the dun dun dun dunnns is the wedding march thing on the organ (no sweat jeff, this ones for the people we have getting married here on tuesday). and the spanish is just a typical greeting from my street people. im kinda hood.
so yeah Emiliano and Miguela are getting married on tuesday. FINALLY. we´ve been working with them for a longgg time. they´re really humble people and have been working forever to get heir papers here.welp. they´re all ready to go. they with their two oldest daughters elida and evelinda will be getting baptized saturday. the hermanas also have four baptisms and the zone leaders have one that day as well. its going to be NUTS. souls #saved. you can tweet that if you want.
ah. mom. i got mason riveras letter the other day. if you can, let him know i say thanks and that i got it.
Welp. on monday we went to Puerto Supe to play soccer at the church with some other elders. one of the elders that came down here with me is now in barranca, elder hackleman. i had the great privilege of leaving american soil sitting next to him. we talked about how nuts this was. before long, he noticed the nervous look on my face, then pulled out a giant bag of his "emergency skittles" and filled up my plastic cup. haha i survived my way down here because of him. so it was a solid day hanging out with him and some other elders in the zone, just getting rocked by the latinos in soccer. i almost had a goal.
on wednesday we went to finish up a service we had started out the week before. we played shovel-rock baseball while we waited for the loads of dirt. I did a jay bell reenactment of the world series winning hit. i hit a rock over a mud wall into a farm about twenty yards away. Be impressed. We also added on to our previously-started lord of the rings remake.
this past week, i printed out a few talks. one of them was "Live in thanksgiving daily" by elder joseph b wirthlin. it was solidddddd.if there´s one thing im learning (verrrryyyyyy slowwwly) is how to live in gratitude. if no one wants to listen to us, if my back gives out, if our baptisms fall through, and if i have to eat rice every day till next year, i can still live happily. im still trying to figure out how to fully set that attitude in place. for some reason, we as humans have an inexplicable need to tear ourselves down, as if disappointment isnt enough, we all too often kick ourselves while we´re down, thinking that it will soften the blows life gives us, or that it will strengthen us or prepare us for further disappointments. but, the reality is that such discouragement is the very self-destructive tool that satan uses to weaken and debilitate us. it amazes me to see how everyone always tells me how happy i am or how optimistic i am. i laugh and wonder who they´re confusing me with haha knowing that inside im not very nice to myself. but im learning (time and time and time again until i get it right) that happiness is a choice. gratitude is a choice. accepting failures and disappointments and using them to better (not destroy) oursleves is a choice. its one we can and should make. its one im fighting to make. so your homework this coming week. live in thanksgiving daily, and, come what may, choose to be happe and love life. "men are that they might have joy." god sent us here because he wants us to be happy. he wants us to enjoy life. ive spent toooooooooooooo much time fight and struggling for that "happy life" to come along. but, the key is, ITS HERE. look for it. if we look for the bad, we WILL find it. its everywhere. but dont let it blind you to the good. so. wish me luck in my new search for optimism and gratitude. haha it may take a while. but im getttin there.
have a solid weeek! ill be sure to send pics next week of the wedding and baptism. CHAO!
elder brown
here´s hackleman. the little dog that tries to eat my leg every time i enter that house. presidente chamorro fixing the crotches of my pants. they all got kinda worn down. and heres my fourth of july feast. fruit loops for breakfast. pancakes for lunch. and pizza and root beer for dinner. word.
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