September 1, 2014

Hey!

That's awesome that BYU won. And pretty convincingly too. That's a good way to start the season. I'm wearing my "Loyal, Strong, and True" shirt today for good luck. Hopefully they show up in Austin on Saturday. That's cool that Ok St hung in there with Florida State too. I bet there were a lot of Guyer Wildcats in the stands at that game.

This week was okay. All 3 of our appointments with one investigator fell out, but then he showed up to church on Sunday and said he had been in another city and that he was sorry he wasn't there for any of them (he doesn't exactly have a super functioning phone so it's just kind of an understood appointment haha) and that he'll be there this week, so that was good. Other than that, we've started teaching the daughter of a less-active member and she's pretty cool. We haven't had a super legitimate appointment yet though so hopefully that happens this week.

Oh, and next week, we have something pretty cool. Elder Bednar and Elder Ballard are in Germany right now doing a lot of meetings and conferences and stuff, and one of them is a mission conference! So that'll be sweet. It's going to be on transfer day too haha. The whole mission is coming to Frankfurt.

Thank you for everything, I love you all so much, 

Elder Brown

August 18, 2014

Hey!

The transfer went well, and I've made myself at home here in Kaiserslautern. It's a cool place, and Elder Shively and I get along well. The branch here is considerably bigger than Gera - about 50 members, so that's nice. I blessed the sacrament and am giving a talk next Sunday though so I still have stuff to do in the branch. There are four branches/wards that meet in our building - us and three American wards. So that's really weird on Sunday haha. It feels like I'm at home. 

But my last week in Gera was really good. I got to meet with a lot of people one last time and it was just a really good goodbye. I was sad to leave, but change always helps to keep things exciting. I did have time to make the guacamole for the members in Gera and it was received well. They were a little skeptical but they got over it. Thanks for the recipe!

Corn and kidney beans in chili is one thing.... on a burger is another. That's all I've got to say to that haha. 

That's so crazy that BYU football starts so soon... I'm pretty excited for that. Hopefully they start it off well. The Rangers are just taking a break until I get home. 

But yeah, things are good here. The members are way cool, we've even got a couple Americans in the German branch, so it's cool to talk to someone from home sometimes. But other than that, we've started teaching a cool guy from Sudan, so that's interesting. We're teaching him the Gospel and English at the same time so it's a party. 

That's about it from my side. Thanks for everything! I love you guys!!

Elder Brown

August 11, 2014

Hey!

The transfer went well, and I've made myself at home here in Kaiserslautern. It's a cool place, and Elder Shively and I get along well. The branch here is considerably bigger than Gera - about 50 members, so that's nice. I blessed the sacrament and am giving a talk next Sunday though so I still have stuff to do in the branch. There are four branches/wards that meet in our building - us and three American wards. So that's really weird on Sunday haha. It feels like I'm at home. 

But my last week in Gera was really good. I got to meet with a lot of people one last time and it was just a really good goodbye. I was sad to leave, but change always helps to keep things exciting. I did have time to make the guacamole for the members in Gera and it was received well. They were a little skeptical but they got over it. Thanks for the recipe!

Corn and kidney beans in chili is one thing.... on a burger is another. That's all I've got to say to that haha. 

That's so crazy that BYU football starts so soon... I'm pretty excited for that. Hopefully they start it off well. The Rangers are just taking a break until I get home. 

But yeah, things are good here. The members are way cool, we've even got a couple Americans in the German branch, so it's cool to talk to someone from home sometimes. But other than that, we've started teaching a cool guy from Sudan, so that's interesting. We're teaching him the Gospel and English at the same time so it's a party. 

That's about it from my side. Thanks for everything! I love you guys!!

Elder Brown

August 4, 2014

Hey!

The transfer went well, and I've made myself at home here in Kaiserslautern. It's a cool place, and Elder Shively and I get along well. The branch here is considerably bigger than Gera - about 50 members, so that's nice. I blessed the sacrament and am giving a talk next Sunday though so I still have stuff to do in the branch. There are four branches/wards that meet in our building - us and three American wards. So that's really weird on Sunday haha. It feels like I'm at home. 

But my last week in Gera was really good. I got to meet with a lot of people one last time and it was just a really good goodbye. I was sad to leave, but change always helps to keep things exciting. I did have time to make the guacamole for the members in Gera and it was received well. They were a little skeptical but they got over it. Thanks for the recipe!

Corn and kidney beans in chili is one thing.... on a burger is another. That's all I've got to say to that haha. 

That's so crazy that BYU football starts so soon... I'm pretty excited for that. Hopefully they start it off well. The Rangers are just taking a break until I get home. 

But yeah, things are good here. The members are way cool, we've even got a couple Americans in the German branch, so it's cool to talk to someone from home sometimes. But other than that, we've started teaching a cool guy from Sudan, so that's interesting. We're teaching him the Gospel and English at the same time so it's a party. 

That's about it from my side. Thanks for everything! I love you guys!!

Elder Brown

July 28, 2014

Hey!

I actually kinda miss the Texas summers.... I don't know, probably just good memories of wanting to puke my guts out on the football field haha. But yeah, we've definitely had no shortage of heat here in Gera, but it hasn't been anything too uncomfortable. It was kind of funny, I was on a split with Elder Christenson, who is from Utah and in his first transfer, and we were walking outside. I said, "man, it feels pretty good outside today." He didn't really reply and kind of let out a little laugh, and I said, "what?" And he replied, "I would probably say it’s a little warm." It would be funnier if you knew Elder Christenson probably... haha. He's a really quiet, calm guy, so it was just a kind of funny exchange because he said it so politely. 

But... to the news of the week. We had transfers, and I will be going to Kaiserslautern on Thursday, and I will be serving in the German branch there. There's also an American ward there and a big American military base, and the Rammstein base is not too far away. So it'll be interesting, but I'm excited for the change. Gera was fun and I learned a lot...

That's awesome that Joseph is going to New Jersey, that'll be fun I'm sure. 

But to your question Dad, there are "Mexican" restaurants in Germany, but they are horrible. Okay that might have been strong but they're super Germanized, just like the American burger places and stuff. For some reason they think we put corn and kidney beans on everything.... 

Have a great week! Love you guys!!

Elder Brown

July 21, 2014

Hey!

Thank you for the guacamole recipe! It will be enjoyed thoroughly. If not by the Germans, then by me. But they're way excited about it... they even asked about it at church on Sunday. So I will for sure let you know how it is received. 

But I'm doing well, as I think back initially I can't think of anything too crazy happening this week. We met with our investigator Raymond, who's from Zimbabwe, so that was fun. He's a super Rastafarian guy so he reminds me of a lot of the people that Griffin would talk about from his mission. I actually wanted to show him the song that Griffin did with one of his investigators... the "Keep the Commandments" one, but I didn't know where to find it. He's super into reggae though so I think he'd appreciate it. He's a way cool dude. I also wrote a pretty sick rap last night while Elder Wright did his District Leader call-ins. Haha. 

The World Cup celebrations did not last too long.... Germans get over things pretty fast. But it was fun while it lasted. 

It's been pretty hot here recently, but today is a little cooler and cloudy, so that's nice. Might head down to the park and play some soccer or something. 

I hope you all have a great week!! Love you, 

Elder Brown

July 14, 2014

Hey!!

So sehen Sieger aus!!!! Haha that was sweet.... there were fireworks going off all night and yeah... pretty awesome. Germany is the best. Literally. But the game was on Sunday night and now it's P-day.... so I don't really know if the people are willing to listen yet. They're probably all really hungover though so my guess would be no at the moment haha. Maybe tomorrow.

Sadly we were yet again not able to go to the zoo. Maybe someday. It's just been raining a ton lately so everything's kinda had a damper put on it. But it's better than brutal heat, I guess. 

But this week was good. We had a good Zone training in Jena where we talked for a bit about the history of East Germany and its dedication/building of a temple here and what not. If you haven't researched the church history here too much, I would definitely recommend it, it's pretty sweet. President Monson has a book about his experiences here called Faith Rewarded and it’s pretty awesome.

But one of the highlights of this week was helping build and take down a super sketchy rock wall as part of a marathon being run here in Gera. One of our members does a lot of organizational work for city events and he volunteered our help. So one of the things we had to do was help build this wall which was basically a 30-40 meter high scaffolding with rock wall clamped to the front. And we built it right up against a tree, and we had to saw off a bunch of branches. So we're all standing on different levels of this kinda shaky scaffolding, lifting things, using tools, sawing off branches, just like no problem. No one really even asked us who we were. It was tight.

But this week was pretty ordinary, but good. We've got interviews with President Stoddard this week, so that will be good. But yeah, that's about it. I hope you guys have an awesome week!!! Love you all,

Elder Brown