Elder Lawrence Brown's Blog: June 29th

No worries I still remember that you guys were married in 1992! Congrats on 23 strong happy years :) I love hearing that you and dad are going together with the missionaries. If there's one thing I'm really excited for is being able to be a member present for the missionaries. That is a struggle on Batan because there's only one person who can and he can only go on Sunday's now. Everyone is constantly working in the mines or with carbon.

Is it really Alton's last transfer?? That's too bad. haha. Well we received our transfer announcements this past Saturday and my companion, Elder Pangilinan is getting transferred tomorrow. I've definitely grown the most with him in teaching, culture, and of course, the language. Here's what happened this week:

There's this one barangay called San Ramon on this island that I had never been to so Elder Pangilinan had to show me because it was anticipated that he was gonna be transferred. We walked in the blazing heat, with umbrellas for a good hour and 20 minutes on unfinished road and dirt paths, and a mini wilderness. It was a great walk and we taught an inactive member.

We also have a great potential investigator that we visit. We can't teach her because her husband is always gone at work and we have no other male that can be our member present. She is very interested and has very many questions. We're excited for her.

One of the recent converts here told us something her husband shared with her. Remember the one that said he felt hot after he prayed? Well that's the son, Marvin, and her husband is the dad of course. The dad told her that he gets weaker and feels his strength go away every time he sees us, or when we come to teach and visit him. He denies it's nervousness and has no idea why but he gets weak at the very sight of us. That explains why he is very shy when we teach. When we first tracted him he had energy and was talkative but now it's different. Maybe it has something to do with Alma 31:5?

We had a great last week together. Especially during lessons. There was a lot of times we felt the spirit working well within and through us. One of our great investigators said to Elder Pangilinan when he said he was leaving "Oh man you're not gonna be here for my baptism!" It feels weird teaching her cause she's 16 and nana is 16 so it's like I'm teaching my own sister.

We also teach this one nanay and tatay, the Dino family (I have a picture with them I'll send) and the nanay is such a sweet old lady. She has come to church despite her weak and hurt knee twice now and has been doing her best to read the Book of Mormon despite her weak and aged eyes. But bittersweetly, when Elder Pangilinan said he's leaving she said that she is goes to church and reads because she always misses us when we leave and feels so happy when we're around. She said we are different than the missionaries of the other churches. She also added that she's gonna go back to being catholic when we're both gone. My new companion and I, through the spirit will do our best to help her become converted to the Lord. Along with her husband.

That's it for this great last week. I'll let you know who my new companion is next week. Happy late birthday to nana my favorite sister (cause she's my only one haha) and happy anniversary to my goodly parents.

Also I have challenged myself to learn and speak more bicol because a lot of people on Batan are much more comfortable in it than Tagalog. A lot of missionaries may say it's crazy and dumb, especially since I'm still not a fluent Tagalog speaker, and that the bicol is different in every area of this mission, but I see it as a chance to exercise my brain and sacrifice for the people on this island. It's all about being proactive and not reactive. (The 7 habits of highly effective people)

Love,