WEEK 21 & 22 Holy Crap I Love it Here!!

My prayers have been answered! Wow what a start to our new area. I was Transferred to Parker area. Opening it back up.   Elder Cluff my new companion is only 3 months out and is already a stud missionary. His testimony is so strong and he is the nicest elder ever. I can be myself around this stud and we work super well together and get along real well.

Lets talk about our first day! Me and Elder Cluff got to our apartment at like 11:30 in the morning. The apartment hasn't had anyone living in it for the last 4 months. The elders before left it completely trashed. The trash wasn't taken out,  the shower wasn't clean! It smelled nasty and there was a pile of dirty dishes in the sink piled up to the cupboards above grosss! I was pretty ticked off but I got over it and once I cleaned everything, I  was fine. By the way, Elder Cluff was new to the area also,  so we swept in both of us to the area not knowing anything. We got to the apartment and said well lets build this place up. For about 4 hours we went  and started studying the area book and the people the missionaries have taught and the tons of work that the missionaries before weren't doing. After that we took another hour and started calling investigators, less actives, and recent converts. We set up appointments with tons of people so there is a lot of work to be done. That night we went to our Ward mission leaders house and let me tell you how awesome he is. He typed up this sheet of the most progressing and lessons taught to them and members from the ward who have fellow shipped them and there was a list of about 30 people that haven't been contacted in a while. We started working with him and said if we needed anything just let him know. He then took us to the store bought us our groceries showed us around the area and the day after he came to two lessons we had as the member present. He is in his 60's never served a mission but is a great teacher. That day which was two days ago we already had 4 lessons, 2 with new investigators who really want to learn more. The next day we had an amazing lesson, committed a less active couple who hasn't come to church in forever to come to church and they said they will. We really connected. That evening we were able to get another member to come along with another investigator we had. The member that came with us was a convert and related super well with the investigator. The investigator is half way through the book of Mormon and really wants to learn more, I was feeling the spirit so strong in the lesson and we put her on baptismal date for the 28th of January and she is coming to church this week! WOW what a week already and a hot start! 

 

The members are awesome we get fed every night and brother Night said there are 5 ward missionaries in the ward and all the members are engaged in missionary work. Even the bishop is super engaged in missionary work. Honestly this is a blessing from the Lord. Although all these good things are happening it has been pushing us to work harder than we have ever worked before. I have no time to dilly dally and it is very time consuming. Truthfully, I am starting to feel like a real missionary and the spirit is working with me more than it ever has before. I know the Lord has called me to this area and even though biking stinks in the freezing cold it is worth it! I want to stay here for a while and with Elder Cluff! I know this is where I need to be

Last week was interesting, I was very emotionless, because face timing you didn't feel real at all. Although it was really good to see your face in person it didn't feel real. I was honestly in shock the whole time. Sorry if I was acting weird. but I bet you were as happy to see me as happy I was to see you. It was still really good to see your faces.

 A gift I bought myself with some of the Christmas money!

Tell Everyone Thank you!

 I love to play Chess!Thanks Grandma!

Remember the savior and what he did this Christmas season and you will find more joy.

Happy New Year!!!!!

Elder Brown 

Week 20- This Christmas started out as a challenge!

 OOPS!

 I am greatly Blessed!Thank you for the tree!

It's cold and snowy!

Hey Mom and Dad!

Holy guacamole it was a cold one this week. I was outside tracting for 2 hours in -12 degrees.   I had so many layers on hahaha! We taught and found 3 new investigators that day and mainly because people saw how cold we were. But we taught this couple and I felt at that time that I was supposed to be there teaching them! Sometimes I have had those moments on my mission. I got everything you sent except the letter.  I should get that today. I got the Christmas gifts from you and Aunt Karen. I got the hand prints from the brown family and the Anderson's. Hey I am emailing this Saturday because Monday the library is close so p-day is on Saturday. We are calling Sis Bracy to get every detail and I will relay that info to you on Saturday because we are face timing Sunday. Facetime will be okay!  

I'm glad you liked the video I sent. I recorded myself like 3 times. Twice in the bathroom and the one time on the chair that I was leaning back and forth on. The two I thought were way to long and I couldn't send one longer than 2 minutes and After I was done recording the first two I looked at the length and it was like 6 minutes. So I gave up on condensing so I decided to make it short and sweet and funny. Glad that everyone thought it was funny!

 6 more dayzzz......whew!!! I'm excited and am prepared for you too cry. To be honest I don't feel homesick this Christmas at all and here is why.... 

This Christmas started out as a challenge. Being away from home in the freezing cold getting doors slammed in your face isn't what I have ever pictured Christmas to be like haha! But my ward family and all of my extended family sent me little hand prints with little encouraging messages on them which  I taped each individually to my paper Christmas tree dangling from the wall (WHICH FELL 5 TIMES so I finally used duck tape and its been fine) I read every note which was about over a hundred and by the end I was sobbing and just filled with the spirit. You're right, I have a lot of support from my friends and family back home and that made me feel Christs warmth despite the freezing cold hahaha.  I didn't even care for the gifts or packages that were sent because the best gift that was given was Christ's radiant love that he has for Me. And I felt that sitting on the floor balling my eyes out. I haven't felt the spirit that strong in a while.  That gave me a lot of peace and comfort and the motivation to keep barreling out in the snow in -14 degree weather.

I know it is going to be hard for you not to cry and that is okay but let it be a happy time. I don't think I have truly known what the true meaning of Christmas was  till I have been out here during this time. As I sat driving in the car and listening to the lyrics of Josh Groban's song "Believe" I really thought about the lyrics and it is much deeper than believing in Santa Claus.....  " When we feel that we have lost our way...we find ourselves again on Christmas day." I love that verse. We know that we can look to the savior and not just remember his birth but what he has done for us even when we feel that we have lost our way. Christmas isn't a one day celebration it is a gift that is given to us 365 days a year....his Atonement. Thank goodness for Easter because there would be no Christmas. If there was no Atonement than the baby Jesus would be another baby born that day alongside the hundreds of other baby births in the Inn's where there was no room. There is no place I would rather be than here on my mission during these two years and more specifically during this time of year! 

We had zone conference this last week and wow that was amazing. Each zone which were about 6 put on a little Christmas skit. We were assigned to do a skit based on Silent night. We first started off by singing the hymn....but it gets better. Our zone leaders assigned me and Elder Chun to talk about silent night. We decided to make it funny and add some humor in it which was expected when the zone leaders chose me and and elder chun the two goofballs of the zone. Elder Chun is literally another version of Nic Padilla and funnier haha so we had fun with it. We pretended we were two angels that day looking down on the nativity scene. We told the audience to close their eyes and imagine this scene of the baby Jesus. I first started out by saying into the mic.....Elder Chun, do you remember that day....Yes Elder Brown I do...and you guys(the audience) were all there too. Then I said.... we were all cheerleaders chanting something like this. Then me and Elder Chun did this cheerleader chant as girly as could be hahha people laughed at that. Then we explained the nativity scene and Elder Chun asked....Hey Elder Brown, do you hear that....I said what?....Elder Chun said I hear a donkey I said... oh my gosh I hear it too,  then I said....wait a minute that's just President Mendenhall and everybody started dying of laughter.  We went on adding all these funny remarks and then concluded with our testimonies. That's probably the most I have ever made people laugh. Im starting to get comfortable with speaking in front of large audiences. Anyway that was fun, then we went into the chapel. I got to direct the choir and hold a choir practice way before people got there in the very beginning. I also was the accompanist for Elder Olsen who sang O Holy Night. MOM, HIS VOICE IS INCREDIBLE! and It sounded so good and made a lot of people cry. Then we had a special guest speaker and President and Sister M gave remarks. This lasted from 7-4:30 but an awesome day!  

That was this week.  Today is zone pday so we get together with the sisters at the stake center and are doing a white elephant gift exchange. My gifts are funny. The zone leaders used to call me eraser head when I first came into the zone area..Because my head was shaved completely on the sides and then I had hair up top like the shape of an eraser. That stopped when I got my new hair cut before zone conference which they think my hair is awesome because it is slicked back like David Beckam the hot Soccer player! So now they call me David Beckam. Anyway I bought two eraser heads and I wrapped it up and hopefully they get the gift hahaha! 

Anyway Thats all that i got! I love you so much I will email you the face time details saturday on pday....remember....not monday.....saturday! I love you Mom and Dad!         

Week 18!! 19 more days till I get to talk to you via Skype!

Hey mom!

Very successful week with investigators.  We had 26 lessons which is my record. Its not all about the numbers because they are souls,  but it was pretty cool to teach that many people. We tracked into this lady last week named Patricia who is a 40 year old catholic mom who is very devout and wasn't that interested.   I was very persistent in explaining that the bible is a record of people in Jerusalem and the Book of Mormon is an ancient account of the peoples dealings with God in America. I had her read the tiny gold letters under the BOM title which says, "another testament of Jesus Christ" She was very shocked and said that she would read.  To our surprise we set a return appointment with her. Although we set the appointment we didn't really know how interested she was but we gave her 3rd Nephi chpt. 11 to read. This week comes around and we showed up to her house for the appointment and she opens the door and says come on in. We were really shocked to find out that she had read chpt 10,11,12 and the restoration pamphlet and plan of salvation pamphlet and did even more research on it. She is thirsty for more knowledge and has a great gospel understanding. I love it when we have investigators that keep commitments. She is awesome!

We are also sharing light the world with people we meet and that is awesome also! We are finding tons of success with sharing the cards with people. I love sharing the video at dinner messages! Speaking of dinners we hardly get any but a lot coming up this week. Last night's devotional was really good. I felt a lot of peace and comfort from every ones messages. I thought about you guys while watching the devotional but I was comforted by the spirit.

 

Hey I got a huge package of food.  Thanks I needed that haha. Oh and I did get the package of music thank you!  I didn't open it,  the zone leaders still have it but I'm excited for it!  The best way to send me a package is to the mission office so I know I will get it on p-day because this week I have been checking for my package since Thursday and it just came last night so I was pretty nervous that I gave you the wrong address oh well its here. 

 

A tree a member gave us!!

 

The boots! Just get me a cheap pair that will keep my feet from getting soaked. I dont need it anytime soon. Only flurries for the next two weeks. They say the heavy snow doesn't come till Jan. Feb. and March. For Christmas I'm thinking Skype because Facetime can drop really quick. 19 more days I'm excited!!​

 

 I love you mom so much!! Have a good Christmas season and look to spread the gospel the best way you can do that is just acting as Christ would everyday. I promise when we do that our lights will shine so bright they will reach the darkest places! love you mom!

 

Elder Brown

Week 17

Hey mom how are you?  I hope you had a good Thanksgiving! Mine did not feel the same but it was still a good day. We were fed two dinners that day so I ate more than enough!! We weren't aloud to play football because this mission believes that everything we do should have a missionary purpose behind it which I definitely agree with, it was just a hard pill to swallow. The ward just got split so there are about 60 members strong in our ward so nobody feeds us. We have been fed only three time in the last two weeks so I'm spending a lot of money on food. But it is not a super big deal I'm fine with it. I love this area.  There are a ton of Hispanics that only speak Spanish so we have to kinda just say have a good day and leave. I speak a little bit,  but Spanish 3 in high school does not serve me well when its time to have a full out conversation. Wish I spoke Burrito...haha inside joke. We do a lot of work here and I have had some instances where I feel I know I am supposed to be serving in Brighton. We have someone on Baptism date for the 21st and will put another investigator on date this Thursday. We have two others coming to church this Sunday so the work here is great really excited to be serving in Brighton. I'm starting to get to know a ton of the elders in this mission and becoming great friends with all of them! P-days are fun we play dodge ball and other fun games so I always look forward to P-days. There are 12 elders that hang out together on P-day so that's even better.

Wait!  You went on a cruise!!!!  I'm so mad I'm coming home from my mission.  JK   No its not that big of a deal.  Dont feel sorry! Working for the Lord is better than your selfish need.  hahahaha

Anyway, I do need a pair of boots and I don't need thinner gloves its fine. Can you also download "in the water" by David Archuleta and "treasure" by Kenneth Cope  and "let the music play" by Chris August. Send a beats pill with an aux cord along with it or just a little speaker that has an aux cord attachment. Make sure you send the charger with an outlet cord. Thanks mom,  I'm dying to listen to music haha! Hey can you send me  piano sheet music with lyrics "Treasure" by Kenneth Cope I want to sing and play that. Hey maybe you could send me a chess set for Christmas.  They are fun to play at the end of the night when we have nothing else to do before bed. Other than that I dont know what else I have room for in my suit case so I'm good.   How about fuzzy warm socks they'd be nice. I kinda want my basketball shoes too because I am ruining these sneakers they still work but I am wearing out the treads and my toe is starting to rip through. That's all that I need pretty much. Hey can you send a bunch of knorr tv dinners.   I dont have  any food and can't go grocery shopping because I ran out of money and I'm not dipping into my  personal funds. More subway gift cards actually and other gift cards too so when we go out to eat I don't have to spend my MSF and instead save money for food. 

 I miss a lot of people hahaha. Oh well. Hey sorry everything I talk about just jumps around.  I'm not good at organizing my thoughts but let me tell you how much the Lord has blessed me with the ability to teach. I have got a ton better at speaking to people on the streets or at there door. Remember how I couldn't put my thoughts into words. Well now I can and I know it is the Lord working through me. I couldn't teach without the spirit. But even my ADD has got a ton better.  I don't zone out hardly at all anymore. I think its because I'm more focused in something so my brain doesn't drift off to day dream. If I had that focus in school then maybe I would do a ton better. 

Anyway I think that's all I got this week.  I can't wait to talk to you soon!!! Christmas Day can't come soon enough. 
 Love ya and I miss you!       

Week 16

So this week has been crazy. To kick things off we were homeless with no where to live for two days. So we slept in the car the first two nights haha nah that's a joke. We slept on the floor at the zone leaders apartment (Elder Merkely and Elder Grey's.) Elder Grey reminds me of Christian Hassen which is really funny they have almost the same personalities. We finally got moved into our apartment Friday and the zone leaders helped get the furniture and beds out of the truck and walk them up three flights of stairs. We took about thirty trips. Anyway, we finally get moved in and realized that our toilet was not currently operating so for two days we went to the bathroom at the zone leaders house a couple of apartments down. That was fun! So we are good now housing wise.

We also didn't have book of Mormons so we took some from the zone leaders apartment and gave them all out so now we are in trouble. Hey do you know that this mission is the highest baptism mission in the North American central region! I hope you like the pics I sent and the song! you need to look up the lady and her husband Mike and Nancy Ellis. She is just like you and you two could be best friends. She is so awesome, she took care of us while we were in Arvada. She fed us whenever nobody else from the ward would. Other than that this week has been kinda mellow.

We went to a baptism in our ward the this Saturday. Elder Merkley and Grey and other priesthood holder got in the font, all five of them, so they could baptize this guy paralyzed from the  waist down It was a really spiritual baptism. I hope that I can take someone into the waters of baptism. Elder Sant is a great guy super strong and he looks mean but is the nicest guy ever. He is from Georgia. we played I declare war last night  1 hour at lunch and an hour at dinner because it went back and forth. he had me down to like 4 cards and I came back and won haha. Anyway mom hope you have a good week. I have really nothing else I need. Don't worry about the packages I think I'm doing just fine. We are playing dodge ball for p-day. Hey can you send me some TV dinners by KNOR in the mail. I need those. Love you mom!!

WEEK 15- I'm moving

Hey Mom how are you doing! okay this week was the craziest week on my mission so far so I am going to tell you everything. So it started Tuesday. After dinner Monday night I wasn't feeling well at all.  We got home at 8:30 and I just laid in my bed! I couldn't go to sleep because I was so sick.  I honestly believe I had an bowel/intestinal disease but I prayed and prayed and it finally went away. Thursday rolls around and the zone leaders show up to our door! They say pack your stuff you are moving into our apartment,  because Elder Wood got called to be an AP(assistant to the pres).  So since Elder Wood was leaving and going to be picked up by the AP's his companion has to join us in a trio until Wednesday when he leaves to go back home. His mom is picking him up.  She has special permission. It's crazy I just came out and he is going home ugh! He kinda gave up Thursday until now because he is so trunky but its expected! He is such a good elder. But anyway we have been living with him at his apartment for the last 4 days. Then Saturday rolls around and my neck stops turning. for the whole day I couldn't move my neck and I tried stretching and massaging it but nothing was working and it got to the point where I was going to call the medical lady at the mission office. I woke up Sunday and it was the same, but I didn't do anything and again did a lot of prayer and it went away thank goodness!

This Sunday  Elder Barker and I performed in church. Afterwards everybody started coming up to us and said that was the best musical number they have ever heard in the ward.  It brought people to tears. They said the never had someone sing at the piano with a mic. They had no stand so I had to rest it on the piano. We were complemented all day long. I love playing music so much! Every time I play I can feel the spirit so strong it really is my biggest testimony and I have been implementing my music more into my everyday missionary life. An 18 year old kid came up to us after and said he wants us to professionally record the song today because he has professional equipment and said it was so good that he really wanted to record us singing it. Since the song was a solo and we made it a duet he wants to publish it as a duet and will work on doing that after he records it. Lately I have been writing two songs for the piano that involve singing and have been working on the lyrics for that. I have been thinking about possibly writing songs for the church because it is something that not only I love but that the spirit can be with me and tell me the words and lyrics I need to write. I mean I'm not saying that that's what I am going to do but I am keeping it in mind for sure. Anyway that was went down this week. Its been pretty busy since we have been covering three wards for the last 4 days but fun.

Guess what, I'm going to Brighton!!! Fort Lupton Ward.  My new companion is Elder Sant! he is a really cool guy and really big haha! We have thrown football in the parking lot on transfer day last month. I heard there is a ton of work to do in Brighton so we will be busy that's for sure. My trainer Elder Merkley is serving in Brighton as a zone leader and we are in the same district so we will be able to see each other each week especially for P-day. I'm excited for that. I heard there is a member with like a full out weight room so I'm going to lift every morning!

We are  recording  the song today! Anyway Mom that's all that happened this week! 

Week 14 My Biggest Miricle Yet!

Hey Mom & Dad

 I emailed Jake. Tried to tell him about prayer and bore my testimony to him. We reminisced on all the fun memories we had. We are having a lesson with Lauren on this upcoming Friday! I'm so excited to teach him. This week I have been praying a ton about Lauren and I have received some very powerful revelation concerning how we are going to teach it and I know the Lord is going to help us. We have yet to meet with the punk rock dude he has been trying to spend time with his son because he has been going to court cases with his son and trying to fight over custody with his wife. We tell him to remain faithful and keep reading the scriptures. I know the Lord will make it all work out. We went to the temple this week and I got this awesome tie clip with the temple on it. I took an awesome pic of the temple. I saw my daddy down there( my first trainer) had a good chat and saw some elders that left last transfer. I found out an elder from my MTC group went home early because his parents divorced and he had to go to counseling because it was so hard for him. I feel so bad for him.  He was a good missionary. 

1.) Yes the coat is awesome and very warm I tried it on! thank you mom I know it costs a lot of money and I feel bad about that sometimes.

2.) I need a beanie if that's okay. One without writing on it. preferably navy blue.

3.) Halloween was fun we carved pumpkins and made toilet paper dresses for the zone leaders.      

4.) we are singing this week in sacrament meeting  for sure now! I'm excited!

5.) Transfers are next Wednesday and President told me in interviews that I'm leaving haha. I might train an elder next transfer too oh boy!! 

I got a cool story today. This week as a district we made it a goal to hand out 5 book of Mormons. The last two weeks have been so hard because we have done a ton of finding/knocking doors and we have had no success. In the last two weeks we have put together 40 hours of finding! I have been very frustrated and I know it has been a test for me. I started doubting the Lord which I don't know why because he has been doing so much in this area. Every night getting home we have been so worn out and frustrated from walking door to door all day and in the last week only handing out one book of Mormon all week. Yesterday was the last day to get 5 book of Mormons handed out and I said there is no way that's happening because we only have 1 hour of tracting/finding today and the rest of our day is planned for. But my companion said to me we will go out with 100% faith and we will talk to everyone we see. By the end of the night we handed out 4 Book of Mormons which was a record for me and had 5 lessons in that day.  It was honestly the biggest miracle I have had on my mission. I couldn't believe it especially since we handed out the last BOM in the last 30 minutes before we had to go back to our house. 

I love you so much Mom I miss you! Remember the story in the bible called David and Goliath. no body wanted to fight him because of how powerful he was as well as the rest of the army. But he decided to face him and with the Lords help he was able to defeat him. Mom the challenge  this week is to help someone facing a Goliath in their life and help them see the Lords hand in their life! I love you and dad so much!!    --
Connor Brown