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

POR TIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII VOLARÉEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

Heyyyyyyy family whats up??

this week we had an awesome meeting with Elder Uceda from the seventy. it was so good! he basically burned us and called us all to repentance haha but it was awesome! he talked to us alot about missionary conduct and the importance of following the missionary manual. President Archibald spoke to us also about the prophets and men who are called of God. he said something about how we learn about these men in primary and talk about them in the church, and here we are, just taking pictures with a member of the Seventy. So cool to think about. oh and i got to see Elder McAllister, Elder Cody, Elder Arnett, herana brown, and Elder Paredes. i also say Elder Aubrey (my grandpa in the mission and the cousin of Jackson Aubrey (are him and rachel still together? if not i apologize for the awkward situation.)). and i saw elder richards and elder hackleman, the other white guys from my group.

So we learned something wayyyyyyyyyyyyyy cool the other day. we were in a lesson and we had a member with us in the lesson. the lady mentioned how its not something every one knows, that Christ really came here to the Americas. the member we had with us then mentioned how he was listening to a cd about the history of Peru. he told us Peru translates to "Abundancia" in spanish. (apparently the word peru is in some Incan language). and the cool part is "la tierra de abundancia" is where Christ came. in english: the land Bountiful. so you know... no big deal.. its just a possibility that this is where he Came down. .. haha not where i am though, its straight up sand hills here. just somethin cool. i dont know if thats 100% accurate or not.

the other day we had "noche blanca" where we had like a zone-wide baptism. it was awesome, a group from our zone got up and sang "how firm a foundation". the only problem was that our baptism couldnt be baptized till the next day because she wanted her primary teacher to be there.

which brings me to my next point, WE HAD ANOTHER BAPTISM YESTERDAY. an 11 year old girl named Misami. it was a really good baptism, the water was freeeeezing though. ¡vale la pena! i´ll send some pictures.

Welp i hope all is well! i dont really have any good messages to share this week, i just ask that you keep praying for our safety. II was literally inches away from being mawled and eaten by two giant bears that looked like dogs. haha one of the scariest things of my life. but hey, im alive! it stopped and they both walked away and laid down as if nothing happened. i definitely had angels holding those things on spirit leashes. 

love you all!

elder brown, bear-dog slayer.

Elder Brown and Misami. a 11 yr old girl

Watt is apppppppppppp

Hola mi familia amadaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

thank yo sooooooooooooooooo much for the package. i cant even tell you how happy i was to see the greatest America has to offer all in one giant Trader Joe´s bag. so awesome. that night, i bought a churro and brought it home to put peanut butter on it. haha best churro ive ever had. i think ive gained a good thirty pounds this week.

oh yeah, i got a new bed this week. its flat! im sendin a picture.

This past week, on thursday, we  had a Noche Misional. we invited members/ investigators to the church and we showed the Testaments. we had popcorn and a tonnn of inca cola. At first we were super bummed. there were only a few people that showed up. disappointed, we walked inside to start the movie. After a few minutes, a few people started to show up. and, after a little longer, the whole room was full. it was awesome! we just had to wait for Peruvian Standard Time to kick in. next time we literally have to announce that its an hour earlier so that people can show up when its supposed to really start.

This saturday we had a baptism;  a 15 year old girl named Ariana. she is the cousin of a family in our ward and had been coming to church with them. we taught her faster than anyone we´ve ever taught before: a week and a half from start to baptism. it was nuts! her cousin Luis did the baptism and we confirmed her right after. i´ll send some pictures so you can see. you´ll see Luis´s litle brother, pur buddy Aron too. that kids awesome, hes four, and just sits at home all day and plays grand theft auto on the computer haha.

yesterday we had a stake conference. it was a peru-wide (is that how you say that?) broadcast from Salt lake. we heard from an elder from the  Seventy, Linda S Reeves from the relief society presidency, Elder David A Bednar (who spoke on repentance), and Elder Richard G Scott (who spoke on the sanctity of women). it was awesome, just what they need down here! we were super blessed to hear from apostles. Elder Scott speaks spanish reallly well. Sister reeves sounds kinda like jessalyn when she tries speaking spanish hahaha. and elder Bednar had a voice-over translator.

so on the way to internet i was thinking of something cool to share. i thought back to the Fourth Watch, the talk by S Michael Wilcox. it is about how God always comes through, even when we dont think he hear us. he talks abvout how God always gives bread, never stones. always eggs, never scorpions. always fish, never serpents. he then talks about how he gives us things things when we ask for them but not always in the manner we expect. we ask for bread and he gives it to us, but not the exact kind of bread we wanted. maybe we ask for an egg, and he gives it to us, but not the way we wanted it to be prepared. the point is, God loves us. he ALWAYS is there to bless us. it isnt always in the manner we expect, but he always blesses us. he loves us. im learning more and more about how dependent i really am upon him, and that i have a lottttttttttt to learn and a lotttttttttt of humbling to do. Out of all the titles of deity, God asks that we address him as Father. We are His children. when you feel like he cant hear you, or feel like the end of a trial wont ever come, keep praying, keep having faith, and take comfort in knowing that He´s always watching from the hill when we are being thrashed by the waves. he is aware. when the jaredites crossed the waters, they were faced with towering waves, which (at times ver roughly) pushed them to the promised land. the waves were caused by the wind. the wind was caused by God. some times he needs to put us through things, but its because it is necessary to get us to our promised lands. i encourage you to read the story of Joseph in Egypt. it is a story of constant ups and downs. he had to go through all those trials to end up as high up as he was in Egypt. he couldnt have gotten straight there from where he was at the beginning with his brothers. the lord had greater things in store for him, but there were challenges that needed to be faced to prepare Joseph for greater things. i love you all, the church is true. PEACE.

Elder Brown

Ariana's baptism

                                                 This is the Kendall I miss! Always laughing!

     
                                                        Churro with PB from America

                                    These are Kendall favorite snacks and junk food from America he requested and so we sent them in a package along with other more practical things like socks, CD's of wonderful music and talks, Granpa Riggs poem book he wrote that was requested as well. And other essentials like American toothepaste!

Mañana= Five Months

holaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.

well its a good thing ive sent home alot of pictures because the other day i accidently erased everything.. my bad. eh, whats five months worth of memories?

haha so the other day, elder fallas told me he found the picture of ud on my first day here and compared me to how i look right now. he told me i look trashed. i guess hard work and 2 tons of rice does that to a man. haha but i think what he said is true because i feel exhausted. and my pants dont fit me very well. yesterday when i was getting ready for church i put on my pants and realized how massive they were. i sinched my belt up super tight to make them actually fit me and it looked like i was wearing a draw-string bag with pant-legs. alright its not thattt bad but im definitely thinning out.

so nothing too crazt happened this week. i was sick for a day (everything was fine, my body just felt i got beat up. in a meat freezer. the next day i felt way better but elder fallas was dying. he had doube dragoned Double dragon- v. the act of sitting on the toilet and throwing up at the same dime because of other bodily disasters. you´re welcome.) the night before and felt like garbage for the whole next day. soo we basically went two days of laying in bed, reading, and listening to talks. real exciting. i gave him a  blessing on saturday night and yesterday we were able to work and go to church. IVE GOT THE POWAHHHHHHHHHH. HE-MAN!!! nah, definitely the priesthood and the holy spirit worked that one. i was just a helper. ut it was cool. welp, i hope all is well. there´s a basic update for the week. 

this mroning i was reading in the Book of mormon and i felt onece again for the millionth time the peace that come with it. this book is awesome. people just need to read it and everything else works out. its so easyyyyyyyy just do it. k cool. les quiero! cuidase!

elder brown

Holaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

Holaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

so to start out, just a cool story from the other day... we went to visit Miguel, the kid we baptized a couple months ago. we were talking and he just said, wait, i have something for you guys. he went inside then came out and handed us each our favorite  pens. it was so awesome! it seems like nothing. pens. but it was just so cool to experience that. kinda had to have been there i guess, haha

so everythings goin good down here. its still pretty cold. and we have this new rule that if we are cold, we cant just wear a sweater. our first line of defense is our suit coats. then, if we are still cold, we can wear a sweater underneath. im considering just freezing to death because i hate wearing these coatws when im out walking.

so nothing too crazy happened this week. we got omney, that was fun i guess. im not dead poor anymore and i got to see elder McAllister at the bank. cool stuff!

this morning i bould wildberry skittles. they were awesome. it was like America in my mouth.

so this past week ive ben struggling big time with keeping my head in the present, not worrying about the future. And as a missionary, if your mind is anywhere but the mission, you´re basically gonna die. so i was dying all week. aha but i was thinking and reading and praying and talking myself through it to stay focused and i thought of a sick quote. now i just need to figure out how to actually have it take affect haha but here it is: "Tomorrow will always come again, but Today can´t return once it becomes Yesterday". there´s my wisdom for the day. take it or leave it because its all i got.

yesterday was AWESOME. after a week of struggles and countless fallen appointments (whats new?), i had a strongggg spirit present fast sunday. it felt great. the spirit is the key. in the talk "the dormant spirit" it talks alot about this. the most enlightened moments or moments in which we think the clearest are moments when we are under the influence of the spirit. sweet, welp, until next week!

Elder brown

 
                       I thought I would post this of me and Sis.Baldwin below. She takes packages to Peru every few months and so Mark and I took her a package and spent an hour and half talking with her and her husband. Love them!