Dreams, visions, and revelation. 1-6-14

Family!  Happy New Year!

Remember how there's always that guy who has a miraculous story about someone dreaming about him as a missionary then the guy ends up knocking on that person's door and converts him?  Well... here's my story:

We were sitting in church during sacrament meeting and a young single adult looking kid gets up to bear his testimony.  I've never met him before since he's never been to church since I've been here.  He begins his testimony by saying that he admits he hasn't really been active for the last while and that kind of stuff.  Then he says that Saturday night,he had a dream...  In his dream, he saw a missionary.  The missionary told him to repent and come back to church.  He didn't recognize the missionary, but he vividly remembered his face.  Because of this, he decided to come back to church.  He continued his testimony by saying that when he walked into church today, he saw the missionary who spoke to him in his dream - guess who the missionary was?  Well, after sacrament meeting, my companion went to talk to him as I was talking with other members.  I looked over towards my comp. and he was motioning me to come over.  I sit down and my companion has the kid tell the story again.  At the end of the story, I'm just dying to know who the elder is.  I ask.  He looks me in the eyes and says, "It was you, Elder."  ....WOW.  I honestly didn't know how to react.  It's a very special experience...  More updates next week!

And so the rest of the week was not quite as awe-striking, but it was still super cool.  It was transfer week!  This is basically the week where the people who have been here for two years go home, the new missionaries come in, and everyone else here gets jumbled around and transferred to their new areas.  Two highlights: driving the whole mission taking people to their areas, and picking the new missionaries up from the airport.  As we were leaning against the fence, waiting for the new missionaries to walk off their little dual propeller plane, I had a total recollection of MY first day in the field... I can't believe that was almost a year and a half ago!

That's it.  Still can't get over the dream story.  We're busy, busy, busy! Love you!

Elder Shane Brown

Also, New Year's Resolutions.  Right.  Last year, my goal was to continue in all I was doing in terms of missionary work.  That was an easy one since I was still going to be in the Philippines for all of 2013.  Now though, that'll be different since I'll be home for almost half the year.  My goal this year is pretty simple:  Break it down, day by day, and just try to improve myself little by little each day.  This leads me to the yearly goal of keeping all the great habits and standards I've adopted on my mission.  That's it!

Pictures:

1.  Madsen and I bought jackets since we always get cold in the office.

2.  Here we are with a super pretty view in the back ground.

Christmas Week, the best 12 29 13

Family,

What an awesome week!  From meals at the mission home, Christmas, Skype, and baptisms, this week was the best!

I figured the skype call disqualified me from having to write an email home to you, but this week was too good not to.  I'll start with the Christmas things: Christmas Eve, we got to ho have an amazing dinner at the mission home.  A few days before, Sister Guanzon (our mission President's wife) asked for any dinner requests.  So I thought, what have I not eaten in a year and a half that I could probably request now?  ...TACOS!  So when we got to the mission home, not only were there delicious tacos,  but Shepard's Pie as well! - two Brown favorites (: And then Christmas, we woke up exrta early to come to the office and have our little Christmas.  Despite us forgetting to leave our cookies for Santa, he still came!  Later that evening was a combined "White Christmas" baptism.  Of course, my favorite bit was on Thursday (Christmas Day for all of you in America) when I got to skype call home.  What a precious joy that was!  I couldn't say enough about that.  I loved talking to each person I got to see (:

Saturday, we had another baptism.  This was different though.  Rather than the investigators (mom and duaughter) being taught by us, they were taught by the sister missionaries and asked me to baptize them.  I'm so grateful for htat.  Why?  Well, as Mom and everyone else pointed out way too mayn times on skype, I'm close-ish to coming home!  Anyways, after being out for a while, the key is to always stay fresh.  After a few weeks though in the office, I felt like I just kinda started going through the motions with proselyting work - even at the "White Christmas" baptism on Christmas Day.  With the skype call as a jump start though, the baptism on Saturday really rekindled everything.  Leading up to their baptism, I could feel the investigators excitement/ eagerness to enter those waters.  And when they came out, their joy was radiating, fully and completely.  It really, really touched me. 

And so here I go, sharing that same, beaming joy to all the world - nothing better, nothing so rewarding.  

Love you!  Elder Shane Brown

"I thought all this stuff just magically happened!" 12 23 13

My Family!

Can I just say, I am so tired!  That's pretty much the description of my week.  Buuuut I'll expound on that a bit.

This week was new missionary/ trainers workshop, Mission-wide Christmas Conference, transfer planning, travel plans, planning for trainer's training and a lot more....  Can I just say, I thought all this stuff just magically happened!  But I guess there's someone who actually has to sit down and put it all together... That's us...  Hah, Christmas Conference was the biggest thing of the week.  We had to plan the whole thing for 180 of us to all be together at one conference.  This probably would be easier if missionaries had cars and other useful things like that (they don't).  President described it as a "logistical nightmare." ...it was!  Haha although everyone else was enjoying the Christmas Spirit, it had Elder Madsen and I saying "Bah humbug" as we had to plan the whole thing (referring to Scrooge in The Christmas Carol.  It ended up going well though and we were able to sit down and enjoy a little bit of the actual conference (:  

Playing into the same topic is how late we've had to stay at the office doing stuff... hah it's so ridiculous.  Luckily though, after two weeks of being here, yesterday we finally got to go out and teach!  ...two lessons in two weeks!  We must be the best elders in the whole church!  It's fine though, probably in like two weeks things will maybe settle down a little.  

Saddest part of the week was saying goodbye to Elder Bangal.  He was the lead of our little two-week-tri-some we had going on in the office.  He left on Saturday and we got to take him and all the other departures to the airport.  Hah Madsen and I realized we were in trouble when we got back to the office and had to start planning some stuff.  Pretty much, we're both new here and don't really know what we're doing.  Same with the proselyting area!  He's only got three weeks on me and he was only able to go to church two times here and teach like six lessons before I got here so we're basically starting anew.  It's going to be a fun time! (:

Have a great Christmas!  I'm excited to skype home on Christmas Day!  

Love you! Elder Shane Brown

Pictures - 

1. Madsen, Bangal and I at the pier.  Sad to be separated!

2.  Lechon Baboy! ...(ward Christmas party)

More pictures - 

1.  Dropping Elder Bangal off at the airport.

2.  One of the elders got a package with those awesome 3D glasses kind of things that make light look like snowmen or Christmas  trees or whatever the glasses have on them.  Pretty fun.

A big, unexpected change. 12 16 13

This week has probably brought the biggest and most unexpected change of my whole mission.  Wow.  I never expected this...  So, remember how Tabaco was my favorite area?  Transfers are in two weeks so I was hoping I'd et to stay one more in Tabaco, here's what happened...

On Tuesday, I was on exchanges with Elder Man Moncur.  It was 6PM, we were about to tach a lesson when a call from my Mission President, President Guanzon, came.  I ran outside and answered.  We had a brief, to the point conversation.  Having hung up, I walked back and said, "Sorry, we need to leave right now.  I love you."  And then looking to Max, "Elder Moncur, let's go."  He was asking what happened but I was pushing it off.  I lied, saying we had to go and find the apartment we had to get for new elders later.  We power walked straight past everyone saying the usual, "Hey Joe!" or, "Amerikano!"  At this point I could hardly hold back tears.  Moncur still hadn't noticed - still didn't know what President actually said to me.  I led us directly to the San Carlos family.  This was my favorite family in Tabaco, the ones who finally all came to church together last week after seven years.  Came up to their house and they welcomed us in with the usual smiles.  I went straight to their bench without speaking.  They all looked at me.  I stared at them until I burst.  I was crying.  Bawling crying.  Through the fit of tears, I explained what President had really told me just a few minutes before... "Elder Brown... after much prayer and fasting, the Lord has told us that you are to be the new Assistant to the President of Legazpi Mission.  Elders Madsen and Bangal (the current assistants) will pick you up at 7PM tonight."  And there it was.  I was getting emergency transferred to the office for training before Elder Bangal goes home.  I had forty minutes to take the 30 minute trike ride home and pack all of my stuff.  Moncur and I raced home and dashed around trying to pack all my things before they got there.  They showed up, loaded my suitcases, and we left, dropped Moncur off in his area and my old comp with other elders until transfer day...

And so....here I am!  In the Mission Office, typing this to you.  This last week had gone by so fast.  I'm so tired.  My companion are Elders Bangal and Madsen.  Bangal is Filipino and has been AP (assistant to the president) for 6 months and goes home on Saturday (the real transfer day is Dec 31 but everyone going home this transfer gets to leave early for X-mas).  Madsen has only been assistant for 3 weeks.  He's from Idaho and we've been good friends out whole missions.  I actually met him in the MTC then replaced him in my second area.  I love my companions so much!  We've had such a good week together.  It's already become a habit of ours to say, "I love you," and, "You're the best!" to everyone.  It's going great.

So just so you know, being an assistant to the president us just that.  There are only two of us (three for one week while I'm in training).  Pretty much we help President with everything including workshops, trainings, President's schedule, transfer planning, etc.  On Wednesday, we only got two hours of sleep.  Remember the island I used to get to go to twice?  Well now it's its own zone so we went out there with President until yesterday.  Best part was Saturday getting to take the truck to the most remote area of our mission - a 2hr road, then 2 more hrs on a run down dirt path.  It was super muddy and beaten down.  We were so surprised we made it.  The road reminded my of a mix of driving up Saddleback Mountain and driving in the jungle parts of the movie Jurassic Park (see pictures).  We just did a devotional there then came straight back to the main island city.  

Well, I've been tired lately.  Luckily, there's that amazing blessing called the "Enabling Power" of the Atonement.  Something I absolutely need.  I'm sad to not be in my old area.  I miss it so much after getting moved so suddenly but my prayers still go out there and I'll get to bisit a few times to work with the new zone leaders there...

Sorry this was so long.  I assure my journals are longer!  Got to go!  Love you!

Elder Shane Brown

Pictures -

1.  Philippines Driver's License! I didn't even have to do a driving test.  Just sign papers, check my blood pressure and do an eye test.  Remember eye tests where you stand 15 feet away and cover an eye as you read a poster with letters?  As I sat at the desk about 6ft away from the poster, the person just asked if it was clear then signed everything off.  Hah awesome. \

2-4. My Companions

5.  What rushed packing looks like

"It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas" 12 9 13

Fam!

Contrary to the subject of this email, and keeping in mind that I live in the Philippines, it is not "beginning to look like Christmas," BUT(!), it sure is beginning to feel like Christmas!  The holiday season (xmas music, etc.) starts September 1 here, however, you really know Christmas is close when the shops sell little 74 cents x-mas trees and the kids start to carol - they love caroling here.  By the way, I imagine that as I write this, you might be watching the Christmas devotional, seeing as it's already Monday morning my time here, I don't get to watch it until next week!

An early Christmas gift was another baptism!  Typhanie!  This, remember, is the super awesome daughter og that great investigator I met forever ago while riding a tricycle.  Usually, we'd wait for the whole family to be ready to be baptized together, but since Typhanie was the only one able to consistently come to church (plus seminary and everything ever), we felt it'd be best for her to now wait for the others.  Te parents have a plan to be baptized to now! (:  The baptism was Dec 7th - besides being the anniversary of Pearl Harbor (my schooling is coming bak to me as I get ready to go back to BYU!), it was Elder Todd's birthday!  In classic Brown fashion, I got up extra early to make him blueberry pancakes for breakfast in bed!  Last great thing was another less active family coming to church!  Think about this - since being branch president in 2006, for the last seven years, the dad hasn't come to church once!  The first day I met them, all though it wasn't the most receptive, I knew they'd come to church as a family before I get transferred from here.  Five months later and they're one of my favorite families I've met on my mission and they all came to church together!  Seven years without them.  Now they're back.  I was so happy.

We had a lot of random, interesting things happen to us this week.  It'll make for a great kwentuhan one day!  We're excited for Christmas!  Also, it's time to start thinking about what my New Year's goal will be for 2014.  Should be different from last year since I'll only be in the Philippines for just over half of next year.  Anyways... Have a great week!

Love, Elder Brown

  

Trench Foot 12 2 13

Family!

What a week!  A wet week.  Hah, we are so sick of the rain here... Also, it was Thanksgiving this week!  Nearly as important was Black Friday.  Both of these were just of course two more American celebrations that went by unnoticed.  Luckily E. Todd and I found some mashed potatoes.  Things are great here.

As I said, this was a wet one.  Just so much rain.  As in, it literally rained, and rained, rained some more, and then decided it's been raining so long it might as well not stop.  Saturday was the worst.  Unfortunately, earlier in the week, we left our two small, collapsible umbrellas at the church and on Saturday, we decided to finally get them.  Huddled under my spare umbrella, we went to the church - our umbrellas weren't there.  So we scuttled along, trying not to get wet, and made it to the mall.  We were so feed up by the constant rain at this point that we marched to the umbrella section (they have those here) and demanded the absolute biggest ones they sell - 500 pesos later each and we proudly walked out to go teach.  Once we got to the area, we treaded some deeper water.  Now, you should know that E. Todd was wearing dress sandals and I had my rubber shoes.  Up to this point, I was laughing at Todd's feet getting drenched.  The rubber, water-proof shoes, it turns out, were fantastic...that is until you walk through a flood and are now carrying around two miniature lakes which have no way to get out of your shoes. (now I was the one being laughed at).  Evening came and it was pitch black and just torrential down-pour.  Our whole one hour walk back to the highway ranged from two inches to ankle deep water - time to go home!  Being convinced we surely had trench foot, we got home and spent the rest of the night soaking our feet in warm salt-water baths.  This was peaceful and soothing.  The most relaxing thing that ever happened though was when the rain finally stopped Sunday morning, and it's been clear skies since (:

I saw a guy drive through a tarp.  Hah, that was awesome.  Also, some stores are going so cheap here they just glue newspapers together for grocery bags.  And haha, we were eating at a restaurant place and a girl dropped her full ice cream sundae on the ground.  Rather than grab a mop or something, the workers tried to SWEEP up the ice cream - only in the Philippines...

I'm doing great.  We were soaked all week.  My socks all were doused in water.  Luckily E. Todd's camera is water proof so we got a few pictures.  I'm sure when it's summer again here I'll be missing the rain 0 the constant, unending rain.  We have another baptism next week and this month our new church is supposed to start to be constructed!

Pictures - 

1.  My big Thanksgiving mashed potatoes feast

2. Our Christmas tree and decorations.  Total cost: $1.25

God has not ceased to be a God of Miracles" 11 25 13

November 25 13

My Family!

"...God has not ceased to be a God of Miracles." (Mormon 9:15).  Family, I do not have a big enough vocabulary to describe my happiness.  It just keeps getting better.  I think that's a pretty good summary of how I feel.  I'd leave it at that, but I guess I'll talk about the week a little bit.  With a new companion, baptisms in a river, and more baptisms to come, I've almost got tears of joy on my face just thinking about how I'm going to word all this...

My companion first - Elder Todd, from Anchorage, Alaska.  1st cool thing is that his last name is Todd so when you combine us, we're Todd Brown.  Shout out to my dad, Todd Brown!  What's more, his dad's name is Shane, so when you combine us, it can also be, Shane Todd.  Shout out to his dad, Shane Todd! Elder Todd and I have been having a great time together.  In honor of his life in Alaska, we've been drinking real Swiss Miss How Chocolate since because of the constant rain, it's actually been almost chilly out for my first time here.  He's also just as fired up as me about the whole miracles deal.  on Friday, we we hopped around the three districts in our zone to inspire (we hope - we had a cool message we shared at each) every one about seeing miracles this transfer.  We've had a  lot so far:

The 1st miracle I won't tell you about, the 2nd is personal, and there are countless, but what I'll share with you is Saturday!  Remember that less-active family who lives super far away and the dad walked 1 1/2 hours to church with a bad hernia and the mom was an active minister in another religion before she came back to church?  now they've made this miraculous come-back and Mom is sharing the Gospel with all 14 of here nonmember siblings, etc.  Well, as a mile stone of their coming back to the Church, their two kids (9,11) were finally baptized!  2 1/2 months ago, before I visited them for the first time, I felt like it wasn't a good use of time to go way out there... But we were prompted, and now look at the fruits of our labor!  I've never felt more blessed/ guided in my life.  We had the baptism/service at a river nearby.  It started to rain right when we got there so we just sang one verse of a hymn, had the opening prayer, did the baptisms then ran back to a member's house for the talks and stuff.  Even standing in a river (which felt great to "fall" into by the way!!), I could feel the Spirit.

At church, I got to do one of the confirmations - amazing opportunity.  Then we sat in the youth class which talked about goals. Remember that awesome investigator family we found a few months ago? And the Dad had the spiritual experience at that one baptism?  Well in the youth class, the daughter was asked what her goal before the end of 2013 is.  She replied, "It's my goal to be baptized."  And it just got better.  I couldn't explain it all or give you every detail, but know it's a miraculous time to be a missionary.  It probably always is, but even more-so once we consciously recognize it, and strive for more.

Maybe I'd be wrong in saying I'm the happiest person in the world... But it sure feels like it! (:  The beauty is, we call all be this happy, and it just keeps getting batter.  I encourage you to forget yourself and be active in missionary work!

Love, Elder Shane Scully Brown

 1-2 baptism

3 new district, big american hugging the poly is my comp

4-6 a cool mall and bowling with my temporary comp last sunday