Family, Hello!
This was perhaps the best week of my entire
mission! a) found out I'm into BYU b) we had a mission tour and c) work
work work and loving it!
So right, I got into BYU Provo and I'm super
excited about that. Luckily we have more and more drive to work harder
and harder so we're able to keep ourselves sane and focused on being
missionaries. We had a mission tour this week with Elder Ian S. Ardern of
the Seventy. He's the 1st counselor in the Philippines Area Presidency.
He was here for three days. Tuesday, he arrived and met with us
then had MLC, Wednesday we had conference with half the mission in Sorsogon,
and Thursday we had a conference with the other half in Legaspi. This was
the best! I learned so much. It was like he took anything I thought
I understood, and truly opened my mind to what's around me. I feel so
much more aware. Mostly, I feel so much more aware that there is so so so
much more for me to learn and master before I go home. All of us were
inspired. After the conferences, we had exchanges with a companionship on
Friday. Elder Ardern had talked to us about becoming an example for those
around us and so we did. In one day we taught 17 lessons and found 18 new
investigators!
The best part, for me, was on Tuesday when Elder
Ardern arrived. We got to have a half hour meeting with just him and
President Guanzon to talk about the mission. He shared a few precious
things that I hope you can cherish as much as I. Well, first, he said that
he's a former mission president with a million stories. And that he is.
I'm glad I've been collecting and keeping track of my stories this whole
time. Then he talked to us about well, us - asked how we're doing and a
bit like that. AND GUESS WHAT MOM, he said that I'm supposed to tell you
that I'm the missionary you think I am. So Mother, I'm the missionary
you think I am. Certainly, not everyone is exactly what their parents
would want to believe, but Elder Ardern is passing that message to you (: ...I'm
doing my best, and it feels good!
One of my take-aways from the whole week was
that I want to go home absolutely and completely exhausted. Just tired.
I want to go home looking horrible. But feeling so good. I
want to give every last ounce of my strength here. Sometimes we have to
run these crazy assignments and it's extremely late and I think, what a
great excuse to sleep in past 6:30. Or, we worked hard all night
and we're definitely going to have to get extra sleep in the morning so I just
won't set an alarm and we'll get up when we get up. BUT, I've come to
understand so much more the power of the Atonement. We do all these
exhausting things and I know that if I wake up on time even if it's just a few
hours of sleep, we'll be given the strength we need. The grace of God is
a lot more powerful than an extra hour of sleep.
Love it! Love love love it all! (:
Have a wonderful week.
Elder Shane Scully Brown
Pictures -
1. Us with Elder and Sister Ardern
2. Elder Moncur and !
3. Exchanges
4. Pretty much means, "Come unto
Lord, not to the druglord". They have tons of these little
motivational anti-drug sayings here. They're pretty funny when in English
- it's usually a bit off or an awkward sentence. Anyways, we started
taking pictures of all of them.
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