Hola Familia y Amigos,
First things first....... HAPPY BIRTHDAY LURP NATION!!!! Happy birthday my little bro. I hope you have a great day today. I also hope that maybe turning 16 will help you gain a couple more pounds haha. Hey, I might have lost a lot of weight but you still won´t catch up to me, I know it. I won´t lie though you do look a lot older now than when I left on the mission, I will give you that. I will always be able to beat you up though haha. I love you bro! I can´t believe you are getting so old. Don´t crash the truck, treat him good!!! Tell coach Tanner hi for me while you are driving with him. I am glad to hear about all the great things that are going on there at home. I love to hear about all the new missionaries and all the old ones coming home. Tell Kohler that he is awesome and that I love him. He is going to love the Peru MTC. It might be a little hard at first, but just love it!!!
I am so glad to hear that Hna(Sister) Erickson wrote you. They are so awesome. I sure do love them and thank them for their great service. They add a needed maturity to the work there in Panguipulli. I am glad that she contacted you. Make sure you tell them that I am so grateful for them. I am so glad that I am able to meet so many amazing people here in the best mission in the world!
All I have to say is that this week might have been one of the most amazing of my mission. The Lord is so loving and merciful that He is willing to pour out so many blessings upon two meazly servants like Elder Walker and Me. He sure did bless us this week, and I know that all the great things that happened this week were thanks to Him and the guidance that He gives is through His holy spirit. I don´t even know where to start. I sure hope that I can express myself as I try to explain all the amazing things that happened this week. I have a lot of stuff in my head because we just had to put all the numbers of the whole zone in the computer and send it to Osorno. I hope I can remember the most important things to tell you.
Mom, yes you will send all things to the same address. We live in an apartment that looks kinda sketchy on the outside, but it is awesome on the inside. Under us lives a member and yesterday as we got home on the door there was a note that said "pass by my house hna Eva". Turns out she had made us a huge amount of cookies, she is so sweet. It was a little tender mercy to finish one miraculous week. Ok, so Wednesday we had a Zone training where we got our zone together and talked about a few things that we are going to start doing in our zone. The training was amazing and I think I might have learned more than our zone did. A lot of the elders came up after and told us that it was one of the best that they had had in all their missions. Elder Walker and I could just say it wasn´t us, it was the Spirit, He was there and He taught each one of us the things that we needed to learn. We realized that because afterwards elders explained what they learned and each was different because the Spirit was there teaching us all what we needed to do to be better missionaries. It was amazing. We made a goal with the zone that every sector was going to invite at least 2 people to be baptized before Sunday, and the zone blew that goal out of the water with an average of 3 invitations in every sector. It was awesome. In our sector we were inviting everyone and it was amazing the blessings we saw the Lord pour out on us as we tried our best to magnify our calling by inviting all to follow Christ by being baptized. Wednesday the same day we had already invited 2 people to be baptized. We were walking and we passed a guy working on his car. We knocked a door further down the street and then we decided to go back and talk to the guy with his car. We did so, and the young 28 year old man named Andres asked us what is your message. We explained a bit of the restoration and he said that he has been looking for the truth forever and could not find it. We taught him the Restoration and his face lit up with the Spirit right there in front of his car. Right after meeting him he accepted to be baptized on the 28th of April. It was a blessing from God.
One of the most amazing miracles that happened this week was on Saturday. Everything we had planned pretty much failed all day. We had organized an open house in the church and we had invited all to come. Sadly, not one person showed up. After cleaning the church up, we headed out at about 7:30 to go find someone to teach. We strived our very hardest even though all had fallen and the day was pretty dreary and hard to be animated and have faith that if we did all we could that the Lord would provide. Shortly after, He truly provided in an amazing way. All of the sudden, we walked past a house and Elder Walker stopped and felt that we should knock it. It was the only one we had attempted to knock on the whole street. A man came out and we began to talk. He explained that he had talked with missionaries before and that he felt like he was ok where he was. We continued to express out great love for our message and the blessings he could receive from it. The Spirit touched him and he actually let us in. We had a powerful lesson with him and his daughter. We invited him to follow Jesus Christ and be baptized when the Lord told him he should and he said yes. As we were finishing, his wife and son walked in the door and we finished expressing how much our message would bless them. We finished with a kneeling prayer and the Spirit was felt strongly. We are so excited to go back tomorrow and share more with them.
All in all, this week was so amazing. I cannot believe what the Lord does for us missionaries out here. As Ammon says in Alma 26:16, I cannot say even a small part of what I feel. I love this work with all my heart. There is nothing else better. It has blessed my life amazingly. I am so grateful for the Lord and his many tender mercies. I love you all so much. thanks for all your support.
Love,
Elder Brown
March 18, 2013
HOLA FAMILIA Y AMIGOS,
Wow, what a week. I cannot even explain how excited I am for the work. I love it so much. To see pictures of the Pedersons with their calls just makes me even more excited about the work. That is so awesome. Everyone in those pics looks so big. Zane looks like such a man, and I remember just like yesterday when he was a little tike and he always told me he would beat me in basketball. Then, I would just destroy him. Now he can probably beat me ha. I love missionary work!!! There is nothing better. Everyone should experience the great joy that comes from sharing the Gospel with the world. Well, I am glad to hear that all are doing so great. Good job Caiden, on rockin' it out there on the futbol field. I am glad to hear that all are doing well. Before I start telling you about all that has happened and is happening I just want to tell you that it might always be better to write me Sundays, because from now on I am going to be responding a lot earlier in the morning because we have to come use the computers bright and early to send all the numbers of the zone to the APs and then right after we do emails.
Ok, first I will attempt to answer all the questions of my wonderful mom. I LOVE MY NEW AREA!!! I will tell you more about it later. It's not too cold, except the strong wind that comes in from Antartica, that is a wind I have never felt before,oh, but it is cold. Not too bad, but really awesome to feel. It's like an Antartic fresh haha. Yes, it will take much longer for packages, that's one downfall of being at the end of the world, but it is nothing compared to all the amazingness that is southern Chile. Mother, you are going to be all worried when I tell you how much I have lost, but I have lost about 20 pounds. You must remember that I was pretty big when I left. I weighed 235 when I came out and now I wonder maybe about 210 or so haha. I am a skinny guy now. No, I did not throw my other shoes out because I had a friend in Pangui that was a shoe cobbler and he fixed my other ones the best he could for 4 dollars ha. Yes, I had more than one watch but now I just have the same one that I came out with. OK, I think that is about all the questions.
OK, now for info on what is going down here at the end of the world. This place is the promised land. The people here are so nice and loving. They stop to talk with us and are really open to us two gringos from Utah ha. We have been able to teach a lot of people the gospel. At this moment we have 11 people with goals to be baptized in the coming months. We are very excited. We have been really focusing on being worthy and inviting the spirit to show us what to do and how to do the work. We have had some great teaching experiences all ready and we are looking foward to having many more as long as we are worthy and willing to follow his promptings. Our ward is so awesome! Yesterday we had 115 people there in church. We are going to focus a ton on working through the members to find investigators because when Pres. Rappleye called me he promised us that if we worked with the members here that we would have a lot of success. Our Mamita is so awesome and I already love her so much. Dad, the trip here was a long one. Tuesday we traveled in a bus from Pangui all the way to Puerto Montt. We stayed the night there with me old comp. Elder Hoybjerg who also is a ZL. Then in the morning we took off for Punta Arenas in the plane. They gave me the emergency seats because there is more room and they saw how tall I was haha. It was a long trip. Dad you can try to look up the Poblacion Silva Enriquez but I still don't know our sector very good because it's huge and I don't know it all yet. The zone is all of Punta Arenas, Puerto Natales, and Porvenir. It is huge and we have the biggest zone of Elders in the mission and growing because of all the new Elders and Hermanas that are coming in ha.
Well, I think that is about all that I can tell you about the sector for now. Just know that I think it might be the best in all the mission and I am so excited to get going and to see some miracles happen. I love this work with all my heart it has changed me so much and there is so so so much to still be learned and to change. I feel so amazingly grateful for the life that I have been given, for the great family that I have and for the amazing friends, teachers, and many other people with whom the Lord has blessed me. I know that this is his church. I know it with out a doubt because everytime that I enter into someone's house and we are able to feel the spirit there is no way of denying that this message comes from God. I am so grateful for the spirit, for if it wasn't for him I do not think that one person would listen to us. He is the true missionary. He is the real teacher. What a blessing the Lord has given us in giving us the guidance of the Spirit. I love you all so much. Have a good week. We are going to go to work this week. I will tell you about it next monday.
Love,
Elder Brown
1. Saying bye to the Ericksons. I love them
2. My buddy Elder Larsen, who I saw for the first time since we started the mission together. I love him
Wow, what a week. I cannot even explain how excited I am for the work. I love it so much. To see pictures of the Pedersons with their calls just makes me even more excited about the work. That is so awesome. Everyone in those pics looks so big. Zane looks like such a man, and I remember just like yesterday when he was a little tike and he always told me he would beat me in basketball. Then, I would just destroy him. Now he can probably beat me ha. I love missionary work!!! There is nothing better. Everyone should experience the great joy that comes from sharing the Gospel with the world. Well, I am glad to hear that all are doing so great. Good job Caiden, on rockin' it out there on the futbol field. I am glad to hear that all are doing well. Before I start telling you about all that has happened and is happening I just want to tell you that it might always be better to write me Sundays, because from now on I am going to be responding a lot earlier in the morning because we have to come use the computers bright and early to send all the numbers of the zone to the APs and then right after we do emails.
Ok, first I will attempt to answer all the questions of my wonderful mom. I LOVE MY NEW AREA!!! I will tell you more about it later. It's not too cold, except the strong wind that comes in from Antartica, that is a wind I have never felt before,oh, but it is cold. Not too bad, but really awesome to feel. It's like an Antartic fresh haha. Yes, it will take much longer for packages, that's one downfall of being at the end of the world, but it is nothing compared to all the amazingness that is southern Chile. Mother, you are going to be all worried when I tell you how much I have lost, but I have lost about 20 pounds. You must remember that I was pretty big when I left. I weighed 235 when I came out and now I wonder maybe about 210 or so haha. I am a skinny guy now. No, I did not throw my other shoes out because I had a friend in Pangui that was a shoe cobbler and he fixed my other ones the best he could for 4 dollars ha. Yes, I had more than one watch but now I just have the same one that I came out with. OK, I think that is about all the questions.
OK, now for info on what is going down here at the end of the world. This place is the promised land. The people here are so nice and loving. They stop to talk with us and are really open to us two gringos from Utah ha. We have been able to teach a lot of people the gospel. At this moment we have 11 people with goals to be baptized in the coming months. We are very excited. We have been really focusing on being worthy and inviting the spirit to show us what to do and how to do the work. We have had some great teaching experiences all ready and we are looking foward to having many more as long as we are worthy and willing to follow his promptings. Our ward is so awesome! Yesterday we had 115 people there in church. We are going to focus a ton on working through the members to find investigators because when Pres. Rappleye called me he promised us that if we worked with the members here that we would have a lot of success. Our Mamita is so awesome and I already love her so much. Dad, the trip here was a long one. Tuesday we traveled in a bus from Pangui all the way to Puerto Montt. We stayed the night there with me old comp. Elder Hoybjerg who also is a ZL. Then in the morning we took off for Punta Arenas in the plane. They gave me the emergency seats because there is more room and they saw how tall I was haha. It was a long trip. Dad you can try to look up the Poblacion Silva Enriquez but I still don't know our sector very good because it's huge and I don't know it all yet. The zone is all of Punta Arenas, Puerto Natales, and Porvenir. It is huge and we have the biggest zone of Elders in the mission and growing because of all the new Elders and Hermanas that are coming in ha.
Well, I think that is about all that I can tell you about the sector for now. Just know that I think it might be the best in all the mission and I am so excited to get going and to see some miracles happen. I love this work with all my heart it has changed me so much and there is so so so much to still be learned and to change. I feel so amazingly grateful for the life that I have been given, for the great family that I have and for the amazing friends, teachers, and many other people with whom the Lord has blessed me. I know that this is his church. I know it with out a doubt because everytime that I enter into someone's house and we are able to feel the spirit there is no way of denying that this message comes from God. I am so grateful for the spirit, for if it wasn't for him I do not think that one person would listen to us. He is the true missionary. He is the real teacher. What a blessing the Lord has given us in giving us the guidance of the Spirit. I love you all so much. Have a good week. We are going to go to work this week. I will tell you about it next monday.
Love,
Elder Brown
1. Saying bye to the Ericksons. I love them
2. My buddy Elder Larsen, who I saw for the first time since we started the mission together. I love him
March 11, 2013
Hola Familia y amigos,
I sure do hope I can get all the way through this email with out losing it. I sure do love you all and I am so grateful for your love and support. Without your prayers who knows where I would be! I love you all and I am glad to hear that all is well. Sounds like time just keeps marching on there and that lots of great things are happening. Brianne is coming to Chile Lindo!! Yay for her. She is going to love it. The Chileans are some great people. They are so loving, even if sometimes they don't want to listen to you. They are always willing to give you food or anything you ask for. (as long as you don't to baptize them haha). I sure do love los chilenos. That's so cool that Zane is also going Spanish speaking and that they leave at the same time. The work is moving forward so fast all over the world it is so awesome.
Alright, I am sure that everyone is pretty anxious to know what's going down with the transfers, but I think I will wait to tell you all haha. No, I will tell you. So, Saturday there was a baptism for the other elders here in Pangui, so we were getting ready for that and at about 7:00, right before the baptism was going to start, the phone of the other elders rings. E. Buron looks and says "PRESIDENT RAPPLEYE" and throws the phone to E. Crosby (all the members are watching this happen, by the way). E. Crosby answers and President asks E. Crosby to give the phone to Buron. He tells him that he will be training a new guy here in Pangui, then he passes it back to E. Crosby. Pres. tells him that he is going all the way down to Punta Arenas - the other side of the mission and the end of the world, haha, to be district leader. Then for some reason Pres. asks Crosby if he was with me and E. Crosby, having the phone on speaker phone so we can all hear says, yes we are all here together. Pres. then asks "What are you all doing having a party?!" After explaining why we were together, E. Crosby then loudly asks pres. "and Elder Brown is coming to Punta Arenas with me, huh?" President then says YES!! Everyone freaks out, then once again E. Crosby yells "and he is going as zone leader huh?!¨" and once again President Rappleye says yes!! He then spoke to me a little bit and told me how we are going to be able to have a lot of success down there and that it's the biggest zone in the mission. I am excited for the new experience, but more than anything, I am excited for who my comp. is. My first comp. from Utah, Elder Walker, who before going to the south was my zone leader. So I have worked with him and he is awesome, so so so awesome. He is from Bountiful and I am so excited! We are going to work our little bums off in the freezing cold of the south ha. My sector is called Patagonia and I hear it is very cold. I head out tomorrow. E. Cortez is very sad that I am going but his new comp. is great. I know him. He is also from Utah. So that is the big news of the week. Pretty crazy huh?!!! I am excited to work in the south with E. Walker.
The work in the sector is going very very good. We have 4 people working towards baptisms and there is many more to put with goals. I am a little sad to leave and not be able to see these people get baptized, but it seems that that has been the pattern of the mission and I am ok with that. I sure do love these people. There is nothing I would rather be doing than serving the Lord and the amazing people of Chile, no matter whether I see them get baptized or not. What an amazing work we are a part of. There is nothing more important, nothing worth more, and nothing that brings more blessings. I hope to continue serving the Lord with all that I have and that as I do so He will make up for the many many weaknesses I have. He is our savior, He has suffered for our weaknesses and as we trust in Him and try with all faith to improve in all humbleness, He some how is able to make those weak things strong. I have seen it almost every day of my mission. I love you all. Sorry I couldn't answer many questions.
Love,
Elder Brown
1 Me and the family of the Branch president
2 My favorite little kids
3 Elder Cortez mi hijo and I
I sure do hope I can get all the way through this email with out losing it. I sure do love you all and I am so grateful for your love and support. Without your prayers who knows where I would be! I love you all and I am glad to hear that all is well. Sounds like time just keeps marching on there and that lots of great things are happening. Brianne is coming to Chile Lindo!! Yay for her. She is going to love it. The Chileans are some great people. They are so loving, even if sometimes they don't want to listen to you. They are always willing to give you food or anything you ask for. (as long as you don't to baptize them haha). I sure do love los chilenos. That's so cool that Zane is also going Spanish speaking and that they leave at the same time. The work is moving forward so fast all over the world it is so awesome.
Alright, I am sure that everyone is pretty anxious to know what's going down with the transfers, but I think I will wait to tell you all haha. No, I will tell you. So, Saturday there was a baptism for the other elders here in Pangui, so we were getting ready for that and at about 7:00, right before the baptism was going to start, the phone of the other elders rings. E. Buron looks and says "PRESIDENT RAPPLEYE" and throws the phone to E. Crosby (all the members are watching this happen, by the way). E. Crosby answers and President asks E. Crosby to give the phone to Buron. He tells him that he will be training a new guy here in Pangui, then he passes it back to E. Crosby. Pres. tells him that he is going all the way down to Punta Arenas - the other side of the mission and the end of the world, haha, to be district leader. Then for some reason Pres. asks Crosby if he was with me and E. Crosby, having the phone on speaker phone so we can all hear says, yes we are all here together. Pres. then asks "What are you all doing having a party?!" After explaining why we were together, E. Crosby then loudly asks pres. "and Elder Brown is coming to Punta Arenas with me, huh?" President then says YES!! Everyone freaks out, then once again E. Crosby yells "and he is going as zone leader huh?!¨" and once again President Rappleye says yes!! He then spoke to me a little bit and told me how we are going to be able to have a lot of success down there and that it's the biggest zone in the mission. I am excited for the new experience, but more than anything, I am excited for who my comp. is. My first comp. from Utah, Elder Walker, who before going to the south was my zone leader. So I have worked with him and he is awesome, so so so awesome. He is from Bountiful and I am so excited! We are going to work our little bums off in the freezing cold of the south ha. My sector is called Patagonia and I hear it is very cold. I head out tomorrow. E. Cortez is very sad that I am going but his new comp. is great. I know him. He is also from Utah. So that is the big news of the week. Pretty crazy huh?!!! I am excited to work in the south with E. Walker.
The work in the sector is going very very good. We have 4 people working towards baptisms and there is many more to put with goals. I am a little sad to leave and not be able to see these people get baptized, but it seems that that has been the pattern of the mission and I am ok with that. I sure do love these people. There is nothing I would rather be doing than serving the Lord and the amazing people of Chile, no matter whether I see them get baptized or not. What an amazing work we are a part of. There is nothing more important, nothing worth more, and nothing that brings more blessings. I hope to continue serving the Lord with all that I have and that as I do so He will make up for the many many weaknesses I have. He is our savior, He has suffered for our weaknesses and as we trust in Him and try with all faith to improve in all humbleness, He some how is able to make those weak things strong. I have seen it almost every day of my mission. I love you all. Sorry I couldn't answer many questions.
Love,
Elder Brown
1 Me and the family of the Branch president
2 My favorite little kids
3 Elder Cortez mi hijo and I
March 4, 2013
Am so sorry to tell everyone that I was finishing my letter and it was all deleted and I can not find it anywhere. I am very frustrated to say the least, because I was all done, like all the way done. So I am sorry I don't have any time to write now. I had some great advice for Caiden and everything, but now I don't have the time or the will to write it all again. I love you all so much. Tell Bridger happy late birthday. I love that boy so much, he is so big. This is the last week of the transfer and the training of Elder Cortez. I can't believe how fast it has gone by. I love the mission with all my heart. I continue to learn and grow so much. I have learned a lot this last week about the importance of the Spirit in our lives and I sure do desire His presence and guidance as much as possible in my life. I know by that same power of the Spirit that this is God's church on the earth, that there is a prophet on this earth that guides the church. I love the gospel so much. There is nothing that will make us more happy than living this gospel and seeking the Spirit in all that we do. I love you all and I thank you so much for your prayers and support. I love you all.
Love,
Elder Brown
Please forgive me for the short letter. I feel so bad.
1. Elder Buron and I
2. Pretty Pangui
Love,
Elder Brown
Please forgive me for the short letter. I feel so bad.
1. Elder Buron and I
2. Pretty Pangui
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