wake me up when September ends..

HOLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

september already?? time is starting to scare me. my budies are already heading home and pretty soon me and corbin are going to close it off for the mancave. 

so this week... where to start.

last week we moved us in to our new house and well its absolutely tiny. hha but the good news is that theres not stuff growing on the cieling and theres no noise. ill attatch some pics of our new humble abode.

last week on monday we ate as a zone and then went to the beach. me and elder hackleman observed sand. its crazy stuff. we got down on our knees, cupped a big pile of sand, and watched it "hourglass" out of our hands. it looked gnarley. then we were all talking about how god knows exactly how many grains of sand there are on that beach, and how he has created worlds and other creations that outnumber those grains of sand, and how he has it all present before his eyes. being a god is going to be awesome. we then all played soccer. my foot hurt a little and i figured it was from running on sand and rocks and stuff. then i looked up it and realized i had taken a nice slice into my foot. we got it cleaned up, took the sand out, and im good to go! it looked really cool though.

so we walked. alot. all week. looking for people to teach. we found quite a few, but when we went to actually teach them they said they were either busy or just werent there. eh, nothin i havent seen before.

this week we have an old dude getting bptized. his name is Silverio. he is the ex husband of Carmen, the lady that got baptized last week. they both go to church, attend the same classes and everything. kinda weird to me but i mean they`re over it haha. but this guy is awesome and he is soo stoked to get baptized. then next week there will be another marriage in barranca. Dimas and Rosario are going t get married next friday and then baptized on saturday. they have gone to church just about every day for the last five months and have  been waiting for a longgg time for this. KEEP THEM IN YOUR PRAYERS. satan`s not to stoked about what we are doing here and he reallly likes to shake things up. 

last week we were in a  lesson with Carmen, mayra, and amavilia. at the end of the lesson, mayra told us that ever since her confirmation, she had feelings of regret about the decision she had made. we helped her recognize that she hadnt been puting in her part to gain her testimony. real prayer. real studying. we testimony bombed her and left her with the assignment to read, "feast upon the words of christ" and shed have her answer. we passed by the next day and she said "oh, and i did what yu told m. i know that this is the only true church now! thanks!" SUCCESS. god hears AND answers prayers, we just need to know how to receive that answer. word.

ohh and the other day we were reviewing the word of wisdom with the tenorio family and emiliano said that at work they were offering free bottles of wine and he refused to take it. then his buddy told him to get it and give it to him and he told him he was not going to do that either. BOOM. converts goin strong.

so as for everything else, im going to be honest. its been an absolute blur. it was a looooooooooong week of fallen appointments, door knocking, and just trying to to keep on keepin on haha. but because of that, it was a good week. every once in a while the words "patience and humility" passed through my mind. god knows im here.  he knows the effort im giving, he knows it all. and he knows what i need to go through to become the person he needs me to be for the rest of my life. i was talking to elder hackleman last night about the mission and life and well the physical aspect of the mission is the easiest. the one `people usually worry about the most. but, waking up early and walking around all day really arent hard. the real test is the mental and spiritual game. thats where god takes boys and turns them into men. and i am defnitely on that track. 

the other day i was reading the book of mormon and found a verse i really liked. alma 34:38. living in thanksgiving. when i think of that, the first thing that comes to mind is american deliciousness. but aside from that, its all about living wih gratitude. even when things arent the best, we can be happy and, as mark always tells me, keep on keepin on.

love you

elder brown

oh and heres a picture of me and elder llaguento. he was my zone leader back in el olivar. our comps had to o to lima yesterday to go to immigrations so we are together today

The Adventure of Elder Brown. a new house and a new comp. 1st edition

wuddupppppppppppppppppppppp familybrothas. 

so last week on monday it was a day of saying goodbye. my comp and hermana leyva have left the district. she is home now and elder castillo is in the zone i was born in, puente piedra,and hes in sister Brown`s district (she will be delivering my hammock to you in october). we had a huge FHE in the chapel that night. some lady like fainted in her chair and everyone was trying to help her out while the guy directing just quietly kept speaking and tried to get everyone to move on to the "games" portion of the night. i stood there kinda looking around not knowing what was going on and well i felt awkward haha. but it all turned out ok.

on tuesday. CHANGES. my new comp is elder rodriquez. he is from bolivia. he is from a group of missionaries that got moved here to our mission from venezuela because things got crazy over there and they had to get them out. he will be finishing the mission in my group in march. hes a cool guy, we are just trying to get used to each other i guess.

on thursday we had a training meeting with president archibald. he came here with the zone and district leaders from here, huaral, huacho, and huaraz. i got to see Elder Beckstead, the one who just got here last week form my school. it was soooooooooooo good to see him! dont know how but mom if you can contact his mom somehow, im sure she`ll be happy to know hes got buddies in the mission. i also met the friend of one of my friends from pleasant grove utah. and i met a kid from cedar city that says he knows tysons family, elder lunt.

that day i got to go up and give a demonstration for a baptismal interview. they gave me a rough situation to figure out but i think it turned out pretty well. it helps when you have been a district leader more than half your mission. bishop prep. 

saturday was a solid day! Carmen, Amavilia and Mayra got baptized. i got to baptize the three of them and my legs kinda lost all feeling by the end of it. we had the heater going but it didnt really work. though they left shivering, it all went well. and they got confirmed the next day. baptism: COMPLETE.

so this morning we moved! we are now just down the street a little closer to the church. its way smaller inside but we dont have to hear "HUACHO HUACHO HUARME HUAYTO!!!!" all. morning. and it doesnt have stuff growing on the walls. happy new home.

so yeah i wish i remembered more from this last week. its been a huge blur. but here are my fotos of the baptism and elder beckstead.

thanks, love you,

elder brown

oh and heres a picture of the sisters bathroom door handle. they locked it shut and it wouldnt open up, so while they were in lima, we went in to open it. elder dorado kicked the door handle in. 

                                                 Elder Beckstead who was in Kendall's seminary class just go to Peru!

another week in barranca. word

bueno, ha sido una bueeeeeena semana!

last week on monday we went to the church building. the elders played soccer outside. i played a little then just kinda supervised so i wouldnt mess up my back. the sisters made lasagna and it was dangg good. i drank dr pepper. AND this past week i ate a twix. soooo good. if you send me some reese`s fastbreaks i wouldnt be upset. if the get melted? perfect. i have a fridge. 

on tuesday we had a guineau pig type district meeting. we didnt eat them. i mean it was a trial lesson. in the mission we have a new way to run the district meetings. every missionary receives a 12 week training book when he enters the field (did that come out right? i struuggled to translate that one in my mind. my english is pretty good for the most part...). the new objective is to get back to the basics and use that booklet in our meetings. there are six lessons (not teaching lessons, like training lessons for us) and we divide each lesson into two weeks. we teach, practice, evaluate, repractice, then have the whole week to apply what we learned. then the next week is a follow up lesson with more training applied. then we follow the same process and move on to the next lesson. i didnt gauge the lesson right and it went way over time, but it was still cool. 

on wednesday i had a work exchange with elder dorado, my zone leader from uruguay. dudes a goof ball. usually on the sreet i walk side by side with my companion. he made sure to stay a good 7 feet behind or in front of me at all times and just kinda chilled in his own world all day. eh, ok. we spent a good part of the day looking for a new room. we found one. this coming week we are moving in.dont worry mark, ill be sure to get you the address so you can google map it. im pretty sure its jr castilla 928. its on the corner close to the gas station. 

that night we had movie night in the church and watched mountain of the lord and taught about temples to our converts. 

thursday, weekly planning and walkingggg. 

friday was siccckkk. we had another meeting with president archibald. our zone met our goal last month so he came and taught us and weall ate pizzas together. we learned about the plan of salvation starting from death tto the kingdoms of glory. i learned ALOT. we learned about the laws that we are to live by in each kingdom, how to get there, etc. he started out by doing a basic drawing of the plan of salvation with the little circles and lines representing premortal life, birth, mortal life. he then said hmmm... elder brown. come on up and draw the rest of this for me and explain why. im someone who wants to know what happens after this life. i got up there, trying to anticipate his curve ball. i did the big circle with the line through it for "spirit world" next to the earth. then he asked ahh so we go to a different world after? i thought about it. erased it, and drew a bigger circle around the earth. to continue he asked if there was anyone i thought knew more then i did. i called on my buddy elder hackleman to see how president could mess with him. we then discussed the spirit world, the gap between paradise and prison, and went into depth about the kingdoms of glory. he made special emphasis on the fact that these are kingdoms of GLORY. all too often we make mistakes like making people think that that the spirit world is on some distant planet, or that theres one kingdom of glory and two places that are just kinda "eh". the plan of salvation is awesome. we studied DandC 131. 132. 76, amd 137. woof. cool stuff. 

on saturday we had a cool experience. here we have had heard stories of other missionaries praying for specific random things to find families and end up finding them. so, we did it. in the morning we prayed to find a family of 8 and to find them that there could be two kids outside playing soccer, and that when we walked up to that house, the dad would be home to talk to him. after a longgg morning of looking for a referral we had received, we turned the corner. a few kids were playing soccer. a daughter came out. we asked if her dad was home. yes. he came out. he has 7 kids and 12 live in the house. BOOM. the appointment didnt end up working out with them but we`ll try to pass by this week. 

sunday was awesooooooooooooooooome. that morning we went witha guy in our ward that has a car to pick up a family. a single mother with her four young kids.they had an awesome first experience. we went over after church and the kids ran out excited with their book of mormon in hand with their names marked on them and said they had been reading. 

carmen, amabilia, and mayra are in the water this saturday. they are awesome. silverio is doing great as well and we are hoping to have him baptized before his scheduled date. dimas and rosario`s papers are ready this week so they will be maried and baptized before next saturday. the work is EXPLODING. when the lord said he would hasten his work. he meant it.this is HIS work. i am so blessed to be here in this area and in this branch when things are blowing up here. its interesting to learn more each day how much he really is working WITH us. we are just little servants who are being sent around by our master. he is literally out here working alongside us. 

the dad from the tenorio family is one of the counselors in the young mens presidency. its awesome to see him sitting in there with us in branch council so he can see firsthand what we were doing not long ago to make sure he and his family could have a good experience and stay strong after baptism. i love that family so much. 

thanks for he love and prayers. they are working. the work of salvation is flying past me and im trying to keep up. the lord, now more than ever, is helping me see my weaknesses, and i am learning each day my desperate need of his help to keep me going each day. i was thinking about that the other day and made a nice little connection between ether 12:27, 2 corinthians 12:9 and the account of peter when he walked on the water, compared to who he later became, and alma 26. look it up and have fun!

oh. and my companion is getting changed. yeahhh elder brown in barranca another six weeks. 

love you alll,

elder brown

heres a cool talk i found on lds.org.

him.https://www.lds.org/liahona/2014/07/young-adults/becoming-perfect-in-christ?cid=HPMO081814354&lang=eng

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.