October 14, 20 39 weeks

Hello everyone
This week has been OK -the days have kind of melted together. Probably the most exciting thing we did is we went to Dornbern Austria and met up with the zone leaders for splits. It was a beautiful city with mountains all around and I had fun looking around the city and enjoyed being with Elder Coleman and Bennett. We’ve been told we can do street contact so I hope that Elder Benge I can get out and do that soon. I think that will be a motivation for me to continue to work on my German. 

We’ve been getting a lot of rain and it’s been getting colder. A couple of days ago we had a delayed  train and we missed our bus, so we had to walk home. It was raining and I got soaked. 
We tried to go see a potential investigator but he wasn’t home, we’re both afraid he is there but not answering the door. We did have a district council meeting and that was good. Elder Benge has not been feeling well again this week so we didn’t do much for PDay. This past weekend we had a member baptism, an eight-year-old girl. When we arrived at the church I looked at the baptism program and I guess my German is not very good I thought it said I had to give a talk but I was just a witness. I was relieved. It was fun being with this member family and hanging out with their kids. They have a little three-year-old that speaks German really well. 

I got a call on Sunday afternoon after going to sacrament meeting and a sister member asked if I would fill in for her as accompanist next week.  I told her I was not super comfortable doing that but my German must have not been very understandable, because she said "great, I will get you a list of the hymns." I am nervous but have been to the church building a couple of times this week and practiced on the organ.  I will be playing 4 hymns for sacrament meeting this Sunday.  Say a little prayer for me. 

We got news on Wednesday about sister Neilson passing away. We having a special fast for her family and are  headed to Zürich Friday for a special devotional with the mission president. It was two Elder companionships and  two sister Missionaries on the hike at the bladder lift in Oberried on Lake Brienz.   Apparently she fell, no one knows for sure how, but it was a fairly steep incline and then a drop off. She slid several hundred meters down the slope and was out of sight.  They contacted emergency rescue and 2 of the elders immediately followed to keep and eye on her.  When she first feel they could not see her but they made their way down the side of the hill slowly and got to her about the time the rescue  helicopter arrived. They life flighted her to the University Hospital  where she died from injuries.I think they had to air lift the Elders out as well- they could not climb out.   I did not know her I think I might have seen her at a district meeting but never met her or had any association. Very sad also worried about those that were with her and trying to help. 
Love you hope you have a good week
Elder Carson Brown 

Sister Annabelle Nielson passed away following a hiking accident

Sister missionary killed in Carsons mission

Accident early Tuesday evening at the bladder lift in Oberried on Lake Brienz.

Sister Nielson slid several hundred meters down the slope and was out of sight of the other group members.
Two companions immediately followed to keep an eye out. They were finally able to locate the accident victim and climb down to her, at the same time the rescue helicopters called up arrived on site. Died later at hospital from injures. 

https://www.ldsliving.com/Sister-missionary-passes-away-in-Switzerland-hiking-accident/s/93476

American 20 years old falls in BernHighlands - " you are much to young to die" 

October 7,20 38 weeks

Hello everyone 

I hope you are doing OK. I looked through my journal and it’s a little boring I’ve more or less written nothing on several days.  We have had a few member appointments this week. The families have been very nice to us.  I appreciate their kindness but we are more or less  doing the same old things, which is sad to say not much. Not speaking much German.  

We did spend  time at the chapel on Saturday evening and Sunday evening as we watched General conference.  We have not watched Sunday afternoon yet but hope we can do that soon.   I really liked President Dallin Oaks message. I think it was very powerful. We should remember the worth of others and remind ourselves that we are all Gods children. We should try to rise above judging or having anger towards our enemies. 

Today was a good day we had district council and met with some of the other elders in our district.  That was nice to have something else different to do. We had a strange thing happened as we were traveling today we met a lady on the side of the road. She was feeding the birds and was sad because one of the birds had died. She told us it had been poisoned. I am not sure she was all there because she was saying some wild crazy things - the bird lady.

 We saw a girl that lives by us that we see quite often on the train or at the bus stop. We tried to say hi to her.  When we talked to her, we found out she doesn’t speak very good German. She spook Spanish and a little English.    We had hoped she might be interested in the church but we think she was just interested in us not as missionaries but as young men her same age - we now try to avoid her. Ha ha

I have enjoyed reading the Saints book in my spare time and it’s been fun to learn about the church history. Well here’s to another week! 

Love Elder Carson Brown

Zone Conference/Zurich Switzerland - Pictures taken by Mission Presidents wife - Sister Naatjes

Elder Carson Brown and companion Eric Benge

See if you can spot Carson and his smiling face in the congregation of Missionaries. 

 

September 30,20 Week 37

Gutten Abend Gutes tun
(Good evening hope doing good)
Nothing has changed too much all is staying the same, every day seems like a rerun. We did have zone conference last Friday and that was really good.  It was a bit difficult as I saw old friends/companions we couldn’t shake hands or give hugs because of social distancing. 

This week was better we had several member appointments.  We usually give a lesson and have dinner. I’m still not helping much with the lessons and struggling to understand the Swiss German.  I usually just give the prayer. 

We had transfers issued this week and Elder Benge and I are staying here in Kreuzlingen Switzerland. We got word that they might be combining some of our districts I’m sure because our missionary count is decreasing.

We went to sacrament meeting this week and then came home and did our second hour virtual.  I guess that was good. Our Internet at our apartment is terrible and I feel really bad because they had a worldwide mission call and we missed a lot of it. The call was late at night so we couldn’t go to the church and a lot of it we couldn’t hear or it was cutting in and out. What we did hear was wonderful. 

Today was p-day we just got groceries hung out and cleaned our apartment.  I’m getting better at riding the trains doing my best to try to talk German with my companion but he’s very quiet.  He is not very good at planning out lessons and giving me an opportunity to use my German more.  I do think we are going to be given permission soon to do street contacting. 

Have a good week
Love Elder Carson Brown

Hike up a mountain to the top peak

 

September 22, 2020 36 Weeks

Yo family 

Not much of interest going on. I feel like I’m a broken record because we do about the same thing every day which is not much. 

We did have two member appointments on the weekend and I’m happy to say we have several more member appointments lined up for this week. Saturday we are also planning to go on a ward hike so hopefully we can get to know more of the members. 

I’m still a bit nervous about my German I don’t feel I’m very fluent and so I am very self-conscious about communicating. 

We may have a potential investigator, we met with him last week and are scheduled to meet again. I really rely on my companion Elder Benge and appreciate him. I’m thankful for his ability to speak German so well. I am really going to miss him if he and I are split up at transfers. 

This Friday we are having another zone meeting so it should be fun meeting up with other elders. We had a fun excursion today with those Elders in our district. We rode up a gondola kind of like a ski lift and then hike up to the top of one of the peaks. I was a little disappointed that the fog came in and so we only had a view for a short time. I enjoyed hanging out, getting out of the apartment and seeing beautiful Switzerland. Enjoy the pictures. Have a good week

Love you Elder Carson