January 22, 2012

Hola Familia y Amigos,
 

Hola de Chile. It's been an awesome week that has just totally flown by! Oh my goodness, I can't even believe it, and what a week it was, but I will fill you all in on that later. First, I hope everything is going well back at home. I am sure that everyone is staying busy and it sounds like some of the girls had a fun weekend together. Dad, I am glad that you are doing alright. I hope you keep feeling better. I will continue to pray for you and all you guys. Dear Elder is an awesome way to write; that seems to work fine as of right now. I have not got my package yet mom, but the zone leaders are giving us any mail that we have tonight. They are actually at the office right now to get it, so I am not sure if I got it or not. Oh, and mother, soccer will never become my favorite sport, but yes, we play it a lot and I like it fine. Football will always be there in my heart though, haha. That's so crazy to hear about Timp basketball and how Jantzen made that last three to win. That would totally be him doing that to Timp, of all schools, ha! You will have to tell him nice job for me. I feel so bad for Ryan Hamilton. I hope that everything works out and that he will be able to go back out. I love that guy. If you ever see him again make sure to tell him I love him. That is so awesome about Brant and Jana! I am so excited for them. That is really really cool. Now I will have some one new to meet when I come home ha. I am sure he will end up just like a little Brant and oh how fun that will be. Or maybe he will turn out like Jana and like to feel people's ears, haha! I am just messing, if you read this Jana. I think it's great when you rub ears, haha. It's good to hear that home is back to normal with snow on the ground during this time of year.  It's so weird not to have snow in January. I hope everyone in the fam is doing good.

 

Now for a little update on what's going on down here in Rahue. We worked our bums off this week and I think that is why the week went by so fast. We were calling people all the time, inviting everyone to church, contacting as many people as we could and teaching to the best of our ability. It was an awesome week and I can't wait to improve even more. That is what is so great about missionary work and even in life in general. The ability to change for the better and improve and progress is an amazing blessing and brings so much fulfillment and happiness. It is amazing. I am so grateful for the plan of salvation and for the ability it gives us to progress, not only in this life, but for eternity. We have the ability to change and become better and reach our potential and become better than we ever thought we could. What an amazing gift. What satisfaction it brings to look back and know that you changed something for the better; that you conquered a weakness. Oh boy, I can't even tell you how much I want to improve in such little time out here on the mission. Plus, not only do I get the chance to really mold myself but I get to help others do that as well and really see the potential that God has intended for them. Wooooo, so cool.

 

Ok, now really fast I will tell you about what we did today on our trip. We went to a place called Puyehue and it was pretty darn awesome! It was like this vacation resort with hikes and stuff and hot springs. We took a hike up to the top of this little mountain and at the top you could look out and see for miles of green. It was so pretty and so awesome. The problem was it was hard to get really good pictures because there was a lot of fog. I will send them to you as soon as I can. I never have the opportunity to even think about what I am going to do about pictures. I am sure I will find out some way to send them, ha. For now I will just keep doing what I am doing. I am a little scared to send them home from where I am right now though. I don't want to pick up a virus, so I will have to send them another time.

 

Well, I love you guys tons. Don't worry about me and Elder Purser. We are just workin' our bums off, ha! Oh yeah, I forgot, Elders Hamblin and Cross leave this Wednesday; kinda sad but that's ok, ha. Well I love you all so much.

 

Love,

Elder Brown

Brittany,

I hope everything with the fam is going well. The boys sound as cute as ever. I love them so much. Sounds like you all had a fun trip down with the girls. I love you so much and your boys also.

Love,

Elder Brown

Lacee,

I am so glad to hear that you are getting more used to school and stuff. Also I am glad to hear that you found a job so you could stay busy like out on the mission. Holy smokes, it's crazy how you just go non-stop out here. I love it though. Tell all those new friends of yours at school and also tell all the new boys to stay away or they will have your BIG bro to deal with haha. Notice how I said big haha. Love you so much. 

Love,

Elder Brown

Caiden,

Whats up mi hermanito flaquito? Como esta little man.? Even if you grow taller than me I will always call you little, ha. Sounds like everything is going good back at home. Remember that you need to take care of Mom and Dad now that you are the only kid at home. I love you tons Brother. You are so awesome. Keep workin' hard and studying those scriptures. 

Love,

Elder Brown

Elder Diaz,

¿Como esta compañero? La misíon es genial. El obra es bacan(chito). Espoñol es mas o menos. Usted puede ver eso. Coundo yo hablo acerca el Evangelio es mejor pero con otras cosas como este es difícil pero, estoy aprendiendo cada dia. Como esta Peru en su misíon. Espero que es bueno. 

Con amor,

Elder Brown

January 16, 2012

Hola Familia y amigos,

¿Como estan? I love hearing about everything thats going down in good old O town. I can't believe all that has happened since I have left and it hasn't even been that long. Is Jeffery Izatt going to the same mission as Zach? Yes, I got a letter from Sister Norris; she is very sweet. Make sure to thank her for me and give her a big hug. I also got letters from Rick Doxey, Whitney, and some other friends from school. It was great to hear from all of them.

So this week was an awesome week. We decided at the beginning of the week that we would focus on getting people to come to church this week. So all week long we worked and worked and worked. We reminded everyone and invited everyone we saw to come to church. We knew that if we showed the Lord that we were willing to do all we could to get people to come he would bless us. So Saturday night comes around and we were calling everyone to remind them one last time. Everyone starts to fall through, telling us that they couldn't come anymore. We just had faith that there were going to be people there. At church the next day we are just sitting there and no one was there. Church started and still no one. Then, right before the sacrament, People just flooded in. Members, inactives, and investigators! We had over 120 members at church when we usually have like 80. It was amazing. I could not help but just be so excited and happy. God knows us, he loves us, he is our Father; just like it says I think in the sermon on the mount or in 3rd Nephi, if our fathers here on earth know how to give good gifts how much more does our perfect Heavenly Father know how to give us what we need. Oh man, I love missionary work! Seeing that overflow open this Sunday was such a blessing. I know that if we do all we can and leave the rest to the Lord we can do what ever is asked of us.

Ok enough of that. Now to answer questions. The weather is awesome here; super warm, sometimes too hot though, but I am loving it. My allergies have not been bad at all this past week so thats good. For p-day usually we go play soccer and then go out to lunch with the fab six - Elder Purser and me, Elder Cross and Elder Key the zone leaders and Elder Hamblin and Elder Anderson. Then we go buy groceries and stuff. I don't know if we told you but last week we had permission to watch BYU football highlights that Elder Hamblin had because he red-shirted there. So that was sweet. I was loving it. That's about all we do on P-days except next week we are going to do a zone trip some where cool to see something so that will be fun. Hm, Dad about the Jobs here, I'm not sure what to tell you. People are pretty poor here, but for Chile not everyone in our sector is to bad. Some better than others. There are a lot of painters, a lot of guys work construction and they go out to the campo a lot to pick fruits. Mostly cherries which are so so good here. Compared to the states though most people are pretty poor. It's very humbling and I just love these people. The little kids are my favorite though. I have two really good buddies - little Thomas, a 4 year old boy whose family are members - he is one of my favorites. We play all the time. Then little Catolina who is 3. She is so cute and she always comes over and wants to play with me at church. The young men here are awesome. They come out and work with us all day and I really love all of them. Some of them have added me on facebook so you can accept them Dad. What I am thinking I might do is just have Nacho, the boy of the momita, send all my pictures in an email until I come up with a system. I think I need a usb memory thing though to put all my pictures on. I need one huge favor though. You know how I gave my nice spanish triple away. It would be awesome if you could find me a nice Spanish triple with tabs that you could send me because you can't get one with tabs here. That would be so amazing if you could. I just want to have nice missionary scriptures you know.

Well thanks or everything family and friends I love you all.

Love,
Elder Brown

Lacee,
Wow it blows my mind that you are already at school in school and have roommates my age. That is so crazy that you are rooming with one of Jenna's friends ha! I laughed pretty hard when I saw that. I love getting letters though so you can tell anyone to write me. It just might take me forever to write back ha. I hope things start to get better over there. I know you are going to be fine though. Thanks for your awesome example though. I love you so very much. Keep working hard though.
Love,
Your bro Elder Brown

Brittany,
I love hearing all about the boys and how they are doing. They really are like the cutest boys ever. I love them so much and I can't believe that they already seem bigger. Don't let them forget me. Keep doing an awesome job at raising your fam. You are such an awesome mom and sister and example to me. I love you so much.
Love,
Elder Brown

Caiden,
Keep working hard in school, in Basketball, and in reading the scriptures. I know you're doing awesome. I love you so much bro and iImiss you tons.
Love,
Elder Brown

On a cool old bridge in Rahue

Our house

 

Elder Cross my zone leader. Looks like Ryan Draper huh?

January 9, 2012

Hola de Chile!

   Como estamos? I hope everything is going good back in O town and now in Cedar as well. I cannot believe that Lacee is already at school. I am so scared at how fast the time flies by here on the mission. I have so much to learn and I have so much to improve on and the time is just flying by. 

   Everything is going good down here. We have had kind of a rough week this week. Susan and her family fell through. They left to go on vacation some where for a really long time, so that was rough for us. So it was a tough week. One day, every single one of our "citas" fell through, so we just walked and knocked doors all day. Cool story though - we walked all day and at about 7:30 we were both just so dead and tired and didn't want to walk anymore and knock anymore doors. But we walked in front of this one house and we both look at it and just kinda sit there for a second. Then I just said, "I'm doing it" and we walk up and knock the door. This lady answers and as soon as she sees us she rolls her eyes. I start in on introducing ourselves and she says "I know you guys" in Spanish of course ha. She goes into this big story about how she was baptized and all her family has been members their whole life and how she knew that it wasn't true. She didn't stop there though, she was just tearing into us. We begin to bear testimony and the conversation starts to change. She revealed to us that her son died in her arms about 1 year ago when he was five. He had been hit by a bus and she had taken it so hard. She told us she felt like not living any longer. We both bore our testimonies about how God loves us all, that he knows us, that he cares about us and that he wants us to be happy. We all cried out there on that porch. It was very touching to see the change that happened to her right there within that hour of talking on her porch. I know the Spirit can change peoples hearts. All we have to do is bare our simple testimony of the truth we know to be true. We have been visiting her and we are hoping to get her husband with a baptism date when we go back to teach. 

   We kept having a hard week though. I got to direct my area for the first time because we had exchanges and Elder Hamblin, the comp of Elder Anderson, came with me and the two noobies. Elder Anderson and I lead our sectors. That was a good day and I learned a lot from Elder Hamblin. I love him. So, we have been struggling to get our investigators to come to church. So, we came to the conclusion that we were going to go search for people before church started. So we leave our house and as soon as we get in the "colectivo" (small bus) to take us up to our sector, it started to rain hard. We didn't have our coats, just in our suits, ha. So we sprint to one of our investigators houses and we knock three times and no one answers. Soaked by now, we ran out of time and had to go back down to the church. Though we were soaked and we got no one to come to church, for some reason I felt so happy as I welcomed people into church soaking wet. All I know is that we showed the Lord our faith and I know he has and will bless us as long as we are willing to be faithful.

   OK, now to answer some questions. I love Chile. There are things that I thought it would be like and there are things that are different. I don't get nervous talking to people, I usually just go up to them and belt out all the Spanish I can, ha. I just say it and don't think about the Spanish ha. So sometimes it comes out rough and sometimes good. The Spanish is coming a long. I am learning a lot and I love it. I love the food; it is great and I haven't had anything too bad yet, it's good. Clothes and everything are good. Thanks mom for being so great and doing some great shopping for me. The allergies are better. Some of it is because of the ash in the air from the volcanoes. If its a clear day from a good spot you can see 4 of them, ha. For New Years we went and ate at a members house until 11 and they took us home in their car to be safe ha. Then we waited till 12 in our pj's and gave each other hugs ha and went to bed ha. The problem was as soon as we turned out the lights our neighbors broke out the music, singing and drinking ha. So we didn't sleep too well. 

Well, I love you family so much! Thanks for your support and love. Mom, I love you. Don't worry and thanks for being the most amazing mom in the whole world! You are the best. Dad, I love you so much and thank you for being someone that I could always look up to and be my example.

Love,

Elder Brown 

Caiden,

Hey bud keep plugging away with school and b ball and try to grow those muscles of yours ha. Good luck with every thing. Keep reading the BOM.

Lacee,

I can't believe you are off at school, that is crazy, and that your going on dates! That is weird. Your car looks sweet. I am totally driving it a few times when I get back. Good luck with the real world and school. I know you will do awesome. I love you.

Brittany,

Your the best little mom and your boys are the cutest. Thank you so much for the calendar. I love it!!! Tell the boys I love them.

 

  

December 31, 2011

Hola familia y amigos,
I know Mom is going to be so mad that she didn´t get to send me an email this week and i am sorry that i didn´t get the info to you that my p day got switched to Saturday but i didn´t know till after i talked to you guys on skype a few days later. They changed it again this week because of the new year because everyone is just going to get drunk. The next time i email you will be not this next coming Monday but the next. Don´t worry though everything is going so good down here and i am loving it.
First off Christmas was awesome and i had a good time sharing about Jesus Christ during such a great time of year. I just wish we would have got more of a chance to teach and share but since so many people just get drunk down here we didn´t get to work a whole ton. Its the same with this week we can´t be out working in less we have citas. We struggled big time getting citas for the weekend to because no one wants to take any time to listen to the message of there SALVATION!!!!! Especially during the new year. So last few days we have been working really hard to find and yesterday we contacted about 60 people looking for people we could begin to start teach. Here when you contact on the street you have to be real fast because if your not fast all they say is "estoy acupado" and shake there finger at us. So we usually get straight to the point and tell them we have a message about Jesus Christ and the restoration of his church. Or our message can bless families something flashy and fast to catch there attention then we go in and say yo soy elder Brown somos representantes de Jesucristo. The greatest thing about this past week after talking to my great family who all looked great was that i got my first accepted challenge for baptism this week. I have been shut down a few times. This week though i challenged a husband and a wife to prepare for baptism for this up coming month on the 28th and Susan the wife said these exact words to answer. "Yes i will do that. What time is Church!!!!" We are still working on the husband Louis but we will get him for sure he is just a thinker and i think he is sincerely searching to find the truth so i know he will get his answer soon. His wife just has amazing faith and she is just awesome. They also have an 11 old daughter that we hope to help towards baptism as well. That is the highlight of the week.
Today for P-day we went and played soccer at the church and then did a picture scavenger hunt with our zone and the Osorno zone. Where er had to go out and take pictures of things. It was lots of fun. Then after that we went and shopped and got lunch with the Zone leaders and Elder Anderson and Elder Hamblin (who is now my favorite because he loves George straight) but really Hamblin is amazing and he goes home to Orem this cambio so that's kinda sad. Know i am just sitting in a little ciber cafe writing my family and friends.
I want to say thanks to all who have written me letters or sent me Christmas cards in the past few days thank you so much Sister Norris, Elder Dowd, Doxeys, Jenna, and also for all the little notes from the word and extended family thank you so much.
Thank you Brittany for the package and Mom i am sure you threw something in there. I love you all so very much. I am lovin everything out here and i am doing great don´t worry about me. The Lord is helpin us missionaries.

Lacee- Thanks for your email. I am loving it out here. It sounds like your doing alright back in the real world, and that you are adjusting ok. I hope everything goes well while looking for your beautiful SUV. I love you so much thanks for your great example.

Love,
Elder Brown

PS Mother in the next package you send will you put the shaving heads in there and also some deodorant and that would be so awesome of you. Thank you my wonderful mom. You are the very very best.

December 24, 2011

Hola familia!!!

Sorry the first email toook so long to get there. Everything is going really good down here in Rahue. Yes, we are just across the river from Osorno. I don't know our exact address, but we are right across the street from the church on the corner of Valpariso and Iquque. It is back behind a couple of the houses though, so I don't know that exact address. Our house is awesome. It sure isn't like anything that I saw from Lacee's mission, but it is good. I sure am in Chile though. My bed is good. I sleep so amazing at night. I love it. Yes, I do have a Mamita and she does cook lunch for us and do our laundry. Actually, Papito usually makes lunch for us. They are a family of 6 and they are all awesome. They have been taking care of the missionaries for years. They are so kind. I love them all. We are skyping from the mission home because we are way close, but they aren't really having anything over there for us besides maybe a little bit of food or something.

 

I am calling you on skype at 8:30 pm tomorrow. I am so excited to see all of you; it's going to be awesome.

It sounds like everything is going really well back at home for Christmas. It barely feels like Christmas here because it is so warm and there is no snow. I am really excited. It should be fun.

So guess what; tonight I have my first baptism!! Sweet, huh? He is a great guy and so prepared. I actually only taught him like three times, but he has attended church so much that he knows everything. He is very prepared, and one of the members of the Mamita's family is baptizing him so its going to be good. Two other people are getting baptized. Elder   Anderson is doing one of them, so that will be cool.

 

We had an activity last night at the church. It was a dinner for all the members and all the investigators we could get to come. We got one lady and her two sons to come and I was so happy because it was like pulling teeth to get her to come, but once she got there I think she had fun and so did her two sons. I was so happy that she came. Now we just need her to go to church. We are struggling to get people to come to church right now. We are teaching a lot of good people but they just won't come and all I want to do is get them to go. I try to tell them what I am feeling in the broken Spanish that I have. Spanish is actually coming a long OK. It's still really hard to understand and talk in normal conversations, but gospel talk I have done alright. I went on an intercambio with Elder Cross yesterday and that was really fun. I really love him and I am sad he will be going home at the end of this cambio, but he taught me a lot for the one day we went out together. Another Elder is leaving this cambio in our zone. He is Elder Anderson's comp, Elder Hamblin. He is awesome too and he is a great example. I am going to miss him when he leaves. He actually lives in Orem and went to Orem High. I told Elder Cross that when he goes back to BYU he needs to go over to the house and meet all you guys. What else happened this past week? We had Zone conference and that was way cool. I learned a lot even though it was all in Spanish. After the zone conference we went out to a little town called Rio Negro with two other zones and we sang at their town party thing they were having for Christmas. We also gave out pass along cards and pamphlets. It was a good old time till it started pouring rain, ha! It was cool though. That's about all I have to report for this week.

 

Well that's about all I have  to write. I am so excited to talk to you guys tomorrow. I love you all so much.

Love,

Elder Brown

PS Get some people to write me letters, haha!! I love letters and pictures. 

December 19, 2011

Hola Familia,

   So I made it to Chile alright, pretty crazy I know. I can´t believe that Lacee is already home and that she is back into the real life. That is so crazy. So my first zone is Rahue Bajo 2. It is right outside of Osorno. It's pretty awesome. I am just trying to get to know our sector a little better and stuff. We have settled in good though. My companion is Elder Purser. He has been out a little over a year and he is from Alabama. We might have the biggest companionship in the whole mish, it's pretty sweet. I live with 4 Elders. The other companionship are the zone leaders Elder Key and Elder Cross. 

   The mission pres is really cool. I like him a lot. I was so happy when we flew into the little tiny Osorno airport. I kinda felt like a was where I was supposed to be, like it was my home. Pres was there to greet  us. We went to the mission home in Osorno and had lunch. It was way good. It was lasagna, mmmm! Then we had interviews and stuff, had some orientation, had dinner, then went to a hotel to stay the night. The next day we met our trainers and headed out to our areas. It was sad saying bye to the fantastic four of the mtc, but I am sure I will see them again. 

    This mission has to be the most beautiful mish in the world. It is way legit and I love it. It's way green and  the people are great. Now for some funny stories. So we knocked on this lady's door and she came out and with her are her crazy kids. They started running around and messing around while we were talking to her. Then all the sudden we hear this ewww from all the kids turn and look and one of the kids had dropped his pants and starting peeing. It was funny.  But little kids are not the only ones that pee in public. Yesterday we saw a drunk guy in the street and he was just peeing in a corner ha. The drunks always want to talk to us and we always just hear this loud mormones and turn around to see guys who are just about to pass out beckoning us to come talk to them. It's funny. There are a lot of Evangelical people here and they like to fight with us. It's pretty funny to see my comp try to talk to them and I have no idea what they are saying. Then I just pipe in and tell them who we are and that the gospel is true and the Book of Mormon is true and we are the only ones that have the authority to baptize. Then we leave, it's pretty funny. 

   So I got some awesome news. We can skype this Christmas, meaning you can see my face and I get to see you. So you guys need to set up an account and get a camera to hook  up to the comp. or just use someones mac. You can send me all the info about your account before Saturday because we have another p day Saturday for some weird reason. So email me before then. I will be skyping you from the mission home at 8:30 here, so I am not sure what time it will be there. I am so excited.

   So the mission rule is we only write one email to home so you will only get one from me every week and I will just include everything for everyone in one. 

The address you send all the mail to is the mission home or office. Here is the address.

 

Elder Tanner Brown 

Mision Chile Osorno 

Casilla  7-0

Osorno Chile 

 

Well I love you so much family. I have not got that package that you have sent yet, but it takes a way long time to come. I love you all. I hope everything is going well and you guys are all reading the scrips. Lacee don´t get married too fast. Caiden I love you. Keep reading and preparing for when you will come here. 

Love,

Elder Bown

December 7, 2011

Hola familia y amigos,
   Once again parents, sorry i couldn´t write one just to you but i have no time. This week was a really good week. We lost our native companions yesterday because they left to the mission field. There is a new batch coming in tomorrow but we don´t get any of them since we will only be here for a week more and all the other gringos are here for three more weeks. Everything is awesome in here. The other night they had a big revealing of Christmas lights and we got to have cake and take pictures. It was so awesome. We were all so happy. After i am done with this we get to go on a tour of Lima. I am so excited and then we get to play night soccer.
   So for your questions, if i can remember them, we have no idea what the plans are for us leaving. They don´t give them to us until the day before we leave because they want us to stay focused. So i can´t answer any of those questions except we are still leaving on Tuesday next week, i believe, ha i know nothing else.
   So guess what i got to do this last week on Saturday? I got to go proselyting. It was so amazing. We went with our latino comps and me and Elder Diaz marched out and knocked on doors. I loved every second of it. There is no better feeling then looking someone in the eye and testifying of a truth like prayer or the Book of Mormon. It was a wonderful experience and we ended up teaching one full lesson and we committed him to be baptized if he came to know of the BoM truth. It was awesome.
  Well that's about it for this week. Everything is good here. My clothes are all working fine and i am enjoying every bit of it. I love you all so much i wish i had more time to tell you more.
   Con muhco amor!
Elder Brown