The weeks just keep getting better and better!

Man, the weeks just keep getting better and better! More tiring and tiring, but certainly more rewarding. Yeah, it rained a couple days down here. One day it is pouring and the next it is so hot. Kind of reminds me of Utah in that way. I live more closer to Yankee stadium. When the games were going on we would be able to hear all the shouts and screams from the games, but they lost and don't play again till next year. Hopefully I will get to go a game in a year! Oh, the "bodegas" are the best thing ever! Those are the little treat shops. There are as many of those as there are churches in Utah! I basically get like one sandwich a day from there because they are literally so incredible!!

So, the average day as Elder Brown is basically the one of any other missionary... Get up at 6:30, do a slight work out ;) get ready for the day and then start studies at 8:00. 8 to 9 is personal study, 9 to 10 is companion study and 10-11 is language study. After that... Half the days of the week we have to do this thing called "twelve weeks" which is basically just training for new missionaries. On those days we pretty much stay in the pad until 12. That's something that is really hard for me because I always want to go go go, but that's something I've learned from Elder Hinckley - it's important to just calm down and to do some things that mean a lot even if that means staying inside until 12. But after that we would normally go tracting, contacting, or do some look ups because no one is really home in the afternoon, they are all working, so we don't have that many appointments.But in the night time our schedule is packed with appointments and lessons and meals and all that fun stuff!  Then we go home at about 9:00 and hit the beds as fast as we can! That's basically what it is like!

This week has been filled with a ton of teaching! It has been so great! Got a lot of new investigators and I am way excited to see where they end up! MY FIRST BAPTISM IS THIS SUNDAY! I am so excited! She is getting baptized on Sunday because her mom wouldn't be able to make it on Saturday. So then the next Sunday I get the opportunity to give her the Holy Ghost! I'm really excited but also pretty nervous because I have to do the whole thing in Spanish! It's pretty cool though that we have a baptism this early... A lot of Elders have been out here like 16 months and haven't gotten one, so that's pretty cool! Lili is awesome though! She has been ready for baptism for a while, but she just never read the Book of Mormon. So we pushed that and now she has a testimony, so it's all just dandy!! :)

A lot of cool things happened this week, but I am at the temple right now and I don't have my journal to look at everything to recall because everyday kind of is like a blur! I get to go to the temple for the first time today though! I am stoked! Manhattan is a lot different than the Bronx. It's a lot more crazy and up beat. A lot more white people too! I'm kind of in love with the Bronx, but I think that's what it is going to be like for all my areas. I get so attached to things and people. It's going to be so hard for me to leave the areas! Ahhhh, I hate thinking about that! The first cycle is almost over and some elders in my district are leaving their missions! It's really sad because we have all gotten pretty close!

We had the opportunity to have a member of the Seventy come to our mission this past week! His name was Elder Arnold, and man was he powerful! We talked about how important members are in missionary work and how we need to utilize them. I also really enjoyed when his wife talked about being genuine, and about how we need to not put in the effort to be fake good missionary or to be fake obedient, but how we should just take that effort and actually be good. Sometimes I think we all put so much effort into putting up a good front, when in actuality if we just took that same effort and put it towards being genuine things would just be better. Let's all try and be a little bit more genuine this week! :)

He didn't send any pictures this week, but we got this off the mission blog, taken at the conference he talks about above

This week I am pondering the scripture Alma 36:3 "Y ahora bien, ¡oh mi hijo Helamán!, he aquí, estás en tu juventud, y te suplico, por tanto, que escuches mis palabras y aprendas de mí; porque sé que quienes pongan su confianza en Dios serán sostenidos en sus tribulaciones, y sus dificultades y aflicciones, y serán enaltecidos en el postrer día." I think this applies so much to my mission. There are a lot of trials and you simply can't do them with just yourself, but as I put my trust in the Savior and give my will and all my efforts and time to Him, then these trials will be lifted! I love the Savior so much! And I love this gospel so much! I am so grateful for this opportunity I have to serve this wonderful mission! It's so great! I love you all so much! You're all the best! Have an amazing week! 

Much love, Elder Brown