Week 49- The Bird is the Word

Guess what..................................................The "Bird" is the word.....funny story for you.  So Elder Bird and I were working in Castle Rock yesterday just walking around and street contacting the people we see. We saw a lady in her car and we made up in our minds that we were going to go talk to her. When we got over we started talking to her but she was face timing her "sugar daddy".  But we still asked her if she knew anyone that was going through a hard time in the area. As she started talking to us something hilarious happened. The in-ground sprinklers popped up so they were in visual sight. I said watch out Elder Bird you don't want to get sprayed. He said oh its probably not that powerful and 3 seconds after I said that BAM! It just shoots this nice high pressured jet stream right in the family jewels soaking right through his pants into his undies. The lady in the car started cracking up and rolled up her window so it didn't spray in her car. We awkwardly walked away and took it as a sign from heaven that right now is not her time.  Thought you might like that it made my top ten  funny missionary moments.

But now with the meat of my email.....MARCUS IS GETTING BAPTIZED ON THE 22ND!!!!!!!! I'm so excited he got an answer to his prayer and told us at church he is a little nervous but excited to be baptized into the crowfoot YSA ward.  How awesome is that! oh it makes me so happy! as a quote from the mission nurses son Nathan Crowley, "I'm not a sower, I'M A HARVESTER" if I could tell you that in its original context it would be a lot funnier, but I have been planting a lot of seeds. Not as fruitful as last week but still met some awesome investigators none of them I'm super confident about though  We Will see.   But we taught gospel principles this week and in sac meeting I played a special musical number with Jarrod Beckstead my homie in the ward! Jarrod is pretty awesome.  He is only a year older than me got back from his mission from Philly.   I love that kid and we hopefully are getting together after the mission. 

This week we had an MLC with president savage and all the zone leaders and sister training leaders in the mission. President savage is a superstar at analyzing data and making plans to overcome barriers in the mission. It was a super effective MLC and I know while he is serving in the mission the work is going to boom! He is awesome and so is Sister Savage. She was a public speech teacher at Utah Valley  University and I told her I'm going there for my aviation science degree and she said to do it because all the people that do  an aviation major are all really successful in theie fields because of how great the program is. A lot of them minor in business as well so I can have a fall back plan but I'm committed to flying! Anyway, they are awesome. Elder Bird is from San Jose California

LOVE YOU BOTH!
Connor Brown

 July 4th Grilling

Week 50- I got to Work

Man I have a lot of things to say but I want to first say I'm proud of Isabelle! It brought me a lot of joy to hear that she bore her testimony at youth conference, and brought me a overall sense of peace that my family is rooted in the gospel of Jesus Christ! Tell Isabelle to be strong and that I love her so much! I love Avery as well so tell her that I love her just the same! I'm excited to hear about your trip to the reservation and I hope you have been feeling the promptings of the spirit about grandpa! I have been thinking about him and what Christ would do or say if he visited him. I know and feel that grandpa is excited for you to come out and that he has a strong place in his heart for our family including you. Tell him I think about him and love him and when I get home I want to spend some time on the reservation with him. My heart just pours out about my family that I just don't know much about. I'm glad you had a successful youth conference and I know you're  just dying to have this week off of work. I kinda feel what its like now to work hard everyday and then come home and just want to crash. But when I come home its taking care of the zone and following up with all the companionship's  which is draining but I find tender mercies in doing so. It's like coming home and then having to take care of your family, balancing both of those things can be exhausting. But one thing I have realized that it never gets stressful. That's because my boy Jesus Christ is at the center of everything I do! He is my rock

This Sunday I had one of the most impacting sacrament meetings ever! On my mission it has been pretty easy to be unorganized because we are running around everywhere and I feel like my whole life has been this super unorganized mess! It has been my life's biggest struggle remembering things and being accountable to people and ultimately the Lord. It's been on my mind my whole mission the question......what can I do to be more organized and how do I fight my ADD? Let me tell you my life changing solution after I explain the pattern....

My patriarchal blessing told me I will come to understand the organization, structure and function of his church. I  read that this week btw,  and recently having two successful business men as mission  presidents  Mendenhall and  Savage I have really understand how the church communicates information throughout the various leaderships in the church. One thing that the brethren do is create what's called a goal barrier and action plan. They identify what the church is struggling with and what goals they need to set. They identify the barriers that get in the way by hearing accounting from all the wards in the church, from the bishops to the stake presidency (which coordinate with mission presidents) to the area authorities to the 70 and ultimately to the general offices and councils including the 12 in the church. This is how communication works in the church and really in any effective business. this last transfer President Savage has been stressing its importance in increasing the effectiveness of missionary work. As this week came to a close I had a powerful personal revelation. If we use this method in the church and it helps organize how we can improve. Why can't I use this method in my own personal life!!!! So I got to work.

I created my own personal GBA and showed the lord what I'm going to do specifically to ultimately become more organized. The Lord is all about order in his house and my life can't be a mess in his kingdom. As I prepared for sacrament Sunday I told the Lord in prayer what I'm going to do this week to improve my organization or my specific "Action Plans" to improve my organization skills. I had a spiritual experience as I did this. I learned something about repentance. One point I feel that I have always missed is the principle of restitution. What I'm going to do so I don't do it again. When you take to the Lord what you are going to do specifically in your life to improve you are fulfilling the process of repentance. You are accessing his atonement. When your action plan is broad and you say something like.....well...I want to stop forgetting things this week....how is that showing the lord what you want to work on. When you bring something specific to the table you are showing the Lord you have the real intent. I can't believe I was so blind to have never realized that growing up. I wished I could become more organized but I never made specific plans to overcome those obstacles. As I took the sacrament I felt so much peace and I felt a lot  of hope for my future. I'm grateful for the access to the atonement we have each day! I love my savior so much and am grateful for these experiences he has provided me within my life. 

As for the work Marcus is off date he dropped his phone apparently and he hasn't been in contact with us for a week now. It's frustrating and he is moving but once we get in contact with him it will be fine. He will be baptized and we will be there it just won't be in our ward. Elder Bird and I  had two new investigators at church but nobody close to a baptismal invitation. We  have been getting creative with activities and teaching. Our next idea involves pairing up with 20 return missionaries. It should be fun!  During The basketball activity this last week we had 5 non members come and I have been balling up pretty hardcore and I have been in a white shirt and tie. I just wear my ball shoes. But my game has gotten pretty good. When i have confidence I can really play. when I come home I have thought about trying out for Utah Valley. It would just be a lot of conditioning to get back in shape. 

mom's question 

1.) President Savage is a savage

2.) I will probably stay one more transfer with Elder Bird

3.) I played the piano in zone conference.

4.) My patriarchal blessing says how important the temple will be in my life and how I will have a lot of revelation inside of it.

I love you all so much! Elder Brown out

 ​Out in the middle of Elbert Colorado. It is so far away and it's a town of 50 people. How awesome is that!

Week 48- The 2 Greatest Weeks on my Mission

 President and Sister Mendenhall saying goodbye!

 Aunt Karen, Grandma and Sister Simmons who I live with.

She visited Grandma when she was in Heber

Oh my gosh I love it mom! That is hilarious! Sister Simmons is this  widow we live with.  She is so sweet and is so nice for us! She makes us dinners the nights we don't have anything and we have a fun time together and make her laugh! I'm glad she got to meet Grandma Brown she reminds me of grandma,  they have very similar personalities! That's so funny let me type up my email really quick. You're going to be blown away at the week  Elder Bird and I have had have had! 

You won't believe the kind of week we had! Elder Bird and I were on fire this week.  It has probably been the  2 greatest weeks on my mission. Elder Bird and I ended up finding 14 new investigators with 2 @ sac meeting and 2 very ready for baptism and  with a third that's close,  when he gets back from his trip. We talked to absolutely everybody that came in our path. like we didn't miss a single person. 11 of them were YSA investigators as well! We found one of them on Saturday at like 7:00. He is about 24,  really cool guy and we had a 2 hr conversation and we invited him to come to church! He accepted and was glad he has friends now. His mom committed suicide about 2 years ago, his dad isn't supportive and his sister lives all the way out in Texas. He lives by himself in this apartment and just wants to feel peace in his life. We told him how the ward is like a family and we got him a ride to church because he didn't have a car. He came to church stayed all 3 hours and in Elders Quorum he got up and thanked the ward for their love and support and gave us a shoutout saying how thankful he was to be invited to church and how he feels like this is the right place to be. On his ride home with one of the members he expressed he wants to join our church and be apart of this. We are meeting with him this week to discuss baptism.   God has been placing investigators in our path and it has been awesome. Elder Bird and I took advantage of every opportunity to talk to people and we have been doing it with the very powers of heaven. Regardless of awkward situations we have been trying not to let the lord down. The Lord has truly been placing people in our path because of our diligence to buckle down and get out of our comfort zones. Now its becoming 2nd nature. Its heating up down here in crowfoot YSA and hopefully we can keep it rollin! Thank you for your continuous love and support and I won't bother you to much while you are on  your vacation. Hope you are enjoying your little break! Love you both! Grandma told us dad bore a beautiful testimony and I wish I would of been there to here it! Love you!

Elder Brown