Time Flies

Hello Hello!

Well mother I think I should start off by saying how proud I am of you! I can't believe how awesome your bracket was this year! Next year when I'm back you're going to have to do mine for me and give me some pointers so that I can finally have a bracket that does alright haha. Did you beat Ben's bracket? That's so sad to hear about Doc Freeman but I honestly just love that man!! When I heard President Erying mention him in his talk my heart dropped because I wanted to badly to see him when I got back and just give him a big hug! Especially after all that he's done this last year for our family. He's definitely a man of all men and I hope that his family is doing alright!  

Being the week before trasnfers this last week was a fiasco as always full of putting together all of the logisitcs for the missionaries, finalizing transfers, and making calls upon calls. But I love the maddness :) The new missionaries came in on Monday and I love being around them so much! It's crazy to think that just a few years ago I was in their same shoes wide eyed and awestruck. Yesterday we had transfer meeting and then full of making runs to the airport trying to get all the missionaries off to their new areas. At night we had the bye bye dinner/testimony meeting for all of the departing missionaries. They always fly out super late at night and early in the morning so last night we dropped off a group to go home at 12AM 4:30AM and 8AM. I guess you could say I'm just a little bit tired!!! Probably my least favorite thing about serving here is dropping the missionaries off at the airport who are going home... I hate it! It's so crazy how close you can get to so many different missionaries so quick and then it's just devastating to see them all go home. But I'm so excited to see all of them when I get back! 

I've been thinking lately a lot about how fast time goes. Sometimes it goes by so fast that all you want to do it just sit down and cry. It really amazes me how as human beings all we do is live for the future and all too often we forget to slow down smell the roses and just live in the moment. My new goal for the rest of my mission is to just live every day like its my last and love every second of it! You can't stop time but you can decide what you're going to do with it. I'm so grateful for the time that I've been able to spend so far in Alaska! 

I think what you said about members in Utah not being the greatest at missionary work is so true! At least for me I know that before my mission I never even thought about it one bit. The crazy thing is that Every General Conference its one of the most talked about items so I don't know how I missed it my whole life. I think since we just live in a neighborhood that's completely surrounded by members we feel like there's just no work to do. But I've been thinking about a pretty good game plan so when I come home that's all going to change! So your homework is that all of you need to start praying for the names of people that we're going to share the gospel with this summer and we're all stocking up on our Thai Books of Mormon and proselyting materials before we go to Thailand! It's gonna be a blast :) 

Well anyway hope you know I love you all!

-Elder Brown