the work of the Lord and he needs now, more than ever, ALL HANDS ON DECK.

Have a wonderful week!

Love,
Elder Browning

si quieres conocer a Mexico, hay que andar por Laredo.....

"Mexico if you want to meet, you have to walk through Laredo ....."

 

We had a 92 year old member from his hospital bed sing us this....it was such a great experience.

This week has been one full of trials....I have learned so much from this past week and so grateful to have a loving Heavenly Father that has entrusted me with such trials. To give you a little background, we have been teaching 2 people that have faced a lot of famiy opposition in their teaching process and their learning of the gospel. We have been fasting and praying so much for them for their family member's hearts to be softened and for the Spirit to be with our investigators even more. One of our investigators got super excited on Thursday to be baptized but later that afternoon she told her mom and her mom then told her that she would not be allowed to do it until she has been investigating the church for 1 year. This was very heart breaking, but what was more disheartening is that she is super afraid of her mom and doesn't want to ask again. We promised her that if she told her mom how she felt about church and everything that she learned that her mom would tell her she could get babptized. (side note she is 19 and doesn't need parental permission, but she's a big momma girl) After our day of fasting we went to our lesson and found out that she called her mom, and her mom sad no...i was so sad but we also found out that she didnt do what we promised and therefore the Lord couldn't fulfill his promise. It makes me sad that the only thing that hold people back is fear. We learned this week that an obstacle only appear when we take our eye off the prize. I know that this is true. I know that the Lord will bless us as we are obedient to what his servants say!

Have a wonderful week!

Elder Browning

In the Streets of Laredo

o to first explain a little about the title, the senior couple that live below us one day this week came up and handed me a piano and asked me to play a song for zone conference called "the streets of Laredo" so I agreed and it turned out to be one of the funniest things i have seen on this side of the Mississippi! the senior sister dressed up in a riduculous cowboy (well girl in her case) costume and she went around singing and getting everyoneelse to sing and she "shot" people and stab people with her tin foil knife...it was pretty humoruos.

 

but that wasn't the only musical experience i had this week, it was zone conference this week and when when there is zone conference there is musical numbers....so guess who had the privileged to participate in another musical number? this kid but this time it was probably one the best one yet and coolest ones. This time I did a duet with a former member of the MORMON TABERNACLE CHOIR that's right THE MOTAB! so take that all of yous that made fun of me singing or playing music....I had the chops to sing a duet with the MOTAB! but really, its was super cool!

 

other than that not a lot has happened. the days keep flying by as hard as i try to hold onto them or slow them down. It was super sad this week because i had to give my departing testimony at zone conference and it just made me realize how little time i have left! yesterday i realized that i can count the number of sundays i have left in the mission field on 1 hand :( its such a bitter sweet feeling, but for right now we are going to keep working our tails off. I know this message is true and that it changes peoples lives. I have had the wonderful opportunity to be able to be among the people here in Laredo. They have changed my life and I hope that i have been able to change thiers. 

 

I love you

Elder Browning

Helloooooo.....

so it's been awhile since I have given you a formal update of the happenings here in the mission. Where should I start...first off....Elder Munsey...He left, he went to McAllen to be the new Assistant to the President. So I have been without a companion since Thursday. So I have been working with another missionary who lost his companion due to the arrival of his visas. So I've been running the zone all by myself and I have been pulled a little thin the past few days but I've survived and am super eager to get my new companion on Tuesday. What I'm more excited about is that my new companion is a native and I have wanted this all my mission. I have always been the "native", but now I'm to that point in my Spanish that I need to 'grammatical' help and what not. So I'm super excited...his name is Elder Sanchez and everyone calls him the BIG TEDDY BEAR....so yea. You'll see next week when I send pictures home.


What else.....that's about it. Yesterday I had the opportunity to interview someone for baptism and it was a very spiritual experience, the spirit was so strong you could almost touch it. At the end of the interview she still didn't feel ready to get baptized but I hope she remembers the spirit that was there in that room. That small experience really strengthened my testimony. I love this gospel and the changes that it can make in peoples lives. I'm so glad that I let it changed mine.

Ok...for real this time

As most of you, or none of you knew, I spent the last week in Corpus Christi for a leadership training meeting. Man, Corpus is a DIFFERENT place! It felt like a completely different mission up there. It was a little weird not having to work for 3 days and living in a beach house for the week. As we walked along the beach for our morning exercise we all decided that it didn't feel like we were on the mission but it felt like we were on vacation. Thankfully that 'vacation' came to an end and we happily returned back to Laredo and went back to work....except Elder Browning....He got Strep on Saturday and picked up the stomach flu on Sunday and had been pretty much out our commission since his return to Laredo. Actually, I'm writing you all today from my death bed...so please gather around as I impart with you some words of wisdom.....NO SE CREAN! I'm still felling a little under the weather but I received a blessing today and I know that things will start to look up. 

I'm going to talk with President Trayner later today about school, but I have decided that I will be attending LDSBC and then transfer from there when I'm done.

It's super windy here today and it was super hard to wash the car, because as soon as we washed it the dust would just stick to it.....GRRRR!

At leadership training we found out who the new mission president is going to be. President Maluenda. He's from Chile! and its the first time that the mission has had a native mission president. How Exciting! to bad i won't be here when we comes. 

Welp! I thinks that about it for now!

 

Love, 

Elder Browning

creepy picture from the valentines wedding/party

Bro. Nader the DJ/Muscian....I wanted to be behind there but I'm afraid I've lost all my chops

 P.F. Changs of 'Vacation" with the Assistants

 

this is Elder Mulitalo...he's my Bruda Cuz

 

the 3 hour trek back to Laredo. I also wrote a rap on the car ride home. it will be sent in another email

LOREDO!!!!!

Holy cow! I can't believe that we will be entering the middle of February...that means that this month is almost done!

 

So first thing is first.....so far I have been admitted to BYU-I and LDSBC...I'm still waiting to hear back from BYU-Provo to make my decision. I kind of regret taking it easy my senior year....but I guess that is why they say that hindsight is 20/20. I'm just trying to be on top of the ball here....NOT TRUNKY! My future is at stake! 

 

Anyways, this week went really well. Elder Munsey and I are getting along great and I have realized that leading the largest zone in the mission is a little tiring...We didn a lot of running around fro missionaries this past week becasue of broken bikes and broken cars and parked cars and meetings and what not. I can now honestly say that I am the BIKE GURU! I have grown a love for bikes on the mission eventhough I have only been in one bike area. Elder Munsey raced bikes before the mission and we have been talking about doing that after the mission. Which leads me to my latest news...we are one a diet...well not a diet, per se, but we are eating healthier and we have a work out program. The senior couple that lives beneath us helped us make a menu and a program so we can get into shape. we going out today to buy our food. I'm kind of excited...but well see how this week ends.

 

LOVE YOU AND FELIZ DIA DE AMOR Y AMISTAD!

 

Elder Browning

Holy Smokes

---

I have no time to write this week! Everyone decided to write me this week and so I had to take a lot of time copying and pasting and formatting in Word so I don't have a ton of papers to pay for later. 

So I got some good news and some ok news. Application for school got submitted! When I was in McAllen this past week, I saw some papers concerning arriving and departing missionaries. I was on those papers.  It makes me think I don't have much time left.  I have lots of work to do?

During testimony meeting yesterday, one of the senior couples went up and bore her testimony (they go home in May as well) and she said she would only have 3 more times to bear her testimony on fast sunday....I'M NOT TRUNKY! when she said that, I was a little sad because that means I really don't have a lot of time left and I still have so much work here to do!

So that's about it this week.

Elder Browning

Hola from.....LAREDO! whaa?!?!

yes you read correctly...I know write you from the great city of Laredo. I got here on Friday and everything has still been a whirlwind of action since I received telephone call on Wednesday. There was a zone leader that went home on Friday because of medical issues so all the Zone Leaders have been tossed around. It was super sad to leave because that was the longest I have every been in an area. 6 months! thats like....half a year! I made a lot of good friends and taught alot of people. Unfortunately I had to leave before Billie got baptized on Sunday but it was made up for when I got to Laredo and we had a family of 4 get baptized. So thats the suprising news and when we had interviews with President Trayner, he told me that there was a large possiblity of me ending my mission in Laredo...which makes sense since I only have 2 1/2 transfers left....thats 15 weeks. (no I'm not getting trunky, its just a little statistics).

Being here in Laredo I feel like I'm serving in Reynosa again. There are a lot of similarities to the cultures, and it makes me happy. All that needs to happen now is to have the "Tie Fast" broken so we can go digging and to have the "conch" (its a soccer field for indoor soccer) opened again and it would really feel like Mexico. My new companion is Elder Munsey...its pretty funny. We are complete opposites but I've learned a lot about patience and so I'll be taking it easy. The funny thing is that in our 3 hour car ride home from McAllen, I was trying to describe Branson but I didn't say the city and i was like....its kinda like Vegas but not as vulgar....and he was like so you mean its kinda like Branson... and I was like yea, how do you know about branson...and then we started to talk. Funny thing is that we have a mutual friend and we'll probably go to Branson after the mission.


So, side note...Laredo is a district, meaning its not a stake and all the units our branches. Usually there is a senior couple that plays the piano on sunday but she was sick, so guess who had to play piano yesterday....this kid...and gues who is getting better at piano....this kid. but we had 2 different baptismal services yesterday so I was running back and forth between the 2 to play their music.

Welp, I think that's it. Your package got to Harligen the day I left but no worries we have ZLC on thrusday so I'll get it then. 6 hour round trip drive on thursday.....who's excited? ME

Love you Elder Browning