Nezmenitelne evanjelium (Immutable Gospel)

June 8, 2015 

Nazdar!

We have seen such great success this week, I just want to thank God first for the help he has given us. Our investigators all seem to be progressing, we're finding new ones, and our burdens are being made light. I love the gospel, and all of the things it contains. I love my family and everything they do for me. Well, off of the serious note, I'm sick of serious things.

Let's get right to it, yesterday at church M1 took the sacrament, and actually CAME, all because W. helped her come. A. and Y., two Thai girls that we found a little while back came also, and had really great experiences. We also had 2 pretty big visits from a former missionary, and a family from Arizona who used to live here. Needless to say, church was awesome. Elder R. and I were able to teach Young Men's during the 2nd hour, which was a great learning experience, I have trouble believing that I acted/act like these boys, but whatever, I'll just do better.

We have had a really interesting week full of different types of missionary work. We had contacting, teaching, and tracting of course, but we also had weird things that I haven't really done a lot of before, like randomly going on splits, giving baptismal interviews, and trusting investigators testimonies to stand the test. I know that that sounds really sad, but I just wanted to illustrate how different and great this week has been, I've been really stoked about it. Also, there's a good chance that M (future missionary) will come back this week in order to help me team-teach priesthood.

Well, Monday, I don't honestly remember a lot of what happened, mainly because we haven't really been doing super fun things as a District because none of us really have time and also it's REALLY hot, like yesterday it was about 30.5 degrees out, and I was in a suit. Not fun, that's why winter is better.

Tuesday, we got to start out by going and supporting one of our members who runs a kebab stand here, he's from Afghanistan, and his name is M4. The poor guy was gunned down for being a Christian in his home country, and then kicked out from Switzerland, where he found the church, and lives here now. He's so humble, it's great. We also had a meeting with M1, which went really well, she has become a whole lot more humble and accepting during the time I've taught her.

Wednesday we had a meeting with M5, this guy we've known for a while, and it went about how we expected it to go, but he's steadily showing more interest, which is a good thing. We also taught English, which is always a joy.

Thursday was where things started to get a little bit interesting if I remember correctly. We gave a heartfelt note from Sister Cottle to a member who has recently become less-active, which turned into a little bit of a fiasco, but that's fine, we're all ok now. The other portion of it was having a second meeting with M1, where we established a date for her AND W., who has been meeting with her outside of our lessons. We've been trying and are still trying to decide how to work with that situation, because sometimes, like on Sunday it looks good, but other times it looks like it could be a hurt to both of them. In any case, we're hugging it, and doing our best to help both of them come closer to Christ.

Friday I gave I. his baptismal interview, it was really spiritual. He doesn't feel ready yet, so we'll see what happens there, but his baptism will probably need to be pushed back a bit again.

Saturday was really cool, a former missionary here was visiting and helped us teach W., it was pretty cool.

Then Sunday happened, which I talked about earlier. So cool to have a full building again, and it wasn't even a conference or anything.

I love you all a lot, have a great week.

Elder Brousseau

June 1, 2015

Stastie je nieco tazko opisatelne, ale lahko pochopitelne. (Happiness is something hard to explain, but easy to understand.)

Nazdar!

You know, it seems that the Lord sends random stupid things that he knows are going to make me happy and keep me going more often than I ever seem to expect. It's a game he's been playing with me for a very long time, and I've decided I appreciate it. The example that's fresh in my mind today is this week. Last week, I was getting hit pretty hard with feeling inadequate because of the lack of results that came from last transfers hard work. I felt like it was because I had slacked off, or because I wasn't good enough, and then I began to see good things in other people and forgetting about good things in myself. In order to save me from my own self pity, the Lord decided that just because he knew I would appreciate it, even though it's stupid, he helped people to start complimenting my Slovak again. I know it's dumb, and I promise I'm not comparing myself to anyone except for myself, but He knew I would appreciate it during this weird time for me. So yeah, that's pretty cool, I've had several people in the last week tell me I'm from central Slovakia according to accent, so that's really nice.

I'm doing a lot better than last week, and I'm not just saying that because Elder R. was reading my letter last week and said that it sounded like I was in the depths of despair, and I guess I can see why he thought that. Also, I got like 90 emails from people thinking that I need some sort of encouragement. I wish that I sounded as happy in my letters as I actually am. Because I am SO happy. I really love being here. I love Slovaks so much. It astounds me how surprised people are to hear that. For example, this lady today at a bus stop refused to believe that we were here for so long because we loved Slovaks and wanted to help them. Admittedly, she had had a little bit of alcohol, but she just decided that that information didn't compute, and therefore didn't believe it. I wish that Slovaks weren't surprised in a bad way to find someone who loves them. I want their surprise to be more of a, "Wow! Thank you! What makes you love Slovaks? How do I get part of that love?" Instead of a, "No one loves Slovaks, go back to America." But I love it to death.

Well, our investigators are doing pretty ok. M1 is introducing us to her friends and growing in determination to come to church and understand the sacrament. I am so proud of the progress I've seen in her, last week we also had a really cool lesson, where we were able to  actually teach her with W., which we're hoping helps both of them.

W. has done another weird, where she wanted to meet out of the blue, and then wanted a blessing, and then helped us teach, and now isn't really texting us back...not sure what to do with her other than wait.

M2 has come back into the picture, she has been texting us all week, and is hoping to start meeting again in order to work towards baptism. So great.

K. has also come back into the picture, I recognized him from a bus, and we immediately ran off the bus and after him. Turns out, he doesn't hate us or anything, in fact, he still wants to be baptized, his phone just hasn't worked since he came back from Turkey, and he couldn't remember where the new building was. We'll see what happens with him.

M3 is currently not meeting with us, which we are pretty ok with, mostly because she doesn't want to meet as a family as far as we can tell. Not usually a good sign.

On another note, where do [people] all get the same Anti-Material from? I've been having to debunk the same stupid papers like 4 times since I've come to Blava, and every time they are so convinced that everything in them is true. Dumb, but whatever, they're not hard to break.

I wanted to ask you to tell Elder Kearon thank you from me personally, I told him that he wasn't thanked enough for the work that he does, and then afterwards realized that I never actually did thank him for it. If you could do that for me, I would be grateful. Training was great, It gave me several pieces of inspiration I was really grateful for, a good example of which is: How can we help our investigators feel more cared about? Answer: Daily SPIRITUAL contact, give them little things to read and a nice note daily every day that you don't meet with them. I have high hopes for this, if that really is the main thing to be felt in conversion like Elder Kearon said, we should have several new converts soon.

Anyway, lots of love,

Elder Brousseau

Uz som zfanatizovany! (I Had A Fanatic!)

April 27, 2015

Nazdar!

Hey everyone, I can't wait to tell you about how this week went! So first off, no one got baptized, but that almost makes it better in this case, we had 2 people that were supposed to! And what's better is that they both pushed their dates back, they're having some really faith-building experiences at the moment, so cool. Well, let's see, where are we since we talked last week?

Slavin Monument

First, last Monday we got to go see something quite amazing. We got to go see why Slovakia has such a close relationship with Russia, to the point that throughout this Ukrainian conflict, nearly all of the Slovaks that we talk to side with the Russians, and if a bigger war broke out, there would be no question whether Slovakia would go against the European Union. They would side with the Russians. Why? Because Russia is their savior from WWII. We went up to the highest point in Blava, to a place called Slavin, where we saw the Russian war monument. It was a super amazing spiritual experience to me, to walk around this cool building (which looks quite similar to a temple), and see the names and dates of cities that Russia freed from the German occupation, especially to find that every single one of the cities mentioned I have been in for missionary work. It actually makes me extremely grateful to Russia for the work they put forth to preserve the Slovaks, so that I could come here and serve. I love love love this people so much.

On a side note, on Monday we got 4 new investigators, how sweet is that?

We have had a bit of a rollercoaster, but it makes me really grateful that I have Elder R. as a companion at the moment, he's really good at rolling with the punches and just going with it. He is trying so very very hard to stay in the here and now, but goodness, he's excited to go home. It makes me a little bit sad, just because I feel the end coming, and it really makes me sad and scared, kind of the same sad and scared as when I was thinking about coming. Where, I feel like I'll go, and I won't know anyone, and everyone will think I'm weird and stupid, and pretty much all of the same fears, except an added one of not being able to see the wonderful Slovak members again. That scares me the most. But on a super positive note, I still have quite a lot of time, and on top of that, SUMMER'S FINALLY BACK!!! Haha, I used to think that winter was my favorite season, but it's totally not. All of the students come back to Blava for the summer, and this place just comes alive, whereas in the winter it's pretty dead.

Our investigators are in weird places. Like, lots of them want to be baptized, but some of them don't understand it, and others do self-destructive things that prevent it, and others zase (again) are muslims/JWs trying to convince us we're in some sect. I have an interesting thing for you to think about though. One of our investigators is staying in a student's dorm for theological studies. In her flat are at least: 2 Catholics, 1 Jehovah's Witness, 1 Adventist of the 7th Day, and 1 Lutheran, all studying religion. They don't get along concerning nearly anything, especially not doctrine, until the question of whether our investigator should join our church, they all suddenly unite in saying no. It just makes you think, you know?

We're doing really good things here though, we're really happy to be serving where we are. Our District is doing well on top of that, despite the fact that for some reason things that were previously viewed as going rain or shine, have had to be cancelled for various reasons. Attitudes are positive, and spirits are high.

Well, lots of love, send me questions if there's something you'd like to know more about, the more specific, the better.

Elder Brousseau

May 4, 2015

Na Pleciach Kolosov (On the Shoulders of Kolosov)

Nazdar!

I am very excited to tell you about this week, I've had some real growing experiences, which have been tough (as is to be expected), and extremely helpful. Elder R. and I are getting along quite well, and I actually just got an email from my boy Tomas Vasicek in the Alpine mission where he met Elder R's brother at a mission conference with Elder Bednar and Teixieraeireieiexirieiea. How cool is that? Well, on to the growth.

So last week on Monday, we went to Blava castle with a handful of investigators, and it went REALLY well. It was super fun as well, especially considering that M5 (one of our investigators) decided not to follow the rules, and drove his car right up to the castle doors and parked out in front of them. Somehow we didn't get in any sort of trouble for that. But we did a lot of teaching, and had a lot of fun, it was great.

Today is the first P~Day of the transfer in which we aren't getting together and doing a fun District Activity. It feels kind of poopy, but we'll fix that next week, our schedules are just so various.

Our investigators are doing pretty good, here's some stuff about the more prominent of them:

A. and J. (I'm not sure how they're actually spelled) are a couple of massage therapists from Thailand, and I had a little miracle in Brno concerning them. I hate talking about a mistake the office elders made, but they didn't remember to give us the Thai Books that we ordered, and I guessed that beforehand, so I went in Brno with Elder W. to the library to see if they had any that we could take, and guess what? They had exactly 2 super old Thai copies hidden somewhere in the back that we were able to take, it was SWEET.

A2 is back in the picture, he had his first anniversary last week and so he just took the whole week off to spend with his wife, and I honestly can't really blame him for that decision, even though I would have liked them both to be baptized on their anniversary instead, that would be quite a memory, right? But we have a meeting with him today, and we're going to try and get him and his wife to come to the Druzhkovci with us sometime, so that A2 can hear the parts that are harder for him to understand in his native Russian, and we'll finally be able to meet his wife.

M1 has a hard situation where no one is talking to her right now because last week she blurted out to her roommates that she went to church u nas (with us), and word got to her parents. As far as we know (she went to Banska Bystrica and met with the missionaries there) her parents have just sort of given up on controlling her, which would be really really great, but we'll find out at our meeting later today. She has been responding super well to the Book of Mormon, and we're going to build off of that.

M2 still wants to be baptized, and she's getting less and less high maintenance the more she realizes that we're nice people who actually care about her and we're willing to work with her schedule and not get super mad when she doesn't understand some things completely. It's really nice, BTR is something we've kind of neglected up to this point in her teaching, and now that she's getting it, she's even more willing (if that's possible) to continue in the church towards the goal of baptism.

W... her problems in the gospel all boil down to a fundamental refusing to understand the church. She refuses to understand despite missionaries and all sorts of members telling her in different ways that we are not members of the church to be part of some cool club, we're members to strengthen our relationship to God. On top of that, she says that she has a strong relationship and doesn't need to do anything to make it better while zavoren saying that she prays like once or twice a week, and never out loud. It's really quite depressing to work with, and I'm a little afraid that my frustration with her attitude has shown through in our meetings, which may have turned her off more.

So the biggest growing experiences for me though, were at training, where I realized and got a good picture for myself about how much I really just love the Slovak people. I really really just adore everything about them, even the stupid annoying little quirks that their culture gives them, which is funny for me because I know that they're stupid and annoying. Something that really helped me to start loving the people more was reading in 1st Corinthians 9:19 through like 23 a long while ago, back when I was with Elder G., and really just trying my very hardest to be as a Slovak to the Slovaks. It has been the biggest adventure to really just forget my own hardships in my love for another people, and I feel like it has really enlarged my spirit.

I've also had a big learning experience considering my own hypocrisy through teaching W. I have been holding things against people for a long time, and it's been a huge wake-up call to me, to teach someone who won't even admit that they're holding things against people. Grudges kill the spirit pretty hardcore, and "forgiving" but not forgetting doesn't help anyone. The biggest advice I can give to anyone who wants to feel better about themselves is LET IT GO, and start being grateful for a loving Heavenly Father who deals with only having imperfect people with which to work. I love him so much.

Here's a pretty good and effective baptismal invitation in Slovak in case anyone's curious, or has a place for it in their missionary work:

Naším cieľom ako misionárov je pomáhať ľuďom sa priblížiť ku Kristovi. Boh je Naším Otcom, a s týmto pohľadom, môžeme vidieť jasne, že nás miluje, a chce, aby sme aj jeho milovali. Jeden spôsob, ako môžeme ukázať tu svoju lásku k nemu je urobiť nejaký sľub, v podstate, že ideme nasledovať to prvé prikázanie, Milovať budeš svojho Boha, celým svojim srdcom, mocou, mysľou, a silou. Boli by ste ochotní sľúbiť Bohu, že to idete robiť? Vieme, že čim viac to zachovávate, tým viac budete cítiť Božiu prítomnosť vo vašom živote.

V našej cirkvi, verime tomu, že ten najefektívnejší spôsob urobiť s Bohom sľub, je robiť to čo Kristus učil. Ako sa dostaneme na tuto cestu je vlastne niečo čo tiež nám ukázal Kristus, a to je Krst. Date sa pokrstiť, aby ste mohli uzatvoriť ten sľub s Bohom? (Use Google Translate to see the English version of this invitation.)

So yeah I think that's everything, I'm excited to talk with my family this next Sunday, we'll see how that goes, It's a little bittersweet to think about how this is my last Skype call while I'm here, but I'll survive somehow.

Zo Slovenska S Laskou,

Elder Brousseau

May 11, 2015

Den Matiek...Posledny (Mother's Day... Last One)

Nazdar!

So...I'm not really sure what to write, I just talked to my family yesterday, so that's still just kind of floating around in my head at the moment. I think I'm going to have some really interesting and fun conversations with my parents later in life.

But really, I'm not sure what to write. Things are good here in Blava, the church is getting hit pretty hard here though. We had a visit from Elder Adler of the seventy on Tuesday, and we got to discuss things with him for about 2 hours, which was really cool, especially because during the time, we had 3 lessons on plan, but all of them cancelled so we got to stay and enjoy more of the surprise visit. But he expressed the exact same concerns that I have about Slovakia. Far too many young single adults are leaving. We know that it isn't just here, but the church is smaller here than in the surrounding areas, so it seems to hurt more. 

The biggest thing that happened throughout the week...I'm not sure, there are 2 things sticking out in my head, so I'll say both of them. First, Elder Adler helped talk us through some of the harder points of missionary work here, and we came up with a really cool solution for the question of:

 What to do when my investigators want to be baptized, but they're all waiting for someone else to go first? He told us, that all concerns are either an insufficiently strong testimony of Joseph Smith and the restored authority, or a fear of reaction, and that a concern like this could stem from either. Thus, we must teach our investigators how to bear their own testimonies without fear. If they get used to bearing their testimonies now, think of how much they could grow BEFORE they're baptized, and then how much it will strengthen their resolve afterwards. I also received a great idea from my family yesterday: go to the place where the baptism is going to happen, and give them a baptismal preview like we do at home with the 8 Year-Olds. We are going to try both of these later today, so we'll see how it goes.

Thing #2: M1 has started to consider who she wants to baptize her, and we had an almost perfect meeting with her and M. C. on Saturday night. I love our investigators. There aren't as many as there were last transfer (poor Elder R. thinks he's the grim reaper, but they just weren't ready for commitment), but the ones here are cooler than ever before.

Well, I think that's everything, I'm really tired and not thinking completely straight, so I'll just play it safe and finish before I say something chunky.

Lots of love,

Elder Brousseau

May 18, 2015

Nazdar!

Wow, this week has gone by really really fast, and a TON has happened. Basically, it seems like lots of things are unravelling really really fast, and it kind of scares me, and I'm hoping that the Lord has a specific plan of how things need to play out here, because it seems like a lot a lot of things are resting on the missionaries that shouldn't normally need to, even in such a small place. 

News #1 M.C. has gone to Plzen in the Czech Republic to be closer to K. and to, "Perform God's Work." We're hoping and praying that he doesn't go too far over there, we really need him on a mission. In fact, it would just be better if he came back and ceased contact with K., it would solve a whole lot of problems we're having to deal with.

News #2 W. has decided it's her mission to get our other investigators to take "Breaks" from meeting with the missionaries. Kind of crazy, and I don't really appreciate it.

News #3 M1 is unusually happy and ready to be baptized, despite all of the opposition surrounding her. Pretty awesome.

News #4 A2 understands at long last why he should consider being baptized again. He is such a light to meet with.

News #5 Satan's plans have been very obvious to see ahead of time, which makes them easier to thwart (isn't that a good word? Thwart...)

All in all, we are teaching JW's over Halusky, eating borsch with the coolest double RM duo ever, Playing soccer with our District President, and doing the Lord's work.

I could not be happier here.

Lots of love,

Elder Brousseau

P.S. News #6 we had a crazy cool Branch BBQ in a classic Slovak park. pretty cool, super good food, and entirely Slovak. So fun.

Early Transfers

Nazdar!

Haha, for those of you wondering about the title (That is...if Google translate does things like it should...) That's right. Transfers again. 1 Week early. So much radost (joy). I'm very happy to email you again from Blava, the biggest little city I've every been in. My new companion is Elder R., who's from Provo/Washington State, and actually went to Timpview for school. We're really excited to be together for his last transfer, he was the first missionary to be trained in Banska Bystrica, and I was the second, so that's pretty cool.

Our week last week was very bittersweet. Don't get me wrong, I'm loving every single second of my mission. I even love the seconds where things don't go the way I want them to. I'm sacrificing a lot of time trying to get all of these photos to you, not in the normal fashion, so SORRY TO ALL WHO DON'T ACTUALLY WANT TO SEE THE PHOTOS!!! But I think it's worth it.

Highlights real quick:

W. ALMOST got baptized, and then she got sick, but she passed her interview and everything.

We got to live through a Russian Easter, which was sick.

Conference was amazing, loved Elder Holland, and Uchtdorf, and I've heard that I actually got to understand President Packer better than all of the English listeners, so that's pretty cool.

We totally went to the zoo. There were totally Dinosaurs there. Best mission experience yet.

M. is totally ready for baptism now too, and so it Andrew, so maybe that will be some motivation for our other investigators.

Love Brat P., he's so cool. Used to be the majster slovenska (Slovak Champion) in rowing, how sick is that?

Love you all, have a great week!

Elder Brousseau

Tyzden Vymien (Exchanged Week)

Nazdar!

Well guess what?!? Haha, we have waded our way through all the Anti-Stuff finally!!! We told the Ex-member we were meeting with that we didn't want to meet anymore if he wasn't interested in anything other than "opening our eyes," and we told our Anti-Investigator that he needed to cool it or he would never become a member, which surprisingly enough worked. Special thanks to fairmormon.org for providing very useful, true, and respectful information. On another note, thank you (my family) for the birthday package! Yeah, I accidentally had no idea why I had a package and opened it. I appreciate the Hymn Book. Also the Mac and Cheese and Kool-Aid. I also loved your letter, I'm glad that I was an entertaining baby, because if I hadn't been, you probably wouldn't have had patience for me later in life.

Ok, on to the rest of the stuff. First, I finally finished writing about last transfer in my journal!!! Haha, yeah, that's February 15th, thank heavens for planners or that would never have gotten done, I'm doing my best to catch up as quick as possible without forgetting any important details. I will probably need a new journal and memory card soon. BTW, I found a fun thing to do to help people from getting trunky (I'll explain why this came up in a little bit). When you have 138 days left in the mission, start reading the Doctrine and Covenants, one section a day, backwards. It will keep you more and more focused in and grateful for serving a mission. President Holland said it best, "Don't you EVER let ANYONE take your mission away from you! My mission is EVERYTHING to me, and maybe you think I'm crazy, but it really is. Do not go home, and do NOT give it up for anything!" I really love that talk, it really gets me fired, up, especially when he speaks about loving the people. I have a strong testimony that the gift of tongues will NOT come in it's fulness until you really love the people you serve. I love these people here, and I have some very big news today.

1st, M. and M. are still going on missions. M. got her call to Salt Lake City, Utah, and she is still freaking out. I promised her that if she serves in Farmington, or near Skyline, that my grandparents would LOVE her to visit them. Story time! Satan didn't want her to go to the temple. How did he show this, you ask? He had the driver taking them to Frankfurt get in a car accident in the Czech Republic. Scared the living daylights out of everyone there, but no one was hurt, even though the car was totalled. But, as in 1 Nephi 3:7, God provided a way, and she went to the temple and loved it. M. hasn't gotten his mission call yet, and is currently in Germany, so I don't have new news on him.

We had Elders R. and B in our apartment ALL WEEK, it was prettty fun. Everyone came down Tuesday night for the training, and we thought it would be easier to have them just stay with us all week, rather than take the 10 our train back, and then have to come back for the conference on Sunday. So they helped us work in our area, which was pretty sweet. It was really fun to be with them the whole week too. Also, my companion Elder W. was able to teach S. the Deaf member with Sister McConkie on Tuesday! He's so great, and they just had a blast.

Neither W., nor I. was baptized on Saturday unfortunately, we'll keep working with them, W. just needs to realize that Elder C. is leaving and she doesn't have time to procrastinate anymore. I. more needs to realize that he knows it's true. M. keeps flipping back and forth between all sorts of opinions, so we'll see where things head with her. We made contact with N. again. Teaching Muslims is SO fun, they kind of live in a little bubble, and it's great to see a light come on in their eyes. They make really really strong happy members as well.

I am getting better at Ping-Pong, and I hope to continue in that, that's one of the most entertaining activities I've ever participated in. I almost beat A. on Saturday, it ended 19-21, which is great considering normally it's like 7-21. The Zone Leaders are practicing all the time, which makes it really fun to have super good (better than me) people to play against whenever we have time for it.

Members from the Nitra Branch at the Slovak reorganization!

Ok, big news. On Sunday it was announced that Slovakia is being re-organized. We are no longer part of the Brno District, but instead the Bratislava District has been created. That means, no more traveling to Brno for conferences, or Youth activities (Trainings will still happen there), or anything like that, but that Bratislava will be in charge of things like that. This means enormous progress for the church here. I was crying so hard when they made the announcement, this means we are one giant step closer to Slovakia being it's own Stake and it's own Mission. I can't wait, these members are so strong, and they work so hard. I can't believe how much the church has grown here, just in the time that I've been here. At the beginning of my mission, we were fighting every week to have 13 lessons when standards were 14, and we were in the best area in the Zone, most were fighting for 4 or 5. Now we are sad and disappointed when we haven't had at least 20. I am SO proud to be a Slovak missionary during this pivotal time for the church here, it is AMAZING to witness the courage and dedication of the members. I love this place.

I don't really have anything more to add, have a wonderful week, thank you Grandma Burton for supporting me so much, I love you to pieces! Also, thank you Mom and Dad for keeping me so informed. I am so grateful for my family. BE EXCITED FOR CONFERENCE!

Zo Slovenska s Laskou,

Elder Brousseau

Cau, ja som priliz lenivy momentalne, aby som si vytvoril nejaky nazov... (Hi, I'm much too lazy right now, so I created a title...)

Nazdar!

Hey everyone, I'm really sorry I wasn't able to email last week, and I'm double sorry for not being able to send pictures this week either. We recently moved into a bigger, much nicer, space for church, and it's still not completely finished, but we've already started using it, and have vacated the old space, which means that there's no computer there, nor wi-fi to try and send things like that. Sorry, I'll get it to you as soon as I can, there's quite a lot of stuff that is really really great. So, the last 2 weeks have been very eventful, but my memory and concept of time have both really sunk to embarrassing degrees of effectiveness while I've been in Slovakia, so I apologize in advance as well for not being able to inform you about everything as much as I would like to. But I'll do my best.

Well, in the past 2 weeks, I've been able to go see both Bratislava and Devin's castle here, but I'm starting to get really annoyed at the decision to have P~Days on Monday. Everything is closed on Monday...We'll walk up to a castle, and just see this sign that says, "Otvorene kazdodenne od 09:00-20:00 okrem pondelky" (Open from 9:00 a.m. - 8:00 p.m., except Monday) and then just take pictures outside and walk back home. We usually have to pull the card of, "We're American and we're not going to be here for very long, is there any way you can open it up just for us just this once?" but that only works when two important conditions are present. 1.) There must be people there, who have the ability to open the castle up, and 2.) They must not be able to recognize that you're not Catholic (Or not care, that's usually better, and more common when you go visit castles in small towns). I don't feel like I've ever really experienced racism, but this has got to feel pretty similar. But I'm still bugged, like, not even museums or anything are open then. Oh well, I guess this will give me some reasons to come back.

On a MUCH more positive note, we have been finding SO many people lately, and it's been really nice, because the majority of them are really really cool. I have been constantly impressed with a growing appreciation for what the Lord seems to just sort of "give us" as missionaries. Honestly, it didn't even feel like we needed to try all that hard in order to find people to teach, they just kind of started coming to us. For example, the Sisters tracting the other week, found an ex-member that some people here had been wondering about. Or we, looking for a member for a couple of weeks, discovered that he was actually in our English class, and we just hadn't known what he was looking like.

Another plus of serving in a big city (my respect for those who serve in New York, and Chicago, and Los Angeles, and other big cities has really grown), is that I have gained a very good knowledge of church history. There are people who have taken it upon themselves to research in detail every single thing prophets and apostles have done, and are determined to make them look bad. Something else I've discovered is the importance of Preach My Gospel and the Standard Works in these instances. Preach My Gospel has been worded to carefully so as to make it extremely difficult to prove any of the points of our doctrine false. It's really nice, and the Topical Guide is a blessing straight from God.

I'll give an example:

People will ask, "Why haven't Mormons ever had a Prophetess?" Look up Prophetess in the TG, and follow some footnotes, and you get straight to Exodus 15:20, which describes the Sister of Moses as being a prophetess. Follow some more, and you get to Numbers 12, the whole chapter, where the prophetess, and the head of the Aaronic priesthood say to the prophet that, "hasn't god spoken to us as well?" It's a fair question, but Jehovah, to prove his point (That the head of the church is the Prophet), comes down in a cloud and curses the prophetess with leprosy. Then, despite the pleas for forgiveness from the prophet himself, The Lord in his anger (which btw helps us see him as a being of parts and passions) makes her deal with being that way for a week, and to add embarrassment to the punishment, doesn't allow Israel to move during that time period. So the answer to the question is: We have had prophetesses, however, even these do not have the authority and keys granted unto the Lord's Prophets, Seers, and Revelators, which is why we don't follow them first and foremost. Isn't that cool?

But the coolest of all is, it's not needed to argue the character or decision-making skills of any church leaders. The fact is, church leaders are fallible and imperfect, and the living prophet is the most important prophet for us right now, not the ones that have passed. God did not reveal to Adam how to build Noah's ark, Noah had to get his own revelation. But again, thanks to the missionaries serving in places where things like this come up more often than they do in Slovakia.

I gave a talk in church, that I was told my mother would be very proud of, so I'll tell you a little bit about it. I was given the topic of, "Mission" so I decided to speak a little bit about my decision to come on a mission, which included the car-ride where my Mom burst out crying in October 2012. I was told after the meeting, by the sweetest little angel-sister Sestra H. that, "It's obvious your mother knows everything. She would be very grateful to hear you speak today." The main point of it all though was how I have never regretted, nor think that I ever will regret the decision to come. It has been the best year and a half I've ever had, not because It's been fun and happy and I've been in a new place and learned a new language. I have learned to laugh and be happy when there's nothing to be happy about, and to love people when they're sassy and rude to me, and to be ready to do absolutely anything to help out a priesthood leader, because I know how much they sacrifice. These are things that I know will and have shaped my life for the better.

I've noticed that Google Translate has been having a little bit of a hard time translating for you guys when I say things in Slovak. I'm not sure why, but I'll explain a couple of things real quick. first, Blava=Bratislava. I don't know where they're getting blue, that's Modrá. Nebo means Heaven/The Sky, and I totally understand the problem, but at the same time it's hard. You see, nebo in Czech means or/because. So I get it, but I wonder why it thinks it's Czech and not Slovak. I've been giving a lot of thought to what I might be able to do for GoogleTranslate and Slovak when I get back...

Well, I feel like I've talked a lot and still not said a whole bunch, I'm really quite glad with how busy we are, and I like being a missionary a lot. It's considerably satisfactory. Haha, well, I think it's about time for me to stop writing, Thanks to GoogleTranslate for helping my English vocabulary out a little bit.

Mimoriadné kopci požehnaní vám všetkým prajem,

(I wish you all special blessings,)

Elder Brousseau

Za Bieleho Dna... (In Broad Daylight...)

Nazdar!=D

So first off, M. got baptized!!! Haha, I'm totally just on top of the world about it, it's so fun. She had to get baptized twice because her hair came up, and I can only imagine the difficulty they had explaining that to her, because she really doesn't speak German all that well. On another note, Mom, which areas in Germany did you serve in, and is there any way you could get me a list of converts and re-activations from your mission? The Sisters in Germany were curious. #2!! I totally just got transferred... So I'm not in Zilina anymore... I'm not sure how I feel.

Well anyway, last week was awesome. Monday we just sort of didn't have time to do anything, we met with R. the man I mentioned last week, which was entertaining, but at that point it had started to wear on me a little bit. I've decided that I really don't like teaching someone about God and having them argue whether god is all-knowing and all-powerful or not. If you don't believe in those things, I don't think you really believe in God, more like some blundering extra-terrestrial scientist. But enough of that.

On Tuesday, we taught Z. again, and Elder S. took pictures with her and everything because he thought he was going to be leaving (ha!), and it went really well. We've decided to work on the basics with her again, not the basic lessons, because she gets those, but like reading and praying, and just mainly to try and strengthen her relationship to God, because a stronger relationship to God means a stronger motivation to act on the feelings of the spirit. We also taught P.M., and I think it went kind of mediocre, mostly because when we taught him again on Friday he had all sorts of questions about the End of the World. I don't actually know if it was because of our teaching, but we WERE going over the apostasy, so it might be... We told him to read Revelation and it would answer all of his questions. Totally joking, we DID tell him to read, but meanwhile, we're going to find answers to the questions that can be answered concerning that subject.

Wednesday: I really honestly don't remember very much besides finishing going over the Baptismal Interview questions with M.. She is so prepared, and it just goes to show how the Lord works. A little bit about her story: She moved to Germany with this guy she had had a kid with. Things didn't work out, and they broke up, but she doesn't speak German and still lived in Germany. She found and started dating the first man she could find who spoke Slovak AND German, and the Sisters there later contacted that man, and he agreed to meet and discuss the gospel. He went to church a couple of times, and brought M. along, as well as let her sit in on the lessons. They found that it was a lot easier for them to understand the gospel in Slovak, and gave the APs here their Skype # and they began to teach them because Elder B. (Chris' trainer) was an AP and he spoke Slovak. He eventually hit a roadblock where he didn't want to commit to living certain commandments, and no longer wanted to meet, and on top of that, Elder B. had left, and the APs could no longer understand very well. They transferred them over to Zilina, and the man still didn't want to meet, but M. still did. Meeting with her was hard at that point, mainly because they were living together and he really didn't want us to talk to her. Then, in December, he hit her during an argument, and she called the police. He went to jail and she got a restraining order. That made it much easier for us to start meeting, and for her to overcome problems like smoking and drinking, and eventually to get baptized. SO cool, and she was never "found"...

The rest of the week is likewise pretty much just a blur until Saturday. We had a really awkward baptismal interview with M. on Thursday, awkward just because the Elder was giving his first one, I'm sure he'll do better in the future. On Saturday though, she got baptized, and it was so cool, even though we weren't there, but then Jan P. called us up for a meeting and said, "I want to show you something." weird, but he had done this in the past, and it was usually just like a restaurant or something. This time, he drove us like 25 minutes outside our area in order to show us this statue of Janosik, the Slovak Robin Hood. Really cool, but quite a weird, unwelcome feeling to sit in a car and have to ask, "Where are we going?" and get the answer, "Just relax and enjoy the ride." Throughout this whole week though, we've been teaching L., who, goodness, just needs to accept baptism. He keeps talking about how he needs a new start, and how we've introduced him to feelings and things he hadn't thought a person could actually feel, and he knows that it's true. Interesting, I feel like all of those things motivate to baptism...

Anyway, that's all I can think of to say at the moment, I've got to go, we're going to go do some teaching.

S Laskou,

Elder Brousseau

(Editor's note: Here is last week's email. We included it in this letter to avoid a transfer cliff-hanger.)

February 23, 2015

Blava, Mila Blava (Blue, Blue, Mila)

Nazdar!

Well, here's the big surprise, I'm in Bratislava with Elder W., that's right Kennen, the same one you played sax with at BYU, and I'm the District Leader in Ruzinov South. Now that that's up, a little bit about the city:

Blava is by far the biggest city I've ever served in. It's about the same size (I would guess) as Orem and Provo combined, both as far as inhabitants and land size, but maybe I'm overestimating that. Everything is super old. It's a lot more ghetto than every other city I've seen, but that's probably just another side-effect of more people. Our building is a lot bigger than in other cities, and that's because the branch has "a lot more members" which, it does, just not a ton more active. It's the biggest one I've been in, but not by much. The main differences I've seen in the last week have been that we RELY on busses for transport, which makes me a little bit anxious, just because I don't really like at all having to rely on public transportation (I know, I know, it saves the environment...whatever), and I don't at this moment have a great love for tram/bus contacting, but I'll work on it.

I don't have a lot of time today, I'll let you know more next week, LOVE!

S Uctou,

Starsi Chris Brousseau

Last Transfer in Zilina, Slovakia

Nazdar!

Hele, I'm sure you're all surprised that I didn't email you on Monday, but it's because of this: We are literally teaching too much to have the full hour and a half of email time, and usually the first hour is spent emailing President, and replying to other emails, and we only had about 45 minutes, so here we are now on...I don't remember, but I think Wednesday, and here's my email.

Well. Last week was crazy, just like it seems every week is now. I've noticed that the more time you spend diligently finding, the less time you actually end up spending. I'll explain myself real quick. At training we discussed a principle that I was really quite impressed with. The principle discussed was that we don't set apart hours of our day for "finding," we should be finding 100% of the time, we set apart specific hours for "contacting," or "tracting," not finding. I had noticed before then that around 40-60%, I'm not willing to commit to an exact estimate, of our new investigators are found either through teaching someone else, or through us talking to people about the gospel while we're doing something that isn't contacting or tracting. Contacting and tracting are not super effective missionary activities in actuality, however, they become more effective in proportion to how much you do them. It clicked in my head when I heard that, that if we diligently find, even when we're not "finding," that then we will have more people to teach, and we'll have to "find" a whole ton less. This is extremely true, and the best part is seeing it work.

So, we totally went bowling on Monday. It's super inexpensive here, because they found that if they put the same prices on bowling here as they did in America, no one goes bowling, so it's actually around the exact price of what it's worth. I was reminded yet again of how absolutely terrible I am at bowling, I had the lowest score both games.  Later we taught Z., who is awesome, and she's totally going to get baptized, she's just scared of what her Catholic friends would do if that happened. We talked about Adam and Eve, which is always a really fun discussion, especially when she doesn't actually agree with the Catholic belief, and thinks ours is way better.

Another highlight of every week is P.M., this now completely active member here. This guy is seriously Branch President status now, he's preparing to go to the temple, and he has started to have enough confidence in his knowledge of the gospel to actually put forth his own ideas and comparisons during priesthood in church, which, I must say, are spot on. I am so happy to have him to work with, we're working on teaching him about every apostasy the world has gone through in as much detail as we can find in the scriptures, from the apostasy between the dispensation of Elijah, in which the Pharisees and the Sadducees as well as Buddhism and Taoism were all founded, to the apostasy right after Adam, in which (according to the Liahona magazine, I'm not actually sure where they got this info), Hinduism was started with the followers of Cain and Satan "plotted with his followers from that time hereafter."-not an exact quote from Helaman 6:26-27. Love him to death, we're going into the Great Apostasy tomorrow.

M. is doing awesome, she's still completely on track to her baptism on the 14th, and she really is prepared. We were going through the baptismal questions with her, and we started and it went sort of like this:

Elder S: Do you believe in God the Eternal Father, in his Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost?

M.: and I say, "Yes."

Elder B: Gooood....do you ACTUALLY belive that?

M.: Starsi Brousseau, why in the world would I be trying to get baptized if I didn't?

It was so spiritual.

J.P. is normal, still obsessed with ghosts, and doesn't really feel a need to pray or really do anything religious. He has some really cool ghost stories though, it's fun. We're planning on giving him the best ghost story ever next time: The one where a guy was brutally and illegally murdered, but came back from the dead.

L. survived a crazy car accident last week, and this week is still doing really well. He's in sort of the same situation as Z., where he's TOTALLY going to get baptized, and he has nothing holding him back except for a crazy complicated situation with Sister S. being best friends with his ex-girlfriend all the while still being sort of in love with his ex-wife, with which he has 2 kids. We're praying pretty hard that something in that situation will change quickly so that he no longer has a problem with Sister S., and it's going to take a miracle, but at the moment he's progressing quite well.

P.K. is totally on track! We had the lesson last time that like, "You realize we're not Catholics and we want to baptize you right?" and he was all like, "Yeah, I knew that from the start, I kind of want to know why." So cool! He's this sort of old guy, like early 50's, and he tries so very hard to do what he knows is right, it's great.

M. is doing pretty well too, last time we taught him with Sister S., and it went pretty well, we showed him the "Your potential, your privileges," video from President Uchtdorf, and talked to him about trying to find out exactly what his privileges are BEFORE he no longer has them. He still doesn't have a huge desire, but he's totally getting baptized as soon as he realizes what the church organization specifically can offer him, which is friends who care about you and would like help you in quite literally every country on the planet. Teaching M. has really improved my English again as well, because, while he doesn't really speak English, he always has super great questions about the differences between words, and which word is best to say in certain contexts, I really like him.

I got to teach the W. family!!! This is a way-cool young family the other Elders are teaching, and our district is doing well enough in both companionships, that we've started having to go on splits so that we can all teach all of our lessons that our scheduled, so great. Elder F. has been very inspired with how he has gone about teaching them, people (Zone Leaders) keep trying to push him into trying to speed things up, but having gone there and having taught them myself, I am convinced that he has been taking the spiritually correct path with them. They are so amazing.

R., ok, well, we found out this guy is apparently a "real" Jehovah's Witness...I asked him during our 2nd lesson if I could see his new world translation because he was using a rohacek translation, and that has tons of stuff missing, but doesn't have the little asterisks telling you that they're missing, and he was all like, "Pozor pan Bruso, real Jehovah's Witnesses don't even let that thing come into our hands!" and proceeded to rant about all this corruption with the bigger JW church in Brooklyn and denouncing all they're "abominable creeds" and stuff, I was torn between confusion and a strange desire to record everything he was saying. Turns out, there are 2 JW churches, and the mission of one of them is to entirely discredit the other, but they call themselves the exact same thing, so there's no way to distinguish between them. Kind of crazy, but he's a joy to teach, he knows the Bible pretty darn well, so when we use the Bible to reference things and explain our point of view, instead of not understanding and getting caught up in random little reference battles, he understands the bigger picture and it makes sense to him. I really love this guy.

L. has gotten so hard-core into Anti material, which he doesn't completely understand. He is not in an amazing position to join either, because he's a minister for another church, but he is interested as to why he doesn't have the sorts of feelings about our church when he's meeting with us, as he does when he's reading bad things about us. Interesting.

R. is great, he's this awesome 21 year old kid who does MMA, and he's had some really cool experiences with God. He says he already has a Book of Mormon, but we're going to give him a new one, just in case. I'm really excited to see where he goes, we've only had a couple of lessons so far, but he has in every single case showed that he has a very open heart, and a sincere desire to do right with God. He knows L., which is a little iffy, but as far as I can tell, he doesn't really listen to anything he says, so we'll hope and pray he doesn't get into the same kind of stuff.

Sunday we gave our demonstration on Music History, Music Theory, and Conducting, and it was a success. We were in the building that day from 9 in the morning until past 7 in the evening just because of Church and then the activity, and then we were teaching the rest of the time, which illustrates my point at the beginning, we didn't have time to go out and tract like we normally do. Such a great week, and such a great feeling.

Lots of love,

Starsi Brousseau

"Jéééj!" (Yaaay!)

(Lol, that's the least happy "yay" (Jeeej) I've ever seen, and guess where I saw it? Tesco! Haha, that's right. Christmas season is here.)

Nazdar!

So here's a good place to say thank heavens I did my thanksgiving letter last week. Thank you all for all you do, I know I wasn't able to get to everyone, but no worries, I'll eventually get around to it, haha. This week has been pretty weird, just with training and new things, but not bad, even a little bit, even though honestly I kind of expected it to be. It has been really cool to have these great experiences with prayer that are so potrebne (necessary) for missionaries and really for anyone lacking some sort of peace. We've been following a commitment from a leader to the mission and praying at every given opportunity, and boy has it been great.

So on to some highlights, I don't really have many highlights from the work other than this: The Lord answered my prayer, and we've been able to go at least contacting every single day this week!!! Haha, it's been so great. It's a little bit difficult right now, because we're trying to set the expectation right off the bat that we want to meet THROUGH the Christmas season, and that's kind of a put-off to a lot of people, but goodness, it feels good to be rejected again. Haha, that sounds sort of depressing, but seriously it's my #1 highlight from this week.

Another! I am sick and tired of hearing from different people that I'm prideful. Humility is not something you can just "reach," and I don't appreciate people telling me that I'm not completely there yet. However, working on it again is never a bad thing. Something happened this week, where, during personal study, something stuck out on a page in Preach My Gospel. It was 2nd Timothy 3:1-4. I went to the scripture with the attitude of, "ok, I'm going to be honest with myself and try to recognize which of these traits I can work on." Then came the big one, where I read through it and saw in myself not one, not two, but every single bad trait there was. I just sort of broke down, I was so struck. The awesome news is why it's a highlight of my week, I'm taking like two things at a time and working on them until somebody says, "wow, Elder Brousseau you are (example) very obedient to your parents!" It might take the rest of my life, but why not? In fact, I'm sure it will take the rest of my life, so I'm glad I started now.

Best news ever!!! R's back in the game! For those of you who don't remember, R is the most prepared man I've ever met, and he actually found us and approached us on the street a little while ago to say that he wants to meet, that the things that his wife said weren't true. I am so so so very excited to be able to continue this man's journey in the gospel. We'll see where it goes.

Anyway, that's pretty much everything I can think of, we had training this week, where Elder C introduced me to a wonderful game called Boss Monster, I strongly recommend it. Also, training was great. We talked about improving the little things in work. We found out that the church is now asking all missions to do exactly what we did last year to spread the success that we saw everywhere. That is, find people who are willing to meet during the Christmas season, and give the missionaries something with which they can do Christmas Eve unannounced visits. It's going to be cool, President told us that last year we taught more lessons on Christmas Eve than any other single day throughout the year, which is normally unheard of. We're going to do it again, this time with the "Because of Him" thing the church is releasing for Christmas. We don't get any special previews though unfortunately... Anyway, things are going very well for us in Nitra Klokocina. I love you all to bits, and hope that somehow this email helps you out.

Have the best of weeks,

Elder Bruso

Giving Thanks

Nazdar!

Hey all, I hope that this letter finds you safe and sound like always. I'm in Nitra at the moment, but there's a chance that could be changing real soon, so I'll keep you posted. This week I don't really want to talk about my end of the spectrum, but more I wanted to have a little thank you session and try to get every person I'm emailing, so look out for yourself!

Taylor: Thank you so much for your support, even though it must be difficult for you. You are the best guy I know, so thank you for your example. Thank you as well for being constantly willing to help me out with whatever I need. I'm planning on cashing in on some more of that when I get to see your beautiful face in person again. Try and make sure your life is always pretty ok, but if it's not, that's rough, buddy, and I'll be here for you. Thanks for coming with me on all those random and sometimes really stupid adventures, like all those times to Lagoon and the zoo and wherever else we went. Thanks for letting me be right all those times, too. Heaven knows I needed it.

Dad: Thank you for everything. I don't know how to say it better. I am so grateful for you being a father figure for me. I was noticing the other day, it seems like throughout my life, whenever you haven't had a job, it was because you were needed to take care of me. If you hadn't been there my senior year, I would not be on my mission right now. I feel like as well, if you weren't sending me prayers and encouragement, I wouldn't be staying out here. Missions are hard, but I know, because of you, that they're worth it.

Maddie: Hey, girlie, thank you so much for your kindness to me over the years. When I get back I'm going to need a movie night with you. Thank you for never being ashamed to be my sister and for never looking down on me, even though I make all sorts of mistakes. Thank you for laughing with me so much on that lunch date I took you on before I left. I love you to pieces and then put you all back together again.

Alexis: Thank you for being such a dear. You don't know how much it means to me to have someone like you. My surrogate little sis, haha. Thanks for being Hermione, and for letting Taylor and me be weird. Thanks for always being willing for a party. Thank you for paying attention--I was talking to my companion last night about how grateful I am for that time you asked me to the dance using Legend of Zelda (was it Sadie's?). You mean tons to me, and thank you for it.

Lars: Thank you for pushing yourself all the time. One of the things that has been so amazing for me is reading your emails every week and seeing your example of perseverance. Thank you for being supportive as well, missions are hard and it's easier if you've got other missionaries to look up to. Thank you for being so intense as well. It's uplifting. I remember driving with you everywhere just rocking out to your music. It's great to be able to just feel free like that.

Chels: Thanks so much for being so willing and humble! I haven't really known you for too long, but your emails have meant a lot to me, especially to hear how every week you seem closer to the Lord. Thank you for being a light in Mexico. I wish I could be there to see it. Also, thanks for finding the good in every situation, like all the problems with your house there. You don't seem like someone who wants to complain, and I'm grateful for that.

Daniel: Oh goodness, where do I start? Thank you for being patient with me. We've known each other for more than 12 years, and I know from my family that I'm not exactly the easiest person to deal with. Thank you for serving in Peru. I always looked forward to your emails just because they were so YOU. Thank you for always being ready to laugh, even when it was ridiculous and sort of stupid. Thanks for being a good sport, too. I remember when you came up to the cabin with me, how I KNEW you didn't want to play Halo because you weren't winning, but you did it anyway so that it would be fun for everyone. Thank you for being accepting. You never seem to judge people, no matter how far into the dark side of the nerd realm they drift. Thanks.

Paul: Hey, man, thank you for being such a bang-up good person. It really seems like you love people. Thank you as well for helping me through the MTC. I wouldn't be here now if you hadn't been there back then. Thank you for keeping me in mind. It's cool to know I've got a real friend in you. Remember you've always got a room in my house, whenever you're in the mood.

Elizabeth!!! Thank you for being my life at family gatherings! Haha, you're always so good at making me be happy even when I don't want to be. Thank you for teasing me. That April Fool's joke is legendary. Thank you for your wonderful humility even though you're a freaking prodigy at everything you try. Thank you for always supporting me as well. I can feel your trust every time we talk, and it makes me trust you implicitly. Thanks for your wonderful smile. It brightens everyone's day. Keep calm and carry on, haha.

Favorite Uncle: Thank you for everything. I stand by my statement at my Eagle Court of Honor 100% that you have been an amazing example to me of always treating me like an equal. Thank you for playing chess with me, even though I called you Satan once or twice. Thank you for being ready to have fun all the time. I love your attitude. Thank you as well for being excited for me whenever I've been excited about something. It means the world.

Ryan: Thank you so much for being the most sincere guy I know. That's not saying other people aren't sincere, but I feel like no one is ever going to be able to convince you not to be you. Thanks for being such a stud. Whether it's guarding, the MTC, Halo, Left 4 Dead, or a mission, you always do it great. I love having your example to look up to, so keep it up. Steadfastness in all things.

Mark and Alisa Brousseau Family: Thank you so much for being the first to do things. I've been getting a very strong testimony of being the first to say yes, but more importantly, being the first to do. It always seems like when someone needs help in our family or when there's a gathering to be done, you're the first to volunteer service or help for it. Thank you for being so into sports as well. That's always helped me to push myself in everything I do, just remembering the attitude of, "It doesn't hurt that bad! Walk it off! Rub some dirt on it!" Haha. Most of all, thank you for being accepting of me. I have always felt very welcome with each member of your family, without regard to the situation.

Britta: I don't know where to start. Thanks for being such a help all the time. It seems like you are always building others up. Thank you for being supportive and loving, even when I haven't been doing strictly the smartest things, and sometimes, even when they were plain dumb. Thank you for being such a good example of loving your family. It has helped motivate me to strengthen my own family relationships, especially with my parents. Thank you for always asking permission as well. You're really not a person to force yourself into things, and it helps me remember that I shouldn't force my way into everything. Thanks for everything.

Steve: Oh boy. Thanks for your ridiculous smile, you can always tell when Steve is happy. Thanks for laughing at my stupid jokes. You make my day. Thanks for telling me all about Canyon View and video games and movies. Thank you for forgiving me so many times. You are the perfect little brother for me, and I wouldn't ever want it to change. Thank you.

Ricky and Karin Burton Family: Thank you for being so happy towards me all the time. Thank you, Uncle Ricky, for laughing at me whenever I deserved it, even if I didn't want it. Thanks for being so kind to my parents. It's amazing to me. Thank you as well for telling me all about the boys. I always get the perfect picture in my head for what's going on there, and it makes me proud to know you.

Poop, I'm running out of time, I'm gonna try and go quicker.

Gavin: Thanks for being the best Scout leader ever, your advice has helped me so much out in the field. Thank you for being supportive and humble, and for helping me to see the potential of the priesthood. I love you to death.

Grandma and Grandpa Burton: Thank you for being so happy! Thank you, grandma, for always being loving and for being so careful. I am confident that I am still alive because of my grandma's prayers. Thank you for hanging out with me and helping me to always remember my family and where I come from. Thanks for giving me a great family I can brag about to everyone I meet.

Kennen: Wow, buddy, thank you for being my bro. Thank you for being excited to be friends all the time. I am super grateful we're so close. Thank you for being the type of guy you can just chill with. I remember going to school with you for a day and having it be super fun and just the best de-stress. Thanks for being so freaking talented. It helps me push myself to be better. Thanks for your example on your mission. Make sure you find those Brousseaus and baptize them! Thanks most of all for helping me all those many years ago to feel accepted. You and Alan Phillips in Mrs. Siebach's class helped me so much. Love you.

Katie! Thank you for being so much like another mom! You have got to be just the best companion ever. You just take care of everyone. Thanks for being so impressed with me. It never ceases to amaze me how good you can make someone feel. Thank you for coming with me to do baptisms. That was something I'll never forget. Thank you for helping me with all those girls that I dated, too. You are just a miracle worker, and your excitement is contagious. Thanks for including me. You're the best. Never forget it.

Cesar: Thank you for everything, man. You're always the guy I think of if I want to know how to be happy in a random situation. Thanks for being kind to me, even if I wasn't being kind back. Thank you for always saying hi when we saw each other places. You really help people know they're your friends. Thanks for beating me at chess. I've always needed a little help being humble. Thanks for playing scum on the scout trips, and for tanning out in the sun at Lake Powell, and for teasing me about dating people. Those memories are amazing for me, and I hope they are for you too.

Drake: Thank you for being persistent. Thank you for always making an effort to be my friend. I remember back when you were in 7th grade, walking over to your house a half hour before the bus came, just so we could talk and mess around. Thanks for seeing something fun in every little thing, even plasma cars and trash cans. Thanks for being so sincere, too. I'm really looking forward to seeing how that blesses you on your mission.

Ok, well, I think that's everyone. Time to go!

Love,

Elder Brousseau

(Editor's note: this last paragraph was a full page below the rest of the email, and we only stumbled upon it accidentally. Chris has always loved to tease his mother and this is no exception...)

P.S. Thank you, MOM!!!!! Haha, I bet you thought I forgot you, huh?!? Well, NOT TODAY! Thank you for being so brilliant. You are the reason that I want to be better at things, because I see your thirst for knowledge. Thank you for always being excited for me, and proud of me, and supportive of my craziness, and happy for me. Thank you for being there, all the time. I've been giving a lot of thought to the day, when, I called you during the middle of school and you checked me out and took me to Apollo Burger just so we could sit and talk about how I was scared to go on a mission. That helped me so much. Thank you for pushing me to be better. Thank you for being so good at English. I could always ask you anything, and now it's paying off when others need help. Thank you for never freaking out at me when I told you something I did, like when I broke my window, or when I broke my leg, or when I got hit by that car, or when I wanted to go have a sleep-over at the cabin. I love you to death, and I wish I could remember everything I want to tell you thank you for. You're the best. Also Happy Birthday again.