Sister Brown in the Philippines: Trunky trip

Kamusta na kayo peeps? Happy December! WHAT??? How did that even happen? This week was AWESOME. Why? Because we went on our trunky trip! That's when you and all the people that go home go to Manila for a couple of days and get fingerprinted and meet all kinds of cool people at immigration and you all talk about how you remember being on those very roads 17 months ago and what you thought about the Philippines, then vs now, and how you don't want to go home because who would've thought that 17 months later you would have come to love so perfectly and completely everything about the people and the culture and being a missionary. And you see that there's a Jamba Juice and an Ihop and a Wendy's in Manila and then you make a list of places you need to go when you get off the plane. But none of that was why this week was awesome. It was awesome because for the first time in 17 months, I set foot inside the temple. I can't really express to you how lucky you all are in Utah to have a temple at every turn. Walking inside, it was as if the weight of the world was lifted off my shoulders. I felt so close to Heavenly Father and I couldn't stop smiling. I love the temple! If you haven't gone for awhile, go. If you can't go, do something about it so you can go. You NEED the temple.

There comes a time when all trunky trips must end though and
you return back to good old San Jose. And you have yet another Chooks-to-Go chicken for Thanksgiving dinner at 10pm. Only this time, you didn't hire the neighbors' kids to buy it for you... It was Sister Tzanis and Sister Cayacay's first Thanksgiving experience and they loved it! We all went around the table and said all the things we were thankful for and I think we all just realized just how blessed we were to be where we were doing what we were doing and for everything that got us to that point.

All of our investigators are doing great! We had 8 of them come to church yesterday! We have one new investigator, Jofal, and after we taught the Word of Wisdom he not only stopped drinking coffee but he went out and bought some fruit and vegetables so he could eat healthier! He's a gem :) However, my favorites are probably the Vilela's. I don't know why, but I just love them so much! Christian is 20 and he is a recent convert. He knows pretty much everything about the gospel and he works with us all the time. He is the reason the missionaries first went to his house. Long story short, he was studying but had to stop because his family was struggling financially and work instead. One night he switched shifts with someone. That was the night the hotel was robbed and he got shot in the head. He was the only one that survived and it was truly a miracle that he did. He believes it was so that he could be a missionary and share the gospel with others :) His family is super poor, but they are sooo magaling! His brother made the most beautiful plan I've ever seen to follow the Word of Wisdom. We are teaching his mom, dad, brother, sister-in-law, sister and younger brother. And each and every one of them has some huge trial to overcome. But I know that they can do it!