Dear Family
I want to give you more details about my mission. I know my emails are quick and not very much informative. On a basic day we wake up 6:30 pray, work out, and eat breakfast. I usually have cereal, oats, yogurt, and sometimes eggs. WE shower and dress by 8:00. We study personally. This has been awesome. I have been re-reading the book of Mormon, and really enjoy doing that. I also read from my genealogy book. It has been so fun and interesting to read ancestor stories. Thanks mom for putting that together. We then have companionship study from 9 to 11. I am still being trained so we have to spend extra time doing this. I am enjoying this most of the time but it does get boring. We will usually eat lunch before we leave our apartment and then out the door for our area by 11:30 to 12:00.
We drive 18 kilometers to our area of Hospital view each day. It takes about 20 to 30 minutes. We usually have full days of teaching lessons but sometimes we have cancelations. We normally have our first lesson at 12 and try to schedule one every hour. The teaching has gotten much better for me. I can just open my mouth now and talk forever about one thing in the gospel. So the times when we have cancelations we go tracking knocking on doors, or contacting witch is just talking to people on the street. Neither of these are very fun but I am getting much better at it. I know I am being helped. I am now able to talk to random strangers and strike up a conversation with them. I know I can continue to improve with this as I learn to let the sprit guide me.
We finish up teaching in our area about 8 to 8:30. We head back to our flat. Once we are safely in our flat we eat and do our daily planning. This is when we look over the past day and then plan lessons for those we are going to the next day. In the evening we write letters and do more personal study. I have been getting into this schedule pretty well. Getting up in the morning is much easier that I thought it would be. At first I was always tired. This really was not fun. I was always tired and when I would lay down at night I was dead. They have a saying in the mission field "you get tired form the plane ride and you never recover until you leave." I don't think-it is that bad but I am pretty tired but somehow I make it and I guess it is good I'm ready to collapse at night, because I sleep well.
My companion Elder Brasher has been really good to me. He is 6 days younger than me so little weird he is my trainer. We have got a long very well and he has helped me a lot. I am a little nervous to get a new companion. Elder Brasher is a hard worker. We have had some good experiences together. We have had some really good investigators but also some really flakey ones. We have been teaching a young lady who has been struggling a bit to understand the gospel and gain a testimony. We have taught her almost everything. She has been scared of baptism, but it has been a miracle to see her pray and a testimony is slowly forming in her. I have been touched and had my testimony grow. It is a common problem here, that the people learn slow. Most people don't understand english super well, so teaching goes really slow. I have had to learn to teach simple like I'm teaching children. This has been a bit frustrating, but I am getting better.
We had a disappointing experience happen this past week. We have one of our investigators we have been teaching since I got here, Gift, and he has been progressing and doing well. He has moved a few times like most people do so we lost track of him. We found him again the past Sunday when a member knew where he lived. We got to his place to have a lesson and just his wife was there. We called him on his phone and he said he was coming. We could not stay at his home because we did not have another male with us. We asked the wife if we could just have a-prayer with her. After praying we were walking out and we thought we saw Gift under a tree in the yard by the other shacks. We walked over to him and he was drunk. This was a big shock because he had been a great guy and wonderful investigator. We were disappointed. We have tried to set up other appointments and gone back several times. We suspect his wife took the child and left for her families. His phone is now disconnected so we are not sure how to contact him. Alcohol is a big problem here. We walk into a lot of drunk people here. I am pretty heart broken over Gift.
It is pretty hard to imagine the things that go on in this township. I would have never been able to imagine this. I know this is the only place I could experience some of the things I have. I have grown so much in ever way. I know this is where I should be . I know I am helping these people and they are helping me. something i have learned is no matter what I will survive. I know with the help of the Lord I can get through anything. I have been very homesick at times but I always make it through. I love you and think about you all the time. Thank you for the letters, pictures, and packages. This means a whole lot and I appreciate the support. Thanks for all you have taught me.
Love
Elder Mitchell Brown
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