Sister Brown in the Philippines

Monday, August 25, 2014

Dreams Really Do Come True‏

Joan Garcia's Baptism

Did you know that miracles are real? They are. This was a week of miracles for me. Miracles and other things. Like the fact that my little brother turned 18. Happy Birthday Jaden! Or the fact that we randomly went all the way to Pakil just to have companionship study with our sisters there and like having exchanges with the Sta. Maria sisters! I got to go with Sister Cowley, who used to be my STL in Tayabas. I was kind of nervous since she is basically missionary perfection but she is also the kindest, most hopeful person I have ever met. I loved spending the day with her and I learned so, so much from her! I am still 100% convinced this whole STL thing is just for me to learn all the things I was supposed to learn long ago. But onto the miracles.

Miracle #1, Joan got baptized! I'm gonna be honest, when I first met Joan I didn't think that was ever gonna happen. She would hide from us when we would go and visit her and I'm pretty sure she didn't listen to a word we said when she did let us in. But somewhere along the way, she had a change of heart and I have loved seeing the changes in her life and the light that has grown in her eyes and the hope and happiness that just emanates from her. Her baptism will be a memorable one too. It was supposed to start at 5:30 but as is custom in the Philippines, disasters must happen before any baptism can take place. The font had been turned on, but also forgotten. So we spent some time bailing out the swimming pool that used to be the primary room. And then we spent some more time waiting for Bishop to show up so we could rescue the baptismal jumpsuits that were locked in a room upstairs. And finally, at 7:00 Joan Garcia got one step closer to having her eternal family :)

Miracle #3, Vergie and Gilbert have a tindahan. And it's been really hard for them to close it on Sundays because the nearest tindahan is really far away and they don't want their neighbors to be mad at them. But this week we showed up at their house Sunday night to a little handmade sign that said, "Closed on Sundays." And whenever people would come to ask them if they could just buy one thing really quick they would just shake their heads and smile. It was so cute and funny. They are really full of faith :)

Miracle #3, I can't tell you yet. So we taught Brother Pamilacan on Tuesday and we were surer than sure that he was going to tell us he was a changed man and he wanted to be baptized like tomorrow. We had fasted and everything. But we got there and taught him an awesome lesson and at the end, he told us he just couldn't promise us anything. We went home a little heartbroken, but catch a glimpse of my awesome companion. As we walked in the door she says, "Hey don't worry, we have faith in our fasting, right?" And I was like, "Yeah, she's right. Maybe it just wasn't supposed to be tonight." That's because it was supposed to be on Friday night. We taught him another awesome lesson about the atonement on Wednesday and how if we really love our Savior, we will follow him, no matter what it takes. Sister Burt asked him what it was he wanted from us because he'd been taught for a year now and he had 7 teaching records and he basically has the Book of Mormon memorized. And in the end he came to the conclusion that he actually really wanted his family to be sealed. And on Friday, we taught about temples. And he told us that he wanted his family to be sealed ASAP. So we asked him why it was that he didn't want to be baptized and the words, "Gusto ko," came out of his mouth. Meaning "I do want to." His wife, who had been reading the scriptures next to him whipped her head up and her mouth fell open and Brother Makulit went on to set himself a baptismal goal date and also committed himself to tell his friends he was no longer going to drink because he was going to be a Mormon. Brother Pamilacan is getting baptized on September 26! I don't know if I have ever been happier in my entire life.

He came to church for the 3rd week in a row, which is a first. And just so you can get a glimpse of who Brother Pamilacan is, in gospel principles class, Sister Mahoni asked him what we needed to do to prepare for the 2nd coming and he said, "Make spaghetti! He's coming from really far away and He's probably going to be hungry." Haha :) The class got a kick out of that. But then there was the real Brother Pamilacan, "No, but really it's simple. We just have to follow Jesus Christ. We just have to do what He did." I love that man and his family so much and I can't wait to come and see their little family be sealed :) Because I'm definitely coming back.

Miracle #4, my whole entire life I have been striving to grow my hair out to my bum. After a year in the Philippines (yeah, I got off the plane a year ago) it has finally made it there.

Dreams really do come true.

XOXO, Sister Brown

Garcia Family

Joan and Jon Ezekial

Exchanges with the Sta. Maria Sisters

Exchanges with my STL

Cool church in Pakil

FHE at Espiritu's

Monday, August 11, 2014

A Bursting Heart and Butter Fingers‏

Worn out foot number 2 :(

Well my dearest family and friends, I don't know how to say all the things I felt this week. So I'll start out with that one time where we were making puri in memory of Sister Meti and The 'Bang and I stuck 4 of my fingers in boiling oil. How does that even happen??? I don't know. But my fabulous housemates advised me to smother them in butter because it would make it feel better. So I did. And guess what, it worked. And then I just started laughing and crying because the whole situation was just so ridiculous haha I love missions :)

So many good and wonderful and amazing things happened this week! But I don't think I can adequately describe the way I feel. It's like my heart is just bubbling over with happiness and bursting with love for this place and these people. Joan passed her baptismal interview and her husband, Dave, who reactivated himself and was how we found Joan, is going to baptize her! When we taught them about priesthood and family sealings yesterday I can't even explain to you the joy I saw on Joan's face. She was like a little girl on Christmas, she got all giddy and put her hands on her face and so sincerely said, "THAT is what I want. I can't wait." Okay. The heart bursting starts there.

Then there's Brother Makulit. Oh how I love that man and his family. It doesn't even make sense how much I love them. So this week we taught a few really good lessons on prayer and I was reminded of my own testimony of prayer. Before I knew any of the rest of this stuff was true, I KNEW that there was a Heavenly Father who heard and answered my prayers. And I just wanna testify again that prayer is realer than real. I know that because of Brother Pamilacan. I don't remember what exactly I've told you about him but who cares, I'm telling you again. He has been taught over the course of the last year by 8 different missionaries AND he was taught years ago by Elders when his wife was baptized. His 3 oldest kids were baptized in July. They really, really want an eternal family. But Brother likes to drink. Not a lot. Just a shot or two on special occasions. He also only likes to keep commitments to read the Book of Mormon and pray and come to church every once in a while. The thing is, he knows it's true. He knows that he has to be baptized in order to have that eternal family. And he knows eventually he is going to say yes. But the resolve is never there.

So we've been spending a lot of time this transfer just building our relationship with him and he is totally changing. I wrote once about the light of Christ and how it is a very visible thing. Well, I see that in his eyes. We weren't able to visit them much this past week so we were worried about him coming to church. And at first, his family walked in and sat down. Walang Brother. And then he comes swagging in with his sunglasses on and me and Sister Burt both started laughing because we were both pretty much in tears we were so happy. That's 2 weeks in a row. And he's reading. And last night I saw a new resolve in his eyes. He promised to pray and ask Heavenly Father to help him know which day in September he should be baptized on. We'd been praying for him all week. Even when we blessed the food. And I know with all my heart that Heavenly Father answered our prayers and touched his heart. I know that people can and do change. And I know that families are meant to be together forever. I love the gospel and I absolutely love that I have the chance to do bring families into the possibility of eternity.

Love you all, have an amazing week!

XOXO, Sister Brown

Dr. Burt

Artista ay Sister Burt

Brother Gills is the best!

Jupiter fam at Irish's bday

Ina

Mutant Grasshopper

We were all in the same district at the very beginning of our missions and now we are all STL's!

The Hansen's

That is some leaf!

Playing ninja of destruction

Aiva

Tuesday, August 5, 2014

Teach me how to Dougie‏

Wait...is that a 13??

I hope your week was a good as mine was! But it probably wasn't because you didn't get to go to Pakil, have a thumb war, sing Teach Me How To Dougie in sacrament meeting, or experience a Pitch Perfect moment. Let me explain. But before I do, I finished the Book of Mormon for the 3rd time since I left on my mission. Good news! It's still true! And if ya haven't read it, you should.

So this week was all over the roller coaster of emotions because, well, being a missionary is awesome but it's stressful to the max. As STL's, we used to have all the sisters come to our areas so we had like double the time to teach and double the investigators, but our new President has changed it so that we now go into their areas. Which means travel time and a lot of days where we don't get to see our lovely investigators' faces. But it's really a good thing because it means prioritizing and focusing on those who are really going to progress. I'll tell you whose been chosen in a minute.

So first, exchanges this week were in Pakil! Which is basically the most gorgeous area I've ever been to. I got the chance to work with Sister To'a, who is actually my batch in the mission. She is Tongan and she is the happiest person I've ever met! I just love her! I learned how important it is to be patient and to testify of the things that you know. And to just be you. I was kind of struggling this week with feelings of inadequacy. I just wasn't sure why Heavenly Father had called me as an STL. I didn't have anything really great to share with the sisters, no super lessons and secret weapons to convert everyone you meet. But after our first lesson in Pakil, Sister To'a told me how much she had learned and how much she felt the things I'd said had really helped their investigator. I was kinda surprised because I just taught the way I normally do, nothing special. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that that is exactly why the Lord calls each of us to our specific callings. I was called to be a missionary in PSPM and an STL in Sta. Cruz because the people there need Sister Brown and Sister Burt. They don't need super missionaries. They just need us. Do we realize just how much we can help others by just being us? Just a thought.

Now one of the chosen ones is Brother Makulit AKA Brother Pamilacan. I love that man and his family with all of my heart and I know that he CAN and WILL change. The missionaries before really pushed really hard for him to be baptized and Sister Burt and I thought that all that pushing was pushing him a lot farther away. So we changed our approach. We ALWAYS focus on eternal families and the temple as the goal, not baptism. So we practice teach before we leave the house and just to be funny, I said something along the lines of, "I'll fight you if you didn't read." And Sister Burt said, "Okay, we'll thumb wrestle!" Well imagine our surprise when at the end of the lesson, Brother Pamilacan turns his pinky promise into a thumb war! Who knew practice teaching was so effective? Haha :) But luckily it wasn't because he didn't read. In fact the first thing he said to us as we walked in was, "Sisters, I read that long paper you gave me (The Family Proclamation to the World). It's really good, I really like it." And then he tells us he read the Book of Mormon and he starts flipping pages. And more pages. I could hardly believe it and we thought about getting up and leaving right then for the fear that we'd say something in our lesson that would make him change his mind. I was so happy I can't even describe it to you! And guess what, that pinky promise was that he'd come to church. And he did. His son passed the sacrament for the first time and his wife just looked so unbelievable happy to have her whole family all together at church. And to top it all off, the closing hymn was, "Teach Me To Walk In The Light." Well, that pretty quickly turned into "Teach Me How To Dougie." Meet Brother Makulit. Love him.

One of the other Chosen Ones is Joanne. Her husband is a member and she will be getting baptized on August 16. She loves the fact that her family is going to be eternal someday. I've really noticed that this week. The more we emphasize families, the more people are willing to change. Because NOTHING is more important than their family. We taught them about temples and eternal marriage yesterday. It was really a special lesson. I'll never forget it. But not for the reasons you think. Right as we're about to begin the lesson her 4 year old son walks in, opens his mouth, and lets out a nice projectile vomit all over sweet Sister Laurie (our member). Ya can't get any more Pitch Perfect than that. Crushed it.

Loving life, loving the mission, loving my companion. Don't be surprised if I just stay here forever. Love ya all bunches! Have some adventures this week, because why not?

XOXO, Sister Brown

P.S. I have white man terror.