alo  buenas!

sup. so its 2015 now. still have a hard time writing that in my journal and in our records and stuff. new year. new beginning. gonna be even crazier than the rest. bring it on.

so mark literally laughed himself into bronchitis huh? sounds like brian regan has a good show. when i went with steve, mike, jeff, and holly, some drunk guy in the back quoted Brian, screaming, either while, or before, He got to say his lines. haha good times. 

so this week has been all sorts of nuts.

after the clinic today, i went to mcdonalds. 

tuesday. CHANGES. so i am now with Elder Apablaza. he is from antofogasta chile, where brandon skinner served and where ryan couch is currently serving. he is aconvert of two years and has 9 months in the mission. hes the wwhite guy at the desk in the pictures. has a slightly different style of things, which has been rough to get used to, but he`s an aweasome missionary. he has grown up fast in the gospel. 

wednesday we had mission council. another solid day with president. we went over just about every aspect of missionary work and how we can improve and what problems we are seeing. we learned a ton and the best part was that sister archibald made fetuccini alfredo and cinammon rolls. 

then on thursday we had a multizone conference. a couple of my old zones were there so i got to see some old friends. elder welburn, elder schagel, elder arnett, elder cody. 

friday we had to make sure all the zone got there moneyand fill out all hte financial garbage. not a fan of that stuff. dont think finance would be a good career for me. i think imma just call drew next time to take care of it for me. 

friday night we finally got to start working in the area again. that was fun.

saturday we did our weekly planning for a few hours. trying to make up for all the lost time- being sick, meetings, holidays (no one exists on christmas or new years), etc. 

so this saturday we have two baptisms. maicol and manuel. solid dudes. manuel is ever-excited to pay tithing and fast offerings. he got rid of all of his tea and has made a complete change in what he consumes to take better care of his body. i think he`s in like mosiah by now. solid guy. ill send some pics on monday.

sad news.. so remember up in barranca we baptized a mom and her daugher, amalia and katia. amalia had a son, jon. he was the first to listen to us and the first to want to get baptized. in fact, we couldve baptized him sooner, but to keep his mom and sister on board, we waited to get them all together. then came the baptism day, amalia and katia almost didnt make it because they got scared last minute but made it into the water anyways and had a great experience. jon never made it to the service because he was working till late and if we pushed it back another week, we wouldve lost katia and amalia. so he left town after that to work and i only saw him a few times before i left barranca. my last morning there i had a lesson with him, reviewed alma 34:34 and reset a date for baptism. he came by to say goodbye that night before i left. never ended up getting baptized. i just got an email from my old comp, elder rodriguez, saying that he passed away recently from falling off a cliff, im guessing while working up in the mountains. pray for him, amalia, and katia please! thanks.

welp. its another week. hope to have a good report on monday. im working as hard as i can, the best way i know how. not sure how good it really is but its what i can do. thanks for the love and prayers. this is the best thing of my life. im grateful for every trial and hardship because its made me who i am today. 

elder brown.

jueves ya estamos 2015

sawp.

quite eventful week. everything from clinic trips, to skype talks. fun stuff!

right now im ridin solo. my comp is with the rest from his group who are goin home today. so im here with elder portillo. he  was the comp of elder ali, my old comp from 200 millas. hes finishing his mish too so portillo is with me till tomorrow at changes where ill get my new comp.

so yeah this week we didnt do much because my body wasnt working too well for me but its getting better so no worries!

yesterday we were leaving the offices and i heard "elder brown!" i looked over to see a van driving by. it was brother and sister quesñay. the parents of the kid that was my comp for a week in 200 millas when elder laiche went to mexico. they got out and we got to talk for a little bit. they were droping off an elder from that ward at the offices to get his final interview with president and then they took me and elder ortiz back to our area. 

ah, so my address. i live at manzana J lote 5, Brisas de Santa Rosa, San Martin de Porres. the main roads are Canta Callao and Carlos Izaguirre. its literally on the other side of the intersection from 200 millas and Libertadores. ill have spent half of my mission connected to this intersecttion. my hood. 

welp, sorry for a boring email this week, next week i´ll have alot more to tell with my new comp, mission council, all that. 

love you thanks for everything! happy new yearrrrr

elder brown

FELIZ NAVIDAD, PROSPERO AÑO Y FELICIDAD!

Holaaaaaa

Christmas is this weeeeeek. still doesnt feel like it. but im stoked to see you all on Thursday. can you have steve stop by?? i gotta see that kid even its for a few seconds. so yeah 1 is good. we got the members lined up to use their computer. 

so this week was yet another blurrr. on wednesday we had our multi zone for christmas. we did a skit of "offices of the west pole" (we are the office zone.... lima west mission... no? ok..). we also did a gingerbread house contest. my district made the mesa temple. we got second place i think. oh for the skit i was Papa Noel (presidente archibald). i had borrowed one of his alabama footbal t shirts and spoke with his american-alabama-argentina accent. then we had a talk from president and missionaries were asked to get up in between songs and share christmas traditions. one kid, elder china, said that in bolivia his family gets a pig, hits it on the head with a hammer, watch it run around, then they eat it. no sure where he was goin with that one. 

the other day we were waiting outside a store for the guy to bring us what we bought. then some guy comes walking by, pointing at me and talking to my comp and the kid we were with "wheres that foreigner from??! looks chilean!" (they hate chile here). i said nope! further north. then he asked "north american?" yup "then pointed at me again and yelled "then youre from the CIA!!" then dipped into an alley. second time ive been accused of being a cia agent. little did he know i had eight snipers in the surrounding buildings watching his every move. 

last night we participated in a stake christmas music performance thing. each ward performed two songs and at the end the missionaries of the stake got up and performed four songs. first time i felt something close to "christmas" this year. once i light my christmas candles on wednesday then it´ll be real life.

so right now we are still working with maicol and manuel. they have dates for the 3 and 10 of january. we found a couple other families that well be working with this week. if they´re actually there.. everything kinda dies the week of christmas so its gonna be fun! 

last night i talked to a swedish guy that lives here in our stake. hes from southern sweden, close to copenhagen denmark. we were talking in spanish, english, and danish (thanks for teaching me how to say butter and whats up mark).

soooooooooooooo yup thats about it for this week. anything else ill get back to you on thursday. cool.

elder brown

Another week. k

heyyyyyy.

so this week... trying to remember whats happened. so on monday we went to the stake and played soccer and ate completos (chilean hot dogs). the best part of the day: we went to buy our food for the week. we walked into the store and BOOM christmas tree for S/. 19.90. came with lights and ornaments. yes i bought it. its next to my bed. its only a few feet tall so i set it up on a table. dont worry im still an expert in setting up christmas. 

i got my package this week as well. THANKS. im eating mike and ikes as i write and i brought everything else (except for my reeses fast breaks (those are sacred)) to share with the district today. 

on tuesday we took over in the district meeting. havent taught one for a couple months so that was fun. 

on thursday we had a craazy cool experience with the spirit telling us where not to go. ill tell ya about it on march 24. set a reminder on your phone for that day so i can tell you about it. mmmmmm cool.

last night we got to go to the christmas devotional at the stake. it was cool, but still not a fan of watching conferences in spanish. so i enjoyed the motab choir while i sweated for an hour and a half. haha sweated the whole time. these buildings down here dont have AC. i remember in the states the buildings being freezingg. 

so to answer your questions..

so yeah my schedule is a little nuts now. we get calls from the offices or the different missionaries at random times and we have to go help them when they need us. and starting this are up, its been nuts. but we are finally starting to get things rolling. we have a guy, Maicol, with a date fro the 3 of january. we hope to get alotttttt more coming in. in our Area of the church, we are doing the "Hastening the Work of Salvation" thing. i thinkive gone over it before. but we have ward council everyy week and are working with extra teaching and progress records to measure the progress. well i get the pleasure of punching in alll the dates each week of all the converts in the stake for things accomplished on their progress sheets. 

my back is holdin up. im alive and can walk. we are good. my feet? also good. yes those were the soles you sent me a few months back but they were from the pack of the ones that were cloth. the other ones are still going strong. no worries. back brace? no. too hot. sometimes i put it on to play sports. but yes i do, when i have time, still give myself ice massages. i just freeze a cup of water in our mini fridge and massage my back with it before i shower. its cold. 

ill try sending more pictures. we are in a different internet place this week so hopefully it will work out this time. 

love you, thanks for everything. loved all your letters in the package! dont worry im saving that sealed one for christmas eve. the rest? couldnt wait. whoops. 

prospero año y felicidad,

elder brown

ya vino diciembre y ya fue el año.

heyhowsitgoinwhatsuppppp.

so its been a dang busy week. as i told you last tuesday, we had meetings those first two days of the week. then a district meeting on thursday. then we had to go get money on friday (which we asre in charge of),  then correlation in the afternoon. then saturday we did weekly planning and spent the afternoon in another companionship´s area, talking witht he owner about their room, prices, damages done, contracts, all the happy stuff. then we had to go check out the new room they were going to go to, which got rented out while we were in the process of the other room stuff.  then english class at night (haha which nobody even came to), then sunday which is the most relaxed day of a missionaries week (sike). we had ward council, then the block of meetings, then in the afternoon we had a meeting with the stake president. and here we are again writing emails. yeaahhhh. haha fun stuff.

so on thursday i did what i could for thanksgiving. i sent some pictures (hopefully they work, this computer is older than i am). the previous elders had some mcormick brown gravy mix and a bag of potatoes. so i tried making that. haha the little hot plate we have wouldnt boil the water, so after waiting an hour, i dumped out the water and just smashed them as hard as i could with a ladle and a fork. i also bought a slice of apple pie from a bakery. it was a joke. but on the upside my selfie game was on fire. 

Glad to hear jeff and kalie could come down. jeff´s locks are gettin gnarly. im a fan. keep it up sir. 

welp. thats about it for this week. limas starting to get hotter. im crazy busy. still dont really know whats goin on. already in the third week of this change. nuts. hopefully this week gets more exciting! and mom, keep the selfies coming. they are solid. maci might be winning though.

gracias por todo! 

elder brown

ey, i hope that nativity scene got set up verryy carefully. ill be there to take over next year 

Its still hot.

Hey.

Its still hot. but we actually have had some nicer tempertures these past few days. KEEP PRAYING FOR IT. i know im from arizona but i haaate being hot if i dont have AC or a pool. on the upside ill have like a few weeks of almost nice weather before summer hits again for me in a few months. one year of summer. this is gonna be fun.

so i got to see elder mcallister this morning. he is in a town like 8 hrs north from here. his zone leaders told him that he was going to the temple with his comp for being the companionship of the month. well, after an eight hour drive, he got here and the assistants told him he wasnt going to the temple. woops. but im lucky to be in the office´s zone so i could talk to him for a little bit. 

stevies getting home already?? dang. time flies. i expect some nice selfies this coming week.

this week has been another busy one. we have been having choir practices. our zone is participating in the stake christmas program this sunday night. missionary choir. singing isnt exactly a strong suit of latin americans. its fun haha. but time consuming. next week we will be singing outside the city council building because there is a huge park in front and a ton of people pass by. well be going around contacting people with the "he is the gift" (el es la dádiva) cards. 

we have two people with baptism dates right now. one, this twenty something yr old kid maicol, and an older guy named manuel. hes getting baptized on the tenth of january and maicol on the third. we are fighting to find new people right now. theres a mentality here in the zone that we cant baptize. not exactly filled with humble people in shacks like back in Zapallal, but you just gotta know how and where to find them. the hardest part for me is just opening my mouth. once its open i can talk it up like its nothing but the initial "hola buenas que tal" getting them to stop is hard for me. dont like getting in peoples way i guess but i mean exaltation is a good cause..

korihor eh? i know what you mean. alot of people think they have figured it out and have finally "outsmarted religion" or something by thinking they need signs or "proof" to show that god exists. or more than that, that he is more than some superior being who doesnt intervene in our lives. BUT that he does in fact govern EVERYTHING. want proof? here´s proof. humble yourself, get on your knees and ask god if he´s there and if he loves you. wait a few seconds. he´ll tell you, and thats the end of it. it was cool this past week as we taught a guy who in previous years didnt believe in god. but little by little he realized how absurd it is to think that everything just "happened". something exploded now everything in the entire universe has an order and place. show me proof that he DOESNT exist. 

So one o'clock works for me! i just hope skyppe works this year. if not, eh. twelve weeks after christmas. haha no worries momma. itll work. and remember i only get thirty minutes, so make it count! president has made a stronggg emphasis that these calls are for the ones that gave us life, fed us, changed our diapers, and all that. Moms. but in situations with parents in different homes we can give a quick call to dads too, but its gotta be quick. so ill try to get ten minutes or so in with dad. i have his info on my skype i believe so ( i think he gets this email to right?) dad. be ready around 1 30 ish. 

alright welp. thanks for everything. love you all. 

elder brown.

                                         Kendall is in the Liahona Church Magazine for December 2014

Changed.

Heheheyyyy mi amada familia.

first off. mom i hope you could sleep well last night. no im not dead. yesterday we had mission council. ill explain that later.

sooo yup. we went to the stake center last monday so they could tell the zone about the changes. i went to the bathroom. as i was washing my hands i hear elder welburn screaming WHAT??? NOO!! NO NO NO AHHHHH! he came running intot he bathroom. what??? you´re gone dude! huh?? you are getting changed! oh. haha ill send some pics of his face. it was funny. but yeah i got moved over a whole distance of crossing the street. im now one a zone leader in the Las Palmeras stake where the offices are. my buddy elder larsen, who was my zone leader back in barranca, is here as the assistant, so we are back in action! my comp is elder Ortiz from guatemala. he too was up in barranca with me a while back. he finishes up this change so looks like whoever i get on december 30 will be my last comp. this ward touches Libertadores on one side and 200 Millas on the other side. so looks like a year of my mission will have been spent within a verrryyy short distance

its ok. corbin spent 15 months in the same zone. coolest part of the area is that one of the urbanizations is called "Arizona". we actually found a huge family there. they were baptized and sealed along time ago but have been inaactive for a long time. they just moved here. the youngest is now in his twenties and there are six kids, now adults. had a lesson with them last night. "im from arizona." "so am i"..ahh never gets old.

so. as i said. yesterday we had mission council. its where the zone leaders from all the mission comes here to lima where we have a fatty long meeting with president. started at 9 finished at almost 5. learned a tooooooooooonnnnnnnnn. my buddy elder hackleman is a zl too in ventanilla so we got to see each other yesterday. elder arnett is the zl in los olivos so i gtt o hang out with him too. mesa crew. and elder norton, who went to desert ridge (pr desert vista..?) he hung out with michelle larsen from the ward before his mish. we got a 480 pic ill send. 

speaking of which, something cool hit me yesterday. i was thinking about all the kids from my high school in this mission (elders mcallister, cody, arnett, beckstead. and sister brown.) and remembered how president taugth us that each mission is a group of missionaries that actually worked together in the premortal life. when president archibald was called, it wasnt to a mission, but toa  group of missionaries. which makes me think about the missionaries i knew beforehand. met sister mrown in music theater when i was nine. i did karate with elder cody when i was 6. good friends with mcallister since he moved to arizona. sat next to elder arnett in a class in high school and im pretty sure we did some sport together when we were younger. beckstead, from my seminary class. if only we knew then, in high school, or even whe we were younger, what we´d all be doing together in a couple years, and what that would mean. i can only imagine how stoked theose on the other side of the veil were when we all met for the first time, them knowing who we were and are and going to be. 

so another kid thats in my zone is elder huish. he hung out with matt brinson. went to westwood.we know a ton of the same people. we had a mesa reminiscing sesh at out district meeting the other day. ill sendd a pic of him wearing my back brace like a heavy weight title belt.

so in other news, hermana fuentes, one of the sisters from my branch in barranca, showed me yesterday that i am famous in the South america north west are in the church. nah, not really. theres a picture and a little article of us up in barranca when we baptized the Tenorio Family. dont know how you can look that one up but eh. 

this morning we had an awesome meeting. Elder Bruce C Hafen came here to pick up his granddaughter from the mission so he came and spoke to us this morning. guys a stud! he spoke about why we got ot he temple before the mission and how the promised blessings f covenants come as we obey our part. he also spoke aboutt he atonement and the redeeming, strengthening, and perfecting blessings of the atonement. he taught us about the true nature of man and how the atonement really works. ill share a cool story his wife shared when talking about the strengthing blessins. so theres the story of the little girl who jumped over the rattlesnakes on the path while trekking to utah. the one thats on 17 miracles. so a few weeks later, that same girl, now freezing and starving was still on going across the plains. one of the resucue wagons had got there. the next day as they set out, the kids were set on walking and sticking with the carts. llittle by little other kids slowly fell behind. this little girl was walking until she could barely take another step. then a man in a cart with horses asked her if she would like a ride. she said yes. so he took her hand. instead of pulling her up intot he wagon, he looked to his horses and made a clicking noise. in horse language, that means speed up. the little girl, who was already almost too exhausted to walk, was now forced to run, her hand grasping to the man in the wagon. then, once she was running, she thought she couldnt take another step, he pulled her up, wrapped her in a blanket, then set her in the wagon. this served a great purpose. it got her circulation running and heated up her body. even though she was exhausted. looking back, she sad how that man, by making her run, saved her life. the atonement works like that. we are saved by grace AFTER EVERYTHING WE CAN DO. god expects us to give it everything. then even thhen he wont come in and sweep us off our feet and carry us through. he´ll provide the strength we need to keep going. working with us. holding on to our hand as we run. 

welp. i believe thats it for this week.

hope everythings fun up there with thanksgiving! ill be knocknin down pavo next year.

paz y bendiciones,

elder brown

oh, and last week, my last night in libertadores, we are pancakes with bishop and his family. his wife was our pension there