Week 60: February 27

Dear family,

This week was good, start with Monday we had pday which was good we went to the church and hung out. Did the usual played games threw the frisbee and went to the card shop we saw some YSA members there which was good. After pday we had family home evening with the YSA, we went to Fairfield and we played pictonary with pudding and we played pool, and ping pong after it was fun there YSA is like 3 times as big as ours with is sad. We got to see the other elders which was good.

Tuesday we didn't have district meeting but we had finding pretty much all day, we had the apartment couple come and put in bunk beds and he did an apartment inspection while they were there is was good, that night we were going to have exchanges with the zoneleaders but one of them got sick which was sad.

Wednesday we had exchanges with one of the zoneleaders, elder Davis went with elder Shaifer and I went with one of he Spanish elders, elder Brock. Our second exchange we had a couple really good lessons we taught the restoration a couple times, and we went tracting and didn't find anybody but found some pretty interesting people. It was good though haha, I need the contact practice.

Thursday was good we had zone conference in Fairfield. From 9 am to 4, it was a pretty good zone conference we got a lot of practices in and learned how to teach repentance and to extend commitments and also we practiced on contacting people, we got into groups for that which was nerve recking definitely don't like doing those In front of everyone, we had an amazing lunch though we got bread bowls and clam chowder it was so good. I loaded up on the cream puffs after 👍 but yeah president and sister wright spoke to us and we had the elders and sister that were leaving to go home bare their testimony. Which was sad, it's super weird to think that is coming up sooner and sooner. I am in the 9 month left range. But after that we had dinner and we went to Institute and had an amazing lesson on the eternal family and the world view on the family, and all the crazy stuff that has been going on with that and we had just a really good experience there on the YSAs point of view on eternal families and how we need to protect them, cause the world is destroying them.

Friday was weekly planning all day that was normal.

Saturday he had some crazy basketball 🏀!! We went finding for he rest of the day.

Sunday was good we had church and had a good lesson taught about respecting our leaders in the church and how far to go with joking and making fun. It was a really good lesson something this ward really needed.

Today is Monday. Our pday is only half a day cause we are going to the temple this week. Sacramento temple!! Super stoked for that. Transfers is is Saturday we found out what's gonna happen. It went by super fast, but that was my week I hope everyone is doing well. I love you guys! 

Elder Devin Brown 

brown.devin@myldsmail.net

100 Summerfield Drive #215

Vacaville, CA 95687

Week 59: February 20

Dear family,

This week was pretty good, Monday was pday we hiked the huge hill behind the stake center got some pretty sweet pictures, I sent those last week. We just played ball and card games in the gym, that night we had a service project with the YSA we cleaned out the gutters and picked up the leaves around the house made it look gorgeous, they gave us hot chocolate after which was awesome, it got pretty warm this week almost 70 degrees, amazing haha.

Tuesday was good we had zone meeting it was really good, one of the best ones that has happened and president bell came and spoke to us, he is the first councilor in the mission presidency in our mission, he also teaches institute, he is an amazing teacher. President bell is a good teacher becomes he teachers with emotion, shares personal stories. Keeps the class awake with the way he teaches. And he cares about each class members, and relates the lesson to each of us. And interacts the class so that's awesome. After that we had a lesson with a less active that was super cool. Fun guy got a picture with him before we left. We went finding after that, that night we went on exchanges with some missionaries in our district.

Wednesday since I was in with elder Magee in his ward, we went to some service that morning and with a ward member to fix up the house and yard, after we went to the opportunity house and did some service there as well. After we went and had a good lesson with a investigator and taught him the plan of salvation he is a very Interesting guy, he grows avocados and drinks beer literally all day everyday, what a life hAha. He gave us some pretty good oranges though haha, after that we went and visited another investigator and shared a scripture with him, his dog loved us, after we went and had a lesson with a really funny woman, it was awesome though. People are so interesting. We had a really good lesson with a 10 year old and taught her the gospel of Jesus Christ and the grandma the grandma didn't speak english so we had a member there to translate for us. Really good lesson. We had pizza for dinner awesome!! We exchanged back after dinner.

Thursday we had a great lesson with out investigator and taught her the gospel of Jesus Christ, we had a member come with us. And she is coming along she calls me Mr. brown haha. And she says I look like a guy off her game she plays, she said she just can't get away from us haha, I guess that's a good thing, but after that we went finding pretty much all day we had a really good institute lesson that night with the YSA and we had sister teach that night. On going to the temple and why we need temples and how much the other side really depends on us and what we need to do to better our temple attendance.

Friday was weekly planning day so that was cool like usual. Played pingpong in between that.

Saturday was good we played basketball in the morning ton of people showed up to play really good turn out, we went find for most of the day which was good. We then did a little finding after.

Sunday was the adventure of church, we had the high attendance of 18 people total for the YSA, which is the record for then least amount of people, was sad haha. Had a good dinner that night with the Andrew family with an adventure haha crazy little kids. I just realized I am out of practice with the little ones haha. But yeah that was my week!! Love you! Hope everything is very well!! Thank you for the valentines letter!! Tell the kids I say thank you! 

Did you here about the oreville dam? It's just about to break and if that happens thousands of homes will be under 6 feet of water, insane.

Elder Devin Brown 

brown.devin@myldsmail.net

100 Summerfield Drive #215

Vacaville, CA 95687

Week 58: February 13

Dear family,

This week was pretty good, tons of rain the ground is so wet from the past month of on going rain ☔️ so there has been a lot of flooding, it's funny cause Vacaville has a ton of canals for the water, but everything is full of water except for the canals it's pretty funny. I think they might want to fix that haha.

Monday was good had pday played basketball and frisbee and that's about it, we had family home evening after and we played Book of Mormon jeopardy, we were down like 1500 points and came back, just like the super bowl! 😜 it was pretty fun, our bishopric is the funniest combination I have ever seen.

Tuesday was district meeting in the morning and it was good I taught about how we can feel he Holy Ghost and understand it and how we can help our investigators feel and understand the Holy Ghost. I taught and a bunch of other missionaries in the district did as well. After that we had a good lesson with a less active, I will take a picture with him next week so you can see how you can see how awesome he dresses haha. After that we went finding and tried to find a couple of people we did a lot of Facebook finding with the YSA. One of our members helps us so much with it, she basically goes through all the members and finds out if she can get into contact with them and see if they are still interested and still live in the area.

Wednesday was good we went to the opportunity house and worked in the clothing department and went through shoes and marked them, we had a good conversation with one of the workers there. 

Thursday we went finding for most of the day and had a good time, one of the elders in our apartment was super sick so that wasn't good. But I guess that's what he gets for making fun of all of us for being sick 😂 that night we had institute which was really good, president bell is a very good teacher we talked about eternal families and what steps we need to get married and what kind of spouse that we want forever and what goals we want to make as a family, we did some cool activities on that, the main goal is " marry in the temple" with the right person at the right time, in the right place. It was super good to hear what's people's thoughts were on that. The class had a really good discussion about it it was awesome!

Friday was weekly planning and it was good we went on exchanges on that night with the Spanish elders I went to his area elder Brock's and we had a good time.

Saturday we went to basketball and that was awesome we had a couple of investigators come with some of our members and we had super good game with them, after we went and had personal study and companionship study elder Brock and I had a really good one, we discussed some deep stuff it was really good. We went trackting after and didn't really get any success except that we ran into a less active that she said she wasn't ready to come back "yet" so there's some hope! It was cool. We exchanged back and we went to service moving fridges and dryers and washers to the members new house, took a little longer than normal but it was good. It was a pain to get up in the house though haha. Good workout glad I go to the gym 😜 but after we had a really good dinner with a member went to Fentons an amazing place.

Sunday was church all day we had a good lesson with a less active member after and went to dinner and yeah ! Here is something I was reading I thought was an awesome story!! 

“Sister Celia Cruz Ayala of the Puerto Rico San Juan Mission decided to give the Book of Mormon to a friend. She wrapped it in attractive paper and set out to deliver her present.

“On the way she was attacked by a bandit who stole her purse and with it the wrapped copy of the Book of Mormon. A few days later she received this letter:

“‘Mrs. Cruz:

“‘Forgive me, forgive me. You will never know how sorry I am for attacking you. But because of it, my life has changed and will continue to change. That book [the Book of Mormon] has helped me in my life. The dream of that man of God has shaken me. … I am returning your five pesos for I can’t spend them. I want you to know that you seemed to have a radiance about you. That light seemed to stop me [from harming you, so] I ran away instead.

“‘I want you to know that you will see me again, but when you do, you won’t recognize me, for I will be your brother. … Here, where I live, I have to find the Lord and go to the church you belong to.

“‘The message you wrote in that book brought tears to my eyes. Since Wednesday night I have not been able to stop reading it. I have prayed and asked God to forgive me, [and] I ask you to forgive me. … I thought your wrapped gift was something I could sell. [Instead,] it has made me want to make my life over. Forgive me, forgive me, I beg you.

“‘Your absent friend.’

Just loved this story of how powerful the Book of Mormon can be, and how big of an influence it is.  That was my week I hope you guys are doing good. Hit my 10 months left this week...weird. Love you! 

Elder Devin Brown 

brown.devin@myldsmail.net

100 Summerfield Drive #215

Vacaville, CA 95687

Week 57: February 6

Dear family,

Hey, this week flew by don't understand where it went but it went haha, this last Monday was good we had pday played ball it was good to have a longer pday since it started at 8am to go shopping instead of 10, good day we had dinner at the bishops house we had pizza and salad we usually go out to eat but it was good to be in their home. We had FHE after that was fun we played some funny games with the YSA it was good we got some less actives to come.

Tuesday was good I really like the new schedule a lot cause we now have way more flexibility we get to choose when we do everything, we now work out from 6:30 to 7:30 and then personal study starts and 8:30 until 9:30 and then comp study after that and daily planning cause it was changed to the mornings now, it's really awesome, Tuesday was good our we had district meeting it was pretty good we talked about helping investigators and to have them want us to come back haha, cause that's important, after that we had a good meeting with a less active we went on a good walk with him, it was super warm that day which is awesome ! It's getting warmer! But we finally got him a study journal to help him with writing down the promptings he gets. After we went finding and that is always fun, kinda of annoyed with the past missionaries cause their lack of writing things down with people they have come into contact with, cause we got some grumpy people not wanting to be bothered but oh well.

Wednesday was good we went to the opportunity house and we got some youth bows for free so we are going to put tennis balls on the end of them and shoot each other with them!! It sounds super fun right?? After we went finding and had little success but it's fun haha. Some people are super funny, we contacted a couple referrals and one guys was doing a project at school on our religion so that was interesting. But yeah we had a good time that night,  

Thursday we had interviews with president which was a huge surprise cause we had no idea we had them but it was really good to talk to him and to get some advice from him. After we went finding again trying to track down some less actives and potentials had some funny experiences with us walking up to the house and the garage door opens and it was upper awkward cause we are just standing here waiting for them as the door comes open and to see their surprised faces it pretty funny 😂 a

So when your contacting people on the street and they are walking on the same side of the sidewalk as you and then they just run over to the other side of the street to avoid you, it's pretty funny, then adventures of contacting people that are scared of you.

Friday was good we had weekly planning, we did some finding that night.

Saturday we did some service moving an investigator to put of there storage unit into there new house so that took a long time haha. They fed us free pizza after!! Pizza ! Da best ! Went finding after so that was cool.

Sunday was good church all day we fasted for Elder Everett. We had break the fast at 5 with the YSA had a good dinner with them, that was my week. Here is something that I loved from the lesson that we had today, I invite you guys to read the talk it's amazing.  Hope everything is going well love you guys! 

From the Life of Gordon B. Hinckley (chapter 3. ) 

Cultivating an Attitude of Happiness and a Spirit of Optimism

" We have every reason to be optimistic in this world. Tragedy is around, yes. Problems everywhere, yes. But … you can’t, you don’t, build out of pessimism or cynicism. You look with optimism, work with faith, and things happen.

Do not despair. Do not give up. Look for the sunlight through the clouds. Opportunities will eventually open to you. Do not let the prophets of gloom endanger your possibilities.

Cultivate an attitude of happiness. Cultivate a spirit of optimism. Walk with faith, rejoicing in the beauties of nature, in the goodness of those you love, in the testimony which you carry in your heart concerning things divine.

The Lord’s plan is a plan of happiness. The way will be lighter, the worries will be fewer, the confrontations will be less difficult if we cultivate a spirit of happiness." 

Elder Devin Brown

brown.devin@myldsmail.net

100 Summerfield Drive #215

Vacaville, CA 95687