Sister Brown in the Philippines: Nakakapagpabagabag!‏

WE GOT OUR FLIGHT PLANS!! IT'S LIKE GETTING ANOTHER MISSION CALL!

Kamusta ng pamilya ko at ng kaibigan ko?! (hello my family and my friends)

So I survived another week in the MTC without having to give a talk in sacrament. Each week we have to prepare one, in Tagalog, and then 2 random people are chosen. It's a good time. Sometimes I feel like I'm actually serving in the Provo MTC Mission and like at the end of my never-ending 6 weeks I'm just going to go home. But then it got real up in here. WE GOT OUR FLIGHT PLANS!!!!!!!! I'm like really going to the Philippines. On Monday, August 12th I'll be flying to Portland, OR then to Tokyo, Japan and finally to Manila City! I've never been on an airplane before so basically I'm stoked! Plus, even though there are 15 of us San Pablo missionaries, we are all on the same flight in the same travel group! Yay for not being split up! I love my district too much to have been able to handle that. Also, I think I'm ready because last Saturday we taught TRC which is kind of like visiting teaching with natives or RM's and we talked to this adorable Filipino lady who took the whole lesson assuring us we won't have to eat dog and that that's not a normal thing in the Philippines. And I learned this word: Nakakapagpabagabag. It means bothersome. Yeah. Anyways, this is your last week to write to me in the MTC. If you wanna DearElder me (which i would love), you have until 5:00 Friday night and if you wanna write to me (which i would also love) it has to be here by Saturday morning.

More happenings in the district, Sister Smith the witch doctor read my feet! It's crazy how accurate it was. I did end up getting the plague, but it was a more mild version and I've been just fine. Plus Nanay Smith has been taking good care of me and making me take some nasty medicine. We said goodbye to 18 sisters on Monday and gained 11 on Wednesday! They're adorable and I love them because one of them is named Sister Brown and knows Amanda, one of them, Sister Lutui, knows Sione, and another one, Sister Warr, knows Jeremy I think. It's like I'm a little closer to some of my best friends now! Our Elders are as great as ever although I think they're getting a little tired of being all together all the time. We got to teach one another in class on Tuesday and we just had to ask them questions and then teach them something that the spirit led us to teach. It was awesome because we really got to talk about our lives kind of for the first time and pretty much all of us ended up crying. I taught our teacher, Sister Osborn, and she taught me and it was perfect. We talked about how I was kind of worried about my family, especially my brother and sister, and she shared a scripture, I can't remember exactly what it was, but I think it was D&C 30:1-6. If it starts with Thomas my son, then it's the right one. Just change it to Shalee, my daughter. It was so comforting and a testimony to me that the spirit is real and if we're listening it will always guide us. It was just cool to realize that all of us have such different backgrounds and we all have our own struggles and our own strengths. We all have something to offer and there is someone in the San Pablo mission who needs us and our experiences.

As far as our investigators go, Del and Teresa each have 1-2 more lessons before we leave. Teresa committed to be baptized as long as her family said it was okay and she's talking to them this weekend! She is seriously so adorable and I just have this overwhelming desire for her to know we love her and her Heavenly Father loves her. She's coming to church this week! Yay! I say this every time, but it's just crazy how invested I get in these fake investigators. I can't even imagine how it'll be when we actually get to the Philippines! Del, Del is ready. And in our lesson Thursday morning we were planning on committing him to be baptized. But we all chickened out and I walked out of that lesson feeling like, like, well like a chick flick. You know when the perfect moment comes and the guy doesn't take it? But then he always comes running back in the rain or something? Well I wanted to run back into the room like that, only I wanted to tell "Will you follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized?" Listen to the spirit. When you think, hey I should do this, do it. I'm glad to be learning this lesson in the MTC and not in the field where it really counts. Hopefully this week we'll do better with him :)

And now for the most astig thing of the week, we got selected to do How To Begin Teaching Demos for the new missionaries. So basically, a teacher recommends a companionship and then only 12 companionships are chosen each Wednesday. This is how it works. We are given a bio on an investigator and then we knock on a door that leads to a big room with 80 new missionaries and a little set up living room where there is an investigator. We use things from Preach My Gospel's How To Begin Teaching, which is basically getting to know them and asking questions that will hopefully help you find a way to connect the gospel to them and their lives. I loved it my first night and I loved it this time! The very first investigator we taught was George Cepull. He's this little old man who is a little sassy, but so cute. And guess what!!! He was an amputee!!! It was awesome because he saw that I was as well and we were able to talk about it a little bit and he felt like he could really connect with me because I really did understand where he was coming from. It was such a blessing! Most of these investigators are actually converts who act out their story, so everything they say is 100% genuine. We tried to go back and talk to him but he wouldn't tell us much about his life now, he had to keep acting as an investigator. Well guess what! The next day we walked out of our building and there he was with a couple of Elders! We waited for him to finish up and then we talked to him some more. He gave us his address and told us we could write to him if we wanted and he'd write back and send us little bits of his art, he's an artist. I know that people are placed in our paths for a reason and I'm so glad he was placed in mine twice!

Spiritual thought and future missionary advice of the week, salvation is not a cheap experience. How could we ever think it would be easy for us when it was never, ever easy for Him? We are allowed to spend just a few moments in Gethsemane. It's supposed to be hard. But the Savior knows how to comfort us perfectly. He knows how we feel. He knows how hard it is, but it is never as hard as it was for Him and if He could do that, I can do this. Don't give up, don't quit. Someone out there needs you.

Have a great week loves! Mahal Kita!

XOXO, Sister Brown