January 11, 2010

dear familyso this week was pretty good. we found a ton of people this week, even a family that we contacted in the street and went to church and asked if they could start assisting and get married in the church. so we said of course. haha, then another lady that we entered in the house, and we were just planning on staying for 10 minutes, but out of nowwhere she said, you know what, i want to invite you to dinner, so then she brought food out and we ate food from peru. and by the way in argentina, nothing, nothing is spicy. to them normal pepper that we have in the states is way spicy for them. so i have gone 2 years basically without eating spicy food. then when she served the food, it was rice with chicken and with a sauce that she said was really spicy. so i thought oh finally i will get spicy food, so i put the sauce all over my food then she started looking at my like i was crazy. she said its really really spicy. so then i said oh well, and i started eating, and i started sweating way way bad and then i felt like crying haha. so i guess before i start eating spicy food i got to get used to it again haha. i am not sure if the mission got a hold of you, but i was in a taxi coming home and my wallet fell out of my pants, and when i realized we were already out of the taxi, and he was long gone. so please cancel the card as soon as possible. i told the mission to advise you yesterday so hopefully they did it before anything happened. so that leaves me in a bad spot. haha, i have about 200 pesos to survive untill the end of the month. so there are a few options i was thinking, you could send me a card in a letter in first class or something, and when i get it i will tell you to reactivate it, or you could find a missionaries family that i live with who lives in provo and give them money to give to their son in his card and then he gives me the money. so i dont know if there are more options, but tell me next week what the plan is and i will be willing to do whatever. i am way sorry. i went the whole mission without losing my wallet and then i lost it in my last transfer. and dont worry i am working harder then ever. i dont even feel like i am going home in 5 weeks. tell mike that i would love to call preston when i get back, especially to invite him to the sunday when i talk. but thanks for everything family, i love everyone so very much chau!!!elder brown

january 4, 2010

dear familythis week was a good week. we spent the new year sleeping and my comp at 11 45 got up to see the fireworks and woke me up at 12 to see them. and i just remember i was just so tired that i was just laying in bed looking out the window then i fell asleep haha. he was excited but i was just thinking about getting rest cuz i was so tired haha. the the first of january was not a good day for the mission work. we got outside and it was basically what you see in the cowboy movies of a ghost town. there was NOBODY in the street, besides the drunk people and the dogs there was nobody. but at 12 we found some luck and found someone to talk to, but they werent interested so we moved on then all the sudden a drunk guy stopped us and started talking giberish to us and saying that he cant say that he will go to heaven, then he started coughing up his own vomit, and got it on his hands and my tie. then he shook our hands to say goodbye. so it wasnt the most pleasent experience. haha. and of course you can go with me to elder hollands homecoming with me. he is so funny and such a good missionary. we got transfers and i am actually staying with my same companion as zone leader again. so looks like i am going to end the mission being zone leader for 9 months!! tooooooo long haha just kidding. i like it, but i just cant be as much as a goof off haha which is probably a good thing. me and my comp had a lot of trials last transfer where we didnt get along very well so we said if we are going to survive this transfer we got to get along. then he told me he is kind of bipolar. which makes a lot of sense. because one moment he will be joking around and the next he will be getting mad at me because i was joking around and he got offended. so basically i just got to have patience and bear him for 6 more weeks. i think i will have to do a lot of what the scriptures say if a man hits you on your left cheek, give him your right. so i think i am just going to have to have a lot of patience. but anyway i love everyone so much and i hope everyone is doing well. thanks for all the e mails i love them so much. oh and i dont know my flight plans but i will find out for sure soon. but i am 99.9 percent surely positive that i will get home the 17th of february wednesday early in the morning. so i would buy tickets for the 16th or something. love you

December 28, 2009

dear familyit was good to hear from everyone, it was really fun for me. next christmas i will be there at home, so that will be weird haha. i dont really know what to say because i feel like i said it all over the phone haha. it was good to talk to the whole family that everyone was their together. i know i will always remember these christmases in the mission. maybe you guys think that a missionary is miserable during christmas because you are so far away from the family, but really its not bad at all. just the excitement of talking to the family makes it worth it. you will probably never be as excited as you were to talk to me christmas day haha. it really was fun to talk. just hearing everyones voices. it doesnt sound like anyone has changed haha. we just had a conference today and elder ringwood the seventy came to speak to our mission because he came to pick up his kid. so i got to talk to all of my friends. so it was fun. a lot of the people in my group were talking a lot about home so it was a little trunky talk but oh well. my companion from the mtc elder holland is one of my best friends, so we had a good talk. but his homecoming is also the 28th, his starts at 9, so would it be possible for me to go to his also? but anyway, it was a good chat haha. but i love everyone so very much. i will have more to say next p day. but today we have to send the form on the whole zone, to tell president how they are doing. so it has to be a short e mail. love everyone chua

December 21, 2009

dear familyi didnt get the e mail from mom so hopefully it didnt say anything important. we had 4 baptisms on saturday, so that was basically the story of the week, i think it was the most spiritual baptism of my mission. it really was amazing. the people that got baptized are called carla muzayon victoria muzayon and idai muzayon and jose andahua. i went in the waters and baptized carla muzayon. she is 19 years old. victoria is 25 and idai the mom is 55 years old. then jose is 40, his whole family were members before he got baptized, so they were helping him. but that was the spiritual experience, it really was amazing. they were all crying in their baptism, it was amazing. i am pretty excited to talk to everyone. have patience haha, i have a latin comp so its hard for me to not think in spanish haha. so have patience. we will be calling from the church, i cant promise you 3 hours because we are 4 missionaries here. so we all have to talk from the same phone. i can give ya 2 hours but i dont think much more then that. you will see me in a month and a half anyways haha. i really cant believe we were so close. but still its quite a bit of time. i remember when i was a youngin in the mission all of the old missionaries that were always thinking about home there last transfers and barely worked, the famous frase was what do i care, i am already gone. and i would ask them why dont they just endure to the end, and they would always tell me when you have the time i have you will understand. i am so glad i am not like them, every day i get more enery to work. i read a talk by elder holland that said he wants us to work so hard that the day of our homecoming we can make a dramatic entrance by coming in the chapel on a strecher with holes in your shoes your suit torn and a tired look on your face. and when you get to the pulpit all you can say is.... i gave it my all.... haha that would be pretty dramatic. but my attitude is like that, i would never do that but it sounds pretty cool haha. but i wont say anything else so that we can talk more christmas. i will call at 10 o clock your time. and dont worry if i am 10 minutes or 15 minutes late to call haha, theirs usually always a little problem. but it will be easier now that i am calling you guys. so expect the call between 10 to 10 15 love you. chau!!

December 14, 2009

dear familythis week was a good week. we had a huge miracle. an investigator named jose andahua always goes to church. he has been to church like 7 times now his wife and son are members already, so hes the only one that needs to get baptized. but whenever we invited him to get baptized he would always say no, later later, but he would never have a reason why. so then on tuesday we planned a sweet lesson, we were positive after the lesson he was going to get baptized. so we taught about baptism, it was way spiritual, probably the most spiritual lesson in my lesson. it was basically you get baptized the 19th or you dont get baptized. we felt the spirit so much we knew he was going to say yes. and we knew he had no other option, he knew why he had to get baptized. so we committed him, will you get baptized the 19th of december. and he said no. i will get baptized in february. usually whenever an investigator says that they will get baptized later it means they want to get baptized but they dont want to be committed to keeping the commandments haha. so i told him i promise you will regret it if you dont get baptized. then i said i have seen this a million times in my mission. people that want to get baptized but want to get baptized in the future. then i told him, this is whats going to happen. we are going to stop coming by because we dont have time, then you will stop going to church, then your wife will start feeling alone in church, so she will stop going to church, then once she stops going to church, you two will start to fight again. then my comp bore his testimony and was crying, then the wife starting crying and asked him why he just doesnt get baptized. so then we waited his reply. and what he said shocked me. he said, well it was nice meeting you, the door is always open to you elders, we love having you over so come by any time, but i will get baptized in february. but maybe you two are right. so thats how the lesson ended. we left basically heart broken. but saturday we decided to do a special fast for him so that he gets baptized the 19th. so we fasted and it was pretty hard becuase it was so hot but we did it. saturday night we called him up and asked him if he was going to church. he said yes. so then we get to church, and me and my comp had to give talks, it was about the mission work. then we went into the next class. i dont know what its called in english haha, i think principles of the gospel. but its where the new converts and investigators go to learn. but my comp taught the class and anounced the baptism of 3 ladys that are getting baptized on saturday, then he said and maybe jose andahua. then at the end of the class jose came up to us and said hey, why didnt you announce my complete baptism. i am getting baptized on saturday. so it was a huge miracle from fasting. it really was something impressive. happy anniversery mom and dad!! 29 years, thats a bunch of time. sorry i cant write to the rest of the family i am sending you the information of how to call me

December 7, 2009

dear familythis week was filled with tons of success. me and my companion have so many investigators we have to run from appointmant to appointmant. so its pretty fun, but way hard. yesterday we had to wake up at 5 30 in the morning to go to a meeting with president olsen and the stake, to talk about the zones progress. so we were way tired on sunday. we will have a baptism this saturday. its of a less active family. they were less active. so they were reactivated and now there son that is 12 and 8 are getting baptized. then we have some way cool investigators that will get baptized in 2 weeks. they went to church yesterday and loved it. but at the end one member told them to think about what they were doing and to take there time to get baptized. its a lifelong desicion. so the member was telling them to not get baptized in 2 weeks. so we went to the lesson that night prepared with what to say, and at first they wanted to take theire time, but we had a way spiritual lesson and they all said they will be getting baptized the 19th haha. and after we had to talk to that member and the bishop too. because the member said it before to another investigator and the investigator got scared and never came back. so luckily we were able to save this one. we have seen so many miracles in this area. we were looking for a member and knocked the members house, and it turns out the member doesnt live there anymore but the person who does almost got baptized 17 years ago but the day before the baptism her dad wouldnt let her. so now she wants to get baptized the 26th. and there isnt any problems with her dad because now he is in the spirit world. then also some members helped us out and brought an investigator thats incredible. so we will see when he wants to get baptized. so we are basically running everywhere. but we are loving it. i cant believe the time is going by so fast. in a week i will have 22 months. honestly, i am not ready to go home. it doesnt feel like 2 years. i feel like i need to be out here for the rest of my life. i know it will be a hard day when i take off my plack. i hope you have a good anniversery and 29 years is amazing!! almost 30! the people here are lucky to be married for 5. some of them just dont get married and live together. i met someone who had been living together for thirty years and we asked them why they arent married and they said because they dont need a paper to say that they love each other. haha. i got the 12 days of christmas so i will open them one at a time dont worry. and the kite things that you were talking about mom are called globos. you light them and they float in the air. its pretty cool to see at night, all these lights floating in the air. and of course i will buy everyone a souvineer. but give me ideas of what type of things that you would like. dad i already know what i am going to give you, and i think you will like it. its way way cool. i am buying it for myself also. but i love everyone so much and have a good week.meganyou have to write me megan. i know you husband is home so you dont have all the time in the world but you need to write me!!! haha i love you so much. to an argentine what i just said to you would be dropping the cane haha. love you chau!!Nikkithat was a nasty picture of hailee. she cant go in the toilette thats way sick! haha, but it was a way funny picture. my comp laughed too. and i am sorry to say but i think that kelsey habla mejor español que vos. haha vos means you, they dont use tu here. i love the spanish here. but when i get home i am going to have to speak like a mexican or they wont understand my spanish. i am way excited to talk on christmas too. and dont make me to trunky when i call. i still will have a good month and a half to serve haha.chaukelseywhat!!!!!!!! you watched elf!!!!!! i forgot about that movie haha, that movie is a classic. that will have to be the first movie i see when i get back haha. good job on makin it to the executive embassador thing. that will be good for me when i go to suu. cuz then i can get all the ins haha. you will have to help me out. and if you think you have changed over the last 2 years you will be surprised when you see me haha. i weighed myself and i weigh 15 more pounds and i have lost hair haha. so when i get home i will have to go to the gym a bunch. and i look older haha. but i love ya and have a good day chau!!!

Novmber 30, 2009

hello famthanksgiving was way sweet. haha, maybe to you it sounds boring but i loved it. to start out every new transfer the zone leaders go to the presidents house to learn what we need to teach our zone to have success for that transfer. so we left our pension at 8 o clock and got to the mission home at about 8 30. at 9 o clock we had breakfast, we ate a bunch of facturas and a lot of juice. then at 9 15 we started the capacitation. where president and his wife and the assistants give talks. then at 1 o clock we went and had lunch. we had mashed potatoes with chicken haha. there arent very many turkeys here. we at for a half an hour then went back to listen to the talks. they finally ended at 4 o clock. then we went back to our area and got to work. and that was basically thanksgiving. a 7 hour meeting haha. but i honestly loved it. we found a way cool lady in my new area thats from peru. and 17 years ago she was recieving the lessons and was about to get baptized. but the day she was going to get baptized her dad showed up and wouldnt let her. but now she is in argentina and her dad is in the spirit world. she went to church and she loved it. i am serving in a ward now and about 80 people went to church. it was amazing to see that. my last area it was and everage to see between 30 to 40. my first sunday in my last area there were 17 that assisted haha. so i am way excited to be here. i am pretty sure this will be my last area in the mission but we will have to say what the big guy upstairs says. it seems like we usually get lunch here in this area. there are enough members haha. so we will see what its like. i think my handwriting is good in those letters because i have written in my journal so much in the mission. i will give you the details of how to call when they send us the information. haha, no we dont decorate the apartment for christmas. christmas here is nothing like it is in the states. they only talk about christmas like the day before haha. the new pench is way nicer then my last one. its smaller, but nicer. it was pretty hard to leave my last area but i am over it. theres great people everywhere. but i love everyone so much. thanks for all the e mails and have a good day