Almost to Angola!

 

First packages mailed off to Angola....

 

First "practice" packages to see if he actually gets them, both were filled with food & treats.  The envelope was 2 lbs. and cost $17 to ship and the box was just barely under 4 lbs and cost $30.  Anything over 4 lbs will be considered express and requires tracking and emailing the mission home (see a few posts below). Will see how long they take to get to him.....

Mailing Information

A post office has finally opened in Luanda, and the “Angola Luanda Mission” has opened a post office box. Now our missionaries can send and receive regular letters. To send a letter use the following address:

Elder Keegan Brown
Igreja de Jesus Cristo dos S.U.D.
Caixa Postal 18404
Luanda, Angola


It currently costs $1.05 to send a letter from the United States to Angola. However, it will cost about $3 (US) to send a normal letter from Angola to the U.S. It should arrive in less than 2 weeks in either direction. The missionaries are starting to receive mail and they are extremely happy!


If you want to send a package via the US Post Office please follow these instructions exactly:


If the package weighs less than 1 kilo (2.2 lbs.) it will arrive at the Post Office where we have a post office box with no problems. If the package is over 2.2 lbs it must be sent “Express” so that it will be delivered to our Post Office.


If you send a package please DO NOT put the missionaries name in the address. This will make it very difficult for us to claim the package unless the recipient missionary actually goes to the Post Office. PLEASE NOTE: If you are sending a package put the missionaries name at the beginning of the return address. Then we will know who it is for. For example, the package should be addressed as follows:


Elder Brown
Brown Family
123 Elm Street
SLC, UT 12345
                                    Igreja de Jesus Cristo dos S.U.D.
                                    Caixa Postal 18404
                                    Luanda, Angola


We have received “Express Mail” packages. In order for us to pick up “Express Mail” packages, the post office is requiring the tracking number as well as a list of the contents with their values. Without these two things we cannot get the package! Please email these two things as soon as you send the package to angolamissionoffice@gmail.com

Elder Brown's Flight Plans

 

Last letter from the MTC

Oi! Friends and Family

Well I am off in 2 days to Angola. Crazy that the two months are gone and here I am about to go live in Africa for two years. Not gonna lie I am kind of nervous because its going to be this whole new experience that I know I will grow to love but still, it seems a little daunting. But I know I can do this, and just power through. 

We had a sad moment this last week, one of our elders in our district, Elder Clifford, won't be coming with us when we leave on Monday. He has to have surgery on his shoulder to see whats wrong with it, so that puts him out for two months. He had the choice to go home and pause his mission and get the surgery there, or wait it out here until he has recovered. He chose to stay here for the next few months which I think is really good. We gave him a blessing on Thursday and that was a really spiritual experience for me and then the following day, yesterday, we fasted for him and Elder Rameka to help them in their health needs. It is really sad but we know he will be with us soon, and two months will come by fast. 

Yesterday I got a Dear Elder from my mission president Thompson about how they wished they could be there to meet us, but they are having problems with their visas. So when we get there a Brazilian Senior Couple and the Zone Leaders will pick us up from the airport and take us to the mission home. And then we get a brief orientation and given our first assignment. He already said that we have already been assigned an area and a trainer, so when we get there we will get all that information. Sounds like I will be hitting the ground running when we get there on Wednesday morning. 

Today we started taking the malaria pill, and thats a pill I will be on for the next two years of my life. It's starting to get more and more real. I am grateful for this time here in the MTC, there is no other place than this where I could learn a language this fast to be at least competent when I get to Angola, and a place where my knowledge and testimony of the gospel has grown. Haha I am just so ready to get out there and do my best every day. 

This last week was nothing really special, just wrapped up classes and such. Yesterday we had In-Field Orientation, which is pretty much a big long workshop about important principles out in the field. 

Its sad that I am going to miss Mason and Peyton coming in here by two days. But they will enjoy it. It seems like I have been here forever, but the time has flown by, and I know once I get out in the field that it will come and go even faster. 

Sorry for the short email, there really isn't anything to exciting to write about since all were really doing is packing and preparing to depart. Well I know what I am doing here is the right thing that I need to do to be blessed in the rest of my life. I know that this gospel and church is true, and I am going to go bless the lives of the Angolans in a couple of days. I thank you all for all the support and letters and packages I got here in the MTC. It meant alot and helped me get through these last two months. I love you all, and my next email will be chalk full of everything I experienced in my first couple of days in Angola.


Tchau,

 Oi! Family and Friends!

So yesterday we finally got our official travel plans! This is my travel itinerary: Fly out of SLC on American Airlines flight 1604 at 8:05 AM on July 30th and arrive in Dallas at 11:40 AM. Then I have a little over 5 hours of a layover in Dallas where I will be able to call my family:) Then we fly out of Dallas at 5:15 PM on British Airways flight 1562 to London where we arrive in London at 8:30 in the morning on July 31st. In London we are there for 12 hours until our next flight. Our next flight out of London is on British Airways flight 77 at 8:20 PM and we arrive in Luanda, Angola at 4:55 AM on August 1st. 

Crazy that its almost time to go, but I'm happy that I am because I am so ready to be out in the Mission Field and just start working. Only 10 days till we travel into a whole new world, new culture, new people, new everything. It will take some time to adjust most likely, but I know that I can do it because I was called there to Preach the Gospel. It's just going to be some exhausting days of traveling haha. On that Monday we have to report at the travel office at 5 in the morning so not so stoked about that, but oh well. 

For letters and packages, if you wanna send more that great, but make sure it would get to me before Friday night, because after that I wouldn't be able to get the mail because it would come after I already left. Also with the Dear Elders, make sure that there in the deadline so it can be sent in on Friday night. I think the deadline is like noonish on Friday to get it in, so any sent after that time I wouldn't be able to get because they would come Monday night and I would be gone, so just a heads up with the mail and the Dear Elders and such. Also next week for my email it will come on Saturday instead of Friday because on Friday we have In-Field Orientation for the whole day so our P-Day got switched over too Saturday, so thats when my last email from the MTC will come:)

Anyways same old same old from this past week here. Really the only thing new and different this week was the travel plans so that was exciting. Thats way exciting for Devon! Congrats to him, he is going to do great in Lima Peru. It's crazy that the time he enters the MTC, I will already have been done with a quarter of my mission. And it sounds like Andrew is having a blast down in Ogden. And now Mason and Peyton are gearing up for their missions as its coming up super fast as well. We're all gonna be great missionaries in our mission fields. And I can't wait to get back together and catch up and swap stories for hours about our missions haha. 

This past Sunday for our fireside we had Jenny Oaks Baker come. She is Elder Oaks daughter, and she is a world-class violinist. She graduated from Juliard, has made the National Symphony, and was just recently nominated for a Grammy. She was so good, she played like 4 or 5 songs for us and her children performed I Am a Child of God for us as well. It was a really cool fireside and amazing how good of a violinist she is. There is a short video on her on LDS.org under the Media Library talking about her music and her testimony.

Other than that nothing really much else to talk about, except that I am so ready to get out of here. Sorry about the short letter but I don't know what else to really talk about haha. Just know that I love you all and am so thankful for all your support and prayers. It's crazy that two months have already gone by, and I know that once I get in the mission field and start working that time will go by even faster. Only one more email to go here, and then the next one is coming from Angola! Love you all!


Tchau,

Elder Keegan Brown's Videos & Photos

ElderKeeganBrown's photostream on Flickr.