"When you're here, we're here also!"

Elder Adamson with his 17 planners from his mission and Elder Brown with his... 2. haha

Family!

I love you guys so much! It's been great to get letters and emails and (most recently) audio files from you! Dad, I love the little recorder you gave me. It was like Christmas when I got that thing! It's fun to record the experiences that a journal just won't do justice to. Thank you for the wonderful treats as well. Elder Adamson and I have been chomping down on those Lifesavers:) I feel really blessed to be serving in the US so that I can get so much mail and so many packages! I am so grateful for all that you are doing and the wonderful messages you are sharing. I have to admit, after hearing that you went fly fishing, I wondered why you didn't send me any of the fish that you caught in my package! I guess the only conclusion I have left to make is that you didn't catch many... ;) haha just kidding!

That camping trip really sounds like a blast. I can only imagine how great of an influence the Brendon Brown family is going to have on the world. 5 missionaries, practically consecutively, will be serving the Lord with all their heart, might, mind and strength! What power. Tell those guys that I love them and I look up to them for caring what a missionary has to say in the first place, especially when it's me... haha

Michael, I think that your Freemium Model is, sadly, very true, but I'm not going to say it didn't make me laugh pretty hard. It is really awesome! There is this one specific area of Fort Madison that we just kinda avoid because it seems to be all people who will talk to you all day and never change. It's sad to see, but apathy is one of Satan's most potent tools in the world. Just people who couldn't care less about ANYTHING. But the work moves forward nonetheless.

Aunt Becky, I love your letters. Thank you so much for taking the time to write me... Your letters and the love that I feel from you reminds me of Mom. You and her are two of my biggest heroes.

Now! I'm sure you're wondering why in the world I titled this email like I did... but here it comes! Elder Adamson and I get the chance to work at the Nauvoo Pageant twice a week, but we work just the "Country Fair" portion from 7-8:30. The Pageant starts at 8:30, and that is when we are supposed to leave. It is super fun, and that hour and a half simply FLIES by. (Funny side note: one night on our drive home from Nauvoo, Elder Adamson said, "Man, if my whole mission had gone by that fast, I would have been home a year ago.") But the sad part is that we leave right when the pageant starts, so we miss out on the best part. Well! Not on Saturday! We got a referral from the pageant to go and deliver a CD to a lady in Farmington, which is the furthest West our area goes, so when we contacted her on Saturday morning, we got to meet Amb*r, M*tt, 11 year old Er*c and 2 year old T*mmy! They are a wonderful little family and they had attended the Pageant and really enjoyed it. They referred to it as "Happy Land" because everyone and their mom came up and welcomed them to the Pageant. They had to leave early last time because T*mmy was getting rambunctious, but they wanted to come again and see the whole thing. So we got approved to go see it with them! One of the coolest things though is that when we were actually teaching them on Saturday morning, M*tt told us that he was more or less agnostic. He just didn't believe God was really there. When we watched a video about Christ and asked them how God could bless them as a family, 11 year old Er*c piped up and said, "I really want my Dad to know that God loves him, because that will really help him to feel good. I know that God loves him. I know that God loves us. That will really help us to all believe that."

Elder Brown and mission companion at the Pageant

That kid has a testimony as tall as Everest. The Spirit really struck my heart and testified that that is all we really need as a starting point. It's like Alma said,

"Yea, even if ye can no more than desire to believe, let this desire work in you, even until ye can give place for a portion of my words." (Alma 32:27)

I know that God "lives and loves each one of us", as Mom once said. He called a prophet because of that love. He gave us a man on the watchtower to see threats from far off, but He also gave us His own personal telephone number. Never be afraid to pray! It will never hurt you.

So anyway, at the Pageant, one of the lines that they say a lot is "When you're here, we're here also." That's all. I just wanted you to know that. haha

I love you all!

Elder Brown

After a morning run in the pouring rain.