This is Going to be Fantastic!

Hola! Semana 7

no tengo el tiempo para enviar todas los fotos. Son bellos. Me encanta mi nueva area.

Elder Ruiz and Elder Brown

Now English. I'm loving all of it. My companion, Elder Ruiz, is awesome. He doesn’t speak English but he doesn’t need to! I wish I could send the pictures of all of this. It's seriously the craziest thing ever. I'm in the only area in the entire mission in which there is no hot water. The area is fantastic. I love my trainer. My Spanish is coming along very well and at the same time…not. This is going to be flat out fantastic.

I lent my scriptures to a member of my district because he forgot his somewhere else. I won't get mine back for a month... :)

I'm sitting in a legitimate shack typing this letter to you on a keyboard with more dust than keys and using a mouse that only double-clicks. Imagine that... It makes things a bit more difficult.

On the flight today, I was able to teach a psychologist some English. I also handed out a Book of Mormon and invited another to read The Family: A Proclamation to the World. I also gave them cards for mormon.org.

I can bear testimony, once again, of the fact that when you commit to share you testimony, whether it be formally or informally, God will give you an answer. Think of ways to express your testimony in natural ways. I know it may seem slightly counter-productive to try to artificially create a natural conversation, but It is a way you can treasure up in your heart the things of the Lord. Then when the time comes, you will have given you the exact words in the exact moment what ye shall say. And you will be given one to whom you may give that testimony.

A little about my knee, the one I injured last week.

Me gustaría compartirles una evidencia del poder del sacerdocio. El ultima semana, me lastemé la rodilla. recibí de Elder Scoubes una bendicion sacerdotal que me bendiciera que mi rodia no impediría mi servicio como un misionero. Hoy, aunque haya caminado mucho, no me ha lastemado la rodilla.

My New Street

I would like to to share with you an evidence of the power of the priesthood. Last week, as you saw, I hurt my knee. I sprained it and may have done worse. Elder Scoubes blessed me that even though I hurt it, it would not impede my service as a missionary. Today, I have done substantial walking, and my knee hasn't hurt me all day.

The priesthood is real. It works through us and changes us as we turn outward and give it somewhere to go. :) It works in us as we let its power flow through us to the blessing of everyone we can.

First Home in the Field

What more? Um, I listened to a talk by Elder Bednar called The Character of Christ. It was the reminder I needed of how I was who I was. Before my mission, I took every opportunity given me, and even those not, to turn outward and serve others. The CCM seemed built to serve self, to build self. However, at the end of his talk, Elder Bednar said somethings along the lines of: “With the apostolic keys given me, I promise you that according to your desire and diligence to develop the Character of Christ (which turns outward in service, always), you will be blessed with every other blessing or gift that you need. So forget about yourself when you go to the MTC, wherever you go. The MTC isn't about you. School isn't about you. It's about your classmates. You future family, your God. Buckle down and lose yourself in the growth of His divine work, and I promise you will be happy, in the measure you make every decision one of service.” :) 

Love you to the moon and back,

Elder Brown

—This gun dun been fun :)

Krispy Skreams and CCM Departure

Sunrise

Elder Brown started his Monday October 26 out very early getting ready to leave the CCM in Mexico City for the mission field in Tijuana, Mexico. He needed to be up and ready to leave at 3:30 a.m. (That is 1:30 Utah time and he was flying into an area that is on California time). I'm sure his internal clock is a little messed up today. He sent home this beautiful sunrise picture and I thought I would share it with all of you.

Eyeball Doughnut

Here's a little shout out and a great big THANK YOU to the Missionary Package MX people. Last Wednesday I ordered a dozen Halloween themed Krispy Kreme doughnuts (they call them Krispy Skremes)! Thursday Elder Brown told me he hadn't received them. All day Thursday and Friday, I was trying to figure out why he hadn't received them yet and began getting a little sad he would miss receiving something fun and yummy before he left the MTC Monday morning. I finally decided to send a quick email to the company to see why they had missed the order. Turns out, for some reason, the order never processed and was still in my shopping cart!!! It wasn't their fault at all. It was mine (or my computer's). I was pretty bummed. BUT they came to the rescue. They called Krispy Kreme to see if an additional dozen of their yummy Krispy Skreme donughts could be added to the order for TODAY and the answer was YES! The Missionary Package MX people are making sure my sweet child feels loved and remembered this week. Today, it is bringing tears of joy to this mother's eyes and heart. Seriously, look how cute these doughunts are!

Mummy Doughnut

Thank you Missionary Package MX for saving the day and delivering a darling and yummy treat to my son before his MTC departure! You have gone beyond your call of duty and this missionary mom is so touched!

Just in case anyone reads this who has a child getting ready to enter the Mexico City MTC, you can order goodies and other items from www.missionarypackagemx.com. You can even send a 1-3 page PDF letter to your child via email and they will print and deliver it the next day (free of charge to the MTC)! They even send you an email telling you when your letter/package has been delivered! Awesome!!! And, in case you are like me...I have checked with the MTC in Mexico to see if using this company was okay since in our missionary packet it clearly states that we are not to send packages to the MTC. The MTC told me using this service was an okay thing to do. There are actually four companies they allow deliveries from, but don't publicize the companies. However, I just had to share my story!

--Elder Brown's Mom

Daily Scripture Study

Hola!

It's been another great week down here in the MTC! I'll be leaving to teach the people of Tijuana next Monday at 3:30 a.m. I'm thoroughly excited to assume the role of a full-time missionary. I'm excited for the blessing I have to lose myself in service, whatever form it may be in. I hope to learn to love the people and then show it in a way that increases their love for God.

I've been learning the importance of daily scripture study. It is vital to a life of full conversion. Joseph Smith said that "is the most correct book of all other books on the earth, and the keystone of our religion; and that a man would come nearer to God as he followed its precepts than by any other book." I know that this is true. My conversion story is based upon a decision to read the Book of Mormon. My conversion story every single day is based upon that principle. It brings a depth into life that cannot be achieved nor rivaled in any other way.

MTC Study Time

I've been studying the scriptures more often now than at first in the MTC. It's been really helpful. I've said many times to many people that one can predict the day based on a prayer. If one would consistently have good days, not just fun or happy, but truly good ones, then one must consistently have powerful prayers. In order to have powerful prayers, one needs intentional scripture study. It's a continuing cycle. Each enhances the other. I love to read the scriptures. I love to learn about the prophets, and even more, about Christ. I love to feel the power of his words when he talks to the Nephites. There's an undeniable power there. Read the scriptures every day. Pray over them. I love them. I know that the scriptures contain the power of God. They will change your life. They will make your life a life worth living. The depth of your life will increase. Its meaning will deepen.

Weed-Whacking Warrior

As you may have noticed in my picture with the Weed-Whacking Warrior, I have a knee brace now. During a game of ultimate frisbee, I hyper-extended my knee, sprained it, and may have bruised/roughed-up the cartilage. The doctor here says I'll be fine, I just need to abstain from running. Walking is ok, but any misplacement or twist hurts it. It gets sore and stiff really easily. However, I got a blessing from Elder Scoubes last night. I was told that the injury would not have a negative effect on my capacity to serve. I was told that God knew me and had a plan for me in the CCM and my mission. I am very grateful to have companions that are of such stature as to be a medium of the words of God in a blessing. Elder Kelson has given me a blessing as well. They are great men. I hope I can do things like them. I was really blessed to not have injured myself more with the nature and manner of the injury.

I know that the priesthood is of God. I know that blessings are not given by melchizedek priesthood holders, but through them. I know that this church is true. I love it. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Elder Kelson's Bday Party-MTC Style

Krispy Kreme Doughnuts

This week we celebrated Elder Kelson's bday. Elder Kelson opened presents! Elder Scoubes received two dozen Krispy Kreme doughnuts. We had ourselves a little party!

Love,
Elder Brown

Necessity of a Testimony

Hola All!

It was a great week! Teaching is coming along. I learned of the necessity of testimony, and of testimony invoking questions. How much cooler does it get than when you ask a question and the investigator's heart is not just opened, but magnified? The Spirit isn't just invited into the room, any testimony can do that; but into their heart, and only one testimony has that potential.

This week was pretty eventful. On Tuesday night I attended a devotional about the Sabbath Day. We learned about the Sabbath Day and the Sacrament. I was given the invaluable opportunity to reflect on my conversion to the Sacrament. The Apostles promised that as we learn to honor the sabbath THE WHOLE WORLD will have their faith increased. How cool is that?! I thinking about the Sabbath, I was reminded of two times that God's honoring of the Sabbath could be followed. The first is obviously the creation, where God created the world and then rested from worldly labors. The next thought was that the Millennium is a type of the Sabbath. What will we be doing in the Millennium? We will be trying to unify our eternal families and bring it all to God. We will be serving and learning, but the largest endeavor I know of is that of family. Maybe that's how we make the Sabbath a delight, we find ways to tie our family together.

A member of our District went home. That was unfortunate. However, Elder Scoubes is now my companion too. Elder Kelson, Elder Scoubes, and I are a trio: The Three Usketeers. That's not unfortunate at all. :)

We also learned about Missionary Work and focus. We are now working harder to accomplish our goals.

The Three Usketeers
Elder Scoubes, Elder Brown, Elder Kelson

Today, I went to the Mexico City temple and in the celestial room met an Elder Gould from somewhere in Toelle County. He did not know Uncle Ronnie. He was teary-eyed, and I grabbed him some tissues. After a bit of talking, I learned he had been out only a week and a day. I told him that one of my favorite parts about the Celestial room is that wherever you are, anywhere in the world, as long as you're in a Celestial Room, you're home. We talked a bit more, and I told him that yes, the Spanish is important, but what I think is most important is that he bear his testimony as often as he could. I felt the Spirit confirm my words and the Spirit of the Celestial Room became even more sweet. Please, bear your testimony as often as you can. Get creative with it. If I have learned anything from the teaching classes here, it is about testimonies and questions. Why? Agency. When you act to intentionally share parts of who you are, a testimony, it invites the Spirit into your life to change yours and increase their agency. When you ask questions of people, it invites them to use their increased agency and bear testimony themselves. In that way, we may teach diligently, and be edified together. I love the temple.

Be Thou An Example

Having completed half of my first transfer, I'm 1/34, or 2.9%, of the way done. That means I only have 33 more allotments of the time I've experienced. That's not very long when considering what I hope to gain and looking back on my growth. The Spanish, still, is coming well. Like my dad, I can analyze and understand the grammar really well. I love my teachers. I love the Latinos. Everywhere I go, they call me out. I got the chance to play the piano for a little bit, and got my jazzed up version of God Be with You Til We Meet Again stuck in Elder Scoube's head. I hear him whistling it about every hour or so, and he's a really good whistler. It could be an instrument for him.

Now for some cool experiences: 

Monday night I decided to find more ways to serve and then serve. Tuesday morning I got a letter from each member of my family about how I had served them or how they had seen me serve others. It gave me some ideas to serve here and it also helped me have the motivation to.

Wednesday, yesterday, my afternoon teacher said we (the class) didn't teach according to her needs. She said we taught what we wanted to teach her, and not what she needed to hear. That was hard, because I felt like I was trying to bend our teaching to fit her needs. We knew she had needs she hadn't told us, but we had no idea of how to figure them out except through more teaching. The whole class got really offended. I got offended too, which surprised me, because I don't identify with getting offended. My companion got really upset because he shared a concern and another elder snapped at him for making excuses. I was confused and trying to think through it, but didn't know quite how I should go about changing. Then I remembered a talk by Elder Holland to the missionaries. He said that when teaching, we should change things at least every 2 minutes. I thought about that, and I realized it kind of resembled my life. I try to change things frequently because if I'm already changing, it is much easier for me to change according to the Spirit's direction.

What else? Do you have any questions?

Q: Have you gotten over being offended? How? 
Yeah. I was over it quickly. I guess I should have specified that. :)

Q: Did you get the package we sent or just the letters? 
I got the package. The oreos were great. :)

Q: Anything else about the last week you want to share with the family and friends? 
 I'm writing a letter for the Collings, GMA GPA and Sister Morris.

 Q: What do you do on Pdays? 
Serving my companion:  I'm going to try to push him. The day is emotionally and physically demanding on him, while it isn't on me. If I use this to help him push himself a little more than is comfortable, his growth will be exciting. I gave him oreos. I have been doing the stuff around the dormitory. Folding many of his clothes, tried (rather unsuccessfully) to teach him how to sew a button on. He gets distracted easily. I try to ask him what I could do for him every day. We set goals, and I ask him how I can help, but every time I offer it he doesn't want to follow through. I'm not sure he's quite figured out how to match up his drive with his enthusiasm.

Serving my district: I help them when I can with the language. I've taken some time to help them understand the words they're trying to memorize. They get too impatient when they try to learn, and they get too patient when they don't know they should learn. They skip steps in learning when they have to learn and they wait to learn until they think they have to, which is about two or three days after the due date. (Sound familiar Mrs. Gourley?) When they ask my help I give them a thorough explanation of the concepts and the principles. It helps them learn, but much like all of us, they don't quite connect the dots. They just think of it as "Elder Brown" magic. :) I try to write notes of compliment and give them to people. It's weird here because the district is such a small bubble. I don't like working in small social bubbles. I feel confined in my abilities. Do you have any ideas on what I could do to serve people better?

Q: How does one abstract language? I've never heard of that before…
 When you think, you can frequently hear words bouncing around in your head. However, just before the words comes a concept. What people do is they try to add Spanish vocabulary to their English "dictionary". Then when they want to think or say something, they have the idea, then the english word, then they have to ask themselves, so I want to use the appendix(Spanish Language)? or just go with what I have(English)?  Then they have to find the word in the appendix, and that, at least in the beginning, is never very organized. They then try to pull together a cohesive thought and express it. They need to start a new dictionary. That way there's no translation. If they can consciously separate the languages then it will come much faster. When I read the Book of Mormon, I would watch the events of which I was reading play out as I read the Spanish words. too often I hear people translate it to english and then understand it. As an example, When I talk to people in Spanish, I can remember fairly well the events of the conversation, but when I switch to English, I can't remember what happened, because everything was experienced with a Spanish mindset. Does that make sense?

Q: Can you write about one of your spiritual experiences from the past week?
It's kind of hard to remember much of anything that happened. It's all just a blur to me. I will focus on marking something every day to remember to tell you about.

Here's one: In 3 Nephi 13:33-34, it says, "Mas buscad primeramente el reino de Dios y su Justicia; y todas estas cosas os seran añadidas. Así que, no os afanéis por el dia de mañana, porque el dia de mañana traerá afan sus propias cosas. Basta el dia para su propio mal."

I don't currently have the scriptures with me, so I had to give the memorized Spanish first. The translation is: But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you. Take ye no thought therefore for tomorrow, for tomorrow will take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient is the day unto the evil thereof.

That might not be exact, but I think it's pretty close. Anyway, I think sometimes I worry so much about living for the future that I forget to see the present. That is one  reason all of this time has gone by so quickly. Do I have the faith to let go of the future? Do I have the hope that my future is being cared for by God as I take care of the present? It is helping me to let go a little bit of the mechanics of it all and live more in the present. I know that at the end it says sufficient is the day unto the evil thereof, but in my mind, I hear Christ telling me, "there are plenty of things for you to worry about in the present. Let me take care of the past and the future." Faith acts because the past is taken care of. Hope lets go of self because the future is ensured. Charity is finally allowed to step forward and change the world.

Q: Did you watch General Conference in Spanish or English?
 I watched about 6 talks in Spanish. It was very difficult.

Q: We have heard that there are a lot of fireworks that go off every night. Can you tell us about those?
Yes. The Catholic church right next to our campus loves fireworks. They make loud cannon sounds, and so when we asked our teacher what the sound was, she made the Hunger Games sign. :) I think it would be awesome to be some of the missionaries orienting the newly-arrived ones, and then when the fireworks went off, we all dropped to the ground and yelled, "Get down!! Get Down! Get by a wall!" Probably fortunately for their sake, our district will never be welcoming new districts, as a different zone is in charge of orientation.

Write Elder Brown

If you would like to send a letter to Elder Brown while he is at the CCM (MTC), there is an internet service in Mexico that will print and deliver your letters.  Click here and follow the instructions. He will receive your letters the next day during the week. The CCM post office is not open on weekends. You will need a paypal account to use this service.

See more cartoons by Scott T. Petersen
Golden Street Animation

Please address letters to Elder Brock Brown.

Let's flood him with letters this week!

Week 2 - Legendary District at the MTC (CCM)

Can you believe it?! two weeks down already. What more? I'm about 1.9% done with my mission. That doesn't sound liike much, but in reality. That's a lot. As of now, I only get fifty-one more allotments of the time I've spent here on a mission, and only 1.5 more allotments of that time to prepare to be a missionary. Time is of the essence, but it needn't be rushed. As of Monday this week, I realized how important the difference is.

I still haven't been homesick. I've loved every second out here. However, last week I was only a shell of myself. When I boarded the plane and left Utah, I left my family, my job, my ward, my free time, all of that, behind. I was totally fine with that. My free time was never mine anyway. I also brought many things. I brought everything on the packing list: toothbrush, money, church clothes, church clothes, Scriptures, more church clothes, and toiletries. There was one thing however, that was not on the packing list. I forgot to bring myself. I was always absorbed in my flashcards, or focused on learning Spanish. It had become my definition. I was so focused on the mechanics of a missionary I forgot what it pointed towards.

A look at the city

Monday I cracked one of my first puns, possibly since I left home. I really came out of the shell. I was loving every minute here, but I wasn't enjoying it. I remember my farewell talk when I said I needed to be busy but never rushed. I was busy and always rushed. The interesting thing is that I'm picking up Spahish just as quickly, if not more, now that I'm slowing down a bit.

I attended a devotional Tuesday night and the speaker spoke in Spanish. I could partially understand him, and there was also a translator there. I could understand the english just fine. ;) It was a very good devotional. It was focused on making commitments, because they needed to act in doctrine. The speaker asked a couple of questions, and I obviously answered. However, when I answered, I answered in both English and Spanish, translating for myself instead of the translator. Bragging points for me there.

I know almost everyone learning Spanish here would trade Spanish ability with me, and I know this will sound really terrible, but it's been hard being able to hold a normal conversation with latinos when three of the ten in my district still don't even know how to say the name of their mission. I want to be able to learn at my fullest capacity, but that means I have to do it all by myself rather than working with someone else. I wouldn't trade my companion for anyone in the world, but it's still hard for me to spend 2 hours helping him memorize Spanish and scripture in which I am already fluent. All that aside, I love being his companion and he's doing really well with his Spanish.

Elder Brown and Elder Kelson

My companion is District leader now, as our old district leader was "promoted" to zone leader. Elder Kelson is concerned about being the zone leader now, but he's awesome and I wish he wouldn't worry about it. He works hard but he has a charm that pulls our district together. He makes sure to notice people who are struggling and can help them.

Our district has a couple of MTC legendaries. Elder Slade, Elder Scoubes' companion, has a girlfriend whom will be arriving next Wednesday night. We might actually get another district then too. :) I was the only one to translate for myself in the MTC devotional, so I hit the books for that. Someone else told me I'm legend in another zone for my Spanish and for my Gospel knowledge. Since the Latinos go in and out every other week, when the first latinos I met left, they all wanted a pitcure with me.

And we think the Diverging Diamond Intersection in Lehi is confusing...

Mexico City Temple