Forty-four

Well folks...I hit the ripe ol' age of 44. Forty-four years of being me! Ya know...the big four four. When I am the same age when I hold up both hands going front ward or backward. For my 44th birthday I got the flu. Ugh...I was telling Kendall that I was either sick or I did not like how 44 felt. He told me; "Well to be honest with you 44 and 45 don't feel so good!" Haha so encouraging. 

So, I was trying to instigate birthday month for me...it did not go to well....birthday week kinda fizzled out to....so I was left with just birthday day...like most normal people...sigh....maybe next year.

So for my birthday I think my kids gave me diabetes. Haha...so I did ask for the peeps....but I am going to share those when they get stale and chewy......I am looking forward to that around the middle of March...yeah! All six packages are slit. I am gonna go out on a limb and predict that I will get maybe one Dr Pepper. The rest will be stolen because I do not consume caffeine at a very quick pace......a girl's gotta sleep ya know.  But those mini eggs....I'm gonna hide those from thieving hands. So delicious! 

Madi gave me a Alex and Ani bracelet...she use my debit card to buy it....she is too kind. She also told me that I am now cool and hip because I have one. I am so glad that she is helping my cool factor....we all know that I struggle in that department!

Kendall got me tickets to go see Brian Regan in the middle of March...so excited! I will try and not quote his jokes for months and months after...but no promises.

I received a birthday package from Peru. That was super exciting. In the package I received "The Letter"! You know the letter that every missionary parent waits for....the one that tell you how awesome you are......and how thankful they are for everything you did for them. It was perfect! I may or may not of cried....I will let you guess there.

Also I got two turtles! EEK!!!! This girl feeds my addiction! I just love her!

So this is me at 44. I am terrible at taking selfies. Please no judging! I will delete it so zzzpp! I did get a new haircut for my birthday and bought myself a pair of new kicks. Since it was my birthday I got to choose where to eat for dinner. We went to Five Guys. The kids were disappointed in my choice. I was just craving fries. Me and Dyllon did not feel so good after. I guess I passed the bug to him. Sorry Dyllon.

Well I gotta go and have some cheesecake now. Hope I can blow all the candles out!

They Got Me!!!!

Has there ever been a time in your life that you should have saw something coming like a mile a minute and did not? I realized today that I could actually be a true blonde because I was so gullible.

You see these two boys...right they look pretty sweet and innocent.........but......they set me up big time about a week ago......and they went right for the jugular. They told me that they were both being transferred and they were putting Sister missionaries back in our area. Now...don't get me wrong...I love the Sister missionaries....I have one myself....but for some reason I just really like having the Elders in our area.  Before the Elders came in May 2015, we had Sisters in the area the whole 15 years we have lived here. So naturally I was devastated. I have been upset about it for the week. We had them over for dinner the other day to say goodbye. We signed one of the Elders tie that we had got him for Christmas. The other Elder did not have anything for us to sign for him to remember us by....I should have taken a clue there. I should have also taken a clue by the fact that he is hardly ever serious. I never know if he is kidding me or not.

Case in point...the first time he ever ate dinner at our house I sent the very picture you see to his mom. She replied back and asked who she could thank.....well he stole my phone and said it's me mom...I finally got my own phone because me and my companion miss our friends...shh don't tell my mission president.  Anyway after pulling his mom's leg for awhile, she called him "Dude" he replied. Mom...I am a representative  of Jesus Christ....you cannot call me Dude. So she called him Elder Dude. Anyway...he asked me if I could keep the dialog going for a week with his mom. He is quite the jokster come to find out. 

Anyway, back to me...I was upset Monday and I cried about them leaving like 4 times on Tuesday....I clearly have problems please don't jugde. Haha! Tuesday evening we had to go to the New Beginnings program at the church and Madi saw Elder Dude there. She was like...what the heck...I thought you were transfered? He begged her not to tell me and go along with the joke because he want to come by and record my reaction. Well....Madi is loyal to her mother and told me.

Anyways.....I was upset for NO reason. Elders are still in my area. THEY GOT ME...GOT ME GOOD, and to think....I shared my Reisens with them.  I will forever call this one Sister Dude. Poor Sister Dude...the joke did not go as planned. I am now on to this one! Hmmm...how can I get this one back??? Muhhahhah.

Now that's a lot of pictures...Yeah!

It was great to hear from Aushlynn twice in the last 5 days.  Her mission President gave the missionaries permission to email on Thursday of last week because of all the problems that myldsmail had been having.  It was fun to have the extra email.  This week Myldsmail ran like a dream.  I think that all the missionary mommas out there have been praying that it would be fix.  Prayers Answered! Aushlynn has sent us a overload of pictures...ok....she did not send them all.....I took a few of them from the Piura Peru Mission facebook page.  They had a special conference for all the Hermana's and I took liberties in using the photos that she was in. I'm pretty sure that they are ok with it. She had a amazing time meeting all the Hermanas in her mission. Well, here is her week.

Hola Mis Padres!
Well so this is how the rest of the week went.... SUN SUN AND MORE SUN!!! I swear it kicked up like 5 or 10 notches. The last 3 days the sun has been horrible!! I have never experienced heat like this. I am showering like 3 times a day. Also yesterday night it rained a ton and so it is so humid today. Also the sun is blazing so I am sweating sooooo much. I need something to drink to help cool me down but the only thing people sell here on the streets that is drinkable is Chicha which is blehhhhhhh! Man I can’t believe I am saying this but I miss the weather in Utah!!!

This last week we gained 3 new promising investigators. One is a boy who is 18 and he is really cool and has been studying English for 4 years. Another lady that is recently divorced. We really worked so hard this week just to find those people. Also our investigators are all over the place. They just aren’t wanting to have a lot of lessons. Like one a week. It’s frustrating. We are seriously out in the SUN OF SATAN from 11 to 1 and 3 to 930. Knocking doors and talking to everyone we see. It’s frustrating when our numbers at the end of the week look like we slacked because we didn’t!!

We visited a lot of less actives this week which was good. There is one guy that isn’t married and is around 50 years old I think. He was really really active in the church and is endowed and everything. He had an issue with the bishop at one point and just stopped doing anything with the church all together. I’m pretty sure I spoke my best Spanish that day when I told him that he doesn’t go to church for other members and that he doesn’t take the sacrament for other members... he takes it for himself. It’s his relationship with our heavenly father. I felt so powerful with my Spanish. My companion also told me that my Spanish words I spoke felt powerful. I felt like I gave him a spiritual slap to the face. He came to church this Sunday! I seriously had the biggest smile on my face.

An accomplishment I am hoping to achieve this next week is to finish the book of Mormon in Spanish. It’s been so hard to read it in Spanish because I understand like a fourth of what I read but as I read it... I have understood more and more and now I can understand almost every word.

This Sunday was our ward conference also. The missionaries did a musical number! I sang the first verse all by myself and Hermana Martinez sang the 2 verse and another elder sang the 3rd and everyone sang the 4th. We sang lord I will follow thee. It was very pretty. We also got a new bishop!! It is our missional leader so we will be getting a new one soon. The new bishop is so young and has 1 kid, his name is Dyllon spelled exactly like our Dyllon. He knows a lot about the church and will do great!

Thursday we had a meeting with all the sisters in the mission. It was cool to meet everyone. It was so great to see the sisters from Tumbes!! I miss them a lot. I told Hermana McRae in 6 months I will be her companion in Sedamilla. Sedamilla is a city in Tumbes! That means she will serve all her mission in Tumbes and never go to Piura hahhahaha. I mean if I had to do that I wouldn’t be mad because I love the north part. The people are so loving. Not that I’m complaining about my area here because it’s very nice and the members are so willing to help. Now if only I could have the best of both worlds somewhere. Haha so yeah that was pretty much my week.

Hope all is well back home. Praying for each one of you! 

Hermana brown

She labeled this picture "Queen of the Palms"

Hey....what up with everyone?  Drop me a line I would love to hear from you! aushlynn.brown@myldsmail.net

Aushlynn had a amazing cover made for her Spanish set of her scriptures.

It was hand carved by a man in Piura. She was so excited to receive it.

The front is John the Baptist baptizing Jesus. It also her name an her mission information.

The back is the Tree of life.  What an amazing souvenir she will have to remember her mission by.

This is a Peruvian Gym. I am sure that there are lines of people waiting to use the equipment in the 100+ degree heat! Xemina is help her demonstrate how to use the equipment.  She is a member who enjoys going on lesson with the missionaries and hopes to serve a mission someday. 

Worlds smallest cheese grater.  Aushlynn says she has only had cheese one time on her mission and that is when the mission president made Cheese Fries! There must be a cheese shortage there...or maybe it is not something that they use often.  I remember another time of her having cheese on a pizza....she must be losing her mind!

Powerlines...they are all over the place like this....safety hazard. She ran into one with her face, it must have been a inactive wire or something.  She needs to be careful!

Ok, I am not at all surprised to see a picture of a newborn.  A member had her baby and this is a picture of her 4 days old.  Aushlynn LOVES babies!  I guess it comes from her always having babies around her growing up.  It probably kills her that she can't hold and snuggle her.

Nail update......They are getting longer.  Remember I told you a few months ago that she always bit her nails off.  well, she is overcoming that habit on her mission.  This is the longest that I have ever seen her fingernails.  Madi now teases her that she has Fiamanu claws. He is a missionary that serves in our mission that always has long fingernails......the girls used to give him a hard time about it. I think that they are fine! Looks like they are ready for paint!

Hermana Brown and Hermana McRae

Hermana Brown and a mini missionary

Aushlynn and Sister McRae again.  They used to go on exchanges in La Cruz.  They must have missed each other!

Aushlynn, Hermana Martinez and President Rasmussen. Aush and her companion went to see if Hermana Rasmussen would like to help teach the Chinese woman the discussion is English.  The Mission President had them come to the kitchen and shared some cheese fries with them!

All the Hermanas in the Piura Peru Mission.

All sister conference

Lunch after the conference

The girls again

So... funny story with this picture. Hermana martinez showered and then when she got out I showered. When I came out of the shower hermana was cutting her hair..... what!!!! I ran over to see it and it was SO BAD!! She was like help me its horrible!! Hahaha I seriously did the best I could... this was the end result... HEY LOOK MOMMY WE ARE PLAYING HAIRCUT LOL. I need a haircut bad but no way do I dare.



In Memory.......

We lost a few good friends yesterday due to an accidently on purpose incident. So sad actually. I have heard the words "Don't play in the bathroom" come out of my mouth at least 1,567,543 times in the last 20 years and not a single word of it has been heard from anybody but me.

I have been stressing out lately because my state licensor has scheduled my annual review. It always freaks me out so I want everything to be perfect. My kids hate me for about 2 weeks solid because I make them get everything MOM clean.  Well, the day arrived yesterday and I was ready and confident.

The door bell rang and I left Crue and Tatum downstairs while I answered it. It was Jimmy and Eva. I was upstairs for less than 2 minutes. When I came back they were laughing in the bathroom. Mater and Doc were in the toilet. I fished them out....gross....asked if they put anything else in....No was the answer. Mater and Doc were soaked in a bleach solution and back in action a hour later.

Avery got up for work,showered and took care of business in the bathroom. Some of the business...well all of it would not go down so naturally he plunged for 5 minutes. No luck!

Avery came and shared the new that we had a clogged toilet. NO! I freaked out just a little....my licensor is going to be here at 12:30....Oh My HECK! Why do these things happen to me??!! I need a working toilet to pass my inspection.

I called a couple places and found a guy who could come ASAP....lucky me. He arrived about 30 minutes later. The plumber complimented me on my BYU sweatshirt, noted that I only had boys in my daycare (Crue and Eva were at preschool) and got down to the dirty work with an auger. He worked at it for 10 minutes. NO LUCK!!! He ended up pulling the toilet off.  This is what he found and who we are remembering today....They were good toys...but they are gonners. They met a crappy end that is for sure. They have gone to the porcelain racetrack in the sky!

Leak Less

Snot Rod

Lightning McQueen

Optimus Prime

Here is our toy killer. I can't believe he stuffed that many toys in there! That is quite impressive! He is no longer allowed to go into the bathroom until his hands and pockets have been searched. I think that his shirt was appropriate for today. Anyway, an hour later and $150 poorer my bathroom was back in business. I told my state licensor about it and she just laughed.

Zoom Zoom Zoom....

So...another week has went by......this one seemed pretty fast. Actually it has be the fastest missionary momma week I have ever experienced. WOOT!!! I hope they all whiz by at this speed. Oh, myldsmail.net has been having issues for a few weeks. WHY, TELL ME WHY STOP THIS INDECENCY ??!!! Ok.. rant over. Anyway....what  I am trying to say is Aushlynn might not be getting what you send to her or even worse...you might not get what she sends to you! I know...it is horrible and I feel your pain. Just stay calm and breath...it will be ok....maybe. Let us all pray that the issues will be resolved soon.... like now would be good. Oh, here is her letter and some pictures.

 Heyyyyyyy Everybody!

So this week was not what Hermana Martinez and I were expecting. It’s been a very hard week. Going from two awesome weeks full of hard work and the numbers showing….. to working so hard this week and not having our numbers show it. This whole week we were out working really hard and only having 1 lesson with a member present and have 2 baptism dates fall through. It was definitely a frustrating week. I know missionaries are bound to have weeks like that but it just didn’t feel good. 

We still have 4 investigators on for baptisms but we had to change their dates because we weren’t going to be able to teach them everything by the time their date was set. It’s frustrating sometimes working with investigators because we will teach them like on a Saturday and then we will say so when can we come back... oh yeah in a week. Like no....... we need to teach like 2 or 3 lessons a week with you!!! We also had members with us every day but our lessons would fall through gahh!! 

So anyways.... Yes I went back to Lima and well...... I GOT MY VISA WOOT WOOT!! I look super ridiculous in my picture though.... :( We got up really early on Friday and I flew with Hermana pay and 2 other elders. There is one elder than has been here 6 months and he still doesn’t have his... he has one more month and if he doesn’t get it than he has to be in a different mission in the states. 

While I was in Lima I got to eat subway!! Man I have never downed a sub that fast before! It was delicious!! Also we saw other missionaries that weren’t in my group in the CCM but we were there with them for 4 weeks. One is from North Carolina and one is from Herriman also Elder Jensen from my group was there. It also wasn’t like a million degrees in lima so that was nice! I think since the weather change was so sudden and different I brought back with me a cold.... ;( . Also this week we had a multizone conference and Presidente and his wife taught us lessons and we had lunch. It was really awesome. I learned a lot from the talks that were given.

Today for p-day we played soccer with our zone and did carnival activities with water balloons and such! It was really fun. The assistantes poured the biggest bucket of water on my head for no reason!!! I told them that carnival is all of February and that they should watch their backs haha. Also we were in Catacous today and I saw the elder that was talking badly about the Broncos and telling me they wouldn’t win. When he saw me he ran away ha ha! 

We are trying to plan a district activity for next Monday and go to the mountains to these cool cities but we have to get permission first. I think it would be really fun but we would have to leave really early in the morning!! Anyways... So the bishop told us that we could stay in the place we are staying now for 400 soles and month!! #BLESSED!!! They really are the nicest people! They want me to teach them English before they leave to be the mission presidents in Huancajo, Peru. Also another interesting thing that happened this week is there is a Chinese woman that has come to the church 2 times and lives in our area and she only speaks English. She wants to hear our message so we get to teach her in English!!! Maybe Hermana Rasmussen can come with us one day and teach her :)

Anyways yeah that’s pretty much all! Love you all

Hermana brown

 Aushlynn and her Companion.

 Aushlynn, Hermana Martinez, Hermana Rasmussen and another Hermana.

 Aushlynn's district in Piura.

 Aushlynn, Hermana Martinez and the Zone Leaders.

 Multizone conference.

 Trying to be funny at the multizone conference.

 A picture at lunch when she had to fly to Lima for her Visa. This group if from missions all over Peru.

Cow heart and fries. She says it is delicious...but kinda chewy. I would try the fries on the plate. Who knew she was so brave when it comes to eating food. She is a changed girl that is for sure! Now if I can only get her to eat coleslaw!

DMV Miracle

Folks.....our sidewalks are no longer safe!!!!! Haha!!! This girl finally has her learners permit...to drive......my car.......it took a few trys...okay it took a lot of trys....but this girl finally passed her written test...with a 88%... Miracle!!! Wish me luck...she is the last one to teach. I must go find my neck brace...Just kidding...but here we go again. Pray for my safety.

It was a Super week.....and a Super Bowl win too!

Another frustrating week with myldsmail again this week......once again we are extremely grateful that we had communication with this sweet girl.  It was an amazing weekend for us and we could not wait to share the news with Aushlynn that the Broncos won the Super Bowl.  She loves that team!  She is a real fan...knows all the players and positions and what they contribute to the team and everything.  Way more of a committed fan then me.  Kendall, Dyllon and Avery are currently at the Broncos victory parade as I type this.  They promised her all sorts if pictures and souvenirs...she is ecstatic! (and a little bit jealous...okay a lot bit jealous...but we recorded the game for her so she can enjoy it in 15 months.)

Aushlynn is hitting her 100 days tomorrow!  I can't believe that she has been gone that long...it has went fast and slow at the same time....less than 15 months left!  Here is her letter:

SO..... This week couldn’t have been any better... well maybe some parts but for the most part it was amazing! First things first... We moved. Haha..... funny story. So we got the okay to move to this new room. We packed all our things with the help of the Elders. I am pretty much a pro at packing up entire rooms and moving since I have had to do it twice now. So all the Elders had to do was sign the contract and we could move all of our stuff inside... well he read through it and it looked good but then the girl said…. oh you have to pay 1 year in advance... like what, no way we can’t… then he said 6 months… then he said 2.... Frustrating.... then they said we couldn’t cook and by this time Elder Wilson is so frustrated... We only have pension for lunch so we cook our meals for breakfast and dinner... long story short…. we have all of our things outside this room and no room. The bishop offered us the apartment above his house till we can find a room. It’s so huge!!!! 2 rooms... a living room... a full kitchen... 2 bathrooms. FOR REALS IT IS LUXURY!! We even have hot water at night. Haha makes me not even wanna look for a new room, but we are trying… but we are in a really rich area so all the rooms we look at are so so so tiny that could fit maybe both our beds for like 700... and we can pay like 450. It’s seriously so frustrating.

That setback didn’t stop our progress though. We have so many progressing investigators and we have 7 baptismal dates!!!! Three for the 20th of February. We had a district meeting and our tactic before the meeting was get to know the people and teach the first lesson, but now they made it so we get to know the person and ask them to be baptized in the very first lesson.... well obviously it works because we have 7 baptism dates!!! We had 10 lessons with a member present which is AMAZING!!! We also had over 100 contacts!! Four investigators assisted to the church this week as well. Me and Hermana Martinez worked so hard this week and our numbers definitely show that.

The Elders had a baptism this week it was really beautiful and the spirit was so strong. I was a baby like usual... just imagine when it’s my convert... yikes!! We had 2 investigators attend the baptism which was awesome!!

This week was fast Sunday and seriously on this mission it is so hard because you seriously need to be constantly drinking something, but the testimony meeting was so strong and I even bore my testimony.... it was a little rough at first but towards the end i was flowing with my Spanish. I even cracked a joke and said I wouldn’t be in Peru and eating rice and chicken everyday if the church wasn’t true.... everyone laughed. Hey... I guess I can actually be funny in two languages lol. The lady that was feeding us lunch that day came up to me and told me she was sorry but we were having rice and chicken lol.... freaking funny!!!.

I write Presidente a letter every week and tell him about our week and last week I sent him mine and he responded. He said he is amazed how quickly I have adapted to missionary life and that he sees that I am a really hard worker and a great example of a consecrated missionary! It made me feel so good!

Today for p-day we went to Cactucous... it’s a small town outside of Piura that has a strip where people selling a lot of things... I purchased a customized leather scripture case... I’ll send pictures when I get it next week!!! It’s so awesome and it has my name HERMANA AUSHLYNN BROWN on it, my mission date and everything.

I heard that the Broncos won by Hermana Pay when I saw her at the store... she said congrats your Broncos won and I was like WHAT NO!!!!!! I dropped to the floor and shed a couple tears!! I wish I was home to celebrate with you all and rub it in some people’s faces... haha. My companion is glad it is over because she is sick of hearing about it. I’ll just enjoy the win for a little longer. Haha oh man... there are two Elders that are hiding from me I just know it.... because they told me the Broncos were going to lose and they won and I was looking for them but they left before I could see them! Cowards…haha!

Also I am traveling with Hermana pay on Friday to Lima and coming back that day. Hopefully I don’t have to fly to the United States.. Well, that's all for this week! Love to you all!

Hermana Brown



Aushlynn and Elder Osmond and his companion.  They went to Bingham and graduated together.  Elder Osmond left the transfer before her.  She said that as soon as they saw each other they both said....Our Mom's are gonna need a picture!  Love that they are thinking of the Momma's! She said that it was awesome to see a familiar face!

Jimmy, one of the boys that I watch loves to see pictures of Aushlynn...he especially loves to see pictures of her on the bus!  Hermana Martinez and Hermana Brown.

Awe... the dinner of Champions!

Moving day! 

Ok, I lifted this picture off the Peru Missionary Momma's page.  It looks like someone was having a birthday.  This was in her area of La Cruz a few weeks ago! Happy Birthday Elder Hunt!

Super Duper Bowl

It was a pretty awesome day at our house yesterday. We had been waiting anxiously for the past two weeks for the game to start. Last monday, I kid you not , a show called Opening Night Live actually said; "We will be bringing you over 88 hours of pregame show." Now, I like the games...but pregame shows are just a little much for me. Well, I survived all the pregame nonsense and we actually made it to kick off. 

All the Brown's were dressed from head to toe in our Broncos finest gear. The walls we decorated with flags, posters and plaques. Mylar bronco helmet floating with pride. Bronco blankets and pillow pets were in attendance.......folks nobody can accuse us of not doing our part.

 Madi ready for the game!

 Dyllon and Kendall waiting for a commercial to get over. Don't let Dyllon's cool relaxed photo fool you...he had anxiety the whole game!

When the game got intense....we had to stand extra close to the tv......I had to remind the boys of daycare tv rules.....no standing in front of the tv....you have to sit down in front for everyone to see. These people are not clear and we cannot see thru them!

After an intense game.....mostly defensive plays the Denver Broncos came out on top of the Panthers. My boys could not have been any more excited.  Thus ending a 17 year drought for Broncos fans....we needed this! Denver Broncos win the 50th Superbowl...I like the sound of that .....everybody remembers the big ones!
My boys are getting in the car today and heading over to Denver for the victory parade.....they are committed fans! I on the other hand will be working....but even if I went I probably would not even be able to see over the person in front of me...so no biggie!
Oh man.....I wish Aushlynn would have been with us to see it.......she would have went wild! We recorded it for her.