The Truck - I finally got mine . . .

Been wanting a full size pickup since that fateful day I got canned from Az Oxides because I wouldn't stop going to school - had to sell my 5 passenger F150 and got a small blue Mazda pickup. Been buying small pickups ever since until now - I love my new 2005 F150, 6 passenger, 4.6L V8.  Want a ride? I'm always looking for an excuse to drive it . . .

Guess who's been Elderized?

As a High Councilman I got to clear/sustain Chase recently to be presented to the stake to receive the Melchizedek priesthood and be ordained an Elder. We had stake conference yesterday and after getting sustained our Bishop was anxious to have Chase ordained . . . at the same time I had a sister in the ward that was asking for a blessing (she’s a fairly recent convert that our family was able to teach the new member discussions to and she recently obtained her endowments). I asked if she wouldn’t mind waiting for Chase to be ordained and then we could do this together and she agreed. Chase had a powerful ordination along with some of his peers that also were ordained Elders.


Afterwards, we found a room and asked the sister who she’d like to pronounce the blessing and she asked that Chase do this – how cool is that! Not even 5 minutes after being ordained he already participated in ordaining another Elder and then being the voice for a blessing. I was really excited for him and while he was pretty intimidated, he did a great job of pronouncing the blessing with the guidance of the spirit.

I don’t know about others, but I mostly anointed for the first 18 months after I was ordained an Elder before I regularly became the voice – I feel like Chase has an opportunity to jump in with both feet and in realizing the authority and the power of the priesthood.

Andrew "Excited for my Son" Brown

“Unto whom much is given” - My last ward did it better . . .

The other day I was talking to Glory telling her that I had noticed almost every interaction I had that day was initiated by me. I was approaching people I didn’t know, talking with folks I barely know, and finding that I was uncomfortable most of the time. I have lived in my ward for 4 years and I still feel like I recently moved in since I know so few people and interactions are rarely initiated by others. As I was reminiscing about my prior wards and their friendliness and missing the closeness I had with others back then I was reminded of this experience:


Many years ago we were about to have a stake road show and I was near a couple that bragged about how they used to live in California and the productions their stake put on rivaled anything that could be produced in Hollywood. As they bragged about this prior stake and the amazing things that they were a part of there, they then complained how our current stake didn’t compare.

I often reflect on this and remember thinking, “If you were part of that amazing stake, why can’t you show us how to be as amazing as they were?” Why do we always complain how amazing things used to be? To provide justification for why we complain about how horrible things are now? Why don’t we accept the role to show others the way to greatness because we were part of that greatness in the past?

Back in 1997 the Sundance ward was created. A friend joked that they took the “riff-raff” of two prominent wards and created our ward. We were a bunch of oddballs, our leadership pool was very shallow and many of us received callings that required more of us than we could currently offer. It was a great time of growth and we made the best of the situation. This small ward was so close and the members looked out for each other without prompting. I remember Dustin McCoy calling me up to say that sister X needed her weeds addressed . . . no one told him to escalate the issue to me, he just knew it needed to be done and wondered when we were going to do it – we met at her house 15 minutes later. That’s how things were done in the Sundance ward. Many of us had multiple callings. Parents would both have prominent positions that kept them at meetings and required making adjustments so the kids were not left alone. We grew close as a ward and continue to reminisce about the greatness of that time. Eventually the Sundance ward was dissolved and split down the middle. My part of Sundance ward became the Sahuaro Ranch (SR) ward. With this new infusion of people in the SR ward, we were integrated and I watched as the SR ward became even closer. When we eventually moved out of the SR ward, we left many close friends that we love to this day.

So now we are in a huge ward, it’s hard to have the same closeness and familiarity with so many people. But I look back and remember thinking “How dare I complain about how my last ward did it better . . . “, when I should be showing others the greatness that I was once a part of so we can be amazing too. I have a daunting task; I am only me and can only impact so many people at a time. I wasn’t the reason that my past wards were so great, I was just in the ward. The Sundance and SR wards were totally amazing and had many amazing qualities – I want to recreate the closeness and love that existed in my past wards.
Andrew “loves to reminisce” Brown

OMG - Guess who got his DTG

Oh my goodness, Chase has finally finished his Duty to God requirements. Since the new Duty to God Program has been introduced, Chase was a bit cloudy on what he needed to do since he had earned the Deacon and Teacher certificates for Duty to God under the old program.

Well he buckled down with his Young Men's leader and his mom to get it all figured out. He had a big push the last 3 weeks before he turned 18 and was interviewed by his YMs President and then his Bishop.

Last Sunday he was awarded in Priesthood (this award is not to be given in Sacrament meeting, though it is equivalent to the Young Woman's Personal Progress which can be awarded in Sacrament meeting) without his mom present and I had just arrived from another ward in time to watch the Bishop award this to Chase.

The Bishop mentioned that Chase was the first one to earn this award in our Ward since the new program began. The medal/coin is pretty cool . . . but not as cool as the spiritual awards I'm glad my son now has from going through the steps of earning it. Congrats Chase!

Andrew "Guess who's son is giving a talk this Sunday on earning his DTG" Brown

Shed Raising Party

My sister Deirdre is tired of clicking on my blog and seeing my bloody finger so I'm updating my blog out of obligation . . . that and we just had a Shed Raising Party!

So my neighbor moved and was willing to sell us his shed. I talked my dad into helping me figure out how to get it moved (some dis-assembly required?). He figured we'd need to remove the roof, and each of the four walls . . . my dad's a realist. I'm an optomist and figured once we removed the roof we could get enough bodies on the shed to carry the rest of the shed over.

So here's the kicker, while my neighbor has an RV gate, I do not. I don't really have the need for one and wasn't ready to add an RV gate just to move this shed into our back yard . . . so that meant that everything needed to be picked up and raised above the block fence - hence the shed RAISING party.

So we started with moving the roof off the shed and moving it over the fence and off to the side. We did this with Glory and I, Leslie and Jacob, Deirdre and Wade, my three oldest kids and my dad (10 people in all). It was pretty tough to do and so I knew we had our hands full to move the rest of the shed.

I walked around the block and found all the neighborhood kids still hanging out playing sports and asked them to come and help us . . . 6 more bodies!! Together, the 16 of us lifted and carried the shed over to the wall, hefted it up way above our heads and set one side on the wall. Quickly 4 bodies ran around the fence to our backyard and we shifted the shed a few more feet. We continued this process until we were all over in our yard and then we set the shed in place. No one was hurt and no structural damage was made.

We let the neighborhood kids leave at that point, informing them that they had each earned a chest hair for their hard work. We then carefully placed the roof back in place and screwed the roof back onto the structure.

I'm guessing that the shed weighed about 1000+ pounds without the roof. So I'm grateful to my family for helping me make this a successful move and for the 6 young men that were so willing to help a neighbor in need (a cheap neighbor no less as they didn't may any $$ for helping). I'm glad I have a dad that is a realist but it pays to be an optimistic and know that sometimes you can just get that needed help from the very folks you see every day that you call your neighbors.

Andrew "glad no one got hurt" Brown

It's not another Solar Panel post is it?!?!

Nope, my solar bill is down to $16.56 which is only the service fee and the tax on the service fee. I generated 100% plus of my own power the last month. So, in trying to stay true to this green streak in me I have decided to start purifying the air with my lungs by skating into work once a week. I'm pretty sure this exposes my lungs to polluted air far more than if I were to bike to work.

So yesterday I was doing good, skating in the dark to work and about 1/2 way there I had to jump up to a curb, caught a nasty crack on the other side and WHAM! I went sliding across the sidewalk. Besides letting out a nice UNGHH sound as my torso smacked into the sidewalk I thought it was a pretty graceful crash. Of course it had to happen amist some folks just having left a bus and folks getting there for the next bus - nothing hurts the pride like witnesses to a FAIL. So I got up and started skating off when I realized my finger was stinging.

I looked down, and saw I had a good blood flow but not at a rate that would prevent me from going the next 5 miles. I didn't have a first aid kit on me (I do now though) so I just skated through until I got to work and then patched myself up. Before I could though, my coworker Chris took a picture of my wound - enjoy!

Solar Panel Reality - My Bill!

Our September '11 bill was about $150 less than Sept '10 and here in this illustration you see that our Oct '11 bill was also about $150 less than a year before. Currently SRP is estimating that our Nov '11 bill will be $15. I'd have to say that the design and work manship of our panels and installation is amazing and will obtain ROI in less than 2 years.

As you can see we are about 10 days from the end of our billing period and we have generated credits on 13 days. We are modifying to the EZ-3 plan where the peak hours are only from 3-6pm which is when we generate power regularly from the solar panels(Currently we are on TOU - Time of Use, and so we don't generate power 5-9am or 5-9pm). Once we are crossed over we show that our bill will go down even more. I'm glad that the panels are working out so well.

Andrew "living the Green" Brown