All is good here in Chincha, heres the update!

Austin is uploading recordings now for his updates so make sure to listen to the soundcloud link!

Mother's Day Update

Catch Up Time!

Alright I got to get you guys caught up for what will go down this week.

To start, we are going to have 5 baptisms this Saturday! I will write a little about them individually

Olga:

As Previously stated sister Olga is an amazing woman who is finally ready to be baptized. And Satan doesnt want that! We have been fasting and praying for her so much because there is a big confusion in the government that is making it really hard for her to get married by the 13th. We have finally solved everything and we are just waiting on one paper which takes about a week to come. If it comes in time she will be baptized saturday or if not on the 20th. The important thing is that Satan can try all his tactics but her testimony is firm and she has said there is nothing that will prevent her from being baptized!

Milher:

Milher is a 21 year old man who we contacted in the street one day. He has been so great and over these last 4 weeks he has not missed a single day reading his scriptures or keeping the commitments. He is a very good friend of mine, the last the sundays we have passed by early to go get him and bring him to church with us. His testimony in the resored gospel is astounding, It is honestly hard for me to remember that he has only one month knowing the church because he knows more than half the members here haha.

Marisol:

Another street contact, Marisol is a single mom, she has two kids that are 18 and 23. Her kids dont want to listen to us but Marisol has the faith that is she follows the example of the savior that one day her sons will follow as well. One day we taught her what is means to keep the sabbath day and she immedietely stopped working sundays, she told us that her mom (who has a small business that Marisol helped with on sunday) told her she was crazy but shortly after she could see that Marisol was a different person. her mom described her as just being more peaceful, more happy, and even said that she "radiates more light". Truly we are not the only ones who recognize as the holy spirt starts to change our lives and bring us unto Christ!

Paula and Kin:

So there is a 22 year old young woman here called Scarlett who is preparing to serve a mission. Scarlett is the only member in her family but about a month or so ago she started bringing her siblings Paula and Kin to church with her. Paula and Kin are 12 year old twins (a girl and a boy). Their parents arent married but we are also working with them. Paula and Kin love the church and the young mens quarem and young womens have done a great job at making them feel like a part of the ward. Their mom, Martha wants them to be baptized, she also wants to be baptized but cant at this time because she isnt married. Their Dad, Oscar, is still doesnt want much to do with the church so he wont commit to get married but he does want his kids to be baptized. paula and Kin will be great and we are hoping that Oscars heart will soften so that their parents witll soon be baptized as well.

Alright so thats who will be baptized for this week, but I want to share someone else with you.

We were also able to find another new investigator this week who has been very prepared to recieve the gospel in this time. Jean Marco is an amazing son of God who we contacted in the street. When we visited him he told us that he feels very lonely in life and he feels he has distanced himself from Christ, it is clear that he also suffers from guilt of sins that he has commited. We invited him to the church and also a missionary night we had on friday. He came with us to both and last night (sunday) he called us on the phone and told us he knows the church is true. He told us he had taken a little beer and was feeling very depressed but he couldnt stop thinking about the peace and joy he felt the two times he entered the church. We talked to him on the phone and helped him to understand that he is never alone, that God will always love him. We invited him to offer a prayer and ended the call. Shortly thereafter he called us again saying he had prayed and that the lonely feelings he had felt had left and he felt peaceful again. We are very excited to work with this wonderful young man.

I love you all, sorry that at times I dont write much. I hope you all have a wonderful week!

Hasta Pronto, Elder Brown

Hey!

I DIDNT GET TRANSFERRED!!!!!!

Yep so I am super excited because the lord has blessed me with 6 more weeks in this beautiful area. I am still with Elder Arteaga which is great because we get along very well together. This email will consist of mostly photos but we have a very good transfer ahead!

Love Elder Brown

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