musta fam!

Hello family and friends! Good to hear things are going good, and that things are warming up a bit for you all there. We spent most of this last week in rain since there was a storm or two that came through. The sun finally showed Saturday and its been warming up little by little since. So i guess your rain decided to come dump on us for a while hehe.

Work here was good this last week despite the rain. Yesterday was awesome because we had 6 investigators at Sacrament Meeting. Of course there were investigators that didn't come that said they would, and it have been higher, but we were still pretty excited about it. Mainly because of one couple that finally came to church. It is the Castro Family. I may have told you about them before. We've been teaching them for over a month now. Brother Castro is 58 and has suffered 2 strokes (i think. it might even be 3) so he has a harder time walking. But his mind is still really clear so he really gets the lessons. Plus he is really good about reading. Since we started teaching him he has now read to Jacob 2 as of last Saturday! He reads an average of two or three chapters a day. It is awesome, especially because the Tagalog Book of Mormon is longer (about 770 pages) and is really deep and hard to understand sometimes. But anyways, because of his strokes he of course can't get a job. So they have little money. So those have been his concerns about going to church. He can't walk that great, and they have little money to pay for the tricycle to go to church. The last couple times we've taught them, we've taught about the importance of baptism and going to church, and how the Lord helps us in our weaknesses if we seek His kingdom first. Our lesson with them last Saturday was really good and the Spirit was really strong, and they committed to come to church. So yesterday when church started, they weren't there yet. But as the opening hymn was about over, we saw the two of them, hobbling their way to the door. It was such a great feeling of joy to see them finally there at the Lord's church. They made some great sacrifices to come, and i am certain the Lord will bless them for it. It is such an amazing thing to see happening in their life. It is a great privalige to be a part of it.

Thanks for all your prayers for our investigators here. I know they are paying off. Me and my companion made some big changes in our appointments and where we focus our work, so maybe we will see some good results this week from that.

Time is still going by fast. This is the last week of our mission president, President Aquino. Our new mission president will be here next week. Still don't know if there will be any big changes because of that or not. So i guess we will all see in the next few weeks. President Aquino is really an awesome, so spiritually strong man. Will definetely miss him and Sister Aquino.

Had another experience this last week. The mother of a member here died a about a week ago. I knew her a bit too, but we had never been able to teach her because she didn't want us to. But we were over at their house some. But then this week they had a little funeral service at their house. We met some of the members at the church then all went over their together. Before we went over, the branch president asked me if i would speak there, about the Plan of Salvation. I was thinking, what do you say about that stuff at a funeral? I've only been to a few funerals, plus the stuff with deaths here in the Philippines is a little different too anyways. So as we were walking over i was going through scriptures and stuff in my head. I really was not sure at all about what to say, so i just started talking. Then the Spirit took over and it ended up going alright. It a little different speaking at a funeral. It makes me glad to have knowledge of the plan of salvation and that death is not the end. Its just the end of our trials. But for everything else, death is just the beginning. I'm so glad to have the knowledge that families can be together forever. It is so sad when we're talking with people they are like, "i won't know my spouse and kids after i die." That is such a discouraging that. O how great the plan God has prepared for us!

Well fam, i love you all so much. I know this church is true. I know we will all be together if we do our part in following that plan God has given us. I love you all tons. God be with you till we meet again.

Elder Brough