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
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