On the Road Again

February 2, 2015

Hello family,

As you can probably tell by my inspiring email title, we have been travelling a lot lately. With six zone conferences down and one more to go in BC, we have made the loop around the mission. It is such a cool privilege to get to see all of the sights and sounds of the great Canada Calgary Mission. BC is always beautiful, so I am looking forward to the 4 hour drive to Cranbrook. We will be back in our area on Wednesday, and then the next night, we shoot off for Calgary again. We have put on 9,000+ kilometers on our car in just the span of two months. Woo!

Our wonderful friend (from Brazil), was not able to get baptized this week. It was a hard thing to take, but it is in her best interest to not get baptized right away. I am learning how to accept the Father's will... Darn it. She is so excited to take this Gospel back to Brazil and share it with her whole family. She even bore her testimony on Sunday, which really reminded me how important missionary work is. It was a very sweet and special moment. We had one last lesson with her last night and wished her the best on her road back to Brazil. She is some that I will never forget; a mission miracle.

The weather has gone from mildly warm to brain-freezing cold.   The snow wants to fall; we just hope that we get some new “gators” to fall into our laps. We are going to be focusing on the members, as we do not have much time in our area, we need all the help we can get. Working through the members is where the success lays. Now with our new handy-dandy-tool, Facebook, it is much easier to keep in contact with the gators and members. It is hastening the work.

Thank you all for the wonderful support you show me. I love and pray for you all. I am excited to see what the month of February brings us.

Hurrah for Israel,

Elder Browning III

We will miss her! [friend from Brazil]

 Birthday cake for the Elders.

Love those members!

Out with the Old and in with the New

January 26, 2015

Hello family,

It has been a great week and a very warm one. We have been experiencing weather that was warmer than it was in May of last year. I cannot believe the climate change. I am loving the warm weather, I feel like we are going into summer already. I guess it skipped spring, so I am never coming home! ;)

We had an awesome few lessons with our investigator from Brazil. She is doing so good, I cannot believe her answers on some of the questions we ask her. It is like she has been a member for her whole life. I love being able to teach her. We taught her right after church, to see what her answer was with her fasting. She says she is very afraid of going against her parents, but already there has been a miracle in play. While she was at church, she got a text from her Mum in Brazil saying that she was at church with boss, who is a member! She was so happy about that. She says she would be baptized in Canada if her Dad said it was okay. My heart sank. I testified as best as I could about how she needs to follow the Saviour right NOW. Everyone in that room was bearing fervent testimony of the blessings that we receive when we follow God's commandments. The spirit was in that room, no doubt. She told us that she needs a day or two to mull over in her mind what she should do. She had tears of joy the whole lesson, she said she has never felt happier. Priceless.

We are continuing to pray for her. Anything can happen! This week we will be in Calgary touring the whole city for zone conferences. Another week on the road.

Thank you all for the birthday wishes. It made me feel special! I have been greatly blessed that my birthday landed on a P-Day. I hope you all have a warm week at home. I love you all.    

Hurrah For Israel,

Elder Browning III

No Effort is Wasted

January 19, 2015

Hello family,

Transfer week is finally over. I am going to be staying for at least another transfer, which I am really excited about. Elder Kelly and I are going to be very busy, just like last transfer, and that flew by. I am always blown away how time seems to pickup.

With our area, things aren't seeming to go they way we wanted. Our miracle investigator has run in with some problems with her family at home. They are devout Catholic, since being from Brazil that makes sense, and they are adamant that she does NOT get baptized while in Canada. It was pretty discouraging to hear, but she continues to impress us on how quick she is learning and understanding the gospel. She loves to pray and it sounds like she has been a member her whole life. She tells us how excited she is to share the Book of Mormon with her family, even if they are opposed now. Any reading assignments we give her, she reads them as soon as she gets home. So cool.

On Saturday we were able to go to the baptism of Tami. She was that other Brazilian miracle that Elder Engstrom and I street contacted a month or two ago. The whole time at the baptism, I realized how any effort that we put in, it never goes unnoticed. I have never seen someone progress towards baptism that all started from a street contact. So many times you feel like tracting doors and talking to people on the streets is just getting you no where. Well, I am here to tell you that is wrong! Amazing things happen as we put forth our faith and trust in the Lord.

Now we have another week of some good travel time. We have zone conferences for the next two weeks, which means that we get to travel the mission. I miss being able to work in an area and only focus on that. Oh well, good things will happen.

Have a great week at home. Thanks for the awesome emails, I enjoy hearing how everyone is doing. Love you all!

Hurrah For Israel,

Elder Browning III


  I got to go visit Margii while we were in Calgary. I loved being able to visit with her. What a cool experience to be able to see how she is still strong and building her faith. Loved every second of it.

Tami's Baptism

Have the Days of Miracles Ceased?

January 7, 2015

 

Hello family,

What a wonderful week we had. The snow is falling, with no sign of it letting up, but that has not dampened our determination! We were able to have a wonderful miracle this last week, it was one of those times that makes your mission worth all of the bad days, discouragement, and disappointments.

This all happened on fast Sunday. We have been praying for a miracle to happen, but not just praying for one, we have been putting our whole might, mind, and strength into receiving a blessing from above. Funny how Heavenly Father works... During fast and testimony meeting, a member got up, that neither of us recognized, but she was telling a story how she met an exchange student from Brazil and that she was at church. Of course us being missionaries, this perked up our attention, as we tried to scan the whole chapel to find this Brazilian. During Sunday school we were able to talk to her, set up an appointment with her that night, and teach her a little bit about the Book of Mormon. She seemed very excited, which made me want to run to the lesson that we had scheduled with her that night.

We showed up at her house, which is family that are members who she is living with, and the lesson went just as planned. She had a list, literally a whole list, of questions that she wanted answered. All of the questions were naturally answered through what we taught that night, the Restoration. The spirit was in that room. As Elder Kelly described to her what Joseph Smith saw, she began to become very happy, and even had tears come to her eyes. She said about the first vision: "I can't describe to you what I felt when you said those words... It was just... Beautiful!" Right there we invited her to be baptized, she accepted with vigor, as she wants to follow her Saviour the best she can. She said the closing prayer, you know how in 3rd Nephi 17:15 it talks about how they couldn't right down what Christ said in his prayer? Well, this is what happened. It was the most sincere, prepared, honest prayer that I have heard in a long time. Tears even came to my eyes as we knelt in that small room, knowing that God does not, and never will, cease being a God of miracles.

After that lesson, we were buzzing. I was on cloud nine. We will be having the baptism on the 31st of January. This has been an answer to our prayers as a companionship, to see a miracle. I am so grateful that I was able to be apart of this experience.

I am sorry for the late email, but this is the only time I got to shoot a quick one off. It was a great week. I love you all and thank you for the support you give me.

Hurrah For Israel,

Elder Browning III

Look who I got to see! 

(Carly & Ryan Cook. Carly is Elder Browning's cousin!)

The End of the Dark Year

December 29, 2014

 

Hello family,

There is nothing better on Christmas, than being able to Skype the ones that I love the most. I loved to see all of you and be able to catch up on how everyone was doing back at home. As that was my last Skype session, it really hit me hard after I closed the window. The time in between Skyping, flies, and I have even less time than the next time I get to call. It scares me. But, I still have a few months left, so I better make them count. Being able to see all of your smiling faces made it a very jolly-merry-happy-fun-Christmas.

In our area we are still anxiously waiting for people to get back. We are going to go, as I like to say, ham, when people start coming back for school. When you are a missionary Christmas break is too long, never thought I would say that, did ya? Now we are just a week away from being in the swing of things again. In the mean time, we will be going on exchanges everyday this week, while we have this chance.

The year of 2014 is coming to a quick close. It seems like yesterday when I was writing about the start of my "dark year", now is it over already? This year I have had some really high ups, followed with some lowest of lows. But I am grateful for every moment that I have experienced in 2014. The dark year is the time you grow the most as a person. Now that it is over, I am heading into the Golden Year. It is exciting, but nerve-racking.

I hope you all had a jolly, Christ-centred, Christmas. I know that I did. I will miss being able to celebrate His birth with his name close to mine on a black tag. Keep the Christ spirit in the home all year, we can do this by sharing the gift. Who says you can't give gifts in the middle of January?

I love you all, excited to be able to spread the good news, and loved being able to see you. Have a great week at home, as the Christmas holiday is coming to a close. Still have one party left, the biggest one of the year, according to Mum, New Years. I will be thinking about you.

Hurrah For Israel,

Elder Browning III

Skypin' Elder Browning

Christmas Day Skype Call with Elder Browning

We got the TV hooked up and all sat at the kitchen island talking and laughing with Elder Browning. Even Grandma & Grandpa Browning were there to say hello and to see him.

It was over quicker than we wanted and then blip...Elder Browning was back in Canada again.

That was our very last Skype call from Elder Browning because he will be home in four months!!!

Unwrap the Greatest Gift

December 22, 2014

Hello family,

A gift is something that you receive from a relative, a friend, or someone with some significance. This gift they give to you is of great worth, as long as you love the giver. There are many times that you feel unworthy of receiving such a great, expensive, present. You want to repay them anyway possible. If we do not accept with full heart towards it, do we not want to crawl back inside ourselves to get away from the awful feeling of guilt?

The miracle is that we have been given many gifts from our Father in heaven, but one of those gifts is the centre of our existence. This was given to us about 2,000 years ago, but still works perfectly today. This gift did not come from the nearest Best Buy or Target, but it is the best thing for us, and something we should shoot to achieve. In fact, this gift came from somewhere that we wish all of our so-called-gifts would come from: heaven. It was not wrapped in Santa themed wrapping paper, but "wrapped in swaddling clothes", not put beneath a Christmas tree, but "laid in a manger." (Luke 2:7). It was Jesus Christ.

The church has provided the whole world with a focus on the true meaning of Christmas, dubbed "He is the Gift". It has three steps on how we can "unwrap" the Christmas spirit strongly throughout the whole year. They are discover the gift, embrace the gift, and share the gift.

Discovering the gift

Just like a younger me, how I would try to discover what was in store for Christmas, either what was under the tree, or in Mum's closet. I searched diligently for the gift that I wanted. Now it is a little different, we already know the offering the Christ readily wants to give us, he does not hide it from our view. We must first realize that there is a present under the tree. So go search for it! We are promised if we ask and knock, we will receive (D&C 4:7).

Embracing the Gift

Once I would discover what I wanted, hidden deep inside my parents closet, I would not just look once. I would go back, time after time, to embrace the joy I felt from a specific toy. This can go with us as well, we do not just feel the peace that the Atonement brings one time and leave it at that. Of course not! We should go back, time and time again, to "eat of the Bread of Life, so we may never hunger or thirst again." (John 6:35)

Sharing the Gift

When I would find a particular gift that one of my siblings wanted for Christmas and seeing it multiple times a day, I wanted to share it. I could not hold my tongue when I was around them, I had to tell them of the excitement I had for them. Sharing the joy that comes from Christ's sacrifice is a lot less risky, but harder to keep in. Alma described on how he felt when it came to sharing the gift, how he wished that he was an angel, to tell people of the best gift ever given, and how it can bring true joy and happiness (Alma 29:1-2). Christmas is about giving, because of what Christ gave to us. Follow that example and share the good news with everyone.

Each one of these steps will unwrap the greatest gift that we could ever get. Let us focus on the true meaning of Christmas. We must develop a trust that this "present" will always work, for you or for me, no matter the situation. The true meaning of Christmas is simple, it is that He is the Gift.

#SharetheGift,

Elder Browning III

Went on exchanges with the Jack Hammer!

Just like old times.

The Ricci's!!