Here are a few pictures we didn’t get till aftger Elder Brown left Melo, but they were from Melo.

Investigators in Melo

Helping fix the car

On a hike

Subject: HEY
Date: Wednesday, April 8, 2009 8:15:50 AM

HEY FAM.
start off like this….
- Did you get packages? no
- What did you like/dislike? dunno
- Do you need anything sent? yah but ill tell you next week cuz its crazy this week with changes.
- Alexa wants to know if you miss her and still love her (she told me to write that!) yes.
- Transferred/where? saucen.
- New companion/who & a little about him? elder cardona
- Did you get to stay up late to watch the Priesthood session live? yes
- Do you pray in Spanish? yes
- Find the camera? no package but its here in guay
- How do you want to call for Mother’s Day? i dont have our new number yet so ill have to tell you next week or when i find out.

HEY GUYS! well it was great in melo but it came to an end today. i am being transferred to saucen or something like that with another latino. Elder Cardona who is from honduras. dont know much about him yet but he seems real nice. dont talk much but really nice. i guess our new area isnt even a branch but just an extension of a ward. we live in the house and apparently its the biggest and nicest in the mission here. i saw pictures and looks huge. the area was opened just a few changes ago and only like 20 people go to church… im guessing its like fraile muerto but not sure yet. i had a great week before i left. leone and melo was like a second family and man i miss it already and its only been like 12 hours. kinda nervous to leave my oro area. we went to richard and monicas before i left and i stole her cigarettes and when she realized it she just went and bought more…. i told her that wasnt the purpose so she took the box and wrote she promises to quit and signed it and gave it to me. well see how that goes. but it was funny cuz when i met everyone at the bus station i opened my bag to get a letter out and everyone from the ccm with me were like brown… why do you have cigarettes… it was fun. but yah conference was awesome and so was the baptism we had. it was right after conference on saturday so was a great day. i loved elder hollands talk.

well i dont have much time cuz gotta get on a bus or something but ill let you know in a few days whats up.

love you all.

con amor.
elder brown.

To: jt.brown@att.net
Subject: hola
Date: Monday, March 30, 2009 7:59:33 AM

hey fam. its going good here and just loving the people. we had a good week with lessons and church and have some really cool people were teaching. it was hard though because we had to make the decision to stop visiting richard and monica so much now because they arent progressing but we still go to teach the
daughters because they are recent converts. its hard to watch though because i just want them soooo bad to go to church and they want to but they just dont want to do any commitments. i know they will be an awesome family in the church but just more in the future. i think me and elder goulding got so familiar with
them that they wont do anything with us here. i think elder paniagua and his next comp or someone will get them going again. just have to recognize a few things again. we are having dinner with them tonight though so im stoked for that.

sorry cant send photos of the service with richards car yet but i will as soon as i can. another hard thing i found out this week was about a girl and her grandma we were teaching last change. we couldnt find them for weeks and this week when we went the grandma answered the door devastated. no tears but just worse she just looked devastated. turned out the girl, her grandaughter, was killed in an accident a week ago. that was hard to hear and we taught the grandma again but shes really old and doesnt really remember alot or understand much. i think she felt the comfort of the spirit though cuz she looked alot better after. i just hope she does well alone without her grandaughter.well we had good with the bad.

awesome week with progressing people. fabiana went to church again and is stoked for conference this week. we also found this lady vanesa and she has a little 4 yr old girl that is just the purest little girl ive ever met. shes hilarious. i felt bad cuz we had a big movie night at the church and invited everyone but didnt know the movie. well after only one day of teaching vanessa she and camila,her daughter, went to the activity. the movie was I AM LEGEND…. it scared little camila completely and she couldnt sleep or anything. it was so sad but they are still really cool and vanessa loved the movie haha. the activity went actually really good we had 3 investigator families at it. i really hope i can stay here this coming change to continue teaching them. i just love it here in melo.

well thats about all. glad to hear all is well and congrats to the giles. i got a little favor to ask. i think money is still in my account but i realized i have nothing really for the winter here and its gonna get cold. so just warning you i might be using a bit of that money to buy like long underwear and a few other things. also need a pin drive and i heard they are cheaper here. so if you can just make sure i dont run out of money it would be great. to be honest i dont know if ill even buy anything but just in case. winter i guess is colder than anything i can imagine because its a humid cold. but thats all for me love you all!
CON AMOR,
Elder Brown.

Subject: HEY!
Date: Monday, March 23, 2009 1:34:44 PM

HEY FAMILY!
hows it all going in good old vegas? cuz its been good here in guay. first off…..
1. What is the name of your Zone? MELO (area im in is LEONE)
2. Did you get the camera yet? Can you email pictures? no, i emailed you pictures last week so… yes.
3: How is your health? great
4. Need any medicines sent? nope
5. When are transfers? uhhhh like 2 weeks or something april 8 i think
6. Any pictures of Elder Drew Smith? not even close to where he is so i have no clue sorry.

well so for here its going awesome. my comp is way cool and we just having a blast. funny story that kinda sucks though…. so camera you tell me got here on the 20th… well that means i should have got it at interviews cuz we get packages at interviews and at zone conference and interviews are usually the week before transfers…. well we had interviews on the 19th haha. president ashby came up for an activity we had here and he ended up doing interviews also so i missed my camera by a day. oh well ill just be getting it at zone conference next change but kinda sucks cuz wont have many pictures from here as id like. my comp is really cool letting me take pictures with his though. we had a packed week this week and actually got tons of pictures this week. we did service with monica and richards family fixing up his car. it was way cool. its got rusted holes in it and we covered it with rusted metal. it was sweet. ill send you pics of it sometime soon. dad youll like what we did it really was cool how we covered upthese holes and the car looks brand new now just needs a paint job which we are gonna do this week hopefully.well we also had this activity with president ashby this week. we had a noche de talentos and mexican tacos. it was way funny and the people loved it. fabiana went, the 17 yr old, and she also went to church yesterday. she told us shes getting baptized. we gotta get her married first though and i think they will. they are so cool. hoping to get it all done in these next few weeks. but yah so activity went awesome and president ashby talked and was just awesome. after we cleaned up and everything he had a prayer with all us missionaries in the church and it was seriously amazing. i couldnt even listen to everything he was saying because i couldnt get over the spirit that just came from him and i was just focusing on that. hes such an awesome guy.

well today we also had an awesome day for p-day. we went to this place called the canyon of ravens if you translate it. in spanish its called quebrada de los cuervos. it was so cool. all i can say is i gotta show pictures. it was like 2 hrs away and completely worth it. the hike was awesome too. there is also a cool waterfall there that we went to. ill just have to show you pics and maybe see if you can find it on the internet cuz i dont have the camera that the pics are on with me right now. and i dont know when ill get them cuz they are with the kids in rio branco. it was awesome though.

well i gotta get going but love you all. say hi to everyone and its true the gospel just makes you happy.

CON AMOR
elder brown.

Subject: hey fam.
Date: Monday, March 16, 2009 8:24:57 AM

well i used all my time reading all of your stuff and loved it. its so awesome the missionary experiences yall are having i think more than me. tell leo i got another letter from him but i think it was the first part of his 1st letter haha. sheesh im really just happy all is great there at home and all the people that are being taught there. weve had a kinda tough week this week but thats alright. gotta have them sometimes i guess. but im still feeling great, still havent gotten the package, and im just loving it here. My comp is way cool and we are just having a blast. Español uhhh…. still coming along and E’ Paniagua is teaching me a ton in lessons and spanish. i feel way more comfortable now and can just say what i want to instead of memorized parts. still dont know as much as the gospel as him. Hes only member in family of 17 and man he just knows a ton about the scriptures. well im sorry i cant write everything this week cuz im out of time but i had a great birthday went and spent it with the family of richard and monica. we had fun and they gave us food and took some pictures.

well sorry gotta go love you all and i know ive been terrible with writing lately but i promise ill write today.

Con amor.
Elder Brown

Subject: HOLA FROM ME
Date: Monday, March 9, 2009 11:05:52 AM [View Source]

Hey fam!
well its going great here in good old uruguay. lemme do these first:
Did you ever get the Christmas package from the Kelly’s? nope, sorry.
Did you get your Birthday package with the shoes and camera yet? nope, sorry.
Did you ever get the phone bill from Christmas? How much was it? yep, like 30 bucks or so.
Is the Ipod still working that we sent you? yep.
Do you want us to put hymns & Mormon Tab on the MP3 player for the other missionary? sure
What did you think about sending the leather hymnbook for the Ashby’s…send to you or the mission office? i dont see ashbys so i would say just straight to them. i dont really know anything out here in melo.

hey but if your gonna send a package, socks, peanut butter, and thermals/thermal garments would be great. oh and music for the guitar to play would be fantastic. like a book of good songs like comethou faunt or something. id love you forever.Alright well whats new here in guay…. uhhh not really much. We do have like 4 baptisms planned for the end of the month but well see how that works out. its been going really well. i had the priveledge to talk again in fraile muerto in sacrament because the talker didnt show up so i had to prepare something in like 10 mins but it was alright. besides there was only 3 people at church so i couldnt have messed up too many people with my knowledge. no but yah it wasnt too bad. kinda gotten used to just giving talks and classes with minutes notice.

So this week i saw a sacrifice from the macumbas in the road. its just a chicken with no head filled with popcorn and circled in all this random stuff and is a sacrifice for worshipping something. its kinda creepy to look at cuz its just a chicken with its head cut off sitting in the middle of the road. so that was an interesting experience.

So we had kinda a funny experience i dont really remember if it was this week or i already told you or what because everything just runs together but ill tell you again anyways. So we been teaching this family that i know ive told you about, fabiana and nester. nester wasnt there for this lesson but we were teaching fabiana and wanted to get her to go to church. Shes been going great just reading everything and even fills out all the answers to random questions in back of the pamphlets. so we were showing her this pamphlet about the church explaining everything about the classes and all of a sudden she got really sad. we were really confused and asked her why and she was like well this class here with all the moms is where i wanna go but i cant…. and we were like uhh yah you can you got a son and another on the way why couldnt you… and she points at the thing and it says its for those that are 18 and above and goes… im not 18. she looks like 20 something and turns out shes only 17 and her husband is like 38. of course we told her she could go and all and i think shes going to be going this week. they are just a way cool family.besides that its just been same old work. its alot different now because elder paniagua is really serious and doesnt talk alot and always seems mad but thats alright. at least we are getting work done.

well love you all and Que pasa bien.
CON AMOR.
Elder Brown.

Subject: HOLA
Date: Monday, March 2, 2009 9:19:58 AM

Hey whats up Fam. Uruguay is treatin me well and i think the spanish is coming along with good old Elder Paniagua and we are just enjoying it here. Its been an adventure trying to speak spanish all the time. He is way cool and we are just having a blast together. Today us 4 in the appartment totally cleaned the appartment from top to bottom so im a bit tired and have never seen more mold at one time in my life. Speaking of mold yah the package was great still couldnt really eat all the food and the pages of merry christmas were ruined but the fudge was good. Really enjoyed the fudge. Tell everyone thanks for everything it was an awesome package and let kt know its alright if they dont right cuz i dont really have time to right back as long as everyones doin fine thats good for me. Oh and about that mp3 player just send it with whatever you want with it. To be honest i have no clue how to explain reimbursols but that im okay with money for now thanks.

Alright well about this leone place that im in. Its been going great. Got some baptisms ready and im learning a ton with Elder Pan. He doesnt talk much so i have to teach like all the lessons to our old investigators but hes like a new person with people he finds. A way funny kid. I also got to teach principles of the gospel class again this week by myself while elder pan was in fraile muerto and man was that a fun experience again. I was so lost all day at church just running around not knowing really what to do but it always seems to work out in the end. Thats something ive really learned here…. The lords work just always works out fine. Well i really wish i had some cool stories but really everything is so crazy right now it would take me days to right about. Just know im alright and HAPPY BIRTHDAY KT. thought i forgot didnt you?

well really hope all is well and love you all. I dont really need anything but thermal garments for now and i might be able to get them here at the distribution center in montivideo so just wait for that.
WELL GOTTA GO! CHAU….

CON AMOR.
Elder Brown.

Subject: IM ALIVE
Date: Thursday, February 26, 2009 5:41:11 AM

Hey! yah sorry i am still here and alive though. We had to go to montevideo yesterday and didnt get back till late so no email but here i am now. Well im glad the funeral went well, was still hard to hear about but he really is in a better place. I did get a new companion, of course cuz elder goulding went home to the states, and hes really cool. Elder Paniagua is his name and hes from Bolivia. He knows almost no english but seems really cool. We are gonna have a good time here in Melo. Yah im still in Melo which im excited and scared about because i love the area but its like my responsibility to get us around at least or the first few weeks. Its gonna be awesome though. We are both really new, hes only been out for 7 months and well i only got 5 so fairly news. Well got to go listen to Elder Civic and Elder Jensen while we were in montevideo. Was sooo cool to hear from them. Elder Jensen is just so awesome. He basically just told us to get out and love and the rest will follow in the mission. was really cool. I also saw Elder Smith. was so odd to see someone from the states i knew. i couldnt believe it. i just heard “HEY TOMMY” and i was so confused but there he was and we had a good little talk. His trainer was in the Mtc with me! so i thought me and my comp were new…. his trainer is training with as much time as me… crazy.

Alright well about the area here. Its going great. Sunday we had more investigators and people in church than we have ever had here. It just so happened that this day of all the investigators, Elder goulding had a talk in Fraile muerto, and our teacher of the Principles of the gospel class didnt show up…. yah so i got to teach an entire class by myself. I didnt even know what lesson we were supposed to be on but it went well. Work other than that is just going great no amazing stories to tell but its going good. I think the work will really pick up fast with Elder Paniagua cuz he seems ready to get it going so that should be really cool, well see how it works out. Well gotta go LOVE YOU ALL.

Con Amor,
Elder Brown.

ps. yes i need some thermals and thermal garments. right now its hard to believe that it will get cold. thanks a ton for the money in the account its litterally saved my life. i have had no money but am waiting to bge reimbursed. dont worry bout sending dvd player and i have a list of stuff i need but i forgot it at house ill tell you but they are just simple little things. oh yah i got your other christmas package… thing is it was full of mold haha but i enjoyed what i could of it. elder g loved his tie and that you put his name on it. thanks zach for the ring and everyone that sent me stuff in it but i dont know all i got cuz alot was covered in mold haha but thanks a ton love you all!
CHOU

Subject: HOLA!
Date: Monday, February 16, 2009 9:28:58 AM

Well its that time again. Hows the fam doing? Cuz im doing great. I thought i said it last week but I got 2 packages from the young women and 1 from the Berrys. THANKS A TON I LOVE THE FOOD AND PICS! and about that card fraud thingy…. yah i did all that at an atm i thought i had 1400 us $ in my account but only had 1400 pesos and yah i took out 20$ just to test it. I have had to pay a ton of bills and havent gotten my reimbursals yet so i am living on like no money so it would be great if you guys could put just like $200 in my account when stuff like this happens. I havent been spending outside my mission money that is necessary its just i have to buy all the bus tickets and everything because my comp goes home and wont get his reimbursals so my money went fast. sorry i didnt tell you bout it before but i kinda didnt realize it. also if its alright i might buy another elders dvd player for half the price which will be 100$ because noone here has dvd players and all the church movies are dvd’s but ill only do that if its alright with you guys. everyone always buys and sells them so ill use it and then sell it when i get close to end of my mission for like 50 bucks to someone else.

alright well its been going good here. Went and played soccer all day today and was just way fun. to be honest nothing has really happened this week though. its been more or less a tough week. had two of our baptisms cancel their dates for now and want to push them back so that was tough. also had i dont know what its called in english but like branch conference maybe? in fraile muerto. the whole stake presidency came and gave awesome talks and classes and their entire families came and everything…. but only 2 people from fraile muerto came. it was kind of embarrassing but at least it was an awesome service for those 2 people. the stake president is just such a cool guy. Another thing that happened this week is i had to teach a girl like hard algebra in spanish. man was that interesting. She didnt know her fractions even and she was trying to do quadralatic equations and i was trying to speak spanish and yah the combination of those two things made it like the hardest thing ive ever done in my life. but it was a good experience and a fun service. Pretty much thats Leone right now though and fraile muerto. Only a week away from changes which is craziy because time just has been flying by.

Well i hope you told everyone in Utah HI for me! Felicitaciones to Ricky. Sounds like everyone had a good time and Alexa didnt miss me too much with all the other little kids haha. I miss just playing with her. I try to here but trying to play with kids who speak baby talk spanish is extremely hard and confusing. They end up just getting frustrated until you put out your hand for a high five and they get happy again. its funny cuz thats all you have to do to make them happy. So yah miss just playing games with alexa and all the fam. Also being able to understand jokes. Those are way confusing here but still fun.

Well basically I LOVE YOU ALL AND MISS YOU ALL!
(but here is still awesome)

CON AMOR,
ELDER BROWN

Subject: HOLA
Date: Monday, February 9, 2009 7:03:21 AM

Hola Familia!
So…. Been a good week. To start off, yah just that little dinky mp3 player you sent. Not the ipod one. And yah if you can send those pictures back i sent home on a card or something. That would be fantastic. Don´t need anything else mom and dad. THANKS YOU ARE THE BEST. But….. yep we had a good week. We baptized this girl Anna Silva and shes just really sweet. Shes the one i told yall about because shes a little special but its been a great experience for her family. Her dad told us something at church i dont think ill ever forget. He looked at us in the eyes and just said “thanks elders. thanks for making our family complete.” Hes just a really sincere guy and im just so excited for him and his family to go to the temple. They are so fun and always give us anything we need. If we get thirsty we always just go to their house and they give us a drink, most of the time being out of a cup they were just drinking out of. Also have this really sweet lady and her daughter that are excited for their baptism on the 21st. They live in a house about as big as my room at home and just love everything. Theyve come to all the activities the past week or so and this week they came to church and loved it. The daughter, Laticia, didnt want to go to primary so she came to class with her mom and answered all the questions that the adults couldnt answer. 11 years old and cant read yet remembered EVERYTHING we taught her. Just a really smart girl and just loves gospel stuff. Its amazing. Another cool thing this week was a guy named Nester. We went to his house once before to teach and he had read 3 nephi 11 three times. This week when we went he had read the entire Book of Mormon. One visit with him and he already read it. I couldnt believe it. Just shows how powerful the book is because we didnt do anything besides leave him with it pretty much and he knows its completely true without a doubt for himself. But yah its just been going great here. I even have a dog named after me. Dont know if i already told you that but yah an investigator named a dog after me and my comp. My comps dog was Gold and was bought first, my dog was only brown one and his still there, noone wants poor little Marron. But yah im just loving life here. im in montevideo right now actually to do imigration. 7 hr bus ride to sign one paper, but it was fun to see all the kids from the mtc. We had a blast together and i got to eat some mcDonalds so that was cool.

Well love you all a ton! Dont miss me too much.
Desfruta la semana
y Con Amor,
Elder Brown