November 1, 2010

Hello Family and Friends,


I have been so busy I hit the pillow at 10:30 and I am out. I have been talking to a lot of wonderful people and not so nice people. ha ha. I have been doing a lot of tracking and have talked to people about their religions. It amazes me how many religions there are. I have met Hindus, Muslims, Jew's, catholic, Buddhist, all different kinds of Christian Churches. I have got to talk to a lot of Muslims and they are very nice and gentle people. They are a lot nicer then people that call themselves Christian. We can't teach them about the gospel unless they come to us because in their country, if they found out they left practicing Muslim, they would be put to death. Another lady we talked to, who was nice, said we needed to read the Bible but we told her about the Book of Mormon. She asked us if we believe in the gift of tongues and we said yes. Then she started to scream making all these weird noises and said she was getting revelation through the gift of tongues. I was scared I thought she was going to pass out and die. Then she told us how she is Mary and that Jesus lives inside her and she was crazy. We explained that through the power of the Holy Ghost we can get revelation through Jesus Christ. Then she said sorry because we believe in the Book of Mormon. She said we look like good young men but said we were going to hell. ha ha. So that was interesting. On a better note I have had the opportunity to meet and teach a man name Ali Reza. He is from Iran and was baptized there in the 70's. When the Revolution happened there he was put into prison for two years and was tortured because he had a testimony of the power of the Book of Mormon. He escaped and has been living here in California as a refugee. He is so enthusiastic about the Book of Mormon its amazing. I can only understand half the things he says but he is awesome. To see his trials and standing up for what he believes in has strengthened my testimony. I was able to teach my first lesson to an investigator. It was a miracle how we contacted her through the power of the Holy Ghost and obedience. We were knocking on doors late on a Saturday night. It was 8:50 and we needed to get home by nine. We were about to leave but my companion and I had a impression to try one more door that was upstairs. We knocked and met Lia and her two kids. She said that we could come back and teach her and her children. We taught her the first lesson about the Restoration and about Joseph Smith and placing a Book of Mormon in her heart. We have been taught to invite people to be baptized and so we did. She said yes and Alvaro is turning eight next month and so we set a date for November 20. Since we followed the prompting of the Holy Ghost and we worked all the way up until 9 we found somebody who would accept the Gospel and I really believe that it was a miracle or a Tender Mercy. I am having a lot of good experiences. The Asians make up about the 1/3 of population and they have their own ward. They are very nice people. Those are some of my experiences thus far. It is hard work but its worth it when you get to sit down and bare your testimony of the truth. Thank you for your letters and all that you do. Make sure when you send letters that you send it to Elder Joshua Brown because there are 4 elder Browns in my mission. There has been a lot confusion. ha I love you guys and hope you are staying close to the teachings of Jesus Christ and reading, pondering, and praying about the Scriptures and especially the Book of Mormon. Love you all!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hope everything I said make sense. ha ha

Elder Brown

On Mon, Oct 25, 2010 at 11:48 AM, Joshua Brown wrote: