Member Work is a Must!

Well this past week we got to go all the way to Georgetown at 5 am for Zone Conference and it was pretty good! We really discussed what we can do here to find more success as missionaries. Working with members is a must out here. This week has been a little tough though because people would tell us to meet with them on one day and then tell us they are busy and to come the next day and then we get the same story the next day. Oh well just going around and spreading the love to people. That's what the gospel is all about. We have been doing tie shopping out here too. You can get nice ties that are all official and stuff that come with a box for less than $5 US. One kid I met that is a member thought I was cool and funny so he just gave me a sweet Gucci tie! I was sure to wear it on Sunday to make him feel good. I guess his mom got offended because a while back she was told that she could not stand in a blessing but there was a big misunderstanding. She loves us now and wants to cook for us. That is what I love about Guyana. If they love you they will feed you. All I have to do is say "Me hungry bad boy!" and they laugh and feed me. We are currently working on a lady to get baptized for October 11 and she is really slow and kinda old. I would play a little game with her and say "What day are you getting baptized?" She would say "Eleven October!" I told her 100 times so she knows it now. That is how most of Berbice Guyana is. Really slow. I asked her what year she would get baptized and she said "Oh me not remember!" Her name is Elizabeth and she didn't know that it's 2014. We just gotta get her friends who are members involved and that's what we are going to do tonight. We are going to watch Abinidi and King Noah the cartoon because it shows Alma baptize a lot of people. And we shared that story about Alma baptizing and now we want her to see it. If I could say anything it would be that Member Work is a Must! I can't wait to help the missionaries at home! This week we have met people who are Muslim and Hindu and they don't know why they are Muslim or Hindu other than their family is Muslim or Hindu. It is important to have a testimony of your faith if that is Christian, Hindu, Muslim or whatever. Otherwise it looks kinda funny. Trying to teach Hindus is harder than I thought. You should teach them the Plan of Salvation but they usually just say "Cool I am Hindu." You gotta work with the Hindu converts to our church. One man who we work with gets drunk a lot but he has a good testimony for someone like him. It's good to take him teaching so that he doesn't drink. Well I fear baptisms because we don't have a font so we will do it in a trench. Hopefully a gator doesn't eat the person while you baptize because then you have to go to the Temple and just do confirmations for the dead. That would be really strange.

Hot Dog Curry

Well I am glad to be here in Guyana. Not much new this week. We don't have much places where you can buy food to take home and prepare so we eat mac and cheese if we eat at home. People usually feed us too so it's nice to have chicken curry made right out here. I made some hot dog curry which was not that good. The work out here is going good though. There is a lot to do. There are tons of opportunities for baptisms and people are pretty open to learning. There is a bit of contention in the branch so that has to be resolved but other than that there is so much opportunity for success. Yesterday the branch president kept saying the B word that means you have no father. He kept saying it because it says it in the Bible so church was interesting. I love the food out here and I am just having a blast! Not much left to say so see you all next week!

Scared the **** out of monkey

Early this week had been so long. I flew for a whole day between islands. From St. Lucia to Barbados to St. Vincent (Which was just so tempting to step off that plane. I love that island) then to Trinidad and spent the night there and flew out early morning to Guyana. The planes that come to Guyana are actually pretty nice. It felt so weird coming back to Guyana. The lady at immigration asked me how long it has been since I was in Guyana. It has been about 7 transfers so about 10 and a half months. I am back to crappy living conditions but I actually feel alright here. We have a crappy apartment but it seems not too bad compared to other Guyana places I have seen. We have low water pressure but at least we don't have to bucket shower. My new companion is Elder Palavi and I am going to be finishing off his training. He has been out 6 weeks. It was nice chilling out in Georgetown side for almost a whole day. We went and got Brusters which is my favorite ice cream place in all of Guyana. Really good ice cream for a really good price. The computers here really suck so I am on a new computer now. I look forward to getting some nice gator stuff. I am going to get an Alligator wallet and probably a scripture case. I got to hold a monkey within the first few days of getting back here. I literally scared the crap out of it. I am looking forward to having so much fun out here! It's tough living but that's what makes it so fun!

 We had a Zone Conference here on Skype with Elder Zivic of the 70. It was hard to hear but it was lots of fun! Not much left to say so I will see you all next week.
Love, Elder Kyle Joseph Brown

Heading Back to South America

Well this week was pretty great! We took the mission president out teaching with us after I taught a District Meeting in front of him and his wife and man I was so nervous! I taught about our purpose and related it with the Book of Mormon and sharing that. Afterwards he did some interviews with members and then went teaching with us. He came for 2 lessons but man I was so nervous that it felt like I had taught the whole day after 2 hours. I was exhausted that day. I love my mission president though. He is such a great guy and really knows how to talk to people. Our lesson plans were not as good as we hoped and I was sweating not only because it was hot. After all of this we went out teaching and just finished off the day. That was the main highlight of my week. I have been so stressed here and my mission president has noticed that so transfer calls this week he has called me personally to go back to Guyana in Rosignol which is pretty close to Suriname. I served more towards Venesuala (or however you spell that) before. I am ready to get back to alligator wrestling and monkey holding. I will be much much more country side. They say the Berbice side is really fun. Probably will have no hot water again. Bucket showers are likely. 2 words make me know it's all worth it: Duck Curry. I love that so much! I look forward to eating tons of curry again. I probably won't have it as nice as I have the last 7 transfers being an island hopper. I am going to get some nice alligator stuff though. They have an alligator scripture case for about $50 US so I better get that now. It has a head clip closed to close it. It's so cool! Well I look forward to getting back to my roots I guess you could say.

Back to good old Guyana!
I will be finishing Elder Palavi's training. That is Elder Cox's MTC buddy.

Love,

Elder Kyle Joseph Brown

Pres. & Sis. Mehr came to our island & did visits with us

We are the Lord's hands today

Lately we have been trying to find ways to serve people and I think this week has had plenty of good opportunities. We went by to visit our friend Lincoln who is paralyzed and has been paralyzed for about 7 years. The bottom of his feet are still really bad looking and has to have his bandage changed about every day. He has a friend who does it for him and cleans the wounds. His friend had not come over yet and although I hate medical stuff I put some gloves on and cleaned the wound for him and changed the bandage. It really touched him. It was amazing to see. He told us afterwards that he knew we would go around and teach good things but now he knows that we actually DO good things. It was an amazing experience. It almost brought tears to all of our eyes but I don't like crying so I didn't cry. I talked about the story that President Utchdorf told some years back about the bombed city with the statute of Christ and they fixed the statue but they couldn't repair the hands. We are the Lord's hands today. Lincoln wants to be baptized is the vibe we are getting from him and I think it would be neat to do that. I know some day maybe when the branch is stronger or even sooner that he will be baptized. We also had a nice opportunity to serve a member by trimming her yard with cutlasses or as us Americans call them "Machete". We cut down trees but I have been having some medical conditions lately that have been making me tired pretty fast but it was nice to help. The Mission President flew in to St. Lucia today and is going to be helping fix the problems that are going on here. Yesterday was really creepy at church. At the end of Sacrament meeting we heard some screaming and we thought it was some dogs fighting at first. As the meeting ended we looked outside and saw a bunch of people looking into the water from the bridge. People were coming from everywhere looking to see this dead body in the water. From the stories we heard this old man went missing about 4 am and it sounds like it was a suicide. He was an older man who's wife had died a little while back and they believe he killed himself from depression. We saw some members who "Couldn't make it to church" but could make it to see a dead body. It was creepy to see the dead body when they finally got it out. His arms were sticking up. It was a big distraction for church but we kept going. Ambrose came to church and looks like he is right on the path to baptism for September 27th. I look forward to having a baptism this month in such a tough area. Well not much left to say but I love you all. Have a nice week!

Love,
Elder Kyle Joseph Brown