Jesus wants me for a Sunbeam!

This week has been butt kicking! I forgot my notebook of what I will email back at my apartment so I am working off of memory and the help of Elder Dye. Lets take it day by day. Last Monday: P Day was good and we got home at 11 am so we had the whole day to just kick back and do laundry and sleep. That night we took a member teaching with us. We were going to teach the second half of the Plan of Salvation. We were talking about what happens after we die and the investigator kept going off on "Where is the spirit world???!!!" We said it's not a physical place but she just went crazy and then the member debated with her and there was tons of yelling about things that weren't even about our topic and it got contention. The spirit can't be there when we yell. I had to tell that to her and her husband believed way different things than her so it was funny. We spent a long time there and not much good happened. It sure was interesting though. Tuesday: We had a pretty good day. I believe this was the day that might just have made quote of the week. This lady was baptized recently and she is extremely less active and pretty crazy. She always has something interesting to say. She insulted about everyone from the church to just us and then she said: "I think Jesus just wants me to be a sun beam." I don't think she knew that was a song. Wednesday: Played with Chickens. Nothing extra ordinary  Thursday: We got ice cream as usual. That's our Thursday regular when we go to town for meetings. We talked to our buddy Brother Ash who is good friends with Mila Julovich who I still want to meet! And we talked about super heroes and had a good time. Friday: Nothing I can think of. Got Popsicles I guess. Saturday: Nothing I can remember. I think some cat cut my arm. I just play with all the animals. Sunday: We had fun with another Rasta named Gideon. Some good videos are on my Dropbox so you should all see it soon. He was crazy and liked my magic tricks where I made coins disappear. He also growled at us and said he was Batman and I got to be Superman but I changed to Spiderman and Elder Dye was Spiderman or Dr. Strange.

I can't function without my planner so next week might have more details but we had fun this week and worked really hard. Not many people are coming to church though. Our investigators
won't sacrifice to get to church. I am out of time so I gotta go.

In Green Grass Valley there is blood, tissue and cells but no bodies or bones

-Elder Brown
 

Sin is like a mustard seed?

This week has gotten quite a bit better. Can't say it has been fantastic but things have been looking up. We got a ton of referrals even just on the first day of the week. The people seem genuinely interested. Now the hard part is getting them motivated to go to church. Many people made quote of the week for me. One lady who is always skeptical about us was telling us that the Bible says sin is like a mustard seed. We told her that it actually says it's faith that is like a mustard seed. Sometimes it's hard to see who is genuine because someone called to see if we were still coming over to teach her that morning. We told her that we were still planning on it and she tells us on the phone "Okay. Can you bring me some food?" Everyone seems to ask us for money because they think we are rich white guys. Most of them spend it on rum though. We never give out money and just tell them that we have to eat too. One of our investigators just likes to diss on America and we tell them that we aren't here to preach about America. We have made many laughs this week for people such as paying for some coconuts in change and seeing how they just think we are crazy. My favorite is my good buddy here on my left side named "Grandfather Black" He is known by missionaries for saying "Bob Marley told me never to trust the missionaries!" He is a really funny guy and he has become our friend. His brain is fried from all the pot he smokes. On my right side is a guy who joined us. He has shades on and we did not get his name. We just call him cat eyes because he smoked so much pot that his eyes have changed to look like cat eyes. Grandfather Black told us tons of stories that were random. "There is a big piece of iron in the sky and it's going to fall down. It's got 400 something people in it and Wait where are you from?" He told that to my companion. It was a week of good hard work and tons of laughs. I am glad yesterday though that I got to see something nice and spiritual. Our recent convert Blonco who has changed his life so much received the Aaronic priesthood yesterday and then got to help set apart his son to be a deacon. Great week and working on making them even better! Love you all!

-Elder Brown

Bummer of the world!

Well this week sure has been an interesting one. We were supposed to have a baptism on Saturday and it was going to be great! This girl named Ashley was who we were going to baptize and she knew everything! Smart 14 year old girl who could be asked anything and could give you the answer to it. She went to Bequia (One of the Grenadines) and said she would be back for the baptism interview but she said she won't be able to make it. And now she is ignoring us. Bummer of the world! Her dad is a member but her mom who is split up with her dad is not a member. We think that she is getting persuaded not to be baptized. We also had to drop some investigators who will not progress. Two girls were also ready to be baptized but they just won't commit to that. This week we have just been out trying to find people who want to know about the gospel. It can be tough! Some people who we have met and I think it happens all over the world think that we are prideful for coming to their country telling them that they need God. Some people don't like missionaries. They told us to go to Philadelphia and teach there. We just told them that we are all over the world. Then they told us some false doctrine about our church. People are interesting. If a Rasta man stops you to ask a question and he is wearing a necklace and a pin that is the shape of Africa you know that it is something about Jesus being black. Not the first time it has happened to me. He quoted Revelations 1:14-15 to me but said it different than how it actually reads. He focused on how his hair is like wool and his feet like burnt brass. We told him we think Jesus was tan but not black or white really. He said he was not prejudice but went on to tell us how basically he is. We told him Christ was only here to die for our sins. Doesn't matter if he was black, white or Chinese. Apparently he cares more about his color than anything. We often take a man who has been baptized for 2 years now who used to be a Rasta and he is the best! Even with a crazy week we still managed to get some good laughs. One man told us that Joseph whom was the husband of Mary was blind. A few people who we have taught have been asked by us where on the Earth the Bible was written. They answer that it was written in heaven. Elder Dye makes them feel good and says that it was written in heaven and compiled in Jerusalem area. It has been an interesting week. Just hoping that this week is better. We are trying to find those who are interested in the gospel.

In Green Grass Valley there are roofs, walls, floors, and doors but no houses or windows.

-Elder Brown

Luciatards

This week has felt really funny. It felt so long but it felt so short. We had a Zone Conference here with the St. Lucians. Or as I called them: Luciatards. President Mehr gave us some good things to use. We talked mainly about repentance. A way I have tried to see repentance is simply realigning our will with Heavenly Father's. Lot's of people see it as: "You are terrible and you need to change your life or you will go to Hell." I see it in President Utchdorf's eyes. If a flying plane is one degree off it will be the difference of flying to Moscow or Australia. Let's go to Moscow. That's where God wants us. We talked about how anger is just a second emotion to fear. We get mad after we almost die in a plane crash because we were scared that we almost died. Watch Men's hearts will fail them. It will kinda explain it. We also watched the video about the man that lost his wife and 2 kids from a drunk teenage driver but he forgave him. I really like one thing he said in there. The boy who did that in the video says that Chris wants him to pick a day and forget about what he had done and that he forgives him for causing the accident. That really made me think. When we invite people to be baptized we tell them a date. We tell them that we want them to pick a date and forget about their past life. It is such an amazing feeling to do that. There is a lot of drama in the branch so I think this will help the branch members resolve it. I love this branch though because we have so many Melchizedek Priesthood holders. We got to confirm Blanco and his wife and one of his sons. There should be some photos attached to this. It's been a great week especially having a great baptism and President Mehr there to see it. That's all folks!

In Green Grass Valley there are pools and puddles but no lakes or water.

-Elder Brown