Monday, March 28, 2011

BAPTISM!

Hello!!

Every day presents new challenges, but I am glad to report that I have witnessed miracles here. Somewhere in Alma 26 ish it talks about boasting in the strength of your Lord, and that is exactly what I would like to do now.

No matter what is going on, know that there is a loving Father in Heaven who is looking out for you, and that eventually all will be well. This week, we tried extra hard to get some investigators to church. That is basically impossible to accomplish here in the Philippines. But, after all we could do, we got half of our BGD's to get to church!! It was so great. And my Tagalog is at the point where I could actually talk with them.. There's two boys (Yuman and Mark JR) like 17ish. I was able to explain the sacrament to them and answer most of the questions. They're showing great promise and have a friend at church. Miracles happen!! We've been trying to get them to church for months.

The biggest miracle is Tagalog. I study all I can, but the first week or two was really hard to understand people. I didn't realize in the MTC how important having a HUGE vocabulary would be, so I focused more on sentence structure. Advice to those going to the MTC soon: study vocab like mad there. Apperantly you can't understand people no matter how slow they speak if you don't know what the word means! But I am happy to be able to say that I have worked hard, and it has payed off. Only 22 months left to master Tagalog, let's do this!

Funny Philipino thing of the day: Jeepney's. They are old WWII jeeps that America left, converted into these bus type of thing. I forgot a pic, but next week for sure. They are all metal, have insane designs, and have two benches inside facing eachother. You flag one down going the direction you want to go, they slam on their brakes and you jump in. They floor the gas and take off at incredible rates. They dodge traffic, zoom through crowded streets, and everyone thinks it's normal! The only thing I can really relate it to is the Bus in Harry Potter... 3 i think. Remember how it wove through traffic, stopped on a dime, and accellerated faster than a Ferrari? Yeah, that's basically a Jeepney. (spelt Diyipni in Tagalog.. sound it out.)

Today it is raining for the first time. Based on what I have heard, I am literally in the best area in the mission. Sorta. It is super beautiful with all the rice fields, waterfalls, and scenery. The members are stronger here than most places, and our investigators are progressing. What more could I ask for? I guess an In N Out would do me well. Other than that, I love it here, and am looking forward to the next 3-6 months in Siniloan Branch 2, Philippines!

Continue to read the BOM every day. Don't miss it for the world. Pray often.

Much love,

Elder Brown

No comments:

Post a Comment