Man I can't believe Alton has already received his trunky letter! He'll soon be "flying into your arms" mom haha. I always enjoy reading his weekly missionary emails. I definitely will miss them.
Well this week was weird because we were only on Batan for 1 day for exchanges with our zone leaders. One of them being Elder Whitney who is really good friends with Willie Uasilaa. Elder Matautia is the other. He said in his family history he has Brown's from Scotland. There's a good chance we may be related I think. So for 6 days we were here in Albay due to zone training, zone cluster conference, and stake conference broadcast. At that broadcast, Elder Neil L. Andersen was presiding and the concluding speaker. Sister Rosemary M. Wixom, the General Primary President also spoke. It was a great conference.
I went on exchanges with Elder Matautia. We had a great time and improved a lot. We had a great tracting moment. We came across these two people sitting outside their home and we approached them and did the usual intro. They were silent and shook their heads. We still stood there and then they showed us their door and it had a sign on there. It was a symbol of the centennial anniversary of the Iglesia Ni Cristo. I was very curious about it and asked about it. They had already made it known that they didn't want to hear anything from us so why not hear from them? The young man continued to explain about it and we became very inquisitive. A good kind. I've always had an interest in learning about other religions. Long story short, his grandpa was very friendly and allowed us to enter their gate. They gave us some magazines (similar to our Liahona, Ensign, etc.) about their church. They allowed us to come back and see them again but as for a lesson, they're not sure but we definitely enjoyed one another's presence, with no hate or animosity, but brotherly love.
While Elder Raven and I were teaching one of his investigators yesterday about the Book of Mormon I felt different and my testimony had been strengthened. I could tell his understanding about the whole restoration wasn't too strong so we did a brief review. He was a very inquisitive man but at the end of the lesson all his questions had been answered. He seemed a bit surprised.
The reason I share these two experiences is because I could feel the spirit working through me and my companion so strongly.I tried to share what I taught to my real companion and the words weren't coming to me. I couldn't do it. I told him he just had to be there. When we were teaching, the words were just flowing, and when questions were asked, I was able to discern and understand. But I also learned another lesson as I reflected on these experiences. I had prepared myself. My companion has been a tremendous source of help too. Together with the spirit and preparation I was able to do something beyond my own strength. I am grateful for a God whom I can boast about and it can never be too much.
It's very true what Kai Greene said (which is also Alton's favorite quote), "Proper Preparation Prevents Poor Performance" the five P's. There's also another five more important P's in tagalog: Pananampalataya,Pagsisisi, Pagbibinyag, Pagtanggap ng kaloob na Espiritu Santo, at Pagtitiis hanggang wakas. (The 5 principles and ordinances of the gospel of Jesus Christ)
Thank you for all the love and support and I'm very proud of you all. I love that you are all engaged in the work of salvation! Keep it up!
Love,
Elder Brown
No comments:
Post a Comment