Week Eight (8)
November 17 through November 23, 2013
November 17 (Sunday)
Today Elder Browning spoke in Springboig
Ward Sacrament Meeting.
“I reintroduced myself and Tracey as the missionary couple
working with YSA and expressing my love for Scotland developed 50 years
previously as a proselyting missionary. I then spoke about not letting the
rumors and doubts we all have affect our testimony of the things we do know. I
based my message on the counsel Elder Holland gave in the April, 2013,
conference where he counseled the same thing.
It was gratifying that a sister after the meeting approached
me and thanked me for my message since she had been away from church for the
last seven months and my talk convinced her that she needed to be at church. I
am grateful to a loving Heavenly Father who knew what this sister needed to
hear and used me as an instrument to bless her since I was not sure what I was
to talk about before going to church that day.
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| Elder Browning, Sister Browning, Elder Luo, Rick and Elder McKhann |
November 18 (Monday)
Grocery shopping (take Sisters and
shop for YSA Light Supper), prepare meal and finances…
Not much to report, but we did have
fun at FHE.
November 19 (Tuesday)
At District Meeting today, we took
the survey at page 126 in Preach My Gospel (PMG) and then we discussed it. A
very enlightening exercise.
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| Christlike Attributes |
It’s easy to state a belief, but living
it takes action. For example, it is easy to pray for charity, but often we miss
serving others, because we are concerned with our own wants, needs and ways.
Nonetheless, we will continue to work on the admonition found in:
Moroni 7:45-48
45 And charity suffereth long, and is kind, and envieth
not, and is not puffed up, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh
no evil, and rejoiceth not in iniquity but rejoiceth in the truth, beareth all
things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
46 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, if ye have not charity,
ye are nothing, for charity never faileth. Wherefore, cleave unto charity,
which is the greatest of all, for all things must fail—
47 But charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth
forever; and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well
with him.
48 Wherefore,
my beloved brethren, pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye
may be filled with this love, which he hath bestowed upon all who are true
followers of his Son, Jesus Christ; that ye may become the sons of God; that
when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is; that
we may have this hope; that we may be purified even as he is pure. Amen.
We went to the bank today to take
care of some items. While we were waiting for a printout, we had an opportunity
to talk to a gentleman. We told him why we were in Scotland and gave him a “Joy
to the World” pass along card to order a DVD. He told us that he was Catholic
but not practicing. We hope he calls for the DVD. We even got his name…
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| Baptism -Wang Feng Long |
Tuesday night we attended a baptism
of a recent convert. A couple of weeks earlier, he and his girlfriend were
married. The marriage had to precede his getting baptized. Sister Browning gave
the opening prayer and two Chinese sisters in the ward each gave a talk - one
on baptism and the other one on the Gift of the Holy Ghost. They gave their
talks in both Chinese and English, giving one sentence in Chinese and going
back to give the same sentence in English. Very interesting service, but very
enjoyable.
November 20 (Wednesday)
Someone can’t sleep. I wonder who:
OK, it’s Sister Browning. And what do you do when you wake up early? You read
the scriptures and do projects on the computer. When Elder Browning woke up, he
also read his scriptures. He then did some cleaning of the flat in preparation
for the District Thanksgiving Dinner on Thursday. Sister Browning baked two
Pumpkin Pies. They looked and smelled great. We’ll see because we are still
trying to figure out the oven.
We went to Costco to buy some folding
chairs that we had seen last week, but they were all sold out of them when we
went today. The chairs are supposed to be in stock on the 28th; but
we, since we don't have enough chairs and couch space to accommodate 12
missionaries (counting Elder and Sister Browning), wanted the folding chairs
for the dinner. L
Wednesday night Elder Browning was
asked by President Brown, the Mission President, to conduct a baptismal
interview. We went early to go to IKEA to return a product that won't work in
our flat. Elder Browning doesn’t mind driving, but it’s stressful to travel by
GPS in unknown territory during going home traffic. It’s hard when you don't
know where you’re going, so he often switches lanes at the last moment to be in
the proper lane entering the "roundabout" which can cause issues with
drivers in back. In any event, we made it to IKEA and to the Paisley building
on time.
Elder Browning said the interview
was extremely interesting for him. Without divulging confidences, the candidate
has only been working with the Elders for a couple of months; and while he
understood what the Elders had taught, Elder Browning was reminded that as
missionaries and members of the church we have a lot of work to do to help new
members internalize the doctrine and make the church a living part of the new
members life (we’re not a “Sunday only” religion, but a 24/7 disciple of Christ).
This candidate was willing to make the commitments but still had a tendency to
keep one foot in "Babylon". However, none of us are perfect and his
sincere desire to join with the Saints convinced Elder Browning that he should
sign off on his paperwork. We truly pray that he will get the support he
desperately needs - and wants - so he can get out of Babylon completely.
New Testament, Mark 2: 15-17
15 And it came to pass, that, as Jesus sat at meat in his
house, many publicans and sinners sat also together with Jesus and his
disciples: for there were many, and they followed him.
16 And when the scribes and Pharisees saw him eat with
publicans and sinners, they said unto his disciples, How is it that he eateth
and drinketh with publicans and sinners?
17 When
Jesus heard it, he saith unto them, They that are whole have no need of
the physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but
sinners to repentance.
We left the interview and headed to
our Institute following the GPS, which sent us in the opposite direction from
where we came; but then we remembered that we came from IKEA. Elder Browning
said that he still has trouble with East and West. He feels like he is going
West when he’s actually going East and vice versa, so his mind has a
disconnect. He then has to visualize North, South, East and West to get his
bearings before he’s OK. Strange thing, I too have the same malady… Mine is one
step worse. I get turned around a lot.
We were late to Institute which, under
the circumstances, is OK. We made pinwheels for the snack, and they were a hit,
even though they did not taste the same to us from what we make in Oregon, but
then the members don't know what we know (they may if they read this…). The end
result was the pinwheels were gobbled up! Another hit for Sister Browning. :-) After
Institute the activity was Volleyball; and because Elder Browning likes Volleyball,
he joined in and had a good time. More important, he didn't injure himself!
November 21, 2013 (Thursday)
What a wonderful day. We hosted a
Thanksgiving dinner at our flat for our district and the zone leaders.
The preparation began a couple of
days ago with pumpkin pies and turkey preparations and continued through today.
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| Very Large Turkey |
The turkey was sooooooooooooooo
large it caused a real interest with the customers who were in line with us
when we purchased it. Someone asked if it would fit in the oven. Oh, we hadn’t
taken that into consideration. Thank goodness it did fit - yes!
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| It barely fit in the oven! |
Even with all the preparation time,
we took a moment to pose for a photo…
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| Us in apron |
Since next Thursday would be
difficult for us to host the Thanksgiving Dinner due to a prior commitment with
the stake, the zone leaders gave us permission to have the dinner a week
earlier, and they gave everyone a two hour window for the dinner because it was
a special occasion. The two hours actually went over a wee bit, but all is OK.
Front Row: Sisters Caswell and Allen
2nd Row (seated): Elders
Andrus (ZL), Farnsworth (DL), Browning and Sister Browning
Back Row (standing): Elders
Thackeray, Maughn, McKhann, van den Bron (ZL), Luo and Hutchings
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| Thanksgiving Photo |
Our working with the missionaries
and our association with them at District Meeting testifies to us that Preach
My Gospel has prepared these missionaries to do the Lord's work in a
marvelous way. Elder Browning said, “Preach My Gospel truly prepares
these missionaries to be far more effective and productive than I was 50 years
ago. It is a testament how Christ inspires our leaders to be ever more
productive in inviting "all to come unto Christ.””
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| First Presidency |
All the hard work we put into
preparing for this evening was worth it as we watched the interaction of the
missionaries, the love they exhibited toward one another, the enjoyment they
had in eating turkey, mashed potatoes, corn, homemade rolls, pie and cinnamon
rolls.
The Sisters brought a sweet potato
casserole and the Chinatown Elders brought a curried fried rice dish, both very
good, and I'm not a fan of sweet potatoes. Bless their hearts, the Clydebank
Elders brought three large cans of chicken soup, which would have been good as
a main dish but they brought it as a side dish. (We need to give the cans back
to them so they can have food in their pantry.)
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| First Vision |
Earlier we purchased some
"Poppers," so we gave everyone a Popper to pop after they expressed
what they were thankful for. Elder Browning said he was grateful for this
evening. These young missionaries inspire him and testify to him of the reality
of the restoration - it is true.
Joseph Smith’s first vision where
God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ appeared to him.
God the Father and His Son, Jesus
Christ, did appear to Joseph Smith and restore to the earth the Gospel that was
prepared from before the foundations of this earth, and the Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints possesses all the ordinances necessary to enable us
to return to His presence.
We went with Elders Farnsworth,
the DL, and his companion, Elder Maughan, to teach Helen. The Elders
wanted to read from the Book of Enos in the Book of Mormon. It started out well
but then we started branching out. In the end it was a good visit and the
Spirit was felt and testimonies were born. We invited Helen to the Elders'
Movie Night where they were showing, How Rare a Possession, but Helen
would be unable to attend because she is the caregiver of her 100 year old
mother.
Thursday night Sister Browning
attended a Relief Society Prelude to Christmas function. It was a great
evening.
November 23, 2013 (Saturday)
We spent some time in the flat then,
because it was a sunny, but cold, day, we went on a walk to the Ruchill Park, a
couple of blocks from our flat. There is a high point in the park where there
is some kind of a pole and from the hill you have a 360 degree view of Glasgow.
The little pamphlet we have said it is one of the highest points in Glasgow -
that's weird since I don't think we were very high up. Sister Browning had a
lot of fun taking pictures. She tried to take a picture of the building that
houses our flat but it’s obscured by branches from trees and bushes. If you
look closely, the arrow is pointing to the building.
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| Flat - the arrow is suppose to be pointing to the white and orange building in the middle... |
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| 4 Playground Areas |
There were multiple playgrounds in
the park.
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| Someone was flying his radio controlled plane. |
Picturesque views from atop Ruchill
Park of Glasgow and yours truly in our tweeds! (I told you it was a clear, cold
day, so the tweeds were a blessing.)
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| Aren’t we a handsome couple? |
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| The Partick Thistle Football Pitch. |
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| Sun low in sky |
It’s noon and the sun is very low!
Later we attended the baptism of
Graham over at the Paisley building.
Elder Browning still gets turned
around. Intellectually he knows he is traveling east but his mind tells him
he’s going west. Again, the GPS took us one way going and another way
returning. It was a nice service and Graham looked happy. Hopefully, his ward
family will rally around him.
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| Graham’s baptism |
We left the
baptism to go to the Elders' Movie Night (noted above), How Rare a
Possession.
We were a
little late but we had not missed much of the movie.
Elder Browning
loves this church DVD as it reminds him that truth is found in the Book of
Mormon and when one reads it with sincerity and a desire to know its truths the
Spirit will testify of its truth. We both have sought and have been blessed to
have a witness that the Book of Mormon is the word of God, which witness is
born of the Spirit.
Sure do luv ya
Cheerio the nu
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| Piper And Women |
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