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

FULL CHAMBA!

As many of you probable caught on, I didn't really get along with my last companion. He wasn't a really hard worker and since he was supposed to be leading the area, the work kind of suffered. However, this week has been amazing! Elder Arteaga and I are getting along great and we have hit the ground running this transfer.

In this mission we have a daily goal to contact 15 people in the street and to find 6 new investigators every week as well as have 4 in the church. This last week our mission president told us to contact 50 in the street and double our weekly goals I will be honest, I had my doubts. I honestly didn't believe it was possible because here in Chincha we work a lot in the fields where at times you cant walk for 10 minutes without running into a single person. However, I prayed for the faith to do the 50 contacts every day and to find more people.

The lord has helped, we have been able to do the 50 contacts every day and have been rewarded for our efforts. This last week we found 14 new investigators! I believe that is about how many we found the whole last transfer. As I told the assistant, Elder Beck, the biggest problem we are having right now is trying to manage our schedule and find time to visit people. Of the contacts we are making we have been able to set many appointments and we are starting to find people who are more prepared to receive the restored gospel. We also were very happy this last Sunday as we had 7 investigators attend to the sacrament meeting. Many of which we have either put with a baptismal date or have made plans to do so this week. 

I don't want to come across as prideful or boasting, I know the part we have done is very little. It truly is the Lords work and he is preparing more of his lambs to receive the gospel in these latter days. I am very happy working here in Chincha and cant wait to have another good week.

Sincerely, Elder Brown

Transfers and Floods

So first of this week was transfers. My companion, Elder Villanueva got transfered to cañete and I have never been happier in my life. He is a good guy just so hard as a companion because of his utter lack of obedience to mission rules.

Enough about him, my new companion is AMAZING! My new companion is Elder Arteaga, he is from trujillo peru. We shared a district when I was in ayacucho and he is super great. He was also trained by one of my last companions Elder Arrieta. The best thing is he is a super obedient, faithful, and truly converted missionary and I am so blessed to be able to work with him.

There are three types of missionaries. Missionaries who are tourists, missionaries who are obligated to serve for some reason, and those who truly desire to serve the Lord.

This transfer I get to lead the beautiful area of Chincha and I am super excited.

Also in case you guys heard it is the end of the world here in Peru. Pretty much the country is drowning which is kinda freaky. Here in chincha we are not very affected but northern peru (where my new companion is from) is getting destroyed. All of lima is without running water and no matter where you are there is some type of problem. I dont even want to tell you how terrible our water filter was when we looked at it. The good thing, I am fine, but I ask that you can pray and fast for those who are not as fortunate.

Okay, this last sunday we organized a family night with a handfull of active families that live in an area called Laran, it is a part of our area where their used to be missionaries but they were taken out because there is a shortage of missionaries so now it is a part of our area. Laran is about 10 minutes away from the church in shuttle but there is strong active members there and we decided to start visiting them again because it has kindof been forgotten since they took out the missionaries there. The lesson went very well, we watched about 10 minutes of the first vision and invited everyone there to think of a referral they can give us. After the video ended we bore our testimonies and asked for referrals and recieved 6! I know that the lord works miracles and now we have somewhere to start with as we start to work more in Laran this transfer.

Okay to recap. I am excited to work with my new companion. I havent drowned in a flood. And the lord is working miracles.

Sincerely and with much love Elder Brown

Chincha week 6

Wow I cant believe that we are already finishing the transfer, time really does fly by now. I dont have much time to write but pretty much all is going good here. The work is doing great! Im 19 years old now.... what else is new

OH I ATE A GUINEA PIG THIS WEEK! our bishop cooked guinue pig for my birthday, it was delicous but not gonna lie it looked like roadkill on a plate

Yep that pretty much sums it up, I love you all!

Love Elder Brown