August 24, 2013

Hola Familia y Amigos,

Wow, what an awesome week. I will tell you more later. First... I love hearing from you all. Thank you so much for remembering me, even though I am sure that it takes a big effort to find time in the day to write me. I love you all so very much and thank you for all that you do for me. I am glad to hear that all is well. That is so crazy that Caiden is now a Junior and that he already started the school year. I didn't even realize that it was time for that. That blows me away. AS well, that Ryan Draper is married, ha wow, that is so crazy. It seems to me that almost all my friends are home now. I might be the last one standing, but I am going down swinging. That is so cool that Lacee is working up there in Heber keeping the team alive. As well, its always great to hear from the Peterson family and to see how big the boys are. It blows me away. Wade sounds like he is working a lot but that he is doing great. I appreciate every single one of you and I love you all so much.

Well, I was so hurried in writing you last week that I forgot to tell you some pretty big news... Elder Balbuena, me, Pres and Sister Rappleye headed down to Coyhaique, which is the second most southern zone in our mission, which also requires getting on a plane, and happened to be the only part of the mission that I did not know. Well we left Wednesday and we got back a few hours ago. Ha, try that one on for size. Who would have thought that I would fly so much in my mission. It was an awesome week there though. We went for the zone conference and we took advantage to do as many divisions as possible to get to know the missionaries and learn from them. I will tell you I learned a lot from a lot of great Elders. It was an awesome week of learning. E Balbuena and I tried to take advantage of traveling with Pres. Rappleye for a lot of hours to ask him a lot of questions and learn as much as we could from him. I tell you right now Pres. does not disappoint - he taught us so much in the last few days and hours that we were traveling together. While there in Coyhaique I had an experience that I have never had in the mission, haha, a bunch of kids threw rocks at me and Elder Hawkins while we were in divisions. It was pretty funny, luckily they only hit us with snow balls, haha. It was a good week though. I loved it so much. I learned so much and Coyhaique looks a lot like Utah, so that was really cool as well.

Before I wrap things up I will share just a few things of what I learned. Through out the time in the mission so far I have learned a lot about the importance of the spirit. Learning more about this, I have found myself always trying to verify whether I am following the spirit or not. Well, we were talking to Pres. Rappleye about this on the way to Coyhaique and he said something that really changed my way of thinking. It does not matter if we know whether we are following the spirit, it is important that we are always trying to follow him. Why do we have to know if the spirit guided us to do some thing? So we can get prideful that we know that the spirit guides us and end up losing that same spirit we were looking for? I learned that it does not matter whether we know if the spirit guided us to do something, but that we are always trying to follow impressions whether they come from the spirit or not. Go and do and don´t judge the outcomes. The spirit is so important and with out him we could do nothing, but searching for how much he guides us will do nothing. Always focusing on inviting him and following what we feel is the way to go. I hope that I can learn to focus on following the spirit more than focusing on whether he is guiding me or not. I love the Gospel, it is the best thing that has ever happened to me. I love the mission, there is nothing better in the world for young men and young women. There is much more to learn, much more to improve and that is what I am going to go try and do. I love you all.

Love,

Elder Brown

August 17, 2013

Hola Familia y amigos,

First things first, Happy Birhtday POPS. I sure do love you Dad. There is no greater hero for me than my Dad. Every time I think about what kind of man I want to be and what I want to be when I grow up, hahahaha, I think about my Dad. There is nothing better than that. When ever there is an important date for some one I always have to write them a few sentences of thanks because there is no other way to show my thanks. My Pops has always been my great example. When I think of a humble servant of the Lord I think of my Dad, one who "lifts where he stands" (I will tell you more about what I learned about that phrase later in my letter.) My Dad is a great example of charity and patience as well, because having to deal with me growing up you have to have those attributes. I sure love you Dad and I am so thankful for all you have taught and continue to teach me in my life. I love you, happy birthday.

I am so glad to hear from you all. I thought for a minute that this morning when I checked and I didn´t have anything but an email from my faithful friend Rick, I thought that maybe my family had died from working so hard on the youth conference. I am so glad to hear that all went well. It sounds like it was a huge success, that the spirit was felt and that the food was good, two of my most favorite things, haha. I am so proud of my wonderful parents. I am sure it was one of the best youth conferences that those youth have ever seen.

Thanks Dad for the pics. I sure do love to see what everyone is looking like. If you have any pics of Brady´s wedding I would love to see him. I might not believe that he got married other wise. I met a kid here in the mission named Elder Palmer that just got here to the mission that swam for BYU and he said that the whole team was on top of Brady trying to get him married.

Just to clear things up: Elder Balbuena has not left me yet haha. Elder Anderson went home with a group of Elders that left a little bit before the transfer to get home to prepare for school. Elder Balbuena doesn´t leave till the 28th. Then, the next group is me and my buds in October. Mom, I am sure that my friend, the secretary of the mission, Elder Moreno, will send you more info when the time is right. Yes, you're right POPS, I can´t even imagine serving in another mission than this one. There is just too much I love about it. Dad, usually when we sleep in other places they have mattresses, but hey, a mission wouldn´t be a mission without sleeping on the floor a couple times, haha, if not all the time.

I can´t believe that tomorrow you will see Elder Anderson, and just a few days ago he was here with me. I already miss the guy and his great example that he always gave me. Tell him that I love him and remind him to give you what I gave to him for you all. As well, remind him that he can´t do anything cool without me haha he has to wait.

Well, a little about the week. It was a busy one with sending off Elder Anderson and crew and then the rest of the week we were here in the office doing........ NUMBERS. I never thought that I would be doing that on my mission. Hey, I will just "lift where I stand" though and do it with all my might. We were doing that because on Friday we had mission leader council where all the zone and hermana leaders come to the mission home and they first present their zones and then with Pres. we council over a few things like rules and working with members in the mission. We worked on a report of every zone in the mission that the Zone leaders report on in front of everyone. We also this week had the amazing chance to work with Pres. on the tranfers, which has been a super awesome experience for me of learning. I was amazed at how so much work, with the help and guidance of the Lord, can turn out so good. I thought that in some cases with some transfers one would feel a bit doubtful, but to walk in and on the wall see all the tranfers done in the office of Pres. and begin to council with Pres., I can honestly say that I knew that was where those missionaries needed to be. The Lord knows what he is doing and he works through Pres. Rappleye to do it, and I just feel blessed to see how it works and know that it is so true.

Well fam, that is about all I can think of this week. Oh yeah big news, haha, in the mission leader council together with Pres. and all the zone leaders they modified the rule of writing and now we are allowed to email other people as well as our families as long as it is to edify and support them. So that was pretty cool. I invite everyone to read the talk "Lift where you stand" by Elder Uchtdorf. I feel that every single missionary and future one needs to read it and apply it. I love it. I have learned that the Lord never looks at the positions that we hold, but how we serve him. He looks for the noble servant not the serving noble. Pres. Utchdorf told us to cease to aspire to callings or asignments and cease to retire from them as well. I sure love the Gospel. I am so grateful for the chance to be here and serve the Lord. I feel that my deepest desire is truly to edifiy his Kingdom and I hope he feels that he can rely of me to do it. I love you all.

Love,

Elder Brown

August 11, 2013

I am so sorry for not writing yesterday!!! It was a crazy one and we didn´t find a time to sit down and write. I hope that you all forgive me ha. I am glad to hear that all is well. Those pics from Mexico are so cool. They made Elder Balbuena really happy and maybe a little trunky since he only has about 2 weeks more until he goes home. I will be really sad to see this next group of Elders leave because first off my comp is heading out and he is so awesome, but also my buddy, Elder Anderson, who I know I will see right after, but it will be hard to not have him here in the mission with me. I love that guy and I sure hope that our friendship continues after the mission as well. I am so grateful to have him in the same mission as me because I was always hearing about how awesome he was doing and it always pushed me to try to be better. I would venture to say that Elder Anderson is one of the hardest working missionaries in this whole mission. I love him. As well, my two comps Elder Hoyjberg and Stanley are heading home along with a lot of other good friends. It's going to be hard to see them go. I got to see Elder Anderson last night there in Valdivia. I will tell you why I was there later.

Well Fam, it's always good to hear from you and to know that all is well. Mother, in this email you asked a lot of questions that are quite hard to answer, ha. I am not sure if I can do it, but I will try my hardest. First with one, my release date is....................... ohhhhhhhhhhh it hurts and I can´t believe it, but its the 9th of October. I still got a solid 2 months to work hard. The second question is a lot harder. What am I going to do after the mission about school??? That one I don´t think I have a sure answer yet. I am leaning towards the plan of going to UVU for one semester then transfering to BYU. I believe that I want to go to BYU. If my sweet parents could please look in to whether I can apply now for BYU or if I should wait till I get home. As well, I think it would be good to look into UVU. I don´t think that I need to reapply, or do I? I really don´t want to go there for very long. Maybe as well it would be good to look into whether I can reapply for the scholarship that I had it was a one year one, but I don´t know if I can reapply for it or not. I forgot all about that stuff. If you could help me that would be great and this week I will try to decide. Tell Rick I won´t be leaving far away, I just couldn´t.

Well, it was another fun week full of all kinds of activities. The most of it was Zone conferences, which were awesome. I love zone conference and it was even better this time because I got to go to all of them. So I got to learn even more than I usually do. As well as get to know all the many Elders that are here in the mission. On Tuesday we were in Valdivia, on Thursday we were here in Osorno and on Friday we were in Puerto Montt. We were all over the place, haha, and within all those conferences there was a lot of taking Elders here and dropping others off there. It was a crazy whirlwind this last week. One night we stayed in the house of Elder Anderson and I enjoyed being with him for a little bit. My sleeping bag is super awesome and I have been staying super warm. So I will tell you why I didn´t get a chance to write you yesterday. It was because we had an emergency transfer and we had to take an Elder to Valdivia. It was actually to be with the comp of Elder Anderson, since he is going home next week his comp was going to need a new comp. So we drove the Elder up there. Well, while we were there the Zone leaders called us with a few questions and we ended up meeting up with them at an activity that happened to be in my old church when I was in Calle Calle. So we went and spoke with the ZLs and afterwards the Elders told us we should go in the church and stay awhile for a stake activity they were doing. We didn´t have much time but we went in and it was a talent show, but we didn´t go into where all the people were until my old Mamita, who was the host in the talent show, saw me through the window in the door then grabbed the microphone and announced in front of everyone that there was a special guest and she called me in, haha! I was a little embarresed but I walked in and was able to say hi to many great friends from my old ward. So to make a story short, we got home really late here to Osorno and there was no time to write, please forgive me.

Well fam, I am sorry that this email was so bad. I kinda threw it together really fast. I just want you all to know that I love you. I love this work, I hope that in the time that I have left I can give it all to the Lord. I hope that for whatever reason I am where I am that I can do what he had planned for me. I have so many desires to help the people around me all I can. Day and day again my weaknesses stop me from doing so and I hope that the Lord can help me out and have mercy on me and help me to do his will. I love you all.
Love,
Elder Brown

1. Some of the boys from my group in the zone conference
2. 3 of my comps all together haha
3. Some of the Osorno zone after playing basketball

Rick,

Don´t worry Rick I approve but hey man don´t go to fast. Don´t forget to wait for me as well. It sounds like quite a few people are blown away with all that has happened in these last few weeks haha I hope that all is well my good friend. I love you so much. I tell you that I approve but that you have to wait for me and that you have to go slow and see if things go well or not but just go slow and see how things go. I sure love you man thanks for always remembering to update me.
Love,
Elder Brown

Jenna,

Thanks so much for writing me. But hey why so short I am waiting an email a lot better then that haha. I sent a letter awhile back and I can´t believe that you didn´t get it. That bums me out it was a good letter haha it took me a long time to write because there is like no time haha. Hey keep writing me and I will get a letter written but for now its just going to be short clips like this haha. Thanks for your support and prayers. Keep writing. Oh and P days are saturdays now so if you want me to read it it has to be there before saturday haha sorry.

Love,
Elder Brown