Blazin cold here in Bmore!

 Haha! I will start off with a story. So I think it was Thursday night, we received a text from President saying that if missionaries don't have a car to go inside because of the cold. But we had the car this week so we were out knocking doors. We had been knocking for a while and we ended up knocking till 9. I was sooooo cold, the coldest I have ever been. I don't know the temperature but it was way in the negatives because of wind. I couldn't really feel anything. I also forgot my beanie. So I got home and showered and tried to get warm. Also the last house we knocked this lady told us to go inside, because the news said that skin exposed would get frost bite in 15 minutes!!! HAHAHAH!! So at that point I was a little scared. So I went to bed. At 12:22 I woke up totally numb! Couldn't feel anything but my heart and it was ice cold! hahah I thought I was going to die. Just kidding but I was a little scared. So I couldn't fall asleep for a while after I got tons of clothes on. Hahaha it ended up fine and we had to wake up at 4 for MLC. Soo just a bunch of bad news.

 I also threw up Saturday night from Hip Hop chicken that we had in intercity Baltimore on Saturday morning on the way home from a mission conference with Elder Nielson of the 70. The chicken was one of the best foods I have ever had though so it was worth it!

Also we had a baptism for Nicole Clark this week!!! SOOOO sweet, she is soo awesome and her testimony is crazy awesome! We found her at the beginning of December and she was very prepared! I love their family so much and we are going to put her two sons, Darryn and Ethan on date for Feb 3rd this week. Elder Selk did the baptism and I confirmed the Holy Ghost.

We are getting smartphones! I had some training on it and it sounds really neat! Transfers are coming up this week so I will know if I stay or not. I am hoping I stay. This past week was super fun but stunk at the same time.

Doing great and having fun, hope y'all are doing great! Love you!

Bynum Run District Meeting

Nicole's baptism with her three kids

hip hop chicken MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

Freezing in Bel Air

Blazin cold these days biking! These past couple weeks have been great!! We have been teaching Nicole and her family a lot!! Her baptism is this Saturday the 6th at 6 o'clock! We are soo pumped! And then we are going to put Darryn and Ethan on date next week! They are Nicole's kids. Nicole has one of the most solid testimonies I have ever heard from a convert. She is awesome! We are also teaching a couple Sam and Kelsey, they are sweet! Doris is a lady from Ghana and hopefully we can get her to church this week! Anthony is a door knock, well most all of our investigators are a door knock, he is so sweet. We have some other peeps and potentials that we need to go visit and start teaching more. The Book of Mormon is sweet. We have changed our door approach to more of our testimony of the Book of Mormon, we have gotten a lot more reception from that. I am working on Charity, especially with the haters. I am not good at loving the mean people. Being the district leader is alright, I would rather not be one but it is whatever. We get to go to the temple this month! Transfers are in two weeks, I hope I stay in Bynum Run. On New Years we went to the Uhligs, they are the coolest family ever! The spirit is so strong in their home and we have so much fun! We played Book of Mormon headbands and wackie six. So that was really fun! It has been sooo cold and biking in it stinks but we have the car this week! Funny story- we drove home from our Christmas Conference straight through downtown Baltimore, we couldn't spot one white person. The blue light districts are real! It was Elder Selks first time driving through it and it was sweet! But anyway we stop and this guy totally fell asleep driving! He was OUT! We were laughing sooo hard. It probably doesn't sound too funny but it was. Also we were driving by this trash place and found some expired pastries, so we had a little 8:30 snack, they were still covered so it was fine. Way good though. Also I guess we are getting smartphones, I have an MLC that I am going to about it so that should be cool to hear. Well I hope y'all are doing great! 

Love,

Elder Brown

Christmas with the Uhligs

Treat from the Uhligs

Opening presents on Christmas

Pastries from the garbage! 

(Mom's note: At no time have I ever told him it's ok to eat from the garbage)

Freezing in Bel Air!!

Loving Bel Air!

Well, just having a blast in Bel Air. You know we are having fun doing the Lord's work. I forget everything I do in the past week so sorry. Pretty much we have been riding our bikes in this snow. I remember Friday we knocked for 5 hours while it was snowing all day. And we didn't get let it once! hahah that stunk! But Saturday was sooo sweet so it made up for it! We helped Nicole paint her apartment in the morning, Nicole is wayyy sweet! She has the most solid testimony! Her baptism date is the 30th. And hopefully we can get her 14 year old son Darin who is also way cool later. And her 10 year old. She also has a 3 year old who is dang cute! But their family is soooo sweet! And then Saturday we found some awesome investigators! So things are going sweet here!! We are going to like 6 members and Nicoles house on Christmas so I am sooo excited for that! And Christmas Conference is this Wednesday. Also Christmas Eve at the Uhligs! So excited for this week and the weeks to come. I love Bynum Run! 

Missionary Food!

Enjoying the Snow!

Dee and Maria and De'reon, recent converts. Sweet family, we go over all the time and teach them.

Slower week

This week was slow, we couldn't find anyone to teach but it was overall great! We put a lady on date for baptism for December 30 so that was sweet. She is awesome! Her name is Nicole and she has 3 kids. We taught her 4 times last week. We have not been able to teach Chris yet. He keeps rescheduling which really stinks. But overall things are going great! We got snow on Friday all day and have a lot of it. We had the car so we didn't have to ride our bikes in that which was good. We had our Christmas party Saturday night, it was way good. I love the ward and love everyone in it. It feels like home to me.

Love you all

Mac

Old district

Sweet Week!

Awesome week for sure!! Bynum run is super great, we are working hard, and having a blast while doing it! First, Elder Selk and I are going to be with each other another transfer! Elder Stone is leaving which really stinks! I was called to be the district leader. Elder Kershaw is also leaving the district. So that means Elder Coombs is training and Elder Ferrell gets put with Elder Hulme(from my mtc) So that is our district and I am super excited for this transfer!

It was sick to see Melissa and her family on Thankgiving! President said they could come and see me and Elder Selk so that was way sweet and we got to ball and play games!! 

I have forgotten the days this week honestly. But basically we went over to Dee and Maria's house everyday. Got them ready for their baptism. We had the Zone Leaders instruct us on Tuesday. That was sweet. We had mutual on Wednesday, and a sweet first lesson with Nicole, a new investigator. She also came to church and the baptism. So she is really solid, going through a divorce right now. Has 3 kids. Hopefully we will put her on date soon. 

Sunday. This was a crazy day! Woke up, studied, went to the church, had ward correlation with the ward mission leader(Bro Harris, was called last week and a way sweet guy, just moved in the ward) after that was ward council. Then church at 1. Had Danny, d and maria, and nicole, and another gator, Bro Harris (old guy). He loves to talk, it was fast and testimony meeting so he went up there and it was not good at all. Hahah it was very awkward and long. Bishop had to ask him to sit down. Hahah I was trying not to bust up laughing. I was in the back waiting for a sweet family to come but they didn't. After church we had the baptismal service. It went awesome! I baptized Maria and Elder Selk baptized Diamonte or Dee. 

Knocked on this door, testified of Book of Mormon and blessing it brings. Chris was his name, 22 from Brazil. Said we could come back and he would read it. Also said he had some struggles. An hour later at like 8:45 we got a text from him saying that he had been struggling with a job and life but he read the Book of Mormon for a little and a couple minutes later got a call saying he got a job and he starts the next day. We are meeting with him tonight and we are pumped and he is pumped to learn more! Power of the Book of Mormon is real!!!! Read it and the Lord promises us blessings!!

So that is it mainly. I'm in Bynum for another transfer which will put me here till Jan 16th. 4 and a half months here at least. I love it. Hope y'all are doing good!!

Dee and Maria's baptism

Exchange with Elder Stone

After a crazy day

A new buzz haircut!

With the Lower's on Thanksgiving!

Working Hard

     Bel Air is sweet! I’m lovin it, having a good time, plugging in the work and trying to lose myself in the work. I have seen many miracles here in Bynum Run, as I said in my other email, Alma 26:12. Elder Selk and I have been knocking "no soliciting" apartments and that has been working so well. We have 8 investigators now and solid potentials. Dee and Maria are excited about their baptism December 2nd and we got Dee some sweet church clothes!! We are excited for them. We are going over every day this week to their house to make sure they are ready! I will try and send a picture of them next week. We are just trying to get as many people to teach and are out finding. Diligence to the mission rules translate to the work very much so. Elder Selk and I are having a blast and getting along great.  On Thanksgiving we will go rake this house with tons of leaves with the youth in the ward. Then go to the Poultons who are soooo sweet for lunch from 3-6. And then I got permission from my President for the Lowers to take us to dinner!!! So I am soo excited for that!!! Well hope y'all are doing great!! I will send a story next week. Betty Horn- we knocked her house last night, meanest lady ever!!! Yelling at us… hahaha  but we ended up talking with her for 10 minutes, we ended up taking a picture with her and she wanted a hug hahah so we are going back this week. Hahaha good times!!! love y'all!!!

Finding People!

 Things are going amazing here in Bynum Run!!! I will just tell about this week. Last Sunday was chill. Monday we shopped and did some errands. Tuesday was Halloween. We had district meeting and then we went out and tracted till 5. Then we ate at the Secrests. After we went to the church and balled. (I am still hitting my threes... watch out pbrown and lando) haha then we exchanged. So after Elder Stone and I went back to Winters Run. We went to bed and woke up at 6:30. Right at 6:30 Elder Stone yells, "LETS GO" hahahah he is an amazing missionary! We balled out and got 2 new investigators and 10 potentials! It was sooo fun!!  Thursday we woke up and Elder Selk and Coombs came and picked us up and we drove to zone conference. Zone conference was crazy good and we were pumped after. So this is where the week gets crazy!!! So two weeks ago we tracted into this guy named Tom. He said to come back. Thursday night Elder Selk and I just were like, alright lets ball out now and rely more on the Lord. So Thursday night we had an amazing lesson with Tom. Committed him to read, pray, come to church, and be baptized later!! It was amazing and I taught about the restoration. Also that night we found tons of potentials. Then we woke up Friday on a high. We met this lady named Maria who we set up an appointment with the next day. Friday we found lots of people. So Saturday we did service for the Browns and moved some things for them. After, we found some more people. Then at night we had an appointment with Maria. And her husband came named D. It was a way sick lesson. They were super excited and wanted to get baptized. So we committed them for Dec 2! hahah!! and to come to church. So that was sooo sick!! So Sunday comes and Danny, Tom, Maria, D and their son came to church. Hahah crazy!! It was a sweet time, they liked it and we are visiting with them this week!! Also taught Danny after church and hopefully by next week we will have a for sure date for him. Also found 15 potentials since Thursday night!!! So the Lord has really blessed the area and I am loving it here! I’m getting my Christmas spirit on early this year. So the Lord is real everyone. Alma 37:12- Yea, I know that I am nothing; as to my strength I am weak; therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all things; yea, behold, many mighty miracles we have wrought in this land, for which we will praise his name forever.

I’m excited for this week. Love you guys and have a good week!

Elder Brown

Dressed like Hulk and playing ball on Halloween

Getting Ready to Tract

Heading out on the Bikes!