Sister Brown in the Philippines: Bombs of Enthusiasm

Running through the bomb!

Kamusta my dearest friends and family? Hope your week was super duper!! Mine was super busy. We had double exchanges this week, Improv Zone Training Meeting, a baptism, and we got bombed! I know you can't beat that.

So first things first, the bomb. We went to visit one of our investigators who lives literally in the bukid. Meaning the middle of the jungle. But right as we were about to go in, all of these people started running out yelling, "May bomba! May bomba!" I was pretty sure we were in for the most exciting day of our missions! But before you get too worried mom, it was a smoke and Baygon bomb. To kill all the mosquitoes. And because we really love our investigators and we were already late, we pulled out our handkerchief (we only had one for the 2 of us) and we ran all ninja style through the smoke and made it to our investigator just in time!

There were tons of other bombs this week too. Not literal bombs. I went on exchanges with Sister Cortes on Tuesday and let me just say she is so magaling! I loved being her companion for the day. The exchange was great but the best part was when we went and taught Brother Pamilacan. And he told us he read his 2 chapter assignment in the Book of Mormon! And then he pulled out a 2-page summary of what he read. We had decided to be super enthusiastic about whatever he'd read, even if it was just a little bit so I was super happy. We didn't have time to read the summary though so I asked if I could have it. Later that night I sat down to read it. And about half way through I realized that it was the wrong story. So I grabbed my Book of Mormon and started flipping through the pages... Not only did he read the 2 chapters, he read 11 more! When I asked him about it in the next visit he just smiled real big and said, "Surprise!" Haha he's the best :) Only 2 more weeks til September 26th!

Then I went on exchanges with Sister Woodruff on Friday. She just got transferred to her 2nd area. Her first area was also none other than The 'Bang! So we had a good time talking about all the great people there. She reminds me very much of myself at that point of my mission. She needed a little more happiness in her work. So I did my best to drop bombs of enthusiasm all the day long and ya know, at the end of the day she told me she felt like she'd finally found the joy that she'd lost :) Cause ya know, everything is just better with enthusiasm.

Finally, Edlyn got baptized! The night before her baptism we went and had a little testimony meeting with her and she admitted how much her mind had changed about the church and expressed such a strong desire for her baby to grow up in the church and eventually serve a mission. (By the way, she likes Shane Clark and none of you gave me any other ideas so this baby's future is in your hands) The service was very simple. Her husband, who is a returning less-active member, was able to baptize her. 3 times. Third times the charm, right? She then got up and bore a 20 minute testimony without taking a breath. It was both powerful and impressive. That family is going to be a great strength to the church and their family is going to be so much stronger because of the gospel.

We had no outline this month for zone training meeting so as STL's and ZL's we got to choose what to talk about. So one of the things Sister Burt and I talked about was enthusiasm. I'm not lying to you. If you are excited about something, chances are everyone else is gonna get excited too. So be excited about what you do this week. Drop some bombs of Enthusiasm.

Love ya!

XOXO, Sister Brown