Elder Brown 20 February 2017

Malo e lelei!

We didn't get anyone new to teach in Folaha, but Longoteme is still doing very well. We walk back and forth a couple times a day (a bike would be nice) and that can get boring, so we invented a game called 'molokau hockey'. There are a ton of centipedes on the road, so when we see one we each run to find a stick and try to hit it at each other. We have yet to play it because yesterday was Sunday and that's not a Sunday game, but we'll definitely play it next week. I'll keep you updated on that.

We're teaching a man named Lisiate. His wife was baptized a year ago and we got to go through the temple with her. He was baptized in a Pentacostal church and, although he's been taught for over a year now (and despite the constant poking and pleading on the part of his wife) he has trouble accepting Joseph Smith, the word of wisdom, the book of Mormon, and anything that Joseph Smith touched. We read the Book of Mormon with him, pray with him, and talk about baptism like I've never done before.

Most of all, we have the longest question and answer sessions I've ever seen. Yesterday he and his wife invited us over to eat after church, and while the food was cooking Lisiate asked a million questions and brought up a million concerns. It was interesting and he gets it a lot more now. We started talking about why Moroni's on the top of the Temple in Liahona, he asked if we kill cows there (like Moses) and why not, etc. We covered everything from the restoration to the word of wisdom to the Godhead to temple work and it turned into a great lesson. My favorite ones are the ones which don't go according to script, and this was definitely one of those. We pray for him a million times a day and we love him to death.

Elder Renlund, President Hallstrom, President Haleck and their wives came to Tonga and we had a great meeting. We all feel very energized as a result. Elder Hallstrom's wife quoted Elder Jeffrey R Holland, and it has become a new favorite quote of mine:

"I would walk on hot lava, I would drink broken glass to find one more word, one more phrase, one more doctrine, any parable that anyone could give me of the life of Christ the living Son of the living God. The doctrine of Christ means everything to me as a result of [my feelings] for the author of the doctrine of Christ."

The new vision for missionary work, and our new goal for this year, it to 'preach repentance and baptize converts'. The first principles of the gospel have taken the forefront, and we have been assigned and challenged to develop a love for the Savior Himself, what He did, who He is, and I am already beginning to see it change the way I teach and think about the gospel.

I am listening to my new favorite talk, "come unto me," a talk given at BYU by Jeffrey R Holland. I swear it's one of the best talks I've heard. I felt like listening to him today, and I stumbled across this one. I found this quote especially meaningful:

"The Prophet Joseph Smith taught in the Lectures on Faith that it was necessary to have 'an acquaintance' (that's his phrase) with the divine attributes of the Father and the Son in order to have faith in them. Specifically he said that unless we believe Christ to be 'merciful and gracious, slow to anger, long-suffering and full of goodness,' that unless we can rely on these unchanging attributes, we would never have the faith necessary to claim the blessings of heaven. If we could not count on 'the excellency of . . . character' (that is also his phrase) maintained by the Savior and his willingness and ability to 'forgive iniquity, transgression, and sin,' we would be, he said, 'in constant doubt of salvation.' But because the Father and the Son are unchangeably 'full of goodness' then, in the words of the Prophet, such knowledge 'does away [with] doubt, and makes faith exceedingly strong'"

I've been teaching about faith, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the holy ghost and enduring to the end for over a year now, I love the Savior and all he's done. I've come to see the Savior as the center of the all we teach, as he well should be; and this quote is illustrative of the sort of spiritual breakthrough I've made over the past week: The Savior should be the center of every lesson we teach, and when we forget that there's not much power there. I look at the gospel differently now; it makes me happy every time I think about it. I love the Lord!

I'm working on getting a camera!!

I love you all! Good week!

'Ofa atu,

Elder Brown

Elder Brown 13 February 2017

Malo e lelei!

We had a baptism!! Her name is Fusi Tupou and she's the first baptism we've had in Longoteme, the other town we cover. The work there has exploded (relatively speaking) and it's the part of our area I'm now the most excited about. The Branch President really likes us and it's been a while since they had there own missionaries, so they keep us very busy. He is a great example and helps us a lot with our teaching. He's one of my favorites. Working there (and walking back and forth from it) has been good for my health and really helped to break up the routine.

My companion is Maori/Cook/Niuean from New Zealand. He is my second comp from New Zealand and I love him. We get along well and are getting some good work done.

We got to watch the annual missionary broadcast on Friday, which was really cool. The topic was 'teach repentance and baptize converts,' and we all learned a lot from it. Elder Bednar had a lot to say about the Doctrine of Christ, and I found it very eye opening and very interesting. We talked about a lot and it was a great meeting.

They changed the missionary schedule a couple of weeks ago! We just found out about it on Friday, and we're excited about it. We get a lot more leeway in our planning; we plan in the morning, do personal study, and then plan companion/language study to do throughout the day. The p-day schedule is also different. I love this work, and it's really nice to have just a little more freedom throughout the day; doing the same thing every day can get old.

Elder Renlund is coming to Tonga this week, and we're all very excited to meet with him. He won't be able to make it to Ha'apai or Vava'u, so it's a blessing to be on the main island. We're all very excited to see what he has to say.

We're trying to get all our netting and laundry done early so we can go to Nualei and play Ping Pong. We have to walk everywhere now, which adds another layer of fun to the whole thing.

Not being a zone leader anymore was a blessing; we have an extra 2 or 3 hours in our area to worry about doing actual missionary things. It's fun to get to walk again (my comp and I are fat) and we walk a lot. I feel like a missionary again!

I love you all! Thanks for all the letters and support!

Ofa atu

Elder Brown

Elder Brown 6 February 2017

Malo e lelei!

Transfers happened! I'm still in Folaha, which was a little unexpected; people seem to have been moving around a pretty often over the past few transfers, so the fact that I'd been in my area for 3 transfers had everyone 'absolutely sure' that I was moving; even the elders in the office told me I'd move, so I was pretty convinced. But I'm still here! By the end of this transfer I will have been here for 6 months, and it definitely doesn't feel that way.

This is a good area and although it was a surprise when I found out I'd be staying here, it wasn't an unhappy surprise. There's lots of work to be done, and my comp is going to be a real help.

I spent a few days in Ha'ateiho with the missionaries there, and it was a real treat. I feel re energized and motivated as a result of my having gone there. There was a white woman and her son that I got to interview for baptism, and they had been through so much. Every week during district meeting we would talk about her concerns and try to help her get her questions answered. This last week we got to see her baptized, which is the most motivating thing ever. It makes me want to become the best teacher and baptize everyone.

My companion is Elder Hirinuki from New Zealand. He came in after me, but he has the language down and he can teach really well. He is cook island/ new zealand maori and is a hard worker.

I'm no longer a zone leader! I probably won't be for the rest of my mission because of the crash, even thought the fix on the car was easy. That's ok with me, I learned a lot and the extra time we'll have in our area is going to be really valuable.

Now that I'm not a zone leader anymore and transfers are over, I will actually be able to email all of you regularly. I promise. Now I have no excuses!

I love you very much!!

Elder Brown

Elder Brown 30 January 2017

Malo e lelei!

My comp finishes later this week. I love him to death and it's been a very fun few months, we had two baptisms and laughed with/at each other 24 hours a day. It's too bad to see it come to an end, but I'm excited for next week. I could stay here or I could leave, I'm just really anxious to find out who my comp will be.

We were involved in a minor accident Tuesday, nobody's hurt, and the car didn't suffer any damage beyond the bumper and front plastic cover. It wasn't classified as a 'serious' accident either, so whether or not I lose my driving privileges seems unclear.

We were at an intersection and I brake'd too late and didn't quite come to a complete stop. I looked right into oncoming traffic (we drive on the left side of the road) and saw a big truck . I tried to slam on the brakes, but was wearing slippers and for one reason or another that didn't work, and by the time I thought to reach for the parking brake it was too late, disaster had stuck

I ended up hitting their back left tire, which took the bumper and plastic cover off. there is no damage to anything important, but the bumper is trashed and will need to be replaced. I doubt I was going any faster than 5, and the truck suffered no damage and wasn't at fault so we let them go. The ap's said it's already been fixed, and we should get a different car next week. We (in consultation with the mission office) didn't feel the need to call the police so my record should be clean. At any rate I learned my lesson, and I will be driving carefully from now on; we hit a very big truck and if we hadn't slowed down we'd have been toast.

I read King Benjamin's speech a couple times this week. It has become one of my favorite parts of the Book of Mormon and I'd love to read it with those I teach. I love how the Book of Mormon answers our questions and broadens our perspective on things; things which seem like big problems don't seem so big anymore when we take time to think about what's important. It's reawakened my love for the scriptures.This should come in handy, because I think we'll be spending a little more study time than usual over the next week or so.

My comp and I will be headed out soon, I will email everyone later on, so feel ree to message me so I can read it when I get back!!

I love you all! Keep up the good fight!

Elder Brown

Elder Brown 23 January 2016

Feel free to check out Elder Brown's blog: http://elderpeterbrown.blogspot.com/

Malo e lelei!

Unfortunately, I have less than 30 minutes. I'll write as much as I can but I likely won't be able to get an email off to the parents and the siblings, I'm sorry!

Next week is my companion's last p-day so I'll get the emailing done early. I'll email everybody!

The work's slow here; we haven't been able to find anyone promising this week. We're getting much friendlier with the investigators who we've been talking to for a while, and we may be able to get them to come to church, which would be a major step. Things still seem very slow here.

The missionaries are beginning to get along. This has historically been one of the highest baptizing zones in the mission, and now that the squabbling is beginning to subside I know things will get back to where they could be.

This week my comp and I felt totally out of energy almost every day, not just because this is hard, but because sometimes it doesn't feel like anything's happening, and that's discouraging. But I've learned here that it feels really good to keep going anyway, even if at times the only reason I can think of is just because I'm supposed to. It's a great source of comfort and definitely wasn't a habit of mine before the mission. That was the breakthrough this week, I realized I've started to understand that work is rewarding, even if things don't go our ways.

I love the prophet Nephi, and every time I read about him I want to be like him. I've spent a lot of time reading about him and his brothers and I learn so much every time. Read the book of Mormon!!

Transfers are in a couple weeks!! I will miss Elder Lasalosi and I'm exited to see who my next comp will be!

'Ofa lahi atu!

Elder Brown

9 January 2017

         Malo e lelei!

The work seems to have slowed down, but well try our best.

Im all but out of time we had like 10 late christmas packages to drop off and some quarreling missionaries that really needed some talking to. I wil write more next week.

Our zone has the highest number of new missionaries and its been very interesting/eye opening to see who transitions well and who doesnt. Out of all the 6 new guys (those in their first 12 weeks) the ones who have struggled are the ones who fail to love and forgive their companions.

Many of the missionaries whom I've talked to (who were struggling) started the conversation by sharing a long, seemingly memorized list of their comps shortcomings. When their companion would ask forgiveness they seemed reluctant to give it. One elder has a trainer who has gone his whole mission without doing formal companion study. They talked about it and have been doing it consistently for about a week and a half. Rather than moving on and being happy for his companion, the new elder is (quite vocally) approaching the situation with a "we'll see how long this ends up lasting" attitude. He has no intention of helping his companion, he almost seems to be waiting eagerly for his comp to fail so he can let someone else know about it.

 The parable of the debtors in matt 18 comes to mind. I reconize a lot of things every day that I need to change. To expect forgiveness from the Lord yet withhold it from others makes no sense and is condemned by the Lord in the scriptures. And although we may not be delivered unto the tormentors, we will not be happy if all we focus on is what is wrong with others. Our goal should be to help them, not be better than them.

I hope i dont seem frustrated; im not in a nonsense mood right now and the stuff thats been happening should not be happening. I cant judje (i sat here for 5 minutes trying to remember how to type that word and gmail isnt giving me any help you know the word i meant ) because I have found myself on the wrong end of that equation many a time over the past year (20 for that matter).

 I have to go prepare a lesson for zone conference tomorrow which has to be 10 minutes and understandable to white greenies and a bunch of tongans. Length will be a concern (ladt time i taught it went pretty long) so preparation is key! We only just found out about this today; president keeps us on our feet for sure. The topic is love and humility; given the recent problems within the zone we have our work cut out for us.

Im out of time and due to network problems i wasnt able to get this off on time; its about 6:50 Tonga time now. I'll do my best to get this off on time next week and email mother and the siblings. I read every email! Thanks for all that you do!!!!

'Ofa atu

Elder Brown

2 January 2017

          Malo e lelei!

In Tongan, there isn't really a good way to say 'happy new year,' so they just say it in

English​.​ Happy new year!

​We Had a baptism on Saturday and the confirmation on Sunday! So 2016 went out with a bang and 2017 began with a bang! The one baptized is a 16 year old boy named Timote. We worked hard with him at the beginning, and he demonstrated, as many have demonstrated before, sincerity and a willingness to know. He prayed and got an answer! He wanted to be baptized, and did so. He has a great mind, asked good questions and remembered everything as explained to him. He wasn't great on reading the pamphlets, but when he understood the restoration he knew he needed an answer. He got one!!!!

We get a car in the area I work, and because of transfers and people needing rides we ended up 300 km over the odometer limit for the month. President knows and he isn't mad.

We get to go to the temple tomorrow for MLC and we do the meeting on wednesday. We will start our fast at 5 today and break it just after we get out of the temple. I have loads of questions and have quite a few favors to ask. There's so many details to worry about, and I'm struggling to know how to go about it. I love the temple, and I'm confident I'll find the answers I'm listening to.

Once again, duty calls and the ap's just dropped off a stack of papers that we get to take to everyone. Sorry about the length, I did the best I could and took a while. I love you all very much!!!

'Ofa atu!

Elder Brown