My family, can I tell you, I have already seen
the fruits of our so recent re-energized diligence in the work. It is so
absolutely beautiful.
Last week, Elder Madsen and I met a woman and
her two daughters while we were tracting in a random area. We weren't
able to teach them because we didn't have any males with us, but they assured
us that when we came back the next time, their son would be home. Last
weekend, we had been out in the beating sun all day sweating nicely (you almost
begin to miss that after sitting in air con so much) and once the night came,
we trudged on ward in our search for people to teach. We got to this
family (Paglinawan family) and the son wasn't home so yet again, we were not
able to teach. As we walked back to the road, we looked up at the dark
night sky, lightened slightly by the quarter moon, and Elder Madsen humorously
made the comment, "The moon smiles upon us." Even though we
didn't have all the success we could have that day, we still know that God saw
our efforts and diligence and he was pleased with us. The rattling off
story does indeed get better than this! We were able to bring a
member couple to the Paglinawan family on Friday and they so happily let us in.
Sister told us why she was so insistent on us teaching her before, and
why she was so sad that we couldn't. So remember, when Elder Madsen and I
first met them, we had no clue what was going to happen that afternoon.
We simply picked a street to walk down, put our trust in God, and went
for it happily as ever. Meanwhile, Sister had been very distraught.
She had been so confused and felt torn over the different religions
around her. It got to the point to where she had no where else to go, but
to God. She begin to pray that God would help her. Specifically, she
prayed for God to send someone to her who would show her to the truth.
At the very moment she ended her prayer.... "Tao po!" We
were knocking on her door. (you don't actually knock her, you just say
"tao po" to say that there are people outside). Is this not
miraculous? ...More updates there next week.
Other highlights of the week: Got to go on
exchanges with Elder Todd! (he was my last companion before I got transferred
from Tabaco). On Saturday, the Nelsons (couple missionaries who help with
self-reliance) invited us to go to Bulan with them. This is the very
south point of our mission. We got to help a little with translating and
it was really an over all wonderful day! Learning more and more about
working and becoming self-reliant is becoming a more and more prevalent topic
around Elder Madsen and I right now. I figure, the harder I work now, the
more I'll be blessed in the future (and currently as well). Let's see,
what else... we planned some things. And that's about it!
I loved this week. It's only getting
better. It was good from the start, a year and a half later, I'm sure you
can imagine how wonderful it is now! Hope your week was just as report
worthy as mine!
Love, Elder Shane Brown
Pictures -
1. "The moon smiles upon us."
2. They put the Batman action figure in a
Spiderman case... Only in the Philippines.
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