Elder Jacob Alexander Brown: 2011

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

IMG-20110831-00673.jpg

Elder Brown with President and Sister Cordon August 31, 2011- Release Day!
Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

Thursday, August 25, 2011

I love the Lord, in Him my soul delights. Upon His word, I ponder day and night. He´s heard my cry, brought visions to my sleep; and kept me high through deserts and the deep. He´s filled my heart with His consuming love, and bourne me high on wings of His great love.

Yet oft I groan, ó wretched man am I! My flesh is weak, and I´m encompassed by a world of sin, which holds me in its thrall, if I give in and to temptations fall. Then strength grows slack, I waste in sorrow´s veil - all peace destroyed, my enemies prevail.

Awake, my soul! No longer stoop in sin! Rejoice, my heart and let me praise again! Ó Lord, my God, who is my rock and stay - to keep me strict, upon His straight, plain way! Oh let me shake at the first sight of sin - and thus escape my foes without and in.

I love the Lord, in Him my soul delights.

Jesus é o Cristo vivo. Sei que Ele vive e que me redimiu. Sinto completamente inútil falar Dele, sabendo das minhas iniqüidades e pecados. Sinti o grande amor que traz para nossas vidas e através da Expiação eterna Dele, posso voltar estar com ele - se eu me arrepender de todos os meus erros.

O Livro de Mórmon é o livro mais correto na face da Terra. Sei que ele não apenas completa a Bíblia, mas traz mais direção e entendimento do que qualquer outro livro consgue fazer. Ele foi feito nos céus e é a pedra fundamental da nossa religião.

Joseph Smith foi mesmo um profeta de Deus. Ele os viu e pôde vé-Los porque o Senhor trabalha como bem quer, e quis se apresentar para um homem. Fizeram com que suportasse a presença Deles para que, espiritualmente, soube o que fazer.

Esta é a Igreja de Jesus Cristo. Mesmo que não fosse a Igreja "verdadeira", ainda seria a melhor - nem por perto. Não é uma Igreja de burros nem de fanáticos - é a mesma organização que sempre estava aqui na Terra quando o Senhor julgou certo a colocar junto com a mensagem do Evangelho de Cristo, através de um profeta vivo.

Tudo isso tenho aprendido aqui. Sempre serei um missionário.

Elder Brown

(Google) Translation:

Jesus is the living Christ. I know He lives and redeemed me. I feel completely useless to speak of Him, knowing of my iniquities and sins. Feel the great love he brings to our lives and through his eternal Atonement, I can be with him again - if I regret all my mistakes. The Book of Mormon is the most correct book on earth. I know he not only completes the Bible, but provides more direction and understanding than any other book consgue do. It was made in heaven and is the cornerstone of our religion. Joseph Smith was indeed a prophet of God. He saw them and can see them because the Lord wants to work as well, and wanted to present to a man. They made their presence that would support that, spiritually, and knew what to do. This is the Church of Jesus Christ. Even if the Church was not "true", it would still be the best - or anywhere near. There is a church of bigots or stupid - it's the same organization that was always here on earth when the Lord put the thought right along with the message of the Gospel of Christ through a living prophet. All this I have learned here. I will always be a missionary.

Elder Brown

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missionary WORK

I somehow missed forwarding this last week!

Hey everyone,

I´ve never felt the way I feel now. I feel like my body is about to spontaneously combust, because of the heat, the pace at which we´re working, the fact that next week will be my last email home...strange feelings. I´m unsure of the future and nervous that I´ll fall flat on my face as I come back from here, but I know several things, things that I have been able o learn and know here on the mission:

- Jesus is the Christ and the ONLY one who really understands all of our pains, joys and sorrows.

- the Book of Mormon is the most corrct oef any Book ever written, even the Bible, by a longshot

- The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is God´s church and was restored to the World so that all may have the opportunity to live and partake of the first principles and ordenances of the purifying Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is the only church that can even begin to explain this Doctrine in a clear and simple way.

- I am a child of a loving Father in Heaven, and if I do my best while here on the Earth to keep His commandments, then I´ll receive everything that He has and be all that He is.

- although I have many faults and stuggle to stay worthy of this calling, I have a firm testimony of these truths. I know that I wasn´t the perfect missionary and I know that there are many things I could´ve done better and in a more effective/meaningful way, but I know that I´m doing what I can to help those around me to come a little closer to Christ, and in so doing, have come closer to Him myself. I now have a true self esteem. I can achieve goals and work like crazy to attain higher goals. I am able to look at myself in the mirror without feeling disappointed or guilty. I am able to control my desires better through planning and pure self control. Though I don´t know all the scriptures by memory I have a firmer understanding of them and am able to explain hem to others. I am more able to love the people here as we study, pray for and think about them constantly. I know how to lead people to baptism and I´ll invite anyone to repent of their sins and be baptized!

We had a great week. This week´ll be better. The next will be the best.

I love you all and hope that you all may deserve all the blessings that God reserves for His obedient children.

Let´s do this!

Elder Brown

Thursday, August 11, 2011

Weekly Letter

This has been the best part of my mission, and it will keep improving every day.

Every single day, we have been doing our best to bring others unto Christ and help others achieve their full potential. We have so much to improve, but we will improvve because it´ll be in our Heavenly Father´s hands.

I know that He lives. I testify that miracles happen when we devote ourselves to Him and that He always answers the honest prayer. I know that Jesus is the Living Christ and that only He can fully understand us, and that only He is capable to make us clean, if we liveand persevere in the first principles and ordenances of the Gospel. I know that the Book of Mormon is true. I see its power daily and I walk with it in my hand and give it to all that will accept it. Joseph Smith was a true prophet.

This is God´s work and I know that it will never be stopped!

Elder Brown

Miracles!

Sorry this is late- from last week!

Oi família linda! Tudo ótimo?

Well, I don´t think I´ve ever worked so hard, and the best thing is that we can do much more still! We were able to baptize again - his name´s Gabriel, and he was almost baptized a while ago with Elder Lott, but his mom didn´t let him get baptized. Now, however, his mom is starting to see that the church really is a good place for her son and, even though she doesn´t agree that the church is true, she let him get baptized.

So many things happened while we were doing contacts this week. Needless to say, I can´t write about all of it, but I´ll write a list:

- we saw a crazy shirtless guy running down the middle of the street screaming like a bird, last week and then today. He´s crazy.

- we talked to some less-active people that, um, use crack. We invited them to stop, and they said they´d try (I hate that one)

- we talked to a guy that kinda looked possessed by unclean spirits. When we started talking to him, he hocked up an enormous loogie and spit it at our feet. So, we got his address. We didn´t go by, because we both felt that he was "trippin´, yo".

- we talked to many people at just the right moment and they were ready to receive us and be baptized! On Sunday, it was raining a lot and a lot of the investigators that we had invited and made plans to come to church didn´t come. We left lunch, and it would´ve been very easy to not work as hard during the day, but we decided to talk to everyone. We were walking without umbrellas and a guy walked over to us and offered his, and we walked and talked. His name´s Alex, and as we talked, we introduced the BOM. He accepted it, and he accepted a baptismal date for the 27th! Then we talked to Ramon, 5 minutes later. He lives in another area, but we got his info and marked a date with him too! Later, in the downtown Paranaguá, we talked to a guy named Sandro. He was in a hurry, but we stopped and he stopped and 5 minutes later he was walking away with a BOM - he said "I´ve always wanted one of these books!" He lives far away, where there aren´t any missionaries, but it´ll be a good read (the best read). Yesterday, we talked to a lady from the Jehovah´s Witnesses, and she said she had a lot of doubts about her church (understandably),and so we invited her to be baptized - she said yes! We´ll baptize a TJ (Testemunho de Jeová)! Then, another guy who has been thinking a lot about his life and what God want him to do, etc. (Héliton) - he´ll be baptized on the 27th as well!

We also had a mission tour with an area 70 - Elder Natã Tobias. It was great - we all woke up at 4:00 and went to Curitiba to receive a special training, and it was great! He lead us through a training of the First lesson from PMG - about the Restoration. My comp. and I were chosen to give a demonstration and though we were nervous, we had practiced and the Spirit was there. It was great to know that something we´re doing is going well! Everything we´ve been doing recently has been focused on baptizing more people, and we´re going to do it.

I can´t believe that I´m going to be removing my nametag in less than a month. But one thing´s for sure: I will always be a missionary, and I will always do my best to represent Jesus Christ.

I know that He lives and that even with our many problems and shortcomings, we can be made clean through His Atonement. He lives. The Book of Mormon is a masterpiece created by God. The church and the Gospel were restored - we must share this with everyone!

Love,

Elder Brown

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Darn it....LOTS OF COOL STUFF this week! (and no time to write about it)

Hey everyone,

We baptized Daniel! I don´t think I´ve ever had a baptism that will help the church so much! He´s a law graduate who currently works as a policeman and his conversion has been an amazing one. As I think I already wrote, he was one of the first contacts that we did when I got to Paranaguá. He passed us his address and we couldn´t find it. We then saw him a few days later in a shop - he passed the same address and asked us to go by - no luck again. Then, one day, we were walking down the street going to another appointment, when all of the sudden...we saw his house! He was there, we left a message, and then (in a period of 3 months) was baptized, after having quit smoking, drinking beer and coffee, and prostitutes and stuff. He´s the MAN. And now he can baptize people! He was baptized on Saturday and confirmed Sunday, then received the priesthood that same meeting! It was amazing! He did his first split with us yesterday and it was AWESOME! Another Elder was in the area and was stunned about how ready he was. He really helped our investigators too!

I wish I had more time to write about the tons of amazing spiritual experiences we had this week, but it´ll have to wait. Needless to say, I don´t think I´ve ever worked so hard as we did this week, and I feel the Spirit testifying that we´re really doing our best. That´s comforting!

Love you all! Let´s do this! Batizando toda semana!
Elder Brown

Sunday, July 24, 2011

Transfers!

Ola para todos,

This week, as every week in the mission has been, went by very fast. The sad part is that Daniel wasn´t baptized (he had a small relapse with cigarettes and alchohol), but he´s much better now after the interview and he´s getting ready for this week. We had a couple other interesting things happen, too:

- Ward Council happened for the first time in almost 3 years. We´ve been needing it for a long time, mainly because the greater part of all the organization in the ward was being done by us and Bishop Moura. Now, with the whole Council functioning as it should be, we´ll be able to work much faster and much more efficiently. The main tools by which we´re getting organized are: Progress Records (every week, we make copies of the PR for each of the organizations in the ward. We then mark with a highlighter which responsibilities are for that specific organization and explain exactly what the member needs to do to make that particular person happy and well-integrated. [the Help Needed section is filled out during our weekly planning session and specific and simple instructions are put in to help every member know what his/her special assignment is] After the designation is given, we ask that all members call us back after doing what was asked for their organization [in each organization in the ward, there is now one counselor responsible for Missionary Work - we give the progress records to them and let them take care of other designations in their own organizations] and what needs to be done in the future, etc.), the Weekly Planning Session (this has been something that I´ve always prized in the mission and have always used, but now President has been really emphasizing the need of a good, inspired and goal-oriented planning session to insure our success. We analize each part of our work and establish goals behind each part. I´ve actually learned that this is one of my favorite things to do, period. I really enjoy planning for success, and I don´t mind spending a good chunk of time doing it, if it yields results. Lots of my companions haven´t had the patience to plan as much as I´ve wanted to, but Elder Lott and I were able to plan well and it really made the difference for us) and our weekly meetings with the Bishop and Ward Mission Leader, as well as our meeting with the recently-called ward missionaries (we train them as if it were District Meeting and give them special teaching assignments and study topics - it´s been working really well!).
Elder Lott was transferred after having stayed here for a good 9 months - the ward and I will miss him. My new companion is Elder Romm - he´s awesome! He´s from Washington and he´s exactly what I wanted in a comp. We´ll work really hard and very effectively.
Well, I am a little stunned to see how fast the time has gone. I knew it would go by fast, but I didn´t really know how fast. I have frequently felt very inadequate on the mission - as if I wasn´t doing my best, as if all my efforts were in vain, and as if something was always putting me under the microscope to magnify my faults and weaknesses. For this last transfer, I´m putting everything in practice that I´ve learned until now.
Here are some of my goals:
- I don´t want to have any regrets.
- help at least 7 more people be baptized before the end and become strong, active, contributing members of the church
- strengthen the ward infrastructure and help to hold up the Bishop´s arms
- lead by example and help others shine
- feel genuine peace at the end of every day
- talk to ALL that I possibly can about the Restored Gospel

There will be time for many things after the mission, and I will let those things wait as we work here. I have made a decision to, for at least these last 6 weeks, give myself and my will to the Lord. Even if I´m tired or don´t want to work, I have obtained a testimony as to the divinity of this work and I know that all who hear this message will be changed forever. I know that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the World - He lives. I know that through His Atonement we can receive opportunities to repent and show our worthiness. This act of repentance prepares us to more fully experience the joy that He wants us to feel, always. I know that I have much to learn, and that though it might not be easy, it will be worth it.

I love you all - let´s do this as it should be done.
Elder Brown

Yay we baptized again!

Elder Brown’s letter from July 13^th…

Hey everyone,

We baptized again! Thomas was baptized and it was an amazing experience. He´s had a pretty interesting life thus far (he´s 17) - both of his parents were killed in an accident and his life´s been pretty rough. He said that before he met us he thought that God was just like a little kid running around in the boiling sun, frying ants (us) at will. Or, he didn´t believe in God. But he does now, after reading the BOM every day faithfully. He´s amazing. He was baptized on Saturday, confirmed and conferred to a Priest in the Aaronic Priesthood on Sunday. He did his first split with us on Monday and he bore a very simple but sincere and true testimony. THAT is why we serve missions - to have experiences like that and to help people to help themselves. Also, I know that I´ve talked about Eduardo - he´s the MAN. He´s already preparing to serve a mission and he was only baptized a month ago. Thomas is one of his best friends and Eduardo baptized him, after only one month in the church! It was so special and we saw the joy on his face after having helped his friend come unto Christ. Eduardo´s also helping us as Assistant to the Ward Mission Leader and is doing a great job helping us every day with splits, calling our investigators, etc.

I think I might´ve mentioned it already, but every week we have a special meeting with our Ward Missionaries and we train them from Preach My Gospel - it´s been really powerful so far. It´s basically District Meeting for the Ward Missionaries and they´ve already been able to learn about how to use the Progress Record (one of our biggest focuses) and how to teach the missionary lessons. We have one Missionary Couple (Weliton and Auri - Weliton is a recent convert, too) and 2 others - Nei and Marlon. They´ve been doing so great and it´s been fun to see them learn about how to be missionaries before they actually leave on their missions.

Going on a small tangent: we received a letter from Presidente Cordon and he showed his concern for the mission (he was really concerned about the lack of obedience and excitement that he saw a lot of Elders going through), and so for two days in Curitiba we had a big meeting in which we were trained to help each missionary (including ourselves) to magnify their callings and to talk with EVERYONE about the Restored Gospel. That really is our only message to the world, and that´s what we need to do to help the people here in Brasil and in all the world. We stayed the night in Curitiba and....we got to go to the Temple!!!! It was so special! It was literally like a interior cleansing and it felt so good to know that, even with my many imperfections, I can still go into His house and feel of His Spirit. We felt a lot better about the work that is being done here and that the things that we are doing are really helping people progress and come unto Christ, including us.

In this super-duper training we had in Curitiba, Presidente taught us (from Preach My Gospel, so we actually probably should´ve already been doing this) that not every single lesson needs to start with a prayer and end with one. That means that if someone is needing us to talk to them, right that moment, we can teach them and help them - not just mark another day to go by their house. It sounds obvious, but we really are trying to take that to heart and teach more people everywhere. So, on our way to the Bus Station, we taught a lady from Santa Catarina (the state below Paraná) and gave her the BOM. We also taught a guy who looked like he was having a really bad day/life and he lives in Ponta Grossa (so he´ll be baptized, for sure). We taught him in the middle of the Bus Station and we were still able to feel the Spirit and feel good about what we represent.

A lot of good experiences! Daniel, who´s getting baptized this Saturday, had a pretty rough experience in Curitiba and really needed someone to talk to on Monday. We were scheduled to have a Family Night at Bishop´s house but it fell through, so we went to his house and talked for a while. It´s so nice to see people that absolutely trust you and really want help, not just tell you they want it. We talked to him about hard times in our own lives and read 2 Nephi 4 - it was powerful. He´ll be baptized and help our ward SO much.

- On the note of teaching people in the street, after Thomas´ baptism, we talked to a guy who looked a little...well, drugged up. Elder Lott recognized him as one of the most famous of all the noias (druggies) in Paranaguá - Galli-Noia. Apparently, he had bought some crack, dropped it on the ground and a chicken ate it, so he promptly killed the chicken and performed an amateur lobotomy to remove said crack. Yeah. And we taught him and I gave him my crappy watch (no, not that watch that Dad gave me) to help him get to church. He didn´t go.

I love the mission - it is the best thing I´ve ever done. I encourage all to be a missionary and feel the Spirit that it brings. He lives.

Let´s do this to the end! Every day!

Elder Brown

Friday, July 8, 2011

What a week!

Oi everybody,

We baptized again! Iran was baptized and it was great! He was supposed to be baptized on Saturday, but he started a new job on Friday and had to do inventory at the store where he´s now working, so he left us hanging a little. We left the water (which was pretty darn cold) for the next day, Sunday, and he was baptized after Sacrament Meeting. It was COLD, and as he entered the water he almost yelled, but he was ok. Our Ward Mission Leader baptized him and it was great - there were several investigators there, including our baptism for this week and for the next.
The people that are getting baptized are actually getting converted and put to work! This is the first time that I´ve actually seen this happen - people getting baptized and instantly incorporating into the ward and helping out. We can only attribute this success to God´s divine help and the good relationship that we´ve been trying to establish with the Bishop and ward leadership. Eduardo, who was baptized a little more than a month ago, will baptize his friend Thomas this week and next week, a really awesome guy (that looks like a movie action star and is a really smart policeman) named Daniel will be baptized. He quit smoking more than a week ago and is already inviting the Bishop and others to his baptism! We´re also teaching a lot of great families that are getting ready - one for the 23rd (Douglass, Vanessa, Leonardo and Guilherme) and a few for later on because of marriage complications (Arnoldo, Adriane, Tiago, Antônio, Mara, etc.). It´s been a great success and our planning has really improved during this last little time.
We´ve been participating in a lot of divisions, and it´s been fun to get to know other ELders and help them out and get helped in our area. We just need to find more new people to teach.
It´s been a while since I´ve shared my testimony, and seeing as how I don´t have that much time before the end, here goes:
He lives and loves us. He understands all pain and all feelings of doubt and inadequacy. I love being a missionary and love the Spirit that is felt every day, as I try to do my best. I have loved to serve and grow during this time, and I´m gratefulfor the opportunity to use this last remaining time to bring souls unto Christ! Thomas will be baptized this week!

Love you all! Give ém Heaven!
Elder Brown

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Hey

Hi everyone,

A few cool things:

- I totally ate cow tail the other day...and it was delicious. SO tender and scrumptious.

- ALL of our investigators are awesome! They´re all getting ready to be baptized and not just baptized, but strong members of the church! The biggest thing that we´ve been trying to do as missionaries is strengthen the ward, and it´s been working! We´ve been doing activities every two weeks and bringing lots of people to church. We didn´t have a lot of people this week because it rained, and aqui no Brasil, rain means laziness and no will to work. BUT, the Bishop is really excited and the rest of the ward too. We’re using the Progress Record the way that it should be used and helping lots of different members to do small and simple things to help the investigators (like bring them to church, go to a lesson with us to them, have a Family Night on a specific time and day, divisions, etc.). That´s completely turned the ward around, and we´re just getting started! We´re also having basically District Meeting with the newly-called Ward Missionaries and giving them opportunities to teach and progress.

I really have no time to write, but I just want to say that as members and missionaries work together with the Lord, miracles come in droves and people are brought to the knowledge of the truth. People will be blessed because of a little extra organization.

Elder Brown

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

A really weird feeling.

Hello everyone, from Brasil!

This has been an excellent week, one of the best of my entire mission! We were able to teach a lot with the members and use them in almost all of our lessons! We are also putting a heavy focus on setting and attaining inspired goals (especially for each of the key indicators) - not just setting ridiculously-high goals that I´ll never be able to reach.

Actually, what I´ll do is give a list of what the key indicators are and what the mission standard is:

Batismos (4 / mês), Confirmações (4 / mês), Baptismal dates marked (4 per week for the next 4 weeks), Pesquisadores na Reunião Sacramental (8 / semana), Lições em Total (21/week), Lições ensinadas com um membro presente (15 / semana), Primeiras Lições (Restauração - 10 / semana), Novos pesquisadores e Famílias (12 e 3 / semana), e Contatos e Endereços (140/70 / semana/dupla). It´s pretty dang hard to get everything but we´ve been getting pretty close every week! Our goal is to live the standard and to help others do the same.

Many great things happened this week and we were able to feel that we´re fulfilling our missionary purpose, but I don´t really have time to write everything that happened, so I think I´ll just highlight some of the best things that happened:

- last night was one of the most stressful and crazy nights of my life (and no, we weren´t assaulted by Catwoman and her fiends, or anything of that nature). We had a ward missionary activity called "Noite do Bolo Macho" (Manly Cake Night). We spent a while making our delicous German Chocolate Cake (Elder Lott´s Mom´s recipe) and it was goood, and pretty. (the LAN house can´t / won´t read my memory card, so I can´t send pictures) We put a big bicep on it and it would make ya´ll proud, because we won! Anyway, the other activity we did was two weeks ago, and that was "Noite de Se Eu Fosse Você" (If I were you), and it was great. We kind of expected more from this activity, and actually there were more people there for this one than for the last one (over 70!), but some of the little things that we had forgotten to organize were left for the last minute. Recipe for insanity. There were 6 cakes, 10 judges, and 70 crazed brasilians wanting cake, going to the bathroom, screaming out what number their cake or their friend´s cake was, and just being crazy. We got home late and we were absolutely dead, but it all turned out ok in the end.

- we had a division with some other Elders and it was really great! I went with Elder Groom and we were both able to talk a lot and help each other out.

- one of the goals we established for this goal was to bring 12 people to church - and we did! It was so great! I´ve never seen so many people coming to church, and that means that we´re going to keep baptizing until the end!

- we taught English, a lot! On Saturdays we are now doing English conversation and yesterday we went to an English school and it was great

- etc., fun stories, drunk people hitting on us, crazy girls trying to follow us, etc.

The main thing I wanted to talk about was something that happened yesterday:

I felt very strongly, especially after knowing that Elder Brandon Langford, who I know was/is a powerful missionary, is home now, that I won´t be here forever. Let´s take this into the 11th gear! We´re gonig to kill each other of work and good times! We´ll strengthen the ward and baptize good people! Let´s do this, to the end!

Love you all. Preach the Gospel, be obedient and be happy. Or not (read Alma 42).

Elder Brown

Mais um batismo!

Oi gente,

We baptized again! Diego was baptized and his baptismal service was just as good as the others - there were a lot of really great investigators there and the Spirit was strong.

This week has been a little different for a few reasons. First of all (and I´ll tell ya´ll in advance that there won´t be pictures today because of the darn LAN house that we´re using, oh well). But, as I was saying, a different week. For a good while we had been finding great people and new families to teach, and a lot of people were actually doing what we were inviting them to do, and getting baptized. That is, obviously, great! We want that to continue and never stop! As we worked through the weeks, however, our finding effort wasn´t quite as marvelous as it could´ve been and we started to recognize that if we don´t find a lot of new people, we´re going to have to start the whole process over again. We have had some great surprises in the work, though! We went nuts this week and started doing a lot more street contacts, knocking on people´s doors, praying to find a family, etc., and it´s been paying off. We´ve found more people in these last two days than we´ve found in a long time, and it´s exciting! We studied the First Lesson in PMG individually and in our companionship and practiced it, then we taught a lot of them and found some great new families. Some of them are really, really special.

We had a lesson that was a memorable one. As is already known, we are on the coast. It´s not exactly the "beach" yet, but there are islands and we can´t go there because we can´t ride boats, there´s a big bridge that leads to the main island, everyone on the island has a weird accent and there are a lot of cross-eyed and crazy-for-blondes people on there, etc. Anyway, we were looking for people to teach and visiting some addresses when all of the sudden we saw a reallly pretty view, right on the lake! We decided to knock and Maurício answered the door, jovially, and let us in. We met his cousin, Cleusa, and they were both smoking and having a grand ´ol time. We taught about the Book of Mormon (we were short on time) and it was powerful - they felt the Spirit. We then invited Cleusa to pray and she did, very well! As she prayed, she said that that morning, she had prayed to know God´s truth and what He wanted from her. She started to cry in the prayer and the Spirit was strong. She then, after ending the prayer, came over and KISSED ME on the cheek! AAAAHHHH!!!! I was NOT expecting that, and she was pretty forward, but it was ok. The next day, we came back and Maurício had read a LOT in the BOM!

So many great experiences, but we´ve gotta go. Love you all and I know that everything we teach is true.

Elder Brown

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

The machine just keeps rolling.

Oi gente, tudo na paz? Sossegadão?

We´re doing great here in Paranaguá. We didn´t have a baptism this last week (everybody that was getting ready decided that they didn´t want to be ready), but some of those people will be baptized this week and some in the following weeks. This week, Eduardo and Fernando will be baptized! Eduardo was that 20 year-old kid who showed up at church 2 Sundays ago with his friend. God really likes him (and he really loves God), and because of that he´s been very blessed.

We climbed a hill in Matinhos - a really beautiful ocean-side city in the Zone. I got cut and it hurteth.

We brought 14 people to church this week!
We´re going to baptize! Every week!
I love being a missionary!
And that´s all I really have time for. Love yáll.

Most special moment: seeing simply how Heavenly Father takes care of us. Sunday morning was a little cold (actually not at all, but for here it was) and the investigators were all a little "moley" about going to church. We passed by a lot of people´s houses and a lot of people just didn´t want to go. We got pretty discouraged, but when we showed up at church, other investigators were there! Miracles are true! The ward is absolutely exploding with the work and the members are loving it! This is the best I´ve ever seen on my own mission, and we´re going to take full advantage of it!
Love you all. Here´s some more pictures.

The Church is true and He lives. Really.
Elder Brown

A Shout-out to my Sister, the rockinest girl of all! Happy Graduation!

Saturday, May 28, 2011

Elder Jacob Brown- Top row, second from right! 3 months left...August 31 release date

One of the best weeks of the mission!

Hey everyone,

We baptized Mateus and Daniel this week! Daniel wants to serve a mission (he´s 19) and Mateus is going to help his nieces and sister and other family members get baptized. We sure do love the miracles that God is putting in our path.

Some Português:
Esta semana foi uma das melhores da minha missão inteira!
Nossa área está explodindo! Trouxemos mais pessoas à Igreja semana passada que qualquer outro Domingo em minha missão! Não há nada de diferente que estamos fazendo para conseguirmos nossas metas em nossa área e na Zona. Só trabalho, organização e usando os membros. Está dando certo e temos batismos certos para esta semana, semana que vem, e a outra, e a outra. Estamos achando muitas famílias, embora não termos achado 6 todos os dias. Temos que nos arrepender nisto, mas estamos nos esforçando.
Vários milagres aconteceram esta semana, quero compartilhar um: estávamos buscando pesquisadores no Domingo de manhã e chegamos na Igreja com um pesquisador. Os outros falaram que iam vir depois, então decidimos ter esperança e só convidá-los para assistirem. Chegamos na Capela e percebemos dois rapazes que estavam vestidos de terno e camisa boa, mas não os reconhecemos. Sentamos ao lado deles e começamos fazer uma amizade. Eles - Eduardo e Guilherme (18 e 20 anos, respeitivamente) - disseram que já pesquisaram a Igreja muito no internet e que finalmente fizeram uma visita para conhecer. Eles fizeram uma amizade grande com tudo mundo e marcamos passar na casa deles na segunda-feira. Mais tarde, na segunda-feira, fui com um rapaz (Nei) para ensinar e conhecê-los. Demorou muito para achar a casa certa, pois não conhecia o lugar da área. Quando chegamos, eles estavam nos esperando juntos com mais 2 amigos deles, Thomas e Bruno. Ensinamos a primeira lição e ficamos assombrados em discobrir quanto que souberam da Igreja - o anjo Morôni, o Livro de Mórmon, a Igreja restaurada, etc. Quando estávamos prontos para marcar uma data batismal com eles, senti mais fortemente em minha missão para convidá-los pensar em servir missões (os 4), mostrei-os uma foto de eu e meus 3 amigos (que nem eles), e convidei Eduardo e Guilherme para orar a Deus, perguntando se deveriam se batizar neste Domingo (29/5/2011). Deu para sentir o Espírito quase numa maneira física. Todos aceitaram orar, ler e ir a Igreja. Saímos da lição com a boca arrastando no chão de tão eleitos que são aqueles rapazes. Ontém, Eduardo nos encontrou na rua e falou que quando todos oraram (até um dos rapazes que estava menos interessado que os outros), foi o momento mais especial da vida dele. Eles serão batizados nesta semana e na semana que vem! Estamos ensinando agora mais que 10 homens, TODOS com desejo para ser batizados!!! Iremos dividir a ala, ou qualquer coisa que o Senhor quer.
Tenho / temos aprendido que a missão não é sobre sua posição (finalmente estamos aprendendo isso), nem quantas coisas que faz ou fez, mas no desejo e obras que fez para trazar almas a Deus.
Sei que Deus vive. Só Ele poderia nos dar bênçãos assim, e sem Ele não teríamos estas bênçãos.

Portuguese to English translation

Some Portuguese:
This week was one of the best of my entire mission!
Our area is booming! We brought more people into the church last week than any other Sunday in my mission! There is nothing unusual we are doing to achieve our goals in our area and zone. All work, organization and using the members. Is it working and have some baptisms for this week, next week, and another and another. We're finding a lot of families, although we did not find all six days. We must repent of it, but we are struggling.
Several miracles happened this week, I share one: researchers were searching on Sunday morning and arrived at the church with a researcher. Others said that would come later, so we decided to have hope and just invite them to attend. We arrived at the chapel and noticed two guys who were dressed in suit and shirt good, but not recognize them. We sat beside them and started to make a friendship. They - and William Edward (18 and 20, respectfully) - said they had searched the Internet and the very Church that finally made an appointment to meet. They did a great friendship with everything happening in the world and set up their home on Monday. Later on Monday, I went with a guy (Nei) to teach and meet them. Take long to find the right house, because the place did not know the area. When we arrived, they were waiting together with 2 more of their friends, Thomas and Bruno. We teach the first lesson and we discovered it in amazement as they heard of the Church - the angel Moroni, the Book of Mormon, the church restored, etc.. When we were ready to mark a baptismal date with them, I felt stronger in my mission to invite them to think about serving missions (4), I showed them a picture of me and my three friends (or them), and invited Edward William and pray to God, asking whether they should be baptized this Sunday (29/05/2011). I could feel the Spirit in an almost physical way. All agreed to pray and read and go to church. We left the lesson with his mouth dragging on the ground so those boys who are elected. Yesterday, Eduardo met us on the street and said he prayed when all (up to one of the boys who were less interested than the others) was the most special moment in his life. They will be baptized this week and next week! We are now teaching more than 10 men, all desire to be baptized! We will divide the ward, or whatever the Lord wants.
I / we have learned that the mission is not about your position (we're finally learning it), nor how many things you do or did, but the desire and works that he has to bring souls to God.
I know that God lives. Only he could give us blessings so, and without him we would not have these blessings.

We also have a new bishop, we´ve got around 20 people that all want to be baptized, our teaching is improving every day, we´re trying to become Brasilian (we played Americans against some native Brasilian kids in futebol today, and we TIED. That´s right!), and we´re loving our missions. I´ve never felt so great on the mission! WE decide how we want our days and results to be.

One challenge: bring someone to church this month. If you really believe that you can, do what you can and pray for help, God will make it happen. Just do what you can, nothing else. Try a little harder - it´ll happen.
I love my comp and I hope you all know that in THIS transfer, I have learned how to be a missionary. Finally! It took us long enough! But it´s going really well and we´re excited for everything that has happened until now.

Something really weird has started to happen - I have started to realize how little time 2 years is and it´s weird. It´s a good thing and it has to happen, but there´s a lot to be done before that time. We have a lot of goals that need to be achieved beforehand!

Love you all! We´re going to baptize Guilherme and Eduardo this week (the two young men that will SERVE MISSIONS!!!), and Fernando. We´ve got a family of 6 for next week, and other people in the coming weeks. Let´s baptize them all!

Elder Brown

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

I know how/want to be a missionary now!

I learned how to be a missionary!

First, you work really hard until you can´t work harder. Then, after having done everything, you pray like crazy. Then, God gives you miracles. EVERY SINGLE TIME that we have prayed this week (as in 5 or 6 separate occasions) we have found a new family to teach, found someone who was waiting for us and being prepared by the Lord, or we have taught someone and felt the SPirit. It´s amazing. We´ve been in a constant state of shock the past 2 days after having had SO much success with this! We´ve found 3 new families in 3 days! ALL have agreed to be baptized! It´s amazing!
WE have had so many things happen this week and I want to write about all of it, but there isn´t any time. Monday was ridiculous: we went to the chapel to use the bathroom and replan some things after having had everything fall on its face. As we left, there was a man waiting in his car who came out and starting talking to us. He said that he´s always wanted to meet the church and learn how to speak english too - we marked a day to visit him (the next day - when we went there, we left the first lesson in English with him and his family - they want to be baptized! They live one street from the chapel!). So THAT was cool, but that wasn´t even the best that Heavenly Father had for us. Later that night, at about 20:00, we were looking for an address that we had got from someone on the street. Nothing was working, so we decided to use the magic prayer. Earlier that night (only about 15 minutes beforehand) we had passed an orange, richer house on a corner that caught our attention, but we shrugged it off as nothing and continued looking for the beforementioned address. Right after we prayed, I felt what would best be described as a punch in the face from the Spirit. It said "orange house". We walked with determination to the house, and as we approached the door the woman was already outside her house. We asked if we could come in , because we felt that God was preparing them to hear us ( we said that), and she let us in. We taught her, her daughter and her daughter´s husband and their 2 kids, and another man that had been a street bum until he found a Bible on the street. The lesson wasn´t the best taught that we had ever had, but we prayed like crazy to help them accept a baptismal date. And.......THEY ACCEPTED! THey literally live 3 HOUSES FROM THE CHAPEL!!! Miracles are happening, and those are only 2 of them!
Basically the only thing I´d like to get at for this week as far as advice is this (and it will sound familiar, but bear with me): work with everything until you have nothing left, and then pray like the nothing you are for the righteous something you want. God will give you anything you desire, if you deserve it.
I know that prayer is a miracle-worker. It helps souls get baptized. We will baptize 4 people this week, 5 the next week, and around 7-9 the next! Keep on the train!
Elder Brown

Monday, May 9, 2011

Baptize the Beach Bums!

Hey ya´ll,

To start out, I´ll do something that I should probably do every week - a brief description of the area and stuff that happened. My new area (Paranaguá) is literally right on the ocean. It´s not the "beach" (like sand and stuff), but the coast is here and it feels just like Hawaii. Every day (for the first time in my mission) I´m using sunscreen and it´s been easy to think about when we were in Hawaii, putting on sunscreen. Anyway, there is a legend here about the "snakes" (tie-grabbers, missionary-stalkers, etc.). Basically, Americans are severe eye-candy here and, seeing as how Elder Lott and I are both blondish Americans, it´s been pretty interesting. Every hour or so we walk by different groups of 1. school girls, 2. young adult women or 3. the rare, crazy married woman and they cat-call us to death. Stuff like "vai lá em casa" (go to my house!), "me ensina, Élder" (teach me, Elder!), and the like. It´s kind of weird, but we´re doing our best to avoid them. There´s a good mixture of rich and poor here - we work in several bairros (sections of the city) on the mainland, and there´s also a big Island called Ilha das Valadares that you have to take a bridge to get to, and it´s all our area. The richer parts have a lot of Palm trees and look a LOT like certain parts of California. The others look more like Brasil, but it´s a great area. Everyone seems to have a really, really slow attitude maaaaaaaan. Just slooooooow doooooooownnnn. And there´s weed all over the place, which helps the illusion.

This week has been very different but very awesome. Elder Lott and I have been deciding to make our area into the Celestial area (that it already is) and help all the other missionaries to understand how it´s done. Our focus has been one that´s very simple: we want miracles. We need miracles in order for this work to get going. They can be big or small, but they just have to happen. To be able to receive these miracles, we need to do three things: 1. Ask, 2. Deserve, and 3. Thank for the miracles when we receive them. Until now in this current week, we´ve seen several miracles that have really been amazing.

First, yesterday we have several miracles. First was Diego: all our appointments had fallen through and we were looking for someone else to visit. We said a quick prayer to ask for someone to teach and kept going. We walked by this 25 year-old guy who was playing guitar in his living room and something said "teach him". We almost passed him, but we turned around and went to talk to him and he was already coming to the door to let us in. He´s from the Baptist church and plays the drums there. As we came in he asked if we could speak English with him and we said sure, can we leave a message with you in English, and he said yes! He understood really well, and it actually was probably a big blessing because he wasn´t able to understand everything nor interject with doctrines that his church teaches. It was a really spiritual lesson and we were praying like crazy that we would understand and want to follow. After the first vision (which practically blew his socks off), Elder Lott asked what he would do to know that the message was true. He thought for a minute then said that he was feeling like he should pray and do what Joseph Smith did - ask to know the truth. We stared at him in awe and complimented him for his courage to follow the answer. We invited him to be baptized and he´ll pray about that too. He´s awesome! It was really cool to be able to practice in English and to feel the simplicity of our teaching and power of our testimonies.

Next, on that same day, there was Maria and her family. We were, once again, hunting for people to teach and we visited a house that we had contacted a few days before - the contact was this crazy old lady and we were half-hoping that she wasn´t there. Well, we were informed that she had moved. Go figure. So the 13 year-old boy let us in to teach his family...of 7! 6 of them can be baptized! They´re legally married and really, really want to be baptized! Woo!

We´re also teaching several young couples, another huge family (of 6 - Aliete and her family) and several singles. We could seriously baptize 20 people this month! It´s all about families! Let´s do this!

I love being a missionary. Let´s baptize.

Another thing: on Sunday we will be able to call for 45 minutes for Mother´s Day! yay! You can use the regular international code that you used last time (country-area code-number = 55-41-3422-3176 ). We´ll probably have to call later just to check and make sure everything´s ok. Organize your thoughts, questions and words so that we can use the time efficiently, please. Thanks!

Love you all. Be missionaries! Preach His restored Gospel!

Elder Brown

Transfers

Forgive my lateness!

-----Original Message-----
From: Jacob Alexander Brown [mailto:jabrown@myldsmail.net]
Sent: Friday, April 29, 2011 10:34 AM
To: Brown Family
Subject: Transfers

Hey everyone,

P-day was changed to today because of a crazy Mission President meeting in São Paulo, and it has been a really long week. We worked like nuts and I have had more experiences that will be difficult to forget. This transfer, I can safely say that I have felt more alone and more pathetic than in any other time in my life, as well as very comforted. It is a very hard thing to be doing your supposed "best" and still having doubts as to the sucess of your efforts. Oil doesn´t mix with water, but if we churn it really hard and long and fast, it seems to come together. That was basically the theme.

This transfer will be interesting for a few reasons: yesterday, as we prepared a few houses for new Elders to move in (we´re receiving 22 new missionaries in the mission! For the first time in months we´re receiving more than we´re losing), and we got the transfer call. Both my companion and I were transferred! It was really strange - Elder Melo (who was my comp. a few months ago) will return to the area and baptize all the people we prepared. I will be going to the city of Paranaguá, no litoral (the beach!) with my first companion on the mission, Elder LOTT!!!! It´ll be so awesome to serve together and we´ve got a lot of plans for this new month.

It has really been strange how quickly the mission goes by. Serving in my current position for some time now, it´s easy to get tired and sometimes discouraged, but I´m starting to learn about what it really means to "magnify your calling" - it means looking beyond, searching for even more revelation, following the Spirit more, and running faster than before. If you´re tired, you need to keep going. If you´re worried about yourself and your own desires, the work won´t go forward and you will feel alone. My advice to all that read this email, even though I´m just one more missionary - normal and sinful - is to not think about your own interests, especially in the Lord´s work. It´s not worth it. I´ve learned that this transfer - when we COMPLETELY give ourselves to the Lord and do His will, because we want to, we wil be blessed with all that we need.

Love you all. Let´s pray for a huge wave in Paranaguá to baptize the whole city. That´s figurative, of course - don´t pray for that, please.

Elder Brown

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Hey! Good time!

Hi everyone,

It´s been a great week, full of hard work and dedication and stuff.

As far as what I said last week, it continues this week and we have transfers next week. It´s been a great transfer and we´ve been able to work a lot and help a lot of people. This transfer I feel that I´ve changed more than in any other, for the better. Maybe not in the way or function that I would´ve chosen, but I believe, looking back, that it was necessary for my growth. I´ve had a lot of questions going through my mind as certain situations were placed before me. It´s gotten to a certain point that I know that my patience has grown and my character has been shaped. It´s been really, really frustrating - that I can´t lie about - in certain aspects, and mainly the things I can´t really control. It seems like we walk on different wavelengths in the same reality sometimes. A few examples: I like to walk really fast, he does not. I like to plan each lesson for each person, but he seems to have a way pre-planned to baptism. He teaches well, but I feel that he doesn´t really care or pay attention while I teach, while I try my best to pray for him. I could go on, but I don´t need to pick apart his weaknesses or emphasize my strengths to make this email an effective "prestação de contas". In the end, like I mentioned last week, it´s been a mixture of trying to be an example and trying not to be "overbearing". I´ve been doing my best to love him, serve him, try to talk about things he likes and be perfectly obedient, and I´ve been able to do that. The little things that maybe he doesn´t like or won´t accept are his problem, and my advice and example can only go so far if his will isn´t there at the same level, or, as it were, on the same wavelength.

"Wavelength" has been an interesting term for me to think about recently. The only thing that we really have in common on our two wavelengths has been the Gospel. That´s what really matters. We can get along with anyone in the whole world if we have at least one thing in common - the Gospel wavelength. I know that as we strengthen our connection and understanding of this "wavelength", we will be blessed in helping others and helping ourselves. Our understanding of our own purpose will increase and we will begin to understand better why we are here, what we are doing, where we will go, why we have problems, etc. We will be happy in a genuine way. I love watching people choose the right and doing the things that will help them to be eternally happy, and at times it frustrates me a lot that not everyone wants this path. We must, however, keep trying. If we don´t, it will fall upon our own heads.

We´re going to baptize Susi this week and Carol next week! Let´s end this transfer in the water!

Love you all - be a Nephi (or Nephietta)

Elder Brown

Thursday, April 14, 2011

We gonna baptize again!

So sorry everyone…I forgot to send this!

Hello all,

I´d like to personally congratulate my sister Alison May Brown for being a rockstar, without having seen the play in which was previously participated. She, quote, "rocked people´s socks right off", close quote.

Also, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO JULIE!!!!! 11 years old is so great! Next year is Young Womens!

And no, I didn´t forget that you´re actually 12. Sorry.

We had a great week! All the missionaries were able to teach a lot of lessons and we have several people that are preparing for baptism for this week, next week, and the next. We´re baptizing every week!

First, we have Lurdes. Elder Melo and I were going crazy on a Sunday to complete the mission standard in lessons the other week, and we saw a lady sitting outside her house with her grandson. We went over and taught her about the BOM. She mentioned that the Elders had already went to her house and that she had already learned a lot with them. We didn´t think much of it, but she promptly accepted a baptismal date for the 3rd of April! OK! We came back afterwards and she had read, prayed and receive a strong answer as to its truth. She continuallt says that she prayed to have another opportunity to receive the missionaries again, and that this is an answer to her prayers. She went to church and LOVED it - blended right in with the Relief Society. The other day (Monday) we taught almost a perfect lesson with her about the Restoration (she had already been taught that lesson beforehand, but we decided to review it again). We brought a member (Margarete Budnar) with us and we were able to listen to her problems and thoughts. The Spirit was tangible in the room, and she got very emocional and started to cry. It was a very tender moment and one that I will not forget - she has been converted and is ready to be baptized this week.

The other is João. He was being taught by the Elders in the area next to us (31 de Março) and they found out that he actually lives in our area. Our baptism! He´s a little slow, but a great man and super excited for baptism as well. He has a crazy, kind-of-retarded sister that keeps on repeating that she wants to, um, break the commandments with my companion and I. Yeah, only on the mission.

Next week, Otacílio. He´s a member´s dad and gained interest in the church after seeing his son be cured by a priesthood blessing. He´s from the same place as Elder Santana and they have a blast speaking in gírias (slang, local words) from Pernambouco. I can say that my vocabulary is growing daily as we go there (conteranho, daíapoi, pois é vizinho, etc.). He´s a very happy and simple man who doesn´t know how to read, but he´s stopped smoking and drinking coffee, and is really excited!

Also next week: Lourenço. He´s dating a member of the church (Dola) who was recently divorced. He´s a great guy and he, though he´s rather "whipped" with Dola and does whatever she says, he´s been able to receive an answer as to the truthfulness of the BOM. Yesterday we watched a movie called "Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration" (which is basically a pirated version of the exclusive, only-in-the-CTM movie. Funny stuff.) and he cried. Crying is great.

We´ve also got Rodrigo and Juliana. Their daughter was recently confirmed (last Sunday) and they are super excited. They went to the SRE (a church service group to help find jobs - I don´t know the name in English) and they´ll stop pirating DVDs soon so they can be baptized too.

This has been a week/month of much labor! We´re excited to baptize every week and it´s been very rewarding, if not a little crazy.

Love you all, hope you all know that I know that as we listen to the Prophet´s voice our questions will be answered and our testimonies will be strengthened.

He lives.

Elder Brown

Proverbs 3:5-6

Future Elder Jacob Brown

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