Week of Miracles!

Family and Friends,

I just want to THANK everyone for the Happy Birthdays! It really made me smile and have a great birthday. I am now officially 20 Years Old. Yep, I don't know what to think about that. Probably on a maturity level I think I am the closest I ever have been to my age. I give all the credit to being on a my mission and the Lord sculpting me to be the best that I can be. Ha ha. This week has been interesting. This is a really nice area and I feel like I am officially in my vacation spot. Before I came out on my mission this area is what I thought California was going to be like and I Love It!!!!!!!!! So when I got here we had 0 investigators. So that was depressing and I taught the lowest amount of lessons for a very long time. Only 3 this week. I know Elder Austin Rich, one of my best friends, averages about 3 baptisms a week in Africa. Ha ha. Hey I am trying. Some very cool things happened. So on my Birthday . . . . . . . the Youth were having this Missionary camp thing and so my companion and I went on splits. I took 2 young men out tracting with me. One was 14 and the other 16. We ran into a theologin Scholar who comes out with his Bible and had all these tricks up his sleeves. I have been in Yorba Linda for a while so I had it all in control. We were talking to him and exchanging things we believe and backing it up with scripture. Everything he would tell me I would crush it down with a scripture. So after a couple minutes of this I knew this was going no where but I saw these kids get into it. I told him that we had to go because this gentleman didn't want to listen to what we have to say. He tried to throw down all he could on these kids and it was just crazy. I told them if people are just trying to tear you down and don't want to hear what you have to say you just nod your head and leave. I thought that was a cool experience for those kids. On the bright side, we found a couple potential investigators. Well, the next day we went and taught one of those potentials and his name is Mario! OH Ya!!! We taught him the first Lesson! He was so pumped that there is a prophet today on the earth! He was even more pumped that he is going to address the world this upcoming Saturday and Sunday. This guy has some great potential. He has a wife and two little kids that we can hopefully get involved. He is going to get baptized this upcoming month because the holy ghost whispered to his heart that the things we are teaching are true. Can I say MIRACLE!!! It was a great birthday weekend. We also ran into a Palistinian Catholic guy who is a millionaire. He thought we were the FLDS Church. So we addressed his concerns and he committed to read and pray about the Book of Mormon. He is retired in his mansion. He just hangs out and has plenty of time to read that amazing holy scripture. He said that he respects us and our ancestors because of the persecution we went through. He is from Ephraim (that is what we think he pronounced his city, it all crazy) a little village outside of Bethlehem. He said that village is still Christian and that they have been persecuted like we did for what we knew to be true. So we are excited to go back, he loves to talk to us! All in all it was a great week. Elder Anderson and I worked hard. We knew that this week was going to be slow and we were knocking on a lot of doors. But this upcoming week is filled with scheduled lessons and miracles. So I will catch you all on the flip side and the next time I email you I will be on the way down. I will hit My HUMP this week! Love you all have a fabulous week. Do everything possible to offend Satan every second of every day!!!! (EX. Pray, read your scriptures, go to Church, serve others) That is my goal every day!!!!! I always feel so good because I know God always has My Back!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Elder Brown