General Conference, an especially special time. 10 14 13

Hello Family!

What a week!  What a weekend!  Maybe the week first, then I suppose I'll get to the weekend... First off, my new companion!  Elder Williams from Orem, Utah.  He was the finance elder When I first got to the field so we've known each other for a while.  Two notable things here: 1. Another American! (we're the only American companionship in the mission except for people in training). 2. Another companion who goes home this transfer!  My companion from just a week ago is now at home with his family.  In six weeks, it will be the same with Elder Williams.  In 9 months, it'll be the same with Elder Brown! What else... Apparently, khaki pants have been approved for quite some time now.  Guess I just have to find some suitable foot apparel then I'll buy myself some khakis!  Also, a new elder in my zone fresh from the MTC saw me at district meeting and knew who I was.  How?  He has been reading my mission blog (these emails copied and pasted) before he got to the MTC.  Good to know at least someone actually reads these things! ;)

The weekEND.  This was the start.  The start of...well, general conference!  So what, again, is conference like in the Philippines?  First off, it's a week late because of the time difference.  The whole district (or stake) watches it at the district (or stake) center.  Attendance is low, very low, for the Saturday sessions.  The chapel is swarmed Sunday morning, but calmed down again in the afternoon.  It's a bit different than being in the comfort of my home, enjoying the soft, warm and tender comfort of... my mom's cinnamon rolls?  Yes.  A big difference compared to home traditions is Priesthood session.  This conference, Priesthood was my favorite.

The Priesthood Session was shown both Saturday morning AND evening.  All the other elders went to the morning session so we expected numbers to be low for the afternoon session.  Wouldn't be like at home with hundreds of fathers and sons sitting together.  Rather, we walked into the chapel five minutes before the start and it was... just us.  My and my companion to watch Priesthood together.  What a great experience.  Wouldn't be like at home, running off with friends during the songs.  Luckily, the entire District Center was not completely lonely with it's two Elders.  But a young-ish couple from our group eventually showed up a bit after the start.  Our Branch President came as well even later.  Whoops - getting ahead of myself in the story!  As soon as the session started, I felt a wave of the Spirit come over me, just like it felt when an apostle spoke to us at the MTC.  Wouldn't be like at home where I'd be too focused on sneaking a text or playing Fruit Ninja.  We arrived to the congregational hymn which required all five of us to stand and sing.  This, you'd imagine, was not like it's be at home with the army of Priesthood packed into the church.  but, I still sang "with gusto"! (:  President Uchtdorf gave my favorite talk of the conference (http://www.lds.org/general-conference/2013/10/you-can-do-it-now?lang=eng) and soon it was over.  Surely, no one would be skipping the closing hymn just to beat the traffic leaving the church.  Upon ending, it was time to eat.  No, this wouldn't be the classy dinner with Dad, Grandpa and the uncles.  Instead, it's be a nice, modest meal with my great missionary companion.  Arriving home would normally mean off to friends' houses.  For a change, it was straight to planning the next day, writing in journal, etc.  Yes, you could say this conference was different (not sure why I never talked about the last conferences here like this).  You could also say it was the most meaningful and impactful of all.  There is so much revelation I received.  So much to share.  So much to do.  But so little time to email it all! (:

Love, missionary work (work of salvation - with investigators AND lost members), and marriage seemed to be major themes along with enduring to the end.  It's great!  I love conference!  Looking forward to one more in the Philippines six months from now!  Hope you all enjoyed conference as much as I did!

Love you!

Elder Shane Scully Brown

Pictures - 

1.  Everyone's luggage at our house from transfer day  

EXTRAORDINARY - as in, the best 10 7 13

Hello Family!

To describe this week in a couple of words: ...busy, sudden, happy, exciting, random, crazy, loaded, exchanges, tired, food, home, sleep, fun, exhausted, eat, laugh, bless, smile, whoops, uh-oh, haha, tired, sleep...BEST! --> This week was the best!  I'm going to try so hard to keep this short.  Just triast that every single sentance could have been it's own fuill-length report.

Coming into this week, it was supposed to be a nive, smooth last week for E. Alldredge.  Then it turned into this: MOnday, Pday. Tues, MLC (Leadership Council). Wed, exchanges in Tiwi. Thurs, exchanges in Santo Domingo.  Fri, zone training. Sat, baptism!  Sun, last day of E. Alldredge/ best day of church.  Much more between the lines.

I'll try to break this down a little.  Starting with the unfun things:  Lost two pens two days in a row and ate throat.  Yes... I ate throat.  It wasn't too bad, but still... throat.  Highlights: Exchanges with Max Moncur!  The classic drinking mango juice out of a plastic bag at a town fiesta was made even better with someone from home (I got to work with him all day, see pictures).  Also, remember that super progressing less-active family? (Bondad).  WEll now they've got their friends coming to church and their kids will be baptized!  Then best for last, right?  The baptism on Saturday.  The baptism, the baptism, the baptism.  This was so great.  Better start a new paragraph.

So the baptism was actually for the sisters.  A family.  They met President Guanzon (mission president) at a district conference then requested that President would be the one to baptize them.  He said yes.  This of course meant that now we had to do all we could for the week (when we actually had time to work in our area, only 2 1/2 days!) to get an investigator there!  Remember that guy named Noel?  Maybe I didn't mention him.  Anyways, we had the most spiritual lesson ever with him weeks ago then never got back to hom because he was always busy :(  Nonetheless, we decided to visit him at work (selling bananas) and invite him to the baptism.  he came.  It was the best.  Then he came to church with his daughter the next day.  Why though that the baptism the best?  During the actualy ordinance, he lookds at me and asked if we have  a picture of a baptism then says, "I need to show my family this.  We're getting baptized."  Then during the testimonies after, a baptized girl was vrying and Noel leans in and whispers, "I know why she's crying.  She's feeling the Spirit.  That's what I felt when you first taught me."  Then the young baptized son mentioned not drinking coffee and we were worried because Noel doesn't know the Word of Wisdom (we've only taught him once) but Noel says to us,"Okay, that's it, I'm not drinking coffee anymore."  It was better that anything you could imagine, or I could describe.

For Alldredge's last week of the mission, not only did we hear a thick Filipino accent of "God be with you 'till we meet again" over and over, but we also reached our companionship goal when we started three months ago: 50 people at church.  Yesterday... 51! (:  I was going to include a quote but I couldn't find it.  It was something about incredible, everlasting joy and happiness,  I'm sure you get the point (:  I can't say more!  Love you!

Elder Shane Brown

P.S.  I'm in Legaspi right now with two temporary companions and I'll get my new companion tomorrow.  Also, we watch general conference this coming weekend so I'll mention those things next week.

Swarm of Progress 9 30 13

Hello Family!

Well, another week has zoomed by!  Lots of great things happening here though.  Some stories:

Okay, two things you should remember: 1. It rains here randomly always.  2. We love to stand on the back of jeeps and hang on to the rail on the roof to have our upper bdies lying through the wind.  Now, this:  We were coming home one night on the back of a jeep (as descibed) when it felt like it was just starting to drizzle.  I looked up at the sky - no clouds.  Not abnormal though to somehow have rain with no clouds.  Anyways, as it was "drizzling", a bug hit the corner of my mouth.  Then in started to "rain" harder.  All of a sudden, bugs where everywhere!  It wasn't raining - we were just driving through a massive swarm of bugs!  Just pelting them!  ...YUKS!  This gross story was not a highlight, thought I felt it might as well be shared in attempts to spice this up a little..

You'd think there couldn't be anything better than that... But! there is.  Remember that one dad who walked like an hour and a half with a crazy bad hernia just to get to church a few weeks ago?  Well guess what, he and his family are totally active now!  The mom and dad gave talks in church yesterday!  We were teaching them the other day and the mom was like, "You know, up until the Sunday I came back to chuch (3 weeks ago), I was a total active minister in the            church."  She went on of course to describe how she was truly touched this time and will never leave the church again.  Moreoever, she's trying to figure out now how she can share our messge with her father and siblings.  She and the whole family have felt a strong witness of the Spirit that this is truw.  This kind of echoes what the Lord said in Ether 4:11 about people who believe, "...him will I visit with the manifestations of my Spirit, and he shall know and bear record."  So this family has felt the Spirit, knows what it is, and now seeks ways to bear record of it.  Needless to say, they are a great strength to our little group!  ...PROGRESS.

Last piece of surprising news - it's October tomorrow!  How fast the time!  I'm doing great.  My companion goes home next week.  Weird.  Whelp, love you!

Elder Brown

CATS, Rats & More. 9 23 13

Another classic update from Shane… how does he come up with such good stuff?

Family!  First of all, Happy belates 22nd Birthday to the best kuya ever, Trevor Brown! (Sept. 21)

What a week!  As in, what a week talaga!  So next week we had the plan to go to Catanduanes (the island in our zone with a district - 10 missionaries - on it).  Well, on Monday evening we got a text saying that E. Alldredge has an appointment for some Visa stuff next week that he couldn't reschedule and thus the thrilling thought came simultaneously to our minds, "We're going to Cats tomorrow!!!"  We texted everyone our new plans and on Tuesday morning we were of for Cats (Catanduanes).

It was great to be back on Catanduanes (see pictures).  It was fantastic to get the 2632 viruses removed from my USB (literally), but pretty much the most important thing we did was find apartments for the new missionaries coming in next transfer.  We set up a new contract everyday we were there.  I secretly loved getting called "Mr. Brown" over and over again (despite my equally repeated corrections to "Elder Brown").  The whole time there really was a pleasure.  We not only got to go to caves and waterfalls, but we got to visit all the different missionary apartments and work a little bit with the missionaries in their own areas.  But even with that, by Friday, I was ready for our vacation, I mean trip, to end.  It's funny how badly I just wanted to go back to the normal schedule of studying in the morning then working for a few hours, lunch + study and work until night.  You really come to love it after a while.

Okay, I'm saving the best for last.  Also, this is the last thing that happened having to do with the island venture - the way home.  The several hours boat ride home.  Hah, here it goes:  First, it was windy.  So, so windy.  A result, they said, from the super typhoon traveling just north of the Philippines.  If you can imagine poor Elder Brown locked in a boat getting tossed around by the sea, it wasn't fun.  Nor was in fun when I sat in fright of the the large, standing A/C unit threatening numerous times to tumble over me.  What really made this picture for me though was when I was finally drifting off to sleep until I heard some rustling on the ground then a good shriek from Alldredge - "RAT!" Boy! - if I wasn't freaked out earlier, I was really on edge now with this little (massive!) guy sitting behind the air con for the entire rest of the way home!  And when I say "on edge", I mean I was as far from the edge of my seat as possible for the duration of the ride.  ...You'd understand it more had you been there...

Life continues here in this beautiful part of the Philippines.  Although we had almost no time to work in our area this week, we still had 45 people come to church in our once little group! (:  That's a record!  We want to try and get 50 before Alldredge leaves in two weeks.  We are truely being blessed here.  I feel it.  And I sure see the fruits of it.

I wish I could share with you all my experiences.  The perfect excuse though is just as true as ever - I couldn't put it into words.  Thanks for everything, and have a holly, jolly Christmas (Christmas music is in full-force here)!

Love, Elder Shane Scully Brown

Pictures - 

1. On the boat.  "Jack, Jack!  I'm flying Jack!"

2.  Deeper into the cave!

3.  On a bridge

4-16.  More Catanduanes adventures

A Biker and My First Interview With a General Authority 9-16-13

Hello Family!

What a wonderful week it has been!  I feel like enough significant things happened that I could have sent home a lengthy and story-filled report each day! Also, I'm tired.  So, so tired.  And that's how it goes (:  Exciting week though.  not only did we have a bike rider crash into us, but we had a mission tour!

I'll start with the crash.  So we were on a tricycle going out to our area and I was on the motor bike part facing sideways, my comp was in the side car bit.  I was fading to sleep (unbelievably I'm tied!) when I was jolted by a combined scream then, "SMASH!"  Followed by screeching metal!  I looked in front of the trike - a bike was skidding under the trike with a guy sliding down the asphalt being torn on by the road as the driver desperately squeezed with all his might the horribly out-dated brakes.  "Angelo!", was my first thought. (a member who we were going to work with).  My comp jumped out, trike still moving, thinking we were going to roll or something.  Long story short, all the old ladies (me included) we completely speechless once we finally were able to come to a stop.  Luckily though, even though this guy's (not Angelo pala) bike was utterly ruined, he was able to get up and move over to the side of the street.  Then, after my comp hopped back in, the trike driver just kept on driving as if that was something completely normal.  I wasn't tired after that!  Apparently though,, the biker tried to pass us after drafting for a while then when he passed us, his foot slipped causing him to fall right in front us us then "BOOM", we came ramming into him.  ...next news is equally exciting, but for different reasons:

Once a year, a General Authority from the Philippines Area Presidency comes to each mission to hold a "Mission Tour".  They basically stay here for a few days and meet with the missionaries.  This year, Elder Nielson of the Seventy, the President of the Church in all the Philippines, came to visit.  On two of the three days he was here, he help two all day meetings with the missionaries.  One for half of the mission, the other for the other half.  We were told to read a certain talk in preparation and also that 4 missionaries would be randomly selected (regardless of gender, time in mission, etc.) to be interviewed by President Nielson after the conference.  Of course, along with every other missionary, I was sure I'd not be picked to be interviews.  Well as we ate a snack upon closing the conference, I found out that I was wrong!  I was one to be interviewed!  And so, I had my first, and maybe last interview with a General Authority of the Church.  I'd talk more about it, but... I couldn't even begin to put this wonderful experience into words.

Thus, after an amazing interview with the Philippines Area President along with hitting a biker on the street, my week was much more than the ordinary (extraordinary?).  To add to that, we had an investigator tell us all of these superstitious stories which I just find to be fascinating.  Also tons of people came to church and within the next four weeks we'll know if this group is going to become a branch!  Plus many more stories for another day.

What I feel here must be a bit like the Nephites of old did when Christ was praying for them, "And no tongue can speak, neither can there be written by any man, neither can the hearts of men conceive so great and marvelous things as we both saw and heard.... and no one can conceive of the joy which filled our souls... (3 Nephi 17:17).  That describes my week.  Hope it's fitting for yours as well!

Love, Elder Shane Scully Brown

Pictures - 

1.  A bridge over a river.

2.  Me with Max Moncur and another elder who looks just like Jordan Rex!  Way to go RSM! (:

3.  Me with President Nielson and his wife.

4.  Meeting

5.  Elder and Sister Wilcox are in charge of all of our supplies.

A Funeral and Some Meetings 9 9 13

Hello, good morning!

I can't keep up with the days!  It's just going so fast!  And here I am, loving it all.  Had a great week this week.  I've really just been happy.  it remids me of that one hymn, "I'm walking on sunshine, whooooaaahhh!  And don't it feel GOOD?!"

We were having companionship sutdy the other day.  We got a text so I started to type out this long, lengthy reply.  Once I sent it, I noticed E. Alldredge had begin to hum.  I listened to hear what he was humming.  my guess was right - "I'm coming home" by Christ Duaghtry...  Haha, sure is great to be with a companion who is going home!  On that note though, he really ius focused on the word and we're doing great.  Adding to our joy was Sunday when a certain brother came to church.  He walked an hour and a half with a hernia to come to church after years of inactivity.  Hopefully his family will follow next (:

Also, Sunday was just a great day in general.  We had all these great lessons planned, but it all got changed around last second.  We got to the district center building at 1PM for a one hour meeting with branch missionaries.  More than an hour later, we finally started! (loving the Filipino time)  After going significatnyl over time (something which would be anticipated when you start 15 minutes after it wsa supposed to end), we got to join a meeting with the district presidency and all the branch presidents.  There, we talked about missionary work.  I loved to hear about the progress here.  Secretly, deep inside I just get excited to go home and be a great, supportive member to the missionaries (probably easier to say while I'm actually here) when we talk about coordination.  Anyways, I just felt a strongly witness of the Spirit that this hastenging of the work thing is real!  How wonderful it is to be able to participate!  After this, we were over-eager to get to leave and teach at last, but again, something came up.

We were invited (strongly encouraged) by all these presidents to go attend a funeral service.  It was for an inactive brother whole name I had never before heard.  I knew none of the family, nor anything really about them.  Just that we were invited to come along.  A member was the concluding speaker.  As he talked about the ressurection and Plan of Salvation, I found myself tearing up along with all the other moms and grandmas.  Maybe they were crying over their lost loved one.  but maybe it was really because of the same, powerful confirmation of the Spirit I was feeling.  I just love that the whole Plan of Salvation is true.  And the actaully know what it is!  I had to teach Sunday School in church (of course they just gave me a big time to prepare the lesson when they gave me the manual and the news I'd be teaching right when sacrament ends) about sacrifice.  I guess when we know the Plan, the eternal scheme of things, all of a sudden, all those big sacrifices don't seems so "big".  And that's what I tried to help everyone to see.

The whole thing just makes sense.  It's simple.  And I sure love to share it!  Yet another week has sped passed.  Holding on tight is yours truly,

Elder Brown

Pictures - 

1.  Family Home Evening

2-6.  Some views. 

September, Merry Christmas and Max Moncur 9 2 13

Hello Family!

It's September!  Being the first "ber" month of the year, Christmas has officially started in the Philippines.  This was made sure as we started off our sacrament meeting yesterday with the stirring "Angels We Have Heard On High" (that's the one where we sing "Gloooooorrrrriiiiiiiaaaaaaa" several times in a million different pitches - classic).  So on top of shouting that lovely song, I had the opportunity to yell my lungs out at this old guy last night.  He was... pretty darn old.  He was also convinced that even though he practically lost his hearing that if we really, truly howl our hearts hearts out, he's hear us.  Took me about five tries of good screaming  at him for him to stop speaking some sort of weird broken English because he finally realized we speak Tagalog...  He said we could come visit him again.  And on that note, it's been a good week.

Probably the biggest, most exciting part of the week was seeing some one from home.  So shout out to Elder Max Moncur!  He got here on Wednesday last week (8/28/13) and since he is in my zone, we got to pull some strings and go to his district meeting on Friday!  (see pictures). We went to lunch together after too (:  It was great to see him and catch up.  It wasn't until though he pointed it out that I realized how amazing it was to actually see him.  Here I am, been in some crazy group of islands in the middle of the Pacific Ocean for the past year, being totally immersed in a foreign culture and language so much so that I really do feel like I've become one of these people., and now, just when I'm thinking my past life was just a dream, in comes someone that I used to see at home and actually associate with!  Represent Santa Margarita Stake!  Yes, I concede we did move to a different stake just before I left, but... What a small world!  Hah, not sure if I'll ever be able to call him anything Elder rather than just Max.

And you know, it's really going great right now.  I had my foot saved the other day.  I had ingrown toenails that I thought I'd have to get surgery for, turns out my mission president's wife just made me get a pedicure.  But that's not the same foot saving story I'm about to share (though it is certainly something for another day).  I was sitting on a triccy (those motorcycles with a side car thing attached) on the motorcycle part facing sideways.  We were going down the road and I had me feet resting out pretty far.  then, out of nowhere, I quickly felt to "Pull my feet in!"  A moment later, "Whooooooooooshh!" - another triccy came down the road and would have definitely swiped my feet had I not moved them.  Phew!  Anyways, that's small.  But it still shows me how protected and guided we really are here.

So despite being constantly tired, there's ever more for us to do.  We got a call a few days ago.  There are going to be 14 new missionaries in our zone next transfer!  That's a lot!  We had another journey with the supply couple missionaries to find things for new apartments and what not.  It may be that the two-person party in our mansion home gets shut down.  they want two more elders here!  Even though our fancy washing machine will be more crowded, it's certainly still better than doing wash like in other areas.  For some reason, I'm thinking that washing clothes in a dirty river, no matter how much soap you use, then leaving them on the sandy bank to dry is just not going to result the most effective cleaning.  Not sure.  But I'm thankful as ever for that machine!

And so the work continues.  I continue!  Great new families and a bunch of letters [ thanks! (: ] have added even more to this week.  Love it!

Love, Elder Shane Scully Brown

Pictures - 

1.  Max and I after district meeting!

2.  A tindahan.  Basically one of the hundreds of little shop things that line every little street, in every little neighborhood.

3.  Some different kinds of bananas I eat.  The big one costs 50 pesos per kilo and the small only costs 3 pesos per kilo.  (up to you to do those conversions)

4.  This cloud looking think was what I was pretty sure was going to turn into some crazy tornado.  Nothing happen...