Sister Brown in the Philippines: Giant Spiders and Cockroach fest‏

Freaking HUGE spider!

Ano sa taas aking mga kapatid? Shout out to my beautiful, hilarious, and of course, favorite, sister! Happy Birthday Kayla! Everyone stay off the roads. So I saw my first human head sized spider this week. Two of them actually. Happy to announce my fear of spiders has not decreased. At all. The highlight of the week was probably service at one of our member's houses. We cleaned her kitchen, which was outside. It pretty quickly turned into a cockroach killing fest. We have decreased the cockroach population by at least 200 so you're welcome. Tagalog word of the week: Pamumpkin. Which means niece of nephew. Is that not the cutest thing you've ever heard?! And the ACTUAL highlight of the week, I got a rose from a little boy. Between the kisses and the flowers, I am getting way more attention as a missionary than I ever did as a normal person.

I got a rose from Cloudie!

Okay, so I could probably write a whole letter about my favorite investigators. So I will. Joel and Arianne. We went back for our 2nd lesson with them and when we followed-up their Book of Mormon reading they apologized for only reading 15 chapters. 15! And they totally understood the story. Arianne summarized it in a way that made me think, "Wow, this is a good book. I want to read it!" Then came the text. They had seen the picture of the Manila Temple on their church tour so we told them a little bit about it. They wanted to know if they could come with us sometime to the "church in Quezon City," AKA the temple. I so hope one day I do get to go to the temple with them! It's really amazing the difference the gospel has already made in their lives, especially Joel. After our first visit, he stopped wearing his earrings. Then he cut his hair. Once they offered us iced tea and when we told them we couldn't drink it, they quit drinking it too. Then they went to a wedding and reported back to us that they had chosen not to have a drink with their friends. We hadn't asked them to do any of these things. We hadn't even taught the Word of Wisdom yet! Joel loves the Book of Mormon and he told us he's seen the difference since we started going there. His family is happier, they have more direction. He told me he was starting to feel that "boom-boom" feeling in his heart that we had explained as the Holy Ghost. They came to church on Sunday! My first investigators over the age of 12 coming to church and I was a mess. I was like a mother dropping off her child on the first day of school, hoping they'd like it and the lessons wouldn't be too crazy and the members would be nice. It was a stressful 3 hours but watching that cute little family singing hymns during sacrament and not even caring that they didn't know the words was just awesome! And they said they want to come every week. So that's a plus :)

Sometimes I think it's too good to be true. This area is one of the hardest in the mission and so far, most people just listen because they're being nice. It's amazing to realize there are people out there that are really prepared, really looking for the truth. Heavenly Father knows what He's doing. And the Book of Mormon is for real.

That's all for this week! Have a fantabulous week and invite someone to church :)

XOXO, Sister Brown