Weekly Update from Chincha

This week has been full with miracles for Elder Arteaga and I. We are really working well here and the effort is starting to show. This last week we had an amazing day in the church, we had 9 investigators in the sacrament meeting, 5 of which have baptismal dates for the first few weeks of this next transfer. The area is doing well, there are plenty of very gospel ready people here who are on the brink of being baptized, I would like to highlight one of these amazing people I have grown to love and care for.

Sister Olga is an amazing woman who has been recieving missionaries for 17 years! She has a daughter in the mission and has definitely earned the title of "eternal investigator". Her fear was that she didnt want to be baptized only to fall away and become less active so she had to be absolutely sure before she made this decision that she would remain true and faithful until the end. Finally, after 17 years she came to Elder Arteaga and I saying that she knows the time is now, I dont know what we finally said that changed her heart, honestly I dont believe we really had that big of a part in anything. I know that this change was because she felt the spirit testify of our words as we explained to her that we live in the latter days and the day of our repentance is now. Since she had this prompting from the spirit the change I have seen in her has been life changing for me. She told her boyfriend that she needs to do this and gave him the choice, get married in 2 weeks, or get out! She will now be married and baptized the 13th of may!!!!!!

We have also had the chance to work with many other wonderful people this week, I dont have time to outline everyone but I hope over the following weeks they will keep progressing. Until Later, Elder Brown

The hardest week of the mission!!! (and one of the best weeks)

To begin to explain why I have named this email "The hardest week of the mission!!! (and one of the best weeks)" I am going to need to explain a bit more about life here in Peru.

First of, remember the water cycle that we learn in like 4th grade, it goes something like this

1) It rains

2) The water is collected in rivers, lakes, etc

3) We use the water

4) The water evaporates

5) The clouds fill up with water

6) Repeat from step 1

Here in Peru in the desert where there is no rain the water cycle is a little different and as you may be surprised to learn it is very interconnected with the trash cycle. Let me explain.

1) It rains in the jungle and the rivers fill with water

2) Everyone gets sick of the trash because there is not a established trash system so they throw all the trash into the river

3) The rivers clog up with trash

4) The rivers flood, which destroy cities and kill many people

5) The people freak out and decide that something needs to be done

6) All running water is cut off to allow the rivers to be dried up and cleaned

7) Rivers and piping is all cleaned from the trash

8) Water runs normal

9) people throw trash in the river and we start all over

There are obviously several consequenses of this, to name a few are the terrible floods, thousands of dollars spent cleaning the rivers, ruined houses, and absolutely horribly contaminated water. Another fallout that I will now outline is the epidemics.

The trash water carries millions of mosquitos into the cities, which carry very harmful viruses. Here in chinch it has become a widespread epidemic, and I got caught up in it all. This last week I have been as sick as is possible. I have ran from having a raving fever to inner chills, from bone aches, and sharp pain through my whole body, not to mention that my whole body broke out with an alergic rash that iched like crazy. It was a very hard week, and I refused to let my companion know just how bad it was, but the good thing is that the virus has run its course and i am now getting back up to full strength and I really do feel good now.

Now for the second part of that title. This week was very good because yesterday we had 3 new amazing investigators come to church for the first time, they show a lot of promise and we are very excited to set baptism dates with them!

much love, Elder Brown

Also for easter I drew on an egg with a sharpie, my companion thought it was weird. I tried to explain it has to do with the easter bunny and he asked how are bunnies and eggs related, Its actually a pretty good question.

Vamos po' Chincha Familia

Alright this week was awesome and hard.

We had zone council this week and as usual it was awesome. Sister McGinn made Chili! (Probably my favorite thing about being a zone leader is eating sister McGinns cooking in the Mission Conferences).

The focus in the mission right now is finding more and baptizing more! President McGinn wants us to double our baptisms, and we have about half the missionaries we used to have. We have upped our street contact from 15 daily to 50. We have changed every goal trying to improve!

We had Zone conference and talked a lot about the faith to improve because although everyone wants to baptize more, it is hard to have the faith to do it. We really foccussed this week in finding the "escohidos" or the "Chosen ones". This week the zone pulled through! Between the 10 missionaries we found 43 new investigators!

I am doing good here, I love Chincha. Elder Arteaga is a great guy as well. As always I love you all and am praying for you

Until Next Week!

Love Elder Brown

CONFERENCE!

Alright guys it has been another awesome week.

To start of, this week we started setting a lot more baptism dates because the Lord is really leading us to those who have been chosen to recieve the restored gospel for which I am eternally grateful. The work is really going well here.

One of these amazing people I would like to highlight this week is sister Veronica!

Veronica is a street contact that we had this last saturday, today was the second time she came to church. She still didnt technically count as an investigator because we havent taught her yet because we havent had a member to help us in a lesson when she has time but we have been frequently passing and saying high. She has amazing faith and has already expressed that she believes she has found the true church! We taught here the message of the restoration right before the sunday morning of conference and she was so happy as we testified that there is a living prophet on the face of the earth in these latter days.

Sister Veronica has accepted a baptism date for the 22 of April and I cant wait to continue visiting her!

Alright I am running out of time..... crap, gotta make it fast

Conference was absolutely amazing and I am so grateful for the opportunity that we had to listen to the ordained prophets of God in these days. I know that they are called of God and eagerly anticipate printing out and reading the talks during the following days.

I love you guy so much, never forget that

Until next week, Elder Brown