Stuart Little. May you rest in peace.

wudduuppppppppppppp.

yes. stuart little bit the dust this past week. last pday i bought venom. he liked bread a lott so i covered some in the venom and stuck it in the bathroom. well a few days went by and we havent heard to much from the little guy. today we did some gnarley cleaning. in the process. WE FOUND HIM. bugs were eatin it. nappy. so we pushed it under the side door onto the balcony in our building. then i sprayed cleaning alcohol all over the ground. then we went outside with a broom an d two plastic bags and said our goodbyes. 

last week fishing was awessoooooome. our branch president is a fisherman. he, his wife, and daughter, took us out to the beach. he went out into the water with a net and after a few rounds came back and fiilled his basket up with sand crabs. reminded me of the good old days in Newport. a few weeks back elder paredes had hooked me up with a peruvian fishing line. a square piece of wood with a handle and a string with hooks and weights. so Presidente Jara showed us how it was done. we hooked on the sand crabs for bait. did some lasso action. and tossed it out to the waves when they go out, then running back in before the water gets ya. ill attach some pics. we didnt catch anything. well i mean my comp caught a plastic bag but other than that we didnt have any luck. haha funny you mention that though, i was telling elder wheatley of our Powell fishing experiences. pokemon fruit snacks and grilled chicken. classic.

waiiiiitt waittt wait, i know tha name, hunter bowers... how do i know him? send me a picture. glad to know i got fellow ukers keepin the strumming alive.

so the other day we had a branch mission activity. we pent hours preparing and putting things together. we had a huge training meeting planned out to help "hasten the work". andddddddddddddd like thirty people showed up. so we dropped the training and decided to save it for when more than thirty active members show up. so to start, the sisters carried on with their plan about "adopting a family". they made a huge tree. every person was given a leaf. on the front, their name (or of their family). on the back the name of the individual (or family) they were going to adopt, who were less active people that the ward would work to bring back. then they stuck their leaves on the tree. if the members brought their adopted person or people to church twice, they put a green apple on the tree, again with their name on it. and they receive a prize. then, if they bring them three times, a red apple, also with a prize. the point was to have people literally see "the fruits of their labors" in helping strengthen their branch. we finished out the night with scripture trivia and throwing candy at everyone.

earlier in the week we met with the saenz family. after talking about it and b¡praying beforehand, we decided to go on and invite the mom and kids to be baptized. we have been working foreverrrr with the dad but hes not ready. and if we wait any longer we´d risk losing the mom and daughters. so. this week. IN DA WATERRRR. Ines, Arlet, and Gabriela. they´re stoked to get baptized. the two little girls are swimmers.. hence my best friends. its gonna be good.

last night we went out with a counselor from the branch presidency. dude reminds me of john fillerup. he is hillariousss. whoever we talked to he threw in at least one fist bump saying "chocalo!!!" (pound it). we are working to get this guy in as our mission leader. he knows eeveryone and he knows what hes doing. elder waddell taught that the three most powerful men in the ward or branch are the bishop or branch president, the secretary, and the mission leader. the latter two in our branch dont exactly make it to church too often. soo we are working to get some changes made.

thank sooooooooooooooo much mom and mark for the messages you both shared in your emails. im learning to work with that eeryyyyyyyyyy day. even when the wind beats me to my knees, i have that small bit of hope that everything is going to come out solid. even in my darkest moments, i am sooo grateful to be out here. i wouldnt wish a day away. in a song i listened to last night it said "the most sincere prayer ive ever prayed, i thanked god for each and every day, and the blessing of the man i´ve come to be." this experience is amazing. the good and the bad. im learning so much every day, especially of how many faults and weaknesses i have and how desperately dependent on the lord i am. but, like you mentioned in your email, and like president monson (i believe it was him...?) strong wind makes strong trees. the stronger the wind, the stronger the trees. and, a quote i just heard from my zone leader, "theres no room for growth in the comfort zone, and theres no room for comfort in the growth zone". well theres my list of botched quotes for the day. love you all, thanks for the love and prayers and support. i need it everyyy day. que el señor les bendiga.

elder brown

Woooaoaaahahhhhhhhhhh May 26th

Hello.

its been a solid week here in barranca!

so last week for pday we went to a restaurant in the zone leaders area and ate tacos! they were actually pretty good. nothing compared to filibertos but eh, i work with what i got. we also made the cake and cookies and they weer danngggggg good. that frosting was bomb. we gave the rest to the lady from the branch who worked there. she was eyein it the whole time.

on wednesday we had a surprise visit from president archibald and sister archibald for a zone conference. they trained us on how to run our branch councils and it helped a tonnn. every time i hear him speak i get sooo fired up. its awesome. 

this past week we met a few new families and are still working with less actives. sadly the new people we taught didnt seem extremely interested or just didnt understand altogether. satan is going hardddd. we cant get through the restoration without dogs, cats, babies, customers, cars, motos, or any combination thereof making distractions in the lesson. but i guess this is where the sifting comes in for those who are really prepared and can really feel and follow the promptings of the spirit. 

yesterday in church was amazinggggggg.

we had a lady and her two daughters come to church. sadly the dad continues to be a difficult human and doesnt want to do anything. we´ll probably be baptizing them this or next week. andddd there was a guy who came to church who was baptized years ago. after the meetings they were looking for his records. turns out they dont exist. apparently there was a mix up when he got baptized and he was never able to be confirmed. he´ll probably be baptized next week. 

the mouse in our room made a bed in my comps droor. this things gotta go.

on saturdays we are having sports activities in the church because we have a huge court outside. we had a ton of people come, it was awesome. i took charge of naming the teams as you´ll see in the picture. Mordor, Gondor, Hogwarts, and Durmstrang. Lord of the Rings and Harry potter continue in my heart. word. haha oh. we had a surprise guest at the sports night someone brought a sheep. not sure how or why but we got some pics.

the other day, after a rough elsson, we showed up to the chapel to drop off the keys. we were in a hurry so we took a moto. we got out, handed the keys to the first counselor, and turned around and saw a family. we went over and contacted them. turns out they live like three houses from the chapel. they came to the sports nightt he next day and came to church yesterday and they fit right in. the only problem is they arent married... but we´ll work with that.

today we´re gonna fish on the beach with our branch president. gonna be solid.

i love my mission. i am learning to love the scriptures and love the lord. theres sooooooooooooo much i still need to learn out here and in my life. when i finish the day i think about how grateful i am for every moment and how much of a bummer it wouldve been if i hadnt been here that day. thanks for the pictures, love, and prayers. CHAUFA!

elder brown                                  
                                                  Happy 20th Birthday to my Bears!!!

 

                   Some of his favorites that he cant get down in Peru. Cookie Mix and Pancake Mix

                                  This is the house that the mouse made in Kendall's Comp.'s drawer..

heyyyyyyyy.

lifes good. another solid week in limoncillo. a member gave aus a big bag of avocados yesterday so im happy. just gotta buy bread and ive got breakfast for a few days. i learned alot this week as ive adapted to a different way of doin work. everythings goin great. we started hunting down less acitve people last week and theres alooooot more to go. 

last week in our district meeting, i didnt know what to train on. i went through pmg and got to the back of the very last chapter on working with members. under suggestions for district meetings it said something simple. study luke 15. it hit me hard that thats what i sould do. so i did it. i studied the parables of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the prodigal son. i analized three major parts: why they left, how they were found or brought back, and what were the results. we discussed that in the meeting and talked about how the less active people we are working with can relate to one of these parables. and it was interesting to see throughout the week how alot of these people stood out as a lost sheep or a lost coin, or a prodigal son. some hafve left because they got caught up in doing other things that may have been innocent enough as studies, work, being sick, etc, but over time ended up in a place they didnt want to be and didnt know how to get back. others have fallen away due to neglegence and it requires a little more digging around to get to them and to get them back. and then there are those who think its a better idea to go away and indulge in riotous living, which will either result to them coming back, only after much pain and disappointment, or to their ultimate downfall and permanent inactivity and eternal consequences. we saw as well, with a few people how the lord had sent us to people who had been praying for us to come. others, who may had not been searching for us, were extremely grateful we had found them.

love my job.

so the other day we walked into a house of a very poor family who is working to gettiong married and all that, to have a lesson. i noiced they had a harp in the corner. the dad pulled it out and let me take a look. i sat down on the couch and after a little plucking, i played a basic jingle bells, nearer my god to thee, and come thou font haha. i think i found a new instrument i need to take up when i get home. 

ah, mother. i got my package last week! so no worries. i had my pensionista make some banana pancakes the other day when elder wheatley whose from provo, was with me on changes. and today for pday we are going to the restaurant of the zone leader´s branch president who is going to make us tacos and then we are going to make the cake and cookies you sent. hahaha i was pulling out my stuff at the district meeting and saw a box that said in big letters, "butt paste". i quickly covered it with other stuff and when hna leyva said "hey you have more stuff in there dont you!" i just kinda laugheed and said nope... haha thank you for the butt paste. not sure how to use it but when the time comes ill pray for inspiration haha.

cant believe maci is donzo with stapley and is going to mountain view. ill be back coaching while shes swimming as a sophomore. when the heck did she get so old? i remember when she learned how to say "t is for tabogan". craaaazy maci.

ysterday i gave a talk in sacrament meeting about conversion. it went pretty well. luckily we had all been assigned previously to study "when thou art converted" by elder bednar, so i had an idea of where to take it. yesterday as we were walking around my companion told me how as i was giving my talk, my spanish flowed out very well. i just kinda laughed and said welp. wasnt me. the same thing happens every time i give a talk in church. the spirit takes over. the lord needed me at the time to amp up my game because someone there needed to hear something special, and even if it wasnt by my own words, the words i did speak could allow the spirit to further instruct them. cool stuff eh?

hahahahha please buy that "bears" movie when it comes out. and send me a poster. solid.

welp.momma i hope you had a solid birthday! we´re both in our twenties now, cool huh. and one more thing. DRINK MORE WATER. no more hospital trips! only on christmas. thats how we roll.

elder brown

                                                                       Kendall's Zone

May 12th

wudduppp.

it was awesome seeing everyone yesterday! hayden is talking and running around, maci is making executive calls to taco bell, and grandma and grandpa riggs are still on their A game. happy mothers day again!

andddddddddddddddddd happy birthday this week mom! congrats on being birthed. we can have a double sushi week next year to celebrate. sound good? 

so yeah this week has been rough but weve learned alot. elder waddel taught alot about conversion and rescuing those who have fallen. just like arza hinckley when he went looking for the handcart companies to rescue them. · nephi 18 32 is a good one. we have alot of peple who have gone astray and dont know when theyll come back, but there is still the hope that they can and will come back. so, our focus from now on is going to be members. the lord wont allow us to baptize many people when the branch isnt ready to support them. its like throwing bricks on top of a foundation made of tooth picks and paper. it will fall. as missionaries we arent called to just baptized. the lord has made it clear that the new focus in missionary work is, on top of baptizing, retaining the ones we have, and and rescuing the ones that have gone away. so here we go!

im sorry to hear about grandma riggs. she was a very special lady. i dont think ive ever seen her without a big smile on her face, even when she was going through health problems. she was always looking to help others and always made sure everyone was taken care of, even myself as a member of her step family, she loved me and all of us the same as her literal descendents. hasta vernos con el rey.

welp. everything else was basically covered over skype, thanks for everything! the prayers, pictures, and emails. have an awesome birthday this week mom! maci. make her waffles. 

elder brown

heres some pics of me gettin on my selfy game..

#backflip

hola que tal como estan que dicen que cuenta como le va que hay. sup.

solid week. rouggghhhh week. good week.

-so last week on monday after internet we went to the beach. theres a giant Christ statue. we went and snapped some pics and then went down onto the beach. eñder paredes´s district met up with us. oh yeah i forgot to mention, hes in my zone again. haha so he rolls up and pulls a coconut out of his backpack that he had bought on the street. so, he got a rock and smashed it open. first time ive ever drank from a coconut. just kinda tasted like dirty water. then we ate coconut. not too great either haha but eh, it was cool. then, elder paredes brought up a challenge for me... do a backflip. funny thing. the last time i attempted one, i was on the beach with him. but back in puente piedra. so being almost a year, i was a little sketchy. we asked a sister if we shoud do it. she said it was a bad idea, but do it anyways. ok! he went first. never done one on the ground before haha. throws it, does like a hip hop head stand backwards and then his legs kinda gumbied over then landed in his knees. SUCCESS. he made me do it too. so i got in my stance, jumped, threw it, and almossttt made it all the way. got to my feet, but my hands hit first so today sister agle, who was a byu gymnast, is going to teach us how to perfect it.

-in other news, after talking with real live mexicans, i learned that cinco de mayo isnt even a real thing. dont know why we celebrate it and call it mexican haha apparently nothing happened on that day.

-hammock. there is a family we are teaching that has a hammock in their house. so. being me. i call dibs on it when we go. so i get the blessing of teaching the gospel in a hammock. the way things should be. 

-sooo saturday was a little rough. in my districts we had four baptisms planned. one of them from the sisters needs another interview so it will be this week with her son, the other is a little girl whose mom is a member but whose dad is kinda in idiot. he pulled a last-minute "i dont want you to be saved" thing and didnt let her get baptized. the fourth was our baptism. which, do to work and family problems, wasnt able to make it. no worries. Jose, and edith and Jonfrance will all be baptized this week on my birthdayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy! as well as a lady in the zone leaders area.

sooo we had an awesome slash awful experience with a family this week. on monday we took a couple to the church and taught the first lesson. we took them into the sacrament room (is that what its called) to have them kneel down and ask if the church is true. well they both asked. after, we all sat there and waited. i was filled with one of the most powerful manifestations of the spirit that ive ever felt. it was awesome. we sat there for a longgg time. part because i wanted to make sure they felt it, the other part because i struggled to open my mouth. i looked over and my companion was sweating and put his hands on his knees to support himself. he later told me that he almost fainted right there. when we got back home, i fell on my bed and wanted to pass out haha now i understand better how lehi felt after he had his vision. awesome. BUT. we stopped by the family last night, and learned that satan has been working for a longggggggg time there. despite their answer they received, years of marital problems and pride was destroying them. after throwin down a little elder brown beat down, we gave them an invitation to try just one week to read and pray together, nothing more. they couldnt respond without calling out the other on the fact that they couldnt keep the commitment. the mom finally just said she wouldnt be able and the dad said he was already gonig to leave the next day. satan is working extereeeeemely hard on us and those we are teaching. the work is blowing up and satan is keep up with it. its good to see that we are making him angry enough by building gods kingdom so much, but its a roughhh fight. he plays dirty and hes a lot smarter and more experienced than we are,. BUT, we are on the Lords side, and because of that i know we arent going to lose.

-oh yeah. we have a pet mouse in my house. by a pet i mean an annoying creature that keeps me up at night and sneaks in and eats our stuff. i wanna kill it but i kinda have to find it first. this thing is a ninja. wish me luck.

-so yesterday after church i went straight to an interview in barranca branch for the zone leaders. Juana. shes getting baptized on my birthday as well. they told me she was struggling a bit and that an interview wold help.so we walk in and sit down and start with a prayer. after going through the first two questions casually so they didnt sound too interview, we got to repentance. she blew up on  all these problems and this, that, and the other, and because of all that she isnt getting baptized now and wants us to give her another month. luckily i was fasting so i was more spirit than body, i listened to what she had to say, and listened to what god wanted me to say,then i went for it. i made a huge arrayed connection from Moroni 8:25 to Alma 34:32-34 to john 3:5. after a long spirit bomb of explanation of repentance and baptism and her need to follow christ through the ordinances of the gospel, i left us in silence, she looked up and asked "friday right?" YES. friday haha. we finished out the interview and she walked out of there with a different attitude. it was awesome to see how the spirit was able to work through me. kinda felt like a bishop there. cool stuff.

welp. thats the week for yeah, for any missed tdetails, refer to journal 1 in march of 2015. haha so yeah ill see yeah this sunday! if skype is dumb again, ill probably just cal you at that time on the phone. it could be a bit after as well, bot sure. we have to corordinate with the pensions family because theyll be skyping their son that day as well, but NO OS TEMÉIS. itll all work out. love you" thanks for everything, ad ill talk to ya when im twenty!

elder brown 

oh yeah, and star wars day was yesterday. may the fourth be with you.

BARRANCA.

Sup.

so last tuesday i was transfered up north to a place called barranca, after being in callao for the whole first year of my mission. im still district leader and my companion is a boss. he is another peruvian named elder castillo. in my district i have the zone leaders, Elder Wheatley (who was with e back in puente piedra) and elder Dorado, who is from montevideo uruguay. aside from them i have two sisters, Sister Agle, from boston, and sister Leyva, from trujillo peru. she studied in byu for a few years so her english is way good. im stooooked. these sisters have baptized more than the grand majority of elders in the mission. they´re crazy powerful missionaries.

haha elder mcallister. well, he spent his first nine months in Prolima. then moved to Ventanilla for three months, which is right next to it. and was just transfered back to Prolima as Zone Leader. hes gonna spend a solid 15 months of his mission in the same zone. 

woahhh whats up with everyone getting engaged and married?? thats cool Jacob sorenson is engaged to megan. she was one of my good friends in high school. oof, i gotta keep up with them and with jessalyn and drew haha we´ll see eh?

so after changes last week. we went to the bus station, on our way there we went to a huge mall called plaza norte and i ate burger king. wasnt even that good, as i remembered, but it was still cool. we took a fatty charter bus up here which took about four hours and got here tuesday night. dropped off my bags and went straight to a lesson. doin work.

its been a longggg week of walking, riding moto taxis, knocking doors, and learning to work with a new companion. always kinda rough at first but things are going good. 

oh yeah, theres a store here called metro. its like tottus, in other words a lowgrde walmart. BUT- they have ROOT BEER. havent had root beer in a year. so yes i bought one this morning. anyways...

this weekend we had distrct conference (we arent quite a stake up here yet, so im working in a branch as well). president archibald came and spoke. after the conference a ton of people went for his autograph. never seen that before at a church meeting. on saturday night, just before the adult session, we had a lesson with a couple. the husband said he hasnt received his answer yet about the book of mormon. he is looking for people in white to appear to him in a dream. the lady said she still cant belive that there is two books, the bible is one and only one. after nice little session of destroyingt their doubts and inviting them agani to pray, we left. they came to the conference trhat night, where president archibald gave a talk and bore testimony of the book of mormon that was extremellyyy powerful. after the meeting we looked back, the lady was crying. we talked to them after and their attitude was compleeetley changed towards the book of mormon. it was awesome.

the book of mormon is true. try to make me think otherwise. i dare ya. 

peace!

elder brown

Gracias a Él...

Feliz Easters!

sawp.

its been a great week of miracles, blessings, and disappointments. love every one of them.

so last week we had a chill p day. we went to the airport and elder schagel and i feasted upon some subway footlongs. they were dang expensive and they only gave us one cookie instead of two, but it was worth it. we then went to tottus. nice.

tuesday morning i had a sweeet experience. we were walking to the bus stop to go to our district meeting. we were stopped on the street by a teenage girl. she told us her name was jenifer and thayt she had just moved here the week before from iquitos. she walked us over to her grandma who told us that jenifer had literally just been praying that she would find us. cool eh? we got her information and sent the young womans presidency over there and had them pick her up and take her to our baptism on saturday so she could know where the chapel was. god answers prayers and sends his servsnts where he needs them.

later that day i got my package! we were with the whole zone so i passed around the bags of jelly beans and cadbury eggs. within three days we had eaten the brownies and cookies and we finished off the boox of pancake mix with a big breakfast of banana pancakes, strawberry jam, and chocolate milk. whats up.

so in my studies im still going hard in the book of mormon. only one vers left to finish the first chapter. its taking a longggggggggggg time to read every footnote and write notes on em. but its awesome. it literally is going to take a few decades to do this but eh, i got time.  and im working on the new 15 minutes a day thing we got after conference. and im reading in spanish in the book of mormon. three separate studies of one book. well i mean its a good book so im fine with that.

the rest of the week was business as usual. working.

on saturday we had a baptism. a lady named Magaly was baptized with her two kids, viviana and Josue. The other elders in our ward had a baptism as well. they were all baptized saturday and confirmed sunday. our three were the bishops relatives so he baptized them. butttttt theres a little snag here. We went to eat lunch at the bishops house after church. after eating, we gave magaly a blessing, and when the bishops wife told us her name, we realized a slight problem. we baptized and confirmed her with an incorrect name. first, when we filled out her record, she told us it was just magaly. then at the baptism, she told the bishop it was rumualda magaly. then when we gave the blessing, she told us it was magaly rumalda. ahhhh. shes a verrrrryyyy shy person because of some issues that happened when she was younger, and didnt want to speak out and correct her name, so she just kinda went with the flow and soooo 200 Millas gonna have another baptism soon. we called the bishop this morning to have her confirm the name yup. here we go! but aside from that yesterday i had a solid sacrament meeting. we had the confirmations and everything and  afterwards i felt the spirit veryyy strong. Nothing like an easter sunday sacrament meeting eh? Because of Him i am out here, in the service of my Heavenly father, i am healthy, i am alive, i have the promise of eternal life with my family if i do His will, and i have everything i have.

it was rough yesterday thinking about leaving behind my families here. i love them and i love how the gospel has changed their lives, and am eternally grateful that God has given me this chance to help them on their way back to Him. Ill let ya know next week if im still here or where im at. thanks!

Elder Brown