Operation Salvation

Waqaa!!

Hello!

Gosh it's so weird having Halloween right around the corner and being out in the mission field. I guess it's kind of my first major holiday since I've been out so, that's probably why it feels so crazy! It sounds like you guys have had an awesome week though! Gosh I'm so jealous that you all had the annual pumpkin carving night without me! Alright i think it's time to admit it... looking back now I totally regret not carving pumpkins every year... I was a little punk and thought I was too cool for that but I miss it now! So Mom, Jody, and everyone else I'm sorry! But I guess it's just my loss right? Going to the Halloween party and Grandma and Grandpa's will be so much fun! So every year on Halloween all of the missionaries have to come in pretty early I guess because there have been some people dressing up as missionaries and going around door to door? But anyways my companion and I have this huge Halloween party all planned out! We're going to have scones, play the doughnut on the string game, and have a pinata so it should be awesome! I mean you've gotta have some fun everyone in a while while you're out here right? So I just figured that I'd carry on some of the family traditions! Thanks for sending me the scone recipe! I have no clue what its means to dissolve yeast, cream eggs and sugar, or alternate dry ingredients with butter milk so I guess we'll have to see how this all turns out! haha! You're going to be amazed by the amazing cook I've become! I can cook top ramen so many different ways now!! :)

This week has honestly been so amazing! I'm not going to lie it was a pretty good culture shock for me when I first got up here... But I love it so much! We've been able to see so many miracles it's crazy! It just goes to show how mindful Heavenly Father is of us all. It's up to us to first put forth the effort and show we're willing to work and then he blesses us! We found out that one of our investigators who's ready for baptism is moving down to Alabama this week which is a real big bummer. So right now we're really focusing on finding some new people to teach. We're really not sure how long we're going to be out here but we're going to try start "Operation Salvation" and tract the entire town. Hopefully as we're led by the spirit we'll be able to find those people Heavenly Father has prepared to receive the gospel.

We had a lesson with the Brink family last night that has probably been the high point of my mission so far! We taught them the Restoration of the gospel. You could literally see everything click in their eyes as we were teaching. So cool! Everyone either started crying or at least was tearing up during the lesson the spirit was so strong... Yea I guess I'm a baby judge me ;) But I'm so excited to start teaching them! I've never taught an entire family who aren't members yet so it should be a really cool experience!

So if you can speak a little bit of their language all of the elders and natives really warm up to you so my comp and I have been trying to learn Yup'ik. Not a lot but just enough so that we can have a really simple conversation with them! It's such a weird language.... but it's pretty cool!

Well that's just a little bit of what's been going on out in the bush... But guess what?? It's finally snowing outside!!! WOOOO!!! haha well I hope you guy have an awesome Halloween without me... just kidding :)

Gingumgin!!

(I Love you!)

Buqaa!

Bethel

Hey Family,

Thanks for giving me an update on the NY trip! That sounded like so much fun! I can't believe you didn't take any of the guys with you... pretty mean.  So while you guys were at Broadway were they also playing the Book of Mormon Musical? One of the recent converts I was working with in Kenai Josie Jones (I think you mentioned her?) was in NY with her twin sister Ali and they went to see it and they ended up both getting converted! You hear of stories like that all the time so I think its pretty funny how they made it to make fun of Mormons but a lot of people have actually accepted the gospel because of it! Michael McCann was telling me that they station missionaries outside of it after with Book of Mormons and Pamphlets so that they can teach people more about it if they're interested.

So this past week has been pretty laid back. Elder Wingard and I drove up to Anchorage Tuesday for transfer meetings where I met my new companion elder Nielson! He's such an awesome guy and I'm so excited to serve with him! (thanks mom :)  )  He's from Nephi Utah and has been out about a year. He love hunting and played a lot of sports so we have a lot in common and get along really well. Well we were told that our flight didn't leave until late Thursday night so we hung out at the mission home for a few days and worked with missionaries in Anchorage until then. Like I said before everything in Bethel has to be flow in so food is SOOOO expensive up here! But Elder Nielson brought down three suitcases and we went to Walmart and bought a bunch of food that will hopefully make it last until we fly back into Anchorage in 5 weeks. We got to the airport and found out that out flight actually was the day before but they were able to switch it over really easily because no one really flies out here... Bethel is pretty crazy... its definitely a lot different than anyone else in the U.S. We cover a pretty big area including  a lot of villages within about 100 miles of here. About 80% of the population is native and 10% is Asian and the other 10% is white. It's a pretty 3rd worldish place. Its flithy. Luckily we live in the church and it's so nice! I have a basketball court right out my door when I wake up and a flushing toliet! We don't have running water but have to have it delivered to us twice a week to fill up our 600 gallon water tank. That seems like a lot of water but for the whole church you can use that in about 2 or 3 days so we have to be really careful of how we use it! The water here's really dirty... so we have to use filters and boil so that we don't get sick. I know it's still nothing like what Kate's going through but it's a pretty cool thing to experience!

Bethel is just a branch and that's a completely different feel than a ward! But I like it. Everyone is so close knit and really welcoming. So Saturday night when Elder Nielson and I were coming back in for the night, we got a call from Brother Kendall asking us if we would talk for 15 minutes tomorrow morning... i was pretty stressed out to say the least! Since I had literally no time to prepare I just decided that I would go up there and see what the spirit directed me to say. I was pretty nervous but it went great! The people up here are crazy.. its a definite culture shock. There's so much crime up. They had to make Bethel a "Dry Zone" meaning that no alcohol can be sold in the area because of how bad it gets up here. But of course they have bootleggers smuggling it in so they still get it anyways. I've never been around so many drunks in my life.  At night, haha no actually all day they're literally all wandering around the streets like zombies. Its really sad. These people definitely need the gospel! I know with the Lord's help we can help make its a better place! But really I'm SO excited to be up here! The members are so great.

Hope everyones doing great and stayin out of trouble!!

Love you guys!

Going Bush Wackin'

Ahhhh hey guys! I finally get to write you this week since everything's all set up again! These last two weeks have absolutely been CRAZY!! General Conference last week was so awesome! I've never been so excited for it before (probably being a missionary now helps), but I was so glad when it finally came around! Since we really don't get any other ones General Conference really is the only holiday the missionaries have to look forward to! I felt like all of the talks this session were especially amazing and I learned so much! The way we're doing missionary work is completely changing. Instead of us going into the wards and trying to get them to help us in our efforts it's completely the opposite now. We're here to help the members of the wards in their efforts in sharing the gospel. Eight of the talks in Conference were either on members reaching out and bringing back in those lost sheep who have strayed away, or else sharing the gospel with everyone around them. I especially loved Elder Ballards talk and how bold and straight forward he was especially when he challenged every member to reach out and share the gospel with at least one person before the end of the year. Think of how many people are out there and don't have the gospel in their lives. Even in Utah they're all over! Even though I loved every talk, I think the talk President Monson gave about his wife was probably one of my favorites! 

This past week was by far the best week this area has had in a long time! We were able to gain 3 new investigators in one week which is pretty unheard of! We've never had more than one or maybe two at one time but now we have six! It feels a lot better when you have a completely full schedule compared to not having anyone to go and see. Right now we have three people on date to be baptized, one next week and two the week after that! So one of our investigators is a born again Christian named Kyle... and to make things even worse he's a registered preacher and has gone to schools to study the bible all his life.  He knows the bible cover to cover and pretty much has the whole thing memorized. I'll be honest here... my bible skills are not very great. So to say the least I was a little bit nervous before our first lesson, but we got in there and talked about the restoration and the Book of Mormon and it went so much better than I expected! He tried to Bible bash with us for the first little bit but then we started talking about the Book of Mormon and how it really is just another testament of Jesus Christ and how all he has to do is read it with a sincere heart and pray about it and no matter what he'll be able to get his answer and know for himself of its truth. I'm not really sure what's going to happen with him but we'll just have to wait and see! 

 5 Therefore, verily I say unto you, lift up your voices unto this people; ^aspeak the thoughts that I shall put into your hearts, and you shall not be ^bconfounded before men

After this experience I know how true this scripture in D&C is. It was crazy to see the huge role the Holly Ghost plays in our lives as we're teaching investigators

Transfers... Going into transfers I was completely positive that I was staying in Kenai. Usually when a companionship finishes training the trainer leaves the area and the trainee stays. Our whole district got together in the morning to play basketball and wait for transfer calls. President Beesley called and I answered the phone and was told that I was getting transferred to Bethel!  When I first heard this I was completely shocked. I was so disappointed that I was going to be leaving Kenai. I really have grown to love this place and everyone in it! The members here are really so amazing. I'm going to miss them so much. But if I was getting transferred I figured I would get sent up to Anchorage or something since they always keep the new missionaries close until they get a little bit older. Bethel is a small native Eskimo village about 1,000 miles West of Anchorage. The only way to get there is by plane or boat so it's CLEAR out in the bush. All of the missionaries that get sent out to the "Bush" areas have been out for at least a year or more and they never send the "Greenies" out there. I'm a little bit nervous about that. Of course right when things really start picking up here in Kenai I get shipped out. It kind of stinks but I know that this is where the Lord wants me to be. The weather up in Bethel is supposed to be insanely cold so i'm going to have to buy all of my winter stuff in Anchorage before I get shipped out. Since everything has to be flown in the prices are crazy and there's really only a few small stores to get things. Since I can have a 3rd back fly free in Alaska I'm loading up a huge suitcase full of candy and and all that good junk food stuff and shipping it up! It's going to be really weird being all by ourselves out there with the closest missionaries a thousand miles away. From what I've heard it's going to be really, really, tough. But I know that with the help of the Lord anything's possible !I fly out Thursdays from Anchorage so i'm pretty excited! 

My ankle is doing ok. I was running through the woods trying to shoot a squirrel with a blow dart gun and a log slipped out from underneath me and I twisted it pretty good. haha I guess that's what I get huh?

Gosh I can't believe the Utes beat Stanford! That's so sweet! thank you so much for sending me those articles! It kinda sounds like they're all over the place this year. If they pulled it off against Stanford maybe they'll be able to hang with the Ducks! Go UTES! Don't forget to get all of the leaves taken care of and make sure that the tramp gets taken down and stored away for winter mmmmkay?

Love you guys!

Stay safe in NY! Don't get killed by terrorists or something like that.

P.S. - I'm going to be shipping a few packages home because I can't bring all of them up to Bethel but they're everyones Christmas Presents so DONT OPEN THEM UNTIL CHRISTMAS!! ok??! You're gonna love my redneck authentic Alaskan Wrapping paper :)

Senior Companion

HEEEELLLOOOOO FAMILY!

How the heck is everyone doing??! Haha I hope everything's going great and everyones still alive and staying out of trouble!

On my mission I've realized how important it is to do two simple things: family scripture study, and Family Home Evening.  Make sure that everyone's doing family scripture study every night and family home evening EVERY WEEK! So I guess I need to apologize for all of the times that I moaned and groaned over them. I really am so thankful that despite all of the whining and complaining that we do, that you still made us do them. There's a huge difference in the families that are doing those two things and those that aren't! The spiritual aspect of family scripture study and Family Home Evening is really important, but even more important is that we take some time out of our day to meet together as a family and grow even closer. I was listening to a talk this week that I really loved and I want you guys to listen to tonight for family night. It's called Beware of Pride by President Benson. Something I've really noticed since I've been out, is how being prideful is probably one of the biggest things that almost everyone stuggles with. It is something that we have to at least attempt to overcome if we are going to draw closer together not only as a family but also to grow closer to our Savior. As we start to overcome pride all of our relationships will flow so much better.

That's awesome you guys had such a cool experience at the temple! That's something I really miss. We're supposed to be able to go every 3 months, but our zone is too far away from Anchorage so we don't get to. The last week and a half before I left I loved being able to go to the temple almost every day.  It was so awesome! Like you were saying, because it's the house of the Lord the veil in there is so thin. I've never felt the presence of Dad nearly as strong as when I'm in the temple. I think that's why I love it so much. 

Anyways... I can't believe you hooked up the boat to the Suburban ALL BY YOURSELF!!! WOOOO!!! who's a good girl? Hahaha! Now the question is did it make it to S.S. Marine alright without any crashes or anything? Is the boat ok? No mishaps at the dock or on the lake that I should know about? Is it waxed and vacuumed and cleaned out for the winter? Make sure you look at the fall clean up list that I left you in the housekeeping manual so all of those things get done and that the house gets ready for winter. You might want to start up the Snowblower and make sure its running before the first snowfall and doesn't need to be taken into the shop. 

So I didn't get transferred. At least not yet. We still have two weeks left in this transfer and then I'll be done training. We find out next Saturday if we're going to stay or not or where we're getting shipped off to! I really hope I get to stay here at least one more transfer. The ward and people here are honestly so amazing and I've really come to love them so much! They're so great to the missionaries and things are really finally starting to take off in regards to the work so I'm so excited for that. The reason I put the Strawberry road address in Anchorage on the letter to Lizzy is because I'm not really sure where I'm going to be sent after this, so thats the address to the mission office and they'll just forward it to me from there! Since it's the 2nd to last week of my training I get to be the Senior Companion for the week.  I get to drive, lead out in the lessons and planning and all that fun stuff! I'm pretty excited so we'll see how it goes. Its crazy how after just a few months you can completely forget how to drive a car.This morning when I was trying to drive, it took me a good half hour to get used to it again! haha.

This last week has been really good and was our best week so far! We spent a ton of time in the back woods helping people chop down trees with chain saws and haul them off and split all of the wood. Its so much fun! But pretty dangerous. This last week one of the elders serving by me got his finger chopped off by his companion. Terrible huh! I guess the piece of wood he was holding for his companion fell and he went to grab it and Boom. Bye bye finger. They were able to re-attach the finger but its pretty sad because the bone got all infected so now he has to go home and heal before he can come back out. Sketchy stuff!

So there's been a huge change in Elder Brown. Before I came out I wasn't really a huge fan of kids. I didn't want anything to do with them. Working with all of the families has really gotten me to love them! Even though they can be a little difficult sometimes, they're so much fun to be around! So guess what? My ankle gave out on me pretty bad a few days. I kinda knew it would happen but I has hoping it wouldn't be this soon. But such is life. 

If you guys wouldn't mind could you maybe send me attached to an email a different arrangement of If you Could Hie to Kolob? Since a lot of branches out here don't have anyone who can play the piano I've gotten really into it! Yea mom you were right alright? I regret not practicing when I was younger like I was supposed to. So Ben and Lizzy... PRACTICE THE PIANO!!! Especially the hymns. Don't be like me and regret not doing it. I promise it'll come in handy! And you guys really are the best for sending me those Halloween Oreos!! Those are my favorite :) 

Well that's pretty much all the fun stuff that's been happening around here! GENERAL CONFERENCE IS THIS WEEK!!! WOOOOOOO! You guys better be good kids and watch all of it!

Love ya! 

Elder Brown

P.s. the Salsa make it up here without breaking :)

Winter Wonderland?

THERE'S SNOW ON THE GROUND!!!! Yea I thought that i'd be way excited for winter but this is just a little bit too early for me... I mean it's still kinda September isn't it? That just means from here until about May this is what its going to be like haha!

So that bear attack that was on the news you were telling me about I guess was about 30 miles from where i'm at right now! Someone was telling us that the bear populations up here have been exploding lately and a ton of people have been having problems with bears stalking them and their houses. Just a little bit scary! But pretty cool :)

Haha mom that story of Mason crying at the rec center made me laugh pretty dang hard! What a little punk! Meg was saying that he can make animal noises now too? That's so cool! It's going to be so weird coming home and having him be all grown up. By the way thank you so much for all of the sports updates. You guys are awesome! I'm so glad Utah was able to hold out against BYU! After hearing about them beating the Longhorns I was getting a little bit nervous but now I get to rub it in Elder Coombs face a little bit :) (He's a pretty big BYU fan) Speaking of Elder Coombs... hahaha so I guess before he came out he had 3 dreams that he brought a Huskie home. When I was serving with him my first week he told me about the dreams and how he thinks he's destined to take one home but I just laughed at him. But just this week someone offered to give him a Huskie puppy to take home with him if he wants it.  President said it was ok, so today we're going to go look at it haha! He's from Nephi and only has 3 weeks left.

This last week I was able to go down to Homer for a few days with Elder Bernham which was seriously so much fun! Homer's by far my favorite place I've been to up here, it's so pretty! Its just a little town at the end of the peninsula that's just surrounded by the mountains and all of the glaciers. We just went around visiting people that he had served while he was down there but it was great! Unfortunately, I wasn't able to find my celebrity guy... Well I guess I kind of did. We had a pretty booked night full of people we needed to see when we drove by his homestead but I couldn't convince any of the other Elders to stop and go visit them for a little bit. It was a bummer but it was pretty cool to at least see where he lived!

Things here in Kenai are going pretty good. We wake up at 0630 and then have an hour and a half to work out and eat breakfast and everything like that. Then we have studies from 0800 to about 1100 and then we're out the door! We go around teaching lessons and visiting people until 2100 and then are in bed by 2230. Our teaching pool here has been alright... Right now it consists of three 10-year olds. That might sound pretty bleak but all three of their families are less active so by teaching their kids we're able to help the families get active in the church again which is really awesome! 

The ward here is really amazing! The people are so nice and welcoming and I absolutely love them! The members here are really good to us and we get fed just about every night which helps a ton! I guess in some areas in the mission you're really on your own so i'm pretty thankful. I mean I already can't look at a package of ramen noodles the same way anymore. After being out for just about 3 months I'm already so sick of eating that everyday for lunch. I guess I need to get a little bit more creative! The food up here though... its a wildcard. We've been eating a TON of fish which I love now! I mean it's a whole lot better than some other things we've eaten... (like burned goat intestine) You'd think that the food in Alaska wouldn't really be that bad since its still part of the United States but guess what? You're wrong! Dinner at quite a few of the families houses is actually pretty good but some of the others... ahhhhhhhh. I'm making you guys a Christmas package full of some of the amazing things i've eaten so you guys can have a pretty good taste of Alaska too :) 

This week has been pretty crazy and we've been doing a ton of service! Everyone up here is trying get all the wood they need for winter so that's what we've been doing. Most people's houses are run by a wood stove because gas up here is so expensive and it can't even make it out to most of their houses! We've been going over and helping people down trees then cut them up into sections and haul them off to be split and stacked. It's a ton more work than I thought it would be! Right now we have two people on date to be baptized Jordan Smith and Nani Demello. Nani was supposed to be baptized this week but her and her family have been having a problem with coming to church so we had to push her back and now both her and Jordan's dates are after transfers so I really hope I get to stay here one more transfer and see them baptized! Teaching 10 year olds was pretty weird to start with but it's been really forced me to get good at working with kids so i'm really loving it! 

Well I hope everything's going great in the land of the prophets and that you're all still alive! Is the house still standing?

Mom- you need to make sure that you turn off the water and clean out the system within these next couple of weeks alright? 

Love you guys!

-Elder Brown

P.s. Thank you so much for the package! The cookies were so yummy :) I'll try and start thinking of some things for my Christmas package and i'll try and send you a list next week or somethin! You're the best!

Halibut Capitol

Hey family!! So.... I just read Kate's email and i thought that Alaska was cool... but it doesn't even compare! 

Right now I'm down in Homer the Halibut Capitol of the world! It's so amazing down here I love it! I have some awesome pictures that I'll have to send to you next week because I don't have my USB converter with me. But anyways, My district got permission to go on kinda a 2 day vacation so I came down here to Homer with my District Leader Elder Bernum and then my comp and a few other Elders went over the Seward for a few days. So all of you guys know that before I left I was pretty obsessed with the Alaska the Last Frontier show. I was talking with one of the members in my ward and they knew the Kiltchers and told me that they are inactive members! They live about 20 miles out of Homer and are in Homers area! Elder Bernum was born in Homer and really wanted to come down here for a few days so we talked to president and got permission to come down! Today I'm trying to track down their address and then we're going to go out and visit them tomorrow! Hahaha I'm pretty excited hopefully I'll be able to find them. I don't really have a ton of time to write today because we're going to go dig for some clams but I'll write more next week! 

Hope everyone's doing great and that you're all stayin' outta trouble :)

Have a great week!

-Elder Brown

Blessings of the Priesthood

Hello Everyone! 

First I want to say THANK YOU for all of the sports updates and pictures! I love them! And especially thanks for the package you sent me! Candy is pretty hard to come by up here so you guys made my week! I was so happy when you sent me those oreos... I've been saving up my money for forever so that next month I can go and buy some of those Halloween Oreos they put out that are my favorite!!!! :) I'm glad the Utes didn't choke against Weber and it looks like we'll get a pretty good feel about how the seasons going to go when they play Oregon State this week so you'll have to let me know how it goes!

So this week has been pretty interesting! The start of the week was pretty slow just because of all of the rearranging with the transfers that went on, but once we got into the swing of things it really started to turn around! So I was laughing when Sarah told me how she got a huge sunburned at the Utah game because, it's almost the complete opposite up here! It snowed in Anchorage a few days ago so either this week or next week I'll be walkin in a Winter Wonderland! Not to excited about that...

Well as far as investigators go...we had a little set back. Our investigator is struggling with some things that we will hopefully be able to help her through.  Pray for our investigator!

I had something really amazing happen that was a huge testimony builder for me. Last week we went over to the McCubbins house to visit with them because we heard that Sister McCubbins daughter Amy wasn't doing very well. Amy is 28 and confined to a wheelchair and has severe disabilities and can't even talk. Sister McCubbins told us that Amy hadn't been doing very well this week and asked me if I could give her a blessing. During the blessing I did something I had never done but for some reason I felt inspired to do. I blessed her that she would be healed according to the will of the Lord and his plan for her. After the blessing I really didn't even think that much of it and we left. About a week after the blessing we went back over there and she gave us a little more background on what had really been going on when we came over and gave her a blessing. Before we showed up, Amy had been doing awful.  Her blood pressure and oxygen levels were rapidly decreasing and getting dangerously low. Sister McCubbins had packed her bags and was ready to take her to the hospital because things were looking so grim. However, after we gave her the blessing, within 2 minutes her blood pressure and oxygen levels had improved to above average levels.  They hadn't seen those levels from almost two weeks!  It is so crazy how the priesthood has truly been restored to the earth once again and how we can act in Heavenly Fathers name according to his will and bless others. 

Anyways things were pretty slow here the past few weeks but just these last few days we picked up two really solid investigators so I'm really excited for this transfer and for all the potential it has!

Hope everyone is doing amazing and enjoying the sun!

Love you Guys :)

-Elder Brown