The case of the missing name badge....I know who I am...

Hola Padres! 

Wow this week flew by as usual... didn’t I just talk to you guys like 2 days ago? Weird. This week was actually kind of a bad week for me but you know you just have to laugh it off and say I’m in Peru... ha ha. 

Well first things first.. I lost my name tag... I totally lost it. It was nowhere to be found! I had to be Hermana Glunt this past week ha ha. Everyone laughed at me and I ordered new name tags but it’s going to take 2 weeks to make them. How embarrassing. Anyway last night (Sunday night) I got into the shower and grabbed my towel and there was my tag hanging there clipped to it. Oh my gosh... I am still Hermana Brown guys.

We did some service this week helping with a young girls 15th birthday! That’s the big birthday here in Peru. They usually have a huge party and dinner and the whole shabang! They are kind of a poorer family and didn’t have much money to give their daughter what she wanted to so Hermana Glunt and I offered our services! I did her makeup and hair and also we helped decorate and help put food together! It was a lot of work but by the end it turned out amazing! She was so happy with how the night turned out. 

So our investigators are kind of progressing but there isn’t a lot happening here in Capullanas to be honest. We are looking to baptize 2 brothers not this week but the next but other than that we are having a hard time finding new people to teach! We did see a miracle with a new girl we found named Evelin. Funny side note when I heard her name I immediately thought of evychezy (who my mom use to watch for daycare ) ha ha I don’t know why. We were able to share our testimonies and she was really moved by them! We are hoping she will progress!

This week we had our multi zone conference! It was amazing as usual. I always walk away learning so much! Hermana Rasmussen had a really good talk about humility! I have been learning this my whole mission! You really do learn to love.. and not care about the little things that would matter so much to you back home. You completely forget yourself and really focus on other people. I love that aspect of the mission. We also learned from president about becoming disciples of Christ. About how the mission is for you! To help you become a disciple of Christ and the people you help on the way are just little blessings and miracles to help build you testimony! It was really so good!

This pday we spent with President and Hermana Rasmussen at their house! It was really awesome! I love spending time with them! We had a nice bbq (Peruvian style) and played some nice Ping-Pong! It was a nice relaxed day! Next week (Halloween) we are traveling to chanqache! It’s a place in the mountains that is SOOO PRETTY!! I’ve wanted to go ever since I got here! We will take really cool pictures!! Stay tuned!

I love you all!!

Hermana Brown signing off....

Hermana Glunt and Hermana Brown

Praticing a musical number for zone conference

Hermana Glunt x 2

Ice chipping....check out our freezer. Umm...I wouldn't eat that black banana if I were you....

Ward Members

Professional potato peelers

Party preperations

 

Our investigators...they think their cat looks like Joseph Smith...LOL....

One of our lunches.....Octopus and Shrimp

It was delicious

P-day with the President

Many hands make light work....

Fries...

Enjoying a great meal and great company

Prepping the feast

What ya makin' Aush???

BBQ...Grandpa B style...

The Jordanites......Hermana Brown, Elder Osmond and Elder Hill.

Matchy Matchy

Aushlynn and her Companion

The Sisters at Zone Conference

I just thought this picture is funny..

Zone Conference

*photo credit for some of the last pictures go to Prezzy Razzy....sorry to stalk your photos 10 seconds after you post them.....haha

Peruvian Adventures......

So...get ready for a picture overload......somebody has her camera and cable back! Yay!! Blessings!! This last week flew as usual. Fun fact...in 15 days this girlie will have been on her mission for a whole year! I can't hardly believe it has been that long! She sounds like she is doing awesome here is what she had to say this week.

Hola Familia

Okay... so this week I’m having a hard time thinking of what we did because seriously it feels like I was sitting at this exact computer yesterday thinking of what to write you guys last week ha ha. But for real the time passes by super fast when you’re on a mission and it is crazy. Fun fact... 69 days till Christmas! 69 days until I can see you all on skype! I know I’m probably more excited than you guys are!!  

So this week in the mornings we have been practicing a musical number for a multi zone conference that we will be having on Wednesday. So... it shouldn’t be this hard to pick a song and sing it right? Ha Ha... Ha Ha... wrong! We finally picked the song after 2 days and we are going to sing if the savior stood beside me in Spanish and English and I’ll be doing a duet with Elder Hosch! How did I get roped into doing a duet in front of a lot of people I don’t know.... our last practice will be tomorrow. I’m actually really nervous. Wish me luck! Keep me in your prayers. Also Hermana Glunt will be playing the piano and she is really nervous as well because she hasn’t played in forever... keep her in your prayers ha ha

This week we also taught seminary quite a few times! It’s cool because some of our investigators go to seminary and so it’s like one big lesson with a member! Also the youth in this ward are all so cute and have really strong testimonies! I’m learning new things every day from them I swear! It’s been really fun getting to know all of them! Also a lot of them companion with us which is super awesome!

I didn’t know how I was going feel going back to Piura because I really wanted to stay out of Piura for summer but whatever. It’s starting to get so hot here and I’m sweating through all my clothes every day! Yay me....

So Hermana Glunt and I have started a food chart our very first day of the transfer and it consists of all the food we get daily from members or people we teach that day ha ha. We count like 4 or 5 different things every night. The people are really nice and loving here and take good care of us! This week one of my favorite families asked if I wanted a cold coke and some chocolate.. ha ha you see why they are my favorite.

For p-day we went and got our toes done! It was much needed! My feet were GROSS! I even told the lady I was sorry before she even started! They look much better now. This was Hermana Glunts first experience with a Peruvian pedicure! She was pleased. We also bought some fabric to make some dresses. Okay a lot of fabric... we kind of went overboard. There is a woman here that will make the dresses for us if we buy the fabric. I’m going to have to start sending stuff home. When in Peru though... 

Well that is all from me this week! Happy to be here serving the lord and having these life changing experiences! I love you all.

Hermana Brown

Aushlynn and her companion Hermana Glunt

Dos Gringas

Crazy or eating lemonheads?? Toss up! I hope her face does not stick like that!

Oscar's baptism

Somebody calls me a hoarder...it is not me with the problem....I see she is going to be one of those girls with a fabric problem.

Peruvian Pedicure...I need to get mine done...

Jumping for joy

Stepping up her photo game....

Piggy backs......

Making fabric flowers.

Sandboarding with the zone.

I know...I look like a professional sandboarder!!!

Lunch on P-day...Sandboarding and Sandwiches...I see similarities.

Sandboarding crew.

The bus people....haha

Hello....again...

It's that time of the week again. Time for a update from our favorite missionary! FYI....no pictures again this week. She did get her camera back....but she forgot to take her connector to the Internet cafe...bummer.....pictures this week are courtesy of Hermana Thomas's mom.

Hola Familia! 

Wow this week just seemed to fly by! Honestly the time just goes faster and faster! It’s been a great first week here in Capullanas! Hermana Glunt and I work really well together! It’s just refreshing knowing that she can relate to stuff I’m going through! She really is the best and is really funny!

This week we had a baptism! Wow it was very unexpected but there has been this guy that had been listening to the missionaries for almost 5 years! His name is Oscar. He texted us on Monday night and said... sisters when can I be baptized. AHHHHH. You don’t get texts like that every day. We taught him every day this past week and were able to baptize him on Sunday after church. I honestly saw one of the biggest changes in this guy. He had pretty much broken every commandment we have and totally did a 180 and changed. He even cried and gave his testimony at the baptism! He is seriously amazing!! Our other investigators are progressing well and we have a lot of baptismal dates! I hope to continue with the success we are having here! Also a funny story about the baptism was our mission leader started to fill up the font during church and we were in our class and a man runs in and tells us to come out and we come out to the church and it is FLOODED with water!! It was horrible!!! Ha ha oh my.... you don’t see that every day! 

We are in an actual ward here in Capullanas. I also got to sing a solo in sacrament last Sunday... ha ha I would never do that back home but nobody really sings here.... so I did it! I sang If The Savior Stood Beside Me ...in Spanish.

Today for p-day we went to a place called Sechura. We went to this big sand mountain in the middle of nowhere with snowboards and sandboarded! It was super fun!! Boy did we get sunburnt though ha ha! We are tomatoes! 

Also a funny thing that happened this week is that we had investigator (she is 86 ) tell us that she had a dream that god made her a salad with cucumber and tomatoes.. that’s it. Ha ha ha we both just busted up laughing! 

Well that’s all for this week! Till next week! :)

Hermana Brown

 Hermana Brown and Hermana Thomas before transfers.

 One last district meeting before leaving Paita.

Aushlynn's district in Paita.

Homecoming...

Madi was asked to Bingham's homecoming dance nine days before the dance. She was asked by a boy name Camden Brown. She told me he was tall and that people always asked her growing up if they we siblings. 

That weekend we made a trek to the Southtowne Mall to find her a dress. Can I just say that I do not enjoy shopping with this girl! I know.... I am a terrible mother! What kind of mom does not enjoy shopping with their daughter?? Well, Madi is the pickiest person ever!!! End of story! Nobody can top her it is that bad. We went to every single store in the mall that sell dresses and she tried on one...one!!!...but that was only because I put my foot down and made her.  The one dress she liked in the mall was a XL and would never ever fit my skinny girl. I had them call around and check other locations. Of course the only store to have a small was in Spanish Fork......I was like go get in the car...now....even though there was no way we could make it there before they closed... I was already done.....I agreed to go across the street to check out the strip mall and after 3 more stores....I made her go into Rue21 and we hit the Jackpot!!! We found a dress that she liked! It was nothing short of a miracle and to top off the miracle it was only $19.99! Woot...Woot! I did not have to go to Spanish Fork after all! Blessings! Below you will find a picture of her in the dress.

Camden picked Madi up a few minutes later for the day date....he had a pretty good excuse...he had dislocated his finger during the football game the night before....he is the left tackle for the Bingham football team...and he was at the dr.  I guess he is forgiven with an excuse like that! When he picked her up he took her golfing and then to Ikea to play hide and seek.

When it came time to get ready for the dance, I braided her hair about 15 times....I am getting better and my hands went numb peeps......she ended up taking it out and having Lindsy do it for her...story of my life folks!!! Anyway...she was ready!

I did not see Camden earlier when he picked her up because she just ran out to the car...The first time I saw him was at the door....she was right....he really is tall. I mean really really tall. He is a man child! He is just a jr and probably has some growing to do! Dyllon was like....she needs to ride this train all the way to the NFL.....as if any of Camden's genes could help Dyllon's future kids...haha!!!

Have fun at the dance Brownies!

Transferred....

Well this girl is on the move again. Transfer number 5.......she is experiencing all that the Peru Piura mission has to offer. I have some really bad news.......it is pretty terrible news infact..... Aushlynn forgot her camera in Paita! GASP!!!! I know!!! How are we ever going to survive without pictures. I am crying on both the inside and the outside! We will survive this trial...I don't know how but we will...wahh.. Sniff...anyway Hermana Thomas promised she would send her camera to the mission office...hopefully she gets it soon. She is only about 10 minutes by vehicle to the mission office. 

Here is what she has to say about her week!

 Hey Family! 

Well transfers have come and gone and I got TRANSFERRED!!! I am now in Capullanas! Its right on the outskirts of Piura! My new companion is Hermana Glunt! She is from Washington! A little about her is that... she is 24! She loves to work out and be healthy.. she loves to travel and has lived in like all the states including Hawaii! Mom she says that living in Hawaii is not all it’s cracked up to be so... just vacations there are the best! She is a very hard worker and she ends her mission with Hermana Thomas in December. There is a chance that I will end up killing her (missionary term for having a companion go home at the end of their mission J). So when I first got my assignment I was optimistic. I didn’t know much about this area.. okay nothing about this area but I guess elder Abbott use to be in this ward and said it was a really good ward. Then everyone started telling me that it was a dangerous area and that there are a lot of robberies and stuff like that so that kind of freaked me out. I will keep you up dated on that. Overall I am excited to serve these people here and it sounds like a really good baptizing area and that these people are really prepared. Also... I am starting to be a hoarder on the mission and I have so much stuff!! YIKES!!! It was hard getting everything to fit... oops. Also the room I am now living in is TINY!!! Also the bathroom is really scary. My life as a Peruvian princess ha ha.

So saying goodbye to my converts and the people of Paita was really hard for me. I have grown to have such a love for these people. I really have to stop getting so close to these people because it’s really tearing up my heart. I am not a fan of goodbyes. It was very bittersweet to leave Paita because I felt like I grew a lot there as a missionary and also as a person. My Spanish improved a whole lot, I had my first baptisms and I really gained a greater testimony of our savior Jesus Christ. Paita will always hold a special place in my heart! I had a couple dinners with members to say goodbye.

So this week we had General Conference! I thought all of the talks were so inspiring. If I were to sum up this conference I think they talked a lot about 3 really important things. First, PRAYER! Prayer is the communication that we have with our heavenly father. Through meaningful prayer we can be given the things we need and also be able to receive personal revelation. I can testify that god knows us and that he loves us and he really hears and answers our prayers! Second, The importance of the sacrament meeting. The spirit we feel when we are at sacrament meeting is unique and can only be felt there. When we take the time to ponder about our savior and the things he did for us while taking the sacrament we can truly have a more meaningful and spiritual experience partaking of the sacrament. And lastly, The plan of salvation! We are so privileged to be able to have this knowledge of this perfect plan. I know that through the atonement of Jesus Christ and his willingness to do the will of the father that we are able to live here on earth, gain a physical body, gain earthly experience and make and keep sacred covenants with him and return to live with him again. I will forever be grateful for my lord and savior Jesus Christ. This conference was a very spiritual experience for me and has given me so many new tools to become and even better missionary.

I am very excited and ready for this new transfer to start! I hope you all out there on the web are still reading my adventures in Peru! I love you all and pray for each of you every day! 

Hermana Brown

This is the best I can do for a picture.....I am hoping to see some pictures from Hermana Thomas's mommy!