Week 32 - April 28, 14

Dear Mom,

Well it has been on my mind a lot about Skyping on Mothers Day.   Thank you for making options. that makes it a lot easier for me. 

I would probably say Option C, where it is afternoon for me and early morning for you. That would be just before Levi farewell.  Can you Skype from Orem, and would you be in at the hotel or Roberts?  Really anything works for me. We have church at 9 am to 12 pm here. So that is the only conflict I have. Let me know if this is best by next week.

I am a bit nervous about transfers tomorrow, but not too nervous. I will be just fine. I am a lot more used to mission life, and I know it will be fine. I will most likely only stay with new companion for 6 weeks. In preparation for transfers we drove from Secunda to Roodeport today because Elder Barton from my district is training, so he had a meeting. We are emailing from Roodeport right now, and staying at the mission home tonight. 

WE have a few pictures together, but we will get another one today for sure. I am sorry I have not sent you any pictures of my companion.  Elder Cuzier most likely will transfer tomorrow.  He has been a great companion, and I am super grateful for him. He has taught me a lot. I will use a lot I learned from him through out my mission. I will thank him for you also. 

Well our most promising investigator is Leohba. She is the sister to a great member. She was actually baptized yesterday. I forgot to tell you last week this was happening. She is a great lady. I don't have my camera with me now, but I will send you a picture of her baptism. I baptized her, and it was a bit difficult. The water in the font was very shallow, so her feet came up twice. I had to baptize her 3 times!! That was a bit hectic, but it worked out great. We have a few more investigators, but not many progressing a lot because we struggle to get them to come to church. 

I did not get package from Toni and Greg yet. I will let you know when I get it. I should see zone leaders tomorrow. I think it would be very cool to have you come pick me up. It would be cool to come back another time with family, but the flight is pretty bad! Let me know how you feel, because I think it would be cool either way. 

Sorry I am out of time, so email short. We didn't get much time in email shop. I did watch conference this last weekend, and I really enjoyed it. I will get talks in print and read again. I love you, and appreciate all you do for me. I love what I am doing, and glad I am here. I know this church is true with all my heart. 

Love

Your Son

Elder Brown 

Playing with Lion Cub - April 16,14

lion cubs video

Week 31 - April 20, 2014

Dear Mom,

It is nice to hear you are back from California safely. I hope you had a good time, and where able to recover from the past couple weeks of being busy. It is always hard though to go back to normal schedule after being on vacation.  That is good that Ashley went with you. I am guessing Blake had school. I hope all of you had a fun time.  My birthday went great. We actually had to drive to Jo-burg for interviews with President Omer on Saturday. After interviews we went out to eat, and just messed around a bit. Elder Cazier bought me a cake, and we ate it when we got back on Saturday night with Elder Barton and Elder Buchanan. It was very weird to have my birthday because it didn't seem like it was my birthday at all. I had to keep reminding myself. 

Well our trip to the Lion and Rhino park was very fun. We didn't see any Rhino's, so that was a bit disappointing. So there was an area where we could pay to play with animals, so we paid to play with the lion cubs. I am sure you could hear me in the video that Elder Buchanan put up. Also we drove around and saw other animals, but playing with the lions was the best part. So it was just the four of us form Secunda that went. Me Elder Cazier, Elder Barton, and Elder Buchanan. I took lots of pictures, and I will even try to send you some today. 

We did some fun things in Jo-burg, but nothing too big. The lion park was kind of my birthday I think. Well I actually bought myself an iPod, so I did buy something. You will have to tell Toni and her girls, and Greg thank you! I will email you and them and let you know when it gets here. I really enjoyed the messages, and I have listened to them a few times. I will maybe try to record something and send it back, but I don't know if it will happen. 

We went to the temple last Friday, so like a week and a half ago. That was great.  I do see the zone leaders often though. I am informed by the office though when I receive packages. I know Elder Barton took a lot of pictures as we were driving, so I will copy some of his pictures. Mostly the land just has grass, and lately there have been some wild flowers. 

 I am glad you were able to see DJ before he left on mission

I think I will be able to skype on mother’s day, and that is what I was planning on. I really don't know what to tell you on times. I am really free to do it any time of the day as long as we make plans so I can make myself free. It sounds like you have some good idea's, so you let me know whatever works best for you, especially with traveling that same day up to see Levi farewell.   It would be nice to see everyone, but if not I can skype people separate.  Just let me know so we can make a plan. There aren't too many guidelines from mission president, so whenever we want. That is coming pretty quick, and I didn't realize. I look forward to seeing you then.

 I am still able to look at the pictures you put in the dropbox. It is fun to still look at pictures. I will try to put some up if I can today. Well that is fun to people watch, I do that a lot here, especially as a missionary.

 I am enjoying Elder Cazier a lot. I feel like I have learned the new area pretty well. Transfers is in one week from tomorrow, and it is possible that Elder Cazier could leave. I feel a bit nervous, but I guess we will see. I am able to understand people a lot better now, and it is nice. I do not struggle like I used to when communicating.  

Well thank you for all your love and support. I am so glad that I have a wonderful mother that will send me an email every week that encourages and uplifts me. I am so grateful for you, and for the many things you do for me. I am sending a letter today that has more details. I will try to send another with more details about everyday things. I know you don't know a lot about my circumstances, or what is happening, but know I am being watched over. I am sorry I haven't given you more details, but I will try to do better. Know I love you, and I love hearing about everything you tell me in your emails. 

 I am really enjoying what I am doing, and I have a testimony of this work. I know it is the Lord work. I love you, and pray for you everyday. 

Love

Elder Mitchell York Brown

April15, 2014- Week 30

Dear Mom,

It sounds like you had a good time in Hawaii, but it sounds like it was a quick trip. I am sorry about the time difference, and the tiredness from traveling.  Well that is too bad that Randall crashed his truck. 

It sounds like it was a hectic week. I hope you can relax and recoup while in California this next week.  I am glad that you are over the flu, and hope that no one else gets sick. 

Well this week has been a good one, but a bit different. We worked hard, but didn't work many days it seemed. We had to drive into a lot of things this week.

Last Monday we drove to a Zone activity in Springs, which is like 70 Kilometers away from Secunda. Then on Friday we went to the temple, which was nice, but we drove to Jo-burg which is like 180 kilometers. It was a lot of driving, and somehow I ended up doing most of it. Then on Saturday we almost drove to Jo-burg again because the other missionaries here lost there phone, and needed a new one. We ended up not going, and we went today. That is why we went to the Lion park today also. So it was a very busy week it seemed, even though we didn't get a lot done in missionary work. I am still really enjoying the work, and I love teaching people the gospel. I love to see the gospel begin to work in peoples lives. We have some really good investigators.

I have been pretty healthy I think. This past week I have had a weird headache a few days, but drinking water and taking medicine has helped. I can for sure tell that moving and new things have affected me, but i think I am adjusted now. I have been in new area now for 4 weeks. I have been trying to eat healthy, but have not been good at exercise. I really miss swimming. I have noticed I am gaining a little weight, bad, bad. 

The weather is nice. It has been getting cooler a bit. There is no one where I have served that has an AC. It is really weird to me, but oh well. It is supposed to start getting colder. I have been enjoying the weather the way it is, it has cooled down a bit, and it hasn't been too hot. 

You asked if we have a Chapel  in Secunda.  We do have a chapel. It is very small, but it is a chapel. Our branch is really far away from other wards in our stake. It is about 70 kilometers to the next town. Like cedar to St. George I would say. I will have to send a picture of the building from out front. 

That is really cool to hear about those leaving on there missions. Excited about Colton and D.J.   I don't know much about getting a new mission president. That would be really neat if you could go meet the new president and his wife,  at their farewell  before they came here. So the Hilliams that you knew from dental school did go home at our last transfer. They left early because Elder Hilliam had to get surgery on his back. It was sad to have them leave because they were so nice to me because they knew you. 

I can get on lds.org, but it takes time from emailing. Also to watch the video it will use a lot of the internet data. I will try and watch it anyways though because it sounds really cool. I am really looking forward to conference in a couple weeks.  That is a really cool picture!!! That kid standing up is Elder Loe, he is my zone leader right now!!

When I saw zone leaders I received 3 letters from you, and a package. I think these are the letters that I was missing. I really appreciate them, and I am so glad that you continue to send letters each week. I also got a package, and not sure if it was my birthday one? It had the recorded messages in it, and a rain jacket. I really really enjoyed the recorded messages, and I am so glad that you had that idea to do that. I really enjoyed listening to all the messages.

Well I am pretty well adjusted to the new area. It isn't too new anymore now that I have been here for 4 weeks. Well like I said before I work in two different areas. One is town, and the other is township. In the township there are homes and shacks. In the town it is only homes. It isn't much of a small town, but just in the middle of nowhere. It does feel a bit smaller than Kempton and Tembisa, but still kind of the same feel. 

That is really cool that Uncle Evan is building in Cedar. I am exciting for Evan, and hope things will get rolling quick on there home. You will have to keep me updated on there situation. 

On a  typical day we get up and study, and then get ready for the area. We leave at around 11 and pick up the other guys. If we are in Evander we are walking, so the other guys take the car for the day. We are in Evander(the town) on Wednesdays, Saturday, and Sunday. We use the car when we are in Emba(the township) so we don't get mugged I guess. We still do a lot of walking when we have the car. Well we have a lot of good investigators, but we have a huge problem getting them to come to church. We have one investigator that is always at church, and she is the sister of one of our good members. The member lives in Emba, and her name is sister Irene. She is really awesome, and we teach people at her house. I will write a more detailed letter about our investigators. 

Elder Cazier, my companion is from Utah I think, but he lived a lot of different places with his father being in the air force. His dad is in international affairs of something like that right now. His family is still in Germany right now. 

I  just told Elder Cazier about what you said, and he said he will take me for a birthday dinner and promises to sing Happy Birthday.

I email Remi every week, and he is doing great. I heard that A is back into bad things, and he got arrested this past week. I think it is because he had been hanging around with bad kids like Josh Brown. It really made me sad to hear about him. 

Well this week has been great for me. I have been working really hard. I told dad that is was a really busy week because we did a lot of traveling. I am really enjoying Elder Cazier and have loved working with him. I am really enjoying missionary work.

There is some Easter stuff around, so i will buy myself some just for you! Not sure I will have an Easter Egg hunt.  I love you, and I am so happy that you are my mom. I will have a wonderful birthday week especially because I know you and the rest of the family are back home supporting me. I love you

Love

Your son

Elder Mitchell Brown

April 7, 2014- Week 29

Dear Mom,

It sounds like you are having a great time in Hawaii. I forgot that you were there this week.  That seems really early to get up and watch conference at 6,  but I am sure it was good. 

 I will be watching conference on the 27th of this month. It is a decision that our stake presidency made. I don't know why they want to wait so long, but i guess oh well. It is weird because last conference I watched parts of it live. I am very excited to watch it, and receive strength from the talks. That is cool that they talked about Elder Bednar visiting here. He spoke with us missionaries  Halloween day. 

I am sure it was cool to see the congregation of South Africa,  because I am sure it is the same thing that I am working with. My congregation still looks the same, just a lot smaller now. 

Me and Elder Cazier are doing great. He is a very kind and patient guy. We both compromise, and it makes things much easier. But I probably won't compromise to put on a tie to study.. haha

My branch is mostly black, there is about one white family in our branch. The building is located in Secunda, and that is also where I live.  My investigators are mostly black, but we have found a few white families. 

So there are four areas here. There are two sets of missionaries. Secunda one works in Secunda, and Kinross. Secunda 2(me) works in Evander, and Emba. Evander is a town, which means there are more houses, but there are still a lot of black people that live there. The white people are usually pretty rude, and don't want to hear our message. Emba is a township, so only black people that live there. 

I am not too worried about the letters because normally they will show up. If not I will continue to wait for more. I am sorry that I have not sent a letter for a while, and I will try to send one soon. I will keep waiting for your letters, and I am sure they will come. I have really felt my testimony increase. The times I feel the spirit the most is when I am on the street testifying to people that the message we share is true, and it can bless there lives. I really enjoy tracking now, and finding new people to teach. 

The car thing all worked out, and it is very nice that we got a brand new car. It only had like 300 kilometers on it when we got it, so it is like brand new. It smells nice and everything. 

It has started to cool off finally. It is still hot some days when we are walking, but not as hot as it was back in January. I have been sleeping really well lately, and it has not been hot at night. We usually leave a window open, and it has been cooling off quite a bit at night, so it has been nice. Winter is coming for sure. There hasn't been much rain, but I don't think it rains much here during the winter. 

 We only see our zone leaders a couple times a transfer, so like every 2 weeks. We will see them today though because we have a zone P-day activity. Hopefully I will get some of your letters there. 

 The mail all goes through the mission address so people don't know exactly where we live. I think it is like that for all missions around the world, but I am not sure. I think it is church policy now or something. I remember it talking about it in my call book. 

That is exciting to hear of all those that are receiving there mission calls. That would be cool if there were some kids coming to this mission. 

I am glad that everything is starting to work out with the wedding planning. I hope that you don't feel overwhelmed trying to get everything ready. I am also sad that I will not be there, but It is ok. I hope that Randall is doing well, and is not too stressed. You will have to tell me more as time goes on. 

The area is still pretty big, and there a lot of people that live around here. It is not like a small town, there are a few malls and things. The branch is just very small. 

Well this week has been great. We taught a lot of lessons, and we didn't have any surprises like the car breaking down. Weekends are always hard here because people are always drinking, and a lot of our appointments get cancelled. We are teaching a lot of men, mostly younger. We have found a few nice families, and I hope they will continue to progress. We found this one family with the last name Bloom. They are colored, which means half black half white, so in the US we would just call them black. But they have been awesome. They live in Evander. We have met them a few times, and they are always really nice to us. They fed us one night when we came to teach a lesson. We have taught them the restoration, and i hope it will continue onward. I have really been loving the work, and working hard has definitely made the time go faster. I have already been in Secunda for 3 weeks! 

Well I hope that you enjoy the rest of your vacation. I hope that you and dad had a good time, and were able to relax and just forget about things for a few days. I hope all the other children are doing well. I love you and am forever grateful for your love and support.

Love

Your son

Elder Brown