Week 47

Hey dad and mom.   I'm glad you liked the gift! I dumped all of my MSF on the t-shirts hahahabut it was worth it! I'm happy you liked the card! I love you so much and am so glad we have such a good relationship! I wouldn't trade it for anything!!

Okay get ready for the killer week we had!  Elder Heiner and I used to average getting 4 investigators a week and have never being able to get people to come to church! Elder Bird came in and we found 8 investigators in 4 days! It was awesome! We have been having some stellar contacts with people. We came up with this pattern that has given us the chance to testify of what we know with out being awkwardly confrontational! And because of it,  we have had 4 people tell us they aren't interested and then towards the end express how they would love to meet and learn more. It's been crazy but we have been very kind and friendly but persistent at the same time! I love working with Elder  Bird! He is so organized and it helps out so much! He is a great analytical missionary and me and him make a pretty killer combo! He's a really good elder and wouldn't be surprised if he becomes the next AP! Him and I teach really well together! Have you ever had a companion where you just cliche so well together and your unity just flows naturally! I feel me and Elder Bird have that natural connection and it really works in our teaching because no one talks over the other! Anyway things are of to a hot start! We found a new investigator and he is very interested in what we have to teach! We also had another investigator come to church and that hasn't happened in the area in a while! This last week has just been amazing and I'm excited to work with Elder Bird this transfer and probably a lot more! 

Zone leader responsibilities have been a blessing, I feel like God has been helping me analyze certain situations and giving me the council that I need to give to the members of the zone! It's been pretty awesome. I have been better in situational circumstances and it has helped tremendously! Plus I get to go to meetings and see all my friends in the other zone leader offices!

The basketball activity hasn't been the best. We weren't able to make the video and post it yet but this Tuesday we are shooting it! We will send it to you when its all done. So hope isn't lost hopefully this can spark some interest in the community!  

Anyway I wish you a good week! Enjoy your breaks I know you're sick and tired of dealing with complaining clients hang in there and enjoy the service and let me know when your called to the Stake Presidency because its bound to happen hahaha. You're in for the long hall dad.  I  hope you know every stake young men's president gets called into the stake! You and mom are going to be mission presidents and mom is going to die hahahaha! oh man I'm joking! okay dad I Love ya and will talk to you later.

Elder Brown 

Elder Bird my new companion and Sister Simmons whom we live with

 Elder Grey going home

Week 46- Transfers Again

Looks like I'm getting a new companion next transfer because mine is the new AP and is only a transfer ahead of me!!!!!!!! Since Thursday morning I have been in a trio because the AP's drove down to pick up Elder Heiner! So I have been in charge for the last couple of days! Help me haha! I can't believe Elder Heiner is the AP! That transfer was so fast it felt like only 2 weeks! But now he is over the whole mission. When he got the call he had a panic attack and I had to calm him down. Mom he is more ADD then me! I'm a little nervous for him! I pray he will do well.   I definitely think that this assignment is for him. He will grow a lot....he has too or it will be a long ride! My new companion is Elder Bird! he is only a transfer ahead of elder Heiner! He is a cool guy.  I don't know a ton about him but I hear he is a good Elder so we should get some work done!

I sent dad a father's day and birthday gift today and put a little gift for you also! you'll like it! okay so catch this! Elder Heiner and I started this activity for the YSA called Basketball with the elders! we go to downtown parker @ o'brien park and challenge people to play us in basketball! It's a beat to teach style and we have had more and more people come! This week a professional photographer and videographer is coming to get me dunking and introducing what we do as missionaries and why we serve missions. Its going to be posted all over social media and we are going to post flyers as well! Our goal is to get a ton of people to come out to the park packed and beat everyone that challenges us so we can teach them! Its so exciting! He even has a little drone that has a video camera on it and is going to have it fly over head! I'll send it to you when its finished! 

As for the work we found a super solid investigator named Alex and she said she believes the Book of Mormon is true!  She is leaving to go back to Indiana this week for 3 weeks so the date is going to be far off. Hopefully she gets in contact with the missionaries back home and has them teach her! Hopefully this transfer I can help someone get baptized! We are also teaching people who will be a long process! Mckennzie who is a girlfriend to this guy in the ward! Hong, who is also dating a girl in the ward! and Bryce a student from Atlanta here for the summer! We are also going to be teaching another girlfriend of this member in the ward! she received a BOM recently and is excited to eat with us this Wednesday! So things are poppin in the YSA ward! 

 

 That's all I got for ya! I Love ya.   I will email you some pics.   I got a bunch!

Week 45- The Elder Brown Show

Sounds like you have had a loaded week! Dad gave me the scoop on everything! Oh my gosh Lauren sent me the video of dad laughing and I haven't ever laughed so hard! I'm in the library too so a lot of missionaries are staring at me,  like what the heck is going on with him! I miss dad's funny laugh so that made me so happy!  I did perform 3 musical numbers at the fireside and everybody nicknamed it the Elder Brown show! I wish you could of heard it.  I wasn't able to record it but I save all the music and when I get home I will put on a spiritual recital performance for you!;)  My duet with Elder Olson sounded awesome! My voice is way better than when I left!  Plus I got my higher range back too so I can sing songs a lot higher than usual! So wish you could have been there! The convert fireside was so awesome! My heart was full the entire fireside and with the music I felt like I was just glowing! At the end President and Sister Mendenhall(Mission President) gave a farewell talk and asked us to stand up and sing Called To Serve and the spirit was so strong! He and Sister Mendenhall were in tears because we also gave them a package of all the letter written from all the missionaries they have ever had! I cried a little! If I can tell you how amazing President and Sister Mendenhall are holy cow! I love them so much I really do! The spirit that they carry is amazing! I will miss them so much!

At the end of the conference a lot of people left and I walked up to President and gave him a hug, he looked me in the eyes and said you are a special missionary and you will have a very big impact on the mission.  Continue to be a light to the other missionaries! A lot of weight to carry but it was such a great compliment and there was a lot of power in the words he spoke to me! 53 Missionaries are going home with this transfer and next and only 18 are coming in! Most of those 53 are all the leaders so there won"t be hardly any left.  Only Elder Keith, Elder Fenske, Elder Sharptenteer, Elder Merkly and Elder Christianson, Elder Heiner and Elder Bird! Only leaders in the mission when everyone is gone! So we will be the seniors of the mission for the rest of our time! Elder Lytle might be going home. He might have bladder cancer! I feel for that guy! He hasn't had a good mission so far its been tough for him!  I hope he sticks it out!

As far as the work goes, we are starting to build a teaching pool.  We are now teaching 3 people consistently but they will each be a long road! They are all either boyfriends or girlfriends of members and they have agreed to meet with missionaries. They each three have different concerns some are more interested than others but it has helped me teach to their needs rather than teaching things in a specific order! But we have received another referral from other elders in the zone who says that she is super interested and wants to be baptized! We are meeting with her at on 5:00 Tuesday so hopefully we can start getting something going! The YSA had a ward barbecue and we had 5 nonmembers there and will be teaching one of them next week,  so I''m pumped for that! Good things are happening! We recently have been thinking out of the box. We set up an activity for Tuesdays, called basketball with the elders. Its two fold, one, we get nonmembers to come and invite nonmembers who are at the park to play with us! Its been working and I get to play a little bball too! We play in our white shirts and ties but I still ball everyone up! :) Elder Reynolds is going home in a transfer! Elder Gray is going home in 10 days! he's coming up to hike with us today! We are hiking castle wood canyon! and yes McKenzie is in boulder! I'm trying to see if she can come down.  She is only 1 hour away. 

Anyway that's been my week! I love you mom!  Happy me! Love you mom bye!

Week 44- 10 Months Down 14 More To Go

 I had a good week! We keep finding new investigators but nobody super solid! We do have 2 solid people that we are starting to work with! They are both referrals from the ward and hopefully we can get things going with them! Like  I have said before we have been receiving tons of referrals from ward members and from other elders and with being so busy we haven't been able to visit them! This week we are trying to visit old investigators to see if they want to meet or not! Then we are focusing on our referrals! I have been doing a lot of administrative stuff and it has kept me very busy! Sometimes I doubt I'm doing a good job as a leader but recently I have been studying teaching in the Saviors way manual and it has helped a ton! I love the opportunity to effectively lead and do it as the Savior would! Studying the manual has helped me reach out to my district more and lift them up and by doing so it has lifted me! The work continues to move forward! This week we had a mission leadership council with all the zone leaders and sister training leaders at the mission home! There, President and sister Mendenhall the Ap's and a set of zone leaders trained on things that they want us to train on in district meetings! Also for an hour we discussed new changes that will be taking place, such as the new mission president and his wife coming in! And an accounting matter concerning the Goal Barrier and Action plan the district leader comes up with every week! It is now moving from a group setting to an individual companionship setting so that the comp. can set goals and make plans to help the work in their own area! I like it way better than the previous one. Reasons why.....because now instead of the district leader analyzing problems from 3 companionship's and trying to make a plan that combines all 3 problems together, he gets to let the companionship decide what action plans will work for their individual area! It will be more effective than trying to please all companionships. Sorry if that seems confusing but that was the best way I could condense it which I'm not so good at! 

Other than that, that is the work going on in the CDNM! This Friday is the convert fireside and I'm in 3 musical numbers either playing or singing! I feel like I'm stealing all the attention and I don't like it! They need to get more musically capable people to join! I'm singing a beautiful duet with someone and we have practiced it already and it sounds amazing! You would be impressed! Sorry trying to be as humble as I can! But I wish you could hear it! I'm going to have Elder Heiner record it on my camera but the audio will be stinky! 

Next week I along with the zone and the AP's will be hiking castlewood canyon in our area! its a beautiful hike and I'm excited to hike it! On a side note I know this is out of the blue but the mission is now accepting buzz cuts for hair cuts and the elders are trying to convince me to get a buzz! I keep saying I never will but I might to make you guys go crazy! I'd look good right hahahahaha! Anyway that's been my week! very busy all the time but keeping me on my toes and teaching me to organize myself and be more responsible which I need desperately! 

I love you Mom and Dad and I hope to hear from you soon! 

Elder Brown

Week 43- Summer Crew

 I just talked to president and he said no emailing back and forth. You forced my hand mommasita, I can't email you back and forth that is texting which is not allowed hahaha! You are going to have to live with that decision:)

The summer crew is back in the Ward.  Referrals here we come! We have a huge influx of YSA church members in the ward now! They are all coming back from college and doing pest control or finding a summer job! There are a ton of newly return missionaries as well so they have referrals because they have been sharing the gospel with all of their friends! Today we have a ton of appointments with referrals so I'm excited.   Cam Blodose my new convert in the Red Leaf Ward just received the priesthood this week and will be passing the sacrament next week! How amazing is that! They are on such a good road.  It's awesome! 

-A little story you might like it!- Me and Elder Heiner received this referral form church headquarters 2 weeks ago and it being a really long drive, we have only been able to contact them twice in two weeks! As we were planning this last week I felt a prompting to go by her house since we were going to be down in castle rock! It was 7 at night and once again nobody in the driveway and the front door hanging wide open and the screen door in visible. We parked the car and decided to knock anyway because...what's it gonna hurt? We knocked three times and no answer! Right as we were turning around to leave we heard a car coming by and I said what if that's them? And guess who pulled into the driveway....they did! We hurried over to the car....awkwardly because we were just knocking at their door. About a 19 year old girl and her mom get out and we said hi are you Lauren...looking at both of them because the description from what we received from salt lake was not specific at all? The daughter answered and said ....uuuhhh yeah that's me..she looked really confused! We both looked at each other and said you requested missionaries to stop at your door and so here we are! She responded...I have never requested missionaries to come by but I have a friend on a mission. Turns out one of her really good friends from college (ASU) just left on a mission to Mexico! I said how can that be, the only way we would know to stop by was if you sent your address into church headquarters requesting a visit....unless your friend sent in a self referral for you from Mexico! The mom and daughter looked at each other and laughed and said that is something he would definitely do! We all laughed and said well while we are here would it be okay if we shared what your friend would be sharing in Mexico. Of course the mom responds and says oh no thanks we know where to get information from if we need it.  We have a Book of Mormon. In my mind I'm telling myself,  I'm not taking no for an answer. but hold on this is awesome! The daughter responds saying your welcome to stop by anytime because I'm very interested in what you guys believe in! In my mind I can hear this evil laugh saying take that mom! And the girl was hinting to us that she wants us to come over but the mom being very protective says why don't you give me your number and call my phone so we can coordinate when you can come by! Again, in my mind I was like yeah we know your going to keep us from coming so.......we will get the daughters info. We talked to all of them for a long time but never was able to get the daughters info. But we are trying to see if her friend in Mexico can get us more info on her mom so we can know how to start teaching the daughter without sneaking behind the moms back....hmmmm kinda sounds like a similar situation, mom not interested but daughter is.... Anyway that was the story.  Hoping for a happy ending! 

As for Zone conference last week, I was able to sing the song and play the piano and it was awesome! I got a lot of compliments which was really nice. Elder Gray says I have such a sweet voice and the girls will love that when I return:) I gave a training at zone conference as well and it went really well! The AP's loved it and said that was exactly what president was looking for so...mission accomplished! Being a zone Leader is tiring though.  We have to make so many phone calls and constantly receive updates on the districts! It takes so long we don't get to sleep until 10:30 and I feel so tired in the morning! I don't know what else to say.  I hope I answered all your questions! It stinks the weather has been so crappy in PA but it's really nice here.  Hope to hear from you soon.

Love 

Elder Brown

WEEK 42- WHAT A WEEK!

WHAT A WEEK!

CAM AND JAMSINE GOT BAPTIZED!

Oh man I was on cloud 9! I cried when Cam was baptized by his dad. His dad flew in from Chile to baptize him! What a day that was! Jasmine got baptized as well by Elder Bailey! It was such a good day! I got to see everyone from my old ward.  They all told me they miss me and wish to have me back! Its nice when you know you are loved by the ward! I gave a talk on baptism and I was nervous for some reason. I couldn't read my writing because I only had 10 minutes to write it and I messed up a couple of times because I couldn't see what I wrote on the paper. I wish I would have just bullet pointed and spoke like I do in  training. I have gotten a lot better at that and I'm more comfortable that way so I'm not constantly looking down at a paper! Anyway, I was glad I got to drive up to see it. Elder Heiner wasn't with me because we were on exchanges with the assistants to the president. I exchanged with Elder Gray for the day! That was fun to be with him! He goes home in 4 weeks! How about that! Time flies! I received a call from the  president to train at zone conference so I'm super nervous for that! I'm singing and playing a musical number @ zone conference Wednesday. Its called I will not be still! I'm excited! I'm also playing the piano for 2 other musical numbers that day on top of that! Thursday I get to inspect cars and give the info to Elder Martin the vehicle coordinator! I'm cracking down because some Elders cars are just terrible! I get to pull a Kelly on them:) That's kinda an update on whats going on this week. 

Sunday we met with the stake to go over zone progress! I really spoke up and said "if we want the work to get moving in the YSA Ward we need to get ward missionaries involved. We need to have more than 1 day of splits...preferably 3 times a week. Hopefully our hard work here will pay off! My desire to bring others unto Christ increases each day and I will do whatever it takes to bring the restored gospel to everyone. I have noticed when I have "the fire", that dad would often talk to me about, concerning the work that the lord will make me and my companion an instrument in his hands! Hopefully the Lord will assist the efforts in the ward and hopefully the attitude in the quote "seemingly impossible Parker and Parker South Stakes," will change for the better. Just because it is a wealthier area doesn't mean the work is impossible. Anyway If you can't tell I'm pumped...I am haha! 

Also on Sunday I ran into Mckelle's roommate! We talked for a little but, but I was on the way to gospel principles. Church was LIT on Sunday.  We had so many people there over 120 for sure.  The chapel was packed. Everyone is coming back from school either from  BYU, U of U, UVU, or UST, and doing work for the summer. There are like 5 return missionaries in the ward so that's cool! They all have referrals for us as well! Stake President Lyman said that the summer is the best time for missionary work if you are effective. Hopefully we have some added missionary minds in the ward  Anyway missionary work is great I love it! This is the best 2 years of my life! After Cam and Jasmine's Baptisms I caught myself in a stupor of serious reflection. I really pondered about what I just did. I played the most tiny role in helping such a large thing to be accomplished. I helped them achieve their first ordinance. Their eternal salvation. Physically dunking someone in the water is such a simple performance. But spiritually, the eternal significance is beyond compare. I played the most tinsi tiny role in assisting in their continuous conversion to Jesus Christ. What a blessing that is! I thank my heavenly father for it! I thank my Heavenly Father for the lives I have helped changed! but my joy isn't in my effort but my Joy is in the new found happiness I see in them! They are finally on the right path and I can't wait to see them sealed in the temple next year! 

Anyway enough about me, Dad that is such a cool experience you had! I'm sad I wasn't able to join you on this one but I'm so happy that you were able to run into your scout master! How cool is that! What are the odds! Hopefully you got to catch up with him. I wasn't able to meet with your cousin Marie but I talked to her on the phone. The Pres does not want visits to family members or close acquaintances.  It's handbook rule. So you can tell Mckelle that she was disobedient on her mission hahaha!  Marie understood and said she would rather me be obedient. But she was so close to me it was tempting hahah!

Anyway, I'm not sure what else to say other than I appreciate the support and miss you everyday and hope the girls finish strong before summer hits! I wonder if Izzy will start working? Have her help in the vineyard! lol.  I hated that job it was so lonely! Love you all and hope to talk next week! 

love ya!

Elder Brown

Week 41-Facetime

I love you mom! I thought that was a really good Facetime! I loved every minute of it! Mom I am just so happy! I'm in good spirits and I'm living this mission up! The Lord has been blessing me a ton and I'm grateful for it! I know I'm being prayed for because I can feel the prayers come my way. The other day I was eating at Panda Express and I opened a fortune cookie and inside it says, "share your good fortune with everyone." God works in mysterious ways! I am doing what that cookie said.  I love you mom! My love for you and dad has grown so much! Yesterday in church I was talking about mothers and how special I am to have a mother that cares so much that she is willing to do everything for her baby boy! I love you and I will say it over and over and over again till the day I die! You have given me life which is the greatest gift ever! You have helped me develop talents that I know God has wanted me to develop! I owe a portion of my life to you because you have helped me become the person I am today! ❤❤❤❤❤ I love you.

 

Mad Skills!

Goodbyes!