"How do you prepare to leave a place and a people that you have loved with all your heart?  In a way, you don't - you just keep working and loving and helping in every way possible, and when the plane arrives, you get on and go.  I suppose it's a little like leaving this life.  You love and work and help as much as you can for as long as you can and then you leave." - Elder John Groberg

So first off, no, I can't believe it. It still isn't hitting home.  I had my final interview with President yesterday, and we talked for a good while.  He spoke of college of marriage and of life itself. We talked of temple attendance and the importance of it.  We talked of many things, and at the end he expressed his love for me and the desire he had to always be involved in my life. I love that man. 

I look forward to drinking milk and opening presents, but first comes dinner.  I'm going to assume that you don't want me to spoil the secret, so I won't until I get home. It's really weird to be writing my last email. I'm going to print off the talk and study it and seek for inspiration. I hope that I can give my homecoming talk well. It will be weird to talk in English. but I'll do the best I can, and hope the Lord will use me as an instrument. I love this work. 

By the way, I do still know your phone numbers. It's ingrained in my brain and it will be hard to forget, so you aren't allowed to ever change your cell phone number.  I wont miss any planes, don't worry. With 2 hour layovers you would have to try to miss your flight, so know worries about missing flights, and I'll call you asap. 

I'll be sure to leave most of my clothes here for those who need them, no worries.  I have some members running around and finding souvenirs, so yeah I hope I'll have enough to fill my bags. Yep, I hope you like what I got you.

So, here we are at the end of 2 years.  I have learned a lot. I love this work and I look forward to applying in my life all the things that I've learned. I love this work and I really am happy for all that I have been able to learn. I love this work. 

          

I love that quote from Elder Groberg, cause it really describes my feelings.  There really is no way to prepare for it.  I hope that one day Kaylee will receive this opportunity as well. I love this work and I love this church and I want to give more. I never want to stop serving the Lord. I want to be on the Lord's errand. I want the Lord to know that if he needs an errand run, Tyler Brown is there to run it. I want to be his servant forever. I hope to do it.

I know that this church is true. I know that Christ is my Savior and that the atonement, which he performed, could only be performed by Him. As it says in There is a Green Hill Far Away, "There was no other good enough to pay the price of sin. He only could unlock the gate of heaven and let us in." I know that Christ has given us the opportunity to accept His grace through the church that was restored by Christ through Joseph Smith. I know that he was and is a prophet of God and that Thomas S. Monson is God's prophet in these days. I know that this work, to which I have given the last 2 years of my life, is God's work and I know that He is guiding and directing it. I want to give more and I will give more. I love you and am grateful for goodly parents that God has given me. I know that God knows and loves each of us individually and that in and through Christ our Savior we can return to live with Him again. 

Love, Elder Brown (soon to be Brother Brown)

Pouring down rain in Paraguay creating a muddy waterfall.

Hey Mom,

So yay for being admitted to Snow College and we´ll have fun on our little trip there to find housing and meet with a counselor.  I would like to take a ton of credits, keep myself busy. I'm tempted to go for a triple major. 1 pre engineering 2 science (as is suggested) and 3 music. It would be the most epic 2 years anyone has ever attempted. Finish 2 years with 3 degrees, and with honors too. I plan on studying like no one has studied before. But yeah. but yeah it will be an epic start to college. 

And I did this week buy a couple of souvenirs. One for me and a gift for Brady, and this week I am going to get gifts for the whole family (and by that I mean my immediate family. You, Dad, Brady, and Kaylee) so I'll do as you commanded and try not to buy living things, but I will find stuff to buy. Don't even worry about it. 

As far as the work goes, things have been going very differently than I thought they would. We aren't finding very many new people. The ones we are finding aren't progressing and it looks like I'll end with just one more baptism,  but all is well, and all will go the way the Lord wants. All things have been done according to the wisdom of Him who knows all things.

Well, we are still working hard here. Trying to find people to teach, but yeah. Don't get too trunky Mom. The end draws nigh and there is little time. Next week will be my last letter home and it still isn't hitting home. So I love you tons and look forward to next weeks letter. Love you tons.

Love, Elder Brown

Hey Dad,

This week was pretty quick. but then again all of the weeks go by quick, but yeah. We are working hard but things just aren't falling into place, but you can never work in God's work without being successful in some way even if you can't see where your succeeding. But Deysi is going to get baptized Saturday, my last Saturday of the mission, so it will be great. 

Sorry I don't have much to say today, I'm just here working as always, but I wanted to thank you again for all the sacrifices you have made for me. I was talking with a pair of members yesterday and reviewing with them how great of a father you were to me and how much you did to help me succeed. How you came to my hockey games and even a lot of the practices, something no other parents ever did, and this you did not because you had to and not even because hockey was the sport you played before, but because of your love for me and your intrest in my life. Thanks for always being there dad. I do recognize the sacrifices you have made for me and the love you have for me. You are an amazing father. I love you tons and hope to be half as good a father as you are. Love you tons.

Love, Elder Brown

  I got the travel plans you sent me and one from Travelocity or something like that, but don't worry about my getting trunky.  It hasn't even hit me yet.  We are just working hard.  I love this work.  I want to give more, but I really feel that I have done what I can with the set of weaknesses I have and even though I want to give more, the end is coming and I guess I'll just have to give more to the church when I get home. I look forward to having a calling, and working for the church. I love this church too much to not give more, even if I'm just a home teacher,  I'll be the best home teacher there ever was. 

I'm glad that you get a break now. It's always sad to have to leave your students, I know just as well as you how that is. It's happened to me about 7 times, but always there is that excitement to meet the new ones. The only difference is that you have to wait 3 months before you can. hahaha. There really is a special bond that develops between teacher and student as a teacher of the gospel I have had to learn love for all of my investigators, and as I read this morning in Corinthians 13 (I think) it's all about charity. If you (as Paul said) give away all your goods in feeding the poor or give your body to be burned but ye have not charity it is worth nothing. So a missionary can give all that he had for 2 years and if he doesn't have charity it is worth nothing. Charity in my mind is really the most important Christ-like attribute. 

I'm glad that I'm finally applied for college. I hope they accept me. It would be sad if they didn't, but yeah. I don't think they will say no to more tuition money, and I hope I get into that apartment thing. I don't need anything super expensive. Whatever is cheapest, sign me up for it. After living in Paraguay for 2 years the crappiest apartment you can find will be chuchi (as they say) to me, but try for off campus.  We will work on the class list when I get back.  And yay for Kaylee's graduation. Tell her congrats for me.  

So miracle of the week. One of our investigators (Deysi (pronounced daisy))  and her concubine (meaning fiance, they use that word like it's normal here) Gabriel (who is the bishops son) were planning on waiting for their wedding and her baptism a few months, but then we took sister Melgarejo (the bishop's daughter who is already married and semi old) came and we had a super spiritual lesson half in Guaranii half in Spanish.) and they decided that the 16th she would get baptized and the 15th they would get married. so we are super excited for that, so I'll at least have one more baptism before I go. It will be great. We are still waiting for a few miracles.

Thanks for your prayers. I know that the Lord hears all of our prayers and he always answers them. There are so many lessons I have learned here on the mission. I love the mission so much and I am excited to apply the principles learned here to my daily life. In "Preach my Gospel" there's a quote that says, if we don't set goals we will reach the end of life and look back and realized we have only achieved a small part of what is our potential. (Don't quote me on that I had to translate into English)  

That's pretty much all that happened that was very important or miraculous this week, so I best go.

Love ya tons,

Elder Brown.

We are working like crazy. My companion said that his vision is to send me home with wet temple pants so that I go through the temple session in wet pants so he´s definitely on board so we will kick it this change.  It's gonna be a good change. So this week what we really need is families, so if you and everyone can be more specific and pray for us to find families to teach we would be very grateful.  We found one family that is amazing, Edgar and Delia, they are super well prepared.

We had a good week, Stake Conference was this week, and Pres. Callan came. It was great to see him again, but I'll see him again real soon. I'm excited for him. He comes home not too long after me and I want to go to his homecoming. It will be awesome I'm sure. The man knows how to speak. He´s great. 

Thanks for always being so faithful in writing.  I look forward to hearing from you again next week. I love getting letters. I love you tons. Thanks for your support and love always. 

Love,

Elder Brown

May 21st

it was great to see you guys! i really always love hearing from you, and especially talking to you. Yeah, I love Skype, and we can Skype while I am at Snow College. We can do face time. but you have to buy me the i-phone. I don't think youll have problems with that right? Seems a pretty low price, an i-phone to have constant communication with your beloved son who is at college. Sounds good to me, but I just come out winning in every aspect. hahaha. I get an i-phone and I get to talk to you all the time and maybe even help with homework.

So yeah, everything is going well here.  I'm excited to see what this change will bring us.  My new comp, Elder Call is an amazing guy and a great missionary.  He is from Idaho.  The zone are all still great guys.  We have tons of fun together. I love hanging out with them. Unfortunately, my new companion already knew this was my last change, but he promised not to make me trunky, so all shall be well. We are hoping to get a lot done this change. Let's pray for 10 baptisms please. Pray with us please. We are working hard and getting lots done.  We have found 14 new investigators this week!  I love this work. and even though I don't want to leave it, I love you all and look forward to being with you again.  If only I could have both. 


Love ya tons, talk to you soon.

Love Elder Brown

Mother's Day Phone Call - May 15th

We got to talk to Tyler on Skype.  It was great to see his face.  He was surrounded by happy, energetic missionaries who loved to wave to us.  It was great to be able to talk to him and see his handsome face!

May 7th

Everything is good.  We are working with a few people and they have great desires to do it the Lord's way.  With a few problems, one is named Gloria, she wants to follow God but she has some struggles, so we are just trying to get her through that, and we will see what we can do. She is really the closest one to baptism. She already received an answer about the Book of Mormon so we are just waiting on her.

Well, thats just about all there is to say this week.  I love you and want to help in any way I can.  I pray for you and hope for the best always.  I look forward to your emails always and I love you.

Love Elder Brown.

Monday, April 30th

Transfers are in 2 more weeks and I'll have a new companion. Here's the plan. I'm not going to let him know that I'm going home this change. It will be awesome. I'm going to work my next comp into the ground. It will be the best change of his mission. It's gonna be awesome. We can never give too much in this church, cause the more you give the more the Lord gives back, and as Benjamin said, we are always in his debt. About C.S. Lewis, he was a really smart guy. I suggest reading "The Bitter Cup, Bloody Baptism" talk by Elder Holland. He quotes CS Lewis he was super smart and super amazing. On the mission I have really achieved a more profound understanding of the gospel. I guess that's just part of it when you teach by the Spirit. One of the apostles said he knows he is teaching by the Spirit when he learns something from what he is saying. It's great. I love you, and I'm so grateful that you are always thinking of me. I am so thankful for all you have done for me. We have many great times to come, but those times will have to wait a bit. I love you and look forward to seeing you soon. Love, Elder Brown P.S. Mothers day call Monday at 2 o´clockish my time (depends on if they open the cyber on time or not.) I think 2 o´clockish is like 10 o´clockish your time. Check and make sure. Have Skype ready. Love ya tons!

Monday, April 23rd

All is well here. You'll have to forgive me this week for just sending a short email. All goes well with the work. We are in the process of finding new investigators. We have a couple that are progressing towards baptism. The skype call. Just so you know I think we will do it on Monday again like with Christmas, the day after, so yeah, that's the deal with that. I don't have much time this week. You'll have to forgive me for that. The cyber closes in 20 minutes and I have to write President, but all is well with the work here. I hope to see more success this week, but really not much is changing for now. I love ya tons and look forward to your letters always, and I promise I'll write more next week. Love Elder Brown

Everything is going well. Really I love the mission. It has made me into a person more like Christ and a person that is more happy and more people friendly. I have learned to express myself here, and I have learned a lot about the gospel. It really is such an amazing thing, the mission. But yeah, all is well. Yeah. and don't worry, it will take a lot to make me trunky.

I just try to keep the good old hakunah mattatah spirit. The spirit you always liked so much in me, cause it means no worries. It will all work out. All things are in the hands of him that knoweth all things. I think the mission has made me even more hakkunah mattattah, because now I have the gospel perspective, which in itself is hakkuna matatah. "Peace be still." "Fear not." "Peace I leave with you." "I have overcome the world." "My son peace to thy soul" That seems to be the big focus of the gospel, granting peace to the broken hearted.

Yep all of us kids are somehow involved in saving. It's great. It's too bad that they have to work Sunday at times. I'm glad that Kaylee is in that now. She is going to be one of the EMT´s right? If I remember right.

Yeah the baptisms went quite swimmingly. They were both very happy and I was glad it all went so well. And now they are both on the path to the celestial kingdom. It's great. But yeah, everything is going well here and I'm very excited about the work, but I've got to go.

Love, Elder Brown

April 9th

Yep I,m still here and still kicking. Working as hard as I can and hoping to get lots done. It's gonna take more than a few throwing knives to bring me down. Luckily there is always dodging hahaa. And Jacob 5, I read it a lot, and there are so many prophecies in there that most people don't even realize. It really is a cool chapter.

Yeah all is well. I'm still here with Elder Ayola, Elder Edwards and Elder Kesler. Nobody got changed here. All is well. The area is actually very small compared to all of my earlier areas. I can walk across it in 20 minutes. As I think I told you, my last area you could walk for 1 hour just to get from the middle to one of the extremes. But yeah, as far as people we are in the hunt. We have our investigators David and Matilde who are going to get baptized Saturday, but other than that we are pretty much dry. Last week was what they call Semana Santa and everyone was on vacation visiting family so we didn't get much done as far as finding, but now everyone should be home which is perfect. The members are great, but it's kinda funny cause the church is basically run by the bishops family. They are all grown and all are leaders in the church so its kinda funny. I have pictures of some of them and I'll have to get those to you later due to the whole virus thing.

I've been thinking back on my mission and my whole mission I think I've only had 2 changes that weren't ridden with challenges so I guess you could say I've learned a lot on the mission but it's all good. You can't learn if you don't have problems so it's great fun.

But yeah other than that, all is as it always is. Missionary work doesn't change too much week to week. It's all about the same. It's like being a teacher but you just teach the same lesson over and over again all week and all month for 2 years. It changes a little bit here and there depending on the needs and understanding of the students, but it's still the same material, so yeah it's similar every day, and yet it never gets old. That's the miracle of the gospel.

But I love ya tons and I miss ya. I look forward to your emails every week, and I love hearing from ya. I miss ya tons and hope that all is well with you. Talk to you soon.

Love, Elder Brown

April 2nd

I loved conference. I wish I could have watched it in English, but it's ok. I'll just come home and watch what I didn't get to watch in English. I love hearing their voices. There is so much more power behind the messages, but yeah, I loved it. I especially loved the talk by Dieter F. Uchtdorf. Super direct and super true. I loved it.

This change has gone by fast. With my time in the mission I don't think any struggle or desire will slow it down. I feel like I just got here and yet I've been here for more than a month, but yeah. About the package, I should be getting it next week. so we´ll see what I got. Next week I'll let you know. About pictures, my worry is that the computers here are more virus ridden than any I have seen, and I worry about connecting my camera to them for fear of an explosion, so I think I'll just have to wait till I have a clean computer to send pictures, so sorry. I do have pictures to send but I just worry.

Well I have to go write president in like 10 minutes, but I love ya and look forward to hearing from you soon.

Love, Elder Brown

Last Year's Birthday Celebration - Happy 21st Birthday Tyler!

Yep, I'm old. Don't even try to hide it hahaha but yeah, it's all good here. It's kind of weird because it doesn't feel like my birthday. Elder Kesler was nice enough to make pancakes for me this morning, he surprised me with it.

Yeah we are working hard. Getting it done. We are working with a kid named David. He and his mom are going to be baptized the 7th. It will be great.

The tough times are always what help us most. I still remember that brother from China in our ward, the one you and I home taught, when he said in fast and testimony meeting that it is the obstacles that help us to fly talking about aerospace dynamics. I bet you thought I wasn't listening didn't you hahaha. It is the opposition that makes us stronger, it's great. I know why we go through problems and I learn more and more about it the more problems I go through but it's great.

Singing is one of the few things I miss. I want to come back home and get into music right away if possible. I miss being in good choirs. Here in Latin America no one really sings. It's hard, but I'll be back and singing in no time. I love music and I miss it, but all things will be restored to their natural order.

By the way, I pulled out money cause my shoes were destroyed so I bought new shoes, and I needed money to get medicine for an ear infection last week. The medication they told me to get was pretty expensive so my money ran out.

But yeah. Everything is going well here. My comp and I are working hard, it's great. I love it. We are doing well here. working hard.

Well, that's really all from this Saturday Warrior but I love you and I miss you. I look forward to hearing from you again next week and always. Love you tons!

Love, Elder Brown

Yay for the wedding. I'll be there! And now I have my flight plans way ahead of everyone else hahaha. And I'm glad I will still get to participate in all the ending mission stuff. I absolutely love President. He is such a great guy. He is awesome.

It's cool you're teaching about space in school. I absolutely love thinking about the stars and the Lord's realm. I'm looking forward to going back to college and being able to study more about space and how to move around inside of it. Being on the mission has really given me a love for learning. I absolutely love it. I want to know about everything, well everything except math, but unfortunately I will have to take math as well, but that's ok. You gotta do what ya gotta do, and I miss learning about history. I love history. I look forward to that too.

Well, I really don't have much more time but I love you and I'm grateful for all the sacrifices you make for me. I am grateful for your prayers and after the letters today, and well last night I took the determination to work past my own capabilities. As a wise man once told me, talking about May-mester at Snow College, "you can do anything for a month." Well if you can do it for a month, you can do it for three, and that's just how much time I have left. So I'm gonna push it to the limit. I'll come home and go to bed and wake up for the wedding deal then sleep for a week straight.

Well, I love hearing from you and I'm ready to kick butt, but thanks for writing. I love hearing from you as always and I'm super grateful for all you do for me.

Love, Elder Brown