hello fam!

Hello fam! Things were good for us here this last week normal work. Being able to see some progression too. We now officially have a new mission president, President Querido. President and Sister Aquino, our former mission president, left Thursday or so. And then President and Sister Querido got here about then too. I still haven't met him yet, and won't for about another week and a half when we have interviews. There are small changes already, like now we can play basketball! (first time in about 10 months. a few people got hurt so they wouldn't let us play hehe) So we were excited about that. We'll see what other changes happen.

Mom, i have a question. Could you send me a simple recipe for chocolate chip cookies? We have an oven toaster at our apartment, and me and my companion want to try and make some cookies. And i couldn't remember exactly what all you need hehe. Could you also send a simple cake recipe we could try. Maybe we will try that too. Thanks!

Yesterday i did have a first. I blessed and named a baby for the first time. A few members were joking with me and saying "Congratulations Dad" haha. First baby blessing and its not even my own. It is the baby of our recent convert, Brother Allan, that was baptized just a couple weeks ago, and his wife. Last Thursday they asked me if i would do it, so i did. It was pretty cool.

This week we also had an experience of teaching somebody without a Christian backgroud for the first time (that we know of at least). It was a little different. He believed in every "holy book" that had ever been written, such as the Bible, Tora, Koran, etc. He said they have a billion holy scriptures. I couldn't help but ask if he'd read them all hehe. He also believed that pretty much all prophets and founders of major religions were called of God, such as the founders of Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Budism, etc. It was really different trying to teach him from the Bible, and teach about prophets and Jesus Christ. He didn't belive that Christ is our Savior and the Only-Bogotten Son of God. We ended up giving him a Book of Mormon and encouraging him to read it. Maybe the seed we planted with him will one day spring forth to be harvested.

Yesterday was also good because Sister Jackie and the Castro couple, a few of our investigators, were at church again. Sister Jackie hasn't really been that sure about reading the Book of Mormon and coming to church every week, but this week she really made a lot of progression. Yesterday she even came to church by herself for the first time. We were really excited about that. Her baptism is coming up here in the end of July. We were also way excited about the Castro couple (they are the older couple were Brother has had a couple strokes). After church they were telling us about how they were able to come to church. So here is the story. They hadn't been sure if they would be able to come to church because they didn't have any money to pay for the tricycle ride. But it got to Saturday and they still didn't have any money. Then their son-in-law showed up unannounced at their house Saturday night. He had come from Olongapo to visit, and they had no idea he was coming. He gave them money to be able to go to church and they went. While Brother Castro was telling us the story he just started crying. The Lord truely answered a lot of prayers. He truely does help us do what we should. If we do all we can, he helps us to do it, just like with the Castro couple. It was truely an amazing thing to witness. The Lord answers prayers! Yesteday night they also committed to baptism in August. The Lord is truely helping our work here to progress.

Thank you for all your prayers for our investigators. They are truely being answered. Thanks also for all of your support and love. This really is a marvelous work and a wonder. Miracles truely do happen in our days. Lots of times they are through other people. Keep up all your hard work. Keep pushing till the end. God loves you. I love you all tons. God be with you till we meet again.

Elder Brough