Kyle the Kerioki King

Well not much to talk about this week. We had a nice trade off and it was good to go up to Castries with the Zone Leaders. I was with Elder Contreras who I knew at the beginning of my mission and it was nice meeting up with him again. It was good to do that so I could blow off a little steam. Work has been tough lately. People curse at us just for walking by them. That literally happened as we came here to email. I am just not getting the friendliest welcomes. The mission president comes here next week to check out the area. It is going to be neat. I think he will go teaching with us which should be fun. I have never gotten to teach with him so I look forward to that. We had a fun kereoki activity where we got to bond with the branch. I think I still hold the title as "Kyle the Kerioki King". I sang pretty much everything. I sang some Katy Perry and James Blunt. Of course I sang Bob Marley. I got to sing my favorite one "Could You Be Loved". We even got the one Elder (Elder Fauchier) to sing! He would not do it for the longest time and then he sang some Imagine Dragons songs. I saw a Steelers football team big plane the other day too. I wonder if the team vacationed here. Well things are going tough and I am just going to keep working and see where it all goes from there. Sometimes it's like walking in the dark. Never know what to expect from here. Everyone here is getting sick so we gave like 7 blessings this week. One kid fell in a gutter and got cut to the bone in his leg. One of the sisters got Chicken Gonya and people are just getting sick all over. I hope I don't get sick soon. Not much more to say so I will email you all next week.

There's always some sunshine after the rain

I will be lying if I said this week hasn't been tough. It's been really hot and lots of people avoiding us or not wanting to go teaching with us. We have had to take some water breaks a few times this week. Saturdays and Sundays can be the hardest. Everyone just wants to party those days. Not many people are keeping commitments and people want to be baptized or so they say and they aren't willing to do anything to change. Things can be really tough. A lot of members aren't really giving me a chance because they like the old missionaries better but I am still loving them. Top it all off my dog Libby died. Sometimes you feel like Job in the Old Testament. Things fall apart and there isn't much that you can do about it. Just gotta hold onto the faith and know things are going to get better. A scripture that has really helped me that just came to mind is 1 Nephi 20:10 "For, behold, I have refined thee, I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction." Sometimes we have to go through hard things so that God can mold us to be what he wants us to be. Many of the greatest prophets went through much hardship like Abraham or even Joseph Smith. I know my situation is not as bad as them but sometimes it can be hard to catch a break. The thing you gotta remember is not to give up. Do not give up. Heavenly Father will bless you so much more if you just keep going. Well lets get on with some good news. One of my MTC companions emailed me and told me that one of the investigators I loved so much back in my first area just got baptized! I am sad I couldn't be there but I am so proud of him changing his life and coming unto Christ. We have been invited to flood the mission with the Book of Mormon and start really to just contact with it. I have seen some blessings as I have done that. It is really neat. Some crazy people want it but there have been some people who have been told bad things about the church and they were curious. We have set up appointments and hope to have a good talk with them. Elder Cox and I had a great application of his training in this week. We learned about teaching people not lessons. We met a pretty cool guy this week named Deli and instead of jumping in and telling him all about the Restoration we were able to discern his needs. He really wants to repent and we taught him about that. He is really excited to meet with us again this week. We are hoping for a better week and just gotta keep smiling. We teach people how to be happy and not just have fun which is temporary such as drinking and smoking. The Gospel is an everlasting joy. In a few weeks we will be seeing Elder Claudio D. Zivic of the Seventy in Barbados. It's going to be broadcast through the mission and us and a few islands actually get to be there. I can't wait to see him next month! Well I love you all and can't wait to hear from everyone next week. I gotta be honest this is like the only picture I took this week. I caught a chick from it's mom. Chickens are funny.

Love,
Elder Kyle Joseph Brown

Chickens are weird

Pre-mission, hanging out with Libby

Blessing of obedience

Elder Cox really seems to be understanding missionary work. He is a good hard worker. We had a really good experience this Wednesday. On Tuesday we had such a great day! We saw tons of people and were able to teach really well. Thursday we got distracted and I tried to make sure we got out teaching on time but we ended up getting out late. We had tons of appointments fall through and then we just had a nice chat about being obedient. When I was his age as a missionary I would probably have been giving attitude to my trainer but we just had a good talk about it and decided to work on that. The next day was another great day! We could definitely see the blessings from obedience. Elder Cox is awesome! We were running home a little late one night and missed the last van of the night and some really nice Muslim guy who doesn't even seem Muslim gave us a ride. It got Elder Cox a little more used to the culture so it was cool. It's good to see how many good people are in the world. He was really open minded too and wants to meet with us sometime. We also met some strange people this week as usual. I actually met my first Voodooist on my mission. I wonder why it took me this long to see one. He was kinda weird and asked us "You people say Jesus walked on water and call it the Priesthood but when I do it you call it black magic." I asked him if he could walk on water and he said he can't really do anything like that. The other Elders moved out of what is now our apartment and it feels so nice! Not as many messes to clean and we get to actually sleep on beds. The other Elders accidentally locked the bedroom door with the lights and ac on. We went to our land lady and she gave us tons of keys. Like 40 keys and I got it open on the 2nd key. I felt so good about that. Also we met some white people at KFC and they were from England and the guy served his mission here about 7 years ago. It's almost too bad they didn't pay for our meal. That's what people do right? I say that as a joke. I almost wanted to take them teaching but they were enjoying themselves on all the islands. He said he isn't going to visit Guyana but I kinda want to. That place is an adventure. Well anyways we had a great week. The weeks feel longer since Elder Cox is new but it is so fun knowing the Caribbean while he is trying to figure it all out. I hope I get to come here when I am married and be a Caribbean and let my wife figure it out. Have a great week!
Love,
Elder Kyle Joseph

Pokemon + New Comp + Funeral = Long full Week

It feels like this week just kinda took forever! Monday we went to Castries and hiked Pigeon Point. It was a really cool view. I will try to attach some pictures. I got some of those cheap Pokemon cards they have up in Castries. Everyone has a race to getting a Pikachu and I finally got mine! I was so excited! Elder Reyes opened that pack for me and I got a Mewtwo in it too. Us Elders just are kids still. All the missionaries get excited over that stuff. Tuesday we had a combined District meeting about working with the members. That can be a bit hard out here. We only have a few members work with us and everyone is always so busy or does not want to work with us. Wednesday we were back in Vieux Fort where we live and the day before right when we got home we heavy duty cleaned so that the new guy Elder Cox who is my companion will feel comfortable. Wednesday we got him almost late at night so we went to Chinese food with the Zone Leaders. Thursday we did weekly planning and he actually really enjoyed my Curry Thursday! No diarrhea or anything! I guess I am not a bad cook. He is a cool guy because I left my razor in Castries and he gave me this nice razor that he said he is not going to use. It has a vibrate power thing that is supposed to make the shave really good and I feel so smooth now. He also filled me up on Walking Dead! Sounds like that show is going good! On Thursday we went to a funeral of a nonmember who was the father of a member. He was really old so they expected it but the pastor went up and talked about demons and a bunch of crazy stuff. He said he isn't sure if the dead man is going to hell or not. It was pretty sad but yesterday our member bore her testimony about how he is in the Spirit World. It was really nice. Friday was supposed to be a big huge storm and it rained hard that morning for a few minutes but then they said be in by 3pm. I went out and the only wet I felt was my sweat! It was so hot the past few days! We came back home because in our area they had an Emancipation Day parade in town with a bunch of naked people parading down the street with Rasta. It was basically a black pride parade. Saturday we started our fast and we are fasting for this part member family that I love! They said the only thing holding them back (Mom and Dad that is) is being married. We fasted for them and are going to be working hard to get them baptized. We have set a goal for them for September 6. Sunday not many people were around. It was strange and I over ate after fasting so I had a belly pain. I gave some Pokemon cards to some kids that love us teaching them. I am not going to bribe them to get baptized don't worry haha. Also I had the strangest craving the other day. When I get home I want peach cobbler home made in the back yard with vanilla ice cream. That tickles my taste buds even typing that. Well that's about all!

See ya later!

Elder Cox, my new companion