La Primaria & Bulnes - Two weeks of posts!

Week of 12-11

So this week was really interesting. I was really happy with it. I had the opportunity to preside over all of the church meetings this week. I was left alone up on the stand. haha The branch president couldn't come and his first counselor decided to go up to Santiago. I was surprised to find that out this Saturday. I looked at my comp and was like, ¨how am I going to lead the church meetings this week?! I don't know what to do. I am just Elder Brown¨ So Saturday I make sure that everything is going good and that all is ready for the church, also going by our investigators to make sure that they are going to go to church the next day. So the next day comes and I get up and my comp and I start to get ready for the day and we are out the door by 8:55 to get to the church to make sure everything is all set up and ready to go(because generally we have to set up chairs). We get there and I start looking for the things to do the schedule. I couldn't find them anywhere. Finally I get some keys(that luckily Miguel our first counselor left, because the branch pres still hasn't given me my own set) and I open the closet with the computer and that stuff and start looking for the schedule thingy and finally I have to print one off the computer and I start filling it up. Well it is about 9:50 and there are 3 members in church. I am at this point really worried and sad. Shoot, my first time taking lead and no one comes haha I go up to my spot and calmly sit down and start praying my heart out. Please lord, help them get here fast. haha I sit there and pass the longest 7 minutes of my life. Then just like in a AYSO soccer game the members come pouring in as if the just all got out of a huge mini van. It was the greatest assistance that we had but a good 37 members came and we had 3 investigators from those 37. :) It was really cool to see them all get there and we start the meeting and I start giving the announcements and we start singing and praying and sacrament and all of that jazz with the spirit in great abundance. We get to the best part, the testimonies. As I stood up there, in front of my fellow Chilean brothers and sisters a godly love swept over my heart and I near started to cry as I expressed the love I have for them and for my father in heaven. I let them know of the surety that I have now developed that this is the church of Jesus Christ and that he didn't just die for us but that he lives for us everyday. He fights for and with us every step that we take on the path to return to live with our omnipotent and omniscient, eternally loving heavenly father. I closed my humble testimony inviting them to do the same, share their love and testimony for our father in heaven and for his son. The meeting was amazing. The testimonies that were given brought the spirit so strongly. Between us, 37 people, we feasted on the spirit and felt the love of our heavenly father and the love that we all shared for one another. It was a very beautiful experience that I will never forget. Thanks to the members the rest of the meetings went well and the spirit accompanied us the entire time.

(In response to his dad's email about who teaches in the young men's)...Brother Waddups is so dang smart. I just want to get home and spend a good 2 hours talking to him about everything that he knows. You are very fortunate to have such good leaders in the church. They are really strong and very spiritual. I know that it is now necessary to have good dedicated men in leadership positions or they will just hurt the members and the church and the community that corresponds the that church. It is amazing the effect that we have on the world and the people around us. Even if we dont think we have such an effect we really do!!

 Dad, I built a freaking bridge!!!! Like literally built one! We did it as service for some members. We went out to the CAMPO!! Or, country I think is how you call it. I got tree trunks and carried them over and threw them over a river, crossed it to lift them up and went back and forth all day carrying and lifting. It was so cool. After we got the main trunks on we got some planks of wood and nailed them to the trunks and then did some other things. It is just like the gospel. You have to do everything in a structured manner or the bridge ends up being crooked. If one thing is wrong the whole bridge is obsolete. It makes tons of other parts compensate for that little mistake or thing that is wrong, and eventually the whole bridge will have to pay the price; or a big part of it. But when you make it firm taking time to finely tune every part, your bridge become strong and nothing can break it. The gospel we believe in is this bridge, god has carefully re-built his bridge and now we are here to maintain it and keep it strong. If we do not do our part we could hurt a big part of our bridge. I know that that doesn't make much sense. I am sorry I have a good analogy written down that I will write you next week. :)

Week of 12.04.12 -

So this week was really cool. We had and activity for the primary. I(because I am the counselor) had to help them plan it all. It was really good! We did a good job. The kids loved it and we just had a blast the whole time. So what we did is we started out with a little spiritual message given by the little kids and then after that they all did a little walk down this little runway that carlos sandra and we did. It was really cool! It all looked beautiful and as you can see even we got dressed up and got into it! I had the opportunity to be the comedian and do the introductions and jokes for all the kids as they walked down. It was really funny because some of them really got into it and started dancing and doing really funny things I felt like bill cosby on kids say the darnest things. It was a blast and the members loved seeing their kids like that and we got a great reference from it too!! We worked really hard this week. We didnt have anything really great happen. I actually cant remember this week to well. It passed so dang fast. So we had stake conference here this last yesterday haha and it was interesting because I had to be in chillan and hour away at 8:30 in the morning for a meeting with all the counselors and leaders of the branches and wards. It was cool because my mission leader and I went and elder white stayed with our new convert ivan and when I got to the meeting of course it was us to and our pres. The other counselors didnt show up. They actually went to the church and at the last second before all the members left at 10:00 decided he didnt want to go so he did. It was sad, we had near nobody at the conference, from our branch. But we got 2 investigators. The only thing that was kinda crappy is that one of our investigator named Ruth is VERY shy and doesnt like big crowds at all and carlos our mission leader takes her into the church and puts her in the middle of everyone!!! She ends up getting up and walking out saying she is going to the bathroom and just disappears. I was super sad because she is so cool! But at the end of the conference I walk out and I see her walking down the hall and I ask her what happened and she said she went in the back of the gym and was just watching alone. I was like oh... ok.. .Well she goes and gets on the bus and I take carla(investigator) and I take her to talk with our president of the mission and they (he and his wife) just are SO nice and just start talking to her and telling her not to let anything get in the way of her and her baptism. AKA GET MARRIED! They promised her so many blessing saying if you get married you will not lack anything. Get baptized. SO cool. Then getting on the bus I get on and look towards the back and see Ruth sitting alone. I was like come on members!!! Why are you not sitting by her. Well I go back and take a seat right by her. I sit down and smile at her and just say hi. As we start to leave I have a feeling to get out my scriptures and show her the photos that I have in them. So I do it. I pull them out and start showing her my family and my friends and explain a little about them. I start talking to her and asking a little about her. I find out a few things really interesting and important about her. We had a good talk for an hour almost without any breaks. It was weird for the first time in 16 months I talked with someone one on one. It was interesting but it was really good for her I think. We talked about the gospel and why its important for me. What she likes about it. Her likes and dislikes her dreams and what she wants to be and mine also. It was really cool. She is now alot more open with us. I cant wait to see her progress alot now.!!

The Gypsy's and the Dark Arts

Ok, this weeks story has something to do with the dark arts. So this week as we come out of one of the store just getting done buying some food to eat, we have 2 ladies call us. Me, thinking that they just wanted to ask us something about America said ok... what. Well they asked us a ridiculous question that you could obviously tell was just to get us over to them or stop walking. They then said, thank you for your help my name is this and that and you are very fortunate to have run into me because I can read palms... (really?! ) So she says to me, while the other one is talking to my comp who barely could understand his lady because they were speaking Spanish, but had a Portuguese accent, give me your palm. I give it to her. She looks at it and starts to mumble in herself... not a good sign. Then she looks at me and says it is very good that you ran into me. She said, you are a very good person but you have some people who dont like you. You have created some enemies here and they now want to harm you.(Excuse me?!) She goes on to say it is ok I am not going to charge you anything, but I can promise you the protection you seek. All you need to do is put a bill, what ever amount you think would help protect you, in your palm and I can help it be a guardian or guard for you. I, at this point am just looking in awe at this person. I say, I am a missionary from the church of Jesus Christ can we come by some day and share a message that will help and protect you!? She looks at me a little confused and says look, I dont think you realize how serious this is, just put a bill here, do you want protection or not. She was saying all of this while her kid was screaming and yelling and just going crazy. Also when she started to talk to me I immediately felt the spirit leave so I was like umm.......... uh oh. Now, me a little sick of trying to get ripped off, and hearing the futile calls from my comp look at this Young lady with two screaming kids and say to her, look, I am a missionary from the church of god. I have been called by a prophet of god and set apart to act in the name of Jesus Christ I appreciate your concern, but I think that I am protected. I dont need you to help me but thank you and if you want we can take down your address and pass by some time. Well she didnt really like that and as I finished I turned to my comp and whispered dont give them anything, because he didnt understand and they were really forceful. Well before she lets me say anything else she starts asking tons of questions to distract me so her little friend can get stuff out of my comp. I start to briefly answer while trying to tell elder white not to do anything. My attempt kinda failed and finally elder white turns and says elder brown, HELP. He had had enough he didnt understand exactly and the lady was trying to get more out of him. I look at them and say thanks but we are ok. Have a good day. Oh and before I said that, my lady starts asking for money for her kid. NOPE. sorry. I start to grab e` white and we walk away as they start yelling other stuff at us. I think they tried to curse us. haha WEIRD!!!! So that was my run in with a few gypsies.

Well this week was interesting. We had TONS of crazy experiences happen. I will tell you one that is not so gross or bad. So there is this guy here called the ¨negro-quatico¨ HE IS CRAZY!!! he is this guy who pretty much runs around all day drunk or high. He, when he is high, tends to yell nonsense at us. haha The last time he told me that he didnt have any completos(hotdog here) for me. haha it was funny. Well this week we are walking home and are a little late. We are talking about the lesson we had just had and then out of freaking no where we hear this negro start to scream! He is right in front of us. He starts to come at us, fists balled. I was like well I am not in the mood to get in a fight with a drunk crazy guy so we cross the street right away and he just stands of the corner looking at us with his crazy eyes. I got the crap freaked out of me! I was like I almost died. The other people all around just broke up laughing, because they too know that he is crazy, but harmless. haha It was just a really intense moment that you just had to live to understand.

Stop reading now if you don't want to be grossed out......

No I mean it.... stop reading......ok, you were warned!!!

 (This part was sent to his dad, but thought we would share so you could get the whole picture of what Julian is going through)  So wanna know something kinda gross and weird. I was walking down the street the other day and all of a sudden I see this guy walking towards me with his head downand then he goes over to the wall and pulls his pants down andstarts to poop. I was like what the heck!!! There are kids around and families. The people didnt even say anything. They all just walked past like it was nothing. haha I couldnt believe it.

 I am glad that all of you guys had a good time and ate tons of good food. I too had a good thanksgiving we did a family home evening with Ivan and his family and we ate some good food and cake and YUMMY!!!! I loved it. Actually that is the same night the a negro-quatic attack happened. haha
So this year I am not sure if we are going to be able to use skype.I will let you know. I think that the new converts we have here have a computer with a camera though so it will work out either way I am sure.I will probably get that package in like a week or 2 I dont think it will get here right away. But we will see. haha Well mom I love you!
I would actually like to ask a favor. If you could send the christmas pageant play that we do as a family. You can just photocopy it and send it throug email. We wanna do something like that here. :) I hope that you have a great week and that all your dreams come true.

Love Elder Brown

The Miracle of Claudia

Well hello everyone,

so I have a very special experience to tell you all this week. So it was Wednesday and elder white and I were walking down the street and just talking and all of the sudden we hear the familiar voice of an investigator and we turn to see her running towards us but on the other side of the street. Just running up the street. She says HEY! we say, Hey! How are you!? She, smiling says I am great. Oh and wanna know something.... I can get baptized. -- background story-- so this lady started sharing with missionaries over 3 years ago and her daugther was baptized within a month. They just loved the gospel so much! I have been here near 3 months now and I have seen her 5 times at least in a dress at church NOT A MEMBER. She couldnt get baptized because she was co-living with some guy and she just felt to bad to kick him out because he would come home drunk and didnt have much money. She is just one of those people who just cant be nice by nature. So she has been trying for 3 years to find a way to get him out. When I first got here she said in her prayer that she hoped that we could achieve the thing that all of the missionaries have been trying to achieve. Well 2 and 1/2 months later of sharing and supporting and kinda insisting to get this guy out she finally told us this day that he was going out of town for like 6 months or less something like that and that he would be getting a good sum of money. So when she saw this opportunity she said take your stuff with you and don't come back. She has stopped everything with this guy for over a month or something like that. -- back to the main story-- so when she said that to us I knew exactly what she was talking and I couldn't help but jump super high in the air screaming, ¨are you serious!?¨ and then start running with her to wherever she was going. I run her down with elder white and we start talking to her and asking what was all happening and she gave us the run down and all of that jazz and as she was telling me that stuff I just couldn't help but think of when she was going to get baptized. I told her that we would be coming over Friday to talk to her and she what we could do to get her baptized as soon as possible. I called my district leader and then the next day talked to my pres and they told me to get her baptized that same Saturday and confirmed that Sunday. So we got to work. We put together a bomb baptismal service and went to all of the members who knew and loved her and called everyone else and their sister to invite them. The baptism was amazing! That is one of the pictures I put up. It is the miracle of Claudia. The dry Mormon who finally went swimming. haha She was so happy the whole time that she started to cry during her service and after her baptism. I love this lady so freaking much. We just completed her family. Now she is a member with her daughter and they are just going to be so much happy from here on out. :)

 This sector is really the hardest sector I have been in. Not as in the sense of the work, but dealing with the members. I feel that they just do not support us at all. It is really sad because we are doing everything we can to help and love and serve them and then they just smack us in the face when we try to follow the rules. For example, we had branch counsel this last Saturday and as the counselor I need to be there. So we got there and started the meeting after the baptism. We started off fine and started talking about the people who needed help and what we could do then, like always, they started ranting about random things that had nothing to do with the less active members or converts, but had to do with the organizations and the responsibilities of them. I was like look brothers and sisters, these are really good concerns and we would love to address them, but this meeting is not meant for that. Maybe we can hold another meeting with just us and find out what we can do to resolve this problem. Well one of the sisters was ok with that. The president of the relief society. But what happened was that the pres of the young women and the finances guy and secretary started just bashing on me haha. Saying this is exactly what this meeting is for. I was really shocked about what they were saying because it was not like I was trying to tell them that those things didn't matter, but that maybe we could do it another time. They just got really mad. I was just like hey I am just following what it says in the manual. The pres. after said elder brown is right and we should do that, but the members are just so used to doing things wrong that they insisted on resolving that problem right there. Boom, there goes the spirit. It was really sad. I am trying to be a good missionary and help the people, but I feel that every time I don't do the things how they want, but how god has set it, they get mad! Even some of the new converts who are in the presidency have recognized the things they are saying and how they are treating me. They actually said something about it to me last night. haha I love the people here so much but I just cant find a way to get to them. I will be holding some interviews here soon with them to see what is going on and what I can do to better the relationship that we have.

I totally forgot that it was thanksgiving week. haha It is not a holiday here so I just didn't even think about it. But here are somethings that I am thankful for. 1. The Gospel. I am so thankful for the chance that I have gotten to be on a mission. It has changed who I am 100%. I now have such a love for the gospel and for my savior Jesus Christ that it is beyond words. I have started to begin to understand the meaning of the atonement in my life. I am so grateful for what he did for me. I really do LOVE the gospel and LOVE learning about it. I actually want to go and study it in some of my classes when I get back. It is just so interesting for me. 2. My Family. I realize now how important the family is! I never really understood that before. I know that it is the focal point for god. It is what he wants, Eternal Families. Heaven would not be heaven without you guys. I really love you so much and all of the family we have. 3. My Father in Heaven. I know that this one kinda falls under the gospel but it means something different to me. Before the mission I didn't know who my father in heaven was. Now, he is as real to me as any other person. I have felt him hold me when I was sad, lift me up when I was weak, Laugh with me when I am happy, and smile at me when I follow what he asks. I know my father in heaven. He loves me. He is with me. He has called me to represent him and his son for 2 years. I am so grateful for my father in heaven and all of the many blessings that he has given me. I know that I am nothing(like ammon) as to my own strength, BUT in god I am powerful. In God, I am everything, to God, I am everything. I am his son.... and I love him dearly.
Those are the things that I am grateful for.

Love Elder Brown

What A Week!

Well hello there world. I just wanted to send a quick word to all of you out there. So this week was really cool because on thursday I met and shook the hand of an apostle of the lord. It was so COOL!!! So this is the story. I found out monday night that we were not going to be having our district class the following day because we needed to go to chillan(center of my zone) on wednesday to meet up and go to the conference that would follow the next day Thursday. Yeah... weird?! I know. So I was like ok cool whatever pj party in the church. We worked those two days and had some good success and then around 8:00 we head off to chillan with our stuff to spend the night in the chapel. So we get there and we start changing( assuming it was ok because as of this moment it was half of our zone and to my understanding no one else was coming over) when elder Diaz looks back and see´s us changing in front of them and goes, whoa elders what are you doing?! Me thinking I did something wrong was like ugh crap what did I do!? The elder Diaz says just hurry because at any time the Hermanas(sisters) could show up and we dont want them seeing you in your ¨unders¨. As he says those words my heart kinda sinks and I ask.... Why would the Hermana´s be coming over!? We are staying the night. He then goes on to say how the president of the mission authorized and commanded that all of the elders and hermana´s be IN THE CHAPEL at a certain time and all STAY the night there. I was really baffled at why he would be doing that. So we hurry and get changed and then a few minutes later the hermana´s show up. We start talking all of us and just pass it really well together and then play some games, UNO! :) oh yeah! Then 11:45 o´clock comes around and I was like yeah elders and sisters, It has been great and all, but we need to be up at 4:00 tomorrow so go to bed. As I say that I look around and wonder... where are the hermana´s going to sleep!? All of the elders already had their spots picked out on the benches, so I was like ok, we are going to be sleeping on extremes of the room tonight. haha we are not even going to be close. We start making beds for them and then some other elders found another room that was perfect for them so we moved them over there. Well to speed up the whole story a little bit It is about 12:15 and I am in bed. I am just laying there on the harder than concrete benches trying to forget everything and go to bed. I laid there for a good 30 minutes or more. It was ridiculous, then I hear someone come in and feel someone looking over me. I open my eyes to see Elder Raley!!! (mtc roommate) I havent seen this guy for more than a year. I was like oh my heck! I got up and gave him a big hug!! I then call elder Page and Elder Hutchins over(we all roomed together in the mtc) We had a big roommate hug haha It was fun. Well to make things short me and elder Raley talked until about 2:00 and then I laid there for another 30 minutes trying to get to bed and when I couldnt I went out and started talking for a little longer. Well 3:00 o´clock comes around and I go in and grab my stuff just sick of not being able to sleep and start getting ready. I finish getting ready and about 3:20 the bus pulls up. Elder Raley says, I think that the bus is here. We go out side and we ask what he is doing and he says I am here to pick up the missionaries. Yeah he is an Hour early!!!! Haha so we go and wake up all of the other missionaries and they get ready in like 10-15 minutes Hermana´s included and we get on the bus and head off to concepcion. We get to concepcion at about 5:30 ish. sleeping hardly at all. We then at 6:00 have a good little bit to sleep so we all take a power nap and at 7:00 we go inside the stake center in concepcion and eat a little breakfast awaiting the arrive of the apostle. At about 8:00 we are in a room reading scriptures waiting and at about 8:30 we all stand up as the representative of the lord walks in. We all then after go up and shake his hand. It was interesting because as EVERY elder or hermana passed, he made direct eye contact and says elder/hermana.... so and so.... it is nice to meet you where are you from!? He was really nice. Oh it was Elder Cook!! So cool.! :) His talk after was so powerful. He talked about how we are called to build up the branches of the lord. I felt like a better missionary after his talk. I have kinda felt like not the most successful missionary because I havent baptised TONS of people, but he helped me realize that the lord has called us to build his church and that is not just through baptism. It is through many other ways. I loved his talk and I just wanted more of it. Well I think that, that is it for the day I hope that all of you guys have a great week this week. See ya.
Love Elder Brown

The Man who fought Satan and Bats!!!!

Ok, this letter is going to be kinda short. I don't have really to much to say this week. Oh something funny, well last night we were going home and all of a sudden this guy comes up to us and is like hey, stop I need to talk to you. I was like oh great I hope that he is not a upset drunk. I was like ok what can we do for you? He started talking to the member that was with us and was like I need to ask you because I don't know if they speak Spanish. I was like oh great here we go. haha I started listening to what he was saying and when he was talking he was talking hypothetically and saying if this happened or that or why is this or that. It didn't make sense what he was saying. I was really confused and for a second he had to turn away and give something to another person that was with him and I turn to Carlos,Member, and was like what the heck is he saying and Carlos looks at me and is like I have no idea what he is saying I cant understand. hahaha Not just a gringo ;) so he gets back and I look at him and say listen I just want you to know that if you have a question for us you can just ask us. We speak Spanish and I can understand you perfectly. Just ask me, calm down and just ask. He started saying sorry I am just really nervous... Ok well sadly I am gay, it might not be the best thing, but that is how it is. Do you guys have something against me? Did I do something to you!? Why did you tell my friend Sebastian that he couldn't be seen with me?(inside story, a member had been seen with this man and stupid rumors started to be spread around town so as a result this member went to this guy and told him that he cant be seen at night by him and that his church doesn't approve) So I was like oh... Ok I understand. I told him look we have nothing against you. We are not mad or anything, what your friend told you was the cause of a personal choice. We haven't told him he had to tell you that, but he obviously feels that way. I continued to say that although we respected him and he was a good guy, the values and morals and beliefs of the church are not going to change, we believe that marriage is something sacred and between a man and a women only, so we can bring children of god to the earth and that we are going to stand firm on what we believe. We love you still, but the choices we do not agree with. He seemed to understand that it wasn't us, but his friend. It was just a really awkward. haha But yeah that was something I never thought would happen to me, a guy confronting me like that in the middle of the street about something like that and yeah.... You just kinda had to be there hahaha
 First I am going to explain these bats..... So where I live is in an apartment complex that is just cement and metal pretty much. Well what happens is that because I am in the campo there are tons of bats. So what happens is that all of the bats that there are go into my roof. So all night long and all day long I can hear them! They are slowly driving me insane! I snapped a few times already actually haha I hear them screeching and scratching and AHHHHH!!!! I just get so bugged and annoyed and they are just killing me haha I cant do anything about them either. I just bought some good bug killer and I am thinking about giving my ceiling a good spray =) haha I cant take it anymore.

So this week I will be talking, hopefully to an apostle. WOOT WOOT!!! So yeah the work out here in bulnes has been a little rough. We had a really hard week and I think it was mostly just because of me. I couldnt work my hardest because my back just was killing me. It still hurts pretty bad, but I got new shoes from some members so I am hoping that, that helps me.! :) DONT WORRY MOM! I am fine. I am a strong man. So Halloween was really boring here. They didnt really do anything. But you know that guy who just got baptized?! Well he just got the priesthood sunday. He is so cool because he just wants to go out and bring all of the members back to the church. The ones who fell away. He was telling us some days he just cant get them out of his mind and just wants to go out and look for them. He has been asking for a list of all of the members so he can go and visit them!!!! How freaking cool right?!!?! We explained priesthood last night and he was like so I was just feeling my duties to the priesthood early I guess. haha It all has to do with the predestination he said. haha wow. What a convert! :D I love this guy!

The man who fought Satan! Yes it was like a UFC fight he said haha so this is something that you can put up on the blog. E´ White and I went over to visit a member to see how she was doing in her calling and all of that jazz and we get to her house and one of the guys that she is alowing live there opens the door. He is an old man and we are just like is maria here? He said no come on in though. We go in and he starts eating again and I start saying hey have you ever talked with missionaries like us before!? He was like no, I am catholic. I was like cool! I am glad to hear that you have faith in Christ. What is it that motivates you to believe in him and he says because I have some marvelous experiences with god in my life. I was like cool, I couldn't even get to say another word when he told me he saw god. I was like really?! That is interesting... He also goes to say I fought Satan and god thanked me. I was like ok, I have got to hear this story. He said that one day he was going out doing missionary work and was walking down a empty desert road and all of the sudden started to feel a little weird and suddenly Satan appeared to him and told him to follow or obey him. He said no I will not obey you and started to fight him. He said that they were fighting for a while and Satan started to realize the power that this guy had and started to get scared and to ask for forgiveness and when he got the chance, Satan, took off running away from him because of how scared he was. He said after he had run away that god came down from heaven and told him how grateful he was to this man for what he did. How he was a powerful instrument in his hands and god was going to bless him. That is when the guy said he was chosen from god and that god had touched his life. The funniest most crazy story that I have ever heard. haha Crazy old man!

Love you all!
Elder Brown

La Vida de un misionero Gringo

So today I actually had a really crazy experience haha. What happened was that we got home from playing soccer in chillan and we were just walking down the street to go and get something to eat and all of a sudden something passes by my head and hits the ground in front of me, I look back to see what happened, because there are tons of trees and what not, but look back and there is this guy, in a drench coat, OLD, and just grumpy looking and he is waving his hands saying it was me. I looked at him and asked what I did.... He starts to walk toward me saying why dont you just go back to your country. Why are you even here, you political monster. I was like what?! I have no idea what you are talking about. Before I even got down saying that he was throwing more stuff at us, actually he hit one of the missionaries in the face. That is when he just started swearing at us and being rude. I looked at him and was just like ok sr, have a good day, and turned and started walking away..... as I got farther away all of a sudden I feel something hard hit the middle of my back. The guy had grabbed a big chunk of dirt/rock and threw it at me. Haha I didnt turn around, I didnt say anything, just walked away. He was nuts. He just kept saying stuff as we walked away. I dont even know who this guy is haha I see him on the streets every now and then. He always hides when we go past him haha. I usually say good day to him or hi just to be nice. He gets bugged sometimes so I stopped saying it all of the time, but out of custom, I say it haha and he just calls us devils and demons and just bad stuff. hahaha It is really sad that he thinks of us like that, but it goes for good stories. The other funny thing that happened this week was that on the way home from lunch this week, we got stopped by 2 younger looking guys who were just like mr, mr, mr, can we talk to you. I, not realizing right away that they were wasted stopped and said yes. haha mistake number 1! haha As they started talking the odor of alcohol filled my nostrils and the pungent smell of weed almost knocked me out. I gave them a pass along card as soon as I smelt them and was like if you want to talk just call this number. haha But these guys insisted on us translating a rap song. So after pretending to try and translate it we gave it back and said you are not going to understand. haha Then he goes on to say listen to me rap..... you have got to be kidding me..... So he starts just rapping right there, saying what ever thing that came to his mind and then throwing in a few F bombs on the way to try and sound cool. haha He only stopped because other guys about 50 feet away yelled at him and were like leave them along calm down man. haha Thanks to them we found a way out of the grasps of the happy friendly drunk man. haha really fun. :)

My Dear Americans

My dear Americans,
Well this week was amazing! I cant believe all of the success that we had. We probably had the best numbers this week than I have had at any other time of my mission. I love it here in bulnes. The people are so much more receptive and willing to listen. We have found some really good people and are working with some really good people as well. We will be having a baptism this Sunday for a guy named, Ivan. He is the most amazing investigator that I have ever had already asking about a mission with his wife and what he can do to help the branch here in bulnes. He was a Jehovah´s witness and when we first started to talk with him he and his daughter(Carla) had SO MANY QUESTIONS. Deep doctrine things. We had a lot of praying going on in our hearts and we did a lot of searching days before, but the thing that got them the most was just bearing testimony. You can bring all of the most amazing evidence to the table, but if they are not praying reading and trying to really truly find the answers they will not. Facts in the gospel are just empty eloquent words, but when you bear a simple humble testimony of a belief that you have, they make such a profound impact on the lives of the people that goes past the superficial surface that marks the understanding of the human mind. I know that, that is what happened with Ivan. It was the simple fact that we got him reading. Then the spirit took him the rest of the way. Well to be honest we didn't even get him reading we just invited him. The spirit did the rest of it haha. Anyways, he is so good. He is even marking his scriptures and explaining them to his member family. SO COOL!!!
So I got a hair cut and I look like a Russian soldier. haha I am near bald here. I feel like she just shaved all the hair off my head. It is so short haha. Oh and a few days ago it was weird because all of a sudden all of the lights here in bulnes turned off. Well a certain part. The church even got its power shut off. It was weird. It was PITCH BLACK! So I have a request. Send me pictures of your lives. I wanna see whats going on, but also the people of Chile like to see that we have families and friends too. So yeah, do that. :) Much love, until next week.

Bulnes

Hey whats going on America! So just another week in bulnes. haha It is nothing really fun. It is actually really boring haha it is just a small little town with nothing happening. But I wasn't really there almost all of this week. This is what happened. So on Tuesday we got told that the new missionaries had to go to concepcion on Wednesday and on Thursday. So this meant that elder White and I had to go to our district leaders sector that Tuesday night because there were not buses that left from our sector really early because they had to be in concepcion at 8:30 in the morning and it is a good hour and a half drive in bus. So we went over there tuesday night and stayed over there and had a blast working in their sector. :) The funny thing was, that they left early in the morning his comp and mine, so we were not even awake when they left and when they left they didnt take a phone haha So two new gringos in chile left the house of their trainers and went to catch a bus to conce and 6:45 in the morning without taking a phone. haha well at first we got a little worried but then said. No, they are fine the speak decent and will be able to get around. Also all of the buses have to stop in the terminal and that is where everyone was waiting. So we got a little peace from that. But when we got a call at about 8:20 asking where are comps were, we got a little worried. The time passes and we are waiting and 8:45 comes around another call.... Where are they?! A little more worried.... 9:30... Where are they!? well we waited a little longer saying if they dont get there at 9:45 we are going... 9:45.... still not there. Ok lets go! We start putting our ties on and getting our bags ready right away. Hurrying the whole time. 9:48.... We found them!!! They had been waiting in the terminal for and hour and a half ish. haha they got off a little early because a member told them that the bus they were on didnt go to the terminal when it really did. haha they just got lost in the terminal waiting and some how avoiding 10-15 missionaries walking around hahaha so yeah that was a little fun. Then for the next two days elder Michie and I just tore it up in his sector Quillon while mine died. haha It was cool though we got along really well and just had a blast and got like 10 lessons with investigators and 5 others with menos actives or people like that. it was cool. very effective work! We got really close too. We pretty much shared life stories haha now I am helping him go to Utah State!! :) Yeah that is right. I am doing the lords work and still rep´ing my university. ;) haha So yeah and oh just so you know, we are going to be having a baptism here soon! His name is Ivan and he is a freaking stud! Stopped smoking and everything! :)

Conferenci​a General

So general conference was so freaking cool! :) I loved it!!! I really was spiritually fed and then some. haha I loved every talk! I dont think that there was one talk that in some way didnt apply to me and my life. It really was like the lord was speaking directly to me. I know that tons of the words that were said were meant specifically for me. I love this gospel so very much. I have, out here on the mission, developed a love for this gospel that is so deep that nothing else could ever compare. I know that the savior lives. I know that he is our redeemer and our example. He didnt just suffer for us, but he lived and still lives for everyone of the habitants that fill this glorious earth. I am a child of god. I know that I have a father in heaven. I know it. I know that once upon a time he taught me all I know now, ¨on his knee¨. He loves me. He loves you. The love of the omnipotent,omniscient, ever-lasting god is extended to mere humans such as us. Though it may seem we are as specks of dust to him, truly we are much more. He knows us personally as to be able to know how to help us in all our trials. All I can say is that if you didnt see the conference, WATCH IT!!! It is god talking directly to us!! There are millions of people who go about their daily lives, in darkness, lost. They dont have the truth, the help, the pure love of god, because, ¨they know not where to find it.¨ You/we have the chance and blessing and privilege to see and hear and receive guidance for a man called from god! It is something that people only dream about.  I love this gospel. I know it is the only way back to our loving father and heaven.

Well, as you can see.... I loved conference. I think it is really cool how we get the chance to listen to prophets of god. I love the things that the lord has waiting for us. I know that he loves me and he loves all of his kids. I know that this church is so true. It is not only factually true, but more important you can feel it is true. The facts come to be second rate to the feelings that we will have. So this week was really interesting. We found tons of people and we are really excited to work this week. I am so stoked to help all of these people enter into the covenants of the lord. I know that not all will accept, but I know that those who do will be eternally grateful. I am a little worried about one of our investigators. His name is gabriel. He is SO cool. He wants to serve a mission and do tons of things in the church. He understands the gospel alot better than most of the members. He is progressing so well, but he smokes and he is having a really hard time quiting. Pray for him because he has a date for this Saturday to get baptized. I am super excited and hope it all works out. I know that the lord will strengthen him. So this week was really fun. Finally I got money in my missionary funds. haha I was so broke. I did alot of traveling and family home evenings in my last sector so I lost alot of my money to that haha but now I have some. That is why I have so little in my account. I had to take some out to travel. It is like 3 or 4 bucks to travel and we do it like 3 or 4 times a week haha but you would love my comp mom. He is super obedient and we are doing so well together. We are going to become celestial missionaries. It is a thing that we have out here. I am sure you can imagine what it consists of. haha !!

I am excited to receive that package. If you could send me some contact solution that would help alot as well. I think other than that though I am good for now. Can you believe how fast this week went by. So mom what is your conversion story!? Because not all of your family are members. Actually who are not members in your family.?! Is rayvn baptized?! Is chris!? Who hasnt received these ordinances!? In family that has passed away?!  So also when you send that package please send that pin drive. I need one really bad or I cant take anymore pictures haha Well I got to go. I love you so much. Watch the talk from holland from priesthood session. IT WAS AMAZING!!! I love that man so much he is just pure power. I love it. It is obvious to see that he is an apostle of god. Much love.

Dad,
Hey dad I loved the advice that you gave me. Thank you so much I will try to apply that. It is just a little difficult because they dont function in the same way down here in chile as they do up there in the states. haha But I am really confident and excited to get working here. So I loved conference! It was amazing I really wish Anthony would have went and saw it.!! I loved the talk that Holland gave in priesthood. I also loved the talk by Packard and also monson and one that I like was Carl b cook. I think that is his name. I loved conference! It was sad to see that not many people came here to the conference. I think there was about 300 or 400 at the very very most from 4 or 5 wards. It made me really sad to realize that the words of the lord mean so little to some people. I know that personally I needed every second of that lesson. I forget how long you worked in the bishopric. How was that for you!? Did you like it?! I know that the missionary is and should be the same as the wards work, but the missionary work is the last thing that the focus on. It is only because everything else is so disorganized. I am trying to help them reorganize everything and be self-reliant, because they depend on us to do EVERYTHING. I was even told to go to the bank and deposit the tithing and fast offerings. When I didnt have time to go and do it the secretary got very upset with me. To the point he was yelling at me. I didnt yell back, but I think I lost my temper a little. I was going to do it, but we were to busy helping and teaching and when I thought we would have time. The time seemed to disappear. So yeah I was there to say sorry and apologize and he just would have nothing to do with me. He got unnecessarily upset with me. I thought it was ridiculous and was like look if you want to talk to me like a man talk to me but you shouldn't yell at a missionary or anyone at all. I am willing to talk to you but not like this. I already fill bad for not doing what I said, but I have to complete my calling first and then I can help others complete theirs. I need to focus on the most important work though. I really did feel so bad after. I could feel the spirit leave me in those minutes and it really hurt me. I spent many minutes asking the lord for forgiveness and seeking his spirit. After a while I could finally feel it. He is still mad at me haha but I even have been to him after saying sorry for how I reacted. I dont know what else to do. But oh well. I just need to follow the spirit like you said. So I have been reading the book of mormon over again and I am just loving every second of it. I dont get enough I am so sad that we only have an hour of personal study. haha I want more!  ;) Well dad I think that is it for today. I love you so much and hope you have a great week. I will talk to you later.

Love Elder Brown

Transferred to Bulnes!

Ok, well now obviously I am not in my old sector of Chiguayante, I am now in a place called Bulnes. Yes it is just like it sounds a butt crack country town with very little people and a branch of about 30 people. Talk about shock. 130 to 30 assisting members. haha No it is a good place with many great people. I think the only funny thing is, is that it is like relief society. haha I think that the majority of the members are women. haha I am not saying there are not me, because there are, but there are TONS of women. So, I didn't wanna tell you guys, because I just don't like saying but, I have been called as the branch presidents counselor out here in bulnes. I am helping run this little branch of 370 members with 30 active haha. Crazy huh. haha I never thought I would be doing this, but the lord had other plans this is going to help me alot know how the organization of the church runs and doesn't run. ;) I have already had to jump in and say whoa that is not right, we should probably do this another way. It is tough actually because this ward is so dependent on the missionaries and I don't like that. It shouldn't be. I am going to change that. BUT, that is not the funniest part. hahahahahaha I love my new comp. His name is.... wait for it.... Elder WHITE!!!!!! hahahahahahahahahaha I almost died laughing. haha  ;D We are getting along really well. He is a good missionary! Very obedient! I love it because it makes my job so much easier. haha I am starting out in this sector almost like I started in my last sector, with nothing. We have one investigator that's gold, but other than that we had NO ONE! I think we worked hard this week though because we found 10 people. So we are now working with a lot more people. I don't know if I like my zone so much. They are all kinda off in there own world, not much unity. I don't like that to much. We are going to change that too! So I had a good few adventures this week. I ripped almost all of the pants I have. I only really have like 3, but one I was playing b ball with some of the jovenes at an activity and the courts are so bad here that as I was running I hit a patch of dirt that was on the court and I slipped and wrecked my leg up haha ripped and destroyed my pants too! haha It was bad but really fun at the same time ;) I tried to get as little blood in the picture as possible haha So yeah that is how it is going here in bulnes. Just finding tons of people and having tons of fun experiences. Elder Café y Elder Blanco on the run. Taking names and baptizing nations. Peace out.

Oh I have a request could you put a little money in my account and let me know how much money I have, so I can buy some new pants.... haha I am really sorry. I just... accident. I am ok though!!! Don't worry. I am currently using a pair of pants that are HUGE haha but my other pair of pants are in the wash and the other pairs are either for my suit or are just really uncomfortable because they are meant for a suit. NOT BECAUSE I AM FAT! haha So this week was really cool. I had lots of fun. I like my comp, but he is really to focused I think. I love his obedience, and his focus, but I just want him to have more fun. haha We had the best week of his mission this week. :) He was really happy. We found tons and taught tons and it is just going to get better. It was so funny, our sacrament meeting looked like relief society haha. I am so excited for general conference!!! I love it!!! I am going to be watching it in a place called Chillan. It is like the biggest closest town to our sector. I have this investigator here who is so freaking tight. His name is Gabriel. He comes to church in a suit and whenever we talk to him he is just so willing to learn and open to accept these things. He loved hearing about the prophet and is going to go to the conference this week. I am so excited. Also, there is a HUGE feria here! I don't know how to say it in English I think it means marketplace, but I don't know if that is what you call it. It is a place where tons of people are selling cool little things like in the picture with e white when we have those hats on and that poncha or manta as it is called here, they sell those and tons of other cool things like that. I think I will be going soon. ;)

So I am going to be honest, I am really jealous that you are able to go to priesthood meeting with everyone. haha and to Arctic circle after.I want food from the states so bad! haha fast food.... mmmmm.... So you went and did sealings with sister lortz??  I remember going to do sealing with sister lortz. haha I enjoyed it. I think that she is such a kind lady who has a love for the way of the lord. It is cool how much time she dedicates to him every week. I am so happy that you are continually going to the temple. I think that is the first thing that I want to do when I get back. I want to go to temple square and then go to the temple. I miss it more than you can imagine. AH! haha But I am being blessed in other ways. So I have a few questions. I am now the counselor to the president of this branch, what do I do!? I mean, I know what to do, but like do you have any tips or advice!? This branch is really disorganized. I got here and heard tons of things that were not happening and got in and was like we need to be having our meetings regularly and be following the handbook and doing this and that. I have it now and am reading it, but I just don't feel that I know everything. I know that my first priority is the missionary work, but I still feel a big stress of having to do alot for this branch, because our president of the branch lives in another city about 30 minutes away. So he is never here and doesn't wanna come out more than 1 or 2 a week including Sunday. What is your advice. It is funny that instead of having sacrament it is like we have relief society haha it is funny my first day I was like what the heck, I see like 5 men in the congregation. I like the ward though. The people are really nice. I love them.  Tell everyone I say Hi! :)
Love,
Elder Brown

Interviews - 09-05-11

So this week we had interviews it was really good to go and talk to the president and let him know personally what is going on in my sector. Generally we dont have much time to talk to him, only in the weekly letter but that is not very personal. So it was nice to express how I feel about my sector. I didnt have the success I hoped for this week, but I worked hard. I, by the end of the week was SO freaking tired. haha I wanted to die! But it is ok. Here I am today! So we confirmed nieves this sunday and it was awesome! :)She was so happy. Actually something really cool happened. We did a family home evening with one of the members and nieves. It was cool, because in this FHE,she was like hermana ruth, in ¨OUR¨ religion, church and beliefs......... haha it was funny she said it like 5 times and just giggled after she said it. haha She is really cute haha she is a almost 70 year old woman and just so funny haha. I SAVED MY COMP!!!! It was nuts, we were doing contacts, looking for a member, and as we start going down this road this dog starts growling at us and I was just like yeah whatever and didnt even think about it because they are always doing that. It is like we are the mailmen of the U.S.A. haha As we past it, it jumps up and starts barking and snapping at us. I am on the other side of my comp away from the dogs. Its owners are just looking at us and laughing not even doing anything. It starts getting closer to my comp and looks like it is going to bite him. Really big dog and really scary looking. (little info about my comp., he is not the most manly or toughest of all men. He doesnt like strenuous activity alot and is not one to fight or defend his self.) I take a little step around my comp as the dog comes in again and wind up and swing my leg at this dogs face. As my leg comes around the dog pulls back just enough to were the only thing I feel are the hairs and little part of his chin. The dog, even more upset now, wants to come at me again. I start to wind up when I see a rock on the ground, I pull my comp back, away from the dog, and bend down to grab the rock and the dog starts to slowly go back. I grab it and as I do the dog furthers himself from us. (other thing, dogs here dont like rocks because all of the people throw them at them. haha so when ever there is a dog and you start to bend down, the get a little scared) As he starts to leave I start walking away with my comp behing me now. haha It was an intense moment. This dog was HUGE!!! Think of Hercules off of the sandlot. That was the size of this dog. And black. wow... haha Really fun and interesting the stories of the mission ;)

 Chiguayante is pure ghetto. But my sector has the rich people and the poor people and the middle class which is really weird to see because it is usually extremes here. I like it. We see protests every now and then because it is like the center of everything here, but really calm and nice. I like it. My house is 4 metal sheets nailed together with a thing of wall plaster nailed to the inside. haha a typical chilean house. ;) It is actually really nice for two missionaries and really safe. We live in the back of another house so to get to our house you have to walk through a gate and through the back yard. It is just freezing because it is all tile. haha but that is the life of a missionary ;). I dont know if I will be going or staying this next transfer. I am interested to see if I will be leaving. All I can say, is that I am going to cry when I have to leave because I love the members and people here so much. It is a shame that the old missionaries destroyed the relationship with the members before me. That is why it was so hard, because we had no support from the members until now and hopefully now we will start having success. We got 14 references this last week from members :) Yeah, that is right freaking tight.

Woot Woot!!

The weeks are just getting better and better. We are now having lots of success here in chiguayante. I know that the lord is going to keep blessing us too. We are currently helping over 6 people work to baptism. :) We will be having one baptism this week. I am super excited for that. I also think we will be having one on the 11 of sept. too. That will be really cool :) I love it so much. haha I am so stoked for all the things that are going to be happening now here. I love this ward so much. They are so cool and we are working alot with them now. It is tough but we are doing it and having alot more success. It is really cool. This week we didnt have to many things happen WAIT!! haha yesterday we were coming home from getting the clothes and this old guy in this wheelchair yelled at us and was like hey come and give me a little push to the end of the corner. Bueno. So we went and took him to the corner and was like where are you guys going... well... we are going that way I said. Yeah adelante he says haha like lets go. So we are like ok whatever we will take him to the corner. So we get to the corner and he is like just a little bit up this way pointing to a hill, not to big. So we are like ummm ok... haha so we push him up the hill, oh and we are talking the whole time about whatever thing. We get to this house and is like this is it. So we knock on the door.... no one answers.... haha he looks at us and is like... well looks like no one is home. Where you guys going!? That way I say, pointing in the opposite direction. Yeah, adelante. hahaha So we start going with him and he says you guys dont have anything to do with those mormons do you?! I was like... We are those mormons. haha He changed his character a little and was like well why do they call you guys mormons? Hmmmm... Inspired question... :) So I started explaining how we believe that Christ came to the Americas and he was like hey I think that could have happened. So I started to teach the restoration. He just sat there and listened intently and asked a few questions. In the end I was like how about we leave you here. He was like yeah that is great thanks so much. I said when are we going to come by your house to talk a little more?! He looked at me and was like well whenever you want, here is my address. I took it down and told him we would be coming by this week. But the best thing about all of this was that right as we were leaving him on this corner a menos active lady walked by and was like elders I want you to come by my house. So I took down here number and told her I would call her this week and we would pass by. Well come to find out that her husband is not a member. :) So that works out well. We never would have found here either if it wasnt for that crazy old man! :D

 I took pictures of my 1 year mark. I made pizza for my comp haha. I like how long I have been out here, but I dont at the same time, because it means I am that much closer to having to end my mission. I really do love this work so freaking much. It has shown me the man that I can be and am and will be one day. I dont want to end my mission. I want to see you guys of course, but I am not ready to come home so thank goodness I still have a year. It passes so fast.  I am so jealous of the movies that you are seeing. :-( haha I am SO movie trunky. I hope that you are keeping a list of your top movies, because when I get back we are having a movie marathon. haha I hate working out in the morning. I have never liked it and I like it even less here. I am going to get home in shape though. I am going to do the 6 months to sexy ;) yeah!!! I start here in feb. I am going to already be losing weight in the summer though. :) I sweat everything off. That is something really good. haha

 have been reading the pearl of great price in spanish and it is so freaking cool I have learned some really cool things that I didnt even know. I am learning about kolob right now and it is twisting my brain apart. I dont understand how it all works. I just want to know! Abraham did. haha I freaking want to know what the heck is going on, or went on. I only have to wait till I die I guess. haha that sucks. I now am having a big desire to study. But not just the scriptures. I want to learn something from like books. Like school books. I havent done that for so long and I miss it now haha It is weird when you are not studying. I have been taking advantage of studying the people out here. I am looking and watching everyone out here, in a non-creepy way and seeing how they act. Looking at the culture aspect of all things out here and taking and making conclusions. I like it and it helps alot with the missionary work too. You can see if a person is going to progress and who will listen. But the only thing is, is that it is all theoretical. It doesnt take into fact the spirit and its power. So like an apostle whose name I cant remember, but will tell you next week said, Do you think the salvation of the souls of men will depend on the human knowledge and logic of topics such as the apostasy and the restoration? Meaning the knowledge we have does nothing, it is all the spirit. We are just there to bring the spirit. It is a good talk. :) Love it.

That's it for this week!

 Love Elder Brown

Good Week!!

So.... I loved this week. It was really good actually. :) We had some really good lessons with members and found some more really open and receptive people. I am really excited to start working with them. We finally have someone who is progressing to baptism. Woot woot!!! Her name is Nieves. Yes that does mean ¨snows¨ haha but she is really nice and has a daugther who we are going to hopefully work with this week. She was actually a referal from a member. A OLD investigator. She shared with missionaries about 10 years ago and at the last minute decided not to do it. But now she really wants to do it. She has so many friends in the church it is ridiculous. She knows everyone!!! haha So we are working with her and I know that we are going to be having some good success with her this month. She is going to get baptized this 28th :) But this week was actually pretty chill. We had tons of success and it passed by really fast. Tonight we have a family home evening with some less active members. I am really excited because I have been working with this family for a long time and they are finally starting to come back to the church. I am so happy haha it rocks! So yeah that is how that is going. I know that the blessings are coming now!! I heard about tome, the last sector I was in and they are now rocking it up. They had a really hard cambio also. It was good to talk to demann and hear that he baptized people we had been waiting for, for a long time. I had invited this girl to the church everyweek for 3 months. SHE GOT BAPTIZED!!!!! So yeah that is how things are going here in chile! :) Things are just getting better and better every day! I told you it would. :) I love my ward and this sector.

 I can also see the changes in the person that I am. I am alot fatter ;) No, I have been doing jump rope all this week and it is so freaking fun! I love doing jump rope now! It is a really good work out haha wow I cant believe that I have gotten to the point on my mission were something like jump rope is a highlight of my week.  I want you to know that all is good and I love the mission and we are going to have tons of success this cambio! Oh.... I bought a raspberry cheesecake!!!!!! I didnt even know that those existed here! :D I am so going to treat myself good tonight! Woot woot. haha

So I also am reading the new testament and it is so freaking cool!!!! I love the mormon bible! It is so amazing to see the life of christ and all the things that happened to him. I am convinced one of the best ways to know who christ is, is to read the bible after the book of mormon. It explains almost 100% who he is. BOMB! I also am reading pearl of great price in spanish study! IT IS SO GOOD!!!! I have learned some crazy things. I cant even believe it. Cain has descendants. I didnt know that and also that able and cain were not the first kids that they had. I have been learning a lot. :) I like it.

 I got to see kung fu panda 2 today!!! ;B  I loved it! Our pres gave us permission. I was laughing the whole time. Even in spanish it is freaking hilarious.  . So I was playing soccer today too and we won 6 games in a row! Yeah... We must have prayed a lot harder than everyone else ;) haha no it was really fun though. I loved it. It was kinda dangerous though because the whole field was wet. Oh we only have pavement fields here. But it was really fun. My comp slipped and almost died, but the ball saved him from the fall so instead of hitting the ground he bounced off of the ball back on his feet haha.

Talk to you soon!  Elder Brown

Tough Week

So the last week of the transfer wasn´t what I thought or hoped it would be. I am going to be completely honest, we didnt have much success. I think it was actually one of the worst weeks that I have had in the mission. It was really bad. All of our investigators decided to take vacations this week and so we didnt get to teach or see any of them! Not even kidding not one of them. It was really hard, but I guess that is how things are sometimes. I didnt like it but this week we are just going to be working alot harder. One good things was, was that I had tacos! :) We were invited over to the house of this member and she bought all of the supplies for the food and all we had to do was cook it! :) woot woot. It was so good. I am going to be honest, I make some good tacos. So that was something really cool. This week we pasted by alot of the members sharing short 30 minute lessons of the restoration. It was cool but we didnt receive any references. That was the kinda stupid part. I think it will be good for future references. They really liked seeing us pass by and share something small with all of them. Especially the lady with whom we made tacos. She lost her husband about 4 or 5 months ago and she is having a hard time still. So that was good that we went over and talked and shared with her for that little while. But yeah haha. Ok something really cool that happened. So... I think it was like thursday or something I felt really sick. So I took a nap and the whole time I was just like lord please help us find someone so I dont feel completely useless out here on the mission. I am really struggling please just help. I wake up 2 hours later as it someone jumped on me waking me up. My comp was studying the scriptures and when I asked him why he didnt wake me up earlier he was like well you didnt feel good. I was like dude I told you to wake me up over an hour ago. ha. Well I was like yeah we are getting out of the house right now. Well something that I didnt say, was that right as I woke up this name came to my mind; Alicia. I was like who the crap is Alicia. Well I at first just threw it off. I didnt even think about it. I didnt know what the heck I was talking about and I didnt want to waste my time on a false name so I was just like whatever and I started to get ready to go out to work. As I was getting ready this name just kept coming back to my mind and I just couldnt get it out of my head and so I finally went over to the area book and started to look. As I looked I came upon this old investigator and I was like this is her. I wrote down the address and the first thing that I did as I got out of the house was head straight for her house. I got there and, nothing. So I was like this is ridiculous. Lord you sent me here for a reason. WHY!? So we went up the hill a little more. To the farthest most outer corner of my sector where we found a lady and her kid. We presented ourselves, hey we are missionaries and we have a message that we want to share about the families. She did the typical chilean thing and was like I am busy. Well I said, can we come in for just a little and share a message with you and your kid!? Yeah sure come on in. haha It was so weird, but now we are teaching them and they have desires to be baptized. :) Woot woot. Also the heading of my email. My father of the mission Elder Pulver is finally going to end his mission today! I cant believe it. I am really sad actually. I know he will do well in the real world though. Well I think that, that is all for this week. Thanks for tuning in and I will see you next week.

SUCCESS!!!!!!!!

Well I am just going to probably take all of the time of this letter to boast about God! I am so grateful for God! Did you know that he loves us so much!? Well if you didn't know you do! I know that the lord is always there even when we are in times that we feel we cannot support. He is aware of everything. I know that at times we feel that he has left us alone, but that is not true! He is always aware of all our trials. I know that he is always going to help us through them too! I love the lord and how merciful he is to all of us, his children. It is true that sometime the lord must humble a man before he can help him. I have learned that from personal experience. I, this week, have been truly humbled. I did a lot of repenting and changing really fast so that I would be able to receive the blessing of the lord and right when I did that the blessings came pouring in. Going from a week with hardly any people 0 with baptismal date and all that jazz, to a week with 4 with date and a few other possibilities is just a miracle. But a huge one! I am not saying the numbers are important, but behind every number there is a person. Not just a statistical judgment of a missionaries work, but a spirit of a child of God. Now, they have a chance to let the lord touch there hearts. A chance to change and become a better person. To come back into the loving arms of our heavenly father. How amazing is it that our father in heaven, after seeing our imperfections and mess ups, gives us another chance to come back to him. That is the example that we need to follow. The perfect parent. I love this gospel. It is how we will one day walk to the end of the path that leads to the kingdom of god. I know that as we walk this path the lord makes us strong enough to one day open that door between us and him and to be able to live forever in peace and happiness. This is all possible for us because of our saviour Jesus Christ. The one who walked the way with us. The one who carried us when we couldn't go any further. The one opening this door with us. Our saviour.

Week of 7-25... INVASION

Well this week was definitely filled with tons of interesting experiences. I cant say that it was the best week, but it wasnt bad. We didnt have much more success. We are doing better. We are not working completely with the ward. Something that has never been done here before. I cant believe that we got this program called PRO-Juntos working. It means Predicar, Reactivar, Obrar-Juntos. Or in english for those of you who dont understand what the heck that means, Preach, Reactivate, and work-Together. It is a great program that all of our mission is trying to get working. I havent been in a ward my whole time being here though that has had it up and working 100 percent. I was really happy because we now have ward missionaries and with this program we have ALL of the organizations working with us and together. It is amazing to see the progress working in this ward. It seemed when I got here that the ward didnt even like the missionaries. They didnt want to work with us at all! Now, they are inviting us over everyday! It is so nice to have such a supporting ward who is actually looking for opportunities to help us in the work. I love it so much. Now, we just need to have a lot more success finding people. We did what is called an invasion. :) It is when everyone from our zone comes to our sector for a few hours and we all do contacts and look for people. I was so happy to receive all of that help from all of the missionaries. I had to pick spots for each of the companionships to go, well I thought hmm.... we have sisters... yup I am sending them to the richest, hardest part of the sector. Now I know you are probably saying what the heck Elder Brown... Why would you do that to them?! Well I am going to say something about the sister missionaries. They are pure love of God. The sisters are what I like to call the sucker punch from the lord. They are so amazing! The spirit radiates from them so much that the people fall in love with them instantly. The hardness of their hearts is softened, and the spirit is able to enter more easily and touch them so that they can feel these things are true. So that was my mind set when I was sending the sisters over to this nice sector. Well at the end of the day we had over 20 references from the 10 missionaries who came over, 15 from the sisters. They even found a family of 5 or 6 and now we have a return appointment. I am telling you, they can just melt the ice around the hearts of any person. So yeah the invasion was really successful and I know that we are going to see alot of people this coming week who are going to be really good. It is just hard. The only trouble we have is that we set up return visits and when we pass by they are never there. That is the only hard thing. BUT we have hope! :) Also this week elder Hanna, my district leader got really sick. He was in bed near the whole week. I had to go over and stay in with him all day one day and it was absolutely ridiculous. A trunky day no mas. All he did was watch movies and talk about his girl that is waiting for him haha he goes home in like 2 weeks. He is trunky and tried to watch other movies that are not really church approved haha like the lightning thief haha I was like uh... No.... we cant watch that. That is just to much. haha It was funny. So yeah I was with him one day and then I took his comp out one day. His name is elder Stowe and he is new and a good missionary and we had a fun day. I liked it. I feel like I am just wasting time out here some days, because we walk around all day and hardly teach anything. I think that I am going to start teaching in the streets like the evangelicos and catholics. haha I have to do something to change the circumstances here. Well that is all for this week. :) Love you talk to you later.

Yup.....

Well.... I wish I could say that this week was a lot better and that we had tons of success and found tons of people. I just cant though. We are still having a really hard time out here in chiguayante. I have been talking to many people this week and they are all saying the same things. The lord now is teaching you long suffering and patience. Something that I have been asking for all of my mission I am now getting. I think it is really crazy though, because I have been asking the lord, ¨why are we not having success? What are you trying to teach me now?¨ and all that I have heard all of this week is that you are to learn patience and be long suffering. I actually have a really interesting story that happened last night actually. So we were going back to the house and as we were walking we saw this man further down the road and when he saw us his whole countenance changed. So I was like oh crap here we go. As we past him he called to us and said something. I didnt wanna talk to some drunk so I just kept walking without giving him so much as a hi. Well my comp, still being new, stopped. haha He called me over and I was like ok here we go, another hour in the street. Well comes to find out, he was a member. But from New Jersey. haha He is chilean, but lives in New Jersey. He starts to ask us about the work and how it is doing and what is going on. We start to tell him the work is really good and we are going to be having alot of success here really soon. He right away starts saying that the lord has put us in this sector to learn patience and that it is going to be hard and you might not find people and you are going to struggle, but that if you keep going that the lord will bless you. We didnt even know who this guy was. He was just some random old guy. He knew exactly what was going on though. He was like look I know that you are not finding people and that the people here are cold and that you are having troubles, but the lord knows. He is aware and is here to help you. You just got to turn to him and he will be there to ease your pains. I couldnt believe it. I think it was freaking John the Beloved. I was so just shocked at the things he knew and was saying.  It was really good to have received an answer from god like that haha. I thought it was really cool. So yeah haha. So in other news, we finally have ward missionaries and now we are going to be able to work alot better with all of the people in our sector. I am so happy that we finally got our program with the ward working. I know that I might not have many baptism´s, but I know that the people who come after me will have alot of success and work really well with the members. :) So yeah haha that is how it is going out here.OH!! I forgot to tell you. It rained almost all of this week!!! It didnt stop for like 3 or 4 days. I went to bed to the sound of rain and woke up to it. Haha CRAZY!! It was so cool. Well except for the fact that we couldnt find anyone in it. But my impermeable are freaking amazing. :) Didnt get wet at all! Woot woot. Also Elder Hanna came over this week to have a mini cambio and even the assistants came over and zone leaders to help us find people and no one found anyone!!! I am serious! It was nuts. We just havent been able to find anyone. No one is getting upset at my numbers, because they have all come over to know what I am dealing with haha well me and my comp. That is it for today my friends, until next time.

Week 2 in Chiguayante

Well world.... We had a good week down here in chiguayante. :) I was actually really surprised about it too. We saw some really good miracles and we are going to be having alot of success this week. So one of the miracles is that we went over to this members house the other day to ask for a reference or two. Well we get there and the hermana is like I have something especially for you elder brown.... Ok, I am getting... Ice cream :) YUMMY jaja that is what I thought. Well she comes out with a packet of papers. A list of all of the hermanas in the church that are not a complete family or have less active people in their families and who she feels could get baptized and come back. She used to work in the relief society so she knows these people personally. 9 Pages of this. HOLY MOLY!!!!! THAT ALMOST NEVER HAPPENS. You can only imagine what I was thinking that night trying to find out how to count the number of references received. jajaja Well we have been passing by all of the people on that list this week and we have been seeing results. A family that was on the list who we passed by to visit, well, the son- who is less active- came to church this week and we also found other people to teach. BLESSINGS!!! It was so freaking cool. Also as I was talking with our ward mission leader last week I told him that we needed ward missionaries and that if he could talk to the bishop to get some people that would be great. Well he told me, ¨Elder, we have been trying to get ward missionaries for months. The bishop doesnt want to give members two callings.¨ Well I told him just ask him to give them an assignment because we only ask 2 hours a week. Then I went to the bishop and told him the same thing, we are getting ward missionaries now. :) Almost all of priesthood meeting was dedicated to find a way to get the ward mission plan with the missionaries going. And to see who could come out and accompany us this week. :) WOOOOO!!!!! The ward is helping even more now. I am really excited to see all the success that we are going to have. Hopefully soon. So yeah those were my experiences for the week. Sorry it is written so badly and scattered.

Happy 4th of July!!!!!!

Dear people of America,
I just want to say that if you are not celebrating this holiday you ought to smack yourself in the foot because America is the best country in the planet!!! HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!!!!!!!!!! GOD BLESS AMERICA!!!! So today I woke up with a little fire burning in my chest knowing that you guys are celebrating the day of our independence. I dont think I ever realized how patriotic I really was until I experienced a 4th of July outside of the country. It was really weird. I went to play soccer this morning and I wore the hats that my mom sent me as you can see in the pictures that I just sent. :) Haha it was really really fun. I am so proud to be an American. So this week I showed my son around. It is really hard to train. I will be completely honest. You kinda just do everything because they are still learning all of the ropes and what not, but my son is catching on really quickly it helps that he is latino. The difference from the mtc to the mission field is huge though and he is having a little trouble adjusting. I am almost having to carry him it feels like haha but it is ok. I am more than willing to help him in any way that I can His name is elder Orihuela. He is from peru. I think that he thinks I am being hard on him, but I just dont think he really understands the importance of this thing that we are doing out here. I am being as patient as I possible can with him. I love the guy and he is really helping me with my spanish. I never noticed how bad the chileans talk until he became my comp hahaha. This week I will tell 2 of many things that happened. We were doing contacts, and this guy opens his window to talk to us(typical chilean). We say hey we are missionaries from the church of christ and he starts yelling saying ¨get away you false prophets. You are false prophets. You need to go and repent of your sins you evil false prophets.¨ I looked at him thinking to myself how sad that this guy has been so corrupted to think he needs to say this to us. I then say thank you sr, I hope you repent to, because god has told us all we need to do it. So I invite you to pray and ask forgiveness of your sins. We walked away as he kept screaming out his window not only to us, but to all of the other people that were outside of their houses. It was really sad to think that satan has deluded the truths of god so badly that a cristian would have to audacity to tell another cristian that he is evil and a false prophet and needs to repent or go to hell. The second thing that happened, during contacts as well. We called at a door and this kid came out and I was like hey how are you doing we are missionaries...... all that good stuff. I asked his name and told him mine and he looks at me and says I can see that.(attitude already starting) I say that we testify of god and the families then ask him if he believes in god. He looks me in the eyes and says I believe in myself. I was like oh cool you believe in hard work and doing things ourselves. I then came to know what he really meant when he said no, I am god. (yeah that is right, this psycho path said he was god.) I was like excuse me?! You are god. And he was like no, I am my god.(me) So you are a god? (him)No, I am not your god. (me)But you are god. (him)No, no soy tú dios(I am not your god.). I looked at him and was like no, you are not god. Good bye. What a freaking tard! I was like you have got to be kidding me hahahaha We got a good laugh out of the pure raw stupidity of it though. haha ;) I know it is not the best thing to think or say but on this subject I have no problem. So that was my week haha So I cant get any of the pictures right now for some reason. It just wont read my card.  But that is it for this week. :) Love you all mucho.

Good Job!!

Ok, here we go about what is going on down here in chiguayante. :) I got here and they told me that I am going to be getting this sector going again. BUT, what they didnt tell me until last night well pres himself when I went to his house is that I am going to be opening this sector up and be training at the same time.!!! haha so yeah I get a new missionary. Straight from the mtc. Pretty cool right?! So yeah I am going to be a dad and my dad is going to have a son! WOOT WOOT! I called Pulver to tell him that his son is going to have a son so he is going to be a grandpa and he was like are you freaking kidding me that is so cool! It was really good to talk to him. I still dont know who my comp is going to be. I will find out tomorrow sometime. But yeah that is the low down on what is going on with me. I am going to be a father. haha so this week was really tough. Mostly because my comp was really really trunky and just didnt wanna be completely obedient. haha He just was kinda relaxing. I whipped him into shape though haha it was really fun. I got to know my sector and the members really well this week. I hope that I am going to be ready for my kid when he comes tomorrow. Oh that is IF he comes tomorrow. I dont know when he is going to get here because of all of this ash that is everywhere. I am not kidding last night we couldnt really see anything. It was like a really thick fog. It was nuts. This ash from that volcano has gone all the way around the world and now it is back here in conce. The good thing is that it is really high in  the air. It is not so bad today, but last night it was nuts. It destroyed my contacts I had in haha. Good thing I have more!!! WOOT! Oh and I still havent gotten that package. haha So yeah I am a little sad about that but hopefully next monday! I will be warm then eh!? ;)  But you are going to hate me but I have to go right now. I got to go back to chiguayante with a missionary who is dying and wants to see some people. I love you all so very much and just know that everything is going great I am super excited! I am glad to hear about your trip and all of that jazz. It makes me really happy. So I will try to get on later and write you again and a little better because I want to tell you about this new training program that we are doing and that is really cool and going to help these next coming missionaries alot. :) I am sorry that this is so short if I dont get on I am really sorry I will write really good next week. I love you mom! I know that this is especially tough for you, it is just hard right now with all of these changes and what not I am going at a million miles an hour haha sorry I will have alot more time next week and write you a good letter. You too dad! I LOVE YOU BOTH!!! Send my love to the family! Talk to you soon bye!

Love,
Elder Brown

Big Change!

So wanna know something that was pretty much the craziest thing that has happened to me so far on the mission!? Well on thursday night we are getting all of the numbers together and also we are finishing up our planning for the next day. Well all of a sudden we get a call, and as a joke I always say ¨Zone Leaders¨ haha because they used to call us all of the time. Well Elder Demann went over to answer it looked at the name and as he looked at it his face went white. He looked at me and was like, ¨Its the president¨. I was like what the crap?! What did we do now??? haha Well he answers it and starts talking to president and gets through about a minute of small talk when(oh and I am close listening to everything by the way) he says, ¨Elder, I am moving your comp.¨ Well big surprise to freaking me! I was like what the crap!?!?!?!? It was an emergency transfer. I dont know why the heck he chose me to go, but I had to get all of my stuff ready and leave on saturday. It was thursday night. haha So that next day we worked half of the day and the said good bye the other half. haha Oh and saturday, I waited untill we finished with the baptism that we had and then after that I went to my new sector called. Chiguayante. It is a really good sector. The ward I am in is like a ward in the states. It is presidents favorite ward. It is really nice. haha They are really strong and do not depend on  the missionaries to do all of the work. It was nuts the first real day here was on sunday. It rained all day! Crappy. When I got to the church the ward mission leader came up to me and was like elder brown listen. The image of the missionaries is a very big deal here. Everyone is watching you so you need to go up to each one of the main counselors and leaders and greet them by name and introduce yourself. It was interesting because he walked me to each of them giving commentary of who they were and the low down on them the whole way over. It was alot to take in at once. The reason I am here is because the missionaries who were here before all got sick and they had to go home early. Or they are ending their missions. Like the comp I have now, Elder Thomas ends his mission next tuesday. haha so I am here this week early mainly to learn the area so when I get my new comp I know what I am doing, I know the members and the bishop and we can just get right to work. Yeah it is going to be really interesting haha I was really shocked that president sent me here. I figure that there are 2 reasons that are or could logically be correct. 1, He really trusts me and knows that I can have success here and so he is putting me here to get things going again. Or 2, He knows that this ward is so good that he can put crappy missionaries here and they will not kill it. haha So he put me here as a last result because he had no where else to put me. haha I hope that it is option 1. So yeah right now I am killing a missionary. That means that I am his last comp and then I will be pretty much be opening a sector again. Because before the missionaries didnt really work because they had all been really sick. 4 Missionaries will have ended their missions here in the past 6 weeks next week haha. Crazy huh. So yeah that is how things are going here. As you can see I am writing really late. This is because we went to chillan. It is about 2 hours away from where we live. At least. So we were there saying goodbye to all of elder Thomas´ converts. haha Yeah we got back and sprinted to write pres before 6:00. Now we are just getting time to write you guys. My comp is really trunky. It is funny because I am having to animate him to do things. well that is all the time I have for this week sorry so short and crappy. Enjoy your trip! :) I LOVE YOU ALL!! Oh and I dont need to talk to pres about the zone leaders anymore because they are not my zone leaders anymore hahaha oh that is just to bad... ;( haha Thanks for everything. Love.

Love,
Elder Brown

So this week was really kinda boring. It went by super fast I dont like it. I cant believe that so much time has past by. So last night we went by this members house and just a little background on this lady she is super EVANGELICO!!!!! But, she got baptized in our church and loves it so much. Just has a little trouble leaving her old ways. So we went over to visit her and her whole family was there so we thought that we would take advantage of the situation and get a lesson in with all of them. So we started talking and this whole family turned hostile haha They started questioning us like well who do you believe in?! Jose smith?! And just a bunch of stuff like that haha we stayed calm and answered there questions. We boldly stated that to live with god we have to do some things or it is impossible to return to him. The only hard thing was, was that they would not listen to my comp. He would try to talk and get his testimony in and tell them how it was but they would turn to me or interrupt him or something like that. I would even stop them in their words and say excuse me but my comp has been trying to say something and I think you should listen to him. He would start talking and a few seconds later they would go again. So what I had to do was stop all of them and say look. We are here to do one thing, to call people to repentance and to help them recieve a baptism that is valid to god. Because there is no other baptism on this earth or that has been done on this earth unless in our church that god will except. I bore my testimony and said now, my comp wants to say something. Elder demann invited this whole room of 8 or more people to baptism right there. PURE POWER!!!!! It was so cool. The spirit flooded the room and that is when they stopped trying to interupt my comp. He is a stud! So yeah that was an interesting thing that happened last night haha.

 So as to your question... I can say no there is not any false doctrine but there is at times apostasy. Which is the changing of the doctrines of christ and a distancing from him. At times the people here dont really know everything and how things work. So they at times dont do everything right. For instance 2 weeks ago when we did a confermation of our new converts the bishop didnt let us do it till after sacrament because he didnt write it on the list of things to do even though we reminded him before sacrament started. Also some of the things they teach they teach using their old beliefs because there are alot of converts here. So there are some people who teach about gifts of god and the holy ghost and things that dont really happend and we have to correct them. And sometimes we have to help them know how the priesthood works haha and how to do ordinances and blessings and stuff like that. Or we help teach the jobs of each level of priesthood. They do have a really good grip on things here! But every now and then you hear or see something that is a little questionable. Like they talk about the temple here alot and at times we feel like we might need to step in and stop them but they understand most of the stuff for the most part. haha Just is different. It is a good place though. Some of the members are a lot stronger because of the things that they have had to do to gain a testimony. I actually think that some of the members here are stonger than the members in utah and the states. Some! But it is different to hear the testimony of a convert and the testimony of a born member. They are at times just alot stonger. I think they are more thankful for what they have because they faught through hell to get it. I dont know. It is just completely different. Especially seeing the changes that they do. I dont know. haha but yeah there is a little bit of that false stuff here. But I hear that is was worse along time ago like 15-25 years ago. Like to bless a house they would get on the roof and annoint the house. Stuff crazy like that. No but they are really good here. They do almost everything the exact same. Just a few different things to match the culture here.

Week of June 6th (Late Post):
So I hate how these past few weeks have been going by so freaking fast. It is ridiculous. I do not like P-day! haha I just get trunky. But this week was really tough. But I feel really effective because we got two more baptism´s and we are hopefully going to have 1-3 more this month. :) It will be really tough, but I think that we can do it. Yesterday this lady named Gina and her little daughter Skarli got baptized. This is a cool story because we didn't even expect to find or baptize this lady. She is the sister of a missionary who is in Santiago right now. Her sister. So one day we went over to visit the dad because he wanted us to pass by to talk and teach him something new, because he is not a member. When we went over there this guy wasn't there though. We knock the door and she answers and tells us that he is not there.... shoot. So right before we are about to leave I get this HUGE eager to get in. I didn't know what to say though so I was like ¨hey.... could I use your bathroom real quick.¨ So I go in and I hear my good smart comp start talking to her. I get out of the bathroom and instantly sit down. I to start talking to her and ask if we could talk to her and she was like yeah why not. So we started talking about baptism. We talked for a little trying to ask questions and she is just not answering anything. So we keep teaching a little bit longer, but we just cant really get anywhere with our normal teaching so I start to say hey do you think this is important? yes. Do you see something different in your sister that is on her mission? Yes. Do you want that same thing? Yes. Will you follow the example of Jesus Christ by being baptized by someone who has the autoridad to do it? Yes. 3 weeks later she got baptized. She quit smoking in a week. She accepted everything humbly and willing. She is awesome! :) Going to be great for the ward. haha really shy though. haha So yeah that was really cool.
We are now working with a few other people who want to get baptized it is just a matter of when now haha. One of these people is called, Betsabé. She is really cool. She is about 24 ish and really nice. She loves the gospel and feels just fantastic about it. She is working for the 18 of this month. She just has a fear of water that she is trying to work through too. haha she feels all of this is happening really fast. The thing is though, is that she has had more success and more peace and help in the past months that we have been sharing with her than she has had in her whole life. haha She loves it. She always tells us about it when we come over haha. I got a great grade this week. I thought I was going to fail because I know that I didn't do good but it left really well. haha :) Just tons of stories like that. She loves church too! So she WILL GET BAPTIZED! Just is a matter of time and our diligence with her.
But that is how the works going out here. It is going so good and I can definitely see the lords hand working in the lives of all of my investigators. I love this gospel and it is helping everyone out here. I cant even explain the joy I get out of it. It over weighs the sorrow from the apostasy that I see and hear everyday! I know that this gospel will one day affect the lives of everyone here! This is such a good city with such good people. So yeah haha that is how elder brown is doing right about now. Oh and what the heck is going on with everyone getting married now!? Shoot... That is really flippin weird. haha I dont know if I like it so much. So yeah but oh well.