Magelang and Malang Musical Chairs

Very cool for Steph and Janson! (family members headed to the mission field soon) And so sorry and of course praying for Joelle and Aunt Sabrina! (great friend and loved Aunt suffering from the same brain cancer). Please send them all my LOVE!!

I'm sorry mom - I feel like I kind of brought everything perfect for what I needed (I asked him for advice on things Stephanie may want to bring that he forgot). By the way - those CTR socks are really good!! I probably would have brought a bigger suitcase Mom. Packing is always a challenge!

Life is way good here!! Elder Hansen and I had an awesome week - we taught a lot of people!! And on Sunday one of our long term investigators came and two new guys from Papua that the Sisters met - they are super cool!! They missed Sacrament meeting but came to Asas Asas Injil I mean Gospel Principles class! That was fun!! We walked in and they were like "oh yeah, it's the missionaries turn to teach!" so I had to teach haha which is always hard and a little stressful especially if there are new investigators there! We also went to Priesthood with the young Men so that was fun!! Those two Papuans are named N  and M!

We haven't been able to meet with A again so pray for him!! But we've also been finding a lot of cool new people to teach!

There was also a big surprise this week! We were teaching English Class and President Rowley called and he was like "Hey I'm sending Elder Fowler to Magelang!" (SO just after I left, all the Magelang Elders got arrested. So they had to stay in the house for a week only leaving to eat and stuff.   The after affect was that most of the Magelang Elders moved. and the guy who replaced me Elder Ostermiller switched with Elder Fowler, and is here now). So anyways I am now companions with Elder Ostermiller. He's an awesome buff football player and a great guy from Rexburg area. And Elder Hansen and Wijaya are companions - so that also means that I am now the District Leader in Malang. I still have no idea how to do that so it's a little stressful, but fun!!

Life is way good!!!! I learned so much about God's eternal plan this week and why the Atonement of Jesus Christ is SO important and I add my humble testimony that Jesus really did Atone for our sins and He really is our Savior. I testify that He has called a prophet on this Earth to lead and guide us. It just shows how incredibly great His love is for us!

LOVE YOU ALL!!!

Elder Brown

I Love Life!

Mother!! Good... night!!! I love you!!

question- Did Hawaii really get snow????You mentioned that earlier!

Everything sounds awesome! GO AUNT SABRINA!! She's pretty amazing!!!

Don’t worry I am pretty particular about the clothes too haha.  Yes, some of the pants have split a bit - but I fixed them :) and haven't bought anymore here - honestly these four might last me all the way through! The shirts are getting pretty terrible - I'm sure I can buy more somewhere but I haven't looked yet! I'm trying to figure out how to whiten or bleach them - any suggestions? I also have some unused ones at the mission home that I was planning on grabbing when I go to renew my visa around the year mark!

Yeah - I've got a lot of ties - I really like the batik ones- they're fun! :)

Awesome for Brooke and Jansen - which mission is he again???

Who's Stephy's new mission president?

Keep it up on the Book of Mormon - that is SO important!! ALWAYS start with a prayer - sorry that's my best suggestion! And maybe keep a little scripture journal writing down thoughts and impressions! :)

So a little about my week...

Elder Hansen was sick! We came home early on Thursday and he stayed in all Friday and Saturday. But luckily Saturday I got to go out and work half the day with Elder Fowler and half the day with Elder Wijaya!!  I almost wanted to stay home and just rest but after working that day I just felt so great and way better than I would have had I been cooped up all day in the house! But we also saw some miracles!

Our new simpatisan Mas A (who we met on the street and came to the Christmas activity) he accepted a baptismal commitment! I'm so excited to help him prepare for this amazing step in his life! Baptism for the remission of sins is SO cool! It's really like being born again and starting a new life which is so amazing! And I love it because you get to begin a new life founded on Christ which is a certain recipe for joy (not easiness but JOY)!! So amazing to help these people change their lives like this!!

Also I heard from the Magelang crew that both my investigators Mas H and Sister E were baptized in the recent weeks! So cool!!! :) The Magelang Elders also hiked Sumbing without me :(

We also met a lot of cool people this week who are all so amazing! We met one "inactive" Sister who is only inactive because she has cancer but she is INCREDIBLE!! Her testimony is so strong!!! Sister S - she's incredible!

Also yesterday President Iwan who is a counselor in our Mission Presidency (and he is just amazing) took us to the Hospital to visit people and we happened to meet and take a picture with this super important guy named Pak Hasyim (I can’t remember his last name) but he used to be the Indonesian Vice President! That was cool!!!

Also something funny - people here often wear English things and say English words but don't know what it means! SO the other day this little kid flips me off and then uses the F-word at me but he just said it so nicely!! I have never heard the F-word used so nicely haha because he just thought it was cool he speak some English words to me haha!

People here are so incredible! Even a Sister who was sick at the hospital insisted on giving us cake and snacks even though she was the sick one ha-ha!!

Man Mommy I love life!! Miss you so much but I love it here!!

I have felt this week the love of Christ for these people in Indonesia! I have felt hi help me as I struggle to do his work here!!! I know HE is watching out for us and all of you!! because he loves us!!!

I know He leads this church and I know he leads His Prophet Thomas S. Monson on the Earth today! I know that Jesus Christ and Allah gave us the Book of Mormon and it is firman Allah... I mean the Word of God!!

I love you all!!!!!

Love Elder Trevor Brown

Goat Teeth and Testimony

MOMMY,

Elder Brown loves Eagles.  What a treat for him.

I am so glad you to the package! That was fast! Or maybe just time is going fast! So, all that stuff I bought for you was in total probably about 40 dollars.... pretty crazy huh!!! I know the apron is Beautiful!! But you may certainly use it - I won't be offended! :) So glad you got it! The "MYB" rings stand for "Memilih yang benar" I think you know what that means!!! Life is good here in Malang!!! We've been working hard and seen a lot of little miracles though to be completely honest we don't really have any progressing investigators which can be frustrating! But life is good!! I'm really trying to figure out how I can be more in tune with the Spirit so I can learn how to do God's will rather than my own because I know he has plans for us. I know He loves the people here and wants them to receive the blessings of the gospel but if we want to help him we have to do our part to receive that revelation from the Holy Spirit! We've done a lot of RT contacting and we've had a good week. We've been rejected pretty hard here too - harder than I ever have in Magelang haha!!

We've ate some pretty weird food - one of which was "Kepala Kambing \"

or goat head. IT was disgusting!! I chose my piece t\only to realize that there were teeth on it. Yes teeth! THe whole row of teeth was still on it and according to the member who was with is Goat head is delicious. CRAZY! and sometime Sister Xiao in our district wants to eat "Hedgehog Sate" together or in other words Hedgehos Kebabs... so that's cool!! I sent you a picture of some delicious fruit salad I made - the dragon fruit makes everything purple haha.

So fun that Steph gets to stay there with you guys for a little bit!!

Being Santa at the branch party.

Now she knows what it was like for me when they all left (aka awesome!! because Mom and Dad are the best!!).

So we have a couple of investigators – one who knows everything comes to church almost every week but he has to wait to get baptized or his family will get super mad and disown him and stuff.

Then there’s another guy who also knows and believes the gospel is all true - we walk into our lesson with him and I don’t know anything about him and he's like "So I have a question- so King Benjamin..." and he just tells us all these things about King Benjamin and I'm like "Why are you not baptized?" but he just doesn't feel like it’s the right time...

So we're also working hard to find new investigators!!

But life is good! No real adventures this week (besides everyday!).

Malang is a lot like Magelang weather wise. the apartment and the church are both pretty good sized!

Food here is pretty unhealthy Mommy haha and we pretty much always eat outside the apartment but we've been running and even playing a little tennis in the mornings so I feel pretty good!!

Well everyone I love you so much! I have a testimony of what Nefi teaches that God will always provide a way for us - always!!! When we are trying to do what he wants us to do he will show us the way!!!

Miracles are coming here and I can't wait to tell you about them!!!

LOVE YOU

Boxing Day at the Beach!

Mommy!!!!!

Life is so good!!! I was SO SO SO excited to talk to you guys!!! It was so weird being on this side of the Christmas Skype call! But it just made me incredibly happy to see you all and hear your voices! Wow!! So fun!!!! Sorry I was such a crybaby at the end - it was really not at all because I was sad! It's just that I love you so much!!!!! Sorry probably can't write all that much! The beach was really fun though we had to be quick because Skype took longer than it should have and the beach was a little far away! But awesome! did you get the pictures?

Malang is pretty cool!!! I'm with elder Hansen who is awesome!! and then with Elder Wijaya and Elder Fowler and then we have Sisters which is pretty cool and a new things for me - Sis Xiao and Sister Angelie! Super fun!! The work in Malang right now is pretty slow - we don’t really have investigators and we've been trying hard to find more!! That's a lot of fun  - a lot of proselyting to RTs!! IT's great! The members here are really awesome! We have about 90 active (much bigger than Magelang) and then a LOT inactive! We’re e working on that! So fun!! Life is just so good!!! Especially after getting to talk to you even though I wish we could skype every week!!!! Mom when I get home and go to college I wasn’t to talk to you like every day!! That was so great!!!!

 

We got haircuts today and that was super nice!! Daddy, you know how we usually paid like 14 dollars for a haircut? Well this one was 75 cents and we even get a brief massage afterwards - so cool!!! Man I am starving right now (sorry that was random!!). YOu know Indonesia is so funny - sorry random again! We have people that we meet tell us that they see Jesus - it happens all the time - just yesterday this guy told us that Jesus drove him on a motorcycle. But you know I believe in miracles so I don't judge! ;) Life is great!

 

Mom the Christmas cookies were actually a young women’s activity we just went to the Jeffrey’s after the activity and enjoyed the spoils!! We don’t see monkeys all that often (but we do see rats!) so fun - right? and mom sadly that beach is different because that bridge looks AWESOME!!!!

LOVE YOU SO MUCH MOMMY AND ANYONE ELSE THAT SEES THIS!!!!

Jesus Christ lives!! He was borne and through him we can truly repent and be cleansed from our sins! And that is incredible!!!! Life is great! I love it here!!

Elder Trevor Brown

Mas H in Magelang got baptized – SO exciting!