Norman & Karen Brown MA Boston Mission

This week is Thanksgiving. . . so here goes. . .  1. Top on our list is for Norman's brave 6th-7th-8th great grandfathers and grandmothers who are buried about 3 miles from where we live in Pawtucket. Two of them served as pastors of the First Congregational Church--Rehoboth for almost 50 years combined. These men and women braved the harshness of building a new country, fighting for our independance, and instilling christian values and a love for God and our Savior Jesus Christ in their posterity that has trickled down through the ages to bless us today. 2. Grateful for the magic of Fall colors.  3. Grateful for young women, like these girls, who are willing to serve as Sister Missionaries. These young adults chose to sacrific 18 months of their lives, and even pay their own money to serve the Lord. Two of the sisters in this picture are from Brazil and have learned English. The other sister is from our own Apache County in Arizona and has learned Portuguese. Why do they do i...

Life is good! We love this courageous group of young people who love sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ . Our days are made brighter when we work with them. As non native English speakers, these missionaries can describe in their wonderfully simple and sincere English what will bring peace to your life, why we need prophets, or tell you about the miracle of the Book of Mormon . We feel so blessed to join them in their lessons with people seeking answers to life's questions.    We had the opportunity to visit a cranberry farm on the day they were harvesting the cranberries. The ponds were pink with floating cranberries. They suck the cranberries out of the ponds and we saw them fill two huge truckloads. We even got to get in a pond and play in the cranberries.   These beautiful cousins chose to be baptized into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints . We've been bringing them to church for the last month and we've grown to love them. They are truly young peop...

Our front door... Our one room, one bedroom apartment... Our place has the cutest little parks on either side of the block where we live. Norman is thrilled that one of the parks has basketball courts--and just this week got himself a ball. Our multicultural area is a quiet little neighborhood of families and good hard-working people. Some charms new to us are the nearby church bells announcing each hour of the day and the train horns in the distance. We rarely hear an airplane or heavy traffic. It is quiet.    Last Sunday there were 33 "friends," people who wanted to come see what our church was about. Some spoke English, others Portuguese or Portuguese Creole or Spanish or French Creole, but all seeking Jesus Christ and peace in their lives. Two weeks ago we brought two beautiful young women to church with us that the sister missionaries (pictured above) had invited.  The young women were cousins, ages 11 & 18. These two girls have decided to get baptized as members...

 POST 1  - MTC/TRAVEL The MTC (Missionary Training Center) in Provo Utah -- wonderful. We were in a group called a "District", 6 couples, whom we had our lessons with for 5 days. Our teachers were young--like YOUNG--adults. They were the best teachers I've ever had; full of wisdom at 22-23 years old. Our group became best of friends. Our group of couples were going to: Cameroon Africa Oslo Norway  Dallas Texas  Ruidoso New Mexico working in the Mescalero Apache Indian Reservation one couple will be running a large girls camp in the State of Washington  We will be in Pawtucket Rhode Island in the Massachusetts Boston mission  We had two ranchers, two Canadian couples, 2 school principals, and one prankster--we had to watch out for him. So what do we learn at the MTC?  Most of our time was spent learning how to teach effectively, how to ask questions that make you think, how to teach SHORT lessons (Seniors are naturally long-winded) and how to organize o...