Mission! (July 29th, 2013)

Hello everyone, and another big greeting from Ohio! I am actually really starting to love it out here and I really am enjoying all of the amazing rain and how green it is! I have never seen so many clouds, rainstorms, greenery, and corn crops in my entire life! I can hardly believe it! Ohio is amazing and the city of Oregon isn't too bad either.  Toledo is still very much sketchy and weird; fortunately I only have a tiny portion of it in my area. My area is mainly all farm and it is great. There is a city called Genoa and it reminds me Genola. I love all of the farms and I love being able to be out in them.

The members here are very amazing and provide meals almost every night!  The members also keep on stopping by our apartment to give us food, pies, donuts, etc. We really do love them all and their support. They are all so great to us and I am so happy to be able to serve in such an amazing ward! I really don't know what I would do without all of them here helping us. Be sure to do the same with the missionaries back home. They need your help. As missionaries we have left our families, and the ward members are the ones that help fill that gap in our lives (although it truly will never be the same). Please be sure to do the same for the local missionaries. They are my second family!

My companion is amazing! We both get along very well and love being with each other. We laugh, work hard, joke, and have a fantastic time being able to serve the Lord. He always tells me that I remind him of his 18 year old brother and that he feels like he is serving with him. Oddly enough Elder Steele reminds me of my brother Jace. He is just like him and acts like him in every way. I love it so much! I feel like I am serving and working with one of my best friends, my brother. He makes me laugh and always supports me. I am happy that the Lord has blessed both of us and has allowed us to serve together.

This week I have had some very interesting experiences. The first is my story of the crazy cat lady. Elder Steele and I went to go visit a less active member and to check up on her and to see why she hasn't been coming to church. She ended up being very nice, but her home was really rather interesting. We walked in and were immediately surrounded by cats. Yep.  Living, breathing cats! She said that she has over twelve of them and that she loves all of them so much. It was actually really gross and I had to go and shower after (for fear of getting bed bugs, a real problem in Ohio). Luckily we were just fine and she even went to church this week! So that was great and now I have a cool story to tell.

My second crazy story is of the crazy raccoon lady! Elder Steel and I ended up going and visiting another less active family that hadn't been to church or allowed anyone from the church into their home for over five years. When we went there the wife answered the door and we started talking. I found out that she loves animals and told her that I do as well!  That got her very excited and she let us in. She then went on talking about animals and how her favorite animal is the raccoon! She then asked if we wanted to see one. We said yes, but of course thinking it was either dead or in a trap. We were wrong. She took us into the backyard and showed us her PET raccoon. She had it up in a cage and took it out and started playing with it. She then let us pet it and hold it. That was scary at first, but I can now say that I have held a raccoon. Afterwords we were able to have a great lesson with her family, and we committed them to come back to church. The father even started crying and said that he truly has missed the church in his life and that he was going to make it a goal to come back.

My next story will prove that I have learned to overcome my picky-ness when it comes to food. As I mentioned earlier we have meals with members very often. Well, one of my meals this week was really rather interesting and something that I wasn't expecting to eat. We got to the member's home and visited with them before sitting down to eat. When the food was brought out there were big, weird looking slabs of meat on our plates.  My companion and I did not know what it was, so Elder Steele asked the members. We were told that it was cow tongue, and that it was supposedly really good and that all we had to do was peel of the taste buds. Needless to say it actually wasn't that good, but I did eat it all. Yes, the boy that hates red meat ate a whole cow tongue without throwing up! There truly are modern day miracles.

Well that has been my week and now here is my missionary tip: You will be surprised with what you can do! The Lord will help you through trials and with Him all things are truly made possible. Have faith, be strong, and continue to look unto and to trust in Him.

I love you all so very much!

Elder Brown

 Elder Brown and Elder Steele

 

Playing with their new friend! 

Superhero Elder (July 22, 2013)

Hello family and friends!

 

I am so happy that I have been able to hear from you all and that you are all doing well. I love being able to hear from each of you and to be able to enjoy all of your cool experiences. It is very amazing how fast time goes while on a mission, I am already approaching my month mark and it feels like I just went into the field yesterday.

 

This week has been full of many ups and downs. I was sick for three days and ended up having to stay in our apartment. There is a nasty case of the stomach flu going around, and of course I was one of the lucky ones to get it. Good thing I am used to throwing up. :/ Luckily I eventually got over that and was able to go back out to work.

 

This week we did tons of tracting and didn't really have any success. We did, however, run into a 92 year old Lutherin who let us into her house and talked to us for a really long time. That was interesting and we thought it was cool that she was so kind and polite to us. She also told us to tell our parents thank you for teaching us about Christ and allowing us to have religion in our lives. I only wish that she would accept The Lords restored gospel. Little does she know all that she is missing out on.

 

Ohio is very, very, very flat and equally humid! You go outside and can see for miles and get wet in an instant. It is very different from home, but I am starting to like it and to enjoy the beauty that it does have. Along with the humidity they have some very crazy storms over here. One night there was lighting and thunder that followed right after.  It was so close it shook our apartment building. We have also had tons of rain and some tornado warnings. Oh the joys of flat land! It is also raining today, and with all the clouds I pretended that mountains were hiding behind them, making it feel more like home.

 

On Sunday Elder Steele and I went out to go visit a less-active member. We ended up getting stopped by a train (there are millions of them over here) and had to wait fifteen minutes for it to go by. We finally got through and pulled up to the house that was more like a trailer. Sadly, no one was home so we ended up going tracting down this very ghetto, scary street. We were about to leave due to the lack of success and my fear of being shanked when we felt prompted to go and try two more houses. When we came upon our last house an old, rather gruff man answered the door. I was getting ready for our usual "no thank you", slam the door in our face routine when he said: "Oh I know who you are, come on in!" Elder Steele and I ended up being able to go inside and visited with him for over an hour and a half!  His name is Al, and that he is from Virginia and is 64 years old.  He talked about how he was a professor and now is here for some engineering work. He told us about how he highly respects what we are doing and then went on to talk about some of his concerns about a friend dying. We ended up talking about the plan of salvation, left a Book of Mormon, and set a return appointment. The Lord truly does prepare his children for the gospel. And to make things even more cool, he told us that he had just gotten home twenty minutes before we arrived. So if it weren't for the train holding us up we most likely wouldn't have ran into Al. This truly is the Lord's work and He will help us and He does prepare His children to receive the gospel.

 

This week I had another really cool experience and reminder. While at church yesterday all eight of us missionaries were walking around the building after church had ended. We were walking past the primary room when we heard some little voices talking behind us.  The primary kids were all saying things like, "Look! It's the missionaries!" or "Wow, the real missionaries."  My favorite was the child that said,  "Mommy, come quick! The missionaries are right here! Come see them, quick,come see them!" It hit me that we are examples to all of those around us, and that all of the youth and children of the church are looking up at us. I then realized that we are like superheroes to them, and that we truly are superheroes in our work of bringing people back to Christ. What an amazing and glorious calling we all have. I love being a missionary and a "superhero" and I am sad to think that I only get two years to be one.  This time is already starting to fly by. So that is my missionary tip of the week: remember that you are a superhero and that you truly are looked up to and are helping and saving your brothers and sisters and bringing all of them back to Christ.

 

I love you all and wish you the best wherever you may be. Thanks for all of your prayers and support, they truly are loved and felt!

 

Elder (Superhero) Brown

Ohio! (July 15, 2013)

Hello family and Friends and greetings from the great state of Ohio!

 

This week has been very crazy and one of the longest in my entire life! I can't believe all that has happened, and all that is going on in my life. On Tuesday I ended up getting really sick and I had to spend the day in my room. I was given a blessing and was feeling better before I even knew it. The power of the Priesthood is truly an amazing thing! On Wednesday night I had to say goodbye to Kolton, and all of my MTC friends. I truly grew to love it there, but I am so happy to be able to be out here on my mission and to be able to serve the people of Ohio. Thursday morning was the day that we all flew out to this great state. We were supposed to all be up by 1:30, but we slept in! So we had a Home Alone moment and had to run and pack really fast to be able to make the bus that would be taking all of us to the airport. I was so happy to be able to hear from you Mom and Dad and I love and miss your voices.

 

Our flights were crazy and felt rather long. We had two flights to get us here and over thirty missionaries flying over. So we filled a lot of seats in the planes and we were all stared at and watched by many people around us. We also had another Home Alone moment at our layover. Our first flight was late so we had to literally run down the airport to be able to catch our next flight, but we did catch it and all was well. Once we got of the plane our Mission President, President Vellinga, and his wife were there. They greeted us and were so loving and kind and excited to see us all. We then went and had dinner and had a welcome orientation. Our president then interviewed all of us before letting us go to bed early. The mission home is very nice and Ohio is beautiful! I have never seen so many trees and green in my life, but it is very, very, very flat.

 

The next day we were all woken up at five in the morning so we could all go over and see the Kirtland temple and all of the other church history sites. The drive there was long and I was able to take a very nice little nap on our way there. Once we got to Kirtland I immediately became overwhelmed with the spirit that I felt there! It was so cool to be able to be where all of the saints had lived and to be able to go into and see our church's first temple in these latter days. I was amazed that I was able to stand where my Savior and Father in Heaven had once stood and to be in the places and rooms where many of the revelations in D&C came from. There is a great power here in Ohio and I love it so very much.

 

After our fantastic tours we all were taken back to meet our companions and trainers. I was very nervous about meeting my companion and I was scared that I would get one that wasn't kind or motivated. When I met my companion I realized that I didn't need to worry and that President Vellinga's promise was true, that I really will love my companion and he will love me. His name is Elder Steele and we are almost exactly alike. He so amazing and he is just like a brother to me. He helps me so much and we have a fantastic time together.

 

I am serving in the Perysburg East area and am living in a town called Oregon (except here in Ohio  it is pronounced "Or I gone"). We have one the nicest apartments in the mission and I love it. I guess we are really spoiled here with our nice apartment, and our fancy car that we get to drive. We actually have one of the biggest areas and we cover tons of farm land out by lake Erie, so that is why we get the car. The ward that we serve in is the Perysburg ward and there are over eight missionaries in the ward. The ward members are amazing and I love all of them so much. They have already provided so many amazing meals and they just keep on dropping food off at our apartment. I haven't had to buy any food yet.

 

I have already done lots of service and tracting, but sadly we have no investigators. We got tons of doors slammed in our face, people being very mean, and a lady yelling at us as we walked down the road. It is hard because I know how much happier they would be if they would accept the gospel, but everyone does have their agency. When people don't answer we leave a pass along card just in case. One home didn't answer so we left one with a picture of Jesus on the front. We walked to the next house and I ended up turning around because I heard a door open. The lady at the previous house came out holding our pass along card and had the most annoyed look on her face. She stopped on her driveway and right in front of my face tore up the picture of our Savior and dropped it on the ground and stomped on it. My heart just dropped. I was so pained to see someone so willing to reject our Savior, Redeemer, Lord and King. This experience was very hard but taught me a very important lesson. I realized how loving our Father in Heaven truly is. He had to watch His Son die and be killed and could do nothing, just as I had to watch His picture be torn and could do nothing. I can only image the pain and sorrow God felt, compared to the pain that I felt. How great our Father in Heaven truly is!

 

Missionary work is harder than I could have ever imagined, but there is nowhere else I would rather be than here in Ohio. I love being able to represent the Lord and I am so happy every time that I get to put on my name tag. It is very difficult and great at the same time. I miss home, but I have found so many amazing people that support me. I love our ward, I love our bishop, I love my companion, I love our mission president, I love the people of Ohio (no matter how hard their hearts may be) and I love My Savior and King. They are all with me and helping me, along with all of my family and friends back home! And for that I am grateful.

 

I know this church is true and that our Heavenly Father and His Son, our Savior, lives. They love us all and we are all their children. I love them and I am so happy to be able to serve them for this short time in my life. Missionary work is fantastic and I love being able to grow so much from doing it. Here is my missionary tip of the week: Refrain from discouragement. Be strong, be happy, and learn to smile and press forward. The work may not be easy but the joy and blessings are great!

 

I love you all so very much!

 

Elder Brown

 Outside the Kirtland Temple

Elder Brown and Elder Steele

Missionaries! (July 5th, 2013)

Dear Family,

 

I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!!!!!! There are so many blessings that come from being a missionary and being a servant of the Lord. I have truly grown closer to God and I have been filled with His spirit and divine love for me. I am so happy to be able to wear our Savoir Jesus Chirst's name next to mine, and I feel sad every night when I have to take my badge off. The spirit is so strong, and there isn't anywhere else I would rather be than on my mission. Before I get into telling stories and such I have to take care of some bussiness. I will be leaving the MTC on July 11 (Thursday) at 2:30 a.m. My flight leaves at6:00 a.m. and has a layover at Minneapolis. We then will take off again at 10:10 and should be in Clevand by one. I have been told that I will be able to call home while at the airport. Thank you for all of the yummy packages and treats! I love emails, but letters would also be nice since we can read those whenever, but we can only read emails on P-day. But do whatever you prefer, as long as I am able to hear from you all.

 

This week truly has been amazing and enjoyable! I have learned so much and have grown as a person and as a missionary. This week I had an amazing spiritual experience. One day we were asked to put ourselves in the shoes of an investigator. We then had our teachers teach us as if they were the missionaries. I was filled with an amazing impression of the pains and loss people without this church feel and I couldn't believe how lost they truly are. It pained me to have to feel that, but it has truly motivated me to become better and to grow. While reading the Book of Mormon, I have received so much revelation! As you read it and open your heart to God, I know that He will guide and impress your mind and will give you help and strength. I hope that you truly will try this and that it will help you, as it has me.

 

All of my "investigators" are doing really well. We challenged one to read the Book of Mormon and to go to church. He has followed through with all of them. It is so excting to be able to reach out and to help him, even though he is just an actor. I love my district and we are all very close! We have such a good time and all get along very well. I couldn't be happier with all of the amazing friends that I have made. My companion is cool and he is very patient. He is always using a cane or brace, but he remains dilligent and strong. We all call him the wise owl.

 

In our classes we focuss on learing how to teach with the spirit and the importance of welcoming it and showing our love for the people we are teaching. I have learned so much and I have grown a lot. I have also become much more social. I love talking to people and I have practiced doing lots of street contacting. Mission work isn't easy, and I find that I am always tired, but I love it very much! For our devotionals we have to walk over to the Marriott Center. We fill it up half way and it is really cool to be able to see all of the missionaries. We truly are an army of God and we are all very blessed and guided by Him. I find myself constantly happy and laughing and filled with the spirit. I want to be a missionary for my whole life, I love it that much.

 

Yesterday, July 4th, we had our infield training. That was really long, but also went really well.  It got me way more excited to go out to Cleveland and to be able to teach real people and to be able to help all of them. We then had a really cool devotional and got to watch the movie: "17 Miracles". After the movie they gave us ice cream and then walked us out to the field to be able to watch the fireworks. One of the sister's mom sent us confetti cannons, glow sticks, and candy.  Our district had ourselves a little party! We had such a great time together and we all enjoyed being able to celebrate our wonderful country that has provided us with so many joys and freedoms.

 

THE BROTHERS HAVE BEEN REUNITED!! Kolton and I ran into each the first day he was here, and I have been with him many times since. He is doing really well and is staying strong. We are both in the same building so we get to visit every night before going to bed. He loves it here, but he is having a hard time adjusting, like we all have. I am so happy to be able to see him and to be a support for him as he is for me. I have seen many other friends here as well and it is cool to see all of us wearing our name tags. I am so happy that I get to serve the Lord with my best friends and to know that we are all servants of the Lord doing His glorious work. Thank you all so much for your support towards me and towards my friends. We all truly love and appretiate that!

 

To all of you future misssionaries (this means you Carter), here is my advice for the week: Don't endure it, but rather enjoy it! You will learn and grow so much, so allow yourself to be able to do so. Be happy, be strong, and forget yourself and get lost in the work of the Lord.

 

I love you all so very much. Be strong and remember that the Lord is always there and ready to help and to bless you. Your friend, son, cousin, grandson, nephew, and missionary,

 

Elder Brown

 Jory's district visiting the temple!  I believe that is his companion on his right.  

 Best friends reunited!

 Celebrating the 4th with glowing wristbands!