Sister Brown in the Philippines: Rays of Sunshine‏

Kamusta na po kayo lahat? Hope you had an absolutely terrific week! Our week was... interesting. Sister Burt and I actually got stoned. Like in the Bible, when people throw rocks at you. We were walking home from church and this little 4 year old boy yells out, "Hi sisters!" and hurls a handful of rocks at us. Haha okay so that's pretty funny :) Not a whole lot happened this week. We dropped all of our not progressing investigators, some of our recent converts started to hide from us, and transfer week is this week and I have no idea what will happen so I've been a little anxious, but I hope with all of my heart that I get to stay. I also went on exchanges in Sta. Cruz ward 1 with Sister Dadivas, who is the cutest thing ever and we got punted all the day long. But somehow, even with all of that, I still just felt like Heavenly Father was right there. There were always miracles to be found, there was always a ray of sunshine.

Something that I noticed this week was that every single night, we would walk out of an appointment and there would be an absolutely beautiful sunset. I really love sunsets. Especially this week. On the days where everything was going great, it was just a perfect ending. But then there were a few days where everything seemed to be going wrong and the beautiful sunset just didn't seem to fit. But the more I thought about it, the more I felt like it made sense. On a good day, I think gorgeous sunsets are Heavenly Father's stamp of approval. And on the not-so-good days, I felt very much that it was Heavenly Father's assurance of a brighter tomorrow. I love the miracle of sunsets :)

Another ray of sunshine was our Family Home Evenings. We had one with Vergie and Gilbert and ALL of their neighbors and it was so much fun and so powerful. At the end, Gilbert stood up and said, "Thanks sisters, this was a night we will always remember." And of course, he added in how great of teachers we were ;) That's what makes it all worth it :) We also had Family Home Evening with the Pamilacan's, which is always an adventure. And usually, at the end Brother stands up and says something funny and closes it. But this time, he started out with, "First of all, I want to thank Jesus." And we were like, "Whoa, we're at the Oscars." But then he went on to say thank us for our patience with teaching him and his family about the gospel and helping them come closer to Christ. He is so ready. He told us. We taught him about the priesthood the other day and I said, "Brother will you prepare yourself to..." and he cut in and said, "Sister, handang handa na ako para sa aking binyag!" Which translates to, "I am SO ready for my baptism." That wasn't my question, but I never thought I'd hear him say that. His kids found out about his baptismal goal date too and they are super excited! I just love that family so much. We are going there later and Brother is going to teach us how to make pancit!

Have a great week and don't forget to look for your rays of sunshine.

XOXO, Sister Brown