Sister Brown in the Philippines: 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