Well winter finally came. I thought that it wasn't going to get cold, but man was I wrong. It sure did and it did quick. June 23rd(my year mark) was a warm day. It was very pleasant, and then June 24th came. It was pretty hot then the 25th and it was a little uncomfortable, but not anything unbearable. I still just had my short sleeve shirt. Then yesterday it was extremely cold, and now today my hands are just about frozen. It makes it.......less than comfortable typing this email. (Mom sure you still want to come to Paraguay? hahaha.) So my year mark just when winter decided to come, so thats the climate of Paraguay. Francisco our investigator is still on track with his baptismal date for this Saturday. He is excited to be baptized, so that will be great.

Transfers come when transfers come. All is following the will and knowlege of "Him that knoweth all things." I kinda want to go to the office. I want to be the secretary like my brother was, that would be awesome. I want to see president as Brother Callan. I want to know him as himself, but if it is not the will of God then so be it.

For my half-way celebration we ate macaroni and cheese. There's a supermarket in Asuncion that has American stuff. When an Elder gets an ingrown tonail removed they get to go to that supermarket. An Elder in my district did so he bought me mac and chesse.

Yeah so about the halfway home thing. I actually finish my mission one year from today because of how the changes work out but hey that's alright. So instead of a 2 year mission I will serve a 2 year and 4 day mission. So, it's the best 2 years and 4 days. haha. I love ya. I look forward to talking to you

Muchisimo cariño y amor

Elder Brown

So changes...I'm still here with Elder Henriquez, which is good. We still have work to do here together. We have 1 investigator with a baptismal date, and 1 who got called back to go to the military. He's a marine and is 18 years old, so yeah. we wont be hearing from him for a while. Ramon told us that he was done looking for God for now, but he thanked us profusely and said a little later I will try again. Francisco has a baptismal date for the 2nd of july.

Pictures, the first two are pictures of the district the day of changes. 3 of them left. 1 of the sisters and 2 elders. the second 2 are videos of my last district from Ciudad del Este. I got the package and I absolutely love it. The fourth missionary is a great talk. I have wanted to find a written copy of it forever. Thanks for finding it.

Funny thing about San Jorge he was a knight guy that killed dragons or thats what the Catholic church says. He's my favorite Saint.

Thanks for writing, sorry I didn't let you know that I would write wednesday, but they didn't let me know so I am innocent. It's the zone leaders fault, but I love ya tons and I love to hear from ya. Miss you lots but all is well.

Love
Elder Brown

Our Bishop has this banner thing that he put on me to take a picture.

Francisco is still moving towards baptism (slow and steady wins the race) but we haven't found Ramon in a while, so we will keep trying with him. We did find a really cool family of like 9 people. The dad doesn't know how to read but loves what we've taught him, and they all know that God sent us to them so that's super cool. We will see what happens. We've only taught them twice, so yeah.

We are almost at the 1 year mark, week after next, and there's the one year, so we aren't that far away right mama?

I love ya tons. I really have come to appreciate you. It's funny how things like that happen. Stay away from home long enough and you realize just what it was you had. It's like I heard once, "you don't know what you got til you don't got it no more," but luckily I only don't have my home for 2 years and after that I got home again. I'm such a mamas boy, but that's ok. The best people are. I love ya tons and I look forward to your email next week. Thanks for writing, I really appreciate it. You don't know how much it means to me to get letters every week. I hear about other people that their parents don't write them very often and it makes me grateful for what I have. Thank you so much for taking the time to write me. I really appreciate it. I love you tons and I'm glad that I was blessed to be in your family. You have always been huge examples to me. I appreciate it so much, and I know that Kaylee and Brady do to. Thanks for all you do and all you are. I love ya tons.

Love
Elder Brown

So first off, President didn't come to the area (dang!) but he wrote a letter with some great revelation. So I'm excited to use it. The men in our area normally work far far away from here. It's not cool, but I did have an idea to have a tri-ward talent competition. Bishop liked the idea so we are gonna do it. It's gonna be awesome. We´ll see what else comes. I´ll let you know as it comes. This week was good, we are starting to teach more lessons.

We are coming into winter here. It's not actually that cold, everyone has big winter coats but I go out with just my short sleeve shirt and I'm just fine. Everyone thinks it's freezing but it's nothin.

Well, I love ya tons. I miss ya tons too. But that's okay because I'll be back in a little bit. A little more than 1 año now. So yeah. I look forward to your email every week. I appreciate that so much. Thank you for taking the time to write. It makes the week easier, and you always give me such good advice. I can't imagine what the week would be like if I didn't hear from you, but thanks for writing. I got to go write president now but I love ya.

Love, Elder Brown

So this week, it was ok. Still can't find new investigators por nada. There literally are only women in the houses. It's not fun, but yeah we will keep pluggin along. I tried to think of a cool way to find investigators and I'm still working on it. I'll let you know when I figure something out.

So for our current investigators, we found 2 guys, one named Jose and another named Gabriel. We have only taught them once. Jose is 25 years old, has problems with his mom, and has a girlfriend and a daughter. He is a great guy and wants to be better but doesn't have much time because of work. When he's not at work he is at the house of his girlfriend with his daughter, so it's hard to find him. He already thinks our church is the true church but for some reason has trouble making the time to talk to us.

Gabriel we talked to him yesterday and he is 17 years old, and almost got baptized once a long time ago. We didn't even know he wasn't member until yesterday. So it should be easy, just stick him in the water.

After that we have Francisco who is the boyfriend of a member. The member was inactive for a long time but is coming back to church now. After that we have Ramon.........yeah.........he's an atheist that wants to believe in God but has trouble finding reasons to believe there is. We have been working with him since before I got here but we can't justify dropping him because he does everything we ask him and he wants to believe. But something is missing. I've thrown every "card" I have down. I've used everything I've learned as a missionary, but still nothing. But I have 1 more "card" President Callan. I have used the card once, only once. It's the card most powerful that I have. So the plan is send a letter to President Callan and ask for him to come to my area to solve the problemm, and best case scenario, he comes he gives Ramon a testimony and he gets baptized next week. Let's hope for the best right?

But yeah thats all we got. I love ya tons and I look forward to your email next week. Love ya!

Love, Elder Brown