Change!!!

FAMILY!!

Man, I can't believe another week has come and gone! This week was another LEGENDARY week! We most certainly saw the fruits of our labors this past week, and it's been awesome to see a lot of people we are teaching start to progress in the gospel! It was great to hear from y'all this week! Your letters always make me feel so happy! So thanks for that! :)

We saw a lot of miracles this week, so I'll just get right to the juicy stuff! This past Sunday ( I don't know why but I feel like all the miracles always happen on Sunday's, Haha) we had planned to go to a place called Monroe, which is like at the bottom of our area and about 40 minutes away from where we normally work. We had gotten out of an appointment pretty late and we weren't sure if we should still go down there knowing that most of the rest of the night would be spent in the car. Well, we prayed for confirmation.....And that's what we got. We have 1 less active member in that area and no investigators. We had gotten a referral from Mexico a week or so before for a lady whose mom that lived in Mexico wanting the missionaries to give her nonmember daughter a priesthood blessing, but we had not yet been able to contact her. So, we had two people that we were going to try and find at home. Well, we showed up to the less active’s house and THEY WERE HOME! Haha, they are never home! So that was a miracle in its self, but the real miracle came as we began to speak to the mother, who had just gotten out of the hospital from a surgery she had on her knee. She was going through a really hard time and felt as if she was just kind of lost. We were able to give them the sacrament and we had the opportunity to give the mother a blessing. After the tear filled blessing, Hermana Paneque (the mom) explained to us that the night before she was praying to receive help from on high-that someone would come and "save her". She knew God sent us and so did we. But the miracle does not end there. As we approach the building of the referral we see a lady walk out. We begin to have a conversation with this lady and turns out that she was the referral we were looking for! She said she had never even heard of the church before and had no clue that her mom was even a member. Then, we two little teenagers who don't know Spanish and had no idea what to say, said, "well, that's okay because we need to give you a priesthood blessing" not realizing that this lady probably has no idea what the heck a priesthood blessing is and probably thinks we are a little creepy. She looked at us very weirdly, actually kind of scared and let us in hesitantly. We ended up teaching her and her family the restoration, giving her a blessing and committing them to be baptized in August! IT WAS SOOO COOL! The only hard part is that they live 40 minutes away from the chapel and have no car, but we have faith and hope that they will be able to make it! Pray for the Garcia family! :)

Recently, President Smith has been talking a lot about change and how we can help the people we teach change, but more importantly, see a permanent change in our own personal nature. I have seen a lot of people change in my 11 months on my mission - members, less actives, investigators, friends and family back home, but the biggest change I have seen on my mission is me. My companion is probably sick of me saying how much I have changed, because I say it every day, but it is so true. Never before did I think that I would love the gospel so much. Never before did I believe that giving every single second of my time to "church stuff" would be so fun and enjoyable, BUT IT IS! And I really feel that way! I’ve seen the healing power of the atonement of Jesus Christ in my life and NEVER, and when I say never I mean it, will I be the same person I was before the mission. I am soooo eternally grateful for that. Repentance is real. I've also seen this change in a young man we are teaching named Caesar. (One of the brothers) He is fifteen and you could say that he used to be "un hombre de la calle" (a man of the street). But what he used to be does not define him. What we were in the past does not mean that is what we have to be in the future. He now reads his scriptures daily, prays daily, and is preparing to be baptized on the 23rd of July. He is soooo great! I love him to death! The only thing we need to do is get permission from his mom to get him baptized, but he is so ready. His mom isn't too big of a fan of him changing religions, but we pray she will turn around. I know she will!

I'm running out of time family! I had so many more miracles to share, but I guess I will have to save them for next week! I love you all! I love the Lord’s mission and I LOVE all the people we are teaching! Thanks for all you guys do!

Love, Elder Brown

So tired at the end of a long day!