Into The Elements

Dearest Family -

Goodness gracious I can't believe it's already November! My companion and I were just talking a few minutes ago about this. When you look at two years in worldly terms such as two years of high school or college it seems like such a long time! But two years on a mission seems so short! It seems like I've only been out a few weeks. Time flies when you're having fun right?

Things in Bethel are going pretty good! I really can't believe that I've already been up here for 4 weeks. President Beesley likes to bring all of the deep Bush elders in every once in a while to keep us sane so we're flying into Anchorage on Wednesday and then staying until Saturday so that should be pretty fun!

So cool story, Last week when we were teaching seminary we got a call from a guy that lives in Boise that had been living in a small village about 600 miles up the Kuskokwim river from us. He was just there working for a few months but while he was there he gave out 20 Book of Mormons and a ton of Plan of Salvation pamphlets. I guess he had a lot of success and that a lot of the people up there were really interested in everything about the church! We're talking with our Mission President but we should be able to get a bush plane to fly us in for a few days so we can teach them. That would be so amazing! I guess when they say the gospel will travel to every nation kindred and tongue they really do mean EVERYONE! It also really made me realize just how easy it is to share the gospel when you're a member. Heavenly Father really is hastening his work and he's relying on us to help him bring other people into his fold. I read an article from someone (can't remember who), but it was talking about hastening the work and sharing the gospel. It said something to the fact, with the enlarged emphasis on spreading the gospel Heavenly Father surely is preparing more and more people to receive it.

So this Friday we hit a huge pothole on our way in for the night and popped our tire. We figured out that we wouldn't be able to get it fixed until late the next night so we decided that all Saturday we would walk. Of course the one day we decide to walk the weather goes against us and makes sure that it's pouring rain with 50MPH wind gusts! You guys probably think I'm just being a baby and I probably am but it was COLD! The church is about 3 miles from downtown so we traveled into town and spent all day walking around trying to see people. The only bad thing was that after about 5 minutes of walking we were completely soaked to the bone! But we really were blessed that day and were able to meet so many new people as a result. It really firmed up my testimony of how much we get blessed as we put forth our efforts in serving the Lord!

Have an amazing day and be safe!

Church is true!

-Elder Brown