4 Score……and 365 Days to Go!

Hey Momma!!

Holy Cow that's crazy... what're you going to do with all of the time you have now?! Meg and Quinn are gone, no baby to watch, and no more Mia Maid activities! Looks like you're going to have to find a new hobby!

That's really cool about Sidona's cousin in Anchorage. Tell her to still send me the package, because I'm sure in a few months they'll have me down in Anchorage. 

So Guess what this week is.... I've officially been out a YEAR!!! woot woot!!!! That means only 6 months till Kate comes home! I can't believe that it's already been a whole year... Looking back it seems like it's gone by so fast, but then it's been filled with a lifetimes worth of memories. What's going to be weird is to see Kate come home and then I'll still have 6 months after that! crazy stuff. 

So this past week's been a lot of fun! Monday-Wednesday I stayed in Anchorage for Leadership training and then Elder Wang from Taiwan and I started the 8 hour drive up to Fairbanks. We got a really late start so we ended up staying in Healy at the church there for the night. So the drive's supposed to be one of the prettiest in the world where you can see Mount McKinley and all these mountains and glaciers and such.  However, when we drove through it was pouring rain the entire time and all we saw was fog. I guess the trees on the side of the road were green and pretty. My new area's a little rough around the edges... but that's ok it'll get there! Last night we found a new family to teach and they are now our leading investigators. They're really amazing people so we'll see what happens. My new comp is from Kanosh Utah (Somewhere by Fillmore?) and he's a total country cowboy but we'll get along good! He's about 6'4" and 280 so I don't think anybody's going to be messing with us (or him at least haha).  The new mission President gets here in about a few hours so I guess we'll see how that goes. It was pretty sad to see President and Sister Beesley leave... I'm gonna miss them. 

I've got to say i'm a little disappointed that you haven't taken the boat out yet... But I guess I'll let it slide! 

Well that's about what's been happening in my neck of the woods but I hope you have an amazing week!

Love you guys!!

-Elder Brown

Summer Solstice

Hey guys!!

Well I think it's pretty safe to assume that you had a pretty good week! Thanks for sending me all of the pictures and rubbing it in my face :) Looking through all of them brought back so many memories! Gosh that sounded like the perfect week! Beach, pool, Disneyland, Angels game, restaurants, etc. What more could you ask for?! Now that you've got all the big trips out of the way what're you gonna do for the rest of the summer? Just sit back and relax? 

Well this week we got transfer calls and it turns out that I'm headed up north to the land of Fairbanks! It's one of the wards dad served in so I'm pretty excited and hopefully I can meet some more of the people that he was able to work with. It's pretty sad having to leave Wasilla. This has by far been my best area missionary work wise so I'm going to miss it. I'm going to be serving with cowboy Elder Perkins and the work in the ward's supposed to be a little bit rough but hopefully we can change that! This coming week Sarah's 2nd mom that we're teaching and her son have been a little bit nervous because her husband's coming home this week and she wasn't really sure how he'd take it when she told him that she's getting baptized. She's really strong and decided that no matter what he says she knows that this is true and she's going to get baptized! That's one of the other hard things about leaving is next month we have 5 baptisms planned... bummer. haha! 

Well I hope you guys are recovering a little bit from your crazy week!

-Elder Brown

Lucky Dog

Hey Momma!

Man I'm so jealous of you guys getting to go down to Newport for a week! I miss that place. You need go to Hotdog on a stick and buy one and send it up to me! So who's all going down with you? Are all of the marrieds getting to come this time? Sounds like you didn't have a very good Friday the 13th... but hey it could've been a whole lot worse! At least they were able to figure it all out and get it all fixed up. I guess you can just be glad that you have pipes that can break unlike poor Kate! 

Well you'll definitely have to take tons of pictures this week and send them to me so I can see how much fun I'm missing out on! I'm kidding :) Newport has so many memories... going down there with the Brown's was so much fun! Something I'll never forget. 

This week's been a pretty good one. It was Elder Fatani's "Senior Companion Week" Since he's just about through with training so I just got to sit back and relax and let him run the show. It was pretty nice! Transfer calls are coming up this Saturday so we'll see what happens!! There's a ton of new missionaries coming out this next one so I think either Elder Fatani's getting shipped off somewhere else and I'm staying or we're both leaving. We'll see what happens! 

Well I hope you guys have fun in Newport without me... BOOO!!!

-Elder Brown

Cloud 9

I honestly don't even know where to start to talk about this week. No words can really describe how amazing things have been going and it's definitely weeks like these that make everything worth it. We've been so blessed to see so many miracles this week that it's pretty crazy! It's amazing what a little tender love and care and a whole lot of hard work can do for an area. This week we were able to pick up 5 new investigators that are progressing so fast! There's a ton to talk about, but I'll just share a few stories. You'll probably think that I'm going crazy (and I probably am) but last Thursday night I had a dream where I was standing on one of the streets in our area. The next day I woke up and we had decided to go tract for a few hours the night before so we went to the street. We tracted for a few hours which was good and we found a few less actives that we didn't know lived there. We were getting tired and so we decided to try one last house. When we were walking to the door this lady came out to meet us (I was assuming just to tell us to go away or something like that) She told us that the night before she had been praying and asking God to send us or to send someone who could give her a blessing. Jane has met with missionaries a few times over the years and is really good friends with a lot of members of the church. She was just about to call her friend and ask him to come and give her a blessing when we showed up. Heavenly Father knows all of his children.

This past week we've been working a lot with Sarah's (the one who got baptized in the lake) "adopted" mom and her family. We were having a lesson last night at a members' house and were teaching the Plan of Salvation. Throughout meeting with her she had been telling us how she's been bouncing around to all of these different churches but every one that she went to she could just feel that there was something missing. Near the end of the lesson she just stopped us and told us that she knows that she's been taught this before. That the piece that was missing from all of the other churches was finally all coming together. It's amazing how one of the purposes of the Holy Ghost is to "Bring all things to [our] remembrance" I know that it not only brings things to our remembrance that we have learned in this life but also in the life before. All of us were taught the Plan of Salvation before we came to this world and throughout life the Spirit will testify that to us. 

Love you guys have an amazing week!

-Elder Brown 

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