Puddles and Red Pandas

Hello Everyone

Elder Brown Here - but very Short today!!

Miracles- Parents want to get baptized with their daughter. All want to be baptized!! It's great!!

Elder Dickey came - he is a great guy from Arkansas that I met briefly at the MTC. But his knee which had previously gotten surgery for an ACL is hurting and he's in Jojya getting it checked out right now. That's a little scary, so it might be two times in a row that the new Elder get's sent home...

Got a new bike- Elder Boenari and I tried riding it the two of us and fell right over into a puddle haha. I had to bodily lift him out of the puddle by his armpits haha.

Daisy's already back, and Landon's going?? Crazy!!! That's good to hear though.  I bet Daisy is awesome.  Yes I have shared the First Vision many times by now.

There is a pet that hangs out at the bus stop.  I'm not quite sure what it is - maybe a red panda?  But it is cool. Ha.

Elder Sukarlis and I encountered a rather intense rain storm.  We came back to the house for weekly planning and ordered KFC.  Fast food delivers here - haha - and it's expensive.

Sorry, this letter is tiny. We dipped some crackers to celebrate Stephanie's birthday but there are no graham crackers here.

So grateful to get this family reunion shirt- I love it!! And Matt and Jess's invitation!! Congrats to them!! It's good to hear the updates.  So excited for Cody!!!  Awesome.  I hope they are so happy.   And Nellie and Scott.  So great!!!

Good job getting in shape while I am getting fat here.  Well not fat, but gaining weight at least.
By the way, I do know Eric from last week.  He is awesome.  He currently hold's CV's Jav record. 

Miracles are real. The Gospel has been restored.

Also there's a cool rap video of the first discussion by some missionaries in Montana!! 

Also my bike is still in Provo by Steph's old apartment I think... sorry...

Glad you got my letters.

Love you!!!

Trev

Loved the Picture of Spenc and Tay.  Glad you and Sandy got to correspond.

Pray in Faith

Hey Mommy and everyone else!

I'm going to try to send my update email first, so I can hopefully get everything done before my time runs out.

So, how was the birthday???? I was thinking about you all day Mommy!!!!

So, this week has been AWESOME!!! Wow!!! You know, I've been having a little bit of a hard time here in Indonesia (though I'm really not sure why haha)./ I don''t know if you could tell that in my emails haah. But, on Tuesday we read a section of Preach My Gospel(which is like the Missionary guidebook for becoming a better missionary and person - it's awesome- check it out!) and the section was entitled "PRay with Faith" and I realized that while I am trying to pray for good things, I have not been praying as sincerely or with as much faith as I should. So I did. And as I prayed to my Father in Heaven, I was talking about how I didn't think that I could do this mission thing alone. And oh my goodness, I have been humbled, I have realized that I NEED to rely on my GOD and on his son Jesus Christ!! And wow, I felt so close to my God. In my prayer, I asked him "Please lift me up today, because I can't do this alone." And WOW, he did. He has lifted me up this entire week!! And I testify that there truly is a God in Heaven and he is truly the Father of our Spirits. He is aware of every single one of us and he loves us!!!! And I know that he sent his son, though I can't imagine how difficult that sacrifice was, but he sent his son Jesus Christ to atone for our sins, because he LOVES us. And through the Atonement of Jesus Christ, ALL things(no exceptions) can be fixed, can be healed - even if it's something as small as Elder Brown's bad mood haha. 

I invite everyone, try praying to God our Father, and I promise that he will answer and manifest to you that he is there and that he loves you, because He does!!!

He has lifted me so much- he is blessing me to love these people and the country of Indonesia!! 

I thought maybe I would update you on our simpatisan(investigators), although soon, when Elder Sukarlis gets his new companion(hopefully tomorrow) half of these won't be my investigators anymore:

Pak gained faith in Christ back in high school but now he is an older man. Yesterday, I had the opportunity to extend a baptismal invitation to him, and he accepted!! I'm so excited, because I know this Gospel can and will bless him and his family SO much!!

Andre and his wife and daughter - we'll be visiting them tonight. Tee other day at a family night at Elder and Sister Jeffrey's the parents told us that Ezra wants to baptized in "Our Church" - so exciting!! We hope that once the parents understand that they too need to be baptised through the true Priesthood Authority of God, they will also want to be baptized. Such a blessing for this branch to get another strong family!

Jum- she's a newish member with a pretty cool story- she heard a voice speaking in English and she wrote down the words in English (even though she doesn't know English) and when she met the missionaries they translated the words for her. One thing that was said "Did you hear about Smith?" and Jum was sure this was a reference to Joseph Smith, so she was taught and baptized. Yesterday, she showed me some new things that she wrote from the voice, and it's strange because it's very mundane, just like a normal simple conversation. It was talking about the Internet and web pages hah and I told here that maybe it's trying to tell her about using the internet for family history. Haha I don't know exactly what's happening with that, but she's definitely not crazy and I do believe it is possible for us to hear things from the Spirit world.

There's some others too, but I'm running out of time!!

I killed a really big "spider". Looks more like a scorpion to me.  

I have gotten one Postcard from you from the USA.  Did you get any from me yet?  No package yet?

Also, I'll be getting a new bike that the mission will pay for(that's kind of nice).

ANd I had my first ZTM (Zone Training Meeting) which was really great!!!!

I love you all so so much!!!

Maybe more to come!!!

Elder Brown

The Lord Gives Us Miracles

Hello Everyone

So Excited to hear all this about all my friends!!! I am really excited to hear about all of them!!!! IT's just awesome!!  Please express to all of them my love and support, especially my excitement to Robby!!  I would really like the addresses of a lot of my friends. 

(Please send your address to shaun@morganleigh.net if you want Trevor to have it - or write him a letter - he would love that and his address is 

Elder Trevor Scott Brown

Indonesia Jakarta Mission

Jalan Senopati 115

Kebayoran Baru

Jakarta 12190

Indonesia

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOMMY!!!!!! I LOVE YOU!!

So this week has been full of ups and downs!

One down(or technically a single up-and-down) was I had my first bike crash this week. That wasn't really fun. Ran straight into a Motor(cycle). IT was really lame, because it was totally avoidable. We were headed home and I don't know how I didn't see the Motor but suddenly there was a light in front of me. and I panicked and I moved right, because for twelve years or so of my life, I always went right, but In Indonesia, you are supposed to go LEFT. So anyways we crashed, but thankfully(definitely protection from God) I wasn't hurt and the two young men on the Motor weren't hurt. But my bike is pretty destroyed- I'll try to send pics!!

SO anyways, that wasn't good, but not too bad either!

With one bike beyond repair, Trevor is pedaling,
 Elder Sukarlis is steering.

Also, my first splits this week!! the Zone Leaders came from Solo- Elder Kekulthota and Elder Dinuzzo(Zone Leaders for all of a day thus far). I got to split with E Dinuzo. That was pretty cool! I learned a lot!! Especially since he could explain things to me in English. But the catch was, I had to lead- and Indonesian streets are crazy and unorganized... It was awesome!! :) I only got lost a little haha!! We met a group of funny ladies that immediatly gave us food(I was excited) and helped us with referral. We also had some miracles!! In ALun ALun (the city center) we were about to buy some Nasi Goreng (fried rice) but E Dinuzzo said "Oh yeah, I wanted you to try Batagor" (still not completely sure what Batagor is haha. But we found this awesome strong Christian Family there!! IT was great!

I've been trying to be more positive recentyl!! I've been singing "Something I want" from the credits of Tangled, and "Everything is Awesome" from the Lego movie. I don't know, it just makes me happy!! I know the Spirit has helped me, when I've been down, by bringing those things that make me happy to my remembrance, even if it's just a simple, kind of silly song :)

Church was great. Three came to Sacrament!! That was great!! I'm really excited about them!!

Also I've experienced personal miracles everyday as the Spirit has helped me stay positive with very specific promptings and also given me specific ideas to help the people we serve. I am SO SO grateful for the gift of the Holy ghost that we received after baptism!! I am so grateful for the opportunity to be led by the Spirit and to serve Heavenly Father the way he wants me to serve him!! I have a testimony of President Monson's words "When you are on the Lord's Errand, You are entitled to his help." That is so true. I'm reminded of 1 Nefi 3:7 

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

I know the lord will help us and prepare a way for us to keep his commandments if we have that desire and strive to do So! I know that Lord gives us miracles when we serve him with exact obedience!! I have such a testimony that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is Christ's church on the Earth. I know Heavenly Father loves you all so much and I love you!!

Love Elder Brown!!!!!!

Life is Beautiful

Hello Family

Don't worry mom.  Only one of the volcanoes is active.

I didn't get to spend all that much time with President, but it was great!! We ate at this pretty nice cafe- it was weird to be able to order American food haha...

And yeah that Orange vest wasn't exactly mine haha, but don't worry, I have one of my own now!!

That is SO exciting for those guys!! Great for Adam Chamberlain!!!!!! And I am SO EXCITED to hear about Robby's!!! Spenc does go in this week- crazy - 

Making Satay Chicken with a friend

I did have my first true experience of riding my bike in a true Indonesian rain. It was awesome!! My feet would dip down into the puddles ahah!! I can't wait to see the rainy season!! And the poncho worked well!! Elder Boenari used a jacket that he had found at the house (I don't know how he didn't have one of his own) but it turned out that it wasn't actually waterproof so he got soaked haha!! It was great though! It reminds me of the talk and video by President Uchtdorf "Showers of heavenly Blessings". I really have a testimony that Heavenly Father loves us so so much because we truly are his children and he wants to bless us so badly. I know it is like President Uchtdorf says and God doesn't hold back blessings until the time that we are obedient, but he is constantly sending down blessings to us, like an Indonesian rainstorm and it is up to us to close our umbrellas and take those blessings for ourselves. I see these blessings in my life everyday!!

We met some kids

We teach lessons quite often, probably about three a day, which is quite a lot. A lesson is usually guite a bit of just talking and "building the relationship" and then we ask if we can share a message. Elder Boenari usually just teaches and then kind of stops and looks at Elder Sukarlis who adds his comments and testimony and then he looks at me and I do the same. it is definitely a little hard with three of us. Also we're covering two areas so it can be really busy!! But good!! Every day we study from 8:00-12:00, because I'm training and that's a long time but it's good!! Then we go and grab some food (we do almost all our eating outside the house or sometimes we'll grab some food to go when we're headed home and eat it there. But we don't really cook.) 

Try riding this trail in the dark

Elder Sukarlis is a total goof. He has only been out 8 months. He always messes with me which is good since it keeps things light! He calls me Elder Coklat and laughs. Coklat is the word for chocolate and brown in Indonesian. So I'm Elder Chocolate, that's pretty cool!!

This week we went to go visit a friend who lives way out there in this beautiful area. And we take this little dirt path that is really rough and goes right next the big canal. It even goes between two canals at one point. Which is great, except for this time, it was night time and completely dark hah and I couldn't see anything haha. A little nerve racking but a fun adventure!!

We had a good discussion about Temples- that was good!! It really helped me strengthen my testimony that I am here in Indonesia because my family has been so incredibly blessed and I have this opportunity to help other families obtain those same blessings. Through the power of the Lord, our families can become Eternal, in the Temple and I love sharing that message with the people of Indonesia!!

We went here last PDay

It's been a little hard to be always positive sometimes. but I know that Lord is truly looking out for me and taking care of me!! After the lesson about the temple, I felt a clear impression from the Holy Spirit that said "Life is beautiful".  I was so grateful to receive that impression, because it reminded me of every good thing in life, in Indonesia, in a mission and I could think of that and not think of anything negative at all!! I am so grateful for the love and blessings of God in my life!!

Anyhting cool happen in the Olympics? How was the Anniversary? Doesn't Jackson graduate this December? What are the plans? 

Love you so much!! 

Elder Trevor