D-Day

Thank you so much for decorating my room and throwing all the candy on my bed! I'm a little confused though... it's not my half birthday till next month and I'm not turning 12 so I wasn't really sure what that picture you sent me was of. I sure hope that someone hasn't moved in and taken over my bedroom! I'm sure that's not the case but if it is there's going to be a battle when I get back.;) I can't believe that Marissa Woodbury's already home... gosh I swear it'll be only a few more emails then Kate will be home! So thanks for all of the pictures you sent me of Ben's party! They were killin me! This is pretty weird but honestly the thing that I miss most is just being able to jump in water... ahhh! But thats alright I'm still having fun out here :) Benny boy looks like a little stud! I'm so glad that Grandpa Wayner was able to give him the priesthood. 

This week things have been just pretty darn crazy. President Robinson and his wife came up this weekend to interview all of the missionaries and so that we could have a Stake missionary Correlation Meeting with President Duval the Stake President up here. Most of the week before they arrived we were running around trying to set up their interview schedule and prepare everything and then still trying to meet with all of the people to keep our area up and running! Interviews with President Robinson and then the stake meeting went really good! 

This Saturday Isaac was baptized which was such a cool experience! He's such a great kid. Most of his family's less active and so we're really hoping that he'll be able to lead them back to church! Elder McCusker baptized him and then I confirmed him yesterday in sacrament meeting. 

The work in 3rd ward is so good! If I could stay here the rest of my mission I would be a pretty happy camper. All of the members of the ward are so great! This next Saturday Scott, one of our other investigators is getting baptized so things are moving along! Last night we had a really cool experience. We went over to give our Ward Mission Leader Bro. Marshall a blessing and we ended up getting there right when Tim (a guy Bro Marshall's been trying to share the gospel with) and his wife got there. Tim went to a Baptist school in Florida where he took a huge class they teach pretty much on proving the Book of Mormon wrong. One day while he was in class he was reading in the Bible the scripture that says "By their fruits ye shall know them" He spent a lot of time thinking about the fruits of the baptist church and the fruits of the Mormons. The spirit told him what he needed to do so his quit school and came up to Alaska where he met Brother Marshall. We had an awesome lesson with them last night where the spirit hit them like a train. Tim and his wife are so primed and ready! 

The 25ths of Augusts are are always pretty tough. Enough said. :) When I get home I'm just gonna go to the temple every time. I always feel so close and like he's sitting next to me there. But Luckily every D-Day on my mission I've just been too busy to even think about things so that's been such a blessing! Definitely some divine intervention there. :) 

Well Elder McCukser and I are going to go Gold panning and get rich, so in a few days I'll send ya some gold nuggets so you can go buy yourself somethin nice. 

Love ya guys!

That Weekly Letter

Mason turned two??! It's going to be so weird to come home and hear him talking... I still remember the night when Meg went into labor and I sat in the waiting room for 6 hours. Yep that's never happening again. Next time I'm just waiting at home. That seemed like a pretty sweet birthday party though! Mase looked like he was having a blast and of course I loved his backpack! Ben and Liz are you excited for school?? Well too bad cause you've only got a week left of summer so you better live it up! 

Gosh this week has zoomed by so fast! I can't believe that it's already time to email again! There's so much that's been happening lately and I've never been happier in my life! Like I said in my last email last Monday we drove down to Anchorage for transfer meeting and then stayed there for a few nights until MLC on Wednesday. Our meetings ended up taking most of the day so we weren't able to hit the road until pretty late so we ended up driving 4 hours up to Healy and then sleeping there for the night. The next morning we had to wake up pretty early so that we could make it to Fairbanks to go house hunting for 2 sets of sister missionaries. The lease on their apartment is ended really soon so we had to go and tour a bunch of other apartments and find one that would work! After a few hours we finally found one so now we have to have it all furnished for them by the end of the week... fun stuff. 

On the first Friday of every transfer we have something called Zone Meeting where all of the missionaries in the Zone come together and Elder McCusker and I got to put together a 3 hour meeting/training. The theme that we decided on doing was "Come to the Edge" We talked about the stories of Enos, Alma the younger, etc. and how each of them came to a point in their lives where they were standing on the edge and had to jump. We compared it to missionary life by talking about how just like Alma and Enos each of us has things holding us back from reaching our full potential as a servant of the Lord (disobedience, fear, lack of caring) and how we wanted this to be the point in their missions where they make the jump and put all of the things holding them back, behind them. As in the cases of Enos and Alma it always takes sacrifice but when we make the jump the Lord will never allow us to fall. 

We did a really cool activity where we set up a course of tables in the gym that seemed to get gradually higher and higher  up off of the ground until it reached the stage. We had all of the missionaries wear blindfolds then they had someone lead them along the course until they made it to the top. At the top, thinking that they were about 5 feet in the air we made them jump off when the stage was only 1 or 2 inches below them. Oh man I wish I had recorded it! Everyone at the top was freaking out and some of the sisters started to cry haha! We were mean and made them jump anyways :) 

The work in the 3rd ward is awesome! We have more investigators than I've ever have had and after this week we have 3 people on date to be baptized by the end of the month! 

Well sorry for the long email but I hope you have a great week!

-Elder Brown

Transfers

Hey Family!!

Man mom I can't believe how much you guys are traveling around this summer... I swear you go on a new vacation every single week! San Francisco looked like it was a lot of fun though.  Thanks for sending all of the pics!

This weekend we got our transfer calls! Since I had only been in the area for 1 transfer and Elder Perkins had been there for 3, I was pretty sure that either we both were going to stay or at least he would stay and I would leave. So I was pretty shocked when I found out that I was going to be sent over to the Fairbanks 3rd ward to serve as a Zone Leader with Elder McCusker. I was finally getting to really get used to the 1st ward and all of our contacts so it's a little bit of a bummer that I'm not going to be able to stay, but at the same time I'm really excited! Elder McCusker's an Orange County California boy that came out with the group of missionaries that I was supposed to come out with last year. Ever since transfer calls things have been a little bit crazy just full of trying to get everything all packed up, doing laundry, etc. This morning we drove the looooooong drive from Fairbanks to Anchorage so that we can go to transfer meeting tomorrow and then we're going to sleep at the mission home and go to MLC on Wednesday then drive right back up to Fairbanks and get to work!

I don't have too much time but I'll try and answer some of your questions before I have to go!

So I guess Fairbanks is supposed to be a really dry and sunny place but it has been raining almost the entire time I've been up here. June and July set records for the most rainfall in history so we've been getting a whole lot!

Right now the sun sets around 10:30 or 11 so each day its getting darker and darker. The light's not really a problem anymore so that makes things a whole lot easier.

I actually have met a lot of people that still remember Dad! Right now I'm trying to hunt down a family that he taught and baptized (the last one while he was up here). Rumor has it that they're still up here so hopefully I can find them. Fairbanks is a huge military town so people move in and out quite a bit. But this last Sunday I met the lady that Brent Carling was talking about, and we went to dinner with him before I left. She's awesome!

Got to go!

Love,
Elder Brown

Just eatin some Muk'tuk steaks (whale blubber) for dinner!