mon feb 21-2011-leadership training bangkok

these postings came from pres. smith's Wife's website; Elder Brown is traveling a lot with the President, they are keeping very busy!

"Leadership Training for the Bangkok zones
This week we had 3 days of leadership training in the Bangkok area zones. The training went very well. President Smith and his assistants (Yea Elder Brown!)did an awesome job. This coming week we will be doing the training in Roi Et for the Isaan zone leaders. Our missionaries are awesome and we love them all"......

...."This past week has been incredibly busy. The highlight was the Leadership Training in Roi Et for the Isaan leaders and trainers. I have attached a picture of the group in Roi Et after the meeting, and one of the Roi Et missionaries at dinner with us. We are in Chiangmai for zone conference next WEEK"......


Roi Et Province

FROM Elder Brown:
....It is crazy busy here!!!! Yes, my old companion, Eider C. left for home, (I will miss him) and my new companion-and the newly called AP, is Elder Mc. I knew him in my group at the MTC before we ever came to Thailand. and I am excited to work with him! We are traveling a ton and teaching the zones as well as still teaching the gospel whenever and wherever we can.

...Oh yeah. We still do missionary work every day. We still baptize like crazy. Elder C and I had 5 baptisms two weeks ago, 1 baptism last week, and 2 baptisms this week. Elder Mc and I are looking to find 6 baptisms in March. We are really busy, but not too busy that we can't baptize. It is not easy to find people in Thailand that are ready to hear and commit to Christ, but we have been so blessed ......

later,
Elder Brown

Feb 2011-travel

Last week I went and exchanged in Mahasarakham with Elder T. Pretty interesting exchange because that is my greenie area and also one of the missionaries that I trained. We traveled over to Mahasarakham and got to the house. We sat down and started to talk. We did some roleplays. There was just a lot of training that had to be done. We ended up not leaving the house the whole evening. I felt that we spent our time really well though. Sometimes training opportunities take place outside on the streets, but sometimes more valuable opportunities are in talking, practicing, and training. For dinner we ate at a restaurant that I really liked. Also saw two members Sister Nog and Brother Yong. It was interesting to be able to communicate with them. When I was in Mahasarakham as a greenie, I couldn't really understand them very well.

I've had a couple more exchanges the last few weeks...

Yesterday I was in Kohn Kaen. I exchanged with my old companion, Elder R. He has 13 days left in his mission. It was a good exchange. We talked a lot about the mission, the zone, his companion, and life. I gave him some good ideas of how to propose to his girlfriend. We also taught a really sweet lesson to a woman named Toy. She is the Aunt of these two people we baptized while I was there. One of the best lessons I've ever taught. We were really unified and the Spirit was really strong. We taught about having faith in Jesus Christ and conforming our lives to His teachings. She is really caught up in Buddhism. Basically every aspect of her life is heavily rooted in Buddhism: school, family, work, etc.. I've got a lot of hope for her.
Have a good week.

Peace,
Elder Brown

feb 4 2011-zone conference

Hello. Wow it's February.

Things are going by so fast, it feels like a whirlwind. It's really hard to even write emails anymore because so many things happen. Even if I wrote a daily email, it would be hard for me to keep up.

I guess one interesting update is last week I went to my first Buddhist temple. Yeah, I know. Pretty pathetic that I have been in one of the most dominant Buddhist countries for the last year and a half and have never been inside a temple. On preparation days I am always doing stuff such as helping people get baptized or other such silly things. On feb 2 we had the Pakkret zone conference, after zone conferences the mission has zone activities, so we ended up going to a temple. It was interesting. After lunch at the church we drove the office vehicles to the Grand Palace and then took the ferry over the river to the “Temple of the Dawn” or Wat Phra Aran. It was awesome, but the stairs were unbelievably steep.
Haha. It might have been cooler, but President Smith was there and he didn't want us climbing up the high staircase. Not sure what is at the top, maybe it is cool.

Zone conferences are only once a quarter nowadays. The conference was pretty good. I was really tired, I wish I could've got more out of it.

Sorry,
I am out of time,
got to go,

Love
Elder Brown