Elder Mike Brown: MMM (Missing March Madness)

Holy smokes it sounds like everyone has just been busy busy busy! The big famous CAA dance recital is already coming up? Make sure you get her a flower and give it to her from me! I would send one but I'm not sure if it'd look so good when it got there haha :) That's so cute that Mase watches Frozen almost everyday! I remember how I'd always watch when Rugrats go to Paris and then start bawling when he's on the plane and the song "I Want a Mom That'll Last Forever" comes on! Man I'm such a baby. Does he have a blankey that he carriers around everywhere with him?

This week has been a little bit on the slower side. This weekend was the Camai Dance
Festival where people come in from all over the world and from all of the villages in Alaska (Of all the places to have it... Bethel?) so the whole town was busy getting ready for that. Friday and Saturday we volunteered as gym ushers (Drunk Patrol) so we got to see a lot of it which was pretty fun! It's really cool to see all of the different Native cultures and all of their different dances and rituals they have. At the entrance there was a ton of vendors selling all of their Native handi-crafts and I bought Ben a Gussbuck for his State Project which is kind of like a hoodie that all of the Yupik people up here wear in the Spring Summer and Fall when they're gathering. I'll send it home in a little bit but tell him he better take care of it cause I want it back when I get home!

So for volunteering we got a bunch of free admission tickets that we could give out to people that we knew so we decided to give one to Paul for Saturday! Well it turns out that he ended up staying too late so he slept in for Church ... (I guess you could say that was a lesson learned!) In order to get baptized he had to come two times before the 29th so as of right now he's off date. Transfers haven't happened yet but their coming up this Saturday so this probably will be my last week in Bethel! I'm pretty sad because I've come to love all of the people up here so much! I wish I could just stay here for the rest of my mission! Plus it's going to be a bummer that I won't be able to get to see Paul baptized.... But that's alright. It's not about who baptizes him or when but that they are able to make those sacred covenants with their Heavenly Father and continue on in their pathway to returning to live with Him again!

Yesterday we were able to have our first lesson with an awesome couple. Their names are Richard and Tomlynn. They're not married but have a cute 4 year old daughter. A little while ago they had been having some real problems with their relationship and were just about to give up. As a last ditch effort they decided that they would say a prayer for God to send someone to them that could help them get through this and turn their lives around. Then just a couple of days later we showed up on their doorstep! All growing up I had always heard of missionary stories like this but it really amazes me how much instances like this really happen! There's only one explanation.... God knows each one of his children individually and personally. He prepares them and leads missionaries by the hand so that we can find these people and bring them to a knowledge of his plan for them!