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