Brother is off....and...The Lord's Plan

What a week! My brother is off and on his way to serve alongside me, Elder Hill has returned with honor, and life goes on on Mindoro! We've been busy.. I know the two pages of journals don't prove that.. so let me take a moment. Wednesday we went to district meeting, then walked, drove, sung, "tao po"'d every person we saw, and just lived the life. We worked hard Tuesday and Wednesday. 

Which reminds me, On Tuesday we met Ian. He's 16, from Davao (bottom end of the Philippines), and stopped here for 2 weeks as he and his mother make their way to Manila to finish High School. We were just going to teach Joven when we saw his grin that begged us to approach him. So we did. He was interested enough to sit in on our lesson with Joven about the Plan of Salvation. We unfolded the scriptures and laid out the plan. Now, I know true conversion doesn't happen in a moment, but moments certainly occur when true conversion starts; this was one of those. Has anyone looked at the Plan of Salvation recently? It is incredible--but that is a side note. We went back early on Thursday to teach Ian, his mom, and Joven about the Restoration of the Gospel on Thursday morning, hopped on the Supercat boat to mainland, and ate some Yellowcab Pizza with my bud Elder Butler. 

ZLC (zone leaders council) Thursday and Friday can be described in 2 words: big smiles. We're the happiest bunch of missionaries out there, I'm sure of it. There were lots of new faces, and as far as my count goes only 3 of us are still attending ZLC since my first one back in december. I like the new faces though, they bring good vibes. We spent some good time at ZLC talking about our mission vision.. you know, to save every living soul in the San Pablo mission. Elder Caubalejo (my comp) and I came back Friday night in time to teach the Sarsonas (the less active couple who came back last week). And then Saturday and Sunday I was feeling a little under the weather.. physically, definitely not spiritually. 

We went back to teach Ian and Joven on saturday, and helped them get to church sunday morning! Now back to the Ian story.. he and his mom continue off to manila tomorrow, but since we met them they have found members in the area they want to go to who will help them find a good apartment, get to church on sunday, and hopefully continue to fellowship them. All his mom could say was, "I'm sure there was some kind of plan in this".. rough translation. True conversion doesn't happen in a moment, but in the week I've been able to teach those two they have definitely experienced moments where their own true conversion has begun. About me feeling a little down... I'm back up and in the fight at full strength today, thanks to some extra help yesterday and good care. All is well, my friends. 

Gird up your loins; fresh courage take.
Our God will never us forsake;
And soon we'll have this tale to tell-
All is well! All is well!

With love,

Elder Brown

ps the picture is from King and Fil's baptism on june 16.