AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR

What is upppppppppppp!

yes i got the computer with the messed up "h".  bare with me.

soooo on wednesday we got pretty caught up, but ill see what i can get out here.

so on christmas night we had dinner with a family in the ward. me and my companion and the other trio in the ward. we played games before hand and i laughed harder than i have in a looooooooooong time. i was literally on the ground. they gave us turkey. REAL turkey. without bones. soooooooooo good.

thursday we had a meeting with president for the new missionaries that just got here. president got em nice and trained up. i got to see elder kitchens and elder llaguento, my old zone leaders. i also saw elder crouch, the brother of one of jessalyns friends. and sister skousen, whos from dads ward back home. 

later that night we had our final lesson with diana. interviewed her on friday, then had her baptism on saturday. it was awesome! her boyfriend pedro baptized her. that day he was struggling. he had been gone from the church for a while. he got interviewed by the bishop and got cleared to baptize her but he still didnt feel like he deserved it after being gone for so long. sounds like a certain elder i know... i talked to him about how the bishop represents jesus christ. if e says you´re worthy. you´re worthy. i told him to pray about it to see if god really wanted him to baptize diana. welp. he baptized her. before the service. e was changing and i went to the other side of the building to set up chairs. a member came and told me "pedro is calling for you. he doesnt know what to do and hes scared". i ran over there with my companion. we walked him through the prayer and what e had to do. after a few practices he asked if we could pray for him. i offered him a blessing instead. we went out into a classroom with the member from before and i gave im a blessing ten practiced a couple more times. he baptized her perfectly on the first try. before the baptism, pedro and diana were walking together, both dressed in white. i saw it and just started smiling. it was awesome.

te next day, i got to confirm her. it was soooooooooo coool. ive never actually done the blessing before. the spirit i felt after as i was walking to my seat was powerful. i knew god was happy with diana, approved the ordinance, and was pleased with me for performing it. good day.

a few days back, we got back at night. i was walking down the hall to go down stairs real quick. i looked back and saw a fat rat. it ran towards me and i jumped. it hit my shoe and backed into the corner. it ran past me again then jumped down and climbed into the kitchen. we called brother rojas´s son to help us. after searching the kitchen, we found out it was in the front room. i went to get a mop and dust pan to hunt it down haha. as i came back with the weapons, it ran out the front door and went to the house across the street... whoops!

oh, president said if you send packages, below my name put "pedro roldan". hes the guy from the mission that picks up packages, that way he can just show his id and get them so we dont have to go to the post office. dont worry, hes not some random guy. hes my stake president. 

well i love you all, have a happy new year. dont party too hard!

elder brown

9 Days till christmasssssssssssssss

wats upppppp

its been a week of hard work. we´ve been goin hard everyday trying to find new people to teach. finally at the end of the week we got two new investigators. their families werent in the lessons with us  but we´ll get em next time. its a little rough when the ward isnt doing much to help out but we got a few references this past week from outside of the area. and one member who works for the government and knows everyone showed us a few houses. nothin. its all good, president said december would be rough for us. we are mainly working with less active members and they are awesome. one of them ive mentioned before. his name is pedro and his girlfriend is going to be baptized this month. tey asrent living togeter which is a miracle down here. he is planning on getting the melkizedek priesthood and is doing all he can to get back into the church. solid.

this past week i had another "First"... i ate cow stomach. it was aweful. we went to give service at an investigators house and after they served us cau cau. look it up. its potatoes, peas, carrots, and cow stomach. it tasted kinda like clam chowder. but really old and gross.. the entire day my stomach was sore. elder kitcens told me that te first time he ate it he threw up. i almost got there. haha i left most of it on my plate and the peruvians were lauging at me and elder kitchens because we couldnt get it down.

in another service we did, we helped some guy move wooden panels to hiw house so eh coulñd build another room. we went to a house a few blocks away to get the panels. they were on the roof. me and another gringo elder garner (heather morris´s cousin) got up on the roof and lowered down the walls to our companions. once we got them out tot he street we had to carry them a few blocks back to the original house. i literally could barely use my arms after that. TORO TOUGH. sike, i died.

we had a movie night at the church building. we showed te Nativity, that movie that was in the theaters a few years back. it was sooo awesome. it helped remind me of what we celebrate christmas for. i hope we can all remember why we give gifts and remember to give the most important gift you can to God. yourself. he gave us his son. i encourage you to think of what you can give back to the one who has given you literally everything.

the mission is going good. time is flying by rediculously fast. it seems like last week we were just at transfers and they´re already here again. im learning soooooooo much and ive never been so tired for so long. ive been tired for eight months haha but its awesome. im learning ohw to study and im learning sooo many things that will help me all throughout my life.

yesterday we were walking and i asked elder ali why and how hes so optimistic all the time, especially considering all hes been through with his family. he said well just think of the worst thing you´ve ever suffered through and then compare it to right now. you´ll realize life right now isnt that bad. then just know that tomorrow is going to better.... i replied and said well the only problem with that is thanks to the atonement i cant really remember what those rough times are like. 

the atonement is real. it works. even with the roughest times in my mission, when i look back all i feel is peace. its awesome. life is dang hard but its good. 

love

elder brown

oh and p day is on tuesday next week because there´s a meeting on monday so dont freak out when my email doesnt come on monday

Wwhazaappp.

so this week has been... eh. haha ive had better, but it was stil really good.

on p day last week, after internet, we went to take ot our money, which ended up taking up our entire day. we got home just in time to be able to watch 17 miracles haha.

and, believe it or not, i got sick. again. haha my apparently my pensionista hasnt mastered the "hard boiled egg". i had a feeling i shouldnt have eaten them... i did it anyways. took me out real hard. haha no worries, im back on my feet, the bathroom is less occupied, and im feelin good. two days of sleeping, eating crackers, and drinking sporade, which is kinda like gatorade but we´re in peru so the gatorade flavors are weird.

so given the fact that i wasnt able to work for two days, we´re having a hard time finding new people to teach. ha everyones just kinda havin a rough time right now . marks splitting open his head, im having diahrrea, whats next haha. no worries, things will get better. christmas is comin up!! thats good!

so theres a kid from utah named jordan that came down here to peru. half of his family is peruvian and his aunt lives on the street behind us. he has a problem walking which has caused some other problems for him and so he wasnt able to finish his mission up in the states. he´s here to test things out and see if he can get a a special assignment here in this mission. he can barely speak a word of spanish but hes a solid kid. he came out with bus yesterday to a lesson. the people we were teaching got so excited when they heard us speaking english. 

after the lesson they made us burgers. i was trying to put some aji (hot sauce) on my burger and it got all over my hand.i wiped it off but a little later, without thinking, i wiped my eye. big mistake. haha i had to go outside to their sink to actually wash my hand and then scrub my face with cold water. it burned for a while after but the burger was really good.

the other day i had a really special experience. i was thinking about god´s love for us. in my mind, ive always known he loves me but i for some reason see him as someone sitting there just waiting for me to screw up and X me out with a big red pen. i was praying and offering up my feelings and just asking to understand better. a little while later i had the spirit come to me pretty strongly along with the repeated words "i love you" in my mind. ive always known god loves me, i guess sometimes im a little blind to the many blessings he is constantly giving me. im sooo grateful for his love and for his patience with me. 

i know god lives. i know he loves me. at this time of year we get to especially remember that he sent his son to the earth, the greatest gift of all.

thanks for the love, support, and prayers!

elder brown

                                      

DECEMBERRRRRRRRRRRRR

Ho ho ho ho. eh, still not feelin it.

what is upppppppppp errbody. welp. what a week. thanksgiving. that was good stuff!

on thursday we left in the morning to go meet up with a member to take us around a part of our area we arent familiar with. he wasnt there so we went back home. when we walked in the door, we found hermano rojas in the kitchen pulling tortillas and cheese out of a grocery bag. he looked at me and said its thanksgiving, no? then he just giggled and went on to make us quesadillas to help remind me a bit of home haha it was sooo awesome. then later in the day, elder kitchens came and worked in my areea with me. elder garner and his companion met up with us and we went to tottus and we bought as much american junk food as we could. HAPPY THANKSGIVING. my pensionista made pancakes (i bought syrup that day for it as well) for me and elder kitchens that night as well. it was a beautifullllllllll day. 

on saturday we ahd a serice project with the stake. we all went to the beach up by my old area to clean it.l there was soooooooo much garbage. there was another organization with hundreds of people. and some peruvian military.. haha we filled up sooo many garbage bags. it still looked like a dump when we were gone. nuts. it was cloudy all day but the sun still got me. my face and neck are a little red. lately its been warming up a little. for the most part its always overcast, but during the day the sun comes out. its like california, except it smells bad. i thought it would be way more humid down here but its not bad at all. we´ll see how it goes when january and february comes.

welp, luis saldaña i was telling you about, the investigator of absolute GOLD got a job back up north and bailed. sooo we wont be seeing his baptism next week like we thought... but we´re going to make sure the missionaries get to him up there.

we had a soliddddddddd lesson last night. this guy named pedro saavedra and his girlfriend diana. pedro is a member but has been away from the church for a long time. his girlfriend isnt a member. they both went to church yesterday. last night they both expressed how they want our help to learn more (for him to get back into the church and be a good example of what sets us apart as a religion). its awesome to see how the gospel is able to change people, and i can already see how it is going to change them in the future. their lives will be blessed for the eternities.

yes i got my package last week! the candy was gone in less thaan 24 hours i think... haha thanks!

i got my christmas stuff set up the other day and its lookin gooooood. i originally taped the garland and lights up above my closet but the tape kept falling off. i eventually just tore it all down and draped it over my bookshelf and desk. 

my nativity scene is awesome thank you soooooo much! best part of setting up christmas stuff back home. i wrote a sick poem about the nativity and it has to do with alot of that stuff you were saying about christmas time. unfortunately i left it at home because i wouldnt have time to type it up today because i had to make sure my skype was all good to go. 

yes we get to skype on christmas! BUT, president wont allow us to do a "pre call" to let you know when we are going to call. so i need you to send me the name of whatever account youre going to be on and what time you guys can talk. dont write back and say "whatever works for you" ha because whenever you can, i can get to an internet or a memebrs house. it all depends on you. mom, i need you to coordinate with dad as well. im not sure how the whole "time limit" will work out but just so youknow to have a general time gap. sorry i know you all have a bunch of stuff on christmas but if you could figure out a time thatd be great. thanks!

welp thats it for this week. glad everythings going well and that everyone could get together for thanksgiving! love you and thanks for the prayers and support!

Kendall's Desk with his Christmas Garland

Quesadillas- a little piece of home

HAPPY THANKS GIVING! ...and happy hanukkuh to my jewish homies..

Whats upppppppppppppp this week was sooooo much better!

sorry if this email is missing ´h´s. the h on this keyboard is messed up and i gotta press it really hard.

that family picture is awesome. our family is massive haha MORMONS. glad to see jeff is going for the paul bunion look. i guess he broke his shaving arm.. oh and save me some of those tacos. i  need em. real bad. this food just isnt working for me anymore...

last week on p day we went to the airport to eat. dumb idea aha we all left there missing home. BUT i did find dunkin donuts. i bought a half dozen.. that was my lunch.

so last week when we got home from our zone meeting, we had two different ladies come up to US and ask where and when we meet on sundays. it was literally unbelievable. we werent able to have appointments with them but hopefully this week. we had a nice week of appointments. finally.

one of our investigators is the best investigator ive ever had. he reads all the lesson pamphlets and studies the scripture references in the back. he´ll either be baptized this week or next. NICE. 

on saturday we had a ward baptism for a little girl named Madelein. we "rescued" (that sounds weird in english...) her mom and got her baptized. the water was freezing. i got in the water and she refused to follow me in. i told her to just do it quick, she was shaking the second her toe touched the water. i didnt have any problem with it 

because my legs were already numb aha. she left the water crying... but they got her warmed up quick. im just worried she´s mad at us now haha

the other day we had an awesome lesson with the 60 years old karate master. he looks like G Mo in thirty years. this guy´s yoked. after teaching him the restoration, he asked us how he could testify with the assurity that we have so that he could teach his family and testify that he KNOWS. i told im how for a longg time i didnt know. it took me coming out on the mission and humbling myself enough to receive the answer. and now i know. its not a belief or a thought. i know.. that morning the spirit inspired me to change course a bit in my studies and "go back to the basics". i went to the bible dictionary to study faith. it really helped with that lesson. we told him that a testimony of the gospel requires living its principles, and diligently seeking an answer through study and prayer. we left him alma 32 as homework.

welp. i hope you all have a solid thanksgiving! it sounds like a full house this week. have fun! they dont celebrate thanksgiving down here. dang pilgrims forgot to take a pit stop in peru before going to the states. oh well. me, elder kitchens and elder garner are gonna find as much american food as we can and have a feast on thursday. its gonna be sweet. and im going to buy some dradles and candles for the first day of hanukkuh on thursday as well.. nah. 

i love you all and i am sooo thankful for you. kinda a bumber to not be with the family on thanksgiving, but i´ll have plenty when i get back! have fun and eat a TON.

elder brown

Happy Burfdday to Jeffreyyy

Whuddupppppppp

Como están todos?? sounds like its been a solid week back home. sterlings back, mark and jeff are crippled, and the tree is up in the living room. oh man.

well its been another slow week. i mean slow. we had appointments almost all day everyday and we ended up with i think five or six in total. super rough. we gave about five blessings this week so that was cool. i always struggle with the names when i give them. they all have four names and they´re all crazy. good stuf! welp. i hope its better this week. i didnt think it could get worse from last week. it did haha.

one fun thing im learning to do here is running a ward council. haha the church is still in its first and second generations down here so things dont exactly work like they do up there. but hey, im learning how these things work to help me later in life. its funny to see 19 year old kids trying to  be the responsible ones in making the leaders of the church get the ball rollin. the church is true!

this week we said goodbye to elder Arnett. he got changed up to Huaraz. look it up online, its awesome! its green, theres lakes, and theres LLAMAS. lucky dog. it was funny though, right when i first got into the field, i was in his zone for about three weeks and they changed him over here. then i get here and hes like "watch im gonna get another emergency change because you´re here".. the next week.. EMERGENCY CHANGE. i dont think we´re supposed to serve in the same zone. i´ll get sent up to huaraz and i´ll miss him by one day.

so ive been practicing piano. the elder i replaced bought a mini electric keyboard so ive been using that and a piano book Hermano Rojas had in his book shelves. i should have never quit haha but hey its all good. im progressing pretty fast.

ah so you got the email from brother thomas eh? it was cool, we just left our room and were walking down the street and in spanish this guy says "hey im looking for the mormon church!" turns out he was a tall white guy from calfornia who served in arequipa and puno (where my companions from) 45 years ago. there were 7 members inpuno when he was there and now they have a stake. missionaries have been workin eh?

my companions awesome. e was telling me about things with his parents from before his mission. they arent members and his dad wasnt exactly rthrilled about leaving on a mission. he had just been offered a sick job and all sorts of stuff, but as a 25 year old decided to go out and serve. he´s a huge example to me. i never really think about how blessed i am to have a huge family behind me thats all solid in the church. thank you all.

oh and i met a guy last night who met david o mckay years ago when he came down to peru. hes not a member but hopefully we can change that soon.

welp, sorry for the boring week. ha its been rough but hopefully everything wont fall. again. pray for me eh?? welp, have a solid week and have fun putting up christmas.. without me.. ahhhhh ha nah no worries. me and elder ali are gonna make our room look real fly. word.

elder brown

Sent from a man traveling in Peru

I just received this picture and message from a man who is traveling and saw these handsome missionaries. Warms my heart to know that people are so kind to take time out f their life to brighten a Mother far far away from her son.

No me conocen.
You do not know me.
Vivo en Upland, California.
I  live in Upland, California.
Servi la mision mia aqui en el Peru hace 45 anos.
I served my mission here in Peru 45 years ago.
Ahora soy turista.
Now  I am a tourist.
!No puedo expresar el gozo que senti Al encontrar a sus hijos trabajando en la ciudad hoy!
I cannot tell you the joy that I felt when I found your  sons working in the
City  today!
Deben ser orguliousos de ellos!
You  should be very proud of them!
Gracias por hacer el sacrificio de mandarles tan lejos de su casa  en la
obra  del Senior.
Thank  you for making the sacrifice of sending them so far from home in the
 work of the Lord.
El trabajo que hacen es bueno!
They are doing a good work!
 Gracias!
Jim Thomas - El Viejito

1st Full Week in 200 Millas

Mi amada familia, que tallllllll??

welp its  been  a   great week here. kinda.. yeah it was pretty good.

so as i mentioned before i have elder robert arnett in my zone , sittin next to him right now actually. its awesome to have  him here with me. 

I HATE THIS KEY BOARD IM GOING TO THROW IT AGAINST THE WALL.

So the week started off well with the work. we had a couple members walk around with us and give us some instant-contact references, and the first few days were completely full. but, it was a slow decline of work until finally yesterday literally everything fell. we had nothing. and i dont know the area and elder ali didnt know what to do so we just went to our pensionista´s at like seven and then went straight hom  eto talk to hermano Rojas. on sundays we end at 8 so we only got home a little early, and knocking doors is literally a waste of time, especially at night so we called it  good and decided to have a nice church discussion with the man who brought seminary to peru and was the first peruvian missionary. 

the good thing is that it cant really get worse than having nothing, so i have high hopes for this  week!

on saturday we woke up at like 5 to go help out with a stake service project. here, a stake service project is comprised of all the missionaries working, and the stake presidency in their suits to direct it. things work a little different down here, ha but its cool. we loaded a ton of stuff the stake had collected into a truck which was taken over to Faucet, right next to the airport. there was a huge fire here the other week and there a tons of people that literally have nothing.  Mark, you{d have a ton of business if you were down here haha. halfway there the truck broke down because it weighed  too much. so we had to send a few rescue pick up trucks to take off some of the load. once the beds were filled we had to get them over to the fire. one of the Callao police guys had me lay down on top of the load of boxes of water to hold them down and make sure nothing fell out. i can only imagine how this looked... a gringo in a bright yellow church service shirt, sprawled out doing the star fish over boxes of water, holding on for dear life with one arm and a foot hooked around the corner of one of the boxes, cruising down the freeway in Lima Perú. it was a little sketchy but it was fun!

when we finished up, i took off the service shirt. one of the hermanas commented on my shirt... i just happened to be wearing my smokey the bear t shirt. real appropriate for the situation. i hadnt even thought about it. ha its  agood thing none of the people here knew who smokey was. WHOOOPS. 

there´s pictures  and interviews on noticiasmormonas.org (i think) if you wanna check it out.

yesterday i gave a talk in church. i was asked to speak for five minutes on the book of mormon. it went really well. i love when the spirit speaks through me and amps up my spanish alot. its cool to listen to myself as i speak in a fluidity and speed that i normally dont have. the Lord really has blessed me in my spanish. i get comments all the time and all i can say is that its God. i hav ent worked hard or really done anything on my part. just blessed.

oh and this morning i finished jesus the christ this morning! that book is intense! there were plenty of times where i would have to reread a part or re pray to keep going.

well it sounds like everythings goin good! jeff, get better! maci, stop getting old! everyone, keep on keepin on!

les quiero mucho!

elder brown                          

                                            Elder Arnett and Elder Brown from Mesa AZ

Changesssssssssss

What is upppppp???

we had changes on saturday and i finally got changed. they took both elder fallas and i out of the area. elder fallas went to the offices as personal secretary and they sent me in towards the city in the zone "El Olivar". my area is called Doscientas Millas (two hundred miles) and my companion is Elder Ali. this guy is awesome! he´s 25 and the only member in his family, from Puno Peru. Elder Arnett is in my zone again! solid. my area is completely flat except for a huge hill in the middle of it but its just dirt, no houses. so hopefully my back and leg heal up nicely.

at changes President taught us alot. one of the things he taught was the importance of the Book of Mormon. he said if we´re mormons, then it makes no sense if we arent reading and testifying of the book of mormon. when people are converted, its never because of something the missionaries say. its not from som,ething they read in the bible. its from the book of mormon. its the most powerful tool we have. its real and it works!

i went to get checked at the doctor last week and got x rays and stuff. he says the tendons are swollen in my leg up by my hip. he gave my an anti inflammatory and a muscle relaxant. yayy pills. haha so for a few days alst week  just laid in my bed all week to rest my back and my leg. fun stuff. i can actually walk now so im improving!

it was tough saying goodbye to my area, especially because i had to stay in doors for most of my last week. and alot of the people i had taught werent home when we went to say goodbye haha good timing on our parts i guess. the day before changes we had to change pensions so our last meal couldnt be with hermana Magela. bummer.

as parting gifts from my old area, one of the members there gave me one of his ties. one of my investigators, Charly, a guy thats so big i literally dont think he´ll be able to fit in the faunt (ocean baptism!!) gave me a pirated copy of "Lion King. numbers 1-5".. last time i checked theres only two versions and 3 if you count the one of timon and pumba. welcome to peru!

so we live with a guy named Wilfred Rojas. believe it or not he was the very  first peruvian  missionary. and he looks like Cnl. Sanders. this guy is awesome!

and yes we got cell phones now. we´re rollin with some high class Nokia phones. if we had any form of iphone or tablet we´d get robbed in two seconds! and no we dont have facebook either. we like to do missionary work the old fashioned way.. talking to people in person. ha maybe one day.

oh and my area is right by the air port so i see planes lannding ALL. DAY. its killing me. 

church was good yesterday, they had me go up and present myself to the ward and this week im giving a 5 minute talk in sacrament meeting on The Book of mormon.

we{ve only had a couple lessons since ive been here. the coolest one was yesterday with a gu named Julio Torres.´this guys tight, hes 61 and hes a hard core karate guy. hes a less active guy thats been living in venezuela for a while and just moved back down here. his wife and kids are still over there so hes here alone. we talked to him about the priesthood and the book of mormon.

so jeff AND mark are getting surgery?? BUMMER. good luck with that! looks like our family´s health is malfunctioning. and yes mom im still reading jesus the christ, im almost done, only a couple more hundred pages.. which really is almost to the end. yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. 

i{ll try to send pictures this week. my card is being dumb again. its got some crazy viruses so if im able to im literally going to send all of my pictures home so mark can put them into a file before my card erases them.

well i love you lal and im soo grateful for your support and prayers. the church is true! live it and love it.

elder brown

                                                   I'm not awkward around girls, am I??

                                                  Elder Brown and Elder McCallister

Merry Christmas to meee

Whats upppppppppppppppppp

So yes this week was sickkkkkkkkk! friday was a miracle. we were supposed to recieve a call from sister baldwin to be able to go eat with her and get my package. but. we got called into the offices. I prayed real hard that shed call before we left so that we could tell her what was goin down and figure something else out. she didnt call. so we went to the offices. right when we walked in the door, the Assistants told us we´d be picking up our new companion (his name is Elder Billalba from Salta, Argentina). well him and his two old companions showed up and as they were getting their things out of the car, another car rolled up. the assistants went out to get some packages from the car, the door was open and i heard a lady mention "elder Brown". i walked outside and found sister Baldwin. she was dropping other packages off right when we happened to be there. she took another delivery over to the offices of another mission and then met us at McDonalds. i ate a big mac. it was good. MURICA!!! and yes my christmas stuff got down here! i started to read the testimonies but decided it was better that i at least save them till thanksgiving along with my present. i put it all in my luggage under my bed so i wouldnt be tempted.

oh and shout out to grandma Connie for stayin strong with the frequent DearElders! thanks grandma!

haha WAIT WHATTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT fonz and alyssa bird are geting married??? noooooooo thats awesome! i mean you know what they say, mission farewells just bring everyone together! 

dang thats a bummer about jeff. i have a similar problem... haha i havent really been able to walk for the past couple days... we´re going into the clinic today so no worries! hopefully its not anything serious. at first it was my groin, which always happens, but yesterday the pain moved to the front of my leg like on my hip. theres no swelling or discoloration and i used some cream stuff from elder billalba that is supposed to heat up if your muscles are messed up. i didnt feel anything. the medical elder in the office thinks its my nerve. we´ll see haha

welll it was aweome getting to talk to sister baldwin. and i was surprised too mom. im realzing how much i really do understand of the language. some days its a little harder but im comin along just fine.

so yesterday in elders quorum we had a sickkk lesson. it was about "Creo".. i believe. he encourraged us to believe in ourselves. really think about who we are, what we are capable of, and who we are capable of becoming. he said to write a list. draw a line down the middle and on one side write strengths, talents, and abilties, the other side your defects or weaknesses, then work to realize your potential and overcome the weakness.

love you all thanks for everythingggggggggggggg. really though. and uncle doug, i appreciated the letter and the old mission picture like you wouldnt believe. haha it is now hanging above my desk. 

bueno, les quiero!

elder brown

                           Kendall and Sis. Baldwin. She took Kendall to lunch and took a bag full of goodies from us to  him for Christmas. You gotta send things when your  friend is heading to Peru, even if it is a wee bit early. And Yes there are things he cannot open until Thanksgiving. Feliz Navidad!!

                                Kendall and Elder Fallas at lunch with Sister Baldwin. She is the best!

That's our Kendall! Always happy!

                  These shoes and sweater are from a guy we are teaching. he is freaking tall.

                           Well normal for me i guess. but he gave me some Nike Jordans and a sweater ha it was so                                awesome.

                                                   Me and Elder Macdonald

                                                 

                                             Heres some Chifa (latino chinese food)

Kendall has always loved the candles I burn and his favorite is this one I burn from November through December. So here he is in dreamland,  "smelling his life away!"

Wuzzuupppppppppp

Heyyyyyyyyyyyy people,

hey yeah my backs been good this week. maybe because weve spent five days in our house haha weve been a little sick. me with a nice cold and elder fallas occupying the bathroom. nice combo eh? thats companionship unity, we get sick at the same time. i read a tonnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn of Jesus the Christ, the scriptures, listened to talks, wrote a song, worked on a poem. fun stuff!

this week we had interviews with president archibald and it was awesooooooooome. that guy is so powerful. i always leave talking with him feeling inspired and fired up to get everyone in that freezing baptismal font. we´ll see how things pick back up this week. its frustrating sometimes to see how hard work turns into nothing. hah looking back i think of all the times where i should have been working smart rather than hard. thats one of the things President talked to me about. putting my heart into it and working smartly. its not about memorizing the scriptures front to back, and not even about having the testimony of Elder Holland. There are plentyyyyyy of people who are ready to accept th gospel when its presented to them. those are the sheep. but often times we get so caught up in wasting time trying to turn goats into sheep that we miss out on the ones who are waiting to be guided back into the pasture. 

well i love you all, thanks for the prayers and support! hopefully this coming week will be a little more exciting!

elder brown

                                         here´s me and elder fallas eating breakfast on the bus this morning

 ha and heres a picture of my bag of q tips. still goin strong no worries. haha

( This picture made me laugh because when I packed these for Kendall before his mission he about died laughing that I would send this many Q-tips. So that's why his comment above. haha)

6 Months!

Welp. i hit six months. i still feel like i literally just got here... NICE.

haha  to celebrate, i blasted "Feliz Navidad" and danced around our apartment like a psycopath. i got a lot of weird looks from elder fallas.i called elder Crozier and held the phone to the speakers so he could join in on the party. NICE.

well i burned my six month tie this week! on my actual sixmonth day, i tried burning it and it didnt work out because it was windy and we only had a few matches, even though i destroyed the tie with hand sanitizer and spray sunblock. the  next day i bought a couple boxes of matches. i took it up on the roof and destroyed that thing. elder muñoz (i was doing a work visit that day so elder fallas was with elder gallardo over in their area) brought up the portable dvd player and played songs from Star Wars, Dragonball Z, Men in Black, and thriller by Michael Jackson. It was quite the experience haha.

we had a few baptisms on saturday! Roselli and Lisbeth Olivos. they´re sisters and are 11 and 15, respectively. i got to baptize Roselli. DUNKED. it was so good, now we just gotta work with the rest of the family. they´ve got a bunch of people living in their house.

on saturday after the baptism we had a stake missionary talent show. it was awesoooooooooooome. i sang a jack johnson song and played guitar. we did a few skits and other people did some songs. it was dang fun.

oh so one of the pictures im sending is my dinner last night. on one plate it Lomo Saltado (what we ate in the peruvian restaurant). hermana Magela usually makes it for us to close our fast. the other thing is some food from another lady in our ward. it is from the jungles and it is kinda like a tamale except it is rice instead of corn. literally a filibertos burrito sized ball of rice with a little chicken in the middle. nice!

welp, i dont really have any profound scriptural insights this week. all i gotta say is that i love you all. i cant believe ive been gone from my family for over six months. sometimes it kills me but i know ill be back home one day, and ill never get to live this mission again. keep praying for the missionaries and dont be afraid of doing your own missionary work. i cant describe how important members are. missionaries are just here as "on the go" help. we´re here to help the members do what they should be doing.. building and strengthing their own wards. keep it up! les quiero!

elder brown

"Fourth Missionary"

holaaaaaaa familiaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

so yes i hit six months this week. un. freaking real. haha if i remember, im gonna burn a tie this week!

so this week we had an awesoooooooooome zone conference. our zone is killing it right now so President and Hermana Archibald brought papa johns and he taught us about the creation and the fall like ive never learned or heard of before. it was intense. Zona Puente Piedra for the win!

Conference was nutttttsssssssssssssssssssss. yes all the gringos got to watch al the sessions in english. we had a special tv set up in another room. i agree with President Monson when i say this was the absolute best conference ive ever heard. maybe because this was the first time i sat there in a chair and took notes to literally every single talk. THE CHURCH IS TRUE. its amazing to see how they are all inspired to speak on somewhat related topics that all tie in together. this time it was families, women, and enduring to the end. exaxctly what we need in the world!

Our baptism this wek didnt work out. but we´re going to baptize her next saturday... with her two kids now. and two other sisters. the work is starting pick up here in Zapallal!

today we went to the offices so elder fallas could get his eyes checked. afterwards we went to macdonalds and i got a swirled cone and it was soooooo good. ´MURICA!

oh and last week i got to see elder Mcallister again when we got our money.

So this past week i read a few things that really impacted me. first (which is homework for all of you) is Joshua 1.

second, is a talk Elder Herron sent me, "the Fourth Missionary". mind. blown. i learned of the importance of giving our will to God. of literally saying "i surrender. i give up. all of it. my heart, my will. its yours. your way is infinitely better than mine." ive offered a few similar prayers this past week as i am now seeking to more fully surender my will completely to His. its a humbling thing to just say such a prayer, and to actually mean it. Its so easy to be the "third missionary". to do everything we´re asked, but just that. we only work with our might and strength. its only when we also put in our hearts and minds that great things can happen. i encourage you all to become "fourth missionaries". offer your will to him. he can do alot more with it.

These two friends are so lucky to see each other as much as they do!

Even a McDonald's Swirl Ice Cream can make a missionary happy

Zone Conference

I Would like to buy a Hamburger.

whats upppppppppppppppppppppp,

so this week went by crazy fast and i really cant remember much.. so here we go!

wait, so two weeks ago (i forgot to mention this last week), i gave a talk in churhc. i talked about faith in keeping the commandments and emphasized the point of obeying the law of Tithing. it went pretty well. its so cool to feel the spirit loosen my tongue to speak clearly when i need it to. I eard my self speak with speed and clarity that literally can only be explained by being bless from God with the Gift of Tongues to help others out. cool stuff!

so last week we had changes. only one elder (elder miller) got changed from our zone. everyone else stayed and we got two more elders into the zone. the one that replaced elder miller is Elder Gallardo from Paraguay. he said he lives in the asuncion mission but he never knew Josh. we also got a new missionary named Elder Macdonald. turns out he went to Red Mountain (booooo!!!) and we know alot of the same people from BYU and from mesa as well. 

So the other day i was sitting at a family´s house with Elder Aldana (we were doing a work visit so elder fallas was in the other area). You remember in Pink Panther when the lady is teahin Inspector Cluseau how to speak English? I literally did the same thing to elder Aldana and no joke when we got to the word Hamburger, he literally couldn´t say it hahaha good stuff.

this coming week we have a baptism planned for a lady named Gasdali and the following week for two sister named Lisebeth and Roseli. i hope they dont fall through. pray for us.

Well nothin much else happened this week... i ate goat yesterday. that was fun i guess. oh and last week when we were playing football (the good kind, not that american garbage), i jumped into another elder when we were going for the ball and his heel hit my shin. we were both on the ground. my shin started turning purple right away and by that night it was nice and puffy. im sending a picture of it. its still a little swollen and after having high socks on all day and walking alot, it swells up and makes my shin look like its got a got. nice. hopefully this week it will heal up completely. no worries, it hasnt affected me working, it doesnt hurt. it just feels weird when i touch it.

Ive had a few experiences this past week where ive prayed and turned to the scriptures and literally have recieved answers instantly. its amazing to see how the Lord really is there listening and is just waiting to bless us with answers. sometimes it takes more wrk to recieve an answer. sometimes we realyyyyyyyy need to show him that we reallyyyyyy want it. but he will ALWAYS answer. always. i know God lives. i Know this is His church. im not just out on vacation in Peru for two years because i think this is fun. Im out here because this literally is Christ´s church. people need to know it and its up to them to accept it. it really bums me out when people choose not to accept the invitations we give them. more and more im finding out how small i am in this great work. it literally is all God. His spirit, his power, him. the spirit is the one that takes the message to their hearts. We are literally only here to carry the messages. Love you all!

fu'tbol injury

Elder Brown