Programado

Transfers came in, and, Elder Brown stays in Venado Tuerto!! Elder Cook went to Rosario, and Elder Hill came and is my new comp. He is from Yreka, California. He´s my third comp from California. He went to BYU for a year before the mission and is pretty new out here, just recently finished his training. He ran cross country in high school and we agreed to run every day >.<  I don´t know what I was thinking when I agreed, I just know I gotta do more workouts, and he will certainly help with that.

We have a sweet investigator named Junior. He´s 9. He´s the brother in law of a less active family. He has a date to get baptized the 10th of December and is really excited, and we are too!!! He is really smart and learns fast and it sticks. He doesn´t just learn and forget.

Sunday we had and investigator in church!!! She said she loved it and wants to go back again!!

Sorry for the worst email in the world. The lady that owns this computer cafe wants to sleep the siesta and is telling us to leave.

Elder Brown

1 Nephi 3:7-8

 7 And it came to pass that I, Nephi, said unto my father: I ^awill go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no ^bcommandments unto the children of men, save he shall ^cprepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them.

 8 And it came to pass that when my father had heard these words he was exceedingly glad, for he knew that I had been blessed of the Lord.

Much better week

We had a sick zone conference on Tuesday. Pte. Zanni is a really inspired man. I feel really blessed to have such a great mission president.

This week we had some really great lessons.

On Tuesday, we were walking to visit a less active lady, and we heard "Hello missionaries!!" We looked, and it was an 87 year old lady who we take the sacrament to on Sunday´s. She called us over and invited us in for a little bit. We walked in, and not even two minutes later her less active grand-daughter showed up. We read some scriptures with her and she said "The scriptures just have a way of telling you exactly what you need in the perfect moment." It was a really great lesson. I loved it.

We had 6 less-active members in church today. It was awesome. Now, we just need their non-member family members to start following them to church.

Remember that 87 year-old lady? Her name is Ester Allende (we, of course, call her Hermana Allende). Hna. Allende has innumerable family members. She is a mother, grandmother, great grandmother, and a great great grandmother. Over half of her family members are members, but all are less active. This Sunday was the first Sunday in a long time that the doctor said she could go to church, and she did. We were sitting on the same bench as her. As we were singing the sacrament hymn, her youngest sister showed up (for the first time since I´ve been in Venado Tuerto), snuck up behind Hna. Allende, and gave her a big hug. The look of suprise and joy and happiness on Hna. Allende´s face made my week. It was incredible. It reminded a little of the look on my grandparent´s face the times I have ran into them in the temple. It was really, really sweet and memorable to see those two aged women embrace in church.

Last night, we taught the Taberna family. They are some recent converts who have trouble understanding what the Book of Mormon teaches. Last night, we felt like we should read 3 Nephi 14 (one of the chapters when Jesus visits the America´s) and at the end, the dad said "That was the simplest chapter in the Book of Mormon! I understood it all!" Then he explained what he learned, and he really did understand it all. He almost recited the whole chapter after just reading through it once. It was amazing to see that.

I am really grateful for the chance I have to serve a mission. They say you mature 50 years in these two years (or 1 1/2 for the women). This past Monday, we were eating with some recent converts, and the father (who is 50 ish) said "When people get to my age, they start to realize all the stupid things they did as a kid, how bad they treated their moms and just how much their mother´s really helped and loved them. People my age start to apologize to their mother´s for how bad they treated them as teenagers and try to fix all those things they did wrong." I don´t think that there is a single missionary in the world that serves a mission and doesn´t write his mom some sort of apology letter during his time as a missionary, apologizing for how dumb he was as a teenager and telling her how much he loves her. The mission really has helped me out in lots of ways that I can´t describe. I 100% recommend it to anyone who has the chance.

Elder Brown

Doctrine and Covenants 16:6

 6 And now, behold, I say unto you, that the thing which will be of the most worth unto you will be to declare repentance unto this people, that you may bring souls unto me, that you may rest with them in the kingdom of my Father. Amen.

Sweet week

Things are picking up! We were finally able to drop an investigator of three years, and things have picked up drastically since!

We found three solid new investigators.

First: María de los Ángeles Taberna. She is the neice of a less active family that we are trying to reactivate. She took the discussions before from the sister missionaries, and said she wanted to be a missionary. This, however, was before her aunt, uncle, and cousins were members, and her parents didn´t allow her to get baptized. Her parents seem to have warmed up, at least a little bit, to the church. We hope to baptize her the last week of November.

Second: Braian Bazán. 22 year-old guy who lives with his brother, sister, and his girlfriend :(. That is the great challenge of Argentina: marriage. Almost nobody gets married because of something the goverment did in the 70´s and has had a lasting effect. Anyways, He goes to night school to finish high school (almost nobody finishes high school the first time around and everyone goes to night school to finish high school). He fishes a lot. We had a sweet lesson with him. I don´t know why, but, my spanish when we taught him the first time was terrible. It was as if God totally took away the gift of tongues he had blessed me with for the first year of mission. But, at the end of the lesson, he asked if he could keep the pamphlet to read it (we didn´t have time to teach about Joseph Smith or the Book of Mormon). We´ll go back Wednesday.

Third: Daniel Aguilar. An older man who´s wife died 9 years ago. He blew out his knee and tore his miniscus and ACL a few months ago, and has been without work since. We taught the Plan of Salvation and about how God has a plan for him and how his wife is still alive, and how he will one day be able to see her again. It was a sweet lesson.

Baked a lot this week. Made a bunch of cookies and a cake. They turned out really good.

Los quiero a todos,

Elder Brown

Moroni 7:33

 33 And Christ hath said: If ye will have faith in me ye shall have power to do whatsoever thing is expedient in me.

Chau a todos

So we lost or dropped pretty much all of our investigators this week. All that means though is that we have a lot of work to do. Lot´s of time to look for people that will progress and get baptized. I think the most dissappointing part is Belén. Her mom and dad set up some sort of agreement and now she goes to her dad´s every weekend and he´s not too interested in the church. So, she will not be able to attend church. Hopefully we can figure something out. If not, we will have to drop her too. But, like I said, lot´s of room to progress.

Sorry for that kind of depressing beginning. It was honestly a sweet week. Since mother´s day was Sunday, the men put on a dinner on Friday night to celebrate. It was really good (the food), and we had a great turnout. It seems like the Argentines are 100% more likely to go somewhere when food is involved.

We did a lot of contacting. Not just door knocking/ clapping, but looking for less actives, old investigators, etc. We were able to set up a lot of visits for this next week. Hope they pull through!

Not too much more happened this week. I can´t believe how fast time flies, even when we can´t seem to make progress happen. I guess choosing to be happy and living the gospel make things seem easier, funner, and quicker. I don´t think I´ve ever been happier. Being a missionary is better than winning football games, winning wrestling matches or pole vault competitions, going on dates, hanging out with friends, or anything else I´ve done. It´s just plain awesome.

Con amor,

Elder Brown

1 Peter 4:13

 13 But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.

Happy Mother´s day!

Yesterday was Mother´s day here. Visited some people and I think I started to realize for the first time truly how much mother´s love their children. Made me super grateful for my sweet mother. Wish I would have realized that at home.

I love Argentina. The people here are sweet.

We started teaching a huge family this week, the Vera fam. They have 7 kids, and another on the way. The oldest kid is 15, so, their hands are pretty full. The mom didn´t finish 2nd grade, so, it´s hard for her to understand when we teach, or when we talk in general. So we have to teach the same part like 3 times for her to understand. But, once it clicks, it´s locked in. They´re pretty awesome.

Found a couple last night. We were clapping doors looking for a certain Potencial Investigator named Noelia, and we clapped at one house, Elder Cook started talking, and the guy had no idea what Elder Cook was saying. I figured it was just because Elder Cook was talking wrong or something, so I started talking, and the words just didn´t flow. The poor guy had no idea what to say. He started to say he couldn´t talk to us or whatever, when his girlfriend told him to let us in. She is an English student and heard our accents and wanted to talk to us. We went in, and the gift of tongues kicked back on. I think it turned off for a bit when we first started talking so his girlfriend would let us in. Guess who his girlfriend is? Noelia! We hit it off real well with them. They have plans to get married and told us that they would invite us when everything is ready. That was sweet. Their names are Noelia and Martín. Hopefully we can help them get baptized!

Love you all!

Elder Brown

Check out this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWcJZ210AaM

Sorry I didn´t send any pics this week, this computer won´t let me.

Time flies.

I apologize for not writing yeasterday, here in Venado Tuerto, everything closes down on holiday´s.

This last week was sweet and packed full of stuff. It was awesome. I really wish I had time to write about all of the stuff that happened. Here´s a few cool experiences though:

We had an investigator in chuch!!! First time since I got transferred here! It was soooo sick. Her name is Belén, and is 10. We are gonna have to work a ton to help her out, since the only family members she has that are members are her aunt and cousins. The main problem is that her grandparents and other aunts and uncles hate the church. The good news is that she, her mom, and her little brother moved (they used to live with her grandparents) right next door to a member!! This member is pretty old, but, it´ll still be a good source for member present lessons. And, Belén told us she wants to get baptized! So, we´ll see what we can do to help her out.

On Saturday morning, we had nothing set in stone to do, and we were walking around trying to get in contact with some less active members, and found a 60 or 70 year old lady in her front yard digging, so, we went over and helped out. She was trying to take out an old post that was in the ground. It was in there deep, about 2 meters (idk how many feet... 6 1/2?). So, it was tough. Attatched are some pics of our attempts to get it out. We finally solved the problem by just cutting off the top. Unfortunately, she, nor her daughter, wanted anything to do with the church.

Last night (Monday), we were walking at 8:40, and we had nothing to do, and we were about 10 minutes from the pensh, and we said a prayer asking to find someone to teach, and guess who we ran into 5 min later? That 70 year old lady and  her daughter walking in the street with their puppy  taking some paper to a classmate. We talked for a minute, then went our seperate ways, and, to our surprise, their puppy was following us. So, we decided to take it back to them. We grabbed the dog and headed after them. We met the husband of the classmate of the 70 year old lady´s daughter. He seemed really nice and receptive. We´re gonna pass by in another moment. Hopefully he really is receptive.

Love you all!

Elder Brown

2 Nephi 2:11-12

 11 For it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things. If not so, my firstborn in the wilderness, righteousness could not be brought to pass, neither wickedness, neither holiness nor misery, neither good nor bad. Wherefore, all things must needs be a compound in one; wherefore, if it should be one body it must needs remain as dead, having no life neither death, nor corruption nor incorruption, happiness nor misery, neither sense nor insensibility.

 12 Wherefore, it must needs have been created for a thing of naught; wherefore there would have been no purpose in the end of its creation. Wherefore, this thing must needs destroy the wisdom of God and his eternal purposes, and also the power, and the mercy, and the justice of God.

La búsqueda

So, Elder Cook and I were both pretty under the weather this last week. We took advantage of our time in the pensh though and I organized the area book (took 3 hours, no one had organized since January 10th), and he made the map. This was Monday, when we weren´t super dead.

Tuesday, we were gonzo. In bed all day. Watched a lot of movies (all with the seal of the church), and slept.

Wednesday, felt better, but, had to stay in anyways to follow the doctors orders.

Thursday, same as Tuesday.

Friday, we felt better.

We dropped a bunch of investigators this last week, and will drop more today. So, we are looking for new investigators for now. I still have seen the Lord´s hand in the work, even though most of our investigators have not wanted to go to church and we have had to drop them.

We got a new branch president. He reminds me a lot of my uncle Chris. He´s super loud and funny. He´s also got a really clear vision of how a ward should be, and wants to take our branch from being a branch, to being a ward. He´s got a ton of good ideas and I am super excited to work with him.

¡Los quiero!

Elder Brown