Friday, December 29, 2017

Selamat Natal

Hello everyone! MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!
Selamat Natal :)

Wow it is Christmas today! Yay!!!!! Merry Christmas everyone!! I hope you all have banyak salju (much snow) and banyak semangat natal (much Christmas spirit)! WOW I love Christmas! I love the story of Christ's birth. It is so wonderful that God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten son. and He didn't send Him to a life of ease and comfort but to be born in a stable, and to be rejected of men. Because He loves us :) and that is incredible! I know He truly was born over 2000 years ago. I know He is God's son and He is the Savior of the World. And He loves us :) If you haven't, go watch "He is the Gift" video, one of my favorite Christmas videos. Makes me so grateful for my life and my Savior.

I hope everyone is feeling the wonderful joy that I always feel at Christmas time!!

We had a great week!! I love being back with Elder Johnson! He is such a stud! Such a great missionary! We have been SO blessed with miracles this week. Seriously, I've had more people call us and ask to meet than I have had my whole mission haha. WOW! it has been so great! And it has also been great to joke and laugh with Elder Johnson and learn so much from him. One cool miracle to share - we were going somewhere on the bus, and i was distracted, so we went one stop too far. So we jumped out and hopped on the one going the opposite way, which is only like three minutes away and i talked to the boy next to me and hanhded him a card (in the process missing our stop again going the other way) so we jumped out again and rode one more time to the right stop. The next day, that boy called us and we met and he totally wants to learn and he came to Church on Sunday. Totally strengthened my testimony of how the Lord will lead us to those whom he has prepared and how important it is to talk to everyone!

Also our investigator, J was baptized and that was wonderful.

We also had a Christmas party put o, by the missionaries and it was almost a disaster but turned out really well. We almost had more investigators there than active members! Crazy!

anyway great week! love you all!!!
MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! Go give someone else the best gift of a wonderful Christmas!

So excited to Skype my fam later tonight! :)
 
Love


Elder Brown

Monday, December 18, 2017

Merry Christmas

How are you?? How is everything? I LOVE hearing the news from home.

I feel bad - the weeks seem to be flying by and I never know what to tell you about anymore. Transfers are this coming Tuesday and last week was intense trying to figure everything out. As a result, we spent more time in the office than we would have liked... but that's okay - we are still helping the Lord's work even if just in a different way. So for transfers, I am staying here in Jakarta, but my companion Elder Sutadi is not, which is a bummer because I really love working with him. He's a stud! But my new companion will be ... ELDER JOHNSON. I'm stoked - I love that guy. So that's exciting :)

We had a pretty great week though! We met this one really cool family -The dad is a media referral which means that he contacted the church through the website and asked us to come visit him. We were looking for his house and walked a pretty long way along this road and we finally got to the end. We started at number 1 and went to 200 or so without seeing his house and so we called him and we were like "Yeah we're at the end of this road in front of this warnet (internet cafe)" and he responded "Oh I own that warnet; I'm there now." It was a little miracle for us becasue we were pretty tired and our other appointments had fallen through. Just little things like that help me know that the Lord truly is leading us. They have adorable kids. They didn't make it to church, but we are hoping next week.

We had a great lesson with Brother J and he's totally ready to be baptised next week, so that's exciting. We invited him to eat with us, intending to buy him dinner and then he paid for us, which was so nice of him. He's a great guy!

Our new members are still doing good. Brother H walked into church today with a fresh haircut in a suit and tie and he looked so good! He looked so clean and awesome. It has been amazing to see the changes in him as he has learned and been baptized. He is an stud.

We got to watch the Christmas Devotional in church which was great. I love Christmas SO much. It makes me so happy and filled with Christ's love for those around me. We sang Christmas songs and half caroled on Sunday when we visited a part-member family. That was great. Christmas is still awesome even without snow! Though I do miss snow. Mom, I put up the nativity you sent me last year and it makes me so happy - thank you! :)

I hope everyone is remembering Christmas and the reason for the season. I hope everyone is loving the snow and making snowmen and snowballs. I hope everyone is taking time to make that extra effort to bless someone else's day and to bring the Christmas Spirit to those around you! The  Christmas season really is an incredible time. I hope you all know that I love you so much and miss you a lot, especially at this wonderful Christmas time!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Love


Elder Brown

Sunday, December 10, 2017

He was born in Bethlehem

Hello just an update on my week!!!!

This week was pretty crazy! We had MLC and Zone Conference and it could be pretty stressful because we had to make sure all the zone conferences went smoothly, but for the Jawa Tengah and Jawa Timor ones, we had to do so from afar in Jakarta> But everything went great and it was really a great experience to be with Elder Funk and learn from him. Drew, He said he remembered you and how kind it was for you to go and help the Cambodian Saints last summer.

One highlight of the week was - Brother K was baptized! Sorry there's only one picture... but Elder Sutadi baptized him. He is so great! So this is the one where his son was baptized two weeks ago. Sadly the wife is not ready yet. She could use all your prayers. It was such a great day though. Prana gave a great testimony and we had quite a few investigators there. What's really cool is that we have an investigator and his girlfriend(a member) came up and whispered, "hey J wants to be baptized." and I was like "Whaaa...?" When P and H were baptized, he felt the Spirit and decided that he wanted to make that commitment as well. So that's pretty cool! Hopefully he can prepare to be baptized in a coulpe weeks or so. He's a stud. We also have another young man - from the island of Nias. He is great and is just really prepared to receive the restored gospel! We're excited for him. Just recently, the Lord has been really blessing us to see the fruits of our labors, but there are also just so many other people out there that need this gospel!

We also went to the ward activity on Friday - so fun!! We had a lot of members and investigators there. We went down to a garden thingy place and just had a great time. It was very enjoyable to rest a little and just enjoy time with the members and investigators there!

Can I just say, I love Christmas so much!! The #LighttheWorld campaign is so awesome!! I got to teach yesterday at church about Service and man it just made me all the more love the Savior Jesus Christ and follow His example of lighting the world through service!!! I wish everyone would discover the joy in serving others - the world would truly become a place full of light and happiness!! The Christmas Spirit is so amazing - even in Indonesia where Christmas is barely celebrated at all (and with no snow- I miss snow so much haha). But you can really just feel the love of Christ in this wonderful season. I hope that everyone can feel that great love and Spirit of Christ this season. I hope that you all find a way everyday to serve someone else. Go check the "Light the World" movement - I know it is inspired of God through His living Prophet and Apostles.

I know that Jesus Christ truly lives. He was born in Bethlehem all those years ago and he still lives today. This is a time of year to always remember Him. Please help bring His light to others today, this week, this month!!

I love you all so much!

Elder Brown


Tuesday, November 28, 2017

#LighttheWorld

Hello Everyone!!

Selamat malam! That means "good night"! Haha I say that because it is nighttime here. We had meetings all of P-day, so President gave us permission to email tonight instead! So that was very nice of him!

But yeah we had MLC today which is Missionary Leadership Council where all the leaders from different parts of the mission come together and council about how we can help all the missionaries become better. It's always so fun because we get to see a bunch of our wonderful friends from all of the mission. It's so great. We learned so much about how we can become better servants of our Heavenly Father. What was really cool about today is that Elder Randy Funk came and he is the President of the Asia Area of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. That means he is in charge of the whole church in the Asia Area. It was really an amazing chance to learn from him - such a kind man. He has such a great Spirit about him. He also remembered Drew from the time they met in Hong Kong so that was cool.

It was really amazing because he asked Elder Sutadi and I to counsel with him on how he could help the mission. So we met with him on Friday and then met with him again today. It was just a really cool experience. It helped me gain such an appreciation of how God calls servants and inspires them in their callings. Especially with President Rowley - recently I've gained such an appreciation of his keys as a mission president. He is truly inspired. I know that God truly lives and he calls ordinary men and women to do His work on the earth, That's a pretty amazing thing. He loves His children so much that he allows us to help in the wondrous work of bring His truth to the world.

This week was pretty great! We had Stake conference with all of West Java nad I saw many many good friends which always makes me so happy! And we learned so much from Elder Funk over the last couple of days!

We also had the opportunity to find some awesome people to teach! We have a new investigator in... Bali! He is the boyfriend of a member there and he is awesome. He is from India, so we taught him over Skype in English (because there are no missionaries in Bali.) SO that is a cool new experience. We also invited an awesome friend from the island of Nias (close to Sumatera) to be baptized and he accepted. it's just so exciting because I know that he is going to have an amazing opportunity to change his life and learn more about the Savior Jesus Christ and start a new life following Him. Being a missionary is awesome because you get to help others come to know truths that will truly bless their lives. Such a great opportunity to stop thinking about myself and to start focusing on others which is something I still need to work on. Also Brother K's Dad, should be getting baptized this Sunday, so pray for him! :)

I love you all!!

Have an amazing week and I hope you all can see the joy of the Christmas season as we go into December. Wahoooo!!! I love Christmas!! Check out the #LighttheWorld campaign. It's awesome!! :)

Love,


Elder Brown

Wednesday, November 15, 2017

SO MANY Don't Know

Hello Everyone

Sooo in this mission, the assistants pretty much stay in Jakarta. We had a couple pretty crazy days where we didn't really go out and work, but for the most part, we finish what President needs and we go out to save souls :) Thank goodness because sitting in the office all day is not the most enjoyable thing haha. But life here is super great. My new companion Elder Sutadi is a stud. He is a ton of fun and it was also great to see Elder Grundvig for a couple days as he helped train me.

So we have a lot of awesome investigators - 4 that very well may be baptized next week - 1 man who has given up pretty much everthying to follow the Lord and do what God wants him to do. Then one family - so awesome. And ALL of them came to church and other investigators too. So that was really great and exciting. They need to be interviewed but we feel they are ready which is really exciting.

It's very strange to be back in jakarta and it was really hard to change my style of work back to Jakarta-style and not Manado-style, but it has been really good. I really do love Jakarta!  It;s great. We have already seen many miracles and we will see many more :) 

I just want everyone to know that I know what I am doing here is the work of the Lord. I don't mean to be prideful but i know that the Lord loves His children so much and he has created a plan for all of us to come back home to Him. 

But SO MANY people don't know about this plan. It centers around Jesus Christ as our Savior, that through Him we can return. But we also need to understand, to learn and to grow and to become more like Him. But to do so we have to understand truth and the truth that has been revealed to us from Jesus Christ. Now, what I tell people everyday is that this truth in its entirety has been restored through a man named Joseph Smith. It is on the earth today in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Because I know this, I have also come to know that I truly am a Son of God and that He loves me and has a plan for me and it has brought such happiness and peace. I know God loves each and every one of us - including the wonderful people of Jakarta. 

I would hope that everyone will put some serious pondering into their divine nature as a child of God. I love you all so much and I hope everyone is SO happy and I just know that the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ can make us even more happy than ever before.

I hope everyone has an amazing week! I hope you are all SO happy and laughing and smiling!! Semangat terus!

Elder Brown


HURRAH FOR ISRAEL

Monday, November 6, 2017

Back to Jakarta

Hello  - so sorry that I am just emailing.

Elder Brown's shoes are getting a little worn out
I moved to Jakarta today. President has asked me to be one of his assistants here in Jakarta so here I am with Elder Sutadi and Elder Grundvig. I will be companions with Elder Sutadi.

So that is exciting but I am rather sad to be leaving Manado and my bike and ice cream and all of that. haha

I've been flying or in meetings all day, so I don't have much time to write, so if you want you can send out an email apologizing for not emailing much today.

Grace is very kind - their whole family came (mother, father, 2 kids) came to church. Jefferson, Grace, Gabriel, Nia. 
 
So good to see the Schnells! Say hi!! 
Love Derek Crapo. Where is he now?

Sorry it's so late! I don't have a lot of time but if by some miracle, you are awake, please email me! (I was not awake at 2:45 am although I would have been if I knew he was emailing)

I love you so much!!

Trevor


Monday, October 30, 2017

Look for the Blessings and the Miracles

Selamat pagi semuanya!! Apa kabar??
How is everyone this week?? I hope are all happy and healthy! I hope everyone had a really great week. We had a pretty good week over here in Manado Indonesia! Lots of great times this week! Two big highlights - Sepeda (bicycls) and Es kreme (ice cream)! Now you may ask - what is important about bicycles and icSelamat pagi semuanya!! Apa kabar?? Well I'll tell you.
First things first (because Ice Cream should always be first #shoutouttoStephanieBrown), Elder McWhorter and I were looking at getting some ice cream on Pday, but Indonesia doesn't really have the best of Ice Cream and he was about to get the .75 liter one and I was like "Woah Elder Slow down. That .75 liter one is like 33000 Rupiah per liter, but if we got this 8 liter one, it's only 20000 Rupiah per liter." And the rest is history :) I have definitely eaten more ice cream this week, but then again, you can never have too much Ice Cream!
SO now  Bicycles! The once foot-borne Manado Elders now ride on wheels! Oh ya!!!!! That is what I am talking about! It has been so awesome and riding around mountainous Manado has felt so great! When you conquer the hill, you just feel like a boss #shoutouttoDrewBrown... So anyway that has been really fun.
I will try my best to send out pictures of both these wonderful occurences :)
But in reality, while those things were both fun, they were nowhere close to the best or most important parts of the week.
This week started off with a great DTM (District Training Meeting) or at least I thought it was great and i left feeling a greater urgency to share the wonderful truths of the gospel with the wonderful people of Manado. Then on Wednesday, I went on splits with Elder Wibowo who is a stud of a missionary and I leaned a lot from him and we were able to visit some inactive members and find some new investigators to teach. That was a really fun day and then after that Elder McWhorter and I just found so many people to teach who are just so great! It's really awesome, because we made some new Zone Goals and our Zone Leaders taught us that if we want to Baptize in November, we have to find those people now! so we are excited - although no one has yet accepted our challenge to be baptized by someone who truly holds the Priesthood authority of God, we know they felt the power of our message and we know it will bless their lives so greatly.
We even had a cool experience at church on Sunday where we had gone out to help our friend who didn't want to come in because he didn't feel his pants were nice and it was great as we were able to testify to him that the Savior Jesus Christ didn't care about his pants but the Savior cares about HIM. and as we did so another man walked past and we invited him to come to church and eventually they both came in!! It was awesome :) Also another friend that came ended up knowing one of the members, so she felt very comfortable at church and that was great! Anyways good week. We had a lot of fun!
This week President Rowley also asked us to focus on The Book of Mormon and how important it is to our message and how it can truly bring people closer to Christ. We had an awesome experience teaching a really great friend of ours that The Book of Mormon contains the fullness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I was able to testify that the book was true and that it would open the doors to personal revelation through the Holy Spirit so that he could overcome his problems. As I did, i felt the Spirit testifying to me that it was true! I know that the Book of Mormon is a book from God. And that takes nothing away from the Bible - I also know the Bible is the word of God. But at this time I want to testify that the Book of Mormon is of God and anyone who reads it WILL come closer to God. It testifies that Jesus Christ is the Savior and Redeemer of the world. I KNOW that is true. I love sharing it with the people of Indonesia and I love sharing it with you all who I love so much.
And I do love you. SO much!
I hope everyone has an amazing week. Look for the blessings and the miracles!
Love

Elder Trevor Brown

Tuesday, October 24, 2017

HURRAH FOR ISRAEL!!

Good Morning/Afternoon/Evening/Night everyone - depending on where you are in the world!! :)
I hope everyone had a fantastic week. WE certainly had a good week here in Manado! The week started off really fun last P-day. We got to go play Futsal(small field indoor Soccer) with a lot of members. Then on the way back we were riding an angkot(onhe of those small van things for public transportation) and it was just pouring rain and flooding in the street some. And the traffic was really bad haha and as many of you know, on Mondays we are supposed to return to regular missionary activities at 6:00 in the evening and we were going to be late because of the traffic. So we had to jump out of the angkot in the torrential downpour and start running toward our house. We were already a little tired from Futsal and we became totally soaked within minutes as the rain came down and the floods came up. Needless to say, it was awesome!! WE felt like soldiers because we had backpacks on as we ran and everyone was looking at us like "Who are these two crazy white people??" Haha such fun. My only regret was that Drew and Kyle weren't there to run with me. And to top it all off, we make it back and ALL the electricity on our street is out. So we have like 5 minutes to change and get back out the door... without any lights! It was an adventure :)
So that was a good start to the week. We had some great experiences with the Lord guiding our paths. We were headed up to an area on day and we got a text from an investigator asking if we could meet in the place we had just left. We felt that we should go back, so we jumped out of the angkot and within 5 seconds we met some people on a motorbike who wanted to meet. Then when we met them that night, one of our friends who we have been trying to help walked by and the guy we were meeting with said "Oh this is my daughter." so we were able to meet with her parents. It was a miracle to us that the Lord is putting us where we need to be so we can help who he needs us to.
We had another situation like that, we were headed home and we took just one last opportunity to talk to someone and then we met with him and he came to church this Sunday and we feel like he has truly been prepared to receive the truths of the restored gospel. So we are excited to teach him more.
We also had a chance to go with President Novan, the president of the branch in Manado, to go visit a man who's leg was just amputated. Even though physical and worldly pursuits aren't our main focus as missionaries, I had the opportunity to share with him the things that Dad had taught me about how knowledge is very powerful and how gaining knowledge is so important. I told him that through this recovery process, he could read and search and practice to learn and gain new skills (like programming or writing) and could begin his new life with a good start. (Thank you Dad!) and we talked about 2 Nephi 2:27 - one of my favorite verses, and how even in the hard times we can choose the Savior. We can choose to get up when we fall. We can choose who we will become. And for anyone who is having a hard time, I know that God will help you make those choices that bring happiness in this life and the life to come.
A lot of our investigators didn't make it to church this week which is so sad, because the Spirit is always there and we learn so much and when they don't come, they are missing out on so much. I wish everyone would just take the step of faith to come and they would see how all the things we share with them are so true and can truly bless their lives. Please pray for all of them to have greater faith. I'm learning this week about my own faith and the power of prayer and the necessity of prayer. I know that this is truly the Lord's work not mine and that I need to focus more on what HE wants, not what I want.
Sorry if that was a little jumbled! My thoughts can be pretty crazy. I am loving Manado and excited for this next week. I love you all and I really hope and pray that you are all doing well and loving life. If you are not - change!! Ask God how you can and need to change. He will help you!! Because He loves you and He wants you to be happy. That is my testimony. :)
I love you all!
Elder Brown

Tuesday, October 17, 2017

President Julian's Promise

Hello!!!
How is everyone this week?? I hope you just had a wonderful weeek with low stress and high productivity, happiness and laughter levels!
This week was honestly pretty normal for us. We didn't have that much unique happen. We started teaching a homeless boy. He is pretty cool and wants to prepare for baptism, but he has a lot of other needs that we just aren't quite sure how or if we can help. Pray for him. Also pray for R and family, because they are really awesome but they just need the strength to act and put in the effort to truly come unto Christ.
I got pretty sick this week - nothing bad, just made working harder. Just pushed through it and I'm on the mend. So grateful for President Julian's promise at the beginning of my mission that I would have the health to serve with all my might on my mission.
I also gave a talk in church about Matthew  7:24-27 about how we can be wise and build our foundation on Christ or to be more correct bagaimana kita bisa membangun landasan kita di atas Kristus :)
Then S (the other Elder's investigator) was baptized!!! I'll try to send pictures later.
Other than that, everything is just swell!! I am really loving my time here in Manado!! It is great!! Time is flying but I am loving it!!!! This truly is the Lord's work!! I still miss you all so much, but I am so grateful I can be here serving God's children in Indonesia!
I know that Jesus Christ truly is the and He invites ALL to come unto Him. He loves you all!
And I love you all! :)

Elder Brown

Wow- can you send me another like family picture if the Jensens? They are getter really big. Tell them all that I LOVE them!!

We visited a Confucian/Buddhist temple! Pretty cool. It was the Festival of the Mooncakes (I'm sure Drew knows about that!).  We want to see if there is a braille Book of Mormon! 
Not much vault training going on, but we do a little here and there. No bikes yet (which would help us get to a place that we could swing). The rings were in Surabaya! 

Tuesday, October 10, 2017

Man I Love Conference!

Hello my wonderful family and friends!!
Just checking in from Manado Indonesia! I actually am here and I sent pictures so those doubters(cough Spencer Jensen cough) can see that I did in fact move. I haven't gotten a really good picture of the beach at Sunset yet, but we'll snag one sometime. Also a lot of pictures from Zone Conference in Surabaya. We had a great week in Manado this week!
It ended great with General Conference! Although its always a little bit of a bummer to watch conference in Indonesian (not that I love Indonesian but I miss hearing the Prophet and Apostles' actual voices!). We had 7 friends come to conference which was really exciting - I hope they all felt the Spirit! I loved all the talks but especially President Nelsons about the Book of Mormon - it was just perfect for one of our investigators. Man I love conference.
Elder McWhorter(who is a stud) and I experienced many small miracles this week, most of them the Lord putting us just in the right place at just the right time. I will relate a few few your benefit.
1. Being a tad late to meet a member and seeing one of old investigators walk by at the precise moment.
2. Walking down one side of the street and seeing a man on the other side and Elder McWhorter going to talk to him because Elder McWhorter rocks. He doesn't have eyes at all. He was waiting for his wife and we invited him to wait at the church instead because we were going there for English Class. We ended leaving him there because we didn't want his wife to not find him. Then in the middle of English Class, he walks right in haha! Then the next day guess who walks in right in the middles of conference. He and his wife-we are going to go visit them this week.
3. Walking down the street just to see some people we had met previously to invite them to conference.
4. Our investigator calling over some random girls who wanted a photo with the bules(white guys). Ended up figuring out one was related t our investigator #bringingpeopletogether and they were interested and came to conference the next day.
5. My investigator in Jakarta was baptized!
So anyway lots of miracles. I really enjoy working with Elder McWhorter. We might get bikes this week which would be legit.
I just want to say how much I loved General Conference (if you don't know what general conference is, check it out!). I have a testimony that those men truly are prophets in a very literal sense called of God. I love hearing their words and their messages from God. Their testimonies of Jesus Christ are just so powerful. I add my testimony to theirs that he truly lives and as President Eyring says He truly did Atone for your sins. I love you all! I hope everything is going swell and that this next week will be the best one yet!
Love,

Elder Brown

Monday, September 25, 2017

Hello from Manado!!

Manado is GREAT!! It is SO different from everywhere else, just the feel is pretty different. It's more of a small town. Am I really that far away?? Wow.

I love it here already!  it's really beautiful. it's cool , so many people are Christian here, so it makes the way we work pretty different! It's been great so far. Elder McWhorter is one of a kind! He is a great missionary. He is so nice and fun and happy and he works really hard. His testimony is so  powerful - it is incredible!

But ya, last week was pretty crazy. I went on Tuesday to the mission home at Senopati and really enjoyed MLC there with all the Zone leaders and Sister Training Leaders and then slept in that house. In the morning, we flew to Surabaya and I got to work a day or so with Elder Siddoway and Wijaya, that was great!! I LOVED riding a bike again, even if it was only for a day!! Didn't feel the earthquake though, Then we had Zone Conference on Friday, which was really great!! We learned a lot. We've been doing a lot of role-play which is really helping us become more powerful teachers. One of the senior missionaries told me that elder McWhorter and I taught really well together, which was cool because we had never taught together at all before that.

Then on Saturday, we flew in to Manado and it is AWESOME!! It honestly feels more like Hawaii than Indonesia haha. I really love it though! We will see so many miracles here!! I am so excited.

Church was really great and the branch is cool! They usually have about 70 in attendance!

Anyways, everything is great.  Oh ya one thing more - it's interesting, because there are two houses here, so Elder McWhorter and I live alone, so that is a new experience for me!!
The house was really dirty when I came in, but we did some good cleaning!
I had to teach 3rd hour priesthood yesterday (I was told about 20 minutes before). We talked about family scripture study - so thank you for always being a great example of that!! You are amazing!!
I really like this new city but it is definitely different!! Here churches will play music and sermons over the loud speakers which is so different than in other cities haha!! I hope everything is going super great with everyone!!

So yeah everything is great!
Elder Brown

Tuesday, September 19, 2017

Moving to Manado

Hello my good family and friends!!

I hope you all had a stupendous week full of happiness and heealthiness!

Exciting news of the week: President called to tell me that I am moving - I have been given a new assignment in . . . MANADO!! Which means that I am going off of Java! There are only two missionary areas that are off of Java -  Medan (on the island of Sumatra) and Manado (on the island of Sulawesi). So that's pretty cool! I don't know if you remember, Mom, but when i first recieved my mission call, we looked up all the crazy Indonesian food. Turns out that most of the crazy stuff we saw  is actually from Manado haha! It will certainly be an adventure to go off of Java and experience another side of the culture, though I will be very sad to leave Jakarta.

I told President Rowley last week that I wanted to stay in Jakarta until the end of my mission. Obviously President doesn't put too much weight in my advice haha. So no, he didn't listen to me, and i am sad to leave, but excited for a new adventure. Leaving everyone was really hard on Sunday. I took a lot of pictures after church. Goodbyes can always be rough.
 
But in other positive things - my new companion will be Elder McWhorter - who is a stud of a man. I will technically be finishing up his training, which in mission terms makes me a "step-dad", but he is way awesome so that will be great! I also have the chance to be in the same city as my old MTC companion Elder Bennet!! So that's cool and his companion Elder Wibowo is a super great guy too. I will be really sad to leave Elder Johnson - I have LOVED serving with him. He is a fantastic person, a great friend and a wonderful missionary. i'll miss him and the entire district a lot!! Jakarta really is amazing.

The week wasn't the most killer week we've ever had, but we still saw many miracles. One highlight of the week is that i was able to go on Exchanges with my good friend Elder Forston. We saw many miracles - we met so many cool people. we had the chance to give a new investigator a date for baptism, so Elder Johnson and his new companion Elder Hunt will help him progress towards that. Also we made an appointment with a contact and he brought four friends and we had a killer lesson in McDonalds! Even with the loud worldly music, I felt the Spirit strongly testify of the truths of the restoration.

One of our other progressive investigators came to church and he went in to the bathroom and was in there for a long time. When we eventually went in to check, we realized that he had just figured out how to put on his tie and he said "It's been a really long time since I've worn a tie" and we thought it was so cool that he wanted to wear his very best for the Lord. He also told us that he as stopped drinking tea and coffee and smoking (which are all parts of the the health code that we follow in our church) so that was great. We hope he can be baptized either this coming Sunday or the next!
 
SO yeah it was a really good week as always. It's really strange too be leaving Jakarta. I will certainly miss it. But on to another adventure!!

I love you all! I know the work I am doing here is truly the work of God, because I have seen so many changes in  my investigators, in my companions and in myself as we all have learned more about the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. I know it is true.


Love Elder Brown

Tuesday, September 12, 2017

The only bearded missionary

Selamat hari Senin semua teman dan keluarga terkasihku!
Or as we say in the States Happy Monday my beloved friends and family!

I hope everyone had an awesome week! I hope everyone is happy and healthy! We had a pretty good week this, actually a week that was luar biasa!

We had a lot of fun. There was a companionship that was struggling in our zone and we gave the what I have began to call (or right at this moment will begin to call) the "Perfect-Missionary Challenge". So we decided that for this week we would do our very best to do everything just like a perfect missionary would do it - so 100% exact obedience, talking to EVERYONE, and the like. Then every night we would call and report how well we did. and I am certainly not a perfect missionary but it certainly helped the four of us do better this. It was great! Many times I didn't want to talk to someone but I did because I knew I needed to be a better missionary and I saw many miracles :)

One cool miracle we saw this week - we did a district fast on Saturday for our investigators. Elder Johnson and I just about died but with great perseverance (and a tad of complaining:) we managed to endure. And within 30 minutes of breaking our fast, the two investigators that we had fasted for texted us to tell us that they would come to church! And they both did! Yay! I know that as we sacrifice, we can receive the gift of faith and strength from God. Even with just a small sacrifice, God blessed us SO much. That was a really great experience!

Church was another miracle - we were sitting in the English ward and in walks one of our old investigators out of the blue. That was way exciting. He told us that He had been in Malaysia for the last two months. So that was  really great, and he even brought a friend! It was great.

We found some new people to teach and had to drop some of our old investigators. #evilcunningnessofsatan that's always a bummer, but the Lord is preparing people to receive our message, I know that!

Another thing that happened - i developed some kind of skin condition on my face... ya not fun haha. BUT, what it means, is that I have a beard. I know that was a little abrupt, but because of the scabs and stuff Sister Rowley told me not to shave so I am officially in the mission and potentially in the world haha. So that's kind of funny. But don't worry, it's pretty much healed up, so I should be unbearded again soon! So no worries :) I'll send pictures of my beard haha. It's kind of lame because I don't really look like a missionary, so hopefully it will come off soon, so I can be a better representative of Christ... but than again almost every representation of Christ has a beard... I don't think President Rowley would go for that logic though haha.

Oh ya, one other cool experience we had. We were trying to inspire a companionship of Sisters in our zone, so we just called them up and asked what their plans were. They were planning to go contacting in the kampung (meaning they would walk around and ask people for other people to teach, then you go visit them - actually works pretty well). Anyways that was the same thing that we were planning on doing, so I said "Oh great, well we have a goal to find two new investigators and we want to give the same challenge to you." but the only thing was we realized we only have an hour and a half because we had an appointment later that day. So we just decided to pray and work our hardest with faith. We ended up finding four new investigators. I share this story just to show how much this truly is the Lord's work and not ours. Faith is truly a powerful thing. We believed that the Lord could lead us to people prepared to receive and because of that faith,  we went to go find those people and the Lord blessed us so that we could find them. Really this work cannot be done with out the Lord. IT cannot be done with out His direction.

Anyway, life is really great!! I hope that everyone is having such a great day! and you all have a great week! I know that as I saw throughout my week, the Lord is truly aware of us and He really wants to help us all in the things that are important to us. He wants to help us do that which is right in His sight. I know He loves us. And that is why I am in Indonesia telling everyone about a loving God who cares enough to give us guidance today, who cares enough to call a prophet and build His church on the earth.

I love you all so much!

Elder Trevor Brown


HURRAH FOR ISRAEL

Monday, September 4, 2017

Kebebasan Untuk Milah

Hello to the world!!

How was the week?? Did everyone smile and sing and laugh and just love life? I hope so! I also hope everyone had a chance to help someone else this week!

For us the week was pretty biasa (or as we say in America - normal). But also great as always!! The beginning of the week is honestly just a blur. I pretty much can't remember it haha. Time has been weird lately - my time in Malang seems like it was merely days ago, but the beginning of this week feels like it was years ago.

Well one really notable thing is that we had the chance to split on Friday. We brought up Elder Fowler and Elder Widigdo from Bekasi. I got to go on Splits with Elder Fowler (my good friend who was my District Leader back in Malang). It was AWESOME. Tons of fun! We had some great experiences together with a healthy dose of miracles. Two guys we found out in the kampung (or like the more neigborhoody part) were really awesome. One of them, who seemed like he was about to violently reject our entire message, took the Kitab Mormon and said "I'm so excited to read this, it will help me re-strengthen my faith in Jesus Christ" And I was like "Yeah it will!!" Two great lessons about how to not judge others and to never underestimate the power of truth from God!

I learned so much from Elder Fowler, even though he is nearing the end of his mission, he is still working so hard and is such a wonderful example of pure love for those he serves. He also said the split helped him as well, which boosted my confidence and made me feel great!

Our investigators are doing well, but some have been difficult to meet with. Pak F came to church and i think he really enjoyed it. It was really cool - he and  Brother B (who was baptized recently) had a cool talk where they basically testified to each other about the truth that is found in the restored church of Jesus Christ. So that was great.

We got a new Uskup (Bishop today) - Uskup Daniel. He is awesome and we are excited about that! We also got to attend the baptism of an 8 year old in the English Ward. Good Sunday!

SO yeah we are working hard, because we know that there truly are people here that God is preparing to receive the message of the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Our new Bishop was supposed to teach in Gospel Principles class (which is the Sunday School class that is mostly intended for people invsestigating the church and for new members) but obviously he was otherwise occupied. So he asked me to teach for him. I had the opportunity to teach about "Kebebasan Untuk Milih" or "The Freedom to Choose". That was really fun because I love that subject. I don't know if anyone else learned, but I certainly did, about Free Agency and how we are all free to choose what we will do and as consequence where we will go and who we will become. It is really incredible, after all is said and done, it is truly up to us. 

And because of Jesus Christ, we truly can choose. Because of his redeeming power, if we want to repent, if we want to become better, we CAN. As we trust in and believe in Jesus Christ, we are given the power to choose our destiny, in a very literal sense. Every choice will bring us closer to Christ or further away from him. As we yield to te enticings of the Holy Spirit (as we learn in Mosiah 3:19) and make the right choices, we can become who God desires us to be. I'm sorry, i don't mean to preach, but it is such a sign of God's love for us that He allows us to choose. I know that Jesus truly suffered for our sins so that we can repent. I testify that each of us CAN choose what is right and we can become who we desire to be, and if we desire, we can become who God wants us to be.

So let's all make good choices :)

Everyone have an amazing week!!

Love,

Elder Brown

Saturday, September 2, 2017

All things Indonesian

Hello my wonderful family!!!

I hope you are happy and smiling and laughing and loving :)

A lot of great things happened this week for us. It was actually a week with lots of ups and downs. kind of a hard week in some ways but totally an AWESOME week in most ways.

One hard thing was that both Elder Johnson and I had some sicknesses, but we are mostly over them (meaning I am fully over it and Elder Johnson is not, poor guy). On top of all that Elder Johnson even got an eye-infection. The struggle is real.

But besides all of that, we had a good week. We started everything with Tuesday on with an awesome time at MLC (Mission Leadership Council) and we learned so much. We did a bunch of role plays and learned a ton about how we can teach so much better than we have been. It's interesting, because this is the work of the Lord and the Holy Spirit is the only one who can truly teach to their hearts. But we learned so much about how we can teach better to bring the Spirit and to help our investigators feel that Spirit. It was great and we were really stoked to put it into practice.

The only issue was that the next day we had DTM at Senopati and then we had a meeting at Senopati at 5:00 with President Djarot the Stake President of the Jakarta Stake and that was all super good, but the problem is Senopati (which is the Church offices in Indonesia) is not even in our area. So we spent all of both Tuesday and Wednesday away from our area which can always be rough. But on a side note, Wednesday night, President Rowley invited Elder Johnson and I to go eat dinner with him and Sister Rowley. That was just a really great experience to be able to talk to them in a informal setting. They are really amazing people with many really cool stories.

But the rest of the week we saw a lot of miracles. Sadly our friend got sick so she wasn't able to come to church. That was a bummer, but she's still doing really great! We went to go teach them and it was so great. As we walked up, we saw through the window that she was sitting reading the Book of Mormon. My heart just about melted haha.

And then today after Church, we didn't really have a good plan. it had been kind of a rough week and I feel the Lord really just put things in place for us. We were able to find 5 new investigators. Two of whom were from a Island in Eastern Indonesia. We just had a really powerful lesson with them and they committed to read the Book of Mormon!!

So yeah great week. I wish I had an abundance of funny stories t tell to make you laugh your heads off, but I can't think of a single thing.

But this week I have gained a testimony of second chances. We all mess up and sometimes it feels like we're just too far gone. Its too late to fix it. But it's not!! Because of Jesus Christ we can have clean slates, we can have second chances. It is NEVER too late. You haven't been the Dad, Mom, Brother, Sister, worker, student, boss, disciple you want to be? Change it now. You can! With the help of God, there is absolutely nothing that is impossible! 

Stephanie told me once "It is never the wrong time to be who you want to be." 

It is so true and we truly CAN become the people we want to be! I know that is true. I know that Jesus Christ is the Savior of all mankind. He lived and died for us and He truly does live again.

I love you all so much.
Have an amazing week. Be a little kinder, help others a little more and be happy :)


Love Elder Brown

Sunday, August 13, 2017

Why I Am Here

Hello my wonderful family!!!

How are you all?? How was this week?! I hope it was amazing! I hope you all laughed and sang and smiled and maybe even cried a bit (but definitely not too much crying!). And most, I hope you made some else laugh and sing and smile (but not cry haha).
Wow I just love you all so much!

Okay so highlight of the week - Pak B was baptized this Sunday!! As in yesterday, that is! It was so great, all throughout Church the members were SO accepting and welcoming to him! Our Elder's Quorum President had him stand up and introduced him and he was mentioned and welcomed in the Sacrament talks and also it was a great Baptismal service after. He asked me to baptize him, which was a great honor! He's elderly, but he's still strong so there weren't any problems. Anyway he is so great and he is so funny. He made us all laugh during Gospel Principles. Anyways, it was just a really great experience!
But the rest of our week was just crazy - sadly we had a lot to do that took a lot of time from our actual missionarry work.
So this is kind of a short summary of our week:

Monday: P-day, didn't do that much just kind of relaxed and then had a good appointment that night.

Tuesday: We went to Bekasi to interview one of the Bekasi Elders' Investigators for Baptism. She was really prepared and had a strong testimony. Great experience!

Wednesday: We went to be interviewed by President in preparation for PLD (or Zone Conference with President). In West Java, we combine both the Jakarta Zone (Jakarta, Bekasi, Medan) and the Batagor(Bandung, Tangerang, Bogor) Zone. IT was way fun because I also had to get my Kitas ( a part of the visa) so my entire MTC group came in and we went together to get our Kitas renewed. It was SO fun to see all of them. Wow, they are all so amazing! Such incredible missionaries and people! It was just wonderful to see them all - it took us back to the great times together in the MTC. So after that we also had interviews and we had to order all the food for PLD, so that took a lot of time which was frustrating, but it was important as well!

Thursday: we went on splits with the District leader and his companion. I got to go with Elder Tracy ( who is an amazing person and great friend ). We went and interviewed Pak B, because we literally could not find a workable time with our District Leader Elder Gasio. So that was great and then we had to go back and pick up another missionary because they had come from Bandung for interviews and we didn't want them just wandering around Jakarta themselves. I was with Elder Sukarlis, which was WAY fun, since I haven't seen him much since Magelang days.
Friday: PLD. This was great - we learned a lot about how to teach like the Savior! It was great. Elder Johnson and I did a role play and it was great because President was able to give us specific council about how to improve our teaching. We learned a ton and it is always such a blessing to be with all the amazing missionaries in our mission.

Saturday: President asked us to speak at the Stake Ward Mission Leader and Bishopric meeting - a little nerve-wracking haha but great. And then we got roped into translating for the general priesthood session - which was great, but again a lot of time. We filled up the baptismal font while this was happening. Later that night, about 10:00, Elder Johnson turned to me and said "Elder, we forgot too turn off the water." My heart just dropped. SO we had to make the call of shame to the Assistants, jump in a taxi go turn it off and get home. Got to bed a bit late haha. But thankfully a wise man had designed the baptismal font to self drain and nothing was flooded!
Sunday: great day with Church and Brother B's baptism!

It was a sweet experience to see Pak B be baptized and to hear his testimony and see how he has changed. It just reminds me of why I am here doing this. I am here to bring others unto Christ the Savior of the world. I have been thinking about Mosia 2:41 and about the blessed and happy state of those who keep the commandments of God. I just know that God loves us. We ARE His work and His glory. Everything He does is truly for us. And He has given us the Gospel of Jesus Christ and all the commandments to bless US. not for himself, but for US! Isn't that amazing?
I know that as we follow His path, that is what will bring us the MOST happiness in life.

I love you all SO SO much!! Have a fantastic week!! and don't forget to share smiles with everyone you meet :)


Love Elder Brown

Monday, August 7, 2017

Splits with whip cream and syrup

We had a pretty crazy week.
Monday was biasa aja(just normal). Elder Johnson likes to just rest and take it easy on p-days, so we just emailed, cleaned and slept/wrote some letters. So hopefully you all will be getting some soon (sorry I'm pretty bad at that haha). 

Selasa(Tuesday) was pretty great. We spent the night at the Assistants house on Monday and went on splits with them on Tuesday. I got to go with my good friend Elder Grundvig, who is a STELLAR missinary. It was a ton of fun. At one point, we had an appointment at the church but we awkwardly realized that we didn't have keys to the church right before our appointment, so we had to find somewhere to sit down to teach. We saw this cafe and we went in but we thought we have to buy something. it was all SUPER expensive, so we got the cheapest thing, not really knowing what it was haha. never the best idea. Luckily it wasn't beer or Champagne like Steph experienced but it was this one tiny thing that cost twenty times what we usually paid for it uggh haha. But it was a good appointment. We also got to teach a referral that I had given to them, so that was cool. Anyways just an all around great day, awesome to work with Elder Grundvig. 

Then that night, we made... WAFFLES!! Because the assistants have a waffle iron, but they have never used it! We were all stoked, we bought syrup and REAL whipped cream. Sadly we are all terrible at making waffles, so it was kind of a disaster. But hey, you put whipped cream and syrup on anything, it's pretty delicious!

Wednesday and Thursday were just normal.
On Friday, we brought our Bekasi District Leader Elder Forston (who is my beloved friend from the MTC) and his new companion, fresh from the states Elder Earl up to split with them. It was awesome!! I got to go with Elder Earl - he is a way cool kid from Utah. Super positive and just a great missionary. We had an awesome and quite unique day haha We had four different appointments at the church and also taught English Class. So we were just at the church pretty much the entire, which is a good thing because we were teaching the entire day, but it was definitely weird to be at the church that long. it was great though - we found a new investigator and taught some other investigators that are progressing. We also saw some miracles as we tried to use our 10 and 30 minute breaks to go outside and contact people! 

Then after that day, we went back to Bekasi and do splits on Saturday with another companionship in Bekasi! That was way fun - I got to go with Elder Gomez, an Elder from the Philippines. That was way fun. He's still pretty new, but a great missionary. He was trained by my boy Elder Hansen, so of course he is way fantastic. So anyways a lot of fun! We had a good time and we felt the Spirit leading us.
But the thing is on Sunday- I was WAY tired. I was just dead. Elder Johnson and I were walking around contacting that evening and I felt like I almost fainted (then again it was also Fast Sunday haha)! But we had a great Sunday! four simpatisan came! Brother B should be getting baptized next week, so that is pretty exciting! 

We had a pretty crazy experience and we kind of have a feeling that we've been getting phone calls from an Angel haha. we don't know if anything will come from it, but there was just too many coincidences, so we will follow up on that for sure haha. just kind of a cool experience.

Whether or not that was from the Spirit guiding us or not, I do know that the work we are doing is truly the work of God. I know that He leads this work. I know that Jesus Christ is truly our Savior and He loves each and every one of us. And because He loves us, He called Joseph Smith to be a prophet so that the true and living Gospel of Jesus Christ was restored in its fullness. I know that Christ leads this Church and I know He leads this work. I'm so grateful for the chance I have to be part of it! It is incredible.
I love you all and I hope you all have an amazing week.


Elder Brown

Tuesday, August 1, 2017

I love my Savior Jesus Christ

Hey Mommy!
It's been a bit rough this week with finding those other three, we have one who made a baptismal commitment but didn't make it to church so we were kind of bummed about that. But hopefully there is sincere desire and commitment to follow Jesus Christ.

Elder Boenari lives in Bekasi which is really just a section of Jakarta. His English is good, but my Indonesian has also become much better since those days haha!

A lot of really good things happened this week. MLC was this week - that was a great meeting that I hope will inspire us all to work harder, have greater faith and rely more on the Lord! We also went on a split with the Jakarta District Leader this last week. I went with ELDER Daniel Gasio. He is AWESOME! I loved the time we spent together! It was a great day!! We also had some good lessons! We got to teach a pastor which was pretty fun - we'll see him again next week!
PB came to church again, so we were glad about that! We think he will be ready to be baptized in a couple of weeks.

So everything is going great, sorry I can't really think of anything else.

I am really working on my ability to follow the Spirit and rely on the Lord. It's hard!! I think a large part of it is just why am I here and really what is motivating me to be here. Also the love I have for the Lord and for the people here!

Anyway, I love you all so much!! I miss you!
I know that we are truly God's children - each of us and that He loves us and I want to share that with everyone. I love my Savior Jesus Christ and I know that He also loves all you as well!!
Have an amazing week!!


Elder Brown

Ate some awesome food!

Got a package from Stephanie!


Sunday, July 23, 2017

Call up the Mormon Missionaries!


We had kind of a rough week with a lot of things that fell through - but also a lot of success when we look back at the week!  a lot of great experiences, which I'm having a hard time thinking of right now haha... We had one miracle on monday night, where we had no idea what to do and we prayed that someone would pick up their phone... and then... they did not pick up their phones haha! So we decided to go look for an old investigator with a non clear address and when we stopped at the wrong house to ask if that was the right address, they ended up letting us in and letting us share about the Book of Mormon and the Restoration. One Doddie Latuharhary, turns out is a semi famous singer from Ambon which is East Indonesia! Look him up on youtube haha! So that's kind of awesome!! 

Life is just really great!  This week our investigator came to church and he was telling everyone that he is getting baptized on the 30th of July so that was cool!! We'll be helping him get ready for it! We have a goal in our Zone to baptize 6 people in July, which is much more then ever before since I've been here. We are on track for 5 and Elder Johnson and I feel that we as the zone Leaders just need to make it happen, so we are working really hard!

But it is greeat!!! We met some great people and I certainly strengthened my own testimony of this restored gospel and the reality of God the Father and Jesus Christ.. I know they are truly real and they live and what's more they love and care about us. If you have doubts about that - call up the Mormon missionaries and we'll help you know how you can know that too and find the peace and joy and happiness that comes in consequence of that knowledge! I love you all so much!!


Elder Brown