Another Great Week

Holaa!! good week again. Probably getting tired of hearing the same thing over and over. Anyway, it's been a really good week. First off, I've been out here 11 months and can speak Spanish very comfortably. I know the lessons and the principles sufficiently. I know the area and the members well. I have sufficient organizational skills. However, In the past week I've realized how very little I know. Thank goodness we've been given the gift of prayer.

Isn't She Awesome?

I remember my companion having lost things and searching for them for a while. I would decide to pray and then as I would get up to look, I found it. I remember having lost a couple of things too, but with a prayer, I found it. It's suuuuper easy!! I remember times where we just didn't know what to plan for the next day and so we prayed and the solution came. ion or decision wasn't and isn't important, an accompanying decision is. For example:

We were going somewhere, really with no plan. I felt like I should knock a specific door, and did. Nobody came out, even though the family was very obviously home and very obviously noticed us. We looked down at our planners and really realized how few ideas we had to finish the day off. Then my companion looked up and said, "let's help that guy rake." we went over, arrived just in time to offer to help and do nothing, and then shared a lesson with him. We'll see what happens. Don't confuse the street signs with the destination, but keep going. Nephi didn't confuse the land bountiful with the promised land. Things will work out. Prayer is the expression of our will to God, whether it be in action, on our knees, in conversation, or anything else. Revelation is the expression of God's will to us, whether it be in miracles, a thought, a general feeling, a way things just seem to work out, or even a way they don't.

Anyway, I've also been practicing more specific gratitude in prayer and it's pretty cool. I try to think of ways that other people have blessed me and how others have been an example to me. I realize that it happens much more often than we might like to think. SSSOOOOO many people help us on a daily basis. Isn't it wonderful?!

God loves us. I might be Elder Brown. I might be American. I might be a son. But I'm DEFINITELY a child of God. and You are too. Nothing can change that and nothing will separate us from His Everlasting Love. That is evidenced in Christs Sacrifice. I know that Christ came to help us. He came to hlep us in everything.

Anyway. Good week. :) love yall!

Transfers...Bring On the Q&A

Where in the mission are you serving? (please state the city, area, and/or ward that you are serving in).
Still in San Felipe Branch. WWWOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!

Who is your companion?
Elder Evans!!!!! WWWWWWOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

Elder Campuzano with Members and Elder Brown

Tell me something you know about your companion
He ran track and XC and knows Nick (my cousin from Payson).

What will you miss most about your last companion?
I'm gonna miss the fact that he always knew what to do. He was a superly duperly good companion and always tried to help in EVERYTHING that he could. :)

What was transfer day like for you? How did you get to your new area?
Transfer day was ssuuupper long!! I was sick and had a HUUUGE pounding headache. I've got a miserable cold.

Elder Brown and Elder Evans

Is your area a walking/biking area?
I'm gonna be on bike. WOOOOOOO!!!!

What is one area of growth you have noticed in yourself since you've been out on your mission?
It's very noticeable around the waist...

Is there anything you'd like to tell your family about serving a mission that they don't already know?
A couple things, but they all seem to be about the same. Moses, after an experience with God, says that "Now, for this cause I know that man is nothing, which thing I never had supposed." another is in 1 corinthians 3 6 " I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase" You may very well be among the "most prepared" missionaries. You may very well know the scriptures forward and backward even leaving out on the mission, but when we truly see the work of God in someones life, we really begin to notice the order of how things go. Try getting used to it.

Any tips on how to keeping motivated on being more productive?
Act quickly. DONT DELAY. If an idea comes to mind, always, ALWAYS do something about it. Whether it be writing it down on a notepad, whether it be gathering our thoughts, whether it be letting our tushies take a rest from that seated position we tend towards and spending calories, do SOMETHING with it. Later, analyze the process and improve upon it. The faster we learn to act, the more often we will follow the Spirit in the Exact hour.

How have you been? How are things down in Mexico? Hope you are enjoying it. Make the most of it because it runs out fast. What is one of the things that you look forward to each week? How is your Spanish? I would like to learn more sometime.
I've been doing superly duperly well. Mexico is SWEET! What do I look forward to? Well, Sunday is always a really exciting day. I PLAY PIANO IN PRIMARY!!! WOOOOOOOOO!!!! Probably one of the funnest things EVER. :) I love seeing how many people come to church and seeing the fruits of what we do during the week. I feel like it's a weekly checkpoint where I can look back on what happened. Also, I love the classes. The branch is understaffed and so we're always being dragged from one leak in the boat to another. It keeps me on my toes and ready for anything. :) My spanish is coming along. :) Thank you everyone who wrote for what you wrote. thank you everyone who prays for your prayers. Thank you family for always loving me and being such an example of Christlike service and character.

I LOOOVVEE the Mission. I am so grateful for this opportunitiy to serve and to learn so many things. We can't be perfect. Fortunately we don't have to. by nature, we break things down, we make enemies, we can rot in regret for past decisions. Fortunately, we have a Savior who will help us. He asks ONE THING AT A TIME, not too many. It reminds me of that paralyzed guys example. How hard would it be to pick up a 500 pound hay bail? Yet even an 8 yr old could move it if he just learned to CUT THE STRINGS. How difficult is it trying to untangle a ball of yarn if we just start pulling and pushing? but if we simply start at a loose end, we can always get the rest worked out. Take your time, but be diligent, and the knots, no matter how gnarly will eventually untangle themselves. While we work willingly toward eternal righteousness, the rest of what goes on around us will eventually take care of itself. I know it. I love it.

Alma and Amulek: Examples of Humility

HOOOOLLLAAA!

Green Bug in a Green House

Not too much to report this week. we worked, we sweated, then we sweated some more. San Felipe is sweet!! We were with Priscila, the Recent convert with more health problems than my companion has hair (he's balding, so that's not saying much) is continuing in the same cycle. She gets sick, and she continues working. then she can't do ANYTHING and she HAS to rest, so she sends her kids off to someone elses house. She starts feeling okay and misses her kids so she brings em back and starts working, even though she's still sick. This has been happening for three or four weeks now... Every time we went over we told her of the HUMILITY it takes to accept help. The Savior did it. He accepted the annointing from Mary and he accepted that someone else carried His cross to Calvary. He accepted the devotion of his disciples. Sometimes the "crosses of this world" that we must learn to despise is the notion of independence, of I do it and noone else.

Tea Cup Made from Tires

Alma and Amulek demonstrated this type of humility in Ammonihah. In the beginning of chapter 14, they had just finished speaking to Zeezrom, and he and many others started to repent. The rest of the city's leaders conspired against them and the power of God which was in them. in verses 3,4, and 5, tAlma and Amulek were thrown in prison injustly. How do you think that would have felt? How have you felt that kind of indignation or injustness in your life? Why? What did Alma and Amulek do in order to forgive their accusers? Now let's read verses 8 and 9. How would you feel knowing you had called down miracles from heaven before, but couldn't in this situation? Keep in mind that Amulek's own wife and children very well could have been among the victims. How useless or impotent would you feel? Amulek expresses this in verse 10, but what is Alma's response in verse 11? How hard would that have been? How can we use that same perspective to overcome our setbacks? our feelings of uselessness? of impotence? Then read verse 13. How can we say that in the face of trial? How can we show it?

The Lord Will Help Us in Our Daily Lives

hola!!!

yet another good week here!

M*, the lady who almost smoked two cigarettes at a time, is now going on three days without touching one and without any symptoms. She received a priesthood blessing that promised her that she would no longer be dependent upon the cigarette, and it's happened. That was pretty cool!!

Next, a new investigator named N* listened to us the first time on Saturday and told us her and her special friend were on the edge of collapse. she was ready to leave him and him her. we told her that the power of God in her life would either pull them together or push them apart. We came back on Sunday and asked her about how things were going, and she said that they didn't even fight. He was actually kind to her, and she was taken aback. It is true, as matthew 19:5-6 says, "what therefore Gos has put together, let not man divide asunder" or in other words, "If God's in our marriage, no man can separate us"

We were talking with O* and G*, the parents of F*, M*, and V*, and they told us yesterday, "I can tell you (elder brown) were crazy as a kid. I can tell you were all over. That's what surprises me. How is it that you were able to get on a mission? How is it that you worked from such a young age to save money to work and serve two years straight? We see you every day, you come running in (late) and apologize because another appointment went long before. You go running out apologizing because you have another appointment to attend to. You're on your bikes all day every day. You don't really get a break. the sun doesnt affect you. Heavens I don't even know when you eat! When do you go to the Bathroom?!" At that one, I thought it was pretty funny. You should hear my comp there. whooooof! anyway. Yes, our schedule every day is quite the adventure. I quite love it. We get to do help in SOOOO many ways and do SOOO many things. I consider it a great blessing being here.

funny little kid story. V* is 8 years old. He really likes what were teaching and loves everything. I get along really well with him, probably because we're about the same age mentally. ;) Anyway, in a random conversation he asked me how he would be able to write without hands. I told him, "just put the pencil in your nose!" he said "eew!! How would that work?!" I said, "well your finger sure seems to fit pretty well!" there was nothing more telling than his sheepish laugh. :)

quick fun scritpure for the day! Ezekiel 33:11-12
11 Does God want us to suffer? What does please God? What, then, is His invitation? This invitation, then, is the key to our happiness.

--Elder Brown p.s. Sorry for the delay in posting. Our family was on vacation last week and we didn't have internet connection much of the time. Thanks for following Elder Brown's mission. We are grateful for everyone's love, support, and prayers in his behalf.