He that shall de-plaque me.... PRESIDENT KERR.

Heyyyyy

awesome to hear the news on the new stake presidency! me and elder mcallister speculated that it would be him a while ago, but we werent too sure on the double northridge line-up and discarded the possibility. but hey, stoked that a mancave dad can receive all of us cavers from the hermosa vista stake. sounds good to me! 

this week was good. we´ve been working harddddddddd. president has establshed this rule about contacting families and its filling our agenda up. some times its really hard to contact them.. they´re far away, the timing is awkward, either the parents or the kids are screaming, or they look like they´ll punch anyone who even looks at them. but we´re getting better at it. the only problem is that the majority of what we have filled out in our agendas falls and burns to the ground. the members dont follow through in coming with us to lessons, the people arent in their houses, etc. but its all good. they´re are some things slowly coming along. and i am learning A TON.we started teaching a lady a few weeks ago. found out this week shes already a member. thanks for the info noelina. shes way cool though and her three boys are stoked to hear more. one of them was sick yesterday so they werent able to come to church. oh, speaking of yesterday, i forgot something very important. my keys. we went to go give a blessing to a guy in our ward. no oil. went to the room to get more. no keeys. went to a member, borrowed his oil, went and agve the blessing. then, later in the day i got a stomach attack and i needed a bathroom. NO KEYS. we got into an appointment, went to the bathroom. NO TOILET PAPER. stuck it out another hour until hermano rojas made it home and I safely made it to the bathroom. nice.

so yeah apart from the sicknesses this week, its been great.

i learned something big in my studies the other day. i was reading in Moses and came across some powerfull verses in chapter 6:32-34. it talks about how god has called us, commanded us to do things. we need to do them. we have tto show faith and open our mouths. THEN he´ll fill our mouths with his words. he then tells us to choose now. serve him or not. (joshua 24:15, matt 6:24). he doesnt have time for us to sit and contemplate if we´re with him or not. "let the dead bury their dead". he then says we are caled to this work and have his spirit with us. as members and as missionaries we have the spirit. and as we put ourselves out there and share what we know, we will do miracles. enoch moved mountains, changed the courses of the rivers, and caused an entire people to be lifted up into heaven. plain old, unpopular, stuttering enoch. sometimes we get scared and freeze up about being obedient, about working hard and really looking to serve God. as ive thought about this, what are we afraid of? doing good? satan puts all sorts of fears and doubts into us to prevent us from doing our jobs as members of his church. we are all vital parts of his kingdom and he needs us to decide NOW. its hard for me, even as a missionary to give ALL my heart to him ALL the time. but im trying, and im slowly getting there. i love it. its a long process but i can feel myself changing. solid.

so today hermano rojas made me an avocado smoothie. it was actually really good. try it, i dare ya. 

theres a member in our ward, the elders quorum president, who has a football. i asked him if we could borrow it today for pday. he told me, elder brown you take care of this ball. its veryyy precious to me (haha he literally has it in a mount on his shelf). i got it from a companion on my mission right before he went to the offices as an assistant. so today. football. american style!

well i love you all, thanks for everythinggggggggg. the prayers, the emails, the pictures. THANK YOU. les quiero!

elder brown

dead rat... BREAKFAST.

Comin at ya live from lima!

Wuzzup. this week was amaaaaaaaaaazing. last week we fasted and starting this week the whole mission every morning at 8 is praying for families. we´ve either taught or received a reference for a family or other new investigators just about every single day. wwe´ve seen how the lord is answering our prayers and is pouring out blessings upon us. of course satanás isnt too happy with that so we´ve seen some other trials along the way, but its worth it! im starting to learn more how to love the work, love teach, and love giving my heart to the lord. alot of times im stubborn and only give him my strength, but if i am to be happy and if miracles are to continue, i need to give over my heart.

so funny story. maybe it was funny for me in the moment but im gonna share it anyways because i think everything is funny. so we were walking down the street the other day and ther was this guy standng over on the side of the street. im not even kidding, as passed him, the dude threw out like eight Jessalyn sneezes. if anyone reads this without knowing what that sounds like, call jessalyn and tell her to go stare at the sun for a few seconds. its awesome haha

I GOT THE PACKAGE! thanks sooo much. its awesome. ive got my desktop sports all set up. i called my zone leaders the other night to inform them i had just made a hole in one on a par five. i was so proud. haha i also received a few christmas cards from  the fillerups, the kerrs, the arnetts, and the browns. thanks everyone! and thanks to grandma and grandpa riggs for the book! be sure to tell brother stirling hi for me!

oh yeah, so i sent a package home this week. a couple that lives in utah has family in our ward and they came down here for the holidays. they went back up today and are going to send it home for me. yeahhhhhhhhhh.

so yesterday, alllll of our appointments fell. again. we were walking around and i said hey lets goo visit this family. "they said they´ll be working today" "lets go anyways" well they werent there. we started walking and the thought "go the other way" came to my mind a few times. i kept fight ing it. "dont keep going. turn around" fiiiiine. we stopped and went back and knocked the door to another family over there. not home either. i looked down the street and saw a guy walking with his son. "go talk to him" nah. we stood there thinking of  what to do. the guy got closer... "elder laiche, you wana contact this guy?" "eh,, ok". before we could say anything, he greeted us with a big "elders! how are you!" melvin and his son jesus are members. apparently he, his wife, and three kids had just moved here last friday and have been looking for the chapel. every single fallen appointment and step we took led us right there where our paths crossed with melvin. God led us there. we went back to his house with him and met his wife and i drew a map on how to get to the chapel. i am learning the importance of recognizing, listening to, and following promptings.its hard. they´re very quiet and very subtle. its not alwys a heart pounding, ground shaking experience. but it always leads to good things. sometimes i can look back to when i realize i had felt promptings but didnt follow them, and seen how things wouldve been better that way. welp. keep on keepin on.. pr as mark says "KOKO" .

so you get to perform the lamb of god again?? dang it haha last time i had work and mission prep. now  im in a different continent. oh well, ive got th cd. ill just sing along with that... enjoy it! and invite all your friends. make it the ward missionary night. bring EVERYONE, that thing is powerfullll.

well family, i love you all, im so grateful for the prayers and support, i feel them every day, keeping me going. ive passed my ninth month in the mission and i still can believe how every month goes faster., its nuts. love you all.

elder brown

              Pictures:     peter petigrew is dead.. we ate him for breakfast.

heres also a picture of me and the other district leaders and the zone leaders at papa johns elder garner (heather morris´s cousin) and elder mejilla. and the zone leaders elder scroggins and elder feller

2014

What a week.

so here, on new years, kinda like on Christmas, everyone celebrates with loud music, getting drunk and lighting off fireworks. all night long.

FUN CHALLENGE. get a livestrong type bracelt and loop one end over yor thumb, run it over the back of your hand, then loop the other end on your pinkey. then with just that hand, try taking it off. me and elder laiche (as you´ll see in the pictures) did that to help pass time in our room as we waited formidnight. 

HERRONS- i got your christmas card, thanks! its good to see the whole crew is back in action!

so this week was another rough one for the work. worse than christmas week. we did alot of walking and searching members out, and didnt have too many results. literally didnt teach a single investigator this week. but the lessons we did have with members were awesome! there are some amaaaaaazing families here and its a process but im still getting to know and love them all. ive been learning something big. mainly yesterday. we had a few lessons with members where we were going in to kindly burn them. i am someone who speaks boldly, and directly. i dont like waiting too long to get to the bottom of things, but, as i walked into our lessons yesterday, and as we talked through their situations, my whole attitude changed. i am learning to never judge a situation before hand. i can misunderstand people or situations in an instant and change my dimeanor (thats a word right?) towards them in an instant. but, im tryin to change that. be more understanding and open.

 haha its funny that as a nineteen year ld kid, grown adults trust me with their marital situations and are wiilling to take my counsel. welp. ive got alotttt of experience being married and everything do its fine. even though i dont have that experience, i have the ability to share my knowledge of the gospel and the things that the spirit directs me to say, so even when i dont fully understand people because i havent been through what they´re going through, im still able to be an instrument in trhe lords hands.

so on saturday, after a full day of everytrhing falling through. we ended up at a guys house, his name is santos, and hes a member that  has been less active for a long time. before the lesson was over, he had cried, i had almost cried. it was a good lesson. my companion had just been saying before how he feels ike were not doing something right, that theres more. after that lesson, we realized that every disappointment we faced that day led to that lesson. in the end, santons said, when asked when we coulkd come back, "ill tell you tomorrow" (AT CHURCH) he then said you have strengthened me, now im going to strengthen you. ill be there tomorrow. and he came. it was awesome. on top of that, we had three new people show up to church. all friends or relatives of members and this week were going to teach them. yessssssssssss,

welp. thanks for all the prayers, i need them sooooooooooo much. every day. i love you and am so grateful to have parents and family that love and support me so much. other elders arent so lucky. thanks!

elder brown   

  

AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR

What is upppppppppppp!

yes i got the computer with the messed up "h".  bare with me.

soooo on wednesday we got pretty caught up, but ill see what i can get out here.

so on christmas night we had dinner with a family in the ward. me and my companion and the other trio in the ward. we played games before hand and i laughed harder than i have in a looooooooooong time. i was literally on the ground. they gave us turkey. REAL turkey. without bones. soooooooooo good.

thursday we had a meeting with president for the new missionaries that just got here. president got em nice and trained up. i got to see elder kitchens and elder llaguento, my old zone leaders. i also saw elder crouch, the brother of one of jessalyns friends. and sister skousen, whos from dads ward back home. 

later that night we had our final lesson with diana. interviewed her on friday, then had her baptism on saturday. it was awesome! her boyfriend pedro baptized her. that day he was struggling. he had been gone from the church for a while. he got interviewed by the bishop and got cleared to baptize her but he still didnt feel like he deserved it after being gone for so long. sounds like a certain elder i know... i talked to him about how the bishop represents jesus christ. if e says you´re worthy. you´re worthy. i told him to pray about it to see if god really wanted him to baptize diana. welp. he baptized her. before the service. e was changing and i went to the other side of the building to set up chairs. a member came and told me "pedro is calling for you. he doesnt know what to do and hes scared". i ran over there with my companion. we walked him through the prayer and what e had to do. after a few practices he asked if we could pray for him. i offered him a blessing instead. we went out into a classroom with the member from before and i gave im a blessing ten practiced a couple more times. he baptized her perfectly on the first try. before the baptism, pedro and diana were walking together, both dressed in white. i saw it and just started smiling. it was awesome.

te next day, i got to confirm her. it was soooooooooo coool. ive never actually done the blessing before. the spirit i felt after as i was walking to my seat was powerful. i knew god was happy with diana, approved the ordinance, and was pleased with me for performing it. good day.

a few days back, we got back at night. i was walking down the hall to go down stairs real quick. i looked back and saw a fat rat. it ran towards me and i jumped. it hit my shoe and backed into the corner. it ran past me again then jumped down and climbed into the kitchen. we called brother rojas´s son to help us. after searching the kitchen, we found out it was in the front room. i went to get a mop and dust pan to hunt it down haha. as i came back with the weapons, it ran out the front door and went to the house across the street... whoops!

oh, president said if you send packages, below my name put "pedro roldan". hes the guy from the mission that picks up packages, that way he can just show his id and get them so we dont have to go to the post office. dont worry, hes not some random guy. hes my stake president. 

well i love you all, have a happy new year. dont party too hard!

elder brown

9 Days till christmasssssssssssssss

wats upppppp

its been a week of hard work. we´ve been goin hard everyday trying to find new people to teach. finally at the end of the week we got two new investigators. their families werent in the lessons with us  but we´ll get em next time. its a little rough when the ward isnt doing much to help out but we got a few references this past week from outside of the area. and one member who works for the government and knows everyone showed us a few houses. nothin. its all good, president said december would be rough for us. we are mainly working with less active members and they are awesome. one of them ive mentioned before. his name is pedro and his girlfriend is going to be baptized this month. tey asrent living togeter which is a miracle down here. he is planning on getting the melkizedek priesthood and is doing all he can to get back into the church. solid.

this past week i had another "First"... i ate cow stomach. it was aweful. we went to give service at an investigators house and after they served us cau cau. look it up. its potatoes, peas, carrots, and cow stomach. it tasted kinda like clam chowder. but really old and gross.. the entire day my stomach was sore. elder kitcens told me that te first time he ate it he threw up. i almost got there. haha i left most of it on my plate and the peruvians were lauging at me and elder kitchens because we couldnt get it down.

in another service we did, we helped some guy move wooden panels to hiw house so eh coulñd build another room. we went to a house a few blocks away to get the panels. they were on the roof. me and another gringo elder garner (heather morris´s cousin) got up on the roof and lowered down the walls to our companions. once we got them out tot he street we had to carry them a few blocks back to the original house. i literally could barely use my arms after that. TORO TOUGH. sike, i died.

we had a movie night at the church building. we showed te Nativity, that movie that was in the theaters a few years back. it was sooo awesome. it helped remind me of what we celebrate christmas for. i hope we can all remember why we give gifts and remember to give the most important gift you can to God. yourself. he gave us his son. i encourage you to think of what you can give back to the one who has given you literally everything.

the mission is going good. time is flying by rediculously fast. it seems like last week we were just at transfers and they´re already here again. im learning soooooooo much and ive never been so tired for so long. ive been tired for eight months haha but its awesome. im learning ohw to study and im learning sooo many things that will help me all throughout my life.

yesterday we were walking and i asked elder ali why and how hes so optimistic all the time, especially considering all hes been through with his family. he said well just think of the worst thing you´ve ever suffered through and then compare it to right now. you´ll realize life right now isnt that bad. then just know that tomorrow is going to better.... i replied and said well the only problem with that is thanks to the atonement i cant really remember what those rough times are like. 

the atonement is real. it works. even with the roughest times in my mission, when i look back all i feel is peace. its awesome. life is dang hard but its good. 

love

elder brown

oh and p day is on tuesday next week because there´s a meeting on monday so dont freak out when my email doesnt come on monday

Wwhazaappp.

so this week has been... eh. haha ive had better, but it was stil really good.

on p day last week, after internet, we went to take ot our money, which ended up taking up our entire day. we got home just in time to be able to watch 17 miracles haha.

and, believe it or not, i got sick. again. haha my apparently my pensionista hasnt mastered the "hard boiled egg". i had a feeling i shouldnt have eaten them... i did it anyways. took me out real hard. haha no worries, im back on my feet, the bathroom is less occupied, and im feelin good. two days of sleeping, eating crackers, and drinking sporade, which is kinda like gatorade but we´re in peru so the gatorade flavors are weird.

so given the fact that i wasnt able to work for two days, we´re having a hard time finding new people to teach. ha everyones just kinda havin a rough time right now . marks splitting open his head, im having diahrrea, whats next haha. no worries, things will get better. christmas is comin up!! thats good!

so theres a kid from utah named jordan that came down here to peru. half of his family is peruvian and his aunt lives on the street behind us. he has a problem walking which has caused some other problems for him and so he wasnt able to finish his mission up in the states. he´s here to test things out and see if he can get a a special assignment here in this mission. he can barely speak a word of spanish but hes a solid kid. he came out with bus yesterday to a lesson. the people we were teaching got so excited when they heard us speaking english. 

after the lesson they made us burgers. i was trying to put some aji (hot sauce) on my burger and it got all over my hand.i wiped it off but a little later, without thinking, i wiped my eye. big mistake. haha i had to go outside to their sink to actually wash my hand and then scrub my face with cold water. it burned for a while after but the burger was really good.

the other day i had a really special experience. i was thinking about god´s love for us. in my mind, ive always known he loves me but i for some reason see him as someone sitting there just waiting for me to screw up and X me out with a big red pen. i was praying and offering up my feelings and just asking to understand better. a little while later i had the spirit come to me pretty strongly along with the repeated words "i love you" in my mind. ive always known god loves me, i guess sometimes im a little blind to the many blessings he is constantly giving me. im sooo grateful for his love and for his patience with me. 

i know god lives. i know he loves me. at this time of year we get to especially remember that he sent his son to the earth, the greatest gift of all.

thanks for the love, support, and prayers!

elder brown

                                      

DECEMBERRRRRRRRRRRRR

Ho ho ho ho. eh, still not feelin it.

what is upppppppppp errbody. welp. what a week. thanksgiving. that was good stuff!

on thursday we left in the morning to go meet up with a member to take us around a part of our area we arent familiar with. he wasnt there so we went back home. when we walked in the door, we found hermano rojas in the kitchen pulling tortillas and cheese out of a grocery bag. he looked at me and said its thanksgiving, no? then he just giggled and went on to make us quesadillas to help remind me a bit of home haha it was sooo awesome. then later in the day, elder kitchens came and worked in my areea with me. elder garner and his companion met up with us and we went to tottus and we bought as much american junk food as we could. HAPPY THANKSGIVING. my pensionista made pancakes (i bought syrup that day for it as well) for me and elder kitchens that night as well. it was a beautifullllllllll day. 

on saturday we ahd a serice project with the stake. we all went to the beach up by my old area to clean it.l there was soooooooo much garbage. there was another organization with hundreds of people. and some peruvian military.. haha we filled up sooo many garbage bags. it still looked like a dump when we were gone. nuts. it was cloudy all day but the sun still got me. my face and neck are a little red. lately its been warming up a little. for the most part its always overcast, but during the day the sun comes out. its like california, except it smells bad. i thought it would be way more humid down here but its not bad at all. we´ll see how it goes when january and february comes.

welp, luis saldaña i was telling you about, the investigator of absolute GOLD got a job back up north and bailed. sooo we wont be seeing his baptism next week like we thought... but we´re going to make sure the missionaries get to him up there.

we had a soliddddddddd lesson last night. this guy named pedro saavedra and his girlfriend diana. pedro is a member but has been away from the church for a long time. his girlfriend isnt a member. they both went to church yesterday. last night they both expressed how they want our help to learn more (for him to get back into the church and be a good example of what sets us apart as a religion). its awesome to see how the gospel is able to change people, and i can already see how it is going to change them in the future. their lives will be blessed for the eternities.

yes i got my package last week! the candy was gone in less thaan 24 hours i think... haha thanks!

i got my christmas stuff set up the other day and its lookin gooooood. i originally taped the garland and lights up above my closet but the tape kept falling off. i eventually just tore it all down and draped it over my bookshelf and desk. 

my nativity scene is awesome thank you soooooo much! best part of setting up christmas stuff back home. i wrote a sick poem about the nativity and it has to do with alot of that stuff you were saying about christmas time. unfortunately i left it at home because i wouldnt have time to type it up today because i had to make sure my skype was all good to go. 

yes we get to skype on christmas! BUT, president wont allow us to do a "pre call" to let you know when we are going to call. so i need you to send me the name of whatever account youre going to be on and what time you guys can talk. dont write back and say "whatever works for you" ha because whenever you can, i can get to an internet or a memebrs house. it all depends on you. mom, i need you to coordinate with dad as well. im not sure how the whole "time limit" will work out but just so youknow to have a general time gap. sorry i know you all have a bunch of stuff on christmas but if you could figure out a time thatd be great. thanks!

welp thats it for this week. glad everythings going well and that everyone could get together for thanksgiving! love you and thanks for the prayers and support!

Kendall's Desk with his Christmas Garland

Quesadillas- a little piece of home