#Burnt

Hola mi amada famillia!

so josh and chelsea are havin a baby eh?? nuts! welp. i guess jessalyn and drew have to give me twin nephews now. no? ok.

presidents day huh?  NO SCHOOL OR WORK YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH LIVE IT UP MACI!!!! very nice. i expect to hear about barbeques at the herrons and swimming. oh wait, its only hot down here. welp. better luck in a few moths! the heat starts to die away in like a week or two but it wont be cold again for a few months. winter starts in june. mmm wet cold. my favorite. sike.

HAPPY TENTH ANNIVERSARY THIS FRIDAY MOM AND MARK. DOUBLE DIGITS. what started with turtle neck sweaters and leather jackets has turned into an eternal marriage. well done! 

so in peru things are goin good! its HOTTT. im just glad im not in brazil. i hear its nastyy over there. at least its nice at night time because we´re right on the beach. Corbin is on the beach too but he´s a little north of me. the difference is his area is pure sand. dude´s roasting. whenever he emails or calls me i make star wars jokes about Tattouine and sand men. i dont think he catches the references so its not really funny but eh, oh well.

the other day we did a service in the other area in our ward, elder schagel´s area. they have only sand and dirt too. we swept and repainted a soccer court and we all left fried. sunblock would´ve been good. the next day we went to a baptism and one of the sisters from the states had a few bottles of peppermint essencial oils. all of us we´re putting it on our burns. it felt nice. the redness is kinda gone now. as you know ive dealt with some baddddd burns from our san clemente trips. my skin is still on my face haha.

so this past week i got a call from my pops elder fallas, infoming me that elder laiche´s visa is ready. he´s been on a temporary mission while he waited on his visa. welp. the offices are gonna pick it up tomorrow and he could leave at any time. NO. MY SON. we went to the center of lima (which is wayyy cool. (callao- no pasa nada) to do his picture for his visa. as we were driving we saw the stadium for peru´s national team. we also saw a chicken restaurant that said "KENDALL" on it. all the shops here have the title of what it is (bodega, farmacia, panaderia, etc.) and then a random name (stacy, miguel, stefani). this one just happened to be mine! cool stuff.

we had a solid week this week! we´re setting up baptisms for this week and for march. we had a FHE with a new family last night and when we left elder laiche said "ellos son escogidos". they are chosen. they are awesome. are hard work is finally starting to show results! apparently my district has more baptismal dates than the rest of the zone and me and elder laiche are leading the way! when we prayed together last night, elder laiche reminded me why we really have all this success as he thanked god for placing every one in our paths and allowing us to teach these people and have given us the ability to work. its verrrryyyy true. just on our own efforts, its better that we dont even go out on missions. we literally cant do anything without god´s hand in the work. every person we teach and every day we get to work is a gift. its by his hand i can walk all day, speak a different language, and do it for two whole years. like it says in alma, in his strength i can do all things. and, without his strength, i cant do anything. we all are completely dependent on him in this work. he needs our hearts, might, minds, and strength,, and even when our everything isnt much, he fills in the gaps and does the rest. ive been working more on really studying deep. asking questions, thinking. finding little details in the scriptures and pondering them. the other day, i read a verse in genesis about the ark and i wrote half a page in my journal of questions. its awesome. and i started to study PMG from ground one. literally. i started by studying the front cover. i went and bought post it notes to write notes and questions all over the place. im goin BIG. i hope this lasts long haha i always start new studying techniques and can never get set in one. with planning meetings, work visits, and services, it gets a little hard to keep up. the joys of being a district leader eh? its cool though. im learning a ton and its cool to see how the missionaries and their areas are progressing.

welp- i love you all, have fun celebrating the presidents. party hard. but not too hard. squeeza hayden´s face for me. LES QUIERO!

Elder brown

MONTH 10

Mi linda familia!!

whats up. this week has flownnnnnnnn. this past month, the clock decided to tick faster. every week is flying now. im at ten months now. what the heck. i speak well, im livin in peru, but i still feel like i just started. only two months and im at my year mark. not to mention some of my friends will be home in six months. haha jeff was right, im gonna wake up the day after i get home and think it was all just some crazy dream. welp, gotta go hard while i can i guess!

i got my package this week THAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANK YOU. its awesome. ah. america. im gonna make the cookies tomorrow morning for my district.  speaking of my district. we´re starting to kick it up. we only have one baptism in the district this far, but for the rest of the month we have eleven dates..? fechas sounds better. my companion is a machine. last week in a zone meeting, the zone leaders wantewd to demonstrate the difference between strength and diligence. they had elder laiche go in front of everyone to do 100 push ups. he did it. first time in his life. haha so if we are diligent (constantly working to improve every day) we´ll get stronger (busting out 100 push ups in a shirt and tie like its nothing). thats my boy!!

 anyways, im excited to see that finally our hard work is paying off. some days we still have a few hours to go and i gotta take a break to stretch out my legs and breathe for a little bit. but its good. things are alot funnier when im tired. and then when i get reallly tired they just get frustrating. eh, its all good. 

haha ahhhhh i want to be there to see hayden. she sounds like shes a funny little girl. if shes gonna throw her food, at least have fun with it and make her a target to throw at. or just throw it back at her. haha ahhh the time our corner. jessalyn´s puttin the hammer down. i remember the time out corner in our old house. corner window by the kitchen table. classic.

ahhhh let me know how her restaurant is! inka empire eh? sounds solid! hey, cow heart is really good! chicken liver too. ill take ya there after and show ya what i ate!

oh yeah, so we dont eat dinner at our pensionistas anymore. so this past week i have become a chicken nugget, egg, and cheese taco master. gettin creative haha. last week i bought a massive chocolate cake from Tottus to eat for breakfast.. i finished it last week. it was dang good. yes mom. im staying healthy. our pensionista gives us fruit with our lunch.

os the other day i went to get my hair cut. the usual lady was busy so we went down the street. she cut my hair. but in an effort to keep my "look", she left a ton of long hair so that my hair could stay kinda how it looked. um pardon? i paid six soles, cut ALL my hair. so sunday morning, i got dressed. looked in the mirror. "this is ridiculous". got my scissors. and attempted to do what ive seen momma do for 18 years. dang im good. haha 

the other day we did "Open Doors" at the church. we stood outside with pamphlets and book of mormons to try getting people inside to show them the church. we were inside talking to people and some dude (the same guy we taught on elder laiche´s first day that showed us a bible that says the mountain of the lord in isaiah is machu pichu) came by with his garbage cart and stole all of our book of mormons. we ran out, invited him inside, then made him give our books back. haha oh victor.

welp, thanks for the love and prayers. i love you all and im glad everyones safe and doing well. thanks! 

over and out,

elder  brown   

oh yeah. we got another rat...

February- Yo

Heyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

so ya had a trip up to provo eh?? sounds like a fun day! hah and no ive never been to cubby´s in my life. i lived on in n out and babe-choc-frosts from wendy´s at provo. Bruce eh?? i mean its no Grace but i mean if he "rides like butter[ (...??) then its gotta be a good car..and that art exhibit sounds dope! now your next assigment is for you two to actually go to denmark and find any people he taught that are still alive.. or their kids. haha.

so yes my stomach was better this week. and my back? well. im hopin jeff learns back stuff in med school. nah no worries im good! i just stretch and use my ice pack when i need it. i feel bad if im ever elders quorum president. i wont be able to help anyone move...aside from the sicknesses i am still slowly getting skinnier still. my companion makes skinny jokes and some guy in my ward grabbed my pants at my waste because they´re a little loose and made some joke or comment or something haha. eh. oh well. ill gain it all back my first week of barro´s and filiberto´s.

 i am actually drinking water now. i might as well go buy a camel pack so i can replace the water im constantly losing. we sweat alllllllll day. luckily the nights are still pretty nice. we wake u in the mornings and its like Cali. overcast. and then the sun says "just kidding.. good luck gringo!!! BOOM. i get home at night and i look like  dang lobster. hahaha remember when i came back from the beach looking like a leper because i got burnt so bad? well im not quite there yet. but the extreme farmers tan is going to confuse my body. half is burnt and half is sun deprived. im lookin reallll good. 

sooooooo no package yet. im hopin itll be here tomorrow.  no worries mama. itll get to me! and yes we use the football set. sometimes we dont really feel like starting comp study so to warm up i go to my bed and shoot the ball back and forth till i beat him haha. elder scroggins my zone leader kinda spilled all the sand from my golf thing. dont worry it came with a big bag. i still cant beat my par 5  hole in one.

so this past week, we had changes and interviews. i looooooooove talking with president. i leave soo stoked to work every time. so elder garner went up to huaraz. look it up online. im hoping to die there as a trainer. thats mah dream. but anyways to replace him, i got the one and only ELDER BRYSON FORD SCHAGEL he is working with me in the ward haha this kids nuts. love him. he was with elder cole cody for a while so im pretty sure he´s gonna spend alot of time with us in mesa, 

haha ahhhhhhhh hayden. i miss that chunker. keep sending pictures por favor.

speaking of maci.. breaststroke eh?? i mean its not what us browns do but if you wanna step outside the 50 free train and dominate im fine with that. haha nah keep it up mace! your 50 breast is gonna beat my 25 free by the time i get back. im sure sterling can give you a few pointers,he swam breaststroke. just be sure to start all your races like lightning mcqueen.. "speed... i am speed...".

the work is good. we are finding a few solid families! the other night we brought a family to the chapel and taught them about faith, repentance, chastity, and marriage. we had them pray right there in the lesson about a specific date for getting married and we all knelt down. they both prayed and when they finished, their eyes were filled with tears. god ALWAYS answers prayers. president told me that if the spirit lets me down, that i write him and he´ll print it out and peg it to his wall. 

something to try that we did Mark. its called "finding the lost sheep", to help with the sisters in the wars. we printed off a ton of little sheep, cut them out and passed them out in sacrament meeting. the members put their names, numbers, and addresses, and then put a name number and address of a friend, family member, or neighbor. BOOM. referrals.

ha the other day people gave us coffee. we drink ecco here which is like it so i had no idea. but we had one of the assistants with us and he, in english looks at me and says "coffee" no. elder laiche was pounding it. i stomped on his foot. we asked them what it was and then explained we couldnt drink it. we taught them the word of wisdom (in our first actual lesson with them, which isnt normal) and they committed right there to live the word of wisdom. so sick. 

haha well its been a great week love you all. stay safe. wait groundhogs day passed right?? what did phil say?? 

love you!

elder brown. 

oh yeah we make our own dinner now. thats me flippin quesadillas.