Week 77 - Tonga

Hey Mom! 

Check out my new comp! My Polynesian  haha..He is such a bro.  It will be a fun couple of transfers! He is a good missionary! He changed a lot and got made a zone leader.  I got transferred from Arvada and I'm a Zone Leader in the city of Denver,  which will be a blast! I'm serving in the University HIlls Ward right on University of Denver campus. Oddly enough I'm not in the YSA Ward but me and Tonga should be haha!  My companion  uses his Hawaiian accent and then every girl will talk to us and then we can share the Book of Mormon with them or give them a card but we just end up passing them off to the ysa ward haha! There are a lot of people in our ward not a lot of members but tons of investigators. We share an apartment with another set of missionaries, which kinda stinks since they are messy but they are pretty fun to be around. I'm in a car and driving which is fun! I'm whipping in a Nissan Frontier,  a TRUCKKKKKKK! We just got hit with a bad snowstorm so its been fun drifting in parking lots and yanking the E-brake ....somethings will just never change. I won't tell you what I'd do in my little accord back home hahaha! We have a couple investigators as of now but I haven't met a lot of them. I'm sure we will be able to teach a lot of people here we have a lot in our teaching pool , but definitely a lot to look forward too! 

So don't worry about me medically. My sinus/allergy whatever that was is gone now. My toe is back to normal, I'm healthy and strong. Now I just need to check out my teeth.  Sorry I didn't take a lot of pictures this week! Transfers were awful. I didn't get to say good bye to anyone. Poor President was up for basically 32 hours the last two days before transfers so I didn't find out until 9:30 that I would be leaving it was awful! But hopefully I can see them all again! Other than that, I'm  just excited that my dream came true! Serving in Denver City! Super pumped!

Love Elder Brown!

 I spy!

 Tonga!

 

Week 76- Dabbing

Dabbing with our housemates!

The week was great! We found another super solid investigator! She has been in members path through the scout program and really wants to be apart of the Gospel of Jesus Christ! She is coming to President Ballard's  address in our Stake Center! Super excited to start teaching her! Her name is Heidi Herman. Also we have an investigator we picked up from a referral her name is Rechelle! Hopefully we can get the ball rolling with her!  We picked up another investigator as well his name so happens to be Shawn, and he is coming to the special stake conference! April will be there as well as Tom Nash! So we got a lot of people learning! Arvada 3rd ward is awesome! I think I may stay! Apparently Thursday is transfers and we won't find out until Wednesday night. if we are staying or leaving. 

 Pday was yesterday for 5 hours how dumb is that! But we had an epic Nerf war with the youth of 2nd ward and it was so fun!

 Interview with President was awesome! He builds me up every time I"m with him! He Told me that I was one of his strongest missionaries and the greatest leaders in the mission. He told me because of my versatility he'd put me in any spot and the work would boom! He says I can count on you in any position but we will see what the Lord says! He said he could easily assign me as one of the AP's but he will council with the Lord on that one! I don't let it get to my head though because sometimes I feel I'm never worthy to be titled a leader.   I have so many imperfections I can't count them on my fingers. But I guess that is how the prophets of old felt! Not sure I can part a red sea or anything but you can call me a modern day Moses just way less faithful and way more room to grow haha!

 

 Have I told you I love you tooo! Less than 6 months!!!  July 4 is my set date. 

but it could be the 5th 6th 7th 8th 9th or 10th because we have one more 7 week transfer but then we will have one odd shorter one so it will make up for it,  but president has it set for July 4th. 

NO IDEA!

Week 75 Thanks Dad

I love you Mom so much you don't even know! Transfers I believe are on the 18th...This week I have interviews with president.  Pday we have the truck and I'm going to go play basketball all day because that's what I normally do haha. Nobody plays so its pretty boring haha!

Glad you got to see all my friends.   I miss them! Ryleigh is so cute I miss her! I miss Jake and Ty so much though. Only 6 more months!!! Counting down at all?...I know you are😈😊

The Prophet died.  I was so sad I cried a little bit and said a prayer for his family right after. I thanked Heavenly Father for his service and all he did, what a great man! I wish I Listened to him more. He has amazing talks and always great council.   I love him.

I always pretend your riding my case that's how I remember to brush my teeth and turn off the lights and not fall asleep on the couch when I'm studying the Book of Mormon. See....maybe you had to ride my butt all those years! I guess it was all apart of the plan in heaven right hehehehe! I love you and Miss you and can't wait to see you and kiss your face. 

Elder Brown

Thanks for the support Dad! I am glad I have you around to push me.  It gives me a lot of confidence and hope.

Hey, seeing Brother McBride was awesome! It was a total surprise but when he called us I figured it was him. He tried to approach me posing as a referral, which I was actually excited that we might have more teaching to do, hahaha! It was awesome though!  We talked about Dean, scout camp when you both saw Elder Abney who was there when you received the Aaronic Priesthood and my cousins on the Navajo Reservation. I talked about how he knows them better than I know them haha! Well, I'm glad he had such great things to say about me. Weird he could tell that there was growth because we didn't talk much about gospel related things, but must have been my countenance. It's 62 degrees today hahaha so warm! let me tell you about my week!

This week was awesome!  Full of spiritually packed finding experiences. Revelation I believe comes not when you plan in the morning where you should go but when you leave the apartment and you start working. Since it was warm all week we could talk to people out on the streets which is my specialty. It was at night and me and elder beck were about to go in a half hour early but I looked at him and said we need to be obedient.  So we left and walked up the street. A guy passed by and asked us if we had a cigarette. I told him I didn't and that I was sorry and we departed ways.  I kept walking a little further and got some distance when I was like, "that guy was totally put in our path". Elder beck says, "lets go back!" So we literally ran after this guy and awkwardly approached him by asking his name. We then asked if we could walk with him because our house was on the way and we talked about smoking and quitting and talked about the church and the ARP (addiction recovery program) and attending services. He said he was curious so we got his phone number and we will try to set up a church tour with him. Also we were out the very next day and I had a distinct prompting to go talk to this person that we tracted into back during the "Light the World " campaign. We got there, knocked on her door and she was home.  We asked her if she watched the video. She said no but she said she wants her boys to do youth group.  I told her how great our youth group is and it turns out she is super interested in coming to church!  Her boss is LDS and she knows we are good people. So we might have another potential family to work with! it would be amazing! Her name is Anne. God is in charge and he gives us promptings all the time and when you strive to be obedient, you can hear them. Laman and Lemuel were "past feeling" because they wouldn't hearken! Hearken means to listen then obey! As we obey we receive God's help more abundantly. We can have God's help but unless we are striving to be obedient we won't hear him. That is a true principle. Those were some experiences I had this week!

Glad you had a great week at the temple. We will have to go when I get back.   6 more months crazy!!!!!!!!!! I can do it! Pray for my area.  I pray for you guys but some times I don't know what to pray for because I never know whats going on haha!

Izzy had some awesome dance videos she sent me! she is so good!

I love you guys thanks for everything you have given me! I'm eternally grateful! Have a great week!

Week 74 NEW YEAR

New Years was awesome.   I got to see everyone who is leaving. Elder Merkley My trainer is going home, Elder Wood is going home as well and I'm so sad!

I sang in church on Sunday it was good the volume was turned down to much so they couldn't hear me as well but it was still good. I'll figure out how to record it for you. 

As far as investigators go it was not an eventful week except at the beginning. We taught Tom Nash the restoration and the Plan of salvation and he was very receptive. He said, " it just makes sense any normal human would agree would these things if they would just give us the chance. So many points of the plan of salvation and restoration make so much sense. I wish people would listen to our message sometime. Anyway we are trying to set up more lessons with him but work is so busy for him running his own buisness that its hard to schedule appointments. April is meeting with us this wed. and we are trying to set up a church tour with her this week! Other than that, that's pretty much the highlight of the work week! Hopefully we can continue to find people to teach!  I emailed dad a good chunk but hopefully this will be satisfying enough, sorry I'm just super exhausted.  Know I love you so much and can't wait to see you in 6 months! Love you❤💋
The member we lived with had some of the games on so during lunch I was getting a little action hahaha.   I miss watching college football! I can't believe Georgia won crazy!! Did you guys get 5 feet of snow? Maybe not... That's what somebody said! ! Dad I am so committed to playing basketball at UVU..  My shot is more accurate. I can't remember if I told you but when
 I was in Parker Jarrod Beckstead took me to lifetime fitness on a p-day. When I got there he told me that a bunch of college kids from Colorado State and CU Boulder come and play ball there. I steped in and played  5 on 5 with those guys just to see what I could do. Besides the fact that I was a little out of shape, I did well.   They asked me what school I'm playing at?  I told them that I'm on a mission for my church and that I don't play at school, They told me if I really work hard over the summer that I have a good shot at playing college ball. I need to get a little bulkier and fine tune some of my skills but even Elder Wood who plays for Southern Virginia University tells me that I would start at SVU right now. Woah! Obviously its just talk and what they have seen when playing them on P-day but I think I will learn a lot of life lessons by playing ball and proving to myself that when I work hard at something I can reach my goals. I have good feelings about it and good impressions so I have started doing jump work outs again and now I have a bench and 400 pounds of wait at the members house we live with and so I have been working out every morning and night. I want to be able to jump high. When I come home I want to start a vertimax or bounce kit workouts so I can jump higher. I'm very committed and very driven but I feel I have the work ethic this time to acheive it! I really want to do this.  Anyway, thought I'd let you know haha!

Elder beck and I are doing really well! This might be our last transfer together but we will see! oh yeah and my musical number was awesome. I didn't think it was appropriate to video in sac meeting so maybe I can record it another time. I need a pianist now is the problem. Oh my camera broke BTW. The screen is totally white it still works and takes pics I just cant see them lol.

Well I miss you a ton I can't wait to come home but I love being here on the Lord's mission and serving him full time! Never will I be able to do this again but my missionary work will never stop. I love you dad! Thanks for you example to me. Means more than you know.
Elder Brown

Week 73 Christmas

Hey Dad it was nice to face time you and mom and the girls yesterday!  It was the highlight of my day! I miss you guys! Elder Beck and I watched Tron and classic Tron with young Jeff Bridges! Look how much times have changed! Thank you for modern technology! 

Yesterday was fun.   We hung out with the Forbes and their 3 kids along with the YSA sister missionaries, Bishop Smith and his wife and kid and Carma Smith Sister Forbes mother! Carma Smith is the funniest  lady! She is so sweet and she loves basketball and so she gets excited when the Nuggets do well! Love you dad!   We still going to be able to play basketball when I get home or are you too old! You are an old man now! Keep exercising don't get fat haha!

 Love you dad,

Elder Brown