here comes the... here comes the..

BOOM.

now that i got your attention, hows it goin. 

this week was nuts and full of miracles. lets break it down. 

so on monday we went to eat at a place called Norky`s. here rotissery (spell check?) chicken is a huge thing here. i mean i was satisfied with going to bashas and eating it at home. but we got full on restaurants here for it. so we ate there. we then went to the giant christ statue on the beach. the dude that took us there charged us over double and refused anything else and acted like an absolute child. it was a good thing to see how ive grown in controlling my temper. the old kendall wouldve blown up on him and said stuff in english that only elder larsen wouldve understood and it wouldnt have been nice. but. after he stole from us, i paid the dude, walked away, and did yoga poses and took deep breaths on the wall haha. we then went down to the beach where i had a verrryyy deep Lord of the Rings discussion with a kid named elder Lewis. he was in Savanah rush`s district in the mtc and we basically became best friends as we let out our inner nerd. 

tuesday, normal work day. we had to get chairs and tables set up in the chapel for..... MULTIZONE CONFERENCE.

it was nuuuuuuuuuts. the zone from Huacho came up here with us. i got to see my old companion elder rivera again. and elder schagel. me and my companion, along with the sister training leaders, had to go up and do a practice, teaching the assistants an assigned commandment. we taught tithing. i dont think i would have been so nervous if president archibald wasnt sitting right behind me. but it turned out well. i think my ears were glowing red though. after reviewing the commandments and the importance of declaring repentance as missionaries, we ate more chicken from norkys... then president brought us in for one of the gnarliest doctrinal lessons ive EVER heard in my life. i cant give details because i cant explain enough to not have confusion and questions arise, and i just cant do it the way president does it. lets just say my mind was sufficiently blown as we talked about the godhead. i learned things i never comprehended before. even though alot of the stuff he said was huge and new, the cool thing was it ALL made sense. the gospel makes sense. all of it. tall truth works together. there are no conflicts. 

in the huacho zone theres another elder brown. he is from queen creek and hes in his first change in the field. i was surprised when he told me that he graduated in 2014. didnt know that was an option haha it made me feel kind a old. 

oh. and i think the biggest news of all. I GOT A HAMMOCK THIS WEEK. 

so Amalia`s son, john, was supposed to get baptzed on saturday. but. he decided that he is moving away to go work in the mountains. he`ll be back in about a month. peace out john. 

BUT carmen, amabilia, and mayra are set for the 30. we went to see them on saturday. mayra was strssed to have us over because she was studying for her huge test the next day to get in to her university. we told her to not worry. if she listened to us and then read and prayed before studying and taking her exam, it would all be fine. we went back the next day and she informed us that she not only got in to the university, but she got the highest rank out of everyone on the test. he later told us that when she prayed she told god that if she got in, she would get baptized. she beat out EVERYONE on the test, and she`s that much closer to making it back home now. BOOM. we are also teaching carmens ex husband. marriages are weird down here. they are separated and are still just normal friends who come and go to visit their kids and everyone just gets along. kinda reminds me of Reba. anyways, he went to church when he was living in lima a while ago and he wants to be baptized. he lives with his oldest daughter snf grandson in another part of our area. they arent feelin it too much but we`ll keep working with them to get baptized with sillverio in september.

oh, and here is a part of the letter i sent to president this week because i didnt want to type it again. 

"another miracle occurred yesterday. so when i first got here back in april, we had a  couple, dimas and rosario. the first lesson i was here for was a review of the book of mormon. they both didnt believe there could be anything but the bible. we taught straightened that all out, bore testimony, then invited them to pray about it again. they came to the chapel that night where President Archibald came for a conference with the District. they heard his message and testimony about the book of mormon and left in tears. we left them a longgg time ago, but theyve gone to church almost every week since, waiting for a way to get their papers from their hometowns to get married. in fact dimas has asked multiple times since if there`s any way to be baptized without being married haha. well rosarios father is from another church, who came and shook things up a month or two ago in church. before he left we told him of the need his fdaughter had to fix her life and get married. well. he showed up yesterday. the whole time i was worried that he would defy what was being taught again so i sat realll close just in case. after surviving a stressful day of waiting for another argument, we were closing up and dimas informed me that rosarios dad had brought his daughters papers! he kept his word. we went to visit them after church to get dimas`s info because a guy in our ward is from his town. after reviewing repentance and seeing their desires to follow through, her dad piped up and asked why he hadnt given us a book of mormon yet. surprised we wreote our names in a book of mormon and gave it to him. which is weird  he then expressed how grateful he was to us. all though we arent his "brothers" he is grateful to know that his daughter, who lives far away, has a family she can refer to as brothers and sisters, and that they are happy and in good hands. he admired us for our youth and desires to know the word of god and share it with others. solid day and best encounter with someone of his church ive ever had.

so this coming transfer is going to be good! my only worry is that now that the work is rolling along so well, gods going to say welp, youve done your part, now GET OUT. haha so we`ll see what happens next week. there will be 84 new kids coming in within the next three months. i am almost more than likely going to receive another son soon here. wish me luck!

to answer your questions, my favorite part of being a missionary is that im a missionary. im not kendall. nor do i EVER have to go back to being him. illhave the same name when im done but that old dude is out of here.

favorite chapter of pmg... im going to have to say chapter 6. christlike attribultes. read it. live it. become it. everytime i go through it i realize how much i have left to change. 

no the streets are not all dirt. about a third of my area is. 

when i study the sciptures it is in ENGLISH. elder uceda, a peruvian of the 70, told us the scriptures are only 98% true in spanish. its a translation. and the bible already has too many errors and changes made in any language haha. but when inm at church or im studying spanish i read from them. other than that, all english.

ohand president sent us a talk from elder uchtdorf about missionary work. it talks about the apostle peter. he was a "rock" yet when it came down to it he was weak. he sunk when he saw the wind and waves, he dewnied knowing christ when accused of doing so. but when christ resurrected, the game changed. he was a new man. he was reborn as peter, the leader of the church. 

it talked about a missionary who feared NO ONE. his boldness bothered his companion. he exclaimed that he was a disciple of christ and he doesnt fear ANYONE. that was the main theme of the talk. christ lives. the reason we dont celebrate easter in the exrtemes like the world is because we already do every week in sacrament meeting. he lives. andbecause of that, we have no reason to fear anything. no matter what happens, we have christ on our side. he lives.

love you all, thanks for the prayers, love and support.

elder brown

Amalia and Katia.

Imanoyakaikanki???

thats Quechua for how are you? i think. i dont know that language is nuts. people only teach me basic phrases and insults. quality.

so last week on monday, as i mentioned, we kicked it in caral. solid day with the zone.

oh. before i forget. elder paredes is done this week and will be back in the 480 on wednesday. i gave him your number mom so you could meet up, go to lunch, swap stories, take selfies, all that. i mean only if you want to talk to someone who knows the real live elder brown.

on tuesday we went with some elder from the zone to do a service for the tenorio family. their roof was falling in so the branch got together and took it out and set up a new one and we went to help. if you have a real nice house, you have a concrete roof. dont worry mom, my room has a concrete roof. and if its not that, they lay giant bamboo poles for support beams. then on top of that they lay down flattened out bamboo, then a giant plastic tarp, then a thick layer of mud. so we got shovels, buckets, and a ladder and made a roof!

all week the branch had activities in the chapel. most nights we ended up there at night. one night there was a food festival. they had a little bit of everything peru has to offer. they told us to go first. and, so as to not offend anyone and overload myself with a combination that would end badly, i snuck in straight to the cake, snagged some causa, and bailed. the sisters walked over to us after with each carrying two full plated of food they had to shovel down. while we were sitting down, a kid walks over holding a cat. i told him to give the cat to hna leya because she hates animals. the kid looked at her. looked at me, wound up and threw a dang cat at me. haha theres a first for everything. luckily i dodged it and it hit my chair. later that night they had a pet runway. the majority had little lap dogs. the kid who threw the cat had his pet sheep. and a little girl had the stray cat, which she basically dragged on the leash haha. 

then on friday they had a talent show. i played the guitar and elder castillo and i sang "en marcha estoy" from the spanish soundtrack from Brother Bear. i cant believe ive never even seen that movie. but it turned out nice. kinda. i had one week to learn the song and my finger tips were raw from playing so much. i made a make shift capo to make the guitar into  a ukulele and i had a little personal jam sesh. gotta hold off for a few more months, i can make it.

the night before we had taught amalia and katia in the chapel (john decided to go out of town the week of his baptism). we had an awesome lesson which ended with a prayer in the sacrament room which brought a strong answer. but, fear of baptism got to them and they both decided they werent ready. so the next night we had them come for their interviews so an authorized person could tell them if they were ready or not. BOOM. amalia and katia both walked in doubting and came out ready to be baptized. john made it on friday to be interviewed but on saturday he bailed to work so he didnt get baptized. we´ll get him in the water this week. 

last night we had a lesson with the other family thats getting baptized at the end of the month. it was a solid lesson. we taught the plan of salvation. Carmen and her two daughters amabilia and maira. they´re the ones we had the huge experience with in the chapel the other week. at the end of the lesson we asked if they were willing to keep putting in their effort to get ready for the 30th. carmen and maira answered yes. amabilia, who didnt sound too sure the week before, responded. she told us how shes been praying alot to know whats the right path to follow. she then said how she has had dreams where she has been standing there feeling alone and then saw a light guiding her. she said how she sees us sometimes in those dreams also, as if we were guiding her to that path. ive heard of alottttttttttttt of dreams since ive been in peru. and for me, the grand majority are kind of bogus. but when we heard that we knew god is responding to her in a manner that she can understand what she needs to do. god hears prayers. he answers.

something cool i learned yesterday. so we know how the prophets were well educated and well instructed in their languages to be able to write and preach. but what i didnt know is how in depth. go take a look at Alma 36. there are 30 verses. compare verse 1 and 30, 2 and 29, ad so forth till you get to 15 and 16. apparently alma was a mad poet. the verses correspond like a ladder. works its way up, then back down in the same pattern.

so mom to answer your questions, right now im studying what i always study. preach my gospel. last week i tried to break away and set a goal to finish the book of mormon before the end of the week. but after two days of just reading, i realized how little i was getting out of it. i would finish to say i read it once again and other than that, nothing. when i study pmg, i am studying the other scriptures with it and its in a way i can apply to teaching. that hour goes by wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyy to fast, i want more haha.

the best thing IS the hardest thing. every week god throws little curve balls at me that i need to learn to overcome.sometimes they bring me down to my knees, other times i brush it off and keep going. but when i get comfortable or things arent hard, im not happy, because i know im not learning or growing. kinda weird but ive learned to enjoy trials. i think paul mentions something like that in the new testament, how he rejoices in tribulations. ive faced just about every pain and sickness out here but right now, and all throughout my mission, my biggest trial is within my mind. satan cant read our thoughts, but he can sure as heck throw whatever he wants in there. whether its feelings of inadequacy or doubt or fear or anything else that shouldnt be there. elder packer said thats the greatest challenge we will ever face in this life is controlling our thoughts. but when accomplish that, we have conquered ourselves. cool stuff.

and yes, im keeping warm.

i love you all, thanks for the prayers and support. elder beckstead, a kid from my seminary class senior year, is coming to my mission in two weeks. PRAY THAT I CAN TRAIN HIM. that is all,.

peace. ayweya.

elder brown

To mah family. hey.

so november 7 in the gilbert temple eh? there ya go sterling! haha its so weird that hes getting married. i feel like we should still be playing super nintendo and yugioh in his room. whered the time go?

so this week was a good one. alooooooooooooooooot of hard work.

last week on monday we went to the sister´s pension and ate pizzas. we then all went to the beach and made a giant sand castle. and the best part.. I GOT TO CHILL IN A HAMMOCK. sister jones bought one in a work visit to Huaraz. so after we all took turns, my companion passed out in it while the rest of us made the sand castle. but yes. hammock. on the beach, with gold fish and redvines. that should hold me off till march.

its been another long week of knocking doors and looking for new people to teach. i think i broke last weeks personal record for doors knocked. surprisingly its something i enjoy. my companion was super bummed with the results this week. eh, i know we´ve worked hard. good enough for me haha. 

we are doing our best to focus in on our recent converts. i dont think the lord is going to give us more families to bring into the church if we cant take care of the ones we already have. despite our efforts, jose, the one who got baptized on my birthday, still hasnt made it to church since his confirmation. we go everyyy sunday to pick him up. and everyyy sunday we find that he isnt there. its alright we keep doing what we can. its a patience game. i think of the mission of the longest endurance race of my life. and then im reminded that i was a sprinter in high school. then i give myself a fist bump for sticking it out and then i keep on walking. 

yes, the temperatures are dropping. and it is cold. and wet. arizona isnt helping me out right now. i am so grateful for the few minutes of hot water i get in the morning. i decided the only thing worse than getting out of bed is getting out of the shower. you just gotta get dressed as quick as you can and man through it. ahhhh winter.

this past week we went to the tenorio family´s house. they´re the ones that got married and baptized recently. they´re also the ones with a harp. as we were waiting for everyone to gather together, i pulled up the harp and played "if you could (hie..?) to kolob", "when theres love at home", "come sail away" and "banana pancakes". i might be getting into the harp when i get back home. if not, for sure a mandolin or something. getta expand my abilities ya know?

here in peru, everyyyy school is a private school. uniforms and all. and so whenever theres a national holiday, all the students have to march (kinda look like nazis) in parades. and, because of that, our investigators dont make it to church. so yesterday Amalia came alone and sat with the other old single women. Katy was marching and John was out doing some work with his cousin. no worries, we are still keeping verryyyy close watch on them so they can get baptized the 9.

this month in barranca, our zone met our goal of 22 baptisms. something i dont think has ever been done here. 

well last night, i walked (more like trudged) into the house, beat by the week. i fell on my bed and tried to get the strength to go plan for the next day and do my district stuff. i looked over and sw my quad laying next to me. i remembered the many times ive needed immediate answers, opened my scriptures, and found exactly what i needed. so i think i offered a quick prayer in my head, grabbed my book, and opened it to a random spot. i opened to mosiah. i read verses 18 and 19 and knew god was watching me, knows what im doing, and knows how to help.i know this work is true and im grateful for every day. thanks for the love and prayers. have fun in cali!

elder brown

 "O ye, my people, lift up your heads and be comforted; for behold, the time is at hand, or is not far distant, when we shall no longer be in subjection to our enemies, notwithstanding our many strugglings, which have been in vain; yet I trust there remaineth an effectual struggle to be made.

 19 Therefore, lift up your heads, and rejoice, and put your trust inGod, in that God who was the God of Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob;

and the cave goes home...

Sup.

well its amazing to see that the first fruits of the mancave mission are starting to come forth. elder jeffrey todd kerr is now at the end of his time and will be the first of fourteen of some of the lord´s best to finish their time in His service. good luck in the real world jeff. 

so mom, new calling eh? congrats! you´re going to do awesome in the stake. and on top of that, there has been a ton of other changes in our ward, the biggest of which are the fact that brother nansel and brother beavers shaved their beards. you´ll have to send pictures because this is groundbreaking. i remember seeing brother nansel when i was a little kid and i remember even then he had his beard. well, i guess all good things must come to an end haha. 

oh, speaking of the ward, tell bishop traasdahl i say hi and that im alive and well. oh, i forgot to mention that i received a letter from brother griffin a few weeks back. and, as always, his words helped alot. he told me about  lesson he was preparing and reminded me of elder nelsons talk from conference. "obedience to divine laws brings blessings. every time!" sometimes i feel like even when im doing whats right, i kinda stay on a neutral level, and then when i mess up, only then is there a change. but no. every time we obey. there are blessings. every time. thanks brother griffin.

maaaaaaaaaci. duhduhduhduh duh dudhu duhd duh M V T!!!! big toro this week eh???? my seminary teachers were brother smith, jones, burnham, peterson, and stirling. if you have any of them. tell them i say ho. be sure to send me the rest of your schedule so i can see whats going down on toro campus. 

so this week was better. kinda. we had more lessons and taught new people! my health wasnt on its A-game so that took away from it a little bit but we´re doing what we can.this saturday we have the baptism planned for amalia and her two kids, john and katy. we also have another baptism planned for anther singel mom and her two daughters for the end of the month. carmen, amabilia (sounds like im a billio...naire), and maira. the other day we taught them the restoration in the church. we asked them that if god responded them, if they would be baptized on a set date. "eh, if god tells me..." welp. hes gonna tell you. now. we went into the chapel, knelt down, they prayed. the spirit came in strong. we all felt it. maira and carmen were crying. well  mair was kinda bawling. it was awesome. the next night we had a FHE with them, ill send a picture. 

tomorrow the zone is going to help out the branch in re-roofing the tenorio family´s house. never put a roof up before so we´ll see how it goes! 

this morning the zone went out to Caral. they say its the second oldest civilization on the planet. i mean i thought it was kinda cool but lets get real here. its dirt. modern day temples are wayy cooler. the jaredites (if its even real) knew how to build their stuff. 

our group of investigators is slowly growing, but we are still trying to find less active people that want to listen to us or are capable of getting back into the church. and we are trying to keep our converts as our focus. before, we didnt understand that as much, and now some are leaving town and working and we are working to keep them afloat. no worries though, things are going well! president archibald came up yesterday for a priesthood meeting and set things in order. it was soooooooo awesome.

so aside from being a little sick and the weather dropping. things are going good. we are starting to pick things back up and it will all work out. it always does. god sometimes needs us to prove our willingness to make the sacrifices, and in the end, requires that we know and acknowledge, that even with our greatest efforts, we are a hundred percent dependent on him. his hand is in every part of this work. its HIS church. its the only true church on the earth, and i know it because he has told me manyy times. 

love you all, stay safe, eat eggos for me.

elder brown

heres caral, us making tacos last week, and me in my hammock. oh, and i learned that nate bohns dad baptized the branch president in the barranca branch. thats just a side note, im not sending a picture of that.

July 21st

Mi amada familiaaaa. sup.

woahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhwoahwohwoahhh sterlings engaged????? thats nutsss haha my family´s gonna be huuuuuuuge when i get home. works for me!

this week was nuts. i think i broke my personal record for doors knocked in a week. we went alll over the place looking for new people. we found almost none haha. 

-last monday we had changes so every companionship just did their own thing. me and castillo went to a members house and ate pachamanca. (oh and i learned that "pacha" like the guy guy in emperors new groove, means "belly" or "gut" in quechua,which is the native language that all the people from the mountains speak) it was a fatty pot full of chicken, choclo (giant weird corn) and a variery of potatoes and mystery plants. ill send some pictures. as we were leaving, we gave the guy a fist bump "CHOCALA!". So being me, we went to do the same to his little old mom. she was wearing a ring and she punches hard. ill send you a picture of how my hand looked after haha. she drew blood. john fillerup would be proud of that fist bump.

-last week we had changes. the only person that changed in the zone was elder holley, but thats just because he finished his mission. so our new zone leaders name is elder larsen from utah. he started out his mission in Corbins zone down in prolima. 

-.last week we were out contacting in the street and we came across a lady walking with her two kids. as we talked she told us how missionaries had visited her when she was fourteen. Elder Fishbeck. i remembered brother fishbeck form hermosa vista ward had told me that he served in peru. if anyone can get in contact with him and have him shoot me an email that´d be awesome. i want to see where he served and who he worked with. also, the other week we weretalking with the branch president in the zone leaders branch and he told us that about thirty years ago he was baptized by elder bohn from arizona. well my buddy nate bohn´s dad served in peru thirty years ago. smallll world!

-the sisters this past week baptized another family of four. they are the daughter, son in law, and grand kids of the couple they baptized last week. barranca is blowing up right now and its awesome. we are struuuuuuuggling to find new  people who stick around longer than the first visit. 

-we do have a family, a single mom and two kids who are getting baptized in a couple weeks. the son, john, is already talking about how he wants to go on a mission. works for me!

-ah. just remembered. so the other day we got back to our room and my companion went to hi suitcases and pulled out a huge blanket to put on his bed. what was on that blanket? BEARS. he told me they called him oso (bear) his whole life. i proceeded to tell him my life story and show him my pictures with my bear t shirts haha

-the other day i got my package. and yes i already at all my mac n cheese. i also ate a peanut butter banana taco. haha its been a solid week for food. today im taking my goldfish and redvines to the beach so i can pretend its summer.

-welp. starting another week. its gonna be a good one. 

paz y bendiciones.

elder brown

"eight. eight baptisms." - The Count

wudduuuppppppppp

this week was another solid week! 

last week on monday we went down to Supe again and played soccer with the zone. theres a machu pichu-looking garden thing with three size foot walls, kinda like giant stairs. elder hackleman looked at it and just decided to throw a front flip off the top level. he did it. i got it on video. he survived. dude`s nuts haha

tuesday was the big wedding day. it was an interesting experience. never witnessed a civil wedding before. the mayor and his assistant came and got Emiliano and Miguiela married. hermana Leyva downloaded some wedding music  onto my usb which we hooked up to the electric piano in the church. i got to play some nice pre wedding music with a nice organ setting on the piano. after the ceremony we threw on none other than "from this moment on" by shania twain. no one understood a thing but you know i was jammin hard. literally every person present took turns dancing with the bride and groom. it was kinda awkward which made it that much more fun. 

on wednesday we had interviews with president archibald. it was amazing. i love the opportunities i get to talk to him. he helped me get more focused in on this "work of salvation" plan from the area that we need to do with our converts and less actives. its some rpetty cool stuff. they have told us how its called the attention of the brethren. we are the highest baptizing area in the world (in which we are the highest baptizing mission) and we are changing up the work so that we have the highest retention. in years past its been "baptize em then move on." so right now we are working to bring back those who have left and hold onto those who weve got. Hastening the work is alott of work. who would`ve thought.

thursday we had a training meeting with president. he taught us about the doctrine of prayer. he told us all to find examples of powerful prayers in the book of mormon and we were then to analyze what aspects of the prayers so powerful. i chose Lehi in the first chapter of the  book of mormon. things we saw in common here all throughout the book of mormon and the other scriptures is that these prayers were always done after long periods of meditation. they were also all done out loud. all of which had powerful manifestations of the spirit as well as other miraculous results. he then went on to tell us the three most powerful prayers of all time. he said "get ready elder brown, this one`s gonna blow your mind. im looking forward to seeing the look on your face." (i am always fascinated by new bits of knowledge or doctrine that i had never even been close to comprehend before). he put 1. 2. and 3. on the board. someone mentioned the atonement. number 1. the prayer and experience that atoned for the sins of all mankind. big prayer. then someone mentioned joseph smith. a prayer so powerful that god himself cam to josephs presence to answer. which led to the restoration of the everlasting gospel of jesus christ. but. he wrote that as number three. ???? ..  he then wrote Eden next to number two. the prayer which brought angels to adam and eve that, for the first time on earth, introduced the gospel of jesus christ. pretty cool stuff. 

friday, i went down to huacho.

saturday. the baptism. it went perfectttt. the tenorio family (ours) and the pimentel family (the sisters´) got baptized together. president made sure to be there to see it. at the end, us missionaries got up and sang "i feel my saviors love" (yo siento su amor). emiliano, and carlos and baudilia pimentel all gavce their testimonies. it was soliddd. the tenorio family are huuuumble people and have worked for a longg time to get all of this completed. good day.

yesterday they were all confirmed. then carlos and emiliano got sustained and received the priesthood later that day. that night they were both in the chapel participating in the branch choir while emilianos daughters were instructed on indexing and made family search accounts. BOOM. 

yesterday afternoon we struggled. EVERYONE was watching the world cup finals (CONGRATS GERMANY!!!!) and it was the emptiest id ever seen the streets. 

haha later that night we wernt to a members house to pick up a guy to accompany us. while we were waiting for him to get ready, we waited in the front room with his son, who had a brain hemmorage a feww years back so he doesnt have it all like he used to. he looked at a picture on the wall and asked "whos that?" pointing to a picture on the wall. i replied "thats jesus" "you see those marks in his hands? he did that for you ruben." he then said "thanks brown" i went to shake his hand goodbye and he held on to my hand, pulled in and kissed it. hahaha thanks ruben. quite the unique experience. 

welp.now we gotta keep on working. theres more families out there waiting for this message and we are the ones to bring it. i love this work and i know this is the one and only true gospel on the earth. families ARE eternal. 

paz y bendiciones

elder brown

please admire my mid-wedding ceremony selfy. kind of impressive.

i tried to get the family to throw up "super chill"s but i think we gotta work on it more.

DUN DUN DUN DUNNNNNNNNNN DUN DUN DUNDUNNNNNNNN

¡¡habla bateria pe causaaaa!!

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.