We Are Really Busy!

Family and Friends,

 

   We had a good week with teaching and finding new investigators.  We were able to set up a date with one of our investigators Bradley.  He is 14 and has been coming to church for a year.  He has been ready for baptism for the last year but his mom has not given him permission to be baptized.  So when I heard about this Elder Child and I  talked about it and we decided to fast for Bradley and also for his mom that her heart will be softened.  We were able to talk to Bradley and his dad and they feel like she has opened up enough to allow and give permission for Bradley to get baptized.  I am very confident that he will recieve permission and he will enter into the waters of baptism on April 14th.
  

 We were able to meet with a former investigator Jasmin.  She has had missionaries in the past.  Her mom was baptized about ten years ago.  Her mom just recently passed away.  Jasmin is interested because of her mom's faithfulness to the church.  We were able to start teaching her and it was the best lesson ever.  We were able to find out what she expected from us as missionaries and also what we expect of her or what the Lord would expect of her.  She said that she has a hard time with commitments because she is scared that she won't follow through with that commitment.  So we explained the importance of why we give and why she should strive to keep commitments. It t shows her faith in the Lord to find out if what we are saying,and the Book of Mormon is saying is true.  It was really good!   We have an appointment scheduled with her this week.
  

We were able to find a new investigator named Jeremy through tracting.  He is an interesting guy.  He loves the scriptures and has a strong testimony in Jesus Christ.  He has been struggling with drugs and just got off parole.  He told us that he is scared to go back to prison.  He has given up the hard core drugs but he now wants to stop using marijuana, cigarrettes and alcohol.  So he has a real desire to change.  We taught the restoration and placed the Book of Mormon in his heart.  The next day we followed up with him and he read 15 pages.  It was awesome.  We feel like he is sincere.   We just hope he will continue to keep commitments and overcome his addictions.

   All in all I felt like this week was very successful.  It is a big area and there is a ton of things to do here we are really busy.  We are setting up a lot of appointments,  it is just a matter of people not cancelling on us.  We are being blessed!  Elder Child and I are working hard together.  I love Elder Child!   He has been helping me with excercising faith and going the extra mile.   He is a great missionary that loves the Lord.  Thank you everyone for your love and support!  I LOVE YOU ALL!

 

Elder J. Brown

 

P.S. Elder Roberts is Awesome

My new companion Elder Child

Week full of SURPRISES!

Family and Friends,

 

 

   Well this week was crazy!  A lot of surprises happened this week!  We have been doing a lot of finding and we were able to find 3 new investigators!  Oh Ya. 

   We were able to teach a part member family.  Bruce who is 22 is married to Joclyn and they have a 11 month year old baby.  Bruce wants to start coming back to church and wants his wife to be a part of it.  She doesn't know anything about the LDS church so we taught her the Restoration and she loved the part about the Great Apostasy because it makes sense now why there are so many churches on the earth now.   We invited her to be baptized and she accepted.   Her baptismal date is April 14th and we are so excited and pumped!

   We were tracting and we stopped at Taco Bell because Elder Child had to go to the restroom.  I am trying to be patient with Elder Child, he has to pee like every hour of every single day haha.  Anyways we walked in and there was this guy passed out on the side of the building.  He was covered in mud, clothes all ripped up.  Passed out drunk.  It is like 2 p.m. during the day.  It was weird, it felt like something you would see in the movies.  We walk in and I am waiting for Elder Child and I see that he slouches right  in front of the entrance so nobody could come in or out.  All these kids are just stepping over this guy like they see it happen all the time and I don't know i just felt so bad for him.  One of the workers went out to try to help him get out of the way and I go and help  him up and he had a beer in his hand and smelled so bad.  I just had so much compassion for him.  He was so drunk he didn't even know where he was.  He gave me his beer and walked away.  I went and got Elder Child and then he was gone, disappeared.    He really seemed just lost and every one around him just didn't care.   I feel bad I didn't do more to help him out.

   Alright, I want to tell you about my Saturday.   It was pretty crazy.  I was kind of discouraged Friday night because we had like all of our appointments fall through this week and I woke the next morning and it was pouring with rain.  I looked at my planner and it was a tracting day.  I was like,  "ohh man".  So I prayed that morning that it would be an eventful day today.  Through my studies and everything I got pumped to go and work.  We went out and in five minutes being out my pants were soaked and it was cold.  We then ran into David.   He is an African American baptist.  He listened to our message and believed everything we taught him.  He wants to know where Elijah the prophet  is so we are going to talk to him about that.  We scheduled another appointment and head home for lunch.  We planned on going home for lunch at 11 but instead we came at 12.  We drove up and I saw two girls walking up our stairs and I asked Elder Child if he knew who our neighbors were.  He said  it is a Indian couple, so I was like that is weird.  So we get out of the car and look at the river to see how high it is.  Then we get to our apartment and I see the same two girls putting up something all over my door.  It took me like 5 seconds to realize that it is my two aunts Michelle and Mandy (from Utah)!  I was like No WAY!!!!!!!!!  I was so surprised and caught off guard!  They were caught off guard also and said, " go away we need to finish".  I walk back and see My Uncle Jon trying to shield his face and it was so funny!   Went and talked to My Uncles Jon & Gavin and saw all my little cousins they are so big now.  Little Lukey ain't small no more.  It was just crazy.  My aunts came back and gave me a hug and then they left.  I know it was meant to be!  It made my day turn from a dark and dreary day to a magnificent sunny day full of surprises.  It was so cool.  I want to thank my Beautiful family for the pictures of your "SPECIAL" faces.  Uncle Gavin and Aunt Mandy won the contest ha ha.  I Love you all and thank you for your Love and Support. 

 

Elder Brown

  

South Coast Ward is Amazing!

Friends and Family,

 

   This week has been awesome!   There are so many things to do.  It is weird going from a more wealthier area to a more humble area.  We were able to schedule a lot of appointments for this week.  We are planning on teaching a lot. 

   So much has happened I don't even know where to start.  We were able to meet a part member family.  The dad's name is Joe.  He is a convert for about a year and a half and is a great guy.  He has had a lot of trials this past year and has been a little less active.  But we were able to go into his home and share a message with the family and found out his son Jacento is 9 and not baptized.  He has been going to church but has not been able (with their circumstances) to get him baptized.  So we set a date for March 24th for his baptism.  We are really excited about that.  We went from having 1 investigator to 15 investigators this week!  So we will be teaching a ton this transfer.  A teaching missionary is a happy missionary! 

   We met with the Stake presidency as missionaries and all the ward missionaries.  We talked about missionary stuff hard core in the Newport Stake.  There are going to be many miracles this next year.   I am excited to be in this area and stake!

   Elder Childs, my companion, is the funniest kid ever.  He loves the outdoors and likes to challenge people to a dance off.  He is 6'3"  and when I met him he had bleached hair because of the kind of Gel he was using.  haha.  We have some pretty mighty goals that we are striving for this transfer and the Lord has already brought forth some miracles. 

   South Coast Ward is amazing!  We have like the youngest bishopric ever.  Bishop Harmer is like in his early 30's along with his second counselor.  Then Brother Ta'ai the first counselor is 27.  So it is pretty cool to be a part of their ward council and talk about ways we can improve the ward and bring more people back. 

   This week we just did a lot of finding and a lot of setting appointments.  We are excited at the possibilities and we know with faith we will bring to pass Heavenly Father's will.

 

Elder J. Brown

Saying goodbye to my buddies!

This was an email from Max and Fox's Mom sent last night with these pictures! Josh loves these little guys and their family so much!

Jamie,

We had your son over 3 times this week and LOVED it! He is getting transferred tomorrow and my oldest son Max has been in tears all night. We are so sad to see him leave our ward. When he left tonight many of us cried. It was sad. We love him. He came over on Wednesday and got a haircut and while we were talking he seemed pretty confident that he would be staying for another transfer. We thought it was going to be Elder Anderson leaving. I got to make the cookies twice and he was really excited to have them, so thank you for the recipe. It is also one of our family favorites now! My boys loved em. Thank you for passing along the recipe.

Thanks again for sending out such a wonderful man to serve a mission! He's such a good example to my boys.

love~
Elizabeth

Day of Tears!

Family and Friends,

Well, this week was pretty crazy! This whole week we thought that Elder Anderson was going to be transferred. Well, out of no where we got transfer calls and they said that Elder Anderson is staying with my boy Elder Alvarado. Elder Brown you are going to South Coast! You are going with Elder Childs. I was like DANG IT! We have been telling everyone that Elder Anderson was leaving. So it was like the worse day of my mission on Sunday. And it was Elder Anderson's Birthday. So Sunday we went to church and went to ward council and played it cool. I was able to tell some people that It was Elder Anderson's birthday. Every one wished him happy birthday. I was able to bear my testimony to the ward and thank them for their love and support. It was a really good fast and testimony meeting. I was able to go see a couple of my favorite families. We first went and said bye to my ward mission leader Bro. Walker! He fed us some lunch and we had a good time. He blessed his grand baby in sacrament today so it was neat. We then went to the Reeds. They got Elder Anderson a birthday cake and we sang happy birthday to him and it was great! It was a really sad day. I said bye and they like held us hostage for like 45 minutes. They didn't want us to leave. They gave me a card and a letter. We finally got to the Frazier's and we had an amazing dinner with my favorite dessert homemade Oreo cookies. We did a family activity and acted like an animal and they had to guess it. It was fun! Max is an awesome Cheetah! haha. Time came that we had to leave and I said bye to Max and Fox. Max started crying it was the saddest thing ever. I promised him that I would come back and he seemed content with that. We then went to the Roach's and we were able to celebrate Elder Anderson's Birthday having more cake and singing happy birthday once again. We then spent time taking pictures of us around their mansion. Elder Anderson and I had a blast! Then Sister Roach cried on me as I was saying bye. It was so sad. I have such great relationships with every one. I really love thsee people. It was so hard to say goodbye. When you serve those you love you get attached. I promised them all that I would come back when I get off my mission.
So now I am in the South coast Ward which is 2/3 Santa Ana and 1/3 Costa Mesa. I am in the Newport Zone. Elder Childs is from Northern Ogden and he is a character. He has a very spunky personality and I love it. I am going to have a good time with him. I am his greeny breaker so he gets a break from his trainer. I am going to learn some spanish oh Ya.

Elder Brown