Our Little "Brown" House

For the first time in 23 years all my children are grown up or in school. I have had children in school for 19 years straight. By the time Heidi graduates it will be 31 years straight of kids in school! I will officially be a pro after all of that! That is hard to believe!
I knew it would be hard sending my baby away to school. I just didn't realize how hard. I cried all the way home. She loves school so much! I know she will do great. It is just an adjustment for mom.
I have 5 children going to 3 different schools this year. I told the kids Friday morning that I feel like a bus driver. I have 3 different stops to make to drop everyone off. But I love it! I love the fact that I can be there after school to hear all about their exciting days. It is one of the joys of being a mom.

Heidi getting ready for her first big day of kindergarten. After school she told me that her body loved school so much it thought that she needed to go back again!

Tanner and Heidi's first day of school. Tanner is in 3rd grade. Heidi is in kindergarten.

Braxton,Tristan and Cassandra's first day of school. Cassandra is a sophmore, Tristan a freshman and Braxton is in 6th grade. He is in middle school this year.

My blogging has slowed way down. I guess that means I have been super busy. That is not a lie. Sometimes I think that all I do is work, sleep and run kids to their sporting events. Pretty sure that is not a lie. But that is okay. I am very happy right now. And my family is very happy right now. I guess that is all that matters. Since I last blogged I turned another year older. The years are starting to creep up on me. I am now 42 years old. Hard to believe when I only feel 20.
Kent is now in Cape Verde. He called home from the airport in Boston. He had an 8 hour layover. So we got to visit with him for awhile. He is doing awesome! I am so proud of him. He is now on an island called Sol. I will post his letter now. If you would like to read it. It gives a little description of where he is and what he is experiencing.
Hey Family and friends how is it going so i have been here in Cabo Verde on the Island of sal for a week now i will tell you a little bit about it and will try to send some pictures so on monday i left the MTC after Two months there!!! i was really happy about that but i flew for a long time and got no sleep and so i was super tired but i landed in Praia and was automatically in a culture shock i just couldnt even believe it i was like what in the world this place is a dump and it really is just third world like you could not even believe but the first night was really hard just thinking i have to be here for two years and it hit me really hard but i just prayed really hard that night so anyways we got to Praia and it was crazy people here drive crazy no kind of traffic law it is nuts and they dropped us off at the presidents house the A.P.S and then we went and ate dinner with the president and his wife which was really good and my President is such a cool guy and is really young looking like missionary young looking but nicest guy and so is his wife very sweet lady but then we got done eating dinner with them around five and we went back to the A.P.S house and went to go do whatever go to bed or whatever so i went to bed at 530 there time and 12 30 your time and slept in until 6 15 the next day jet lag is kicking my butt here i always have to be sleeping but i woke up that morning headed to the airport got on a plane and headed to SAL with Elder Egbert and i knew i was serving on the same island as him but i didnt know that i would be in the same house so me and Elder Egbert still have some time together were not comps anymore though our trainers said that it is really rare for one person thats new come to Sal much less two new people so i guess the Lord still wants me to learn something with Elder Egbert haha but i met my trainer Elder Rosell he is so sweet we get along so well he is funny and we just have identical personalities which is the best part but we are serious too we work and work i come home and i just crash i have already lost ten pounds here in a week because we are walking and not eating a whole lot at all which bugged me at first but no it is just whatever food isnt really that important and when you do eat it is fish and rice so it burns off quick but yeah it is nice to have a sweet trainer and Elder Egberts Companion is elder wardell he is the Ex A.P. but he is a stud i love the guy everyone in our house gets along awesome. but ill get back to more about our area and Cabo Verde A little bit so i got to SAL and that day we went right to work and worked and worked but it was fun the people are really nice just nicest people ever but they are flaky very flaky they tell you things and then dont even do them and they lie all the time always busy because they are to nice to tell you there not interested but there are some major problems here i have now taught two thirteen year old girls with babies and it is totally normal and acceptable here chastity runs Rampant and so does immodesty it is really bad but this is the peoples culture here nothing like America nothing at all but it is still a great country and i am beginning to love it hard at first but now it gets easier and easier everyday. but this computer wont let me upload photos so im sorry ill try next week i wanted to show you the beaches most beautiful blue water and white sand beaches it its absouloutly beautiful its amazing but lets see what more can i tell you about ok here is something that is not in America campo de coco which is a pooping field and you walk bye and you see people in the wide open field squatting doing there business and it is just the most normal thing ever the first time i saw it i just sat and stared like what the heck um thats not normal but my trainer said o you will get use to it and then right after he said that he picked up a rock and wiped and thats when i was just like well looks like im definitely not in America anymore dont see to many forty year old men and women doing that in public haha but o well it will all be good just a lot of culture shock right now but the work is good here we are busy all day just teaching people will listen they just wont act so now we have to get them to act and it will happen but if you want a dog just write me because there are more stray dogs here then people haha but sorry for this letter as bad as it sounds i am alright i am alive and i love it just culture shock haha and being the only white people haha but it is all good i am sorry it has been a crazy week so i haven't studied a whole lot on one subject but i will next week and the plane ride to mindelo for zone conference but i will write you a little bit about some investigators of ours i will write you about two of them one is a family and one isn't an investigator but a returned missionary so the familia de anilson o i love this family they are so cool they have three kids one is 13 one is 3 and one is 6 just cool kids i cant talk to them though except the thirteen year old because he has gone to school so he knows Portuguese and if they haven't gone to school then they just speak criolou which stinks so the only people i can talk to is the older people but anyways i was talking to Anilson and he wants to get baptized so bad but he Drinks and to the best of my ability i was like Anilson man look at your kids and your wife they need the priesthood in their home they need an example what is more important alcohol or spending eternity with your family and he is like my family and he hasnt drank in three days and him and his family were at church yesterday o my gosh i could have cried it was amazing i loved it. the other one is DEDE he served a mission a whole two years and is just on the wrong path he drinks breaks the law of chastity and just all this stuff and hasnt been to church in two years and my companion has worked and worked on this guy and i told my comp and we talked about it and just said no more beating around the bush so we went right in there and were just like here it is dede what is to say you dont die tomorrow you are an endowed member of this church and you have already done this stuff you need to stop feeling vergonha or shame and come to church get your life back on track or else it will not look good on that judgement seat then we read him a scripture about how the greater punishment will be on those who know more and then we asked him if he was going to go to church and he said yes again Cabo Verdeianos Flakiest people ever so we went to his house and waited for him to get ready and he came to church with us so it was a great day here yesterday the people are great just need to realize that what there doing is bad and i guess i cant blame them it is 100 percent there culture but still they need to realize well yall next week i will be back on i love you all very much and HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM I LOVE YOU!!! but till next week

Love Elder Brown