Humbling Week for St. Vincent

St. Vincent along with St. Lucia and Dominica have had a really humbling Christmas week. On Christmas Eve there was a huge storm that made many mud slides and had dragged houses away and destroyed bridges. There has been much destruction throughout these few islands. Here in St. Vincent there have been about 8 killed and 5 missing. The Lord has protected the missionaries. Elder Dye and I have actually walked through the storm that had done so much damage. It all started Christmas Eve. We got to watch Despicable Me 2 that night and it was pretty good! I thought it was pretty funny! We walked outside into the huge storm and made it home safe. Because of this storm it damaged a lot of pipes so we have not had any water this week. Thank goodness for our emergency water! Kingstown got water so we have been able to shower there once this week and refill water. This crazy girl tells us that water is her favorite juice. To St. Vincent anything that is not coffee or tea is juice. "Water is juice from the clouds." Water is not the only thing we have not had. We for almost the whole transfer have not had tracts or Books of Mormon to give away. This makes it a lot harder to teach. Imagine telling someone about the Book of Mormon but telling them they can't have it because you don't have one. We need these things soon! People out here can also be a little strange. This kinda old black lady thought Elder Dye and I were racist but we told her that we were called to be here. I told her if I was told that I was going to St. Vincent a place which is full of black people and I did not like them I would have told them I am not coming. She realized that afterwards and then saw how my hair was different because I am white. She asked if she could pet it and because I was hesitant she thought I was racist again but I let her pet my hair. She wanted money but all she got to do was pet my hair on my head. Strange requests from Vincentions. Also Vincentions will add an O to the end of anything that ends with an LE. For example "Bibleo" is how they say Bible. So my nephew Chance just might be a Vincention because he always calls me Kyleo. For my last bit I have one more thing I will add. There is a riddle thing going on here between missionaries and until you get it it will drive you insane! I got it now and someday I will tell people what it is. This is called Green Grass Valley. In Green Grass Valley there are Apple but not Pears.
That's all folks!

Destruction!

-Elder Brown

Rudolph the Rasta Reindeer and the Grinch

This past week has been a bit crazy. I am in the next area over but I go back to my old area almost every day for meetings. I got emergency transferred here and I was just getting to know my last area so back to square one now. I have still... been enjoying the reggae Christmas. My last companion whom I still see every day pretty much said they should make a song called "Rudolph the Rasta Reindeer". I need to get some copies of this music! Something I can say I am proud of is that I have become a master curry cook so my new companion Elder Dye and I have been eating some really good chicken curry. People this season have been crazy. Lot's of people forget what it's about (even myself sometimes) and people just get wasted. We walked by some crazy drunk who yelled at people and then he asked how we were doing and politely told him we were good and then he randomly sprayed some crude language at us. The drunks here are funny. Also happy birthday Aubrey and Sierra yesterday! These ladies we pass by they always ask us for money because "that's what Jesus would do". I told them to read Acts chapter 3 verses 1-6. Money is not about everything. These ladies have money and they just want to bother us. One of them said I should give her money for bread and then I said I couldn't and then she asked "What if I was dying?" I replied "Well I would take you to the hospital." She was so vexed about that. (Vexed is Caribbean for mad) Something really funny too is that people will get barrels sent to them from Canada. It is like getting a package but they are cheap. People will get a bunch of random things sent to them. This little girl got a Phoenix shirt and I told her that was where I am from. They have no idea where that even is. Let alone Arizona. This year I have to be honest I have been a little bit of a Grinch but I don't let everyone know it. It's just the worst time of the year because you are really trunky and then almost no one will even want to spend time with you. They are cleaning and things so they just dismiss us. When you don't teach someone it makes you think even more about home. It's the worst! Last night we met with someone who was like an 11 on a scale of 1 to 10 on difficulty to share a message with. She didn't care much about what we tried to share. It's the toughest time of the year so I am trying to just remember what the true message is about. The weather has been a bit nicer so that's an upgrade but I don't want to complain. I swear someday some missionaries will come over to me some day on Christmas and I am going to invite them in and feed them and serve them so good! I know how it feels for them. I look forward to Skype tomorrow though! Christmas is not terrible it's just tough. Only one more to go! Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you all have some joy!

-Elder Brown

"Put Jesus in your Christmas"

Christmas spirit is getting to me here! I remember back at home (My companions always interrupt and yell "TRUNKY!") that I was looking for reggae Christmas music and I hear it walking down the streets! I love it! They have some remakes and originals too. I will bring some home at the end of my mission. One of them sings "Put Jesus in your Christmas! Put Jesus in your Christmas!" Some people here are still crazy so there are a few quotes of the week today. One man we tried teaching a few times just liked to quote random scriptures to us. It's good he has them memorized but they are not at all relevant to what we are talking about. At the end as a word of warning he said to us multiple times "Beware of sheep in wolves clothing." It would have been better for him if he realized he mixed it up because it's funny to hear him say that a lot. I would be scared at first to see a sheep in wolves clothing until I just realized that it was just a sheep. Speaking of wolves we visited one of our crazy friends named Sean who we have taught a few times before. His kid kept hitting us and Sean ran over to him and he randomly started to seem to bite his kid and yelled at him and said that he shouldn't bring out the wolf in him. "Lebron you know I can't hold back my inner wolf sometimes!" He went on to say some words that would not be good to say but it was crazy to see him do that and my companions just had straight faces. I wanted to laugh so hard. Sean is so crazy that it's funny. I taught him about Abinidi in Mosiah chapter 13 (one of my favorite chapters) and in verse 3 where Abinidi says to King Noah not to touch him Sean just talked to us and said "Woah man that's some deep crap man! I mean for real you know." Also my branch president always says something funny without realizing what he even said. Last week I told about how "God killed Moses" but this week he didn't get us any funny quotes to send. I did come up with a quote for what we will call his quotes. Since his name is President Baynes I decided to call them the "Big Bayne Theory". I love his theories. Last story. It's weird when we go to the church at like 8 pm because at night vagrants always try to talk to us. Elder Galati is really good at talking with them about random things. The people are out of their minds and they just talk about random things. This one guy likes "Paggetti and meat balls. But sometimes in China they use horse meat!" We would ask them how they fit a whole horse in a fridge. He says he doesn't know how they do it. Another vagrant was talking to us and Elder Galati wore his hat. He might just have lice now. Let's hope not. Other than that we are all excited for Christmas. Probably won't get a Nintendo like every kid wants but at least we have our companions and family and hopefully Mila Julovich. We have our hopes high on meeting her. We hope that everyone has a great Christmas and see you all next week on Skype!

-Elder Kyle Brown

Deeply Studying Tourist Style
 

The Cholesterol Kingdom

This week has felt a little slower but still great! Got a few good quotes of the week. Blonco our amazing investigator will be getting baptized withing the next week or so we just need him to get married and he has quite an adventurous past so we have to get an interview with mission president for him. We were talking about the Plan of Salvation and he was mentioning the 3 degrees of glory to us. "The first is the Cholesterol Kingdom." It caused for a pretty good chuckle. Also Elder Egbert my last companion told me about a good drink here but he is in Guyana now so too bad for him. It's called "Fruit Cocktail". It tastes pretty good. It's like Monster but no caffeine. I was told it was the best drink ever but Elder Egbert talked it way too up so I didn't like it at first. Now it's pretty good! The man Blonco we are baptizing along with his wife and one of his kids asked if we baptize in the ocean or at the church. I hope he wants the ocean because that would be so cool! We don't live too far from there. I want to have a beach day for P Day some time but today we went shopping and I got a sweet tropical tourist button up. I found 3 in Guyana for 5 USD but never saw the guy again so it feels so good to have a cheesy shirt now! I love looking like a tourist but my companions won't let me do it in public. I want to be all tourist and then talk Croile to whoever talks to me. Speaking of that I saw some guy and his sister I think it was who looked so much like tourists so I asked where they were visiting from and they are actually from here. It's interesting to see that here. Also sad news: We went to a members house and they were watching trailers for new movies. They just had to have Spider-Man 2 up. I saw a little and ran from it as soon as possible. I heard rumors that it would be that villain but I tried not to get a good look so still no one spoil it for me! Another weekly quote. Our branch president just kinda talks without thinking and he said this: "At least it was God who killed Moses." Everyone died laughing there. Along with our gospel principles class Brother Ash said the prayer and said that he hopes the "investigation class" goes well. Lastly I gave a talk on Sunday about the priesthood and Sister Moses (Branch member) said that she just loved my talk and took notes on it. I told her #FeelingLikeAnApostle . That's really all for this week but I look forward to sending baptism pictures next week or a little later than that.

-Elder Brown

Zombie lady & Missionary work

I love St. Vincent! Sorry if I never come back. People are kinda funny though from what I have seen here and my last area. Whenever I bear my testimony it seems like it's the perfect opportunity to ask random questions. They do it in the middle of lessons all the time. I could be talking about prophets and then they ask if I have a girlfriend. At the end of lessons we invite them to pray about what we shared but they always just kinda take our word for it. "Well I don't think you would lie to me would you?" Well pray and ask God as an answer just to be sure! People here are funny. Elder Galati made quote of the week this week. We saw something that said you could win a trip to Canada. "Winning a trip to Canada is like winning a free meal at KFC. It's cool but it doesn't change much." My companion is cool and he used to live in Mesa and he knows Trent Haws (tag him on Facebook) and a few other people. We have become the best of friends but he is probably going back to the French side next transfer. We will keep in touch. Since the work here in St. Vincent is much more demanding I have eaten so much more and actually gained about 10 pounds. Good thing I lost 30 pounds back in Guyana. This week we got Elder Salima as a third companion and he is awesome! He is from Samoa and he goes home at the end of next transfer. Also I hear that Dumb and Dumber 2 is coming out next year from my companion's brother. I am looking forward to Christmas! Skype will be cool! Also I am serving near one of my MTC companions named Elder Dearing. I get to see him every week and my other companion is in Tobago I think. It's cool getting to see my old MTC companion each week. This island is awesome and I am getting some people progressing really good! That's about all for this week but we have a baptism coming up on the 21st! It is nice and hot here which reminds me. Mila Julovich is coming for Christmas and I might just get to meet her! I think that would be cool to get a picture with her holding a Book of Mormon with me but that would blow up all over the internet and then she would put on the zombie killing suit like on Resident Evil and come to kill me. Maybe a normal picture will have to do.

-Elder Brown

Three Amigos

New Address is PO Box 601 Kingstown, Saint Vincent VC0100

Hello St. Vincent

Oh man I am in St. Vincent now! (if you missed last weeks, read that first, below
 - sent the same day) I am so excited to be here that I would do backflips if I could. Guyana had been nice but I am so ready to be on an island. Here it's a mixture of paradise and hell. I can see the beautiful blue ocean every day that I wake up and every few days there is a new cruise ship that arrives and then white people come out. Germans came the other day and it had been so long since I have seen a white woman that it just felt nice. They all had boyfriends and stuff plus I am a missionary so it was all good. My last day in Guyana was alright. One guy told me to quit lying to people and then he saw we took his friend with us to teach and then he treated us respectful. I got some pictures with people there but for some reason the memory card went crazy and now it won't work  Those pictures may be lost forever but let's hope not. I was so excited to get on the plane and it was super tiny but they wouldn't let me get a picture of it. The plane had 2 propellers. Some rasta that was super high on something came up to Elder Galati and I (Elder Galati looks like Matt Damon) and he started to say the most random things. Elder Galati told the guy a story of how "A man was once riding an elephant and he had this bug gun to his side. There was this tiger walking next to them but the elephant shooed him away with his ear but really the man was just playing dominoes." The rasta just thought that was so deep. He then proceeded to pull out a bag of pot and Elder Galati said it was evil. He "Knew a guy that smoked 3 marijuanas and almost died." The rastas are funny and we try to get a quote of the week from them. They always say they overstand you which is better than understand. This branch is sweet though. It has such a nice building (My first building that isn't a house) and I hear it's the best in the Caribbean. There is a lady in the branch who has an amazing conversion story and her faith is so strong. She has like 4 kids and she made costumes for Pirates of the Caribbean and met the actors and all that. That movie was filmed here to by the way no biggie. Also a member said that he is good friends with Mila Julovich who plays Alice on the Resident Evil movies. So this week we are planning on getting Mila Julovich and Johnny Depp baptized. Not really but that would be cool. I love it here and I have been working hard. The hills get steep and my leg muscles have grown so much! I love this place so much and there will probably be tears when I have to leave. We already met some people from branch members that are super interested. I have got to be honest in saying I am in paradise now. They say St. Martin is the best but I love it here! The people are fantastic!

-Elder Brown

My new comp, Elder Galati

Goodbye Guyana

Here is my last week message (not received until this week): Goodbye to Guyana! Well I got some news that is pretty sweet! I am leaving Guyana! I have been here for the past 7 and a half months. I don't want to sound negative but I am excited to see more of the mission. I am going to an island called Saint Vincent. My companion served right next to where I was so he has told me a bit about it and I am excited! Pirates of the Carribean was filmed here too. But for this week I have some stories. This week we went to a stand and ate these things that were like cinnamon rolls but had meat instead and tasted more like a meaty meal. The rainy season is back in Guyana and it feels pretty good when it rains. This week we got AC and I slept like a baby the first day. Good thing my next apartment will have it too I hear. My next apartment is sweet from what I hear. I hear St. Vincent is a lot more quiet. That will be nice because I swear everytime I start teaching a lesson someone decides to play really loud music. This week the attitude someone had towards Elder Egbert and I made me pretty sad. This lady just walked up to us and said we can't teach her about God. She said we are way too young. She was really rude and I mentioned that Samuel was a prophet even younger than we were. She said we can't compare ourselves to him. We just told her we love her and didn't want to argue and she said we were too young to argue. We went and talked to another really nice family and it was nice getting to know them. It made me feel better about what had happened. As we walked back to the main road the lady kept staring at us and called us gay. It makes me sad to see how hard hearted people can be but I remember something my brother Paul sent me in an email a while back. He told me that what I am doing out here is not wrong. It is a good thing. That gave me so much comfort in knowing that people will just say whatever they want. It's her own condemnation. I would not have minded if she respectfully told us she didn't want to hear our message but she approached us and said all those things. Something I have seen that is sad too is one guy used to be a member of our church but left because he "backslid" as they all say. Which is no excuse not to repent. I asked why he stopped coming to church and he said it was boring (Sometimes it can be a little more dull) but he said he wants to go to a church that cast out demons and bad spirits that people don't even know they had. That's what saddens me. It seems that a lot of churches have become just parties. Our generation is obsessed with the movie Paranormal Activity. That's the only time they care about religion is when it has something cool like a demon leaving the body. It's sad to see that's how churches do that. It has become more of a circus than a church. Last story is it was funny that we went over to see someone and we helped cut up some vegetables and she just went in the back room and slept while we helped. Sorry this update is a little late we had a black out mid email and my companion did not want to go back to check it.

Awesome Week!

Well this week was fantastic so I gotta try and send it all in one email. This might just be a long one. So it started off like this. I bought a few cans of Dr. Pepper which I get every so often because it's 1 US Dollar per can so it's expensive kinda. I poured the Dr. Pepper in a glass and smelt it and enjoyed it. The smell brought back some old memories back to me of back home. I knew it would be a great week. I went to this awesome family named the Georges. Brother George is less active till his son can drive. He had a kidney transplant and his body is rejecting it. He recently had a stroke and can't move one of his arms but he knows the gospel is true! He is an amazing inspiring man. His grandson came out in his Spider-Man costume and I just had to get a picture with him. Along with a great week you always have to get some weird things otherwise it is not complete. This one lady is a sister of one of our less actives. This lady is a 7th Day Adventist. She lives the law of Moses still. She covers her head with whatever she can when she prays for us and she always hits on my companion. She complemented his white shirt and "Strong shoulders" this last time we went. She said my shirt looks green and like ice cream. I wasn't too sad to hear she doesn't like me like that. She is a little strange. This week I have had some desires for when I get home. (I know I am not trying to get too trunky) When I get home I want to study the Bible and Book of Mormon together and get a huge white board and draw an ancestor chart for all sorts of tribes and not only the tribes of Israel. There is so much to learn and I want to do it all by myself and gain that knowledge. I can probably look it up but then that would take away all the fun. We only get 1 hour of personal study each day and that is not enough! Also it's not that I hate my companion or anything but when I get home I want to drive up to Utah alone. It would be nice to be alone finally after so long. Probably take my family dog if possible and go see Paul up there. I for some reason miss the Grand Canyon. This week I thought about something funny too. Expectations and reality out here. I think about how everyone is a child of God and that they will accept this message and then I walk outside and everyone is drunk as a skunk. This week that changed a bit. We ran into some guys drinking and they wanted to chat and we did with them for a minute. I have to admit they did buy us some drinks and Elder Egbert and I drank with them. They were so kind. Drunk people are fun to drink with. Good thing they bought us WATER ha ha. We gave them cheers with our water and then they said wine is good because Jesus changed water into wine. I told them that was true but it never said that Jesus drank that wine and that they were drinking rum right then so it was different. There is this shop near our house and the guy selling stuff always watches AMC. It is nice to hear it playing when I get a soda. I bought a Coke and an ad for Walking Dead Season 4 came on. Oh boy did that get me trunky! I can wait till I get home though. Oh boy is there a drinking problem here though. One night we walked past this party area as usual where a lot of pot is smoked and tons of beers and we always get stopped by some random drunk person (new guy each time) and this lady drives and parks in the middle of that walk way and gets out with a half drank beer bottle. Yeah drinking and driving is a good idea right? This week we were teaching a less active and this stupid kid she has drew all over my back. It felt good like my mom scratching my back till I found out what he was doing. I can't be too mad though. He needed to see if it had ink. My companion is giving up soda so he acted like he drank one when a member gave us some but he just poured it into my cup when he wasn't looking. Lucky me! We contacted this one Hindu lady who tried giving us excuses for us not to meet her. She said she didn't live there and her grand daughter right next to her said she was lying and when we left it was so funny to hear her get yelled at. "What the heck?! Why are you trying to set me up?!" I wanted to go back and say to her that she could have simply said no thanks but we didn't. Guyana people are all talk. Some kid a few years younger than me rode his bike past me and said he was going to rob me. I told him I would rob him first and he kept riding. No one will act upon what they say it's funny! The best part of this week is how many referrals we got! 15! We worked hard on them and last night we slept great after this amazing week! That's all and I gotta go!

Love you all!

Making my own cake

I found Spiderman in Guyana

Yah, I'm 20 now!

Back Art

-Elder Brown

Guyana Birthday party - The Dog loves me

Birthday Weekly Update

This week was packed full of good stuff but first off I want to publicly say Happy Birthday to my oldest brother CJ yesterday! 20 years ago he was also lucky to get a little baby brother on his birthday ha ha. This week we have met people and they would tell us that they have been baptized into our church. We would meet them in front of their house. Turns out that we would teach them and they were baptized into the church of Jesus Christ. No one is ever sure if we baptized them which is weird. You would think you would remember that you were dunked under water. Also my branch mission leader tells me the new Spider-man trailer came out. NO SPOILERS!!!! I don't even want to know the villain. I want to end my mission at the right time and just pop it into the dvd player and see what happens. So the Jeffries family was awesome. We cooked Mexican food for them on Halloween I believe it was. They don't celebrate that here. I asked them if they liked the Jalapenos and she said to me "Jalapenos? I thought it was Halloween." It made both Elder Egbert and I laugh so hard. Also I would tell people a few days before my birthday that Diwali was on my birthday. Apparently that means I am a thief man. Elder Egbert was born on Friday the 13th. These drunk guys called me Thief man for that and Elder Egbert Satan for having that birthday. Drunk people have interesting philosophies. We also contacted this lady named Roxanne and it was so funny because she said "You know like that song? Roxanne!" I asked her if she liked the Police but she didn't get it. I guess she doesn't know what the song is about either. Something that was kinda sad to think about this last week was this little boy put on his dad's shirt (which was way big on him) and saw us and said to us "Let's go to church! It's the sabbath!" This makes me always want to be a righteous father when I get older. His dad is our investigator and his mom is less active. Always be a righteous parent.

 So for my birthday last night we fasted the whole day and we got offered 7 curry which they give out at weddings and never any other time accept for Diwali or special occasions. Diwali everyone gives free food but we had to deny the 7 curry. I have never tried it and it's wrapped in a big leaf. Everyone says it's the best. People were throwing big fireworks everywhere so we went home like 2 hours early because everyone was drunk and throwing basically bombs right next to us. Today they are celebrating it still and most places are closed. I am surprised that the internet shop is open. Last little story is short. I told a lot of people my birthday was Sunday and this drunk lady said to me "It's your birthday right?" She grabbed me and put her arm around me and it was so odd. I could smell the alcohol in her breath. She was old and missing teeth. Well That's about all for this week. I will try and upload some pictures now.

-Elder Brown

Jesus take the wheel

This week was pretty tough. But we had some good laughs that made it alright. People see how pink our faces get and ask "Sun hot?" I am trying to come up with something funny to say like "Yeah like 2 Million degrees hot! The scientists told me that on the tv." We had planned on working with tons of members this week but every single time they canceled on us! We had worked really hard and got 16 other lessons this week. That excludes the few member lessons we got and the less actives we visited. The people we teach don't keep any commitments they just like to listen to us talk. One lady we taught we tried using the analogy of the police man being the only one who can pull you over. We asked "Who can pull you over for driving to fast?" ".......Jesus?" She replied. "No it's a police man because he has that authority." As you can tell this week had been a little painful and dull. Also something I have noticed about Guyana that is real funny is that guys just walk down the street in underwear and have no problem with it. Sometimes they even randomly carry a live chicken. Guyana never ceases to amaze me. I got my birthday package a week early! I loved all of it! Sadly we were fasting that day so I ate some candy later at night when we broke our fast. The paper in the package said that it had 4 bags of jerky but I only got 2. Some lucky guy is celebrating my birthday with me by eating it I bet. Also I loved this Mario Pez dispenser I got! I remember in seminary we used that to explain what a dispensation is. Let's say Mario here is God (Trying not to be too blasphemous) Mario will dispense a prophet or a pez and he does it one by one. Just like dispensations. I will start using it for lessons but I will only give out one candy each lesson because I am selfish :)

So none of my investigators like I said are progressing. The one that we did have who was amazing and was sharing the gospel with everyone before we even had a chance to extend a baptism date, moved to Barbados! Come on!!!! She was the one who made this all worth it! We fasted on Saturday for ourselves being able to find some people who will commit to the things we share with them. Sunday we went tracting as usual because we have found all the people we teach and we met a guy named Brother Jeffries who was working in the interior like a lot of people do and he just got back. We will be making them Mexican food this week and have dinner for his 60th birthday! Also my birthday is on Sunday! On Duali the Indian holiday! There are tons of fireworks going off already and Sunday will be tons of parties. Sadly none for me. Also fail of the week. We have been showing the Restoration dvd to many people this week and lots of people have Spanish dvd players. The dvd goes to Spanish and it won't change for their tvs. So we would resort to the scriptures as a Plan B.

Well I am hoping for a better week this week and I look forward to eating lots of cake! Also I heard about this store that sells imported good so I am getting a 2 liter of Dr. Pepper for my birthday!

Hope everyone has a good week!

Love,

-Elder Brown

Flute playing buddy

New shirt!

Missing Mom

This week had been long but a great week nonetheless. I forgot to mention a story from Zone Conference last week that I loved. I will make it simple but I love the stories of Alma and King Limhi. Alma and his people had been humbled as soon as possible whereas King Limhi and his people were compelled to be humbled. What I learn from that is always make sure you are humble or the Lord will have to do it the hard way. I love comparing those two groups of people. This week I have met tons of crazy people. I meet them every week but this week seemed to have even more of them. This one guy always asks a member if we are around because we talked to him once. His name is a bit inappropriate but he goes by dog. He said that he goes to these dog food stands where people buy dog food (not sure why because dogs just walk everywhere) and he asks for pepper and ketchup with it. He is a little strange. Also this guy who I think was drunk ran up to us down the street and told us to follow him. It was 2 pm. He showed us Superman from a coloring book and pointed to another drunk man and told us that he stole Superman's powers. I told him that he needs to give his powers back because the 8th commandment says that we shouldn't steal. Another one we see all the time was messing with dogs and he showed us he had a gun in his pants (Sorry mom I should have told you that much later so you don't get worried). He likes us so he would never mess with us. We met this other guy just the other day who was high out of his mind on cocaine. He acted like a chicken saying he likes chicken curry and then we came back from getting lunch and he got in a fight with a neighbor and they just threw these big logs on the ground. The Guyanese are all talk and no action. He kept on running and kicking this guy's fence and then he threw this old rusty dull knife at the wood and would make it stick in there. If I was in that position I would have just hit him in the head with a baseball bat and knock him out. After arguing he smoked some more cocaine in the middle of the sidewalk and did some push ups. The whole neighborhood just watched and laughed. This week we got some pretty sweet food! Our Muslim neighbor celebrated a Muslim holiday and gave us lamb meat he sacrificed and we got crab curry from the branch president! I also went to Suriname again to renew my passport and we met this cool guy named Randy and gave him a ride all the way to Georgetown (It's a long long ride). He is just traveling the world and he had been to so many countries and places that are only recognized as countries by other countries. He has even been to North Korea. Yeah North Korea not South. They are so sheltered there he said. On the way back to Georgetown we saw Phoenix, Tempe, and Washington Guyana. Pretty original right? They have some funny village names. We shared the gospel with Randy and I guess his parents were members of the church a long long time ago. I hope he finds the gospel while he finds the world. He was a really cool guy so we gave him the Senior couple missionary address. That's about all for this week but I also got the 24 hour flu yesterday. I barfed on the way to church and just before church ended. We have sacrament meeting 3rd hour so I stuck it out for that long! Some investigators didn't come and gave us crappy excuses so I can't believe they wouldn't come. When you get sick and lay in bed all day it makes you miss your mom even more. I bet all missionaries can agree. Fortunately I feel a lot better today! Also I think I hit my 40 pounds lost now!

-Elder Brown

My new comp, Elder Egbert



Boat ride to Suriname

6 Months Mark!

Well I got my new companion this week! Elder Egbert is a pretty awesome guy! He is 18 and I am almost 20 so I feel really old. We have just been working hard and been working with referrals and people just right around us. We are getting a lot done even in a close range and haven't even scratched the surface of how big our area is. He has a girlfriend who is 5 years older than him which I think is kinda funny. He is such a cool guy and a hard worker. He has only been out for 3 months too! Anyways we had a tiny earthquake this week but you could barely feel it. Elder Egbert was kneeling down writing in his journal and I was in my hammock writing in mine so he felt it really really soft but I didn't. I missed out! Also this Hindu man prayed for us. He just kinda hummed a song. No words or anything. I found a funny thing to say while teaching to lighten the mood. I ask if they know any prophets and if they don't a ask if they know the guy who put 2 of every animal on the ark. James? Kevin? No uhhh..... It was no uh..... "Noah?" says the investigator. "Yeah him!" Anyways we have been working hard and already are extending baptism dates! We have a goal to baptize 5 people this transfer! Also I don't want to beg but my birthday is coming up and I would love letters from people who haven't mailed me yet :) I need addresses so I can write everyone. I am sending a letter a week now to one random person a week.

-Elder Brown

P.S. We had a great zone conference yesterday! We are excited to work hard!

Elder Watson & I at Zone Conference

Tough guys (Elder Fiame)

"Curry, Roti, Lucky!"

Lately here in my area in the ghetto part it has been weird. Like I said last week about the John the Baptist guy I met another Hebrew like him. This guy tried arguing with me a lot. He said some mean things like that I am going to Hell but he was weird because he tried explaining that our saviors name is not Jesus because the letter J was invented a lot later after the bible. Also a cool branch president I know served with Brother Claridge here when they were on missions. President McKenzie is his name and he used to live in Mesa, Arizona and he is the best! He is not in my branch though. I see him about once a week so I saw him at conference which was pretty good by the way! I really liked Richard G Scott's talk about being meek and that is something I am trying to work on. Also I liked having exclamation points like that one member of the 70 said. I want exclamation points in my mission! Sometimes I get grumpy because the sun is just so hot! Also something I have noticed lately is that it seems like they mention Le Mis every conference at least once. Here in Guyana we got a black out for almost every session but fortunately we have a back up generator so we missed only a minute of one talk. This week my companion Brother Augustine and I have been quoting Napoleon Dynamite which he has not seen! I quote the part where Napoleon sees Pedro's bike and says "Shocks, Pegs, Lucky!" but we got fed at conference and they had curry and roti which is my favorite! So the quote changed to "Curry, Roti, Lucky!" Not much happened this week and unfortunately we only had one investigator at conference but I get another new missionary named Elder Eggburt (Hope I spelled that right) and I should get him this upcoming week. He is from Idaho and has been out for about 3 months from what I hear. I look forward to this. Also I just hit my 6 month mark so I am burning a tie tonight! I accidentally ruined it when trying to wash it so I don't feel as bad anymore. Mission is going by pretty fast!

-Elder Brown

Pineapple

Simmons family

This week just feels good

The beginning of this last week was kinda scary. Our mission president came to Guyana and told us that we were doing a really great job with our work out here. Our mission wide fasts have been working! He told us that he wants us to memorize Doctrine and Covenants 121: 34-46. We have been working on it for a while but he also told us to memorize at least 10 verses from our favorite scripture story. I chose Abinidi telling the wicked priests and King Noah to repent because that is my favorite story. I am doing the first 10 verses of Mosiah 13. We have 2 weeks to memorize. Aside from that the week was kinda a bummer because everyone was out playing cricket and didn't want to help us teach. This week was hot too! If I was outside for more than 10 minutes I felt like I was going to die! We met some girls and started talking to them and they said "Oh yeah you are from that church.... The Latter Day Sinners right?" I told them it was Latter Day Saints but that no member of the church is perfect even myself so that is why we go to church. "Church is for sinners isn't it?" I asked them. Also this week I got an Old Testament story book. I have one for the Book of Mormon as well and I love them. I get the story so much better. I read the whole Old Testament story book and now I understand all these things better now. The Tribes of Israel and everything. Now I can connect with other people's beliefs too because I have mainly been focused on the Book of Mormon. I read about Ester and it made me miss being Haman in the roadshow we had a few years back. I had such a funny experience this week too! This lady we taught once has never been home when we teach or so we thought. Her daughter is a recent convert and she is less active but I can never get to her either and they live in the same house. The Zone Leaders called me to tell me I had a good week and we pulled over our bikes to see if she was home and I was on the phone and I see her in her front yard! BINGO! I waved at her and she saw me and just walked inside acting like nothing happened. We called inside her house for her (That is a Caribean thing) and she just would not answer! Now we know that we don't have bad timing but that she just doesn't want to see us. That's the sad thing here. People won't tell you straight up if they aren't interested. Another Elder and I have been quoting the Strangers movie a lot and we just laugh so hard. We made a joke about this lady I just mentioned who ignored us in her house. "Is... Tamera home?" is the original quote so we changed it to "Is.... Alexis home?" and then if they say no we pull the next line "Are you sure?" We say it in the same voice as the movie. We have had so many laughs about it this week. We also met a guy who is a little odd. He goes by the name of Elijah. I am glad I read the Old Testament story book this week so I could understand a lot better. He basically told us he will be one of the 144,000 saved because John the Baptist was our savior and was Elijah reincarnated. He said that Jesus was the Antichrist. I asked him why the Bible talks all about him and he said that was all lies. He was really strange. Also we visited Ras Chippy again as usual. I asked him to pray. He starts his prayer off as "Dear Rastafari...." It is interesting. Something else funny here is people always ask for money and get mad when you say no. My companion and I made a joke about this guy who asked for $100 for a drink and we told him no. They make this strange mouth sound when they get mad. He asked for money 7 times and I said no each time. "Give me some of your juice!" Still said no and someone else finally gave money to him. Also I showed the Plan of Salvation book to this little girl who's mom we are teaching. She saw the clothes we wore in the pre existence and asked if they were karate clothes. She is an interesting child. This week had been so hot but we were so blessed with rain on Sunday. It made it really nice for that day. Well I am looking forward to conference this week! We are letting people know that the prophet today is going to be talking to everyone! We are getting them excited! Also on Sunday the branch talked a lot about getting excited for missionary work! We are getting a lot of referrals for this week! This week should be good!

-Elder Brown

"This just makes sense!"

The beginning of this week was pretty good. Whenever I stop by my buddy Ras Chippy we find someone who needs the gospel so we always stop by him when we see him. He promised me he would come to church on Sunday but he didn't which was kinda a bummer. Recently we had a service project as missionaries where we unloaded a huge truck of donated items and clothes and school kits. We gave them to schools and Ras Chippy said his daughter got a school kit and said the Latter Day Saints gave it to her. He told her "I know those two guys!" He gave me his number because he trusts us so much. We taught a man about the Restoration with Chippy the other day and he just shook my hand and said "This just makes sense!" That is what I love! The Gospel makes sense and we can pray to find out it is true! A quote I came up with and I want to use often is "The beauty of the gospel is taking it and making it simple enough for a child to understand." And it is possible! I also taught another group of Rastas but they seem different from the rest of the Rastas. These ones smoked a ton of pot in front of me and were super stoned when I tried telling them about the Restoration. They asked the most random questions to me. "Where is the Garden of Eden? Where did Adam and Eve live?" I told them I was not sure but when I meet God I will ask him. They said I just didn't want to say it was in Africa. I left them with the tract because one of them just walked around saying random things because he was pretty high. Also a fun fact about my buddy Ras Chippy: He has been growing his dreads since 1992! I wasn't even born then! My companion also came up with a quote we always use now. We saw someone with a cool looking scar but we didn't want to be awkward and ask them about it. Later my companion said (Not to them) "Do you want to give me a brief history of what happened to your arm?" Not much new so I will see you all next week.

-Elder Brown

Doubles (I hear they're even better in Trinidad)

Me and my new comp Elder Augustine

Magic Tricks

Not much new this week. I think it is funny that I understand the people here really well now but they can sometimes have a hard time understanding me. Oh how the tables have turned. Sometimes I get phone calls from random people asking for the last Elder in the area since he left unexpectedly. These people asked who they were talking to on the phone. "This is Elder Brown. What can I help you with?" They could not understand me too well. "Aubrey Brown?" "No this is ELDER BROWN. What can I do to help you?" They called about 5 times and just hung up each time because they got confused. Something I find funny is that all the Caribbeans love anime here. Our new branch mission leader invited us over to come watch this really cool Yu-Gi-Oh! movie. We had to decline but my companion will probably watch it in a few weeks. So almost every day I ride my bike past these kids who chase us down the street asking for magic tricks. I did the one where you pull your thumb off but they always say "NO! YOU DIDN'T REALLY PULL IT OFF!" They all try to imitate it but are unable to do so. I did a trick with my tie that most Elders probably know where you blow on it and it shrivels up. One kid yelled "Take your head off and put it on backwards!" I am concerned by that kid's imagination. I would be freaked out to see that. If anyone knows how to do that please let me know. Not much is new this week. Just still trying to get to know the area. I am trying to get my mini missionary companion to learn the lessons. We are having a lot of fun out here!

Not much left to say so I will talk to you all next week!

-Elder Brown

Rasta Week!

"Jah Love" = God's Love

I have been getting to know my area a bit better now. Unfortunately the computers in my area won't upload pictures. (Let's hope I can get some on soon) My neighborhood is pretty nice but Albouystown which is right above me is supposed to be ghetto and I have been a few times. They tell me don't go past 7 pm. I went during daylight hours and all I ever hear is "White Boy! White Boy! White Boy!" I did ride past some guys who tried to be tough and said something among the lines of "F word white boy I will kill you!" I try to avoid that area as often as I can. I have been told I will be here a while so I am trying to build it up strong here. It's nice to have a fresh new start but it is hard remembering everyone's name. That is probably the hardest thing in a mission. Why can't everyone be like us and wear name tags? A lot of times I have been stopped by really drunk guys who have long beards and they just want to talk or get a tract so I always leave them with a Word of Wisdom tract. I also got to go to a funeral this week. My new branch president's father in law passed away. Missionaries joked with me and said I was bad luck. I got to go to the funeral and it was pretty good. They have a big funeral building that has a few funerals going on all at once. The funeral I was at was really peaceful and everyone seemed to know that the plan of salvation is true. Next door people were drunk and taking pictures of the dead person and playing loud music. It was sad because we had to close the windows to try and make it quieter. This week has also been what I should call "Rasta Week". I have been talking to a couple of Rastas and they are funny. I met a man named Ras Chippy and he cooks pretty good! They are all vegetarian and will smoke pot right in front of you. In a picture I hope that gets sent I am with a Rasta doing a hand sign with him that means "Jah Love". Jah is who they think God is. Even on the way coming here I got in a bus and the driver asked me "Was Jesus a Rasta man?" I told him I haven't seen him in person yet so I will let him know. He told me that Jesus and God are Rasta men. So I have made a goal for my mission. I will baptize one Rasta before I come home. I know I can do it! Also I tried to make a tradition with my companion where each Sunday night we make brownies and have the crappy ice cream they have here and watch a church movie for a week well done. Our oven doesn't heat up enough so we put it in the oven for a while and it seemed cooked but it tasted like eggs and made me feel gross. That's all I have for this week but hopefully I can get pictures up!

-Elder Brown

This is the name of my Home ward!

Tough but great week

Well this week was not what I expected. I don't think I got to announce it last week but Eugiene and Patricia are finally getting married! It will happen on September 11th (Kinda a strange day I know) But it is amazing because they have waited a year to get baptized. I did a trade off with the Zone Leaders and Wednesday morning I got an interesting phone call from the Zone Leader. An Elder in Garden Park area (Really close to Georgetown) got emergency transferred and is in Trinidad now. I am in his area now and he wasn't in my district so I have never been here until now. I am blanking the area. The area book has not been updated so there is even more of a challenge now. I am trying to get to know the area but it will come in time. We had a mission wide fast yesterday. We had the branch members all around the mission fast to know someone they could share the Book of Mormon with. I bore my testimony telling the members that they are the true missionaries. Sadly I had only 2 hours notice that I was leaving the area I am in so I only got to say goodbye to my branch president and his family. My new apartment was way dirty from the last missionaries but they left some cool books. I have been reading The Pearl of Great Price study manual lately and it has some neat deep doctrine in it. And the washing machine here is the best! That sounds weird but it washes clothes really good! I saw this Bob Marley drink for sale here and the price for it was really funny. The drink costs $420 Guyana dollars ($2.10 US). 420 for a Bob Marley drink? Coincidence? Some drunk guy came up to me and one of the Zone Leaders yesterday and he was really drunk in this restaurant. He said the F word every other word and he called us "White Devils" This lady told us to pray for him. It has been tough here in this new area. I have a mini missionary who is from my last branch so it has been really awesome! I have had some hard times too like when we went contacting. We invited some people to church and had a prayer with them. I said to them that I hope to see them at church. The little girl said "You know we aren't coming right?" All I told that little girl was that we can only invite them to church. "The ball is in your field." This transfer will be tough but I am praying a lot and using the members to help me. I am at a really slow internet cafe so I hope I get a better one next week so I can send pictures. Well I am going to the zoo. See you all next week!

-Elder Brown

Missionary Work: What is your excuse?

Worked hard this week

Oh boy was this week good! It started off alright and then it just got great! So this monkey I have had in pictures was offered to me for free! Missionaries are not allowed to have pets as obvious as that is so I was going to let our landlord have it because he lives right behind us. The man offered him for free when he was really drunk and high and dressed really sloppy. We went back a few days later to go get the monkey and the guy was as sober as anyone else. He was dressed nicely and was even holding a baby. He said he called his son and his son said he would cry if he gave away the monkey. This week we also taught this lady who said "Hallelujah Jesus" after every little thing we said. We asked her to pray and she blessed everything on the earth. She literally prayed for the whole earth. This week we served hard too! I was sore for about 3 days because of building this house. Some of the guys building the house got paid because they were working for the people in my branch building the home. They smoked a couple of joints while working and I was shocked. They said it was legal to do it and I asked the people in my branch and they didn't even care they smoked pot while working. My big question goes out to all you Breaking Bad fans: So the show started back up on Saturday! Please do not spoil it for me or I will be super sad! But how was it? Don't tell me anything about what happens because that is what I will find out in about 19 months. Is it everything we expected? It is killing me! So I had a little bit of an insane week too. My bike had not had brakes for a few weeks and then we installed them. That night on the way to one appointment (Let me emphasize ONE APPOINTMENT) and if I did not have my breaks I would have been hit by 4 different cars! People here cannot drive at all! All of them were from a driver being stupid. One car was parked and then suddenly moved towards me then stopped when I hit my brakes. This week we also beat the standard of excellence! We plan on doing it for the whole transfer and this transfer just started. We are going to do it! This week we also had to drop 2 people because they would not progress at all. One of them was kinda sad but we hope it motivates them to keep their promises. We can only invite them to do these things when we visit them. Also there are so many trucks here that are huge and have names on the wind shield. One was named "Reality". Imagine getting hit by that! We made a joke about it. "What killed that guy?" "He got hit by Reality. It hit him hard." This week we also had 3 young boys (One of which I baptised) that came out to teach with us. These guys can teach! We taught one of our investigators about the Law of Chastity and they testified really good! He said he needed that lesson and after the prayer there were tears streaming down his face. They taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ with us to another less active lady and we each took one point of it and it went good! My challenge to everyone at home is to do missionary work this week! I don't care if it's just a little chat while at a restaurant or if you go out and teach with the missionaries (You should teach with them though because missionaries are the best!). Go out and share the gospel this week! A motto I thought of was: "Missionary work: What is your excuse?" Love you all and see you next week!

-Elder Brown

future missionaries

Trust unwavering in Christ

My first double

Funny guy

You aint gonna bite me this time

This week had been a bit of a bummer but we had some really funny moments that made it good! It rained every day this week but it was nice so we could get cooled off. I smiled while drenched in rain. As missionaries we like to be tough and not use umbrellas. People carry them for 2 reasons though. To keep the sun away and to keep the rain away. So my highlight of the week right here. We were doing a little bit of contacting and we met this really drunk guy under his house. He calls himself Teddy Bear. This guy was drunk and only in underwear. He had 2 poorly drawn tattoos on his chest and one said "Teddy" the other was a handgun. I asked him what the handgun was for. "I SHOT A MAN AND BURNED HIS HOUSE DOWN!" He made the week amazing! Almost everywhere we go we see Indian soap operas on tv. They look so weird! Also I still like my dog at home in America but dogs here are annoying! If they aren't dead they bark while you try to talk to someone. Also since I have been out for 4 months I found this guy who tried to rip us off pretty funny. We took a bus to Georgetown and he gave us $200 less than he should have in change. We told him he gave wrong change. Ladies behind us yelled at him. I got a little mad with him but didn't really do anything other than when we got out told him to try and be honest next time. They sometimes will try to give you a "White Man Tax". Also if you live in the West Indies you are likely to get called to the West Indies on your mission but this mini missionary who has been in our district got called to Atlanta, Georgia! I don't know if that's close to Macon but that's where my brother served. A cool lady in my branch and I were talking and she said something cool "Trust unwavering in Christ brings true happiness. Not parties." Too many people here are broke because they spend all their money on rum and then they beg you for money. That's what makes the quote true. Also I somehow lost the keys this week and we were on a trade off so I climbed to the top of our fence to jump it. It is about 5 feet high and I twisted my leg up there and fell. Thud! I felt a little better after a few days but my leg was bothering me for a few days. I recently baptized a lady named Yolanda and her kids so you can pray for her. Brother London and his girlfriend need to get married which will be hard and also Eugiene and Patricia need to be married too. I love mangoes here! There are all kinds. If you guys are still picking me up from my mission I have lots of food and fruit and vegetables for you to try. I want to bring back some seeds too so I can grow plants. Not much new but I will see you all next week! (I also have to add that Kyle said he hasn't gotten monkey powers or anything from that bite last week)

-Elder Brown

Ice Cream, Archuletta & Powdered Milk

Hey everyone! It's been a pretty short week since my last email so not too much is new. I had an interesting moment though. I felt "Prompted" to go get ice cream and my companion knew I was joking but I found some people from my branch that have been less active for longer than I have been on my mission. They told us that they really needed to see us and want to come back to church. Lesson we can all learn? Ice cream never steers you wrong. Ice cream is always going to lead to good unless you eat it too much. When we went there they had Monsters University on but no volume so we all took a little peek and guessed what was going on. One of the missionaries with us goes home in two weeks so he will see it soon. I am excited to see it! No spoilers for me. Anyways there is this bridge called second bridge that we cross every now and again. I asked one lady if it was the second bridge and she replied "Every Day!" That's a good thing because if it wasn't on some days I would get confused. My companion laughed at that joke I made about it. Also I held another monkey the other day and it bit me! It wasn't that hard so I am okay but the monkey liked me I think. There are so many animals here! This new guy we have been teaching is awesome! He came to church and said "I heard this church is true. From what I see it is true." He was led there from a guy we know who will be defending him in court because he is accused of having his dog eat 9 of a guy's goats. This guy doesn't own a dog so he will win and the man who is defending him in court is a main guy in our branch head (Kinda like the stake president). He felt prompted to support him and court and invited him to church. He just has to get married and then we can baptize him! Also I have been drinking some powdered milk. It's not nearly as good as the real stuff! I am going to drink a whole gallon of 2% in 20 months. Which by the way I am at my 4 month mark! I am not counting down the days but it is crazy I have been out that long! I like how everyone but missionaries hate Monday. P Day is the best! We get to clean and sleep! Also we are allowed to listen to David Archuletta and I have to admit he is pretty good at singing! He has great church music too!
Well I don't have much left to say but no one really emailed me so I don't have too many people to reply to. Give me an email and I will email you back next week! kyleb@myldsmail.net

Elder Brown, King of Animals

Every Single Step

Arizona Elders (Brown, Parisot, Hale, ?)

Love my companions smile, can you see it?

Sorry for updating so late! I have not forgotten anyone. On Monday we had Zone Conference and Tuesday we had P Day. We had a long day with going to this activity that my zone planned for P Day and then we forgot the keys there had to go meet up with some Elders and I had to carry a pot that we brought chicken with the whole day. We caught a bus straight to the Internet lab because we were so tired from all the stuff we had to do. We walk up to the Internet cafe, "Black Out" The kid tells me. I hit myself in the head repeatedly with the pot I had to carry all day. I did not want to have the day end like this with my last few free hours left. We called the electric company and they said they would have it on later but they took FOREVER! We ran out of waiting time so we visited some members. Before that we met a girl who also was waiting for the internet. We got to share the gospel with her so it wasn't a total loss. It reminds me of a quote from a movie I really liked called 127 Hours. As many know it is about the man who got his arm stuck in a boulder and had to cut it off to be freed. He says "Every step I have taken in my life has led me to this moment." I know our Heavenly Father has a path set out for us. Every single step, Every single move we make can determine our eternal welfare. Every step leads us to somewhere if it is good or bad is up to our choices. This last week we had a huge service day where we cut down a coconut tree and a few other things. We are going to eat the coconut tree heart which is really good! Something I had been studying today and that always speaks to me is faith. Faith makes us act. You cannot have faith if you do not act upon that faith. When Peter asked to walk on water he did so by faith. He had faith and applied that faith by acting upon it and leaving the boat. At Zone Conference President Mehr talked about how everyone needs a responsibility and I feel that that is a way we can use our faith. I am about out of things to talk about but random I say this. R Kelly is coming to Guyana for a concert! We drive past the place a few times a week so it would be so funny if we drove by when he was on stage. I gotta go but I love you all and will update you more next week.

-Elder Brown

P.S. The heat almost doesn't even bother me. Want to hear the secret? It's LOVE. I honestly love the people here. They feed me well too and I still lose weight!
Here is me & my companion on the bus - He's got the best smile (can you see it?)