Knock...Knock...

Great week this last week!

Monday:
I was sick. they gave me an injection. THEY INJECTED MY BUTT FOR A COMMON COLD!!!! What has this world come to? Oh the Humanity!!!

Tuesday:
Turns out the medicine they gave me (amplicin) is closely related enough to peniciline and augmentin that I was allergic to it. THAT was comforting. I even told them I was allergic to anything close to peniciline. Fortunately I came out fine; I just got another three days of butt pricks. It sure was a pain in the butt though!!!

Wednesday:
You know, there are probably only a few quintessencial words or phrases in a missionary's story, But I know that "knock" and "knock" are two of em. Thus, as "once upon a time" iniciates a fairy tale, knock knock brings the missionary tale into full development.!

"Knock knock." goes my 50 peso coin on the metal door jam. Nobody answers. Instead, a middle-aged man comes down the stairs, hangs up the phone, and says,

"Good morning Elders. Come in."

He directs us into the house we knocked like it's his. We go inside and its a doctor's office... Turns out he's the owner of some magnetic medicine shop that apparently works wonders on the spine and cures cancer. Apparently magnets are the cure to all llness nowadays. Who knows, could be true. The next thing ya know, I'm makin' up medical 'n physical terms 'n tryin to figure out where all this is coming from. Then a question I never thought I'd hear fell from my lips,

"Do ya think the magnets could make a difference on blistered feet?"

Turns out, he thought they could. He did his little magnetic maneuvers, took a magnetic glance at my positively repulsive ;) feet and left for a few minutes. He came back from another room with two magnets.

On the bright side, almost a week later, I'm positively blister-free!

Thursday:
"Knock, knock" there are the two quintessencial words again.!

"Who's there?" a middle aged woman calls.

"Missionaries of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We'd like to give you a card." 

"We're not home." She calls back.

Those are my favorites. :)!

We ate a BROWNIE PIZZA TODAY!!!!!!!

Friday:
I went and served with Elder W* for the day. He's really a really good guy. We ate some fantastic doughnuts, contacted a lady in front of a white wall with the sun on it. Now, I'm gonna have to start learning brail...!

Saturday:
Elder W*: He's really just a great guy. I really look up to him (on top of the fact that he's tall). He's honest, understanding, patient, and a bunch of other really awesome words I don't feel like putting down. I wanna be like him.  Going with him was an answer to my prayers.

Sunday:
Fantastic day. I was able to partake of the sacrament, like normal, but after a couple of weeks of practice, I've been able to have more and more meaningful experiences. This week, I was able to review many ways in which my prayers had been answered, many ways that the Atonement had helped me. I reflected upon character changes I had seen over the last weeks and over the entire mission. Then, as I partook of the sacraments, my mind was taken to a couple of "pendientes" pending problems or plans that I was not satisfied with. I knew I was in the wrong, but I didn't really see much hope to change. Right then and there, I could feel my heart let go of the old ideas and accept the gospel truth. I didn't learn anything new intellectually, but I experienced what I consider to be revelation to the heart. It wasn't any real instruction, but a change in me, and I felt it happen. That was cool.

Funny awkward moment of the week: 
We were just leaving church and a family stops by us and asks us where we're going. I tell 'em were going to our house. They ask us where we live, and I say, "We live by the Cortez family" super proud of the fact that I knew where we live.!

"Oh! Were the cortez family," was their response. :) OOPS!! That's embarrassing!!

18 Months Into the Mission:
It's kinda funny what that 1.5 year mark does to ya. Something fundamental about the mission changes. Ya start to look backward. Looking back, I've truly been blessed:
1. I'm in one of few biking missions. If I hadn't been on bike, I wouldn't have been able to stay here in the mission while my feet healed.
2. So many things have changed. Many of the biggest personality problems I had before have seen much improvement. Unfortunately enough, I still make bad puns.
3. I've identified many weaknesses before unseen, and learned to improve.
4. The Gospel of Jesus Christ has become a tactile idea to me. It's more than a puffy cloud in the sky.
I know that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is true. I know that God has restored His Gospel through the prophet Joseph Smith. I know that President Thomas S. Monson is the prophet called of God today. following their counsel is ALWAYS the best idea. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen!

--Elder Brown

Q&A with Mom

How would you describe your companionship with Elder W*?

Sign in Tijuana reminding Elder Brown of Bugambilias

Elder W* is AWESOME. Once we learned the tricks of making things work great, it was a wonderful comanionship. I wouldn't change it for the world. He's a great man.

How are your feet holding up now that you are back in a walking area?
My feet are fine.

What is the weather like? 
You can look up the weather in the broadcast. I don't really pay attention.

I know I can look up the weather...just like getting your take on it! Haha
It sure seems like weather!! :)

What have I learned this past week?
The bishop did something really cool on Monday. His 8 yr old son started singing this raunchy song like it was the new Peanut butter and jelly sandwich. When the bishop heard the song, he said, I'm not so sure why you keep singin that song. It's not very cool. He then asked his wife and everyone else in the room if it was cool. We all replied "No, it's not a very cool song, son. Why don't you find a song that's truly cool." The son then went off singin' "I believe I can fly", super content that he had finally found the next peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Be creative when you scold your kids! Scold 'em with #Class.

A Bear of a Dog

Went and taught O* on the temple grounds, the Spirit is SOOO strong! If we make the temple the center of our lives, everything else in life will align itself. Put the truly important stuff first.

We went with someone named A* last week. She has parkinsons and never remembers anyones name, but remembers numbers really well. She named me 7.5! Seven and a half! She calls whenever she wants to talk with me. It's super endearing. :)

Who are you teaching?
M* lost all his family and his wife walked out on him. Within a 10 year time period, he went from having everything; being filthy rich, to having nothing. Kinda puts the important things in perspective, doesnt it?

Another person we are teaching, M* wants to get baptized, but doesn't have support from his mom. He's gotta have a really acute conscience to discern the different pulls.

Elder Brown and Elder R*

We are also teaching a man name O*, he's 75. He came with us to the temple. We showed him the grounds and he told us "The flowers r pretty n all, but I'd really like to learn a bit of the Word of God." That man's got his priorities straight. :)

What can you tell us about your new companion?
Elder R* is my companion now. He's been great. I'm still gettin' to know him. Keep ya updated on that part.

Transfers: Tijuana Temple District

Well, the area of the temple's the last place I ever thought I'd be. It's gonna be FANTASTIC!! I'm here with Elder R*. Almost thought they messed up his first and last names. Don't know anything about him, don't really know anything about the place. I just barely got here. One change this means for me is that I will be in a walking area again. Let's pray my feet hold up without too many blisters. :)

V* GOT BAPTIZED!!! She's super awesome and keeps on goin'! She received the Holy Ghost and since then has noticed a difference.

C*'s still goin'! Her son, A*, who'd gone off the deep end just before his baptism and started sellin'

Baptism of V*

drugs, got caught last week. Not sure what they're gonna do with him. The cops let 'im see his parents fer about 30 minutes before they took him to wherever he was going (doesn't look like a pretty situation). C* called us and begged us to come over so we could see 'im. He asked us for a blessing. When we gave him the blessing, we could feel the Spirit super strong. Heavenly Father doesn't stop loving us, even when we may be suffering the consequences of poor choices. Even in our worst moments, we will always be loved and assisted as much as we allow ourselves to be.

The work is still wonderful. Grattitude is still great. Alliteration is still amazing. you get the gist. :)

we can see 1.19663138889 miles out on a perfectly flat prarie. that's how far the horizon should be (according to my calculations)

based upon that number, we can see 4.49839766797 square miles of the earth at a time. Isn't that crazy?!

Love,
Elder Brown

On the way to meet our new companions

Zone in Mexicali

Working by the Spirit

I'm really falling in love with Mormon.org. The people we talk to can look at whatever they want, whenever they want. they have access to simple answers to WHATEVER question they might have. the best part is that I don't even have to teach em anything! :) They just do it themselves.

We ate with a part-member family. The son is totally destroyed by drugs. Don't use 'em. They'll wreck you. His mom's a sweet lady (she's the member). Anyway, it was quite the nice lunch conversation. The mom started talking, then the son started talking when she took a breath, and thus it continued the entire time!! :)

I didn't even have to ask a question. :) I could listen to 'em 'n' nod my head to show em I was listening and keep eating. :) most of the conversation didn't hold much pattern anyway. My companion totally fell asleep after that. He almost fell off the bike!

C* (Hna M*) keeps fasting! Still reading and she even called to ask the relief society president for a calling!! You go girl!!

V* is already reading into ALMA!!!! She's barely got a month with The Book of Mormon and she's on FIRE!!! She obviously understands the role of The Book of Mormon in our lives as a compass.

Met this lady named T* last week. we had set the appointment for 10:30, but for seemingly frustrating reasons, we didn't make it til 11:00. When we got there, she was just getting back from the store. If we hadn't been delayed, we would have made it, decided she lied about a time of availability, and moved on. Because we got there late, we learned she had been waiting for us to get there. We had small talk, and after we had started the standard lesson for about 10 sec, I remembered the advice of our Mission President, who said, "you will find and meet the needs of almost EVERY investigator by asking about their family." In that moment, I realized we didn't know anything about her parents. "Do your parents live close to here?" I asked, a slightly awkward question. She broke down into tears and told us her dad had died last march 23rd. The Spirit led us to that lesson at that time.

--Elder Brown

Making the Sacrament More Personal

Fun week last week:

We weren't even here all thursday or friday.

We needed to renew my companion's visa. Didn't really do much this week.

D* and V* keep coming along. They're reading and seeing a lot of progress.

Still working on grattitude. It's a lot harder than we like to think. Always keeping a spirit of grattitude in our perspective. Realizing that sometimes what we thought was best really wasn't. Learning that those happy times we might have had in days before was truly a gift, not a right.

Still working on making the sacrament a more personal experience. I realized that Christ already gave us His offering, it's waiting for us every week on the altar. The question to be resolved is "what is my offering?" What offering do we have to give week after week? What sacraments are we going to offer this next Sunday?

Last thing I learned this week is that the world is rooting for you. The world wants you to be the best you can. we've all got the support of many more people than we like to think sometimes, even though it might not seem like it.

Love you all! good week this past week, even though not much happened. Thank you for your prayers and support.