it's really impossible not to be happy and excited

Mom

I was actually just going to ask you about Brendan!! Great you got to see him and Conner - every time you see anyone, tell them I love them! I was also wondering if you could tell me how Zoe and Kylee and Bethany and those guys are doing! Also who are the people graduating in our ward this year?

If you don’t mind, I'm just going to jump into highlights from my week! It was a good week!

It was SO great to talk to you all last week - like Heaven on Earth :)

It was super fun to be a threesome with Elders Subagio and Grundvig last week and now it's nice to be just the two of us again. We totally thought Elder Subagio was moving - but turns out not - yay!

We met a lot of realy cool people this week! Many of whom were actually referrals from Elders Bell and McKeon who are some pretty fantastic missionaries!  We now have 5 people committed to be baptized and more on the way! They are not quite ready yet, but as we work together, I am so excited to see these amazing people come closer to our Saviour Jesus Christ through faith and repentance and when they are ready baptism! Wahoo!

We met a really cool guy from Africa! He randomly showed up to Stake Conference - pretty miraculour, because he showed up to the normal building and coincidentally another brother visiting from America showed up too but no one was there! So together they figured out it was stake conference and showed up together! Then, that night, we taught the man from Africa and at the end of the lesson he said "I would like to baptized... next week". So that was really cool! His faith in Jesus Christ is INCREDIBLY strong! It was a privilege to get to teach and learn with him and I'm excited to see his progression!

Life is just so good! I love seeing the truth change people's lives! So many people are just searching and they just want to come closer to God and find truth and every day I get to share my personal testimony that Jesus Christ lives and has restored His truth to the earth. It's pretty awesome!

Some other good things:

I bought a backpack a couple weeks ago- it's super awesome!

I made biscuits MoM!! i had no shortening a, so I used oil and it actually turned out a lot like yours - they were way good!

We have a big, mission wide meeting with Elder Soares this week - that will be so fun!!! I'm stoked about that!

I've been working really hard to be kinder and happier and love more! Elder Bell taught me that faith really affects our attitude - and if we are focusing on our faith, it's really impossible not to be happy and excited to share this wonderful restored gospel with those around us!!

I just love ALL of you so much and as much as I miss you - I know I am supposed to be here serving my brothers and sisters in Indonesia!

Hurrah for Israel!

Elder Brown

LOVE hearing about it all from Regionals! Big bummer for Bryce!

ALL these people are Children of God!

YES!!! GO BRYCE!! Tell him I 'm stoked for Districts!

Mother,

I love the flags - they are great!! I need to buy myself an Indonesian flag too!

SO yeah, both wards, we only really go to the sacrament meeting for English ward and then we've been teaching our investigator between English and Indonesian Sacrament meetings! Then usually the members will give us food to eat afterwards! In this country they kind of just hang out after church haha!

 

SO IT'S PRETTY POLLUTED- in Jakarta, you don’t get tan, you kind of just stay white even though it's real hot. Because of the pollution that is. But it's not too bad!

I'm way excited for Sam and Alice! YOU GO!!!

This was a great week! We had a lot of things go well! We found lots of investigators and challenged many to be baptized! A lot accepted, though the majority of them we haven't set a date yet, but that's coming! I love it! I feel a greater love here than I did in my other cities and I think that's just in part me growing up. Also it comes from just the knowledge that ALL these people are the children of God! IT's so true and an amazing thing when you think about it!

 

We did Splits with the District Leader in Bekasi (which is like a suburb of Jakarta) and that was way good!! We've been working hard and doing new things which is fun! We're trying to work hard to work together with the ward better and help them become stronger!

I love you guys! I think about you every day. I was sitting on a bus and thinking about you Mom and then I was like "there is this man next to me and as much as I would love to think about my Mother, I have left my Mother to bless these people. So if I'm going to be here, I better be doing all I can to make it worth missing my Mom" So I talked to him! And that's just the principle of sacrifice- you sacrifice your all to the Lord and do what HE wants you do to! and as I see it more with a consecrated mindset., it has helped me so much to work harder and give it my all!!

I just love you all so much! I love it here! I'm happy healthy and excited to share the things that I love here!

Love Elder Brown 

We love the first Prompting!

Mother, Elder Subagio and I - we LOVE the first prompting - we talk about that part of the talk all the time AND in MLC(the leadership meeting) AND in PLD(the Zone meeting with PResident)! So it sound like you and President and the Spirit are well in tune!! 

I got sick right before I came but I realized today that I feel just great! I grabbed one clean shirt - it was SO white!! Wow!! No need to send more yet ... maybe later but I'll probably just buy them here if I need to! Sorry I used personal money recently - I was tempted (and taken in) by Jamba Juice and Quiznos - I mean who knew those existed in this country haha!

As for the birthday - I can't think of anything - I don't really need anything - but what would be really delicious is if you could send delicious cheese (cheese here is just sad- but then again there is really good cheese here and although it is expensive - probably still cheaper than you buying and sending it) and summer sausage! I'm not positive but I think both of those things could potentially make it still good through the postage. But then again maybe not through customs. If you do send candy or stuff, put it in Ziplocs because ants here and vicious and very very industrious haha! But really I will love ANYTHING you send - most important is pictures of my neice and all of you (just a couple new ones). If I don't get a package no biggie mom! Love you!

 

Great work on the family history!!

So sad about Rusty - hope we find him!

Just some highlights of my week!

PLD or Zone Conference - Elder Subagio and I were in charge of setting everything up and the food - so we ate... DOMINOS PIZZA!! ya!! It was way good (though not as good or as big as American!) I ate 12 slices - which was two medium pizzas (Yes Drew, be proud!) though I think  a medium here is more like a small there! Sister Rowley was very impressed and she asked - are you full ? and my answer was "Ya, not really" haha! On that note- I got to see 6 of my MTC group - two of whom for the first time since the MTC and they ALL said that I am fat! So we're working on that :)

It was really great- we learned a lot!! Elder Meredith of the 70 randomly showed up - he was really cool and he taught us a lot from the scriptures from MArk 2 and other places!! It was cool! I was a little nervous because I was the one conducting. It was cool though - he told me good job :) Then the next day, Elder Bell woke up pretty sick and he said "Elder Brown - I have to speak today - will you speak for me?" But it was in the English ward so that was a little weird. So I really didn’t have time to prepare before we had to leave. But man it was a cool experience - I learned SO much about my Savior as I thought about it and prepared a bit on the way!

Wow I just know with all of my heart that Jesus Christ really did live and He really did suffer for ALL of our sins and our sicknesses and our pains- everything! and it was only possible because of His incredible love for us! I love Doctrine and Covenants 18: 10-14 or so. "The worth of souls is great in the sight of God!" WOW! IT's incredible! I shared my favorite poem about "THe Touch of the Masters Hand" - THank you mom! And that line from the hymn "A Green Hill Far Away" "we cannot know, we cannot tell what pains he had to bear, but we believe it was for us He hung and suffered there." I believe that!! It's incredible!

After my talk (with Elder Meredith attending and President Rowley showing up halfway through), Elder Meredith told me that I did a great job and I had a good command of the scriptures - that actually made me feel so good! So never lose a chance to give a compliment and make someone else's day!

We also found some awesome people this week - or more exactly some other awesome missionaries found really cool people that live in our area haah! I want to learn sign language  - there is a fantastic sister in the English ward that is fluent and helps us!!

Hey I love you all! Life is great!! I hope you have an amazing week!1

HURRAH FOR ISRAEL

Elder Brown

WOW all of them are awesome! Way proud of Sam and Ryan Rehkow! That's fantastic ! And Austin too!

GO Alice!!

If you have time please find out what happened to Bryce! And if he is vaulting tellking him I'm sheering him on and if not - I just love him!