HAHAHAHAHAlloween.

Suppppp.

Soooo halloween eh? my bishop here was baffled when i told him we celebrate halloween as members, i guess they dont get that its not a satanic holiday. the concept of "trick or treat" hasnt quite made it down here. the 31 is like the anniversary for peruvian music or some garbage like that. i hope to see some gnarley dance fests here! 

i saw ephraims rescue last week. good movie.

oh and that was awesome to hear that story from braxton. he was one of my buddies from high school. i had a class with him like my last semester of senior year. i remember messaging him on fb after high school and he told me he was a member now. i was very surprised. he said aroound junior year he was kinda investigating the church but didnt know where to go to or who to ask about it. he eventually got the missionaries. i almost didnt believe him haha then i saw an insagram picture of his baptism. then from time to time i messaged him reminding him to get out on a mission. so i guess he made it! i was actually thinkin about him a while ago, wondering if he ever made it out. turns out he did! but as for sharing a book of mormon with him, i dont remember that. i could have told him to read it or told him in the class why i knew that or something (one time a mormon v. everyone else argument arose and i think i was the only one there. so i had to kinda stand my ground, as in a few other school situations.) so i couldve said something there? not sure. but the point is. proud of him!

so this week was danggggg fast and it was dangggggggggggggg good.

first off. the meeting.

we had a sick meeting with president for the news and trainers. i learned a ton and got suuuuuuuper stoked to go out and work like a savage. we learned about enoc and how people ssaid a "wild man has come among us". so thats how i want to finish my mission. i want people to know that elder brown was here. #beastmode.

so we´re teaching a family called the Peña family. they were the first family we ever contacted in this area. they are married and have two little kids. 8 and 10. on thursdaywe had a lesson with them. at first we went by and they werent there and my comp was devastated. me, eh, just another group that doesnt want anything. then we were walking around to finish up the night and we saw them at the end of the road. so we chased em down and went with them back to their house. i was already somewhat hesitant thinking ah they didnt read, they dont want it, we´re going to have to leave them, etc.. but much to our surprise, they had read and prayed. they still werent sure on the answer part of the deal but it will come. so the next day we were walking down the street and we saw gabriela and fabricio, the kids, walking down the street with a lady. they got closer then the lady said to them "hey lets go say hi to the elderes." ...???? uh, do you know the missionaries? then, responding in english, said she had served her mission in temple square. she just happened to be the kids´ teacher.then yesterday we went by a members house to follow up on a family they had said they wanted to invite over for FHE. so we asked about them, the said the moms name and where rthey lived and we were like. oh. thats the peña family! this guy is the old bishop and his kids are stoked about sharing the gospel with their friends. so we´ve seen from many angles how the lord is definitely preparing this family. 

yesterday in church we had a couple come up to us saying they had a reference for us. so last night we went with them to meet them. its a single mom named Janet and her 14 yr old boy named Axel. another pair of verrrry prepared people. we didnt have a book of mormon with us so we were just going to do a basic "get to know you" visit using John 3:16. as we were there talking me and elder welburn felt impressed to invite them to baptism right then and there. eh, next time. then it came again. the spirit was strongg in that lesson. so i figured, the spirit it telling me to do this. so god is telling me to do this, so 1 nephi 3:7. so its going to work and they´re going to accept even though we havent really taught anything. so we did it. they accepted. wooooooooooooooh! they´re awesome. before the lesson axel told us how he was a musician and his dream is to go to the states and study at juliard. so i made him promise that after the lesson he had to play us something. so after, he brought out his guitat and threw down some guns n roses, green day, kansas, etc. it was awesome. he had me sing along with him while he played a green day song haha. 

andddddd we got a reference for a little girl in our area named molly who lives with her aunts and uncles and isnt baptized yet. shes ten. luckily we had the bishop with us and we found out the aunt and uncles attend toa  different ward in the stake next to us. so he was there for a nice little "welcome to the ward!". alot of people here think we are llike other churches and you can just kida be a part of whatever ward you want. so we are gonna fix that up and get that girl baptized with the rest of her family. 

oh, i think serpost of is off strike so i´ll let you know if i get the package this week.

so that about suums up my week. 

ohhhhh and i saw elder mcallister and kitchens again this week. 

elder kitchens taught me a trick this week. as missionaries, satan doesnt like us. at all. and he gets in our heads with all sorts of thoughts. negative, angry, depressing, and other stuff. so he taught me a good way to beat him. write out scriptures and carry them with you. any time a thought you dont want comes in, ppull out the scripture and start memorizing. it allows you to memorize lots of scriptures out here. and after not too long, will see that he´s helping you memorize scriptures, and he´ll leave you alone. so ive been starting to write out scriptures on post-it notes so i can pull it out while im walking around and memorize scriptures. its working nicely. since thursday i got dyc 5:34-35 and alma 5.14. i wrote out 2 ne 2:11 this morning and we´ll see how many others i get down this week. just an idea for somethin to do if you ever have free time. MEMORIZE SCRIPTURES. exciting right.... but i mean i only have like five months to be able to do this.

welp. love you all. the gospel is true. when you feel overwhelmed by how imperfect you are, remember this: stop trying to save yourself with the SAVIOR as a plan b. he´s the only one who can get us to perfection. no matter how hard we try. let him take the reigns. do what you can. and give it allllll to him. im learning that and well, it works! love you all.

elder brown

It's hot

Hey.

Its hot.

Summer decided to punch us in the face this week. out of nowhere. the mornings and nights are nice. but the middle of the day is nappy. it like vapors heat up from the street and the sun comes down nice and hard. so thats fun. we try to set up appointments before lunch so we can be indoors in the early afternoon for our extra training studies. 

WE GOT A WATER HEATER THIS WEEK!. no more angry ice showers. huge blessing.

and in bigger news.

WE FOUND REAL MILK. like from  a cow. soooo good, reminds me of america. haha cereal with actual milk is a whole other experience. you guys have noooooo idea how blessed you are to have glalon cartons in tyour fridge on a daily basis. 

so no i havent got my package yet. did you send it down with sister baldwin or did you send it through the mail. if it was through the mail.. welllll Serpost is on strike right now haha the mission has a tonnnnnnn of packages being held back because they decided to go on strike because it was a really conveinent thing to do for everyone. but i mean it will pass. i hope. if not, eh. i get emails. and i can eat receese fastbreaks in march (oh... wait... hahaha #eatenbymaci). so yeah hopefully that will turn out soon.

yesterday i gave a talk in chruch about the book of mormon. welcome to the ward elder brown. please give a ten minute talk. it went well though, speakin on the same day with my momma eh? dope.

my eye brow has been twiching for like a week. is that bad?

so yeah this opening-an-area thing is kinda rough. we are doing our best t just meet the members, talk to people, and stay verrrrryyy patient. the grreatest lesson of my mission. patience. which helps me see how very impatient i was before the mission. its funny to look at the biggest challenges i face, seee what i had to learn then realize god was thinking "well kendall you need to work on this, this, and this. so im going to send you to lima to learn this, that, and the other." i am sooo grateful for this experienc though. dont know what i would have done without it. my time is ticckkking away. fast.. i literally can count down the weeks now and its kinda nuts. but im trying not to. 

right now i am trying to learn more from the book of mormon. no matter how many times i read it or study from it. theres always more. solid book. its true. the church is true. my companion has said multiple times, if the gospel wasnt true, the missionaries would have messed it up a longgg time ago. its true. we are twenty year old kids trying to help people get where they need to be to become gods. this is definitely HIS work. 

this week we have a training meeting for new missionaries and trainers. and my comp will have immigrations. busy stuff. 

thanks for the love and prayers. we need em. haha just know that the lord is taking care of us and everythings good,.

next week ill have a more exciting email. we are just trying to get things rolling here. poco a poco.

HASTA LUEGO

elder brown

Kendall is trianing this new missionary!

Two Hundred 8 lb 7 oz.

hey.

so yup! im officially a dad again! 

haha im back down in lima in the Trebol zone. its the stake right next to El Olivar where i was before. andddddd im training. my new son is Elder Welburn from Riverton utah. yes, i am training a  white guy. he is awesome. haha he bought us a famiy sized pizza hutt pizza our second night here.

we are opening up a new area. its ROUGH. we spent the first week literally just walking around the area to mark the blocks on our map. and an additional few hours making a list of the members in our area from the directory, based on where they live in the area. 

but as we have walked around, its definitely felt special. the spirit is working strong here and we can feel that there are a ton of new people prepared for us. 

our room... well the following names have been applied to the room this week and more may be applied until a new room is found: Harry Potter´s Closet, the Hell Hole, and the Jail cell. its kinda something we just gotta laugh at to survive haha its realll small. and we ar eboth big. the sink is in the shower. hahaha i´ll send you pictures. but its all good. part of the experience. i just feel bad for elder welburn that he has to go through all of this his first week in the field. but the lord is breaking us down so he can build us up. i loooove the talk about Hugh b Brown, i beluieve it was given by elder christofferson, about "Why did you cut me down??" "i am the gardener here. i know what i want you to do". the lord needs to break us downso that he can build us up. the this past week´s experience mixed with president Uchtdorf´s talk have helped me in huge ways.

so i got to see conference this weekend! in spanish. but it was still tight. the talks they actually gave in spanish were solid. but yeah translations just dont do it. i was kinda freaking out thinking about how next conference ill be there to watch it with the fam. CONFERENCE CREPES. MOMMA I NEED YOU TO SEND ME THE CONFERENCE ENSIGN WHEN IT COMES OUT PLEEEEEASE.

My last night up in barranca we had a giant FHE in the chapel with the converts that could make it. ill send you a picture, it was solid. 

this week i got to see elder Cody, Arnett, and McAllister. and elder Kitchens and hackleman. good to see them. corbin is up in huaraz now. his area is the furtherst north of the whole mission. 

SO YEAH. thats about it for this week, hopefully things get picked up and rollin this week. its going to be a good one!

love you all, thanks for everything!

elder brown.

ElEcTiOnS.

Holaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa que tal. 

so yeah this past weekend we had elections. no church. no conference. no happiness. haha no it wasnt that bad. just hard because a ton of people had to leave t their home towns to vote so there werent too many people around. but we did what we could.

huge news. i learned yesterday that barranca is a real word. no just a weird name. it means ravine, gorge, gully. 

AH. mom. this is nuts. i met elder gavarett when he came to the mtc. that night we were the ushers so we sat on the front row and i got to meet him afterwards. i told him how my dad and grandpa had both served in uruguay. i believe i mentioned it was elder herron but i dont know if he remembered. an "elder brown" had baptized his wife but it wasnt dad. but still. thats awesome. grandpa walked into a little shop, played the guitar, started teaching a family. then fifty years later his grandson met the grown up, general authority version of that little kid. coincidence? NOPE. 

ah and for your talk, to help you out, go look up the talk "follow the brethren" by boyd k packer. that will help out a ton. i dont think it was a conference talk but it should be there. ( https://www.lds.org/liahona/1979/09/follow-the-brethren?lang=eng )

there it is.

so i have some huge news. tomorrow i officially become an elder. kendall where have you been the last 18 months? well thats the point. the sisters from my group are goin home today. so i begin the part of the mission that no sister ever experiences. WHERE DID THE TIME GO. oh and speaking of which, im sending a hammock home with haley brown so make sure you get a hold of that for me! its a precious precious item.

yesterday after lunch we headed to the chapel with my breathing machine. (no mother dearest im not sick, don worry!) they have special outlets there and i wanted to see if i really burned it out in my last area. so as we were leaving, i was thinking about how crappy the day was and wasnt looking forward to going out and looking for more people just to get rejected. we walked up to the gate and just as i was about to set do the lock, we saw a family walking by right outside the entrance. i swung the door opened and said Hey hows it going! have you ever seen the church building before? no. well would you like to  check it out? sure why not. so we took the family inside, showed them around, got to know them. had a moment of silence in the chapel so they could feel the spirit a little. then set a time for us to go visit them. sometimes i forget how much god really is out here WITH us., he didnt just send us out the door saying, welp good luck! 

so last night we were headed home and were in the middle of contacting one last family when our buddy john walked by. he`s the son of amalia and the brother of katia. he was the one of the family who was super stoked to get baptized and then when the time came it didnt work out. so we chased him down, set u an appointment for early this morning and we had a solid lesson. earlier in the week we were planning on visiting him and just powerhousing him with scriptures to get him to be baptized. but, the other day we were walking and i had another one of those stop walking and listen impressions. i learned that we had to go about teaching him differently. if we had done things that way, it would have probably ended it or just made it even more difficult. but i realized we had to, patiently, get him back to reading and praying, and then he himself would have the desires to get baptized. after staring blankly at the ground for a few seconds as i thought alll this through, i talked to my comp and he agreed on the new plan. so today we went into the lesson with that mentality. and, once again, the spirit stepped in and had a few more changes to make. we still focused on reading and praying, but we also felt to share 3 ne 11 where it says those who believe in me and are baptized will be saved and those who dont believe in me and arent baptized will be damned. so i used that and gently explained the WHY of baptism and related it to his repentance and preparation. then a the end the spirit said set a date. huh? alright. so we set a baptismal date for the end of the month and he accepted. im learning to recognize, listen to,and follow the spirit. its lead us to alot of good things this week. 

love you all, thanks for everything! ill let ya know if i get transferred.

elder brown

so here are the district pictures we took last week. one is our classy champion pic. the other is made to look like soccer team pictures all the pro teams do. not kidding they look exactly like this. and the final is our cheerleader pic. this is district barranca.

Wake me up when September ends..

Hey.

But really why is september done? last week me and the kids from my group hit "six months to sexy". six months to get in shape and lookin good for when we get back. my morning stretches are doin alot of work. i tried to do real exercises a few months ago but my back didnt like it very much... but i have lost some weight here anyways. cool.

sooooo im trying to remember this last week. even more of a blur than the week before. 

on friday we had a sicckk training meeting with president. to start off he doctrine pounds us for a good hour or two. this time he taught us about the millennium. the guy makes me want to become an institute teacher. after we got a training from sister archibald about the scriptures of "the field is white". this is the FINAL harvest. the last time god is sending out his missionaries. and he sees the field as white. its ready. there are people ready everywhere ready to hear the gospel. and not just in peru. president monson said theres not a mission in the entire world where the field isnt white. we just gotta accept the invitation. those who want to reap, (its our choice..) need to WORK. idle people arent going to get anything. 

President then trained us on techniques of how to find new people.this morning i went to find a ukulele to use to get into peoples houses (white guy at the door with a ukulele offering to come in a share something with the family. COME ON IN!) buttttt the only instrument store here in barranca doesnt have a single ukulele. sooo if you send me mine i wont be upset. we need to use our talents to build up Gods kingdom. i need a uke! i never took up juggling or fire breathing so my options are kinda limited. 

mom, glad to hear you`re going out with the missionaries! haha dont worry, i feel like that every time we first meet people. its a little stressful getting things going but you just start talking and the spirit takes the rest. it doesnt take long to see whether they paid attention in the pre existance or not. if they arent interested. chao! haha but yeah usually with people that are living together, (which is the grand majority) we teach them chastity right off the bat. if they want to repent, perfect we stick around with em. if not, the next missionaries will get em when they`re ready. we are here to HARVEST. but americans do also react differently than the people here so the way to go at it is definitely different.

but speaking of conference (if you want to send me some of those crepes in an envelope i wouldnt be upset) we cant watch it till the 11 and 12. peru has elections here this weekend. so its going to be seven longgg days without church to look forward to. but if they make any insane announcements, let me know!

on saturday the branch had a temple trip. sadly we arent able to go with them. BUT. we had a ton of converts go with them. SUCCESS. theres a picture they took of the converts in front of the temple that i tried sending but the guy`s card doesnt read on here.. so ill try to get that to you. since april, between us and the sisters, we`ve had 28 converts. sadly a few of them werent quite "converted" and have decided not to stick with the church. but i mean they have their agency. too bad we cant force people into the celestial kingdom. i can imagine in lehi`s vision, seeing people`s hands strapped on to the rod. haha but theres still hope for them; who knows what will happen in a month or a year. the good thing is, the majority of them made it to the temple. BOOM. 

yesterday in testimony meeting Dimas, evelinda, and elida all gave their testimonies. its a dang good feeling seeing people progress in the gospel. we still  have to kinda baby-step leaders through ward council but its good preparation for when we`ll be working as leaders in the church later on. 

welp. this could be my last week here in barranca. its been one of the gnarliest experiences in my life. President ostler wasnt kidding in my blessing when he told e i would be stretched and refined like never before. came here as a boy, leaving as a man. hahaha sounds like the title of a video we had to watch in jr high.

thanks for the prayers and support, love you all. 

elder brown

heres a little elder brown scripture study. thats how i understood the earth being rolled together as a scroll as it says in 3 nefi. in d and c it says the earth will be like it was before the lands were divided in the millennium.. i could be totally wrong. oh well.