Week 42: October 24

Dear family,

This week was really busy! Saw lots people especially up in hoopa and willowcreek, Monday was pday and we cleaned the apartment and went to the other elders apartment and picked up a dresser cause we needed one for our apartment we didn't have one one which sucked, but now our clothes have a home yay! But for pday we played basketball like usual. We had a family home evening right after dinner with the Nichols family and the Lewis family they have a rock wall in there house it's crazy cool! It's swagbabydope 😜 but we had a good lesson with them and there cute little kids that were running around everywhere crazy.

Tuesday was a good day we had district meeting which was awesome, elder morales are DL warned us about earth quakes, which was kinda freaky cause maybe he had some divine revelation on warning us. But district meeting was good we talked about how to began teaching points. And then after we went to Wendy's and got fat !!! 😃👍... lots of 🏃🏃 coming up. Elder cullimore and I actually run 2 miles every other day, it's super easy to run down here it's crazy!!. After that we went tracting all day, we met some awesome people and taught some lessons on the doorstep. But after dinner we went and had a lesson with sister tooker and jene, good lessons there awesome people! That night we went and had stake president splits and I went with brother bounds and we went finding while elder cullimore went and had a lesson with the Noriegas. It was fun we didn't really find anybody but we had a good conversation and he is a really cool guy. After the splits we went finding again Tuesday is usually our finding day. It was good though let some awesome people and worked on my people skills.

Wednesday was a really crazy good day we went up to hoopa and willowcreek we had a really good lesson with the nelsons, our awesome investigators, Mr. nelsons is battling with cancer so he and his wife is going through a really hard time. But he is wanting answers now cause the end is near for him 😢 but after that we went finding and had a lesson with darla marshal her son was murdered so we were trying to comfort her with that, hoopa is a crazy place, but after that we had a lesson with Donna bassi and showed her a video and talked about homeless people haha, she cares for them. After we had a lesson with maylene a old investigator that we were finally able to meet he is super cool he wants to be baptized either here or in Sacramento, but we got him to read he scriptures. We then had a lesson with sister Joseph her family is doing okay they are up with the other tribes at the pipeline crazyiness with my tribe as well it's a huge thing tribes from everywhere are gathered. for dinner we had dinner with the shipmens and elder cullimore visiting teachers from Utah were here hahaha, super small world that's for sure. We had a good time with them it was awesome sister shipmen is the funniest woman in the 🌎.  We taught them an awesome lesson about the atonement after, and drove home ! Party. 

Then Thursday was bluelake day and we went finding and tracking and we had a couple lessons through out the day and it was awesome this week every dinnner we have had pizza ! I am so sick of pizza it's so annoying haha. But yeah we went finding for the rest of the day it was good. 

Friday was weekly planning day, and we went with the past bishop to help this lady clean all of her garden beds out and it was fun, I actually admit that I like gardening haha, it took 4 hours though but it was good, and after we had correlation with brother visser he is a interesting guy, we helped him after move some heavy wood then we had dinner and then went to a less active house and showed him a ARP video and did his dishes for him and had a pretty fun time with him he is like 25 awesome guy. But after that we just went back to the apartment and retired for the day, 

Saturday was crazy we helped this woman clean her storage unit out and put it into the moving truck cause they are moving to Oregon, it was fun except for the brown recluse spiders everywhere nasty 😷 but it was good we had a lesson with the Owen family and we finished the restoration with them, mrs Owen is just trying to understand since she grew up Jewish not believing in Christ but she is coming closer and closer, and her son is awesome he already knows a lot about the gospel. But after that there dog randomly decided to try to bite my face off so that wasn't to good it kinda hurt got a fat lip and cut my cheek open. That was pretty crazy 😬 but after that awesome lesson we had finding all day Saturday down in fresh water, that night we had dinner with the macllelens family and there house is in this forest way down there, there house is so pretty and huge I was jealous, we had a really awesome dinner with them, there son Charlie is crazy haha he is 11 and he is e smartest kid I have ever met, he builds legos and makes the most amazing things out of them, I think he is smarter then me. But that family is pretty awesome. We got lost trying to get home that was fun, we were way out in the woods so kinda freaky too, wish I saw big foot. ☹️️ but yeah! 

Sunday was good had church and talked with our ward mission leader and yeah, after church we went finding all day and had dinner with the seits they made amazing tri-tip and shrimp and potatoes and broccoli it was amazing since this whole week we have been getting pizza 🍕 gross. But yeah we had dinner with the zone leaders as well. But yeah today we might go up to a beach somewhere up north for pday idk yet, but I think the one thing I learned this week was having faith no matter what situation even if your at the lowest part of your week or your life that faith will bring you up with the savior and Heavenly Father knows that you are trying and he will bless you, he promises as we do are best he will bless us, and I have definitely seen that this week. But yeah that was my week !!

Sounds like you guys had fun this week! I love sandhollow! It's amazing especially the island in the middle on the backside there awesome cliffs to jump off of it's amazing. I got your package! Thank you they were cute haha, I put he decorations up in the apartment, KitKats are the best! 2 months tell I see you guys on Skype !! Okay I will look for the card and let you know, I set you guys some letter so you should get those soon. It's crazy Connor will be 9! Getting so big haha I love you guys!! 

Elder Devin Brown 

brown.devin@myldsmail.net

3503 LK Wood Blvd.
Apartment B
Arcata, CA 95521

Week 41: October 17

Dear family,

This week was okay, a lot of canceled appointments which isn't good, crazy weather. But Monday was pday it was good we had apartment inspections with the new apartment couple, they were super impressed with our apartment so that's sweet, they gave us toilet paper for the reward which is a blessing!! For sure. But we then had a lesson with the Owens and dinner they made us steak and chicken super good, we taught them the restoration which was pretty good we only taught them the first couple principles cause it's hard for them to understand, but it was good.

Tuesday was zone conference it was really good talked about committing investigators to commitments and a bunch of other things, it was good. I saw the Jeknavorians!! They gave me your cookies!! They were so good!! I ate them all within the next day haha. Thank you!! Those are my favorite. ❤️ we had dinner with a ton of missionaries including then APs with some of our members that was fun, they made curry for AP elder Achal! But they made homemade apple juice and it was fermented, it was still good but had a little zing to it haha, they said it wasn't strong enough to make us drunk, I thought it was funny cause we all drank it than asked why it was fizzy and they didn't even know haha. Funny stuff happens. After that we went to the park and had a lesson with sister tooker and her sun. It was a good day it was weird to see the Jeknavorians, haha, it made me feel like I should be home. 

But Wednesday was good, we had service with this farm lady and we mucked Cow poop which was awesome!! It was fresh too. 😂 but that was fun she let us take a free pumpkin home which was amazing, cause I picked the biggest one haha, but we went to blue lakes and went finding all day our appt. with a less active wasn't there so we went trackting pretty much until dinner which was with the hamblins and we went finding again!! That was our Wednesday, definitely need more faith in finding, and in pretty much everything. 

But Thursday was really good we went up to hoopa and went with brother Kimble to find some people went through the 3 different reservations up there it was so beautiful the Kuruk tribe, hoopa tribe which isn't even the real name of the tribe we are trying to find out what the actually name is, that's just what the other tribes call it. And the Yurok tribe, hoopa is the biggest and there is a big rock in the Klamath river that splits the tribes. It's a cool rock but we went up through all of them to orleans a very small town and went up this road called ishy-pishi, still trying to figure out what that means haha 😂 but we went finding and took some more pics around there, it was so smoky cause there was a fire very close to where we were and everything was clouded. It looked really cool though. We had dinner with the Kimbles, and the wind started to pick up and the rain came In so the drive all the way back to arcata was pretty crazy. But we made it. 

Friday was super duper fun 😉 planning was good, we had dinner with the zundels we talked with them for awhile it was fun they are a sweet family. 

Saturday we went finding until 2:30 and then we had a ward baptism that we were until 5 and we had dinner with sister kautzer and she cleaned my ears out, holy cow there was tons of crap in them it was so gross, but it's a very good way to clean them all the way out, and it doesn't hurt. But after that we went finding again haha. 

Sunday was good 12 week and then church had a good time in gospel principles and in priesthood, we went finding after all over mickenlyville and had dinner and then went finding in Arcata and had a lesson with Eric and investigator we read first nephi with him, it was cool how interested he got as we read it was sweet to see. But after we went to a members cause they invited us to have pie haha. Apple pie is very popular up here. Haha it dumped rain yesterday like the freeway was a river it was crazy driving in it, my favorite is hitting the puddles with the truck super fun 😂 but that was my week, hopefully this one will be a little more exciting haha, you guys are gonna be foster parents again?? That surprised me, are you going to adopt again? I have not yet received the Halloween package, but I will look for it 😀 tell the kids I love them and the dog!! Love you guys.

Elder Devin Brown

brown.devin@myldsmail.net

3503 LK Wood Blvd.
Apartment B
Arcata, CA 95521

Week 40: October 11

Dear family, 

I hope all is well back in the Saratoga Springs adventure, this week was a pretty good week.

Monday after pday we went and visited a family and the dad is trying to get back into he church, and the wife and son are Jewish but want to learn more about our church, so we talked to them and explained what the gospel does for us and for families especially. And it was a really good discussion tonight we are having dinner with them and teaching them the restoration. So that will be pretty exciting, after that we went finding.

Tuesday we had district meeting that was good we talked about giving better commitments and following up with them, after that we then drove to eureka with the eureka elders and helped with this huge project at this member house brother Boones. And we dug trenches and tried to get a huge root root of a red wood out of the ground that was fun 😬 we worked all day until 5 and then he made us steaks and a bunch of other food. He is a funny guy, we went finding after that and my companion ran into a pole which was super funny, he is very unaware of his surroundings. 

Wednesday after we did companion study we did 12 week and then went to a sisters house and picked apples 🍎 it was funny we used pink scarfs to hold the apples in it looked pretty stylish on me😜 but she wanted a ladder from one of her sheds We had to use a machete to cut through blackberry bushes to get to the 🚪 it was sweet, got some sick pics of that haha, after we took pics of us in Star Wars helmets that she let us use, we left and went finding and we then had a lesson with brother freiday he is one crazy fellow, he was attacked twice by his neighbor she is a meth head, so he was pretty shaken up about that, she attacked him multiple times and for some reason the cops won't arrest her, so that's confusing. But we just read the Book of Mormon with him. We went finding after dinner again finding is life out here, didn't really find anybody but it was good, people don't like us knocking late at night they will just look at the door and I think there scared us of at night 😂 but yeah.

Thursday was Hoopa day!! We drove he hour and 15 minutes up there and went and visited a crazy funny less active he as like 15 dogs and 5 cats, you can barely breathe in the house but we read the Book of Mormon with him and then met brother Kimble at a gas station and he drove us around hoopa, he is our guide around there cause there is no street addresses, and it's dangerous for us to be trying to find it on our own which we did last week, but we went and he drove us to witchepeck to try to find some less active, we drove deep In the forest and it was pretty crazy, people living in trailers deep in the mountains, you know you found someone if there is about 10 broken cars everywhere. But we had a bad encounter with a pit bull so we kind of stayed in the car and tried finding some people, we almost drove off the edge of the road cause brother Kimble is super crazy at driving we drifted a couple times, but on the way back we talked to us about what the natives believe and what holidays they celebrate and don't, they really don't like thanksgiving at all, or Fourth of July, but we stopped by some old dance sites which was pretty sweet, we got some really pretty pictures, after brother Kimble left we went and saw an old couple close to willowcreek, and after that we went to dinner with with the dobracks and the johstons I love those families they are the funniest people, we had amazing potato soup, they daughter is at byu right now. But after that we went and visited sister bassi she has had a lot of health problems and we gave her a blessing and after she talked our ears off, after that we drove home and didn't get home until 10:30. 

Friday we did really fun service with this guy named David he is the funnies guy, we helped him put up a fence and dig holes and everything, we could probably call him an investigator, he asked a lot of questions about everything and made some jokes but he is a really good guy, he bought us both a large pizza after, we did weekly planning all day and went finding after.

Saturday we drove everywhere made our way through the back roads down to freshwater and kneelland, got some pretty pics, the area is so beautiful we drove through redwoods the whole way into this hidden valley, I would definitely live there. But yeah finding all day, we had dinner in eureka at Wendy's like the only Wendy's around, but we visited a less active who talked to us about pot,  it we tried sharing s message but he didn't trebly want one, cool guys though.

Sunday church and then finding all day, we did have a lesson with Eric we read the Book of Mormon with him, and went finding again! \

We get fed a couple times a week Haha, this week should be better hopefully, We work a lot with less actives and we have a couple investigators 2 of them need to be re-baptized and we have the Owens family he needs to be baptized and his wife and son are Jewish and hopefully might be baptized with him, that's 1 of the 2 and the 2nd she is super less active and we just can't find her records but she wants to get re- baptized, so that's good haha, we are having zone conference tomorrow so that will go awesome ! I get to see the Jeknavorians tomorrow, the thing that I learned this week is probably having hope in finding people to teach but also having that hope which leads to faith to have baptisms we are going to invite 4 people to be baptized. I just finished the Book of Mormon and started reading Abraham, and also learning about Jospeh smith more and him finding then seer stone known as the Urim and Thummim it's super cool!! Sounds like you had a crazy week back home I hope aspen is doing better and the kids and Chloe who I have never met!! Well that was my week I hope you guys are doing well, I miss you! Love ❤️ u 

Elder Devin Brown

brown.devin@myldsmail.net

3503 LK Wood Blvd.
Apartment B
Arcata, CA 95521