´MURICA!!!!!

Happy fourth of julyyyy yeeaaaahhhhh! to celebrate im gettin nuts up in here with some rice! and chicken! and potatoes! yeah! for real though. imma buy some hot dogs or something similar to it and pretend that as im eating it im in the backyard by the pool. probably not. i dont know.

so this week has been greeeat. i got to walk alottt and talk to alot of people and knock lots of doors! haha my companion took the liberty of asking for patience and humility before leaving the house the other day. well. ask and ye shall receive. its been good though. no worries. all part of the experience. 

last week on p day we went up to pativilca to play .. drumroll please..... soccer! it was cool, we were on a real grass field. dont think ive played on one since the mtc. except now im with a bunch of peruvians who kick really hard and the entire time i was reminded of why i swam in high school. flying balls and feet coordination arent my thing. 

this past week the tenorio family, who weve been working with foreverrrr finally got their papers sent in from their home towns so they can get married and then their family can get baptized. POR FIN! we´ve been passing by alot to keep things rolling along and all they need now is a few more papers and we´re good to go! butttt other than them we kinda dont have anything haha. sooo stay updated this week we´re gonna find some more families. 

the other day i had an english class at the church. one guy showed up. i think he was a little bummed out. he asked me how to say the following phrases.. "dont mock me." "dont bother me" "whats your problem". I tried to teach him, and the other few kids that showed up, "i am a child of god" in english. he told me he already knew it and that im a bad teacher. haha well im sorry michael. my teaching skills for english go as far as basic words and Eminem raps. 

the other night we got home to find a Peruvian Dance festival outside our building. i went to bed with my door shaking with the fresh beats thrown down by traditional mountain peruvian dances. 

yesterday we were walking around going to appointments. my comp tripped on a rock as he was walking. i turned around, stomped the rock, picked up another rock and threw it at the first one. nobody trips my companion. i turned around to catch up to my companion just as some lady walks by and asked what are you doing fighting a rock?? i kinda just laughed and walked away, got caught up in the moment haha.

last week we had a nice night of marriage counseling. i think i might go into that for my career. im dang good. anyways. we read some sections of the Family Proclamation an i was like woah. this is quality stuff. so FHE homework for everyone is to read the proclamation as a family and see which of the nine aspects of family and home life are missing or lacking or need improvement. or not. its fine. 

so last night elder castillo was listening to a talk from conference a few years back, and the speaker quoted 2 corinthians 12:8-10. read that. then read 2 chronicles 32:8. MORE HOMEWORK. 

welp. sorry my email is kinda boring again this week. nothin too exciting is happening yet. but soon! very soon! just know that im alive. im well. im learning a TON. and i am so grateful for every minute of this experience. peace. love. word.

elder brown.

ITS A BOY

No. i am not training again.

But i do have the same lifespan as it takes for one to have a baby. mother. you gonna have a baby boy kendall in 9 months.... and jessalyn. eh hem.

ANYWAYS, 

ITS BEEN A normal week. workin hard and trudgin long to find and teach new people.right now we are teaching a lot of people. each week we get a whole new batch and sadly only like one or two stay with us till the next week. everyone is crazy open and loving but sadly that means that they have a hard time buckling down and doing something. like taking two minutes to read and ask god if its true. last week we prayed in the lesson to know if the book of mormon was true and the spirit was crazy strong. then we asked him afterwards how he felt and he was just like eh, im not really sure how my answer is supposed to come. well how do you feel? eh, normal. AH. dude come on haha. its rough. in my studies im trying to get down the basics. memorize references and get more familiar with the basic doctrine that we so often teach but arent too familiar with where or how it is really said in the scriptures. during church yesterday i did a pretty deep study in alma 13. go check out that chapter. its nuts. it goes into the priesthood, ordinances, ordinations, and the order of the priesthood. pre existent preparations and setting aparts. swing that over to d and c 107. good stuff. 

breaking news in the peru lima west mission. MY TRAINER IS GETTING SWITCHED TO ECUADOR. something is messed up with the papers of some of the central americans so ten missionaries are getting moved to missions in colombia and ecuador to finish out their missions. bummer. elder fallas spent nine months in his first area. another eight in the offices. and now he´s bouncin to ecuador. the cool thing is hes going to the mission where one of my swim buddies Robrt Upchurch is going. 

so this week ive experienced some spiritual and mental breakthroughs. not breakdowns dont worry. i just mean to say that i am now able to understand things i was struggling with before and know why i was struggling with them. but lie ive said before, im grateful for everyday out here. my tim is going fast. even though i feel like ive been at 14 months for n eternity. another month is almost up and before i know it there wont be any left. im trying to make the most of what i got left and keep the fire burning while i can. 

on a side note they´ve played the same miley cyrus song like five times in this place and im slightly over it. 

so yeah things are stil about the same. stil a district leader. still in barranca. still trying to figure out how ive survived this long eating so much rice. and still lovin it. the good, the bad, and the ugly. thanks for all the updates, the prayers, and the support. sorry there arent pictures this week. last week we went and flew a giant kite on the beach but i was busy sprinting up and down the sand to keep it in the air. im not on that level to take running kite selfies. 

chaooooo,

elder brown

buenosssssssss,

well first off im extreeeeeemely jealous about the lake trip. even though im not exactly an expert, wakeboarding and chillin on the boat is my favorite thing to do. ever. haha my zone leader is a hard core wakeboarder and he freaked out when he saw the water and board on my screen. he dies in like four weeks so he´ll be out on the wake in no time. 

this week was a blur. ups, downs and all arounds and without even realizing it, im already  back here in this internet place. the time is flyyyyyyyyyyying.the weeks are melting. after this week we´ll already be halfway intot he transfer. freakin me out. 

so last week we had a zone meeting. we focused alot on being misioneros buscadores. in other words, missionaries that are constantly looking for new people to teach. the hermanas gave the training on it, saying there were NO LIMITS for contacting someone. in a car, in a house, whatever situation. well my dear loved ones, i found a limit. later that day we went to a house where we had an appointment and were knocking the door and waiting outside. we looked back and saw a grown man squatted down in an open dirt lot pooping in clear daylight. he stood up, fastened his belt. and walked away like nothing happened. eh, no big deal, right next to an open park where kids were playing with their dogs. its normal.yup

but aside from that, we did some work this week. we found a ton of new people. sadly, only one investigator made it to church. the niece of a counselor in the branch presidency. we set a date for the 5 of july. we´ll see how well we hold onto that, and if we can recover the rest of the people that didnt make it to church.

last night we went over to the branch presidents house. they had done a temple trip to lima the other day and my companion wanted to go thank them for delivering a package to his parents (the joys of living a few hours away from where you serve). we went over and sister Jara, his wife, offered a little bit of food. no no im fine im going to eat dinner right now. here, just to try. ok.- so she puts a fatty bowl filled with everything fouind at Sea world. clams, muscles, shrimp, fish, snail things. and a side plate of rice. oof. before the mission i strugggled to eat fish. that fish, bones and all, was probably my favorite part haha. i chewed through what i could. the sisters showed up. hermana leyva disapproves of sea food more than i do. before they know it they had a plate in front of them as well. as we were all working our way through the bowl of stuff, the branch president busts through the door walking a sheep on a rope. hermana jones almost fainted as it passed by her. hahaha he told us it was a girl and its name was alejandra. alejandra the sheep, welcome to our dinner. would you like to join? goodness. i love my life haha

so yeah the work is still movin along. slowly but surely. this work requires patience. looooooooooooots of patience. appointments fall, people dont do what they say theyre gonna do and sometimnes you just gotta take a deep breath, be grateful you arent in eastern europe, laugh, and keep on walking. welp, thats about it for this week! hope everyones doin good and bearing the heat. the weathers slowlyy getting cooler here.  haha i saw the pictures of the lake and thought "oh it must have been cold out there". for some reason i thought we were in march. then i realized its june. woops. where did the time go haha. 

oh, yesterday we spoke again in church. i talked about the baptismal covenant, the importance of the sacrament, and the ridiculousness of showing up late to the most important meeting of the church. it took being a missionary for me to realize how important it is to be earrllyyyy to meetings. rushing in the back door right before they say the prayer, sitting down and expecting a good experience of renewing your covenants doesnt work. texting or being on your phone during the meeting. doesnt work. "if ye love me, keep my commandments." we love god, and because of that we keep his commandments, and honor and respect and show gratitude for the opportunity we have each week of promising once again that we are going to follow him by keeping his commandments. THEN come the blessings. 

laterrrrrrrr love you

elder brown

heres a picture of my ranks as chess champ of Limoncillo. and a selfy with my pensionista in the background. and my collection of Oreo transformers stickers.

buhbuhbuhbuhbuhbaptized.

querido seres queridos, personas desconocidas, y los demas.

HOLA.

this week was a good one!

soooo we had changes last week. elder wheatley, sister agle, and elder paredes (NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!) GOT TRANSFERED. but to replace elder wheatley and sister agle, we got elder Holley and sister jones. elder holley is from SLC and actually served the first part of his mission in the citrus heights stake as he waited for his visa. ht has ridden by mountain view in 120 degree weather and told me how he bailed on a frustrating day and ate at the dairy queen on mcdowell. solid. sister jones was with me my first two changes in el olivar. her sister is married to matt gulbrandsens older brother. even more mesa connections. 

thursday and friday was all sorts of fun as we ran around making sure the interviews got donwe for Ines, Arlet, and Gabriela. then on saturday we took a trip up to Paramonga to pick up ssome baptismal clothes. (look up from here to paramonga. fields. green. not sand and buildings. FIRST TIME IVE SEEN THAT. on saturday the relief society had their weekly sewing activity at three in the afternoon, where they were also cooking papa rellena (fried stuffed potatoes), which we ate after the baptism. it was perfect t have everyone already there to be present at the baptism. andddd finally it started. everything went awesome. after the baptism zome of the relief society ladies got up and did a nice rendition of I Am a Child of God. A for Effort. Ines and Arlet gave their testimonies after and they were awesome. we had other investigators their and its just what they needed to get the ball rollin.

were workin with three main groups who cant get baptized yet because they arent married yet. usually we drop em when they arent married but they come to church about every week and are working towards getting married. we hope to see them all wedded and in the water this month. the mom of one of the younger families surprisingly showed up to the baptism and afterwards approached my comp and told him how she wants her son and daughter in law to follow this path and how she is going to be pushing them to keep up with everything to be able to do so. word.

after the interviews the other day, we were walking down the street with one of the presidents counselors, he asked us "how are you?" we replied "eh, we´re good" "well could you be better?" "mmmm probably" "WELL DO IT!" It was a biggg reminder for me. BE HAPPY. CHOOSE to be happy. theres no point in going about life unhappy just because. trouble has no necessary connection with discouragement. cool stuff.

so the other day i was thinking about faith and trust in god and then i started thinking about hayden in the pool learning to swim. and i thought of this.. when we are learning to swim, our parents take us into the water and have us hold onto the side. we go in, usually thrilled to be in the water. all untill our parents say alright kick off the wall! our immediate thought was probably "my dad is going to kill me". i could picture then, drew standing two feet behind hayden with his arms extended, his hands literally two inches from her. all shes gotta do is let go and he´ll catch her. now he could easily gab her and just drag her through the water and call it good. but what would she learn. how could she learn. in life we often face things where we think its all going fine and dandy just when god says alright i need you to learn something. so he takes us to the edge and says let go. TRUST ME, i need you to let go so i can catch you. im right here. you´re my child. i love you. but i need you to learn and grow. if you dont let go, you´ll never learn to swim. its like Peter. he called to jesus to allow him to come our ro him. come on out. he saw the son of god walking towards him, who had told him to come out. obviously he wouldnt let him fall. but what happens. peter notices where hes at. hes standing on water. theres wind and waves. he becomes afraid and doubts and begins to sink. Christ at this point was little a few feet from him. close enough to catch him immediately as he began to fall. Trusting in something we cant se is a scary thing. but its how we learn. and well. IM LEARNIN ALOT haha.

thanks for the love, prayers, support. glad to hear marcus is keeping his dancing going, romney fam is back to health, and maci is gettin her girls camp game on.

love 

elder brown

heres some pics of my room. note that our food is hung up because of the mice. oh yeah. i killed another one with a broom. kinda broke alot of stuff in my suit case on the process. why? it was in my suitcase. thats why. 

Stuart Little. May you rest in peace.

wudduuppppppppppppp.

yes. stuart little bit the dust this past week. last pday i bought venom. he liked bread a lott so i covered some in the venom and stuck it in the bathroom. well a few days went by and we havent heard to much from the little guy. today we did some gnarley cleaning. in the process. WE FOUND HIM. bugs were eatin it. nappy. so we pushed it under the side door onto the balcony in our building. then i sprayed cleaning alcohol all over the ground. then we went outside with a broom an d two plastic bags and said our goodbyes. 

last week fishing was awessoooooome. our branch president is a fisherman. he, his wife, and daughter, took us out to the beach. he went out into the water with a net and after a few rounds came back and fiilled his basket up with sand crabs. reminded me of the good old days in Newport. a few weeks back elder paredes had hooked me up with a peruvian fishing line. a square piece of wood with a handle and a string with hooks and weights. so Presidente Jara showed us how it was done. we hooked on the sand crabs for bait. did some lasso action. and tossed it out to the waves when they go out, then running back in before the water gets ya. ill attach some pics. we didnt catch anything. well i mean my comp caught a plastic bag but other than that we didnt have any luck. haha funny you mention that though, i was telling elder wheatley of our Powell fishing experiences. pokemon fruit snacks and grilled chicken. classic.

waiiiiitt waittt wait, i know tha name, hunter bowers... how do i know him? send me a picture. glad to know i got fellow ukers keepin the strumming alive.

so the other day we had a branch mission activity. we pent hours preparing and putting things together. we had a huge training meeting planned out to help "hasten the work". andddddddddddddd like thirty people showed up. so we dropped the training and decided to save it for when more than thirty active members show up. so to start, the sisters carried on with their plan about "adopting a family". they made a huge tree. every person was given a leaf. on the front, their name (or of their family). on the back the name of the individual (or family) they were going to adopt, who were less active people that the ward would work to bring back. then they stuck their leaves on the tree. if the members brought their adopted person or people to church twice, they put a green apple on the tree, again with their name on it. and they receive a prize. then, if they bring them three times, a red apple, also with a prize. the point was to have people literally see "the fruits of their labors" in helping strengthen their branch. we finished out the night with scripture trivia and throwing candy at everyone.

earlier in the week we met with the saenz family. after talking about it and b¡praying beforehand, we decided to go on and invite the mom and kids to be baptized. we have been working foreverrrr with the dad but hes not ready. and if we wait any longer we´d risk losing the mom and daughters. so. this week. IN DA WATERRRR. Ines, Arlet, and Gabriela. they´re stoked to get baptized. the two little girls are swimmers.. hence my best friends. its gonna be good.

last night we went out with a counselor from the branch presidency. dude reminds me of john fillerup. he is hillariousss. whoever we talked to he threw in at least one fist bump saying "chocalo!!!" (pound it). we are working to get this guy in as our mission leader. he knows eeveryone and he knows what hes doing. elder waddell taught that the three most powerful men in the ward or branch are the bishop or branch president, the secretary, and the mission leader. the latter two in our branch dont exactly make it to church too often. soo we are working to get some changes made.

thank sooooooooooooooo much mom and mark for the messages you both shared in your emails. im learning to work with that eeryyyyyyyyyy day. even when the wind beats me to my knees, i have that small bit of hope that everything is going to come out solid. even in my darkest moments, i am sooo grateful to be out here. i wouldnt wish a day away. in a song i listened to last night it said "the most sincere prayer ive ever prayed, i thanked god for each and every day, and the blessing of the man i´ve come to be." this experience is amazing. the good and the bad. im learning so much every day, especially of how many faults and weaknesses i have and how desperately dependent on the lord i am. but, like you mentioned in your email, and like president monson (i believe it was him...?) strong wind makes strong trees. the stronger the wind, the stronger the trees. and, a quote i just heard from my zone leader, "theres no room for growth in the comfort zone, and theres no room for comfort in the growth zone". well theres my list of botched quotes for the day. love you all, thanks for the love and prayers and support. i need it everyyy day. que el señor les bendiga.

elder brown