Profile of a Prophet by Hugh B. Brown

Brayden Knowlden Week 39

I Wanna start my letter about someone who I talked about in my farewell talk. I met this man at I camp for my disease - Neurofibromatosis. He’s very spiritual but not religious, and I was able to give him a blessing of comfort. Before my mission he lived on the West Coast and recently has moved to Connecticut.  Forward now to Monday; I have been talking to him on and off throughout my mission. He has found God in his life for the 1st time and Monday I was able to call him and talk about Christ. I had to make it quick, but I was able to say a prayer with him. That was a big step of faith. For dinner we were at The Trolio’s home. Brother Trolio is in the Bishopric. It was really good to talk with him and his family to see how we can help each other. After dinner we did more stop byes with less active members.  As of now we have found 3 individuals who claim to have never been members.  This is so strange.

Tuesday we had a move up in the North Shore Zone. We were expecting the apartment to be full of items, and it went quicker than expected. We decided to go out to lunch at Chipotle. It was also National Cow Day, so we went to Chick Filet for another snack. Today being July 9th marks a full year since I opened my mission call, It's crazy to see how fast time fly’s.  After we got back we again had to go fix the leaky tire at Firestone. To end the night we had dinner with Brother Rogers. They now have 2 foreign exchange students, one from France and the other from Spain.

Wednesday morning we had an amazing lesson with Kyle on prayer. I truly felt the spirit today, and in this lesson, so much so I started to tear up. After the lesson we came home to do some studies. We then went to do service with Brother Paganella. Elder Kilpack and I transferred a pile of dirt from one side of the yard to under the trees on the other side.  Elder Foutz worked on the path from the front yard to the back. It was a hot, hot day. Luckily we were able to go inside for a break. After service we came home to shower and get ready for dinner. We ate at UNO. After we had a lesson with a less active member, Sister Occean. Luckily, the Buchman’s help us out. The lesson went really well!

Today, Thursday we originally had a move, scheduled, but to save miles we decided to do it tomorrow. At 9 o'clock a.m.  We had to be at an appointment in the bottom of our area. Today we met our new friend Loraene. She hasn't had a strong desire to have religion in her Life. In the past, she has learned and taken lessons from missionaries before. After a first lesson, with her we could tell she is ready!  On the way back home we were able to visit Andy for a lesson. It went really well, and decently long. We're still helping her with the personal concerns she has. She is never said a prayer at a lesson with us before. She almost said it this time, until another lady stopped by the area we were sitting at. She is so close and making big progress. After Andy's lesson we went out to Kentucky Bell for lunch.  We then came home to relax and do some more studies for the day. I decided to write a few more letters. Elder Kilpack was able to call home and wish his Mom Happy Birthday! We then went to dinner at the Rogers home and had taco rings. One thing I forgot to mention was that Elder Foutz woke up with an eye infection.  We honestly didn't know what happened. We were also finally able to meet with our new Ward Coordination Mission Leader and were able to discuss the needs of our friends. On the way home we stopped by to see Charlene and she was doing well! She just got back from vacation. Before we went home, we stopped by CVS to get an eye patch for Elder Foutz.

 Friday came pretty early as we had to go to Westin to pick up the trailer. After that we went to Franklin for District Council. We had a good lesson from Elder Kilpack on “Testifying of Christ”. We listened to a talk called "The profile of a Prophet" by Hugh B. Brown. In the talk we listened to Elder Brown testified of Christ with the spirit on his side. After we did a roll play, on asking questions to find concerns. As we ask questions, we get to know the people are teaching and how we can better help them with their personal conversion. After District Council we had a quick lunch at McDonald's then made our way to the Franklin sister's apartment. They had a member to help us out as well. We took everything out of the apartment into a trailer. They left a little early to be at an appointment so we finished up the rest. We can't turn in the keys to the apartment, the sisters had to do that. We had to wait another hour for them to get there so we relaxed and waited. We had to hurry home to drop off the trailer at Weston. I didn't have enough time to unload it today because we had an appointment we couldn't miss. It was a good lesson on the “Plan of Salvation”, we also talked about a few of her personal concerns. She has been feeling the lack of the spirit recently so we were able to help give her a blessing of comfort and peace. This was the very 1st blessing she's been given and she seemed to find peace in it. After the lesson we planned on going on exchanges with the Zone Leaders but they had to cancel last minute and it was a blessing in disguise.

Saturday morning when we woke up Elder Foutz wasn't doing to well.   His eye looked pretty bad and we ended up going to the Boston Hospital. It was a fun trip to be down there and had a fun stay. We then had to come back for the next couple days. On the way home we stopped by China Gourmet, a pretty good restaurant close to where we live. It was the 1st time we've been there and we really liked it. We really didn't do too much the rest the day because his eyes were dilated pretty bad. That night I did a pretty good workout, while waiting for Transfer texts that still didn't happen. It was very stressful. Lucky they would be out in the morning.

Sunday morning we found out about transfers, Elder Foutz is being transferred. Elder Kilpack and I will be staying here in Framingham. We had a good time at church and my friend Lorraine came for the 1st time, She seemed to really like it. With a couple of good talks and sacrament, one of them was a conversion story the other was on missionary work.  In Elders Quorum we talked about building quorum unity. After church President Mavromaitis was there for the Portuguese Branch, he told us that this will be my last transfer and Framingham and for me to make it count and a work hard. Right after church we came home to eat lunch, then rushed to be in Boston once again for a check up. It took around 30 minutes to find parking, and the appointment took like 5 minutes. We had to be at the doctors again tomorrow at 6:30 a.m. We came home to relax until we went to dinner. Elder Foutz eye is still pretty bad. We had dinner at the Masons home all the kids wanna sit at the big table, so Sister Mason and I sat at the kids table. It was pretty fun. After dinner we sat down with Brother Mason who is our Ward Mission Leader. We talked about all of our recent converts throughout the past year and how we can better help them. After the Masons we did a couple stop byes and went to Charlines. She wasn't there so we decided to go on the roof to look at the sunset. We have some pretty fun photos.  We then came home for the rest of the night.

                  Philippians 4:13

     "13 I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me."

 I have used a scripture a few times this week, and it's true, as we have faith in Christ, having trust in him and go about doing good, Christ will strengthen us. As we have faith we can do all things if it so be the will of God. When life gets you down, remember that Christ was down as well he died for our sins. He also died for the pains and afflictions of every kind. He knows exactly how we feel and he even feels the joy we have in life. Through Christ we can be strengthened, but it's up to us to let him help, he loves us and wants to help. All we have to do is ask. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.