First off some bad news, I was robbed, again, I don’t know how but someone took half my money for this week so I'm going to have to take money out again. I'm putting my money in the safe from now on. But apparently this is happening with a lot of missionaries. Usually we take our money out for the month, but this is happening a lot so President Packard said we have to take it out weekly so we always have our money with us. Sorry I feel bad using so much of your money when you already paid for everything.
This week we had a pretty good turn out at church, we had 10 investigators which is about average for us now. But we didn't have Franca one of our most progressing investigators come. I'm not sure if we will baptize anyone before I get transferred. Franca will if he comes to church so we'll see. My companion messed up his leg and has to walk with crutches. He was playing around with one of the branch missionaries, they were kicking each other, not hard or anything but I guess he got hit just right to mess up his ankle. But he said it's been hurting him every time after we play soccer for a while now so I think it was a progressing thing.

Anyways I think that’s about all the novidades, (new stuff more or less). Thanks for everything all the support you guys give me. I don’t know if I could do this without it.
Love Elder Brown

Here's the questions for the week:
1. I forgot to ask How was the wedding you had at the church? Do they do different things than a wedding at home. We saw a video the Spendloves had of a wedding procession down the street with singing and chanting and weird LULULULULU calling. Do you see that there? Did they do that at the wedding?

The wedding was good, we had another one Saturday, they do the lu lu calling a lot, its really annoying. We make them wait and do it outside of the church. Then they all pile in a few trucks (usually small pick up trucks with about 30 people in the bed) and drive up and down the city honking their horns.

2. It's cool you gave a talk at church. What did you talk about? Did you have any problem expressing yourself in Portuguese? Do you get to give talks very often?

No this was the first one I gave, it depends on the branch how often missionaries speak. yes I have a few problems but I can usually work my way around words that I don’t know. I talked about the importance of young men serving missions and having families sealed in the temple. I never realized how great of a blessing a temple is until I got here.

3. In a class I went to they said missionaries are interviewed by the mission president at every transfer meeting. Do you talk to your mission president very often? What is he like? How often does he come to the Northern zone?

Ya we get interviewed once a transfer. Not a ton but quite a bit compared to other missions. He's a way nice guy, he's hard on the rules he needs to be but he knows when they need to be a little more flexible. (for example you can't have 16 missionaries pile in a pickup truck and have seat belts for everyone) he's a way cool guy. He comes up once a transfer for a few days is all but it depends.

It’s cool to hear about all the fun stuff you guys are doing. Ya I'm not really bummed about not getting transferred I kinda wanted to stay anyways so it was good. I give candy and toys out when we are in a house or when there is only one kid I just have to be careful. wow that's crazy that school is already starting again! and Tyler is a senior! That's nuts! Kaylee will be in high school when I get back! She'll probably have a boyfriend and everything! It’s cool that they are excited for school to start as well. My English is getting pretty messed up, it’s mixed with Portuguese and I say wrong words all the time. I talk in English all the time with other Americans but they all speak it bad too so my English is getting pretty bad ha ha I think I'm going to have problems when I get back for a while. Thanks for all the news, I got a bunch of letters yesterday and it was nice to hear about all the family news and the history behind the Grand Hotel. Just so you know the end of it wasn't true about the gangsters and chiefs and all that. Missionaries teach there all the time and we have like 5 members who live there. I gave a talk in church yesterday and we had 15 investigators come to church so it was a really good week for us. We see a lot of the Olympics, there is a restaurant that shows them all the time so we see a few games. China looks amazing! It’s so beautiful there! That's one place I want to go before I die. Mozambique is excited to have their runner win another gold. If you remember last Olympics a runner from Mozambique won the women’s something I don’t remember what but they are super proud of her. But everything here is good, our area is doing good as well. Anyways I better go, thanks for all the news it’s great to have. Love ya!Elder Brown
Answers to the questions of the week:
1. It's cool to know you're able to hang with Elder Smoot. I thought he was in the jungle somewhere. Did he get transferred there? Do you hang with all the missionaries in the zone on P-day? What do you usually do on p-day?ya the whole zone except Marromeo because its like 4 hours away. The rest is like 20 min away so we all have an activity. Usually soccer or football or basketball or something. No he's still in the same area. 2. You've gained 30lbs??!!!?!!! Wow! How are you working out and building so much muscle? Did the exercise bands I sent you before you left work?We have some makeshift weights that I lift, ya they work great! 3. What's happening with the student, the man from Zimbabwe and the family that the Dad was trying to convert all his friends & family. Any baptisms getting close?The student stopped progressing so we dropped him, the Zimbabwe guy’s wife who has been a member for a long time but inactive told us she doesn't think the church is true and if she doesn't want to go he won’t either so we dropped him, but the dad is doing good. We will probably baptize him soon.

I didn't get transferred, in fact our whole district stayed as is. Next transfer one from each companionship will leave, so I'm pretty much for sure going next transfer, and there will be another spot in the jungle opening up again. Things were going great this week until Sunday. Our area fell apart yesterday. We only had 2 investigators come to church when last week we had 15. Also the people who we are trying to get to stop drinking all of them drank. Chupa! Oh well, other than that everything is going great, I'm glad to be with Elder Nascimento another transfer to better my Portuguese. I just realized how cool it is that I'm here with Elder Smoot. He's sitting next to me right now and we just talk about high school and people who we knew its way cool to be here with someone from the same Stake. Anyways I better go but everything is going great and I'm sure our area will pick up again. Thanks mom! Here's the answers to the questions for the week: 1 Have you been giving candy or blankets to the kids or are you saving them for a poorer area?I'm saving them, I gave out candy once the next day the kids tried to mug me looking for candy and they didn't believe me when I said I didn't have any, and then all the kids started reaching into my pockets looking for it so ya learned my lesson. 2. Are you dreaming in Portuguese?Ya it depends on who I'm talking to in my dream, if it’s another missionary it’s in English, if its a Mozambican in Portuguese. 3. Are you OK on your Malaria medicine? Does it still make you dream wild dreams? Is your health good? Just don't drink the water. You're too skinny to host a parasite! At least I think you're still skinny. Are you? Yup everything is good, I don’t have wild dreams anymore so I'm kinda disappointed but everything is good. Anyways just so you know about the skinny thing... well when I left I was skinny... I weighed 160 and now I weigh 190... and I have a six pack so its not fat... anyways esto bazando (i'm bouncing) have fun!

This week at church we had 268 people and we set a record for investigators at church for our area. We are also giving a baptism date to one of the families that we are teaching this week. Everything is going great! I might get transferred this next week so I will let everyone know what happens next week. There are a lot of changes happening in the mission right now and its way exciting! I think we might have 2 new area's open in Tete (inland on the Zambezi River) and Nampula (the 3rd largest city in Mozambique which is further North). It’s way exciting. So I could just go to a new area completely! That would be so cool! Also Angola is about to open up too so it’s way exciting right now. Ya if I get transferred to the jungle I will still have internet, but it is really slow. I don’t know if I will go to Angola because it might be hard for Americans to get visa's here but we'll see. There are a lot of things changing in the mission right now its way exciting! The teaching is going good, we have a lot of people to teach now so we keep busy. We had a pretty exciting week. We had our first wedding in the chapel yesterday, it was pretty cool. I did get the package and to my surprise they didn't take anything! I got all the CD's footballs pants blanket toys everything! It was great I was surprised how big it was ha ha wow! Thanks so much! I started giving toys and stuff to kids but I haven't had a chance to take any pictures yet because we are always in a hurry but I'll make sure I get some. Thanks for all the CD's! They are great! Anyways I better get going. Have a great week!