Awesome week, I love my investigators

Email #15
Area: Grange area of the Firle Zone
Companion: Elder Hamilton

Excerpts from Mom's email:

Hey Mom!

Yeah I have got the bike lights. I still haven't got the jacket and stuff yet just because last P Day was so busy, but we will get everything today. Dang this was a really long week haha. So much has happened and thinking back to last Monday it seems like ages ago.

So good news, Elder Hamilton and I are staying in this area! We both think that I will be his last companion by the looks of it. The District has changed up a bit, but for the most part it is looking really promising. This next transfer should be a really good one, because already at this point we have 2 upcoming baptisms and two more later in the transfer.

I got to tell you about how crazy this week was! It was a week of firsts for sure! Just a few things interesting that have happened is first sang happy birthday to a girl, got kissed on the hand by an African, my companion offered me up to marry a Vietnamese women's daughters, and other weird things like that. I even saw some dolphins on the coast this past week so that was cool. Just chalk full of funny stories this week I don't even know which one to tell you about, but there is a couple of them.

Last P Day was really fun! We played basketball, volleyball, and some Foote with the district and with two investigators as well. That was a really cool experience to build that relationship with our investigator M......! He is a really cool guy! He was trying to show me how to throw a rugby ball and all these things haha, but idk how good I was at it. I will be pro by the end of my mission though!

We have a baptism this next Sunday! I think I have talked about him before, his name is C.... He is a really good man and he has just been so solid since we started teaching him. He has excepted everything that we have taught because he knows it comes from God. I am really excited for the baptism and he is having his interview in a couple of hours. Starting off the transfer right that is for sure!

We have also started teaching two aboriginals at the moment. First there is T.... who even said he will paint our scriptures all nice. He is a really good artist for sure, so I am excited for that. His baptism may be a little ways down the road, but he definitely has the desire. The other is M... and he is pretty new. He is very open to finding God, because he has reached a point in his life were he needs to know if God is there. He has kids who you can tell he loves so so much. His little daughters are adorable and he seems like such a nice guy.

Love ya mom!
Elder Bryner


Excerpts from Dad's email:

Hey Dad!

President asked me to share with him my most inspiring experiences.  I thought I would share it with you.

So my most inspiring experience since I have been on my mission? That's a hard one... but I know my answer!

The biggest miracle I have had since I have been on my mission has been the chance to see the change in one of our investigators. It has been a long journey with them taking baby steps. When they started out seeing us, they were atheist and didn't have any desire to learn about the gospel. As time has gone on, I have had the opportunity to see the dramatic change in them. Every lesson we have with them for the past month have been amazing. They are coming to know God in ways that they don't even completely understand. They have told us countless times how much learning the gospel has blessed their life. They are not to the point of baptism yet, but I know in my heart that they will be in the days to come. They have acknowledge what they have come to know to be true. They applied what we have taught to their own life and has become a better person for it. The next big change will be them quitting smoking, which they have even said will be possible through Christ. This miracle is in the making, but to me it is a miracle none the less.

It is hard to put into words or to express what I have felt and have seen in them. God has allowed me in certain moments to see our investigator as he does, to see the amazing potential they have. I have had amazing experiences so far on my mission so far. Have received promptings on where to go, have seen the beautiful baptism for A....., have received personal guidance from God. All of these things I have been blessed with and are amazing experiences, but the change in our investigator has been so large, I would have thought it would be impossible before. It has shown me that the atonement is truly infinite. That the gospel truly does change lives. I pray one day soon they will make that next step and be baptized. That will truly be a miracle!

Love ya dad,
Elder Bryner

Monster spider

Kangaroo moccasins 

View outside our new apartment

"Study" time... takin 5

I received a text from one of Elder Bryner's cousins Jaxson.  It was something he wrote.  I thought it would be something Elder Bryner would like to share with others.

The True Church

Today's world is hard to live in
A world where every kid gets a ribbon
Not even for winnin
To make sure no ones confidence it hidden
But really it's missin

A world where everyone compares themselves to others
Gotta be better than Brother
Gotta make your parents proud
Especially mother
Make your successes loud

To bring back your missin father
All these expectations
Causing you to drown in water
Losing focus on God's creations

Cause everyone wanna be somebody
Scared to be a nobody
Wanna be put on the map
Of a world full of crap

But there someone you mean something to
Who doesn't care bout your shoes
Whether you win or lose
And that's God

Tryna keep you sane in a world based off fraud
Hold to the iron rod
Throw away your vape mod
Go and read the words of God

Listen to my lyrical
Try to be spiritual
Go to church, go home
Get on your knees, then pray a little

Make talking to God something critical
So listen
If something is missin
Be worthy to receive God's advice

Don't think twice, be nice.
Be an example like the one who paid the price
Listen to His teachings
Not the false preachings

Search for the true church that Christ Is leading
Repeating, the truth to others
So that families can be forever
Welcome to the church,

The church of joy
The church of confidence
The church chased out of Providence

Church of family
Church of caring
The church sending out missionaries

Church of God
Church of love
The true church led from up above⬆️

Welcome to the Church of Jesus Christ of latter day saints.

New apartment video on Mother's day

Area: Grange area of the Firle Zone
Companion: Elder Hamilton

We didn't get an email this week, but we were able to Skype with him.  It was really good to see and hear from him.  He created a video tour for us of his new apartment.

Elder Bryner & Elder Hamilton's new apartment

California baptism...wonderful week and moving to new flat

Email #14
Area: Grange area of the Firle Zone
Companion: Elder Hamilton

Excerpts from Mom's email:

Hey Mom!
Sorry that I didn't email yesterday, we had a 12 hour training yesterday called boot camp so our entire day was filled up haha. Our P-day is today though so it is okay. We are actually going to be moving when we are done emailing, but I have already seen the new flat and it looks so good. Can't wait to send you a video of that next week, but in the mean time I will send a video of the old flat. So this week has been jam packed and thinking back through it, it has gone really slow. It feels like some of the things that I will talk about happened forever ago. Yeah they have a lot of crazy wildlife here as you would expect. The craziest thing has been happening where birds will just swoop down toward sometimes and it just startles us haha. I will have to get a video of that because it is just the weirdest thing, but it has to do with the time of year.

So we have twelve investigators in our teaching pool now, so we are just crazy busy all the time. I have seriously never been so busy in my entire life! The good thing is I really love doing the work. The days fly by as they go, but for some reason when I think back it feels like a long time ago. Their is just so much to talk about, but I will just tell you about a few experiences this week. So first off, at the beginning of the week I face my hardest challenge yet. Sometimes when we go finding we split up a little bit to talk to multiple people at once. We still stay within a couple of feet from each other, but we talk to different people. So we were doing that and I came across these two men who were Cristedelfian of something like that. It is a religion that doesn't believe in the principle of a soul. Anyway so I ride up and the first thing one says is that they don't want anything to do with the Mormons. Obviously we get that sometimes, so I know how to work around it in conversation so I keep talking to them getting to know them.  He then says "I know what you are doing and it isn't going to work. You are being nice to us so then you can pull us in" or something like that. Next thing I know they are trying to bible bash with me saying that there is no such thing as a soul. They believe in the bible and how it talks about when Christ comes again he will raise the dead. So we were going over that and they asked where in those scriptures does it talk about a soul. Haha this was just the weirdest thing ever, but I answered their questions and one of them just starts yelling at me. I haven't really had someone really yell at me yet, so my companion comes over and helps me out. So that was an interesting experience, but it is just hard to put into words. It is safe to say though that the only reason he got mad at me is because he new I was right haha. I don't like bible bashing, but I am at least happy I was able to answer him with scriptures haha.

So now for a much better experience:) We have been this man named D... for a long time now. Elder Hamilton found him about 4 months ago and when they first met, he was an atheist and thought he would never go to a church. Next thing you know, we had inside the church building for a chapel tour. Not only that, but during our last lesson he was telling us just how big of a blessing we have been. To even add on to that, he sent us a heartfelt message yesterday telling us how he has been praying and thanking god for the amazing blessing he has to have us help him to believe. He went on to say that every time he talks to us, he finds more work to help him pay the bills. If you new D..., you would understand why all of this is a big deal. He has changed so much from when I first met him a few weeks ago, let alone when Elder Hamilton first found him. It's been amazing to see the change in all of our investigators. I think that is why I love missionary work so much. We are blessed to see miracles everyday and I will be emailing Dad about one of those Miracles this week.

Love you so much Mom
Elder Bryner

Excerpts from Dad's email:

Hey Dad!
Good to hear that everything is going well at home for you all! Yeah this week has gone really really well and we are seeing so much success I can't even believe it. I had one challenge this week and I was even able to over come that. I am really surprised just how much I have changed in the time I have been here. I mean I am the same person, but I have changed more then I could explain, it is really hard to explain.

So B.. and D.... have been progressing a ton ever time that we see them. We see them a couple of times during the week and we seriously look forward to when we go over because they are just so good. So another son actually came into the picture as well. His name is J.... and he is 17 years old. Its crazy because his girlfriend is LDS as well and it has amazed us how prepared this family is. We are going to do the invite to baptism this week for June 3rd. I am really hoping to stay in this area, because we have so many investigators that I want to see baptized and help them to the end. We have 4 on date at the moment and all of them are really solid. We have two right now that we are positive will be baptized, because there basically is no way they would back out from what they have told us and from what we have seen.

Their was a really strong miracle this week. We were teaching an investigator named B...., who has been being taught for 10 months now. (He will be in the picture with the temple and all the other pictures in it in a wheel chair) So the first time he was going to be baptized, he was hit by a car and that had really scared him to go through with it. The Member that was with us, Brother Gabheart has seen him with the missionaries most of the time and has grown very close to him. He knows that he wants to be baptized, but has been to scared to go through with it. Every time he is doing the right thing like planning to go see the temple or baptized, something bad happens. He had a heart attack before and hit by a car. He said the only reason he survived is because God wants him to be baptized first.  Anyway, this last time that we saw him we were reading in the Book of Mormon with him and it really talked about baptism and how important it is. We both felt very impressed to invite him to baptism on June 3. To our surprise, he accepted it! It is hard to put into words how huge this is! He always said not to push him for baptism because he is just to scared.  Now he is feeling good about this date so hopefully we can see it through.

Was a great week! Just want to tell you that I think about you guys all the time and you are always in my prayers every single day! Love you so much!
Elder Bryner

He was on splits an borrowed the other missionaries bike.
When they got back someone had slashed the tire and left it hanging.

Elder Hamilton working on a picture board

Jimmy & Elder Smith from California.
He was just baptized. Jaren was teaching him while he was there.

Jimmy was baptized by Elder Smith

Moving out of their old Telestial flat in Grange.