Sister Brown in the Philippines: Meetin' the President, washin' balut, and plannin' by candlelight‏

What a week! I don't really know where to start, so I'll just pull a Nephi and say, "It sufficeth me to say, this was a good week." Well have a good week, love ya all!

Just kidding. But really, where to start?? How about with thank you's. I got your letters Brown family, Grandpa Brown, and Sister Spencer. Maraming salamat po! Love the letters :) First of all, it's officially been a year since you all dropped me off at the curb and I traded in my first name for something a whole lot better.

Secondly, we did service this week. It's somewhat of a miracle because trying to get Filipino people to let you serve them is like pulling teeth. Trying to find service is more discouraging than trying to find investigators actually. But we were determined. So we put on our service clothes and headed to an area full of LA's, RC's, and investigators and begged them to let us serve them. Finally, one of them let us wash their balut eggs. All 300 of them. It was probably the best moment of my life.

Another great moment in my life this week was when I went on exchanges with the adorable Sister Dadivas! It wasn't my best exchange ever. I had a killer cold and to top it all off, we were saying a prayer in our lesson and right as we said "Amen" a santol (this really nasty fruit) falls out of the tree, rolls off the roof, and bonks me right in the forehead hahahaha :) And Sister Dadivas still learned stuff. That's proof that Heavenly Father is there even in our worst moments.

And the highlight of the week, MET THE PRESIDENT ON THE 4TH OF JULY!! Not Barack Obama. President Mangum, who is on a whole other level. He is definitely not President Peterson. But he is really great too and I can totally empathize with him and his wife because he flat out told us, "Elders and Sisters, I have no idea what I'm doing." Haha I remember that. I am still there some days. And Sister Mangum told us how when they opened their mission call, her face was what we call "less then thrilled." Remember that too. But I know they are going to love it here, just like I do. And I really love them. It's really crazy how missions do that. You just automatically love complete and total strangers. It's awesome.

And the final moment I wanna share with ya'll is that rainy season is here for real. The other day we were doing a practice interview for the Pamilacan kids and all of a sudden the sky turned black and then lit up like the 4th of July as the biggest crack of lightning I've ever seen struck. And then it just came down. The deafening thunder shook the house and the rain pounding on the tin roof made it impossible to keep teaching. So we decided to just wait it out by singing hymns and taking pictures with the kids. Then finally it let up a little and Brother and Sister Pamilacan put us in their tricycle and drove us all the way home, refusing to let us pay them even though it was really far away and they don't have a whole lot of money. And at that moment, I was holding back tears. Because these people really love us. And I really love them. And I am so thankful that this is where my Heavenly Father wanted me to serve. I don't know how I can leave this. Maybe I'll just stay forever.

This is a long one. It was an eventful week, what can I say? I'm not apologizing. I love you all tons and I hope you have a great week! Smile at someone, make sure they know they are important.

XOXO, Sister Brown