The "Hot" Wedding

Hey Mudda!

This week went by SO fast. It was pretty much filled with a bunch of meetings all day everyday but it was a lot of fun! We had Zone Conference last Wednesday which was so much fun! For the first part of the day we were in the church receiving all these different trainings but then for the last half we went to the Reindeer farm that a member of the church owns which is right at the base of a really cool mountain to hike called the Butte. For the rest of the day we hiked around the mountain and did a bunch of different activities so it was a lot of fun! Then Thursday we were in Anchorage all day for trainings and a meeting with someone from the General Missionary Board.

So today's the big day! Maddie Fisher's finally going to be baptized! She's a pretty cool girl and really didn't want to get baptized in a baptismal font but wanted to do it just like the pioneers in a lake or river. Usually they really frown upon doing it outside of the church but we pushed President Beesley and he gave in so she's going to get baptized in our Bishops lake. It should be really cool so I'm pretty excited! 

Yeah there's a REALLY big fire down by my first area, Kenai. I guess it's getting pretty close to the town so they're a little worried about that but it rained today so hopefully that helped. The fire's about 200 miles away from us but the smoke up here is so bad and there's ash falling like snowflakes! It's like a thick fog so you really can't see that far. Most people are going around wearing masks and bandanas so they don't breathe it all in.

So to answer your question... Her sister's already a member but she's really less active. Apparently when she was young she fell for a missionary and got baptized so now we are trying to reactivate her.

Well I think that that's about it for this week.

Have a great week mom! 

-Elder Brown

 Zone Conference

A pet parrot someone gave us.

 Hiking Pioneer Peak. He's the man

 Zone conference (Pioneer Peak is in the background) Elder Fatani, just got here last transfer and is getting trained in the area next to us.

 Lynn Jones, getting baptized.

"You have the keys right?" "Uhhhh..." Yeah we lock our keys in the apartment quite a bit...

I Believe In Miracles

HEELLLLOOOO FAMILY!

It was so good to get to talk to you guys for a bit last week! But it sounds like things are still going A-OK back home and that the house isn't falling apart too bad!  Holy cow I can't believe they took the Young Women out to shoot bows for mutual! How did that go? Haha I remember when my friends and I took girls out on a date shotgun shooting.... man that didn't really work out too great! So I can't imagine that shooting bows would be much better.  I'm kidding! But Young Womens' camp sounds like its going to be a blast! Horseback riding, hiking, and a 8 hour rafting trip with 20 Young Women. I can't imagine anything that could go wrong! It'll be an adventure. That's awesome that Benny's doing so good in baseball. Hopefully some of those things I sent him helped for his state report!

Gosh from the sounds of it all of my single cousins are getting married this year. I got Brandon's wedding invitation. His Fiance is pretty cute! So I talked to Pres Beesley and it turns out he's not going to fly me down for the wedding... :( So let him know that I won't be able to make it and that I'm sorry!

This week we had so many miracles happen! Ever since our last baptism a few weeks ago we've really been hurting for some new people to teach. We've been working really hard and tracting a whole lot but not a whole lot had been happening. The hard thing about our area is that it's the smallest in the whole mission and covers mainly the downtown part of Wasilla so over the years all of the houses have been knocked on quite a bit. I was getting pretty frustrated and so finally about mid-way through last week I decided that I just needed to start fasting for something to happen and for us to be able to find the people that the Lord had prepared for us to help. I knew that there was someone, He's always promised that there is. One of our investigators, Sarah, has been wanting to get baptized for so long but her parents wouldn't give her permission. Miraculously a few days ago her mom finally gave her permission to be baptized so that's going to be happening next weekend!

 

There are two other little girls that we've been teaching for about two weeks at their grandma's house who's in our ward. They've had a real hard life as their mom has been going through a lot of struggles with addictions. They were planning on moving up to Fairbanks with their mom but it turns out that their grandma decided to have them stay down here with her so they'll both be baptized her in a couple of weeks as well. Then on top of that we were given two really good referrals that we have lessons with this week that should turn out so things are going great! It's always amazes me to see how Heavenly Father is always preparing someone to receive this great gospel!

Well I hope you have a great week!

Love you guys!

-Elder Brown

Fruits of the Labors

Hey!!

So for Mother's Day we're going to go over to our Ward Mission Leader Doctor Bostons' house. Honestly, I'm not really too sure what time it's going to be but I'll give you a call some time this weekend and let you know! I'm glad you liked my story about Elder Fatani haha you'll get to meet him this week so you'll understand! 

Man look at you guys doing all that yard work! I guess you could say that I'm pretty proud! Did you get the boat back, sprinklers turned on, etc? My area I'm in is definitely not a very good place for me to be in the summer. It was really hot this week and there are lakes everywhere so everyone was out on the lake waterskiing and boating. Our Bishop has a huge house and lives on a lake with a dock in his backyard where they hook up their boat and all I wanted to do what just jump in the water and go waterskiing! Ahhhhh that's a killer. But It's ok I'm just getting a whole bunch of other blessings right??

This week was really great! Lynn got back to Alaska on Thursday which gave us plenty of time to get everything ready for his baptism on Saturday! Everything thing went great and it really was such a great day! You go through a lot of ups and downs with all of the people you teach so when things finally work out it just makes it all the better! It's just amazing to see how close you grow with them as you watch them completely transform from the person they were before to the person that the Savior knows they can become. He's definitely someone that I'm going to be in touch with for the rest of my life. During the baptism the spirit was so strong. There's nothing better than to hear your new convert bear their testimony.

 With it being such nice weather outside we were getting so sick of being stuck in a car all day so now we spend most of our time walking around town and tracting. Hopefully we can get the work going again and find some more people to teach. 

Anyways I hope that things are going just fine and dandy back in good Ole Bountiful! Know that I love you guys and think of you all the time!

-Elder Brown