HAPPY THANKS GIVING! ...and happy hanukkuh to my jewish homies..

Whats upppppppppppppp this week was sooooo much better!

sorry if this email is missing ´h´s. the h on this keyboard is messed up and i gotta press it really hard.

that family picture is awesome. our family is massive haha MORMONS. glad to see jeff is going for the paul bunion look. i guess he broke his shaving arm.. oh and save me some of those tacos. i  need em. real bad. this food just isnt working for me anymore...

last week on p day we went to the airport to eat. dumb idea aha we all left there missing home. BUT i did find dunkin donuts. i bought a half dozen.. that was my lunch.

so last week when we got home from our zone meeting, we had two different ladies come up to US and ask where and when we meet on sundays. it was literally unbelievable. we werent able to have appointments with them but hopefully this week. we had a nice week of appointments. finally.

one of our investigators is the best investigator ive ever had. he reads all the lesson pamphlets and studies the scripture references in the back. he´ll either be baptized this week or next. NICE. 

on saturday we had a ward baptism for a little girl named Madelein. we "rescued" (that sounds weird in english...) her mom and got her baptized. the water was freezing. i got in the water and she refused to follow me in. i told her to just do it quick, she was shaking the second her toe touched the water. i didnt have any problem with it 

because my legs were already numb aha. she left the water crying... but they got her warmed up quick. im just worried she´s mad at us now haha

the other day we had an awesome lesson with the 60 years old karate master. he looks like G Mo in thirty years. this guy´s yoked. after teaching him the restoration, he asked us how he could testify with the assurity that we have so that he could teach his family and testify that he KNOWS. i told im how for a longg time i didnt know. it took me coming out on the mission and humbling myself enough to receive the answer. and now i know. its not a belief or a thought. i know.. that morning the spirit inspired me to change course a bit in my studies and "go back to the basics". i went to the bible dictionary to study faith. it really helped with that lesson. we told him that a testimony of the gospel requires living its principles, and diligently seeking an answer through study and prayer. we left him alma 32 as homework.

welp. i hope you all have a solid thanksgiving! it sounds like a full house this week. have fun! they dont celebrate thanksgiving down here. dang pilgrims forgot to take a pit stop in peru before going to the states. oh well. me, elder kitchens and elder garner are gonna find as much american food as we can and have a feast on thursday. its gonna be sweet. and im going to buy some dradles and candles for the first day of hanukkuh on thursday as well.. nah. 

i love you all and i am sooo thankful for you. kinda a bumber to not be with the family on thanksgiving, but i´ll have plenty when i get back! have fun and eat a TON.

elder brown

Happy Burfdday to Jeffreyyy

Whuddupppppppp

Como están todos?? sounds like its been a solid week back home. sterlings back, mark and jeff are crippled, and the tree is up in the living room. oh man.

well its been another slow week. i mean slow. we had appointments almost all day everyday and we ended up with i think five or six in total. super rough. we gave about five blessings this week so that was cool. i always struggle with the names when i give them. they all have four names and they´re all crazy. good stuf! welp. i hope its better this week. i didnt think it could get worse from last week. it did haha.

one fun thing im learning to do here is running a ward council. haha the church is still in its first and second generations down here so things dont exactly work like they do up there. but hey, im learning how these things work to help me later in life. its funny to see 19 year old kids trying to  be the responsible ones in making the leaders of the church get the ball rollin. the church is true!

this week we said goodbye to elder Arnett. he got changed up to Huaraz. look it up online, its awesome! its green, theres lakes, and theres LLAMAS. lucky dog. it was funny though, right when i first got into the field, i was in his zone for about three weeks and they changed him over here. then i get here and hes like "watch im gonna get another emergency change because you´re here".. the next week.. EMERGENCY CHANGE. i dont think we´re supposed to serve in the same zone. i´ll get sent up to huaraz and i´ll miss him by one day.

so ive been practicing piano. the elder i replaced bought a mini electric keyboard so ive been using that and a piano book Hermano Rojas had in his book shelves. i should have never quit haha but hey its all good. im progressing pretty fast.

ah so you got the email from brother thomas eh? it was cool, we just left our room and were walking down the street and in spanish this guy says "hey im looking for the mormon church!" turns out he was a tall white guy from calfornia who served in arequipa and puno (where my companions from) 45 years ago. there were 7 members inpuno when he was there and now they have a stake. missionaries have been workin eh?

my companions awesome. e was telling me about things with his parents from before his mission. they arent members and his dad wasnt exactly rthrilled about leaving on a mission. he had just been offered a sick job and all sorts of stuff, but as a 25 year old decided to go out and serve. he´s a huge example to me. i never really think about how blessed i am to have a huge family behind me thats all solid in the church. thank you all.

oh and i met a guy last night who met david o mckay years ago when he came down to peru. hes not a member but hopefully we can change that soon.

welp, sorry for the boring week. ha its been rough but hopefully everything wont fall. again. pray for me eh?? welp, have a solid week and have fun putting up christmas.. without me.. ahhhhh ha nah no worries. me and elder ali are gonna make our room look real fly. word.

elder brown

Sent from a man traveling in Peru

I just received this picture and message from a man who is traveling and saw these handsome missionaries. Warms my heart to know that people are so kind to take time out f their life to brighten a Mother far far away from her son.

No me conocen.
You do not know me.
Vivo en Upland, California.
I  live in Upland, California.
Servi la mision mia aqui en el Peru hace 45 anos.
I served my mission here in Peru 45 years ago.
Ahora soy turista.
Now  I am a tourist.
!No puedo expresar el gozo que senti Al encontrar a sus hijos trabajando en la ciudad hoy!
I cannot tell you the joy that I felt when I found your  sons working in the
City  today!
Deben ser orguliousos de ellos!
You  should be very proud of them!
Gracias por hacer el sacrificio de mandarles tan lejos de su casa  en la
obra  del Senior.
Thank  you for making the sacrifice of sending them so far from home in the
 work of the Lord.
El trabajo que hacen es bueno!
They are doing a good work!
 Gracias!
Jim Thomas - El Viejito

1st Full Week in 200 Millas

Mi amada familia, que tallllllll??

welp its  been  a   great week here. kinda.. yeah it was pretty good.

so as i mentioned before i have elder robert arnett in my zone , sittin next to him right now actually. its awesome to have  him here with me. 

I HATE THIS KEY BOARD IM GOING TO THROW IT AGAINST THE WALL.

So the week started off well with the work. we had a couple members walk around with us and give us some instant-contact references, and the first few days were completely full. but, it was a slow decline of work until finally yesterday literally everything fell. we had nothing. and i dont know the area and elder ali didnt know what to do so we just went to our pensionista´s at like seven and then went straight hom  eto talk to hermano Rojas. on sundays we end at 8 so we only got home a little early, and knocking doors is literally a waste of time, especially at night so we called it  good and decided to have a nice church discussion with the man who brought seminary to peru and was the first peruvian missionary. 

the good thing is that it cant really get worse than having nothing, so i have high hopes for this  week!

on saturday we woke up at like 5 to go help out with a stake service project. here, a stake service project is comprised of all the missionaries working, and the stake presidency in their suits to direct it. things work a little different down here, ha but its cool. we loaded a ton of stuff the stake had collected into a truck which was taken over to Faucet, right next to the airport. there was a huge fire here the other week and there a tons of people that literally have nothing.  Mark, you{d have a ton of business if you were down here haha. halfway there the truck broke down because it weighed  too much. so we had to send a few rescue pick up trucks to take off some of the load. once the beds were filled we had to get them over to the fire. one of the Callao police guys had me lay down on top of the load of boxes of water to hold them down and make sure nothing fell out. i can only imagine how this looked... a gringo in a bright yellow church service shirt, sprawled out doing the star fish over boxes of water, holding on for dear life with one arm and a foot hooked around the corner of one of the boxes, cruising down the freeway in Lima Perú. it was a little sketchy but it was fun!

when we finished up, i took off the service shirt. one of the hermanas commented on my shirt... i just happened to be wearing my smokey the bear t shirt. real appropriate for the situation. i hadnt even thought about it. ha its  agood thing none of the people here knew who smokey was. WHOOOPS. 

there´s pictures  and interviews on noticiasmormonas.org (i think) if you wanna check it out.

yesterday i gave a talk in church. i was asked to speak for five minutes on the book of mormon. it went really well. i love when the spirit speaks through me and amps up my spanish alot. its cool to listen to myself as i speak in a fluidity and speed that i normally dont have. the Lord really has blessed me in my spanish. i get comments all the time and all i can say is that its God. i hav ent worked hard or really done anything on my part. just blessed.

oh and this morning i finished jesus the christ this morning! that book is intense! there were plenty of times where i would have to reread a part or re pray to keep going.

well it sounds like everythings goin good! jeff, get better! maci, stop getting old! everyone, keep on keepin on!

les quiero mucho!

elder brown                          

                                            Elder Arnett and Elder Brown from Mesa AZ

Changesssssssssss

What is upppppp???

we had changes on saturday and i finally got changed. they took both elder fallas and i out of the area. elder fallas went to the offices as personal secretary and they sent me in towards the city in the zone "El Olivar". my area is called Doscientas Millas (two hundred miles) and my companion is Elder Ali. this guy is awesome! he´s 25 and the only member in his family, from Puno Peru. Elder Arnett is in my zone again! solid. my area is completely flat except for a huge hill in the middle of it but its just dirt, no houses. so hopefully my back and leg heal up nicely.

at changes President taught us alot. one of the things he taught was the importance of the Book of Mormon. he said if we´re mormons, then it makes no sense if we arent reading and testifying of the book of mormon. when people are converted, its never because of something the missionaries say. its not from som,ething they read in the bible. its from the book of mormon. its the most powerful tool we have. its real and it works!

i went to get checked at the doctor last week and got x rays and stuff. he says the tendons are swollen in my leg up by my hip. he gave my an anti inflammatory and a muscle relaxant. yayy pills. haha so for a few days alst week  just laid in my bed all week to rest my back and my leg. fun stuff. i can actually walk now so im improving!

it was tough saying goodbye to my area, especially because i had to stay in doors for most of my last week. and alot of the people i had taught werent home when we went to say goodbye haha good timing on our parts i guess. the day before changes we had to change pensions so our last meal couldnt be with hermana Magela. bummer.

as parting gifts from my old area, one of the members there gave me one of his ties. one of my investigators, Charly, a guy thats so big i literally dont think he´ll be able to fit in the faunt (ocean baptism!!) gave me a pirated copy of "Lion King. numbers 1-5".. last time i checked theres only two versions and 3 if you count the one of timon and pumba. welcome to peru!

so we live with a guy named Wilfred Rojas. believe it or not he was the very  first peruvian  missionary. and he looks like Cnl. Sanders. this guy is awesome!

and yes we got cell phones now. we´re rollin with some high class Nokia phones. if we had any form of iphone or tablet we´d get robbed in two seconds! and no we dont have facebook either. we like to do missionary work the old fashioned way.. talking to people in person. ha maybe one day.

oh and my area is right by the air port so i see planes lannding ALL. DAY. its killing me. 

church was good yesterday, they had me go up and present myself to the ward and this week im giving a 5 minute talk in sacrament meeting on The Book of mormon.

we{ve only had a couple lessons since ive been here. the coolest one was yesterday with a gu named Julio Torres.´this guys tight, hes 61 and hes a hard core karate guy. hes a less active guy thats been living in venezuela for a while and just moved back down here. his wife and kids are still over there so hes here alone. we talked to him about the priesthood and the book of mormon.

so jeff AND mark are getting surgery?? BUMMER. good luck with that! looks like our family´s health is malfunctioning. and yes mom im still reading jesus the christ, im almost done, only a couple more hundred pages.. which really is almost to the end. yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. 

i{ll try to send pictures this week. my card is being dumb again. its got some crazy viruses so if im able to im literally going to send all of my pictures home so mark can put them into a file before my card erases them.

well i love you lal and im soo grateful for your support and prayers. the church is true! live it and love it.

elder brown

                                                   I'm not awkward around girls, am I??

                                                  Elder Brown and Elder McCallister