Go Utes

Hello!

I'm so stoked that the Utes are doing so well! Saturday we had dinner with a family that just moved up from Provo. Even though they're die hard Zoobies I still sweet talked them into giving me the play by play of the Utah USC game. Ahhh I hope they can keep it up! That's pretty cool that Kate gets to travel to all of the different Islands! That would be pretty fun!

Well all this week I've been hopping from couch to couch in all of the areas in Fairbanks. Last Tuesday we went and dropped Elder McCusker off at the airport and ever since I've just been bouncing around from area to area. It's been pretty fun! Most of the time I've stayed with Elder Nielson (my companion from Bethel) We're going to be pretty tight when I get back home. He leaves in 6 weeks...

Transfer calls came this Friday and I'm staying in 3rd ward as the Zone Leader and then Elder Jolley from Tremonton is going to come up with me. He seems like a pretty good guy so I'm pretty excited!

This weekend was Stake Conference in our stake and it was so good! Our Stake President is such an amazing man and has helped me out a whole lot.  One thing he said that I've been thinking a whole lot about lately. He said: If there's ever a time we think we need to be right instead of being kind, repent. I think a lot of time we struggle so badly with the drive to be right instead of being kind.  Trying to be right. Anyone can try and prove that they're right but it takes a true disciple of Christ to say "You're right, I'm sorry" even when you know you're right.

I was able to catch up to Sister Gridley from Dad's ward when he was here.  It was really cool to talk with her a lot about him and reminisce a little.  I miss that guy!

Love you guys!

-Elder Brown

Sister Gridley

Wuff Slayers

Hey Family!

 I don't really have too much time to email so I have to keep this pretty quick! Sounds like you guys have had quite the week! It's pretty weird hearing about all of vacation days off that the kids have from school but it sounds like you guys are making pretty good use of it! Ok where is Donut falls? That hike looked so cool! You're going to have to take me there when I get back. 

This week has gone by pretty quick. This week was Courtney's Baptism which was so awesome! All of the Young Women in the ward did something at the baptism so it made it really special for her. Earlier in the week we made the voyage down to Delta Junction to go on exchanges for the day with the Elder down there. The drive down was pretty sketch mcgetch because the roads were just a sheet of ice. It was pitch black the whole drive down with the Northern Lights dancing off in the distance and we just about hit a wolf that was running along side the highway. Needless to say Alaska is a pretty cool place!

We got our transfer calls about a week and a half early and found out that we're getting yanked apart. Elder McCusker's going down to Anchorage again and I'm staying up in the Banks. It's been pretty fun serving with him and you'll get to meet him when I get back because he'll be around the house a whole lot while he goes to school in Utah. Later tomorrow he's flying down to Anchorage by himself and then for this whole next week I'm going to be playing nomad and couch hopping from area to area until I find out who my new companion will be this Saturday. The joys of being companionless I guess! I'm pretty excited to be staying in the same area because there are so many great things going on. I wouldn't mind it if I just stayed her for the rest of my mission. But next transfer I'm really hoping I get to train sister Wrights Nephew that's coming out. Or else there's another Elder Brown coming out so maybe I'll get to train him! If I do I'm making sure that we're both wearing the same outfit ever single day haha! 

Sorry this was so short but I promise I'll be better next week!

Love you guys!

-Elder Brown

Meet The Mormons

Hey Guys! 

Well week after week it seems like the Brown family back home is always up to something interesting! I'm pretty happy about it because it makes emails always that much better! That's so cool that Brother Wolley mentioned his brother and I in his testimony. His brother really is such a great guy and I think it's just crazy that I ended up in the same exact ward as him! Hopefully we can make a difference. As for the cookies.... Elder McCusker and I have developed the unstoppable approach for people especially Part-member families that won't let you in. We call it "Warm 'em before you Warn 'Em" No matter what if you're really happy and nice and show up on someones doorstep with a plate full of savory home warmed (Toll house) chocolate chip cookies there's no way they can turn you away! Works like a charm :) Sometimes you need to get pretty creative to make things work.

Aww man I love the Adams Canyon hike! Michael McCann would go on that one a whole lot before we left and have some pretty good memories up there. I think you need to talk to Bishop Erying and talk to him about being the assistant Scout Master or at least the Rep. over the mountaineering merit badge after all of these ventures in the mountains! I'm kidding of course haha. I loved the story of the temple with Jan Freeman greeting you at the other side. It gives me a whole lot of comfort knowing that Dad's going to be waiting there doing the exact same thing when we pass on to the next life. Ahh I love the temple!

This week has probably been the craziest week on my mission by far! I'm sure I can count on one hand how many hours we got to proselyte in our area. We got a email from our vehicle coordinator last P-Day telling us that we had to get all 13 of our cars into the shop with their winter tires ready to get put on. Well we thought that it would be pretty easy except with the snow storm that hit last week EVERY SINGLE PERSON in Fairbanks was trying to do the exact same thing! We spent hours going around from auto shop to auto shop trying to set up appointments but with the mad rush of customers trying to get their tires changed no one was taking appointments and was just changing tires of a first come first serve basis. What we ended up having to do for all of the cars was waking up really early in the morning, taking the cars to the shop a few hours before they opened and then standing in line in the cold for a few hours. The first day it was pretty fun because it just seemed like Black Friday on the mission as there ended up being about 40 people behind us in line doing the same thing. Well that's enough about that but it was pretty brutal. Lots of early mornings and late nights but the good thing is it's done :)

This weekend President Robinson and the assistants came up on Friday to do interviews and then for Zone Conference on Saturday. I got to go on exchanges with Elder Nelson (from MPJH, the one I served with in Bethel) one last time before he goes home in a few weeks. On Saturday for Zone Conference the whole Zone got together and watched Meet the Mormons!! I loved it! Hopefully you've gone and seen it by now, if not then you're missing out! When President Robinson first came out he told us that we were going to be able to go to the theaters to watch it, so that was a bummer but at least we got to see it! I really think with all of the negative things going around about the church that it will really help out a whole lot!

Dawn got confirmed yesterday which was really awesome! Her daughter Courtney's getting baptized this weekend so that will be great! We brought our squirrel to the Ward Harvest Dinner and it was a big hit! We won the award for the most unique and generous contribution haha
.

Ok. If you want a really good laugh you need to watch this last Sunday's sacrament meeting up through Brother Wappetts (The guy conducting's) talk. I think the website is Fairbanksstake.orgor something like that! I've never laughed so hard in a sacrament meeting in my life. I love that guy! If it's possible could you save it onto your computer so that I can have it when I get home? That would be great! 

Love ya a whole lot!

-Elder Brown

Pic 1 - People give us the most random things... One of our investigators called us and asked if we wanted a few moose bones to give to dogs. We told him we would take them so we drove to his house and backed up to his garage and pulled the entire moose carcass into the bed of our truck... Well after trying to pawn it off to someone we ended up hauling it to the dump. Go figure. 

My mad haircutting skills. Luckily I have a loving companion who said something before I walked out the door with this thing.

General Conference Weekend

Oh man... I can't believe you have Kate's travel itinerary to come home! That's so weird! It's crazy to see all of the people whose farewells I went to come home. I know it's still forever away, and I don't think of it a whole lot, but I'm slowly climbing up the totem pole. Sounds like you've had a great week though! I'm glad Mason's getting easier and easier to handle but I thought he's supposed to be in his terrible two's so it's supposed to be the other way around! But I'm sure you don't really mind. Haha those pictures of him at the treehouse were pretty funny! You could tell by the look on his face that he didn't really like being pulled away from those trains.

I don't know what's up with you and your hikes lately... at least you always bring someone with you whenever you get lost! I'm pretty impressed with your tennis skills mom! Looks like we're going to have to go to Mueller Park this summer and you're going to have to show off your skills. Holy cow you're going to Thailand next summer?? Who even thought of that one? That's going to be so awesome you guys are going to have a blast! I was pretty taken aback by that one I never really thought that you'd even think of going over seas international for a family vacation. But that's so cool! You'll have to send me some pictures of the resort we're going to be staying at. 

Well this week has zoomed by so quickly! I swear that the longer you're out on your mission the fast and faster the weeks seem to go by. Between General Conference, going on exchanges, and preparing Dawn for her baptism things have been pretty jam packed. So when we put Dawn on date to be baptized we didn't really realize that it was going to be General Conference weekend. She actually was the one that brought it up! But with how well she had been doing we really didn't want to have to move her date back a week. So we ended up shooting the gap in between the afternoon session and priesthood session of General Conference! The baptism ended up going really well and was such a cool experience! She's really been through the ringer throughout her life but it's been so amazing to see the transformation that she's been able to make in just the last few months that I've been able to be with her. It really just goes to show that no matter how dismal the circumstances may seem, no matter how deep the despair, the Atonement allows us to change this day our destiny and what we have the potential to become. 

I'm so grateful for General Conference! Even though my bottom is so sore from sitting in the uncomfortable pews for 10 hours. There was so much that stuck out to me this conference. One of the things that really hit home with me is how my entire life all I've been doing is living below my potential. Heavenly Father has created each of us differently so that we can excel in our own ways. He doesn't want us to be the average Joe or mediocre. Whenever we feel that way we're living below our birthright. Each one of us has been given the power to become whatever we want to become and to be the best at it. All growing up I never even scraped the surface of what I can be. What was running through my mind a whole lot during conference was when I was talking to you a few years ago about how on your Honey Moon with dad how you could hardly even get him to do anything because all he wanted to do was to read! I loved the story someone shared about the young mother who was a maid who made all of her kids stop watching T.V. and read books. And how their lives and situation was completely changed because of that mother. I just feel so much more motivated to learn! There's so many things I don't know. In the Doctrine and Covenants it talks about how the "Glory of God is intelligence". I'm so excited for the chance that I have to be here and to learn and to grow and I'm even more excited to get home and to put to use all of the things I've learned on my mission!

Hope that everything is just fine and dandy!

Love you guys! 

P.s. Thanks so much for the package! You're the greatest!

-Elder Brown

Squirrel Hunting on P-Day