August 4, 14 - Week 45

Dear Mom and Dad,

That is great to hear about the rain. It really sounds like you need it. It also sounds like the lake trip was a success. Dad sent a video of Calvin cliff jumping, but I haven't yet looked at the other pictures and videos on drop box. You told me earlier this summer that they dug out the pass by castle rock. That is good they made it deep enough to get through even if water goes down. I wonder if that effect the business at antelope? But i am glad that you had a good time at the lake even though it was a short trip. I know how much you love to be at the lake. I am glad that Ashley and Blake were able to go with you. To bad Randall and Katrina couldn't make it over. 

That is cool that Ashley bought her charger! She sent me pictures of one she test drove. It is a pretty sweet looking car!! You guys are just pimping out my car now!! It looks pretty cool. 

You will have to wish grandma, Toni and Danielle a happy birthday for me. Maybe I can send grandma a card even if it is late, because she has been writing. 

I am sorry about your garden. I am glad Calvin and Carson are helping mow the "field" still. Poor suckers haha!! It sounds like you are still busy keeping your house immaculate. I hope you didn't get sours on your knees like before from steaming the floor this time. 

You asked how my companion and me do on cleaning.  We are normally pretty good at keeping things clean. We don't do much deep cleaning. I squeegee the shower walls and stuff ever day so we don't really have to clean the shower very often. We normally just put cleaner in the toilet and scrub it like once a week. I am pretty good at keeping stuff clean with my somewhat OCD. My companions have all been pretty good at cleaning and stuff. I have been blessed with American companions that clean. Most black missionaries are pretty gross. 

Our weather is still in the dry season. It will start raining the end of this month or first of September. It has started to warm up more during days. It is even getting a little hot some days. It still gets cold at night and in morning. It is like desert weather. Everything is still dead. I am glad I am walking because it also makes me feel good. 

We has 30 lessons planned, and we only taught 11 lessons. It is frustrating to have this many people cancel after we have made appointments with them. It is ok though, we will improve this week.

We had yet another road trip from Secunda in to Roodeport. It is about 170 kilometers one way. I ended up driving both ways. I guess I just like the drive. I still speed a lot, which isn't good haha!! 

 had interviews with president Dunn. He is such an awesome guy. He is very relaxed, and I really like that. As we were waiting for interviews, sister Dunn had activities for us. We talked a lot about exercise. They are very into being healthy, and they plan on improving the health of the mission. 

 Elder Johnson is a great guy. I have gotten to know him a lot better this past week. He isn't as quiet as he was. He has opened up a lot more. We have a lot of fun together. I have come to like him a lot. He is still a pretty straight missionary, so that is hard. I do obey the rules, but some of them I just see as guidelines that we can interpret our own way to best help us. But I have tried to adjust to make elder Johnson comfortable. 

I am glad you got to go to the temple. I have not been since my birthday. We are supposed to go in 2 weeks. I heard there was a new video, so I hope I get to see it. We are scheduled to go on August 15th. I hope it doesn't get canceled because last transfer it got cancelled. The temple here is so small. The session can only fit like 30 maybe. And they have to bring in a temple worker couple to be the witness couple with the missionaries. Poor new missionaries going through temple for the first time. I remember I was pretty scared going through for the first time. I really love going to the temple now. I am so glad I am in a mission with a Temple. 

I think that is at least the 2nd time the dogs have been sprayed by a skunk. That is crazy you still can't get 22 ammunition. Good thing Mike had some. Garrett is still working for mike, and he said they aren't staying very busy with business.

 I am still getting your written letters. I do get them through the zone leaders. We only see them like 2 times a transfer, so like every three weeks. But this transfer we are seeing them a lot more. I think the mail is slow, last week I got one from May. I think the zone leaders are a bit unorganized as well and loose some mail. We got one new zone leader this past transfer. I don't know him very well yet. 

As I said the Dunn's are great. I think they will bring a lot of new things into the mission. I wouldn't have been in any of the pictures. I didn't stay at the mission home before transfers or anything. That us cool they had the departing missionaries do stuff with the new guys. They didn't do that when I came in. 

Hopefully Carson will like football. I really enjoyed it when I played! Carson looks like he has gotten really tall, so he could be a good player. That is good that you got the ranger all fixed up! Tell dad to sell the ranger and buy a razer!

That is cool you are reading a book about South Africa. The Afrikaans people are still rude and looks down on everyone. I don't like the Afrikaans language at all. Mostly because if we don't speak it as whites they don't want anything to do with us. When we knock on gates and white people come out my stomach just drops. They are very prideful and rude people, but yet they are all like white trash and nasty. 

I am about 3/4 through the Henry Lunt book. I am still reading, and enjoying. You don't need to send anymore right now. Like you said I have been studying scriptures a lot more. I am studying the New Testament right now, and I really am loving it. I also have started to read Jesus the Christ book. In the New Testament I am just getting to the week of the atonement. It is really interesting to study about Christs life. 

 There haven't been many changes with new mission president.  Especially none in my area. To get groups organized that has to be done through the stake. They are working on it now, but they have to get approval from the area office, and salt lake. So that is in the works right now. President Dunn could possible change the number of times an investigator is requires to come to church, but that isn't likely. It is a good rule to make sure people will stay active after baptism. Also with our cars it is a world wide mission rule that we can't transport people in our cars. I wish we could go pick people up. 

When I met with president Dunn he just really uplifted me. I guess my spiritual experience was knowing that President Dunn was truly called of God, and that he holds the priesthood keys for this mission. He told me to always look at the horizon and prepare for it. Meaning life is still coming fast, and that mission is where you prepare. I know that my mission has already prepared me so much for life, and there are still so many more experiences I will have. Also in my study of Christ I know we should always be trying to shape our lives after the way he lived. One if his purposes here on earth was to be an example of how to live. 

I guess a funny experience this week they happened in Emba. These guys saw us white guys drive by in Emba, and there are never white guys there, so they followed us in their car. They got out and were like why are you white guys here in the ghetto? We then talked to them. They said you are from America aren't you? They love meeting Americans, so they took pictures with us! It was pretty funny. But the black love to see use. I have learned some Zulu, so I always greet them in Zulu and they freak out because I am white speaking Zulu, it is really fun. 

We have been trying to teach this lady names Gugu for a couple weeks now. She has a son that is like 12, and he has been really sick. The way we met her is she saw us on the street and asked us to come pray for her son. We normally don't give priesthood blessings, but in this instance we decided to. This happened like a month ago. So this little boys name is Meshack like from the bible. He just looks really sick. He is so freakin skinny. Like his legs are smaller around than my wrists. 

We went to see them and Gugu wasn't home yet, but Meshack was home. He said he was really hungry. Elder Johnson and I decided to take him to eat. We went up to the Engen gas station that has a bakery in the back. We bought him a pizza and a sandwich and just talked. He had lost most of his hearing from the sickness, so it was hard to talk to him. He only ate one piece of the pizza, so we could tell he was pretty sick still. We helped him take all the food home for later. It was just an awesome experience to take him out to get some food. I put some pictures on Dropbox that we tried to take with it. I also put some pictures on with other members

I did get the Dropbox pictures and videos. Thank you for putting them in. I will try to put some stuff in today. Well I love you, and have a good week!! 

Love

Your Son

Elder Brown