Monday, April 28, 2014

BARRANCA.

Sup.
so last tuesday i was transfered up north to a place called barranca, after being in callao for the whole first year of my mission. im still district leader and my companion is a boss. he is another peruvian named elder castillo. in my district i have the zone leaders, Elder Wheatley (who was with e back in puente piedra) and elder Dorado, who is from montevideo uruguay. aside from them i have two sisters, Sister Agle, from boston, and sister Leyva, from trujillo peru. she studied in byu for a few years so her english is way good. im stooooked. these sisters have baptized more than the grand majority of elders in the mission. they´re crazy powerful missionaries.
haha elder mcallister. well, he spent his first nine months in Prolima. then moved to Ventanilla for three months, which is right next to it. and was just transfered back to Prolima as Zone Leader. hes gonna spend a solid 15 months of his mission in the same zone. 
woahhh whats up with everyone getting engaged and married?? thats cool Jacob sorenson is engaged to megan. she was one of my good friends in high school. oof, i gotta keep up with them and with jessalyn and drew haha we´ll see eh?
so after changes last week. we went to the bus station, on our way there we went to a huge mall called plaza norte and i ate burger king. wasnt even that good, as i remembered, but it was still cool. we took a fatty charter bus up here which took about four hours and got here tuesday night. dropped off my bags and went straight to a lesson. doin work.
its been a longggg week of walking, riding moto taxis, knocking doors, and learning to work with a new companion. always kinda rough at first but things are going good. 
oh yeah, theres a store here called metro. its like tottus, in other words a lowgrde walmart. BUT- they have ROOT BEER. havent had root beer in a year. so yes i bought one this morning. anyways...
this weekend we had distrct conference (we arent quite a stake up here yet, so im working in a branch as well). president archibald came and spoke. after the conference a ton of people went for his autograph. never seen that before at a church meeting. on saturday night, just before the adult session, we had a lesson with a couple. the husband said he hasnt received his answer yet about the book of mormon. he is looking for people in white to appear to him in a dream. the lady said she still cant belive that there is two books, the bible is one and only one. after nice little session of destroyingt their doubts and inviting them agani to pray, we left. they came to the conference trhat night, where president archibald gave a talk and bore testimony of the book of mormon that was extremellyyy powerful. after the meeting we looked back, the lady was crying. we talked to them after and their attitude was compleeetley changed towards the book of mormon. it was awesome.
the book of mormon is true. try to make me think otherwise. i dare ya. 
peace!
elder brown


Monday, April 21, 2014

Gracias a Él...



Feliz Easters!
sawp.
its been a great week of miracles, blessings, and disappointments. love every one of them.
so last week we had a chill p day. we went to the airport and elder schagel and i feasted upon some subway footlongs. they were dang expensive and they only gave us one cookie instead of two, but it was worth it. we then went to tottus. nice.
tuesday morning i had a sweeet experience. we were walking to the bus stop to go to our district meeting. we were stopped on the street by a teenage girl. she told us her name was jenifer and thayt she had just moved here the week before from iquitos. she walked us over to her grandma who told us that jenifer had literally just been praying that she would find us. cool eh? we got her information and sent the young womans presidency over there and had them pick her up and take her to our baptism on saturday so she could know where the chapel was. god answers prayers and sends his servsnts where he needs them.
later that day i got my package! we were with the whole zone so i passed around the bags of jelly beans and cadbury eggs. within three days we had eaten the brownies and cookies and we finished off the boox of pancake mix with a big breakfast of banana pancakes, strawberry jam, and chocolate milk. whats up.
so in my studies im still going hard in the book of mormon. only one vers left to finish the first chapter. its taking a longggggggggggg time to read every footnote and write notes on em. but its awesome. it literally is going to take a few decades to do this but eh, i got time.  and im working on the new 15 minutes a day thing we got after conference. and im reading in spanish in the book of mormon. three separate studies of one book. well i mean its a good book so im fine with that.
the rest of the week was business as usual. working.
on saturday we had a baptism. a lady named Magaly was baptized with her two kids, viviana and Josue. The other elders in our ward had a baptism as well. they were all baptized saturday and confirmed sunday. our three were the bishops relatives so he baptized them. butttttt theres a little snag here. We went to eat lunch at the bishops house after church. after eating, we gave magaly a blessing, and when the bishops wife told us her name, we realized a slight problem. we baptized and confirmed her with an incorrect name. first, when we filled out her record, she told us it was just magaly. then at the baptism, she told the bishop it was rumualda magaly. then when we gave the blessing, she told us it was magaly rumalda. ahhhh. shes a verrrrryyyy shy person because of some issues that happened when she was younger, and didnt want to speak out and correct her name, so she just kinda went with the flow and soooo 200 Millas gonna have another baptism soon. we called the bishop this morning to have her confirm the name yup. here we go! but aside from that yesterday i had a solid sacrament meeting. we had the confirmations and everything and  afterwards i felt the spirit veryyy strong. Nothing like an easter sunday sacrament meeting eh? Because of Him i am out here, in the service of my Heavenly father, i am healthy, i am alive, i have the promise of eternal life with my family if i do His will, and i have everything i have.
it was rough yesterday thinking about leaving behind my families here. i love them and i love how the gospel has changed their lives, and am eternally grateful that God has given me this chance to help them on their way back to Him. Ill let ya know next week if im still here or where im at. thanks!
Elder Brown