A lot of learning!‏

Hey family and friends!

Another week passed by. They are passing by like hours here in New Rochelle... it’s insane! I'm loving every second of my time here in Westchester! This week was filled with a lot of learning experiences... some being good and some a little sad, but everything is amazing as always!

So, this past weekend we were supposed to have 2 baptisms - one for a girl named Kaylee and another for a man named Joao. The sad thing about the week was that neither of the baptisms actually ended up happening. Joao and his wife Julie are not married yet, and so we have to get Julie divorced with her past husband and get them two married (yes another one of those haha). So we have been praying and fasting super hard for him to get his papers by his scheduled date which was the 24^th, but they didn't end up coming, which was sad, but it was a good experience being able to fast with Joao and Julie but having the will of God be otherwise. Heavenly Father really does know best! And with Kaylee, she just didn't feel ready. She has passed like 5 different baptismal dates because she hasn't felt ready for any of them, so we are hoping and praying that something just let's her know that this is something that she needs to do! But they are so cool! And WILL, without a doubt in my mind, be baptized when the time is right!

The coolest thing happened this week though!! Like I talked about last week, a man from Salt Lake City missionary department, or whatever they call that, came down and spent a couple hours proselyting with us, to see how the mission has been utilizing the whole online proselyting thing, he was taking lots of notes, etc., so we were pretty nervous, haha! But THIS GUY WAS A GENIUS!!  He taught Elder Hinckley and I so many amazing things that just changed the way we do missionary work. A little background on Elder Brown... I have always been that missionary that just wants to go out and knock as many doors as I can, walk the streets for hours upon hours talking to people and stuff like that. Now I learned that I have been doing everything all wrong! Hahaha, and Aaron (the guy from SLC) is the one that taught me that! The whole day me and him had been discussing about what missionary work ACTUALLY is. Now, what I thought it was was knocking doors and street contacting, and I mean that's not bad, missionary work does entail those things, but it isn't the BEST! He compared missionary work to an experience that we had while we were with him. We were doing a referral lookup in an apartment building and the apartment was on the sixth floor. So he said to us, "When you guys looked up that referral on the sixth floor why did you take the elevator? You could have taken the stairs, it would have felt like you were doing hard work and you would have gotten there, so why did you take the elevator?" And so we responded "well, it got us there faster and so after we could go knock more doors", and he said that is exactly what online proselyting does - its taking the elevator! So that's what we are doing now ONLINE PROSELYTING!!! WAHOO! Another thing he said that stuck out to me was that when we see a missionary come home with worn out shoes we all say, "wow that was a good missionary - he worked hard" and maybe that's true, but he said that when they see a missionary with his pants worn down where his butt is they say that he was a great missionary because he was sitting down and teaching lessons. My hope is to become a more efficient and effective missionary! Such a cool experience!

After a long wait, he was able to attend the temple today for their p-day activity!

We were able to go to the temple today for p-day and it was Amazing!! It's been a year since I have been able to go to the temple. In fact, it was the last time I was with Elder Hinckley that we got to go. So today was a very special experience! As I sat there in the celestial room the spirit testified to me of the truthfulness of the restoration of the gospel and the prophet Joseph Smith!  I know the restoration is true and I love Joseph Smith! Thanks to one small little question, we can be sealed to our families for the eternities... WHAT A BLESSING

I love you all so much! Thanks for everything! The gospel is true

Love Elder Brown