Elder Caiden Brown New York New York North Mission: The Lord's mission!!!

Hey fam!

So last week I said that it was a legendary week right?? Well, this week topped last week by like a thousand! 😂😂 Just to answer a few questions y'all had about our return to New York... having to do with places to stay, I think wherever you can find the cheapest would be best. New Rochelle is a pretty expensive place and it doesn't take long to get from one borough to the next. So, Brooklyn wouldn't be terrible for transportation, especially if we are going by transit. The trains don't go up to New Rochelle, so if you are traveling from the Bronx to there then you have to pay like 12 dollars per person to ride the metro north, just take that into account. Probably would want to go to church at New Rochelle, and then after we could go to a member's home and eat. 👌😁Did I answer all those questions? What other questions do you have?

Well, the 4th of July was awesome!! We didn't get fireworks thrown at us like last year and so that was awesome! It was a scorching day and I have the biggest missionary tan line in the whole world! Haha, the ward was putting on a picnic and so we teamed up with them and did another APF (some kind of street contacting) at the park that they were doing the picnic at and it actually turned out really well! We were able to do a ton of service for people who had a lot to carry and we gave out a lot of Book of Mormons and found some awesome new people to teach! We had an awesome Fourth of July over here in the Bronx.

As some of you may know, President Uchtdorf came to visit our mission this past weekend and, wow!! What a special experience that was. The whole mission got together with a prophet of God to partake of the Holy Sacrament. Most certainly a moment to remember. He and his wife were amazing! You could just feel the love that they had for every single one of us, even though we weren't able to have personal moments with them. He said some amazing words, but some that stuck out to me was this, "You are always midway through the mission. It's never 3 weeks or 3 days until you go home, but you are always in the middle". The reason I liked that is because in reality the mission never ends. Like I have always said, my time as a full-time servant of the Lord might come to an end, but the mission isn't over. The mission is everlasting. Therefore, I am not close to being done and I never will be done, but we will strive to serve the Lord constantly throughout the remainder of our mortal life. I feel really strongly about not calling the time here in New York "my mission" because it absolutely isn't. If any of you catch me calling it that I just want you to correct me because it will never be "my mission". The work of the Lord is unstoppable... it's legendary.

Guess what??!?! Sweet surprise!! Waldir came back to church!!! He quit is old job and got a new one that allows him to come on Sundays! We were super stoked about that! He was able to talk to the Stake Pres., and he should be able to get baptized by the end of the year! That was an answer to a lot of prayer and fasting of ours!

I think I told y'all about Chris, right?? He is one of the non-members we are teaching right now and he is hilarious and knows so much about the church! (He went a lot in the DR) Anyways, we went over there this past week to teach him and he whips out from the cupboard like 6 Book of Mormons, an ancient Doctrine of Covenants and Pearl of Great Price and his Bible. We were like sooo surprised!! Haha, every single Book of Mormon had different missionary's names inside. He has read the Book of Mormon completely and so we are reading it again with him! He talks a lot and I love that about him! Haha, but he has so much potential! We are so stoked for him.

I wish I could explain all the amazing spiritual experiences we had this week, but as always time doesn't permit. I love you all more than words can describe!

Con amor,
Elder Brown