Bonjour!
Yep, I'm now in a French speaking mission. just kidding. But I got to spend the last two days watching conference and I loveeeeeedddddddddddddddddd it! Like I was totally glued to it the whole time! I hope everyone else enjoyed it! I willingly (as opposed to those dreaded times in seminary) took notes on conference and tabbed a solid 21 pages of notes! And we still haven't seen Sunday Afternoon yet! So yeah I loved it! It's such an awesome privilege to hear from the living prophet and his apostles and other servants of the Lord.
So I'll talk about my week first and then about conference.
So Monday, we had a sweet FHE with the Durans. The lesson was good and all, but we all know its all about the games right? haha So we played this game where you make a mountain of flour and put a piece of chocolate on top and you take turns cutting away from the flour until someone knocks the chocolate down. Then, the person who knocks it down has to fetch the chocolate in the flour with their mouth. It was definitely way entertaining. Especially cuz I never lost. I still was attacked by flour though of course. Check out the pics.
So on Tuesday we had exchanges, cuz the ZLs or APs or someone encouraged us to have exchanges often, like twice a month or so. So Elder Osumo and I kicked it today. We visited Sister Lagrosa, and we extended to her the baptismal date of Nov 5th and she gladly accepted it! Its exciting! Later that night, we show up at Sister Aurora's to teach and her whole family is just chillin in their home blasting music and dancing crazily together. They were loving it. I loved to see them having so much fun together. Then I thought about my family doing the same thing....and yeah...the Gadberries don't roll like that hahaha
Wednesday was the birthday of Caleb and Grandma! HAPPY BIRTHDAY! On Wednesday, I had a pretty cool experience at the Jucaban's that night. We taught about Joseph Smith and the Restoration and invited Brother Jucaban to pray at the end of the lesson and told him if he would like he could ask right now if Joseph Smith's experience was true. When he prayed, he asked. I felt the Spirit quietly and subtly witness to me that it was true, I don't know if he felt it, I hope he did but it was cool to have the Spirit witness to me that it is true as someone else prays. It doesn't sound too exciting but it was cool, okay?! haha
On Thursday, our friends at Manneken Pis (a restaurant here in Coron we commonly go to and have become pretty good friends with the employees) decided to pick people that they think we looked like. Originally they said I was Justin Beiber, but then they decided I look like the Governor of Palawan, Baham Mitra. So apparently the people here think I look like Zac Effron, Justin Beiber and Baham Mitra. Hopefully that's good haha Later at Aurora's she told us that her husband had been thrown in prison. Her husband is a fisherman, but here they fish by diving into the water and using spear guns to catch the fish. For whatever reason something they were using (which everyone uses I guess) is illegal. So they were caught at thrown into prison. Aurora was really worried so said a prayer with her family that night, and the next time we saw her which I believe was Friday, everything with him as alright, they were released. I'm not too sure on all the details, cuz it was in Tagalog..haha But I guess Marvin Duran got caught the same night for the same thing on their boat but they had nicer captures, so he was fine too.
Friday, we did service out at Bayo Bayo Dos. Its pretty far away from us but we went out there to clean up their beach. Its really pretty out there (I have a few pictures from out there) and their beach was in much need of cleaning. It was pretty fun. Later that day, I saw someone wearing a Cardinals hat. Maybe that was the Lord's way of telling me that the Cardinals made the playoffs and are in the NLCS!!!! WOOOOOOOO! Jakey slipped it to me. (You rock bro!) I can't believe they came back from 10.5 out and are now in the NLCS. That's awesome! Alright, off to Saturday and back to missionary mode.
So Saturday, when my alarm went off I could barely hear it due to the very very very strong rain we had that morning. So immediately, I was like crap, the members here are not goin be able to make it to watch conference! I was pumped for them to get to see President Monson and the other Apostles! So of course, I prayed, duh. haha (Oh and by the way twice here we've seen a shirt that says "Pray [in big letters and underneath it it says] It works. We've been debating weather that shirt says "Pray. It works" or "Pray it works.") So I prayed and then took a shower, by the time I was out of the shower, the rain had completely stopped. But unfortunately maybe like a half an hour later it picked back up again. I wasn't too worried about the rain being a factor, I kinda took the stop of rain earlier as a reassurance that the rain will stop or at least not be a factor in stopping our members and investigators from coming. It rained allllll morning. But at about noon (we started conference at 1) it stopped/sprinkled until 1 or 1:30. Then it rained pretty much the rest of the day. So Saturday I got to watch Saturday Morning Session and the Priesthood Session. They rocked! From the very beginning I loved Elder Scotts talk about the scriptures, followed by Sister Thompsons talk about the Holy Ghost and personal revelation. Her talk was sweet and reassuring. She said if we diligently keep the commandments and ask in faith, answers will come. As well as, often times the spirit or revelation operates so delicately that you do not even consciously recognize it working within you. And the story she shared about the lady that said "I didn't keep a testimony, my testimony kept me." Her talk was awesome! And President Monson is pretty much hilarious. All the talks were awesome! But Dieters was awesomest! I think.. It's so amazing that the Lord created everything and does everything for us. And not just for us as a whole but for us individually. The Lord created the world not out of boredom but in order to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man. A couple things he said that I loved was, "Compared to God, man is nothing. But to God, man is everything." As well as something along the lines of "What matters most to the Lord is that I am doing the best I can, my heart is inclined towards him, and I am helping those in need around me." That was an awesome Session I could go on for a while but I'll stop cuz this will be really long. Hollands talk in the Priesthood Session was straight up beast. Go read it again. Favorite quote (probably not exactly correct) but somethin like "I am looking for men, young and old, who care enough about the gospel to stand up and speak up! We are at war." And Elder Waddell's talk about missionary work rocked too! I don't wanna just go on and on about everything I wrote down so I'll skip to President Monson's talk. He talked a little bit about how "the world says that moral decisions and moral problems are to be solved individually and personally." How sad would it be if that were true? We would be living life without direction, without help, and without purpose. However, how great are the commandments of God? In those we find direction, we have help, and we most definitely have a purpose or a goal in life. Moving on to Sunday now
Sunday! We watched the Saturday Afternoon Session as well as Sunday Morning. I found out that the people here in Coron understand conference better if its in English rather than Tagalog. I guess the Tagalog is too fast or too deep or somethin I'm not too sure. On Sunday most of them opted to watch it in English rather than Tagalog. The Saturday Afternoon Session's primary choir was astig! One of the speakers was Ian S Ardern of the Seventy. I met him! He was at the airport with Elder Teh (the only Filipino GA, also of the Seventy) one time when we were about to fly back to Coron. It was the most random meeting of those two, but I met them! I liked his talk about using our time affectively. "Let us be as quick to kneel as we are to text." Good thing I don't have a phone anymore so I can't feel guilty about that! =D Carl B Cook reminded us that we must look up, and step up, and as we do so we will cheer up. It's so important that we constantly rely on the Lord especially through any difficulty we're experiencing. He knows how to help us, He will help us, and we will be happier. And we all want to be happy right? Duh! Just do it! Ugh! everything was awesome! L. Tom Perry encouraged us not to be shy when talking about the church. We have nothing to be ashamed of! Definitely was fairly guilty of that before the mission. Off to Sunday Morning, my session with the most notes, but I have run out of time write about really... Maybe I'll share more next time. Sunday for lunch we cooked the pork we had leftover, in Coke and it was lami! (Cebuano for delicious -- I'm living with two Cebuanos haha) And I learned a funny Tagalog pick up line! This is it, you can translate it if you like "Apoy ka ba?" "Bakit?" "Kasi alab you." I found it hilarious.
Allllright! That was reallyyyy long sorry. Adieu
Love
Elder Michael Gadberry
Picture Explantions
1023--Funny translation of a kids english/tagalog story
1024-1043 -- Flour FHE!
1044 -- Much of the "Manggahan Kids" that are always there when we teach Aurora. Plus Ruby and Rose who are actually investigators and great ones at that
1046 -- me and Rhea Mae and Renz; Aurora's kids
1051-1062 -- Pictures taken from Bayo Bayo Dos
1063/1065 -- Dinner!
1069/1071 -- Different Dinner!
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