Happy Thanksgiving

Hey guys hope yall had a great thanksgiving! It is different celebrating thanksgiving here because, well... it doesnt exist :(

However, it was good. I bought a pizza for Elder Arrieta and on Thursday explained to him the purpose of this holliday (and I jokingly tried to convince him that it is a mormon tradition to make up for all the 12 fast sundays of the year in one day- he didnt buy it). It was a good opportunity for me to take a little more time in my prayers and really thank the Lord for everything he has given me. I would try to make a list but I am so blessed it would take all day and I only have one hour to type. One of the things I am most grateful for though is you guys. Thank you for all the support you have given me. Though we are half a world away I feel your love and your prayers while I am out here. 

This has been a very crazy week, it flew by. On tuesday we had leadership training, a great opportunity to look around and once again realize I the youngest zone leader here, at least in terms of time in the mission. However, it isnt important, the Lord cares not for age or experience. To name just three examples we have the boy prophet Samuel, the nephite commander Mormon, and of course Joseph Smith. All of whom were young and inexperienced. However, they were all able to be shaped by Christ into who they were made to be. As a missionary they are my examples, I know my weaknesses, I know I fall short in so many areas, I know I am inexperienced, and I know I make more mistakes in a day than I can count. But, I know the Lord will shape me into who I am meant to be.

Until Next Week, Love Elder Brown

P.S. Elder Brown told us while chatting that his new pensionista makes him mountains of food and he is gaining some weight back! Just in case any of you were concerned!

Hola

Alright I dont have much time but I will include pictures. Just know the life of a zone leader is the coolest and most stressful thing for me right now. I love it but man we only get 7 hours of sleep at night if we are lucky. I love my new area and the members here are awesome. We didnt have many lessons this last week because the area is struggling but hey we can change that. Love You!!!

Elder Brown

Ok nevermind with the photos, I just got a virus and it erased all my photos from the last four months.... Crap

Eating with the district

NEW AREA AND SURPRISE

(here is the cafe elder brown emailed us from!)

Yep thats right, I am no longer in the beautiful town of Ayacucho. But I do have an amazing new área and an amazing new companion. Elder Arrieta and I will be working in the zone Villa Maria and our área is Las Jardines (the gardens). The craziest thing though is I have been assigned by President McGinn to be a zone leader here in Villa Maria. I am pretty nervous because I dont have any experience as a district leader much less a zone leader but I am eager and ready to learn.

I dont have much time here in Lima but I already love it, our pension is awesome and the food here is a Little cheaper so maybe I will stop losing weight. Also fun fact, wanna lose 40 pounds, serve a misión. I am excited to work here and next week I will know a lot more about this new área.

Alright a Little more about Ayacucho. In the end of this last transfer Elder Gimenez and I had two baptisms. I dont have my camera so I will dend more potos next week but the baptisms were Epifanio and Lucero (no relation whatsoever between them). Epifanio was a investigator that three weeks ago asked us to baptize him, so on saturday I did. Seeing the growth of this man, who is so dear to my heart, has changed me.

Secon, Lucero. I havent written about her because this is a crazy story. Lucero is a 15 year old girl who I though was a member because she has been coming to church every week the whole time I was in Ayacucho. Turns out she isnt a member but she has been coming to church everyweek for 6 months. She approached us on sunday the 6th and asked us to baptize her. When my companion and I met with her we tried to figure out what she has learned from her experience with the church. Turns out she has a testimony in every thing we teach as missionaries. So after briefly going over the lessons with her we baptized her the next saturday. Its a rule in our misión that investigators need to go to church three times and have all the lessons to be baptized but because she was going to church so long before Elder Gimenez and I now have one of the fastest conversions in the misión, one week.

Alright guys, crazy stuff, no time, people to teach, yall know the drift.

Gotta Go, love Elder Brown

Don't have much time but I love ya.

Hey guys I dont have much time today to do a proper group email but I can explain why I am emailing at 8 in the night instead of normal time in the morning. This sunday my companion and I were fasting, here in Peru because lunch it the biggest meal of the day we start fasting saturday after lunch and end in sunday after church which starts at 9 am. During the sacrament my companion and I were standing in the doorway looking to see which of our investigators made it to church when he passed out, fell over, and slammed his head against the wall. This gave him a minor but irratating concusion. Turns out he is hypoglychimic or whatever so when he was fasting (and this was his first attempt at a 24 hour fast) he lost all energy. Because of his concussion we have been confined to our apartment, for the last two days!! It is terrible because we just have to sit in the dark in absolute silence and while he needs to be sleeping, I had to sit up all day and most of the night waking him up every so often and making sure he wasnt having memory loss. Its terrible, hes being a bit of a poop because he wont sleep, can't blame him he has slept 16 of the last 24 hours. I meanwhile and beat, I only have 6.

This last week has been very interesting, we have been working but it is hard as plans fall apart. We have 4 investigators with dates in this moment all of which could have been prepared to be baptized this upcoming week but 3 of them will be waiting a bit longer. I discovered I needed to put aside my pride because at least in part I know I was pushing them for an earlier date because I wanted to be here for their baptism and with transfers this upcoming week I know there is a possibility that I will be leaving ayacucho. I have been pondering and praying a lot about this and although I would love to have more time here in ayacucho with the people I love and to see the investigators enter the waters of baptism, I know missionary work isnt about numbers. They will be baptized, that is what is important, and whether I am here to see it or not isnt important. What is important is to serve, with all out hearts might mind and strength and no matter where I will be this next transfer I am ready to continue in the work.

Love, Elder Brown