Christmas

Haha mom you sound a little bit tired! It was so good to see and talk to all of you guys last week! I can't believe how fast time flies... it's crazy!

The weather finally decided to take a drop. Actually a pretty big one! The other day it was clear down at -48 which is preeeety cold! I can't believe that Sister P passed away. I'm so happy for her. I'm going to miss her so much but like you said it was her time to go. She's been without Earl for too long so I'm sure it was such an amazing reunion for those two to finally be reunited once again. 

I was reading a letter from the time capsule that dad wrote me when I was little today. It's so weird to think of how if it wasn't for the change in age that I'd still would have a few months left before I would leave! I'm so glad that I was able to go when I did. I absolutely love my mission!  It's going to be so much fun to come home with a new attitude, personality, and perspective on things. It's so amazing the changes that I've been able to go through in just 6 months so I can't wait to see what happens in another year and a half! 

That's great that Meg and Quinn are all moved in now! I'm sure that it's awesome to have some more people in the house! You're just not ready for that empty nester stage yet!

I love you mom!!

P.s. your package should get here today... I didn't pick the necklace and I know it's not your type so don't think that I have that bad of taste! I mean I grew up with 4 girls come on... haha!

-Elder Brown

Feliz Navidad

Feliz Navidad!

Holy cow mom from how much you've been having to snow blow I'm gonna take it that its been snowing quite a bit? I can't believe how much you've had to snow blow/shovel! Haha but hey at least that's your work out for the day right? Be careful that you don't do too much and have you knee give out on you! That'll be so nice when Meg and Quinn move in and they can help you out with it! I loved all the pictures you sent me! Looks like you guys are all primed and ready for Christmas! I can't believe it's already here... that's so crazy! 

This week has been pretty average missionary work wise until last night. Somethin pretty strange but really great happened! We got a call from someone but we were in a lesson so we weren't able to answer. We called her back and she told us that her name was Pat and she had flown in from a village a few hundred miles north. Her flight in Bethel was canceled so she was staying the night in Bethel with some members and wanted to talk with us. we weren't really sure why she wanted to talk with us but we went over anyways. When we got there she explained to us how she had met with missionaries before and had been attending the Bush branch (church over the phone) for about 6 months. She knows that everything is true and wants us to come out to her village and reteach and explain some things and then baptize her! This next transfers (I hope I get to stay!) We're going to be able to fly out on a 4 man bush plane and go to the village she is and teach and baptize her! Just yesterday my companion and I were fasting for a baptism so this was an incredible answer to our fast! Just another perfect of example of how our Heavenly Father is so mindful of all of all of us!

This Christmas season it has been amazing for me to see how forgotten and corrupt the true meaning of Christmas has become. As I was thinking this morning some of the lyrics of the song the Away in a Manger came to mind. "Be near me, Lord Jesus' I ask thee to stay close by me forever and love me I pray." All of the gifts we receive during this season will eventually be lost, broken or forgotten. However the gift our savior gave us is not one that is temporal or worldly; not one that can be broken or lost. He has given us the greatest gift of all one that is infinite and eternal. This Christmas season may be celebrate all it is that our savior has done for us and cherish all of the things we have been blessed with. As we do so we will be blessed with the spirit of Christ, the true meaning of Christmas!

Merry Christmas!!!

-Elder Brown

Where's The Snow Yo?

Hey guys! Well can you believe it's already Christmas time?! I can't believe that it's already that time of the year... It seems like it was just yesterday that it was the summer.... holy cow time flies by so fast! Thanks for all of the pictures you sent me! Mom. You're scaring me a little bit! It looked like you were getting just a little bit too cuddly with Santa in a few of those photos you sent me.   I'm glad you got my North Pole ornaments I thought you'd like them! I bought them for pretty cheap so that's probably why one of them was missing. The party at the Jacobsens looked pretty fun! Its so weird to see how much everyone has changed in just 6 months... Crazy! 

So there is literally no snow here... The heat wave melted everything and it hasn't snowed since but it's been freezing so it's just a frozen wasteland! People have been asking what I wear everyday so I'll attach a picture of it! 

So this week has been amazing. Things out in Bethel have completely turned a 180 and we have been blessed so much. We've picked up  new investigators this week which in unreal. I have a few stories I want to tell you but i'll try and keep it short so you don't get bored. 

Story #1

A few days ago we were walking around tracting and we went to follow up on someone who told us to come back another time. We walked to the door and knocked and Robert (the person we were looking for) wasn't home. We did our little speal and he looked surprisingly happy and let us in. We started talking with him and he just sat there and started crying saying how crazy this was. We asked him what he was talking about and he told us how he had been praying this morning that someone would be led to him to help him. He has been going through some really rough times and we were able to give him a Book of Mormon and talk with him for a while.

Story #2

About 2 months ago when we were tracting we knocked on this door and a lady came out and was trying bash with us. We answered all of her questions and she was just really rude and ended up telling us to get lost and slammed the door in our face. For some strange reason we both felt the strongest prompting that we need to go back someday. A few weeks later I made some chocolate chip cookies for her that we knock ditched at her house. Yesterday we decided to go back and try and talk with her again. Right when we pulled up a boy on his bike pulled up and ran inside. We went and knocked on the door and he let us in. He started venting to us on how he's been battling depression as he's been trying to give up a few addictions and has been going through a rough patch with his mom. He asked us what God thought of what he was doing and we were able to tell him how much God loves him and taught him the Word of Wisdom. The Spirit was so strong and he started to cry and asked us if we would please come back and teach him and his mom. I have no idea why we felt so strongly that we needed to go back to that house after they had been so rude. All i can say is that Heavenly Father knows each and every one of his children and knew how close they were to being ready to receive the restored gospel. He knew that they just needed a little more time and then they would be ready for us.

It is just crazy to see how the Spirit works. I think these stories are perfect examples of why we always need to be worthy and listening to the promptings of the spirit as we go throughout our day as it will lead us and guide us in all that we do.

Hope you all have an amazing day!

See ya next week!!!!

-Elder Brown

Santa Baby!

It sounds like you had an awesome time at the Santa party! I'm so jealous that I had to miss that... Did he miss me? You need to tell him that I said Hi and put in a good word for me because I think he's mad at me... This year he sent all of my presents in the mail! How lame is that?!! Tell him that I'm still really thankful for the gifts but that I prefer if they just appear under the tree on Christmas. That'd be awesome!! Haha but Mase looked like he's still not a huge Santa fan yet. Are all of the Christmas decorations all up now? They better be! Luckily I got all of my Christmas decorating in since we went over and helped a couple of family's put there's up because we didn't want to miss out on all of the fun! By the way I sent you something in the mail that should be getting here today... I think you'll like it!

Well this week has been pretty darn great! The weather has been pretty crazy... It was 45 degress a few days ago! I mean I'm not going to complain but it was just a little weird! I heard it's like -2 in Mexico or something? We had the Zone Leaders come up and visit us for a few days to check and make sure that we're still alive. It nice to know they haven't forgot about us. And what's even better is that they brought up our shipment of food!! We were running pretty low there for a minute and only had a few packets of ramen left but they came up and saved the day so we should be good for a while!

One of my ZL's is Elder Bryce Beirne. He's the former University of Arizona Quarterback and is a pretty cool guy so it was really fun to have them come up! This week we were able to do a ton of finding. I think that we have a total of 13 call backs and at least 5 of them seemed pretty interested so we're really excited to go out and visit them and see what happens! 

Last Tuesday I caught what they call the Bethel Crud and started to get sick and it just kept getting worse and worse. Yesterday it was pretty bad and I didn't want to get anyone else sick so we decided to just camp out in the church for the day. Its pretty frustrating because I HATE just sitting around doing nothing when there's so much to do! But it's alright first things first right? Maybe I should stop kissing so many Eskimos... I'm kidding of course!!! 

Well I hope that everything is just fine and dandy in the Lower 48!

Love and miss you guys!

Elder Brown

Griswald Family Christmas Tree

Hello there!

Sounds like you all had an awesome Thanksgiving! Thanks for sending me the pictures mom, looks like you went all out as usual! So since Lizzy is practically allergic to everything, could she even eat any of that stuff? You have no idea how bummed I am that I missed setting up the Christmas decorations... that's my favorite part of the whole year! But that's alright Elder Nielson and I loaded up on Christmas decorations so we're going all out. I got this killer deal on some ornaments that i'm sending down to you in the mail so hopefully they make it to you alive!

This week was pretty good! It was the first week of the transfers so we had a ton of meetings we had to sit in front of the church and watch over PVC (Kinda like skype). It gets pretty hard to pay attention but it's not too bad. For Thanksgiving we went over to the Helgesens and it was so good! They had a turkey, ham, prime rib, and then all of the other works! We found a ping pong table in the shed so we went back at night and had the traditional Brown family ping pong tournament! Not to bad for a Thanksgiving in Bethel right? I just think of that picture of Kate sitting over a fire stirring her pot of soup and feel bad... poor girl! 

So funny story of the week... We were doing service painting some Mold killer on the walls. When we were finished I went over to the sink and started washing all of the paint out of the paint brushes and rollers. I kinda noticed that the paint wasn't really coming off very well but was just sticking to my hands. Then someone came over and looked at me all weird and said "you know thats oil based paint right? That stuffs not coming off your hands.." So I scrubbed and scrubbed but none of it was coming off! We had a lesson in 30 minutes so I had to just forget about it and run and get ready. Luckily there were some cleaning gloves in the cleaning cart in the church that I put on so the paint didn't go everywhere! Needless to say I spent the rest of that day and most of the next day going around visiting and teaching people with blue gloves on my hands until I could get a hold of some paint thinner! haha!

As for Robert.. He moved out of Bethel and went to Anchorage. We have a lot of problems like that because no one who comes to Bethel really stays for very long.. so it can kind of get a little frustrating! We had a lesson with the Brinks last night on the Plan of Salvation. The spirit was so strong and you could tell that Sister Brink and her two kids could feel it. At the end of the lesson we invited them to be baptized. All of them looked at Brother Brink but he told us that he could not leave his church. That all of his family was in the church and that he would not desert them neither would he let any of his family. It was a real bummer. The Natives ties with their ancestors is a really big deal and all of them are afraid to offend them by leaving the church so thats why its so hard to work with the natives. But if you get one of them... man you'd get the whole city.

So right now we're going to go cut down our Griswald Family Christmas tree a ways up river and then tie it on the top of the car and bring it back. Man I miss that movie... hopefully we won't forget the axe :)

Have an amazing week!

-Elder Brown

P.s. I've been sending everyone i've written a letter to my wrong address... whoops! So if you haven't gotten a letter from me in a while then its probably cause I never got it..

My RIGHT address is

3250 Strawberry Road

Anchorage, Ak 99502