1 change down.

sup.

so today i finish up my first change here in trebol. i literally feel like i havent started my time here yet. time doesnt exist anymore. kinda like when we would play on the swings in the back yard when we were kids. spin it up verryyy slowly. then once its wound up you take your feet off hte ground and spin so fast that you can barely keep your head and feet with you. kinda feels like that haha. (shout out to nance circle!).

cool.

so we had a rather interesting experience on saturday. we went to a market in our area with the bishop and we set up a table with pamphlets to talk to people and get known. so as soon as we set up the table. we hear "evangelicos!" we look acrossed the street to see a very drunk cross dressing she-man coming towards us. it ended with him trying to kiss my comp and the bishop. saying alot of verrry bad words at us, then grabbing our book of mormons from the table and throwing them on the ground as he walked away to go harrass the little ladies at a ceviche stand. we felt gross alll day. it was literally spiritually damaging. but its something to laugh about now haha. 

on a good note i tried out a new plate this week. look it up. its called escaveche. dangggg good. its some yellow pepper exclusive to peru (the same stuff they use to make my beloved Tarì sauce) with onions, sweet potato, chicken, and rice. ask sister baldwin about it. it makers life good.

yesterday in church we finally got the peña family there. well hte mom had to work. but the rest came. the daughter sang in hte primary program. her first day in church. so did molly, trhe other little girl who`s getting baptized soon so she can be with the rest of her family. last night we ran into the peña family on the streets. we were leaving and we hear "HERMANO BROWN!" we turned back and saw his two little kids runing towards us with a bag. they handed it to us. we opened it to find three mini papa johns boxed. we got a few slices of pizza, some cheesy bread,and a cinammon roll pizza. i love my job. pays good. 

we had a solid lesson with them the oher day. the dad asked about "the two churches" in first nephi. well, i tod him what it meant. then, to avoid any defensiveness, we got straight to explaining prayer and the holy ghost. we had him pray right there. he got an answer. we right the checks, the spirit signs them. every time.  the same worked with some crazy old couple we are working with. they couldnt get to chruch though because he can only get around driving because of some dizziness disorder he has while hes standing. well the missionnaries showed up so the car broke. go figure. so that`ll get fixed this week.

yesterday we had a lesson in gospel principles about the law of chastity. theres a quote in there from "for the strength of youth". it got me thinking about my understanding of that booklet and what i wished the youth could understand (because its something i didnt. not necessarily about that specific commandment, but about commandments in general.) kids so often say "the church is true". alright well then lets make that connection. the church is true. the church of JESUS CHRIST. who is in perfect unity with the father. in all things. so this is HIS church. so it means he directs it. so god directs it. so that little church logo on the back of things like the "for the strength of youth" pamphlet means that the things written in there are verry important. so you believe the articles of faith. well the fifth article of faith says that men must be called of god by prophecy and revelation. and doctrine and covenants 1:38 says that wheat god has spoken, he has spoken, and he excusesd not himself. and by his own voice or the voice of his servants it is the SAME. so when the prophets tell su to do things. gods telling us to do things. when they say things like "you should" "we suggest" or "it would be best", they are not just suggestions. god didnt give the ten suggestions to moses. directions from god are called commandments. so when got, through his prophets, tells the youth of the church to not date til you´re 16, date in groups, dont do or say ANYTHING that arouses intimate feelings, to dress modestly, be honest in your schoolwork, dont dance like an animal, etc. they are commandments. too many people get comfortable in an "all mormon" seting and think that lowering your standards is ok because we`re all lowering them together. not a good idea. i sound like president ostler on a standards night haha but i am understanding now what i wish i would have ten years ago. momma. teach those young women to be strong. respect themselves and to not tolerate it if the young men dont want to respenct them. they are children of god. in other words, they are going to be like him someday. start now. 

hey, glad to hear jess and drew are in their new place. keep on keepin on. snowing in provo, slightly cold in mesa, and hot in san martin de porres. 

oh yeah, and i literally have fifty pounds of stuff i leave in my suit cases "just in case". so ill be emptying it all out when i finish up. and on one of the farewell days president takes the group going home to the inca market to buy a bunch of cool stufff. ill let ya know when the time comes to have you fill my account a little more. but it should be fine. 100 bucks is almot 300 soles. but we`ll worry aboutt that in 2015 haha its already hard enough with how fast times goin.

over and out. love you all,

elder brown

19 meses. bah.

heheheyyyy.

so first off, HAPPY BIRTHDAY MACI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! hope you had a solid day. next year im takin you on your first date. if anyone gets to ya first, its not gonna be good. congrats on bein birthed mace.

so this week was fun. highlight of the week. I GOT TO PLAY A UKULELE FOR A FEW DAYS. some lady has one in our ward because some american left it with their family as a souvinere and so i got to use it for a ward talent show this week. it was dang fun. it has beenn foreeeeeeeverrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. i gotta get practicing. grandma is going to show me up when we jam together in a few months. i kept trying to pull out songs i used to play and i have forgotten the grand majority. my fingers remember the cords but i cant remember cord progresssions and how to put it to diffferent songs. so for the show i played one of the only ones i could remember, "im yours" from jason mraz. it helps that no one knows english. i tried sending a video but it was too big to send in an email. whoops. 

we are busy doing some searching for new people. i feel like this entire past months was a never ending chain of meetings and going around town. so our studies have suffered, which means organized time in the area has been sketchy. but this week we are getting things on track. 

yesterday we got a few new people to teach. some wayyyyyy old people (the owners of our old house). fernando and amelia. he cant walk anymore so he either uses a walker or drives around in his volkswagen bug. and another guy who´sa widower with his two kids. 

we got janet and axel,, the peña family, and molly still, but we´re trying to work scheduling conflicts out with them. rough stuff. but it will be good. they´ll all be in the water soon!

right now im reading Doctrine and Covenants. iv never read through it all the way before and so i set it so i can read one section a day for the reast of my mission. no, its not a countdown. just kinda haha-

right now its startin to get hotttttttttt. but the real heat comes here in like february. i am praying that i can go to huaraz to finish up. pray for me to go there !!!

so last week president sent out an email witha talk from elder bednar. he spoke on the spiritual gift of being quick to observe. he gave an interesting exmple of how a kid was dating some girl after his mission. president hinckley came out with the one earring thing. she wasnt "quick to observe" to kkeep that commandment. he was quick to observe that she wasnt quick to observe and decided to move on. now, dont worry im not think about marriage so easy there. just some times haha. no but it was a cool example of how many times the brethren tell us things we should be doing. when they say it. we do it. even the little things. many people think they can pick and choose which commandments to follow and that they can be rated on a scale of zero to important. it wasnt a problem of wearing earrings. it was the fact that she wasnt willing to follow the prophet even in the little things. mormon was entrusted from a verryyy young age with the plateds because ammoron could see that he was of a serious nature and quick to observe. (not just to notice things, but to do them). then it gives the example of 1 nephi, chapters 11-14. when nephi is being taught by the spirit. the spirit, many times, says "look!" then nephi looks and beholds the things the spirit was trying to teach.  so thats my invitation to you. be quick to observe. follow the brethren. ALWAYS. we cant afford to decide when or when not they are speaking out of inspiration or assume for even a second that they arent being constantly quided by god.  

so my back is good. i am alive. haha you gotta be a real bro to ice massage your comps back for him. elder welburn is a good guy. really helpin me out with that one. it reminds me of when i had tendonitis on my acheles in football in seventh grade and i had to get those fun ice massages. now i get it on my back. yessss. 

haha keep on keepin on. send me some pics of jess and drews new place and of the new mr. and mrs. herron.!

paz y bendiciones.

elder brown.

novemburrrr. sike. its HOT.

heheheyyyy.

so this week was an interesting one.

last monday we got together with the zone. Soccer. my back doesnt really let me play sports anymore so i played a game of Clue on the side with some other missionaries. i havent played it since we lived over by hermosa vista. probably never play it again. i dont think ive ever wanted a game to end sooner. i can take monopoly all day long. Clue is useless. dont buy it for your children. they´ll be happier haha

tuesday we had a district meeting. elder caal, my district leader, had me teach about the importance of getting investigators to church. i started with moroni 8:25. related it to our purpose as missionaries, the gospel of jesus christ, and where we all fit in with the people and how going to church and obeying the sabbath day helps them in their process to cumplir( .... fulfill?) the gospel. so yeah that was fun stuff. 

then on thursday we had a multi zone meeting with president. he trained us on how to teach lesson 6. we have a new lesson focused entirely on fasting, tithing, and offerings. we went through isaiah 58. cooll stuff. PAY YOUR OFFERINGS. 

later that day we went out with sister archibald. we hopped in her car and she drove us over to the new room we were going to move into. she mobs hard on the peruvian streets haha i was very surprised. so yeah this morning we moved into a new place. we can actually walk in it without waiting for the other one to stand on the other side of the room. its a beautiful thing. 

we had an interesting halloween. we did nothing. and there were like all of five kids trick or treating. and zero pumpkins. when kids go trick or tresting they just walk up and say "halloween!". when we got home at night we were planning for the next day and we heard outside "elderes! halloween! elderes! halloween!" we looked out and saw the bishop with his kids. so we went down and gave them a couple candies. hahaha the wave is starting to catch. i hope to see ful nlock parties here real soon. 

earlier that day we went to a members house to get to know them, he talked to us about area 51 and about how the scriptures support the fact that there are aliens. he asked, why do you think that there have been so many advancements in technology in the last century?? i told him that the restoration might have something to do with it. he didnt catch it haha. dude was kinda a nut. we are goin back today fro FHE. pray for me.

saturday morning we had interviews with president. we sat doown. "what can i do for you elder brown?" and then we talked for about an hour. dude´s a bosssss. he helped me alot. then at the end he was like anything else? oh, yeah i need a new reccomend (yeah. two years have gone by since yesterday since i got my call and almost two yearssince i went to the temple for the first time) and he just asked are you worth to have one? i said yep. he said alright cool i got a list of people ill get you yours soon too. that was easy. 

alright welp, my district is finishing up so i gotta roll. thanks for everythinggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggg keep the missionaries in your prayers. this stuff gets rough. 

hasta luegoooooo

elder brown

HAHAHAHAHAlloween.

Suppppp.

Soooo halloween eh? my bishop here was baffled when i told him we celebrate halloween as members, i guess they dont get that its not a satanic holiday. the concept of "trick or treat" hasnt quite made it down here. the 31 is like the anniversary for peruvian music or some garbage like that. i hope to see some gnarley dance fests here! 

i saw ephraims rescue last week. good movie.

oh and that was awesome to hear that story from braxton. he was one of my buddies from high school. i had a class with him like my last semester of senior year. i remember messaging him on fb after high school and he told me he was a member now. i was very surprised. he said aroound junior year he was kinda investigating the church but didnt know where to go to or who to ask about it. he eventually got the missionaries. i almost didnt believe him haha then i saw an insagram picture of his baptism. then from time to time i messaged him reminding him to get out on a mission. so i guess he made it! i was actually thinkin about him a while ago, wondering if he ever made it out. turns out he did! but as for sharing a book of mormon with him, i dont remember that. i could have told him to read it or told him in the class why i knew that or something (one time a mormon v. everyone else argument arose and i think i was the only one there. so i had to kinda stand my ground, as in a few other school situations.) so i couldve said something there? not sure. but the point is. proud of him!

so this week was danggggg fast and it was dangggggggggggggg good.

first off. the meeting.

we had a sick meeting with president for the news and trainers. i learned a ton and got suuuuuuuper stoked to go out and work like a savage. we learned about enoc and how people ssaid a "wild man has come among us". so thats how i want to finish my mission. i want people to know that elder brown was here. #beastmode.

so we´re teaching a family called the Peña family. they were the first family we ever contacted in this area. they are married and have two little kids. 8 and 10. on thursdaywe had a lesson with them. at first we went by and they werent there and my comp was devastated. me, eh, just another group that doesnt want anything. then we were walking around to finish up the night and we saw them at the end of the road. so we chased em down and went with them back to their house. i was already somewhat hesitant thinking ah they didnt read, they dont want it, we´re going to have to leave them, etc.. but much to our surprise, they had read and prayed. they still werent sure on the answer part of the deal but it will come. so the next day we were walking down the street and we saw gabriela and fabricio, the kids, walking down the street with a lady. they got closer then the lady said to them "hey lets go say hi to the elderes." ...???? uh, do you know the missionaries? then, responding in english, said she had served her mission in temple square. she just happened to be the kids´ teacher.then yesterday we went by a members house to follow up on a family they had said they wanted to invite over for FHE. so we asked about them, the said the moms name and where rthey lived and we were like. oh. thats the peña family! this guy is the old bishop and his kids are stoked about sharing the gospel with their friends. so we´ve seen from many angles how the lord is definitely preparing this family. 

yesterday in church we had a couple come up to us saying they had a reference for us. so last night we went with them to meet them. its a single mom named Janet and her 14 yr old boy named Axel. another pair of verrrry prepared people. we didnt have a book of mormon with us so we were just going to do a basic "get to know you" visit using John 3:16. as we were there talking me and elder welburn felt impressed to invite them to baptism right then and there. eh, next time. then it came again. the spirit was strongg in that lesson. so i figured, the spirit it telling me to do this. so god is telling me to do this, so 1 nephi 3:7. so its going to work and they´re going to accept even though we havent really taught anything. so we did it. they accepted. wooooooooooooooh! they´re awesome. before the lesson axel told us how he was a musician and his dream is to go to the states and study at juliard. so i made him promise that after the lesson he had to play us something. so after, he brought out his guitat and threw down some guns n roses, green day, kansas, etc. it was awesome. he had me sing along with him while he played a green day song haha. 

andddddd we got a reference for a little girl in our area named molly who lives with her aunts and uncles and isnt baptized yet. shes ten. luckily we had the bishop with us and we found out the aunt and uncles attend toa  different ward in the stake next to us. so he was there for a nice little "welcome to the ward!". alot of people here think we are llike other churches and you can just kida be a part of whatever ward you want. so we are gonna fix that up and get that girl baptized with the rest of her family. 

oh, i think serpost of is off strike so i´ll let you know if i get the package this week.

so that about suums up my week. 

ohhhhh and i saw elder mcallister and kitchens again this week. 

elder kitchens taught me a trick this week. as missionaries, satan doesnt like us. at all. and he gets in our heads with all sorts of thoughts. negative, angry, depressing, and other stuff. so he taught me a good way to beat him. write out scriptures and carry them with you. any time a thought you dont want comes in, ppull out the scripture and start memorizing. it allows you to memorize lots of scriptures out here. and after not too long, will see that he´s helping you memorize scriptures, and he´ll leave you alone. so ive been starting to write out scriptures on post-it notes so i can pull it out while im walking around and memorize scriptures. its working nicely. since thursday i got dyc 5:34-35 and alma 5.14. i wrote out 2 ne 2:11 this morning and we´ll see how many others i get down this week. just an idea for somethin to do if you ever have free time. MEMORIZE SCRIPTURES. exciting right.... but i mean i only have like five months to be able to do this.

welp. love you all. the gospel is true. when you feel overwhelmed by how imperfect you are, remember this: stop trying to save yourself with the SAVIOR as a plan b. he´s the only one who can get us to perfection. no matter how hard we try. let him take the reigns. do what you can. and give it allllll to him. im learning that and well, it works! love you all.

elder brown

It's hot

Hey.

Its hot.

Summer decided to punch us in the face this week. out of nowhere. the mornings and nights are nice. but the middle of the day is nappy. it like vapors heat up from the street and the sun comes down nice and hard. so thats fun. we try to set up appointments before lunch so we can be indoors in the early afternoon for our extra training studies. 

WE GOT A WATER HEATER THIS WEEK!. no more angry ice showers. huge blessing.

and in bigger news.

WE FOUND REAL MILK. like from  a cow. soooo good, reminds me of america. haha cereal with actual milk is a whole other experience. you guys have noooooo idea how blessed you are to have glalon cartons in tyour fridge on a daily basis. 

so no i havent got my package yet. did you send it down with sister baldwin or did you send it through the mail. if it was through the mail.. welllll Serpost is on strike right now haha the mission has a tonnnnnnn of packages being held back because they decided to go on strike because it was a really conveinent thing to do for everyone. but i mean it will pass. i hope. if not, eh. i get emails. and i can eat receese fastbreaks in march (oh... wait... hahaha #eatenbymaci). so yeah hopefully that will turn out soon.

yesterday i gave a talk in chruch about the book of mormon. welcome to the ward elder brown. please give a ten minute talk. it went well though, speakin on the same day with my momma eh? dope.

my eye brow has been twiching for like a week. is that bad?

so yeah this opening-an-area thing is kinda rough. we are doing our best t just meet the members, talk to people, and stay verrrrryyy patient. the grreatest lesson of my mission. patience. which helps me see how very impatient i was before the mission. its funny to look at the biggest challenges i face, seee what i had to learn then realize god was thinking "well kendall you need to work on this, this, and this. so im going to send you to lima to learn this, that, and the other." i am sooo grateful for this experienc though. dont know what i would have done without it. my time is ticckkking away. fast.. i literally can count down the weeks now and its kinda nuts. but im trying not to. 

right now i am trying to learn more from the book of mormon. no matter how many times i read it or study from it. theres always more. solid book. its true. the church is true. my companion has said multiple times, if the gospel wasnt true, the missionaries would have messed it up a longgg time ago. its true. we are twenty year old kids trying to help people get where they need to be to become gods. this is definitely HIS work. 

this week we have a training meeting for new missionaries and trainers. and my comp will have immigrations. busy stuff. 

thanks for the love and prayers. we need em. haha just know that the lord is taking care of us and everythings good,.

next week ill have a more exciting email. we are just trying to get things rolling here. poco a poco.

HASTA LUEGO

elder brown

Kendall is trianing this new missionary!

Two Hundred 8 lb 7 oz.

hey.

so yup! im officially a dad again! 

haha im back down in lima in the Trebol zone. its the stake right next to El Olivar where i was before. andddddd im training. my new son is Elder Welburn from Riverton utah. yes, i am training a  white guy. he is awesome. haha he bought us a famiy sized pizza hutt pizza our second night here.

we are opening up a new area. its ROUGH. we spent the first week literally just walking around the area to mark the blocks on our map. and an additional few hours making a list of the members in our area from the directory, based on where they live in the area. 

but as we have walked around, its definitely felt special. the spirit is working strong here and we can feel that there are a ton of new people prepared for us. 

our room... well the following names have been applied to the room this week and more may be applied until a new room is found: Harry Potter´s Closet, the Hell Hole, and the Jail cell. its kinda something we just gotta laugh at to survive haha its realll small. and we ar eboth big. the sink is in the shower. hahaha i´ll send you pictures. but its all good. part of the experience. i just feel bad for elder welburn that he has to go through all of this his first week in the field. but the lord is breaking us down so he can build us up. i loooove the talk about Hugh b Brown, i beluieve it was given by elder christofferson, about "Why did you cut me down??" "i am the gardener here. i know what i want you to do". the lord needs to break us downso that he can build us up. the this past week´s experience mixed with president Uchtdorf´s talk have helped me in huge ways.

so i got to see conference this weekend! in spanish. but it was still tight. the talks they actually gave in spanish were solid. but yeah translations just dont do it. i was kinda freaking out thinking about how next conference ill be there to watch it with the fam. CONFERENCE CREPES. MOMMA I NEED YOU TO SEND ME THE CONFERENCE ENSIGN WHEN IT COMES OUT PLEEEEEASE.

My last night up in barranca we had a giant FHE in the chapel with the converts that could make it. ill send you a picture, it was solid. 

this week i got to see elder Cody, Arnett, and McAllister. and elder Kitchens and hackleman. good to see them. corbin is up in huaraz now. his area is the furtherst north of the whole mission. 

SO YEAH. thats about it for this week, hopefully things get picked up and rollin this week. its going to be a good one!

love you all, thanks for everything!

elder brown.

ElEcTiOnS.

Holaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa que tal. 

so yeah this past weekend we had elections. no church. no conference. no happiness. haha no it wasnt that bad. just hard because a ton of people had to leave t their home towns to vote so there werent too many people around. but we did what we could.

huge news. i learned yesterday that barranca is a real word. no just a weird name. it means ravine, gorge, gully. 

AH. mom. this is nuts. i met elder gavarett when he came to the mtc. that night we were the ushers so we sat on the front row and i got to meet him afterwards. i told him how my dad and grandpa had both served in uruguay. i believe i mentioned it was elder herron but i dont know if he remembered. an "elder brown" had baptized his wife but it wasnt dad. but still. thats awesome. grandpa walked into a little shop, played the guitar, started teaching a family. then fifty years later his grandson met the grown up, general authority version of that little kid. coincidence? NOPE. 

ah and for your talk, to help you out, go look up the talk "follow the brethren" by boyd k packer. that will help out a ton. i dont think it was a conference talk but it should be there. ( https://www.lds.org/liahona/1979/09/follow-the-brethren?lang=eng )

there it is.

so i have some huge news. tomorrow i officially become an elder. kendall where have you been the last 18 months? well thats the point. the sisters from my group are goin home today. so i begin the part of the mission that no sister ever experiences. WHERE DID THE TIME GO. oh and speaking of which, im sending a hammock home with haley brown so make sure you get a hold of that for me! its a precious precious item.

yesterday after lunch we headed to the chapel with my breathing machine. (no mother dearest im not sick, don worry!) they have special outlets there and i wanted to see if i really burned it out in my last area. so as we were leaving, i was thinking about how crappy the day was and wasnt looking forward to going out and looking for more people just to get rejected. we walked up to the gate and just as i was about to set do the lock, we saw a family walking by right outside the entrance. i swung the door opened and said Hey hows it going! have you ever seen the church building before? no. well would you like to  check it out? sure why not. so we took the family inside, showed them around, got to know them. had a moment of silence in the chapel so they could feel the spirit a little. then set a time for us to go visit them. sometimes i forget how much god really is out here WITH us., he didnt just send us out the door saying, welp good luck! 

so last night we were headed home and were in the middle of contacting one last family when our buddy john walked by. he`s the son of amalia and the brother of katia. he was the one of the family who was super stoked to get baptized and then when the time came it didnt work out. so we chased him down, set u an appointment for early this morning and we had a solid lesson. earlier in the week we were planning on visiting him and just powerhousing him with scriptures to get him to be baptized. but, the other day we were walking and i had another one of those stop walking and listen impressions. i learned that we had to go about teaching him differently. if we had done things that way, it would have probably ended it or just made it even more difficult. but i realized we had to, patiently, get him back to reading and praying, and then he himself would have the desires to get baptized. after staring blankly at the ground for a few seconds as i thought alll this through, i talked to my comp and he agreed on the new plan. so today we went into the lesson with that mentality. and, once again, the spirit stepped in and had a few more changes to make. we still focused on reading and praying, but we also felt to share 3 ne 11 where it says those who believe in me and are baptized will be saved and those who dont believe in me and arent baptized will be damned. so i used that and gently explained the WHY of baptism and related it to his repentance and preparation. then a the end the spirit said set a date. huh? alright. so we set a baptismal date for the end of the month and he accepted. im learning to recognize, listen to,and follow the spirit. its lead us to alot of good things this week. 

love you all, thanks for everything! ill let ya know if i get transferred.

elder brown

so here are the district pictures we took last week. one is our classy champion pic. the other is made to look like soccer team pictures all the pro teams do. not kidding they look exactly like this. and the final is our cheerleader pic. this is district barranca.