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| November 14, 2011 |
Sunday, November 20, 2011
11-14-11 E-mail!
What's up everyone, but my parents! (My parents didn't even send me an email this week so you guys should yell at them for being lame parents) =D
So this week has been pretty awesome! and I have a fair amount of pictures so you guys better be happy!
So I'll start with Monday, preparation day (laundry/letter writing/sightseeing day). That evening we decided to go "fishing." To go fishing we needed two things, hooks and line. Well we set off and got the hooks pretty easily. But then it was impossible to find any fishing line! We walked around for like at least 20 minutes asking every tindahan, random houses, and the occasional passerby if they had any fishing line we could buy, but no one had any! Until we found some at this obscure little tindahan. We were so pumped when we found the fishing line that we took a picture at the store where we found it, haha. So off we go to the baywalk to go fishing, but first we stopped at the palengke and a nice lady gave us some of her extra pig fat for bait. And now we're off! We get out there and prepare our lines. Our lines consisted of fishing line, hooks, a piece of wood torn off a nearby palm tree to hold the extra line, and a rock to make the bait sink. We were sure it'd be a great success! We threw our lines in and pulled it in again and again and again, and caught nothing! Only one person caught anything, and it was this really ugly looking fish, but it was hilarious. Good times for sure, we'll be more successful next time.
Tuesday was pretty exciting, too. We had an appointment with Sister Lagrosa, and she has pretty much memorized everything we've taught her, she's awesome! And she's going to be baptized this Saturday! And Dante, the husband of a member, and dean at the Palawan State University here in Coron, knows that it's true but is like super busy with school so we're trying to help him work through all that, but it's still exciting! HAPPY BIRTHDAY JAKEY!
Wednesday, like every other day was great. Robbins and I have developed quite the American-Tagalog, and we regularly practice it during language study its probably too fun for language study. We just try to apply American slang to Tagalog and it doesn't work at all but we think it's hilarious. But don't worry we always start language study effectively! It just seems to always end in screwing around like that, but hey you gotta have some fun. While we were out and about we found that they were having cockfights out by an area we usually visit. One of the chickens got beat up but didn't die so we watched a guy do "first aid" on it for a little while, that was pretty gross but slightly entertaining haha. And we taught Angelo Cuizon again and he rocks! He's still an investigator but he's like sharing the gospel with his friends and what not, what a stud.
Thursday wasn't too exciting. We had an angry monkey jump at us three times. He was tied to the tree and when we stopped to look at him. He jumped at us. His "leash" stopped him like a foot in front of our faces and then he would climb up his chain and attack again. We stayed and entertained him for like three jumps, it was fun-ish!
Now this is the day you've all been waiting for. This is the question. What were you doing one 11/11/11 at 11:11. Woooow! I, was in the bathroom after service taking a freezing cold shower via bucket. Wow! Exciting! How many of you can say you were doing that, that's right none of you! haha For service I learned how to tie fishing nets! The people here thought it was funny seeing an American do it, and they were impressed that I learned fairly quickly, it was fun! Also, after showering, we were without electricity and I was like ugh! I need electricity so I can cook! And right when I said that, the electricity came back on! It was legit! Later, kumain ako ng pubo! Which directly translated means, "I ate straight up sugar cane, yo!" I was def hesitant at first but then Bogs told me it was sugar cane and I was like I gotta try this! And it was pretty good, decent. And it was my mom's birthday! I would tell you all to wish her a happy birthday but she didn't email me this week... =)
Saturday was astig. For the second day in a row we taught John Robert outside just chillin on the tulay, it was fun. He's way cool. Coron B had baptisms and I had to conduct them, ugh! I really hate speaking Tagalog in front of people... That night we taught a family with 9 kids! And then like 8 of their cousins were there too! It was ridiculous but fun! And they all came to church on Sunday! And I made my first scrambled eggs that night cuz I was just feeling it. Be proud! hahaha\
Sunday was where it was at kinda. Well first of all there was almost zero men there cuz they were all watching the Pacquio fight...hahaha Which I've heard is to be expected, and I also heard he won but I'm not too sure. But the whole 9 child family made it to church! Sister Lagrosa made it to church too, bawling. I guess earlier that morning she had been disowned by her family.... But she still made it to church! She's so ridiculously awesome! Sister Lagrosa is like 27 and still lived at home cuz she's not yet married and she does all the cooking and laundry for her family, but now she's living with relatives for now. Also, we met a chick from Utah! haha The Filipinos here treated her as if she was like famous or somethin it was pretty hilarious, but it was exciting as well. AND I can play Once There was a Snowman on the Ukelele! Sweet stuff!
That's about the week, I gotta get rollin! Peace out homeboys and girls!
Love
Elder Michael Gadberry
Pictures
0079 -- We have fishing line!
0080 -- Preparing the lines
1635 -- Fishing
1636 -- Us and our catch!
0118 -- Satan hot sauce!
0120/0121 -- Sketchy, sketchy tulay we walked to tie nets
0123 -- View from the little boat house thing we tied nets at
0124/0125 -- Us tying the nets with Brother Panserga (the guy with 9 kids)
0131 -- 11/11/11 at 11:11; Robbins took the pic, cuz like I said was rockin the shower!
0136/0138 -- The sugar cane!
0140-0147 -- I thought the sky looked cool but the pictures are just okay
0157-0165 -- Teachin John Robert out on the tulay
0181 -- Me and Marvin Duran!
0183/0185 -- The Duran Family
0186/0187 -- The Duran Family and us!
0212 -- My companion and everyone else here have found the fish eye effect on my camera and think its absolutely hilarious, it's pretty great
0219 -- Us and the Mormon chick! haha
1633/1634 -- More blurry fishing pics! haha
So this week has been pretty awesome! and I have a fair amount of pictures so you guys better be happy!
So I'll start with Monday, preparation day (laundry/letter writing/sightseeing day). That evening we decided to go "fishing." To go fishing we needed two things, hooks and line. Well we set off and got the hooks pretty easily. But then it was impossible to find any fishing line! We walked around for like at least 20 minutes asking every tindahan, random houses, and the occasional passerby if they had any fishing line we could buy, but no one had any! Until we found some at this obscure little tindahan. We were so pumped when we found the fishing line that we took a picture at the store where we found it, haha. So off we go to the baywalk to go fishing, but first we stopped at the palengke and a nice lady gave us some of her extra pig fat for bait. And now we're off! We get out there and prepare our lines. Our lines consisted of fishing line, hooks, a piece of wood torn off a nearby palm tree to hold the extra line, and a rock to make the bait sink. We were sure it'd be a great success! We threw our lines in and pulled it in again and again and again, and caught nothing! Only one person caught anything, and it was this really ugly looking fish, but it was hilarious. Good times for sure, we'll be more successful next time.
Tuesday was pretty exciting, too. We had an appointment with Sister Lagrosa, and she has pretty much memorized everything we've taught her, she's awesome! And she's going to be baptized this Saturday! And Dante, the husband of a member, and dean at the Palawan State University here in Coron, knows that it's true but is like super busy with school so we're trying to help him work through all that, but it's still exciting! HAPPY BIRTHDAY JAKEY!
Wednesday, like every other day was great. Robbins and I have developed quite the American-Tagalog, and we regularly practice it during language study its probably too fun for language study. We just try to apply American slang to Tagalog and it doesn't work at all but we think it's hilarious. But don't worry we always start language study effectively! It just seems to always end in screwing around like that, but hey you gotta have some fun. While we were out and about we found that they were having cockfights out by an area we usually visit. One of the chickens got beat up but didn't die so we watched a guy do "first aid" on it for a little while, that was pretty gross but slightly entertaining haha. And we taught Angelo Cuizon again and he rocks! He's still an investigator but he's like sharing the gospel with his friends and what not, what a stud.
Thursday wasn't too exciting. We had an angry monkey jump at us three times. He was tied to the tree and when we stopped to look at him. He jumped at us. His "leash" stopped him like a foot in front of our faces and then he would climb up his chain and attack again. We stayed and entertained him for like three jumps, it was fun-ish!
Now this is the day you've all been waiting for. This is the question. What were you doing one 11/11/11 at 11:11. Woooow! I, was in the bathroom after service taking a freezing cold shower via bucket. Wow! Exciting! How many of you can say you were doing that, that's right none of you! haha For service I learned how to tie fishing nets! The people here thought it was funny seeing an American do it, and they were impressed that I learned fairly quickly, it was fun! Also, after showering, we were without electricity and I was like ugh! I need electricity so I can cook! And right when I said that, the electricity came back on! It was legit! Later, kumain ako ng pubo! Which directly translated means, "I ate straight up sugar cane, yo!" I was def hesitant at first but then Bogs told me it was sugar cane and I was like I gotta try this! And it was pretty good, decent. And it was my mom's birthday! I would tell you all to wish her a happy birthday but she didn't email me this week... =)
Saturday was astig. For the second day in a row we taught John Robert outside just chillin on the tulay, it was fun. He's way cool. Coron B had baptisms and I had to conduct them, ugh! I really hate speaking Tagalog in front of people... That night we taught a family with 9 kids! And then like 8 of their cousins were there too! It was ridiculous but fun! And they all came to church on Sunday! And I made my first scrambled eggs that night cuz I was just feeling it. Be proud! hahaha\
Sunday was where it was at kinda. Well first of all there was almost zero men there cuz they were all watching the Pacquio fight...hahaha Which I've heard is to be expected, and I also heard he won but I'm not too sure. But the whole 9 child family made it to church! Sister Lagrosa made it to church too, bawling. I guess earlier that morning she had been disowned by her family.... But she still made it to church! She's so ridiculously awesome! Sister Lagrosa is like 27 and still lived at home cuz she's not yet married and she does all the cooking and laundry for her family, but now she's living with relatives for now. Also, we met a chick from Utah! haha The Filipinos here treated her as if she was like famous or somethin it was pretty hilarious, but it was exciting as well. AND I can play Once There was a Snowman on the Ukelele! Sweet stuff!
That's about the week, I gotta get rollin! Peace out homeboys and girls!
Love
Elder Michael Gadberry
Pictures
0079 -- We have fishing line!
0080 -- Preparing the lines
1635 -- Fishing
1636 -- Us and our catch!
0118 -- Satan hot sauce!
0120/0121 -- Sketchy, sketchy tulay we walked to tie nets
0123 -- View from the little boat house thing we tied nets at
0124/0125 -- Us tying the nets with Brother Panserga (the guy with 9 kids)
0131 -- 11/11/11 at 11:11; Robbins took the pic, cuz like I said was rockin the shower!
0136/0138 -- The sugar cane!
0140-0147 -- I thought the sky looked cool but the pictures are just okay
0157-0165 -- Teachin John Robert out on the tulay
0181 -- Me and Marvin Duran!
0183/0185 -- The Duran Family
0186/0187 -- The Duran Family and us!
0212 -- My companion and everyone else here have found the fish eye effect on my camera and think its absolutely hilarious, it's pretty great
0219 -- Us and the Mormon chick! haha
1633/1634 -- More blurry fishing pics! haha
Monday, November 14, 2011
11-7-11 E-mail!
How's it goin everyone??
I've got a ton of pics for you! Be happy!
So speaking for a little bit in front of a ton of people and Elder Ardern on Wednesday went pretty well. Oh geez I was sooo nervous before I got up there. But I got up there and I feel like it went pretty well and I didn't feel terribly nervous. Hopefully that means the Spirit was helping me out and I said something half way important to someone out there..haha Overall, the Mission Tour Conference was beast! It was held at Buendia Chapel in Manila which is the first church building built in the Philippines and it's like this decently sized church building surrounded by sky scrapers and really tall buildings haha. I got to see a fair amount of people that I know too! That was exciting and awesome to talk to and see everyone for a little while! But everyone from my district in the MTC was not there so that stunk! But it's all good of course.
After conference, cuz we were the last ones to leave, we even got a pic with Elder Ardern and the Coron Elders! It's not in this email cuz it's on Elder Osumo's camera but I'll have it next time. Then that night after the Conference we went out and worked with some of the missionaries in Makati. I was the second selection in the draft and was chosen by Elder Belarmino, one of the APs. It was sweet to work with him and to learn from him. And way different to work in the city but sweet nonetheless. One of the families we visited was way impressed with my Tagalog and I don't know why. And I finally experienced my first Jeepney and had Jollibee for the first time, it was just an all around great day.
The next morning we had to get up at 5! To get to the airport, ughhhhh! By the way I still despise mornings or Hindi mahilig ako talaga sa umaga. So Thursday we made it back to Coron and at this point flying is pretty boring so being the good elder I am, I read from the Book of Mormon the entire time. Did you know? By my count, there are 25 references to Christ before the book even officially starts in Nephi. Fun fact of the day. By the way that was my 10th flight on my mission, its pretty legit. I heart flying. But I miss driving.
Friday for our "community service." We just helped them paint the fence around our houses. The house is blue, and now the fence is white. Sooo....we have a BYU Cougar House! Boom! Rockin it. Not a whole lot of new and exciting things happened since I last emailed. Our mission has a goal to have 300 people baptized in the month of December, and we're working really hard and things are startin to look good for us! We have 9 people scheduled for December right now and we're still working really hard to continue to find those families that the Lord has prepared for us, I'm excited about our work here its awesome! But I'm sad cuz someone's leaving Nov 30th and I'm afraid its me, ughhhh! But we'll see.
So yeah, sorry that's kinda it for this past few days, but there's lots of pictures! =D haha
Love ya'll (I'm hick)
Elder Michael Gadberry
Pictures:
1110/1112 -- Me and my machete
1115-PA211402 -- Try to find that lizard in pictures 1115
DSCN1503/1504 -- Havin fun with brother Tonton; I don't know why he looks so small/weird cuz he's just a little bit shorter than me...
1122/1123 -- The huge crabs of one of our investigators
1127-1148 -- Coron sunset. Be jealous. (I rock at pictures!)
1153-1155 -- Umm yeah, I ate that. Be proud. It tasted decent...weird texture fa sho
1157 -- Yep, that tasted much better.
PA281513-PA281520 -- Our terrifying spider
DSCN1542 -- Coulda been a really cool pic if I had a better camera but decent nonetheless. Taken from our back balcony porch thingy
PA301512 -- The newly formed branch! Not everyone made it that Sunday but an awesome turn out still
1104-PA301521 -- Havin fun after becoming a branch
0006-0035 -- Manila Temple pics! I think my favorite may be 0013
0039-0043 -- Enjoying the mainland! McDonalds delivers! And so does everywhere else
0049-0071 -- WORLD SERIES CHAMPIONS! Who can deny the Cardinals and this adorable puppy! haha
I've got a ton of pics for you! Be happy!
So speaking for a little bit in front of a ton of people and Elder Ardern on Wednesday went pretty well. Oh geez I was sooo nervous before I got up there. But I got up there and I feel like it went pretty well and I didn't feel terribly nervous. Hopefully that means the Spirit was helping me out and I said something half way important to someone out there..haha Overall, the Mission Tour Conference was beast! It was held at Buendia Chapel in Manila which is the first church building built in the Philippines and it's like this decently sized church building surrounded by sky scrapers and really tall buildings haha. I got to see a fair amount of people that I know too! That was exciting and awesome to talk to and see everyone for a little while! But everyone from my district in the MTC was not there so that stunk! But it's all good of course.
After conference, cuz we were the last ones to leave, we even got a pic with Elder Ardern and the Coron Elders! It's not in this email cuz it's on Elder Osumo's camera but I'll have it next time. Then that night after the Conference we went out and worked with some of the missionaries in Makati. I was the second selection in the draft and was chosen by Elder Belarmino, one of the APs. It was sweet to work with him and to learn from him. And way different to work in the city but sweet nonetheless. One of the families we visited was way impressed with my Tagalog and I don't know why. And I finally experienced my first Jeepney and had Jollibee for the first time, it was just an all around great day.
The next morning we had to get up at 5! To get to the airport, ughhhhh! By the way I still despise mornings or Hindi mahilig ako talaga sa umaga. So Thursday we made it back to Coron and at this point flying is pretty boring so being the good elder I am, I read from the Book of Mormon the entire time. Did you know? By my count, there are 25 references to Christ before the book even officially starts in Nephi. Fun fact of the day. By the way that was my 10th flight on my mission, its pretty legit. I heart flying. But I miss driving.
Friday for our "community service." We just helped them paint the fence around our houses. The house is blue, and now the fence is white. Sooo....we have a BYU Cougar House! Boom! Rockin it. Not a whole lot of new and exciting things happened since I last emailed. Our mission has a goal to have 300 people baptized in the month of December, and we're working really hard and things are startin to look good for us! We have 9 people scheduled for December right now and we're still working really hard to continue to find those families that the Lord has prepared for us, I'm excited about our work here its awesome! But I'm sad cuz someone's leaving Nov 30th and I'm afraid its me, ughhhh! But we'll see.
So yeah, sorry that's kinda it for this past few days, but there's lots of pictures! =D haha
Love ya'll (I'm hick)
Elder Michael Gadberry
Pictures:
1110/1112 -- Me and my machete
1115-PA211402 -- Try to find that lizard in pictures 1115
DSCN1503/1504 -- Havin fun with brother Tonton; I don't know why he looks so small/weird cuz he's just a little bit shorter than me...
1122/1123 -- The huge crabs of one of our investigators
1127-1148 -- Coron sunset. Be jealous. (I rock at pictures!)
1153-1155 -- Umm yeah, I ate that. Be proud. It tasted decent...weird texture fa sho
1157 -- Yep, that tasted much better.
PA281513-PA281520 -- Our terrifying spider
DSCN1542 -- Coulda been a really cool pic if I had a better camera but decent nonetheless. Taken from our back balcony porch thingy
PA301512 -- The newly formed branch! Not everyone made it that Sunday but an awesome turn out still
1104-PA301521 -- Havin fun after becoming a branch
0006-0035 -- Manila Temple pics! I think my favorite may be 0013
0039-0043 -- Enjoying the mainland! McDonalds delivers! And so does everywhere else
0049-0071 -- WORLD SERIES CHAMPIONS! Who can deny the Cardinals and this adorable puppy! haha
Sunday, November 6, 2011
11-1-11 E-Mail!
I'm just about caught up...
Alright! What's up people!
It's been an exciting week! So I'm in Manila (9th plane flight of the mission, ha!) and I have no access to stuff to review what happened this past week so this will probably be a fairly short email telling you the exciting news of the week!
This week started off dumb though, I was stuck inside the apartment all day Tuesday cuz I was sick, it was annoyinggg! But then I pretty much got better and was able to work the rest of the week, so yay!
So this week we had two investigators (people interested in learning about the gospel) pray, and receive answers to their prayers regarding the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith. They were Angelo Cuizon and Florenze Lagrosa. We are pumped for them, its really exciting. But it was slightly overshadowed by the events later in the week.
So President and Sister Stucki (president over the entire mission of Manila) as well as one of his counselors, President Peterson and his wife, came to Coron on Saturday and Sunday. So we had to get the apartment all cleaned up for them of course, and that's when the excitement started. Robbins was cleaning the kitchen area and found a pretty huge spider just chillin right by his hand. Elder Osumo and I were hanging out, toying with his ukulele, when Elder Robbins let out quite the scream, it was hilarious and chaos ensued. Elder Bagahansol, being a man, picked up the blender it was on and took it outside and set it down. Shortly after he set it down, it came running back inside towards me, Robbins, and Osumo, so of course, we took off the other direction and ran out the front door. Bogs came to the rescue and swept him back outside, of course towards us for his entertainment. Eventually we got him on the broom and threw him into the woods and all was safe. But that was almost a crisis. The spider was nearly the size of Osumo's hand! I'll have pictures next week, I have a ton I need to send in general.
Saturday they got here, it was a great day! We received a little instruction from President and each of us had interviews with him. He's awesome! I love him. And his wife brought us stuff to make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch! It's been a longgg time! And she brought oreos and doritos and just the good stuff, it rocked. They also brought me two packages from you guys! And mail! It was a great day! Then President Stucki, went out and worked with us that night for a few appointments it was sweet working with him. Even though he knows absolutely no Tagalog, the lessons were still awesome.
Sunday morning, before church I got "the news." President Stucki asked to have an interview with me before church. In that interview he extended to me the calling of Branch Executive Secretary. In sacrament meeting, CORON BECAME A BRANCH! Just three months and a day since we/the missionaries arrived in Coron, we received clearance to go ahead and form a branch! Brother Arnold, the group leader was called to be the Branch President with Elder Bagahansol as first counselor and Orlan Arbado as second, and me as Executive Secretary. It's crazy! Michael Arbado was called to be Elder's quorum president and Michael Jubilado as branch clerk. Crazy stuff! And that's all we have for now but I think we'll be extending more callings within a week. But the important thing is... CORON'S A BRANCH! We celebrated. Hopefully this is somewhat exciting to you guys reading this too, cuz I'm still pumped! (This means that there are enough members to formally organize their congregation )
Monday was Halloween and they don't celebrate it here. They do more of a Dia de los Muertos kinda thing on Nov 1st I think.. And it was Tyler Semples birthday! Happy birthday!
We flew to Manila this morning (Tuesday). And were able to eat fast food! and go to a mall! and see people! and go to the temple! It was a sweet day too! But tomorrow we get to meet Elder Ian S Ardern of the Seventy (he bashed Angry Birds in General Conference, haha). He's doing a mission tour of our mission and that's why we're in Manila, for a special mission conference. President asked me if I'd share my testimony in that meeting tomorrow, ugh! I gotta get up in front of like, at least half the mission (cuz they're having a couple difference meetings for different areas) and a General Authority and speak! Ugh! So hopefully that goes well, I guess you'll know next week.
So that's what's been up this week, it's been excitinggg! I have a ton of pics, but I couldn't send them, sorry! Next week you'll get a bunch though!
The End. WE'RE A BRANCH!
Love
Elder Michael Gadberry
PS -- The Cardinals won the World Series!!! =D WOOOOO!
Alright! What's up people!
It's been an exciting week! So I'm in Manila (9th plane flight of the mission, ha!) and I have no access to stuff to review what happened this past week so this will probably be a fairly short email telling you the exciting news of the week!
This week started off dumb though, I was stuck inside the apartment all day Tuesday cuz I was sick, it was annoyinggg! But then I pretty much got better and was able to work the rest of the week, so yay!
So this week we had two investigators (people interested in learning about the gospel) pray, and receive answers to their prayers regarding the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith. They were Angelo Cuizon and Florenze Lagrosa. We are pumped for them, its really exciting. But it was slightly overshadowed by the events later in the week.
So President and Sister Stucki (president over the entire mission of Manila) as well as one of his counselors, President Peterson and his wife, came to Coron on Saturday and Sunday. So we had to get the apartment all cleaned up for them of course, and that's when the excitement started. Robbins was cleaning the kitchen area and found a pretty huge spider just chillin right by his hand. Elder Osumo and I were hanging out, toying with his ukulele, when Elder Robbins let out quite the scream, it was hilarious and chaos ensued. Elder Bagahansol, being a man, picked up the blender it was on and took it outside and set it down. Shortly after he set it down, it came running back inside towards me, Robbins, and Osumo, so of course, we took off the other direction and ran out the front door. Bogs came to the rescue and swept him back outside, of course towards us for his entertainment. Eventually we got him on the broom and threw him into the woods and all was safe. But that was almost a crisis. The spider was nearly the size of Osumo's hand! I'll have pictures next week, I have a ton I need to send in general.
Saturday they got here, it was a great day! We received a little instruction from President and each of us had interviews with him. He's awesome! I love him. And his wife brought us stuff to make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch! It's been a longgg time! And she brought oreos and doritos and just the good stuff, it rocked. They also brought me two packages from you guys! And mail! It was a great day! Then President Stucki, went out and worked with us that night for a few appointments it was sweet working with him. Even though he knows absolutely no Tagalog, the lessons were still awesome.
Sunday morning, before church I got "the news." President Stucki asked to have an interview with me before church. In that interview he extended to me the calling of Branch Executive Secretary. In sacrament meeting, CORON BECAME A BRANCH! Just three months and a day since we/the missionaries arrived in Coron, we received clearance to go ahead and form a branch! Brother Arnold, the group leader was called to be the Branch President with Elder Bagahansol as first counselor and Orlan Arbado as second, and me as Executive Secretary. It's crazy! Michael Arbado was called to be Elder's quorum president and Michael Jubilado as branch clerk. Crazy stuff! And that's all we have for now but I think we'll be extending more callings within a week. But the important thing is... CORON'S A BRANCH! We celebrated. Hopefully this is somewhat exciting to you guys reading this too, cuz I'm still pumped! (This means that there are enough members to formally organize their congregation )
Monday was Halloween and they don't celebrate it here. They do more of a Dia de los Muertos kinda thing on Nov 1st I think.. And it was Tyler Semples birthday! Happy birthday!
We flew to Manila this morning (Tuesday). And were able to eat fast food! and go to a mall! and see people! and go to the temple! It was a sweet day too! But tomorrow we get to meet Elder Ian S Ardern of the Seventy (he bashed Angry Birds in General Conference, haha). He's doing a mission tour of our mission and that's why we're in Manila, for a special mission conference. President asked me if I'd share my testimony in that meeting tomorrow, ugh! I gotta get up in front of like, at least half the mission (cuz they're having a couple difference meetings for different areas) and a General Authority and speak! Ugh! So hopefully that goes well, I guess you'll know next week.
So that's what's been up this week, it's been excitinggg! I have a ton of pics, but I couldn't send them, sorry! Next week you'll get a bunch though!
The End. WE'RE A BRANCH!
Love
Elder Michael Gadberry
PS -- The Cardinals won the World Series!!! =D WOOOOO!
Friday, November 4, 2011
10-24-11 E-Mail!
What's up people!
So this week has been pretty good of course. Recently I've been trying to do better at recognizing the Lord's hand in my life and recognizing His tender mercies. And early in the week I had a pretty cool experience. So Monday, it was beautiful all day, which is perfect because we rely on warm weather to dry our clothes. Then that night, pretty close to right before we were going to bed the power went out, which random power outages are very common here. That was the worst time to lose power cuz without our fans blowing on us, it's nearly impossible to go sleep cuz it's so hot. So of course, when I prayed before going to bed I asked Heavenly Father to help us to be able to sleep in spite of the outage. Shortly after my prayer we hear thunder, which means we gotta get all our stuff from outside so they don't get rained on. We hurried up and did that and right when I got everything in it started pouringgg. Then the next morning the sun was back out and we were able to finish drying our clothes the next morning while we were studying. So essentially, Heavenly Father gave us a beautiful day on Monday, gave us rain Monday night so it would cool down some and we'd be able to sleep, and then gave us an awesome Tuesday too so we could finish drying our clothes it was awesome.
We've had some pretty cool progression with some investigators. Dante, his wife is a member, has grown to enjoy reading the Book of Mormon. He's an awesome guy but hasn't been progressing forever, cuz he's the dean at PSU here and is super busy. But in one of the times we visited him this week he told us that he feels differently when he reads the Book of Mormon and that he believes that the things in their are true. It was awesome and exciting to hear that from him. That was Tuesday also on Tuesday, me and Robbins decided we'd sit out on our back ledge thing and just look at the stars cuz they rock, and I saw a shooting star! It was legit cuz I never see shooting stars so I get pretty excited when I see one.
A lot of times, the afternoons here are rough. I really loathe some afternoons. We had a couple rough ones this week. The problem is the people here in the Philippines generally do three things: eat, sleep, and work. That's a generalization but its surprising how accurate it is sometimes. Especially in the afternoon everyone will either be working or sleeping. So there were a couple afternoons this week where we just wandered around trying to find someone home that was awake and home, those afternoons lasted forever!
On Thursday, Sister Singco's (lost member that's like 60 years old we found just a couple weeks ago) Christmas came early, she was soooo pumped when we brought her and Liahona magazine and a Gospel Principles book on Thursday, it was hilarious.
On Friday we rocked the Community Service again and it was pretty legit! We were clearing a vacant lot that had become overgrown. And I got to rock a machete for a solid three hours to clear it out! That's right, I'm legit. I got blisters from it, but it was totes worth it of course. We didn't make a whole lot of progress on the lot because it was pretty bad but it was still legit, and we saw these chameleon-ish lizards! They change colors like chameleons but they didn't look like chameleons.
Saturday and Sunday we had a District Conference (multi-congregational meeting)with a live broadcast from Puerto Princesa, so that was kinda cool. We decided when it was worldwide general conference that general conference is like the huge basketball game for missionaries and then this weekend we decided that District Conference was like the high school game, cuz there was still cool stuff but it wasn't as good as general conference of course. Then between district conference sessions they showed this video that was called like "Highlight from Conference" and me and Robbins quickly decided, "SportsCenter!" It was great! Repeatedly in District Conference, Coron got shout-outs. It was fun. We rock.
Sunday was umm...quite the day.
In the morning we had baptisms, it was awesome! They were the kids of Edna and Aurora. It was an awesome program and everything went really well. I baptized Kieth Luceriano and JR Albuera and Bogs baptized Rhea Mae Albuera and Shaine Luceriano. Then working that afternoon went pretty well too. When we were at Sister Pelayos, I wanted to share with her Alma 32:28 (maybe...about the seed). So I started trying to share and I was struggling. I looked at Bogs and I'm sure my face was pleading for him to say what I was trying to explain cuz that's how I felt. All he did was give me a couple words I didn't know. Gee thanks..haha So I turn back to Sister Pelayo expecting to explain very poorly and quickly to turn the time back over to Bogs. Well I started to try to explain it again, and it worked! I knew pretty much how to say and explain what I wanted to it was awesome! I just had to be patient.
But then that night craziness happened. We had choir practice (that's for another time...haha) and then afterwords everyone started to go home when Rhea Mae started like shaking and struggling to catch her breath. She couldn't really talk so we had no idea what she needed or what had happened. So the first thing we did was to give her a blessing. I anointed her with oil and immediately felt the Spirit calm me. Then when Elder Bogs and I laid our hands upon her head to seal it, I felt the Spirit very strongly again, probably calming me as much as anyone cuz in my head I'm like freaking out. We eventually got her to the hospital and I don't really know what they decided was wrong with her but they let her leave that night, but she was still pretty shook up. We haven't heard from them today so I don't know how she's doing now, but I'm pretty sure she's better and fine. It was quite the experience.
So that's pretty much this week. It's kinda short cuz I've got an earache right now for whatever and I wanna go home and not do anything...haha But it's been a pretty good week! I have pictures to send but this computer internet shop doesn't really cooperate with uploading pictures. So yeah, peace out homies!
Love
Elder Michael Gadberry
So this week has been pretty good of course. Recently I've been trying to do better at recognizing the Lord's hand in my life and recognizing His tender mercies. And early in the week I had a pretty cool experience. So Monday, it was beautiful all day, which is perfect because we rely on warm weather to dry our clothes. Then that night, pretty close to right before we were going to bed the power went out, which random power outages are very common here. That was the worst time to lose power cuz without our fans blowing on us, it's nearly impossible to go sleep cuz it's so hot. So of course, when I prayed before going to bed I asked Heavenly Father to help us to be able to sleep in spite of the outage. Shortly after my prayer we hear thunder, which means we gotta get all our stuff from outside so they don't get rained on. We hurried up and did that and right when I got everything in it started pouringgg. Then the next morning the sun was back out and we were able to finish drying our clothes the next morning while we were studying. So essentially, Heavenly Father gave us a beautiful day on Monday, gave us rain Monday night so it would cool down some and we'd be able to sleep, and then gave us an awesome Tuesday too so we could finish drying our clothes it was awesome.
We've had some pretty cool progression with some investigators. Dante, his wife is a member, has grown to enjoy reading the Book of Mormon. He's an awesome guy but hasn't been progressing forever, cuz he's the dean at PSU here and is super busy. But in one of the times we visited him this week he told us that he feels differently when he reads the Book of Mormon and that he believes that the things in their are true. It was awesome and exciting to hear that from him. That was Tuesday also on Tuesday, me and Robbins decided we'd sit out on our back ledge thing and just look at the stars cuz they rock, and I saw a shooting star! It was legit cuz I never see shooting stars so I get pretty excited when I see one.
A lot of times, the afternoons here are rough. I really loathe some afternoons. We had a couple rough ones this week. The problem is the people here in the Philippines generally do three things: eat, sleep, and work. That's a generalization but its surprising how accurate it is sometimes. Especially in the afternoon everyone will either be working or sleeping. So there were a couple afternoons this week where we just wandered around trying to find someone home that was awake and home, those afternoons lasted forever!
On Thursday, Sister Singco's (lost member that's like 60 years old we found just a couple weeks ago) Christmas came early, she was soooo pumped when we brought her and Liahona magazine and a Gospel Principles book on Thursday, it was hilarious.
On Friday we rocked the Community Service again and it was pretty legit! We were clearing a vacant lot that had become overgrown. And I got to rock a machete for a solid three hours to clear it out! That's right, I'm legit. I got blisters from it, but it was totes worth it of course. We didn't make a whole lot of progress on the lot because it was pretty bad but it was still legit, and we saw these chameleon-ish lizards! They change colors like chameleons but they didn't look like chameleons.
Saturday and Sunday we had a District Conference (multi-congregational meeting)with a live broadcast from Puerto Princesa, so that was kinda cool. We decided when it was worldwide general conference that general conference is like the huge basketball game for missionaries and then this weekend we decided that District Conference was like the high school game, cuz there was still cool stuff but it wasn't as good as general conference of course. Then between district conference sessions they showed this video that was called like "Highlight from Conference" and me and Robbins quickly decided, "SportsCenter!" It was great! Repeatedly in District Conference, Coron got shout-outs. It was fun. We rock.
Sunday was umm...quite the day.
In the morning we had baptisms, it was awesome! They were the kids of Edna and Aurora. It was an awesome program and everything went really well. I baptized Kieth Luceriano and JR Albuera and Bogs baptized Rhea Mae Albuera and Shaine Luceriano. Then working that afternoon went pretty well too. When we were at Sister Pelayos, I wanted to share with her Alma 32:28 (maybe...about the seed). So I started trying to share and I was struggling. I looked at Bogs and I'm sure my face was pleading for him to say what I was trying to explain cuz that's how I felt. All he did was give me a couple words I didn't know. Gee thanks..haha So I turn back to Sister Pelayo expecting to explain very poorly and quickly to turn the time back over to Bogs. Well I started to try to explain it again, and it worked! I knew pretty much how to say and explain what I wanted to it was awesome! I just had to be patient.
But then that night craziness happened. We had choir practice (that's for another time...haha) and then afterwords everyone started to go home when Rhea Mae started like shaking and struggling to catch her breath. She couldn't really talk so we had no idea what she needed or what had happened. So the first thing we did was to give her a blessing. I anointed her with oil and immediately felt the Spirit calm me. Then when Elder Bogs and I laid our hands upon her head to seal it, I felt the Spirit very strongly again, probably calming me as much as anyone cuz in my head I'm like freaking out. We eventually got her to the hospital and I don't really know what they decided was wrong with her but they let her leave that night, but she was still pretty shook up. We haven't heard from them today so I don't know how she's doing now, but I'm pretty sure she's better and fine. It was quite the experience.
So that's pretty much this week. It's kinda short cuz I've got an earache right now for whatever and I wanna go home and not do anything...haha But it's been a pretty good week! I have pictures to send but this computer internet shop doesn't really cooperate with uploading pictures. So yeah, peace out homies!
Love
Elder Michael Gadberry
Thursday, November 3, 2011
10-17-11 E-Mail!
Once again I've gotten behind on posting Michael's emails! Here is the latest...
What's up people!
This week has been awesome, but terrible, but frustrating, and I love it!
First things first, it was terrible because shortly after I got done emailing, last Monday, I got a haircut. By. Far. The. Worst. Haircut. I've. Ever. Gotten...................UGH. It was so bad, but you can kinda see it in my pictures. Robbins got his haircut first and it was super short so I told her to go longer and she said okay, and still cut it as short as Robbins's. I even stopped her and was like is that right? She said that she was just starting with that and would fix it later...so yeah not happy about my hair. Many people here say it still looks good, but that's just cuz I'm white...haha
This week was awesome and frustrating cuz I felt like we worked really hard and even focused more on getting more new investigators (people interested in their message) but the progress in that area is minimal. But I feel like the new investigators we have are good and our finding was effective for the most part. It's awesome cuz we had a great week, but frustrating cuz we didn't achieve the things we had hoped for. We still have the same problem that we have very little time for finding because of all the investigators we're visiting frequently to prepare for baptism. So yeah, its awesome but frustrating but mostly awesome, of course!
So as for more specific things that happened this week it goes like this: Well first of all I forgot my journal so I just have to go off my planner. But in my planner I always make a NtJ (Notes to Journal) little section for each day so I can keep track of cool stuff that happened to write it in my journal.
So Monday, I got that terrible haircut. The end. haha pretty much but this week I decided to buy apples and bananas rather than chocolate and cookies (that's how I really survive here hahaha). But yeah I made an attempt to go more healthy this week, but I don't like the fact that I can get 10 Choco-Moochos for about the same price as 3 apples... =( So we'll see how long going healthy lasts..haha I'll try to keep it up
Tuesday, nothing too exciting happened. Taught a bunch of lessons, received some referrals, you know the normal missionary stuff haha Oh and I saw huuuuge crabs, like the size of a frying pan it was legit!
Wednesday was pretty tight, though. It rained allll day! We got soaked but it made it a lot of fun haha People would inform us that it was raining but we would cheerfully respond that there was indeed no rain haha Or others would tell us that there was a storm (there was supposed to be a storm at 3 but it really just rained all day) and we would inform those people that Kami ay ang Bagyo (We are the storm!) haha it was fun. We had dinner at the Luceriano's and of course the ulam (in english ulam means "anything you eat with or on rice" good thing its just one word in Tagalog) was fish. They made sure I tried this one fish that was just little small fish like the length of a digital camera (I say that cuz I see my camera right here) that were caught and then, simply just dried in the sun (I'm pretty sure that's actually how it happens). They were tough and salty and fairly weird but not that bad. It was just weird cuz it was like the whole fish, head, tail, skin, the whole thing. Then later that night we had a lesson at the Jucaban's. It was a great lesson and towards the end I felt that I should share something (I've forgotten what it was) but I didn't know how to say most of the stuff or the story in Tagalog so I asked if it was okay that I tell it in English then my companion would translate. It was legit cuz I knew the Spirit had prompted me to share that, and even helped them understand cuz they understood completely the part of the lesson I shared in English, legit!
Thursday was pretty solid. When we got to the Luceriano's to share with them, they told us that Ekay could now read. So apparently what she does is every time she sees a book she picks it up and looks at it like she's reading and "reads" "Ang Aklat ni Mormon." It was pretty hilarious. Also, ever since my falling through that one tulay, every time we leave somewhere in parting it is customary to say ingot kayo or whoever. Ingot literally means like be careful but here its just like take care/cya later/bye. So for me they always say, "Bye Elder, Ingot sa tulay!" Its actually pretty funny.
Friday was Elder Bagahansol's birthday! Woo! It's legit cuz when you're companion has a birthday its practically your birthday too cuz everyone like gives them food and what not and that includes you too haha. For service we cleaned the cement outside our apartment mostly on the road outside our apartment as well as the cement outside the church. We did this for three hours with little brushes (see my hand in one of the pictures). I think it was an old school punishment/threat to like clean the sidewalk or floor or somethin with a toothbrush, well that's pretty much what we did haha. But it was actually pretty fun/cool/not too bad. While I was scrubbing I thought of what I thought was a cool analogy that I will proceed to share with you if that's okay. Okay, great. (If you don't wanna read it skip some lines and continue). So we're scrubbing the cement to get rid of the moss and gunk on the cement that had formed making it really slick, especially when wet. To clean the cement you first dump a little bit of water on the cement, then you scrub and scrub and scrub, and then you dump more water on it to wash away the dirt and stuff that you just scrubbed off. The connection I made was with the Atonement and repentance. The first thing you need to repent is faith in Jesus Christ and His Atoning sacrifice. You have to believe that he atoned for our sins and can make us clean again. That is the initial bit of water. Next you have to scrub and scrub and scrub; you gotta do your part. You have to do your part to get the dirt off and remove ourselves from sin. Then after you've done all you need to, you simply wash it away, gain through Jesus Christ. When I started the quest to clean the cement, it felt somewhat worthless, and I knew it was going to be a lot of work. But wow, grey never looked so good to me as I would dump water on the nasty brownish/green and it would reveal a fresh cement, beautiful grey. And so it is with repentance. I couldn't have done it without the water, and it would've been worthless to expect it to be clean without work on my part. The two go hand in hand, faith and works. The Savior is ever ready to cleanse of sin, no matter how hopeless it seems, but we must always remember to do our part and take the necessary action to forget and forsake the sin in order for it to qualify as true repentance and to achieve true forgiveness. THE END (for those of you that skipped that) So yeah I thought it was a kinda cool analogy, so I shared it to you, my captive audience. After service, we went to the Duran's for lunch cuz they wanted us to eat there cuz it was Bogs's birthday. Upon leaving, Robbins fell through the tulay! Woo it was me! So yeah that was exciting, he too stayed dry but it was funny nonetheless. We also received mail on Friday! I got some mail and I loved it! Shout out to all you that wrote me/are writing me! I heart you! And I plan on writing you back, but I can't do that until someone leaves Coron to go to Manila. So yeah, Friday rocked!
Saturday was legit too of course. Earlier this week I made the mistake of introducing that primary Latter-Day Prophets song to Aurora's kids and the other Manggahan kids cuz now everyyyyy time I go there I'm expected to sing that song, I don't even know why! It's not like like a vocally impressive song or anything like that but I'm forced to sing it every visit. Also, for anyone that cares the stars out here are amazinggg! At night I sometimes/somewhat frequently walk along the road just looking up at the stars, yeah its legit. You're totes jelly right? I knew you were.
Sunday, I not only heard a conference talk about the tender mercies of the Lord but I witnessed it first hand! So we were watching conference at 3, but Bogs and I had an appointment at 1 that didn't actually happen till like 1:30. Then we needed to go and invite people to conference/Group FHE on Monday. I thought it was worthless cuz by the time we got to Aurora's it was already 3, and I wasn't very happy about missing some conference. So we invited them and Edna's family too which is another trip before we could go to the church. So we finally got there at like 3:30 and what had happened is for whatever reason the people at the church had started watching the Sunday Afternoon Session of April's General Conference...so we walked in during the prayer of this conference's Sunday Afternoon Session. So we didn't really miss anything! I was pumped! And then later, Sister Aurora even showed up to watch even though she was late. So it was a successful trip and I didn't miss conference. =D Aurora's little kid, Renz gave me a quail egg to eat, so that was a first, nothing too special though. That night we went to the Jucaban's again and it was another awesome lesson! Everything just flowed so well, and when it was my turn my mouth was filled with the words that I felt I needed to say. Then at the end of the lesson I thought of another analogy that I felt I should share, and kinda tried in Tagalog but I had no idea how to say half the stuff so I just did it in English, and they understood it just fine again. It was awesome.
So yeah, that was my week its been great! As far as transfers go, I think I'm safe! The ZLs told us that we're all staying here! So we're pumped but of course that could change last second. As far as eating goes, the fish and stuff here isn't too bad, but I still am American in that I don't like taking time to make food and what not. So if we're just eating at the apartment its usually just like these noodles that are the same as Raman Noodles, plus its cheaper that way. But I'm yet to eat something that tastes horrible here. The gift of tongues? Maybe the Lord has blessed my tongue as far as food goes, and that's why the language is still frustrating and annoying that I can't say all that I want to say. Mostly its just frustrating that I'm not comfortable enough to say things how I want to say them. I can work my way to say most everything I need to say, but its annoying that I can't say things how I want to or how everyone else does, still learning and adapting, but I'm learning a lot and its coming along really well still. I'll stop talking now. Oh and the Sunday Afternoon Session was AWESOME too. I just didn't expound on it, sorry!
Love
Elder Michael Gadberry
Pictures
1074-1077 -- Service!
1081-1086 -- Yep, that's my Firebolt. I'm legit.
1091-1095 -- The restaurant, Manneken Pis, for Bogs's birthday. We go there fairly often and the people there love us. So they decked it out for his birthday it was legit.
1096 -- Awww! Little kittens! hahaha These are my friends at the Maanyo's house. Me and Rafael play with them when we go there. Well its more like I hold them and try to protect them from the hands of a heartless two-year old. haha
What's up people!
This week has been awesome, but terrible, but frustrating, and I love it!
First things first, it was terrible because shortly after I got done emailing, last Monday, I got a haircut. By. Far. The. Worst. Haircut. I've. Ever. Gotten...................UGH. It was so bad, but you can kinda see it in my pictures. Robbins got his haircut first and it was super short so I told her to go longer and she said okay, and still cut it as short as Robbins's. I even stopped her and was like is that right? She said that she was just starting with that and would fix it later...so yeah not happy about my hair. Many people here say it still looks good, but that's just cuz I'm white...haha
This week was awesome and frustrating cuz I felt like we worked really hard and even focused more on getting more new investigators (people interested in their message) but the progress in that area is minimal. But I feel like the new investigators we have are good and our finding was effective for the most part. It's awesome cuz we had a great week, but frustrating cuz we didn't achieve the things we had hoped for. We still have the same problem that we have very little time for finding because of all the investigators we're visiting frequently to prepare for baptism. So yeah, its awesome but frustrating but mostly awesome, of course!
So as for more specific things that happened this week it goes like this: Well first of all I forgot my journal so I just have to go off my planner. But in my planner I always make a NtJ (Notes to Journal) little section for each day so I can keep track of cool stuff that happened to write it in my journal.
So Monday, I got that terrible haircut. The end. haha pretty much but this week I decided to buy apples and bananas rather than chocolate and cookies (that's how I really survive here hahaha). But yeah I made an attempt to go more healthy this week, but I don't like the fact that I can get 10 Choco-Moochos for about the same price as 3 apples... =( So we'll see how long going healthy lasts..haha I'll try to keep it up
Tuesday, nothing too exciting happened. Taught a bunch of lessons, received some referrals, you know the normal missionary stuff haha Oh and I saw huuuuge crabs, like the size of a frying pan it was legit!
Wednesday was pretty tight, though. It rained allll day! We got soaked but it made it a lot of fun haha People would inform us that it was raining but we would cheerfully respond that there was indeed no rain haha Or others would tell us that there was a storm (there was supposed to be a storm at 3 but it really just rained all day) and we would inform those people that Kami ay ang Bagyo (We are the storm!) haha it was fun. We had dinner at the Luceriano's and of course the ulam (in english ulam means "anything you eat with or on rice" good thing its just one word in Tagalog) was fish. They made sure I tried this one fish that was just little small fish like the length of a digital camera (I say that cuz I see my camera right here) that were caught and then, simply just dried in the sun (I'm pretty sure that's actually how it happens). They were tough and salty and fairly weird but not that bad. It was just weird cuz it was like the whole fish, head, tail, skin, the whole thing. Then later that night we had a lesson at the Jucaban's. It was a great lesson and towards the end I felt that I should share something (I've forgotten what it was) but I didn't know how to say most of the stuff or the story in Tagalog so I asked if it was okay that I tell it in English then my companion would translate. It was legit cuz I knew the Spirit had prompted me to share that, and even helped them understand cuz they understood completely the part of the lesson I shared in English, legit!
Thursday was pretty solid. When we got to the Luceriano's to share with them, they told us that Ekay could now read. So apparently what she does is every time she sees a book she picks it up and looks at it like she's reading and "reads" "Ang Aklat ni Mormon." It was pretty hilarious. Also, ever since my falling through that one tulay, every time we leave somewhere in parting it is customary to say ingot kayo or whoever. Ingot literally means like be careful but here its just like take care/cya later/bye. So for me they always say, "Bye Elder, Ingot sa tulay!" Its actually pretty funny.
Friday was Elder Bagahansol's birthday! Woo! It's legit cuz when you're companion has a birthday its practically your birthday too cuz everyone like gives them food and what not and that includes you too haha. For service we cleaned the cement outside our apartment mostly on the road outside our apartment as well as the cement outside the church. We did this for three hours with little brushes (see my hand in one of the pictures). I think it was an old school punishment/threat to like clean the sidewalk or floor or somethin with a toothbrush, well that's pretty much what we did haha. But it was actually pretty fun/cool/not too bad. While I was scrubbing I thought of what I thought was a cool analogy that I will proceed to share with you if that's okay. Okay, great. (If you don't wanna read it skip some lines and continue). So we're scrubbing the cement to get rid of the moss and gunk on the cement that had formed making it really slick, especially when wet. To clean the cement you first dump a little bit of water on the cement, then you scrub and scrub and scrub, and then you dump more water on it to wash away the dirt and stuff that you just scrubbed off. The connection I made was with the Atonement and repentance. The first thing you need to repent is faith in Jesus Christ and His Atoning sacrifice. You have to believe that he atoned for our sins and can make us clean again. That is the initial bit of water. Next you have to scrub and scrub and scrub; you gotta do your part. You have to do your part to get the dirt off and remove ourselves from sin. Then after you've done all you need to, you simply wash it away, gain through Jesus Christ. When I started the quest to clean the cement, it felt somewhat worthless, and I knew it was going to be a lot of work. But wow, grey never looked so good to me as I would dump water on the nasty brownish/green and it would reveal a fresh cement, beautiful grey. And so it is with repentance. I couldn't have done it without the water, and it would've been worthless to expect it to be clean without work on my part. The two go hand in hand, faith and works. The Savior is ever ready to cleanse of sin, no matter how hopeless it seems, but we must always remember to do our part and take the necessary action to forget and forsake the sin in order for it to qualify as true repentance and to achieve true forgiveness. THE END (for those of you that skipped that) So yeah I thought it was a kinda cool analogy, so I shared it to you, my captive audience. After service, we went to the Duran's for lunch cuz they wanted us to eat there cuz it was Bogs's birthday. Upon leaving, Robbins fell through the tulay! Woo it was me! So yeah that was exciting, he too stayed dry but it was funny nonetheless. We also received mail on Friday! I got some mail and I loved it! Shout out to all you that wrote me/are writing me! I heart you! And I plan on writing you back, but I can't do that until someone leaves Coron to go to Manila. So yeah, Friday rocked!
Saturday was legit too of course. Earlier this week I made the mistake of introducing that primary Latter-Day Prophets song to Aurora's kids and the other Manggahan kids cuz now everyyyyy time I go there I'm expected to sing that song, I don't even know why! It's not like like a vocally impressive song or anything like that but I'm forced to sing it every visit. Also, for anyone that cares the stars out here are amazinggg! At night I sometimes/somewhat frequently walk along the road just looking up at the stars, yeah its legit. You're totes jelly right? I knew you were.
Sunday, I not only heard a conference talk about the tender mercies of the Lord but I witnessed it first hand! So we were watching conference at 3, but Bogs and I had an appointment at 1 that didn't actually happen till like 1:30. Then we needed to go and invite people to conference/Group FHE on Monday. I thought it was worthless cuz by the time we got to Aurora's it was already 3, and I wasn't very happy about missing some conference. So we invited them and Edna's family too which is another trip before we could go to the church. So we finally got there at like 3:30 and what had happened is for whatever reason the people at the church had started watching the Sunday Afternoon Session of April's General Conference...so we walked in during the prayer of this conference's Sunday Afternoon Session. So we didn't really miss anything! I was pumped! And then later, Sister Aurora even showed up to watch even though she was late. So it was a successful trip and I didn't miss conference. =D Aurora's little kid, Renz gave me a quail egg to eat, so that was a first, nothing too special though. That night we went to the Jucaban's again and it was another awesome lesson! Everything just flowed so well, and when it was my turn my mouth was filled with the words that I felt I needed to say. Then at the end of the lesson I thought of another analogy that I felt I should share, and kinda tried in Tagalog but I had no idea how to say half the stuff so I just did it in English, and they understood it just fine again. It was awesome.
So yeah, that was my week its been great! As far as transfers go, I think I'm safe! The ZLs told us that we're all staying here! So we're pumped but of course that could change last second. As far as eating goes, the fish and stuff here isn't too bad, but I still am American in that I don't like taking time to make food and what not. So if we're just eating at the apartment its usually just like these noodles that are the same as Raman Noodles, plus its cheaper that way. But I'm yet to eat something that tastes horrible here. The gift of tongues? Maybe the Lord has blessed my tongue as far as food goes, and that's why the language is still frustrating and annoying that I can't say all that I want to say. Mostly its just frustrating that I'm not comfortable enough to say things how I want to say them. I can work my way to say most everything I need to say, but its annoying that I can't say things how I want to or how everyone else does, still learning and adapting, but I'm learning a lot and its coming along really well still. I'll stop talking now. Oh and the Sunday Afternoon Session was AWESOME too. I just didn't expound on it, sorry!
Love
Elder Michael Gadberry
Pictures
1074-1077 -- Service!
1081-1086 -- Yep, that's my Firebolt. I'm legit.
1091-1095 -- The restaurant, Manneken Pis, for Bogs's birthday. We go there fairly often and the people there love us. So they decked it out for his birthday it was legit.
1096 -- Awww! Little kittens! hahaha These are my friends at the Maanyo's house. Me and Rafael play with them when we go there. Well its more like I hold them and try to protect them from the hands of a heartless two-year old. haha
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