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| 3-10-12 |
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
3-10-12 E-mail
Dear beloved friends and family,
I really do appreciate you more than you know.
Love,
Elder Michael Gadberry
So yal'll this week has been pretty great! Don't worry I don't think I'mma be writin nearly as much as last week...That last one was a novellll! haha But it was great right? Just nod your head. Thanks!
So....my parents like didn't email me this week. Well my dad sent a short one and he only asked one question so of course, I'll answer that first. He said, "Spring training is in full swing. Spring games are happening. Jaron told me that you gave away your Cardinal hat! Who did you give it to???"
It's true. It seems strange that I would ever do that right? haha But I don't know, lots of people love hats here but they don't really have any good ones (meaning both quality and team wise (ie There's very little Cardinal hats)), so I gave mine to Brother Tonton out in Coron cuz he's awesome! He became one of my best friends out there, I'll tell you a little bit about him. I think he was baptized with his family when he was eight in Puerto Princesa. But fell away from the church during his teenage years. Got into basketball, and bad friends, and eventually wound up living a life that included drinking nearly every night and smoking 1-2 packs of cigarettes a day. Well fast-forward to 2011, he's I think 23, and he tells President Nepomuceno that he wants to change. So Pres hires him for his company and brings him out to Coron. From his first day in Coron he hasn't touched cigarettes or alcohol again. He's completely determined to serve a mission, working with the missionaries out there as much as he can around work, and often times passing up going to like social things to stay home and read the scriptures. He's an AWESOME example to me, and even wrote in my BR that I was the biggest help to him and taught him how to teach and how to testify. Such an incredible compliment to me, who's still long from being perfect at any sort of teaching. Well, anyways he took a liking to my hat, and it was "bagay sa kanya" (essentially it looked good on him/meant for kinda thing) so before I left I gave it to him. He's still doin great and he's puttin his mission papers in July and it's exciting! He's probably one of the hardest-working and happiest people I know. He's always laughing and just loving life now, it's so great! =D
This is him:
So let's get to the past week shall we? Well I first gotta tell you a fairly embarrassing story that you're goin judge me for, but it was awesome! So last preparation day after we got done emailing Elder Spencer and I walked the twenty feet to get to the chapel so he could practice/teach-himself-how-to-play piano. I was like cool. This will give me a chance to sit down and write some letters and there's even a basketball game going right outside the window that I can watch a bit, sweet! So I sit down and start writing the Demers (finally, huh? haha). Well I get about a paragraph into it and I can't bare it anymore...I HAD to go change and play basketball... (Sorry!! =) ). So I went and got my stuff out of the car and got ready to play. Well...I forgot two things. . .socks and shoes. Hmm...Well I just rocked my church socks (I was wearing tall navy blue socks that day, to make it worse my shorts were black...not good) and then Elder Spencer let me borrow his old athletic shoes of his that just hang out here at the office that are size 12! haha So I was like whatever, half these Filipinos are playing in flip-flops anyways (one of these days I'll have to tell you guys how much Filipinos LOVE the game of basketball it's really unreal, but for today just realize that they LOVE the game and will play with anything). So I get over there, and right away they let me in! I was pumped! Especially cuz it's like 5 and we have a ward mission fireside at 6..haha So I got to play for a while! It was so fun! I was doin my thing, rocking the passing show just cuz I love to pass. And it's funny cuz here even for a pick-up game you get like an audience that will just stand around and watch like the whole time, so that made it kinda fun. Well eventually I found out it was like 5:45, so I subbed myself out and had to hurry and get ready. Well obviously I dont have time to shower, and there's no showers at the church...so yeah. I had to rock the try-my-best-to-clean-up-given-the-circumstances but hey I found some Fe-breeze that I used to make it a little better. It was pretty bad, but hey it's the Philippines, not exactly the best smelling country in the world...haha So I felt like a grime ball, but it was totally worth it. Don't judge me. =) Well we made it to the Fireside at like umm..6:30 to find just a few people hangin out waiting to start. Yeah, like no one showed up..haha Finally a few people trickled in and started an hour and half late at 7:30. But the fireside itself was pretty good! I enjoyed it.
Sunday was sad.. =( But great of course! But we got to church and all that jazz. And no one that we've been teaching showed up! We thought for sure the Locanlale family were coming cuz they said they were! So we think that they probably had a good excuse but we're not too sure cuz we haven't been able to visit them yet this week. We tried a couple times but they weren't around/they were closed up cuz it was late-ish. But Sunday was tight, I got to talk to one of the new elders that we just got for while cuz he's serving int he same ward as us (there's four missionaries in our ward). His name is Elder Pascual and he's from down in Mindoro. He's so legit! He's only here till this upcoming Monday. And then he's shipping off to the Provo MTC (if you're in Provo look for him!) cuz he's gotta learn English cuz he's been assigned to serve in the Salt Lake City South Mission! He's such a cool guy. He thinks we're the coolest ever cuz we come over here and have to learn a language and adjust to food, culture, money, and everything. And I'm like you're doin the same thing in the States! And we just hit it off really well and I'm excited but sorry to have him leavin so soon. (Parent's please exclude this next remark but I figured you guys should know this: But while I was talkin to him I found out he's from a family of 10 (one of his little brothers died). He is the first missionary in his family. And his companion said that his family really doesn't have too much money. I also found out, he doesn't have luggage and he only has one suit. So first I asked Jackson how many suits they use in Utah and he said he has 3-4 and most people have that many but a few have 2 and he knows one person that only has 1 but it's super hard for him cuz he can't even get it dry cleaned cuz he only has one. So I talked to President Stucki about it and asked him if there would be a way that I could give him my suit cuz it should fit him, and told him the situation and he actually said that he wants to help him/the mission can help him. So we worked it out where we got him some money to go buy two more suits and some luggage. But I told Elder Pascual that since they only had a few days to find everything that if he couldn't find a suit that he could have mine. So I haven't heard from them weather they were successful or not but if they weren't I'll have to buy a new suit out here before I go home, just a heads up maybe. Hope that's okay! =/ ) So then later that evening I sat down to do some more studies and wanted to study from last General Conference. I opened my studies with a prayer (see Preach My Gospel..haha) and actually felt inspired to read President Uchtdorf's talk from the General Relief Society entitled Forget Me Not. Oh geez, it was soooo good! Like seriously, read it. That's it. Thank you =D
Monday rolled around and I was kinda worrying. Because I told the Spencer's that they would for sure have those checks they needed on Monday and I even committed to driving the checks to them that afternoon because they were "coding" (meaning their license plate says it's illegal for them to drive in Makati) on Monday. So I reallyyyy needed the checks to be there. Well, they were there! I was pumped! So then we drove to San Pedro, it was the first time either of us had driven there and driving here it napaka-confusing (ie super confusing). Well, we only got lost like twice. But we made it! It was actually a little blessing (I'm trying to notice those more) how things all worked out cuz Sister Venus from the Area Office was supposed to come down and train me. Well I forgot about that when I said I would drive to San Pedro, so I emailed Venus and it actually worked out well cuz she was having her daughter's bday party that day anyways. So the rest of the day was pretty normal just did some office work. And then the Assistant's brought us home Indian food made by one of our Indian Sisters in the mission and that was our dinner and it was great! It's weird how lots of food actually tastes good. haha
Tuesday was more of the same. Having to deal with more and more people now, I've come to more appreciate the nice ones. I had to tell one of the apartment owners that we didn't have a new contract or another rent payment for her cuz the missionaries in that apartment might be moving. And I wasn't looking forward to this conversation. But she was super nice! I was like seriously super grateful for that, and now I hope that they don't move cuz she's nice! haha Venus came in in the afternoon to start my training. It was kinda hard cuz it was mostly Tagalog, well mostly Taglish, but it went super well! They usually reserve two days for training, well we knocked it out in three hours. I'm not too sure what that means, but hey it let us both get more work done this week. Then that evening, Elder Spencer kinda backed into someones car...but there was no damage or anything so it's all good but yeah..I already drive 95% of the time but now it'll probably be even more. He just does not like driving. Good thing I still love it! =D
Wednesday was the day that the Spencers were supposed to get the other check that they've been waiting for for like 3 weeks...So of course we had bank issues again! UGH! I hateeee telling the Spencers that their checks aren't available....It's not my fault! This time the person that's supposed to approve the checks wasn't there so we had to wait till tomorrow to get them approved I guess. This was also the day that I saved the entire Philippines! Okay well...I saved all the missions in the Philippines! Well, maybe more accurately stated it would be I may have helped a few financial secretaries here in the Philippines if they haven't figured it out already or if they even care...haha But when Venus and I were training we were training to figure something out on iMOS, well we couldn't figure out how it worked. So on Wednesday I was kinda playin around with iMOS and I figured it out! And I was like Venus! I figured it out! And sent her an email and then she sent it to all the Missions here in the Philippines. So yeah...legit? I think so. hahaha
Thursday started off great. On Tue and Thur we have to get to the office early at 8 because the Dietrich's go up to the Area Office and get mail and whatever else. So I got to the Office and started my Personal Study there. It was great! I was sittin at my computer so I had my scriptures with me and could use the computer to cross reference scriptures and I also found that you can download the new Book of Mormon manuals from lds.org, so I did that. That was the manual that was suggested for BoM class last year, that I bought and then umm kinda never used...Well now I know it's awesome! So use it! After studies I got my little blessing of Thursday. President Stucki called the office looking for Sister Dietrich and she wasn't there, but he remembered that he was going to send me some SSS information that I needed to help figure that stuff out. I had made note to ask him about it, but probably would have forgotten throughout the course of the day. But just out of the blue he called and got it to me! Thanks! Well I was FINALLY able to get that other check to the Spencers, but things just can't go how they're supposed to be can they? At least not with this check they can't. So because of the confusion with the check iMOS ended up printing the check twice. So the checks worth double than what it's supposed to be...haha Well, hopefully the owner will take it and be happy. And hopefully we won't forget to pay them again in like November. haha Well all is good now cuz the Spencers are happy and I got brownies from them haha That evening I learned another thing I'm goin learn in the office. This one's about leadership. I feel like I kinda know how to lead already to an extent because of all my athletics experiences and whatever else. Well here, I've realized that I have to kinda figure out how to lead myself, per say. Because now I don't have teammates to push on, I don't have people to gauge myself off of, I'm alone. It's up to me to figure out how much I can do, and find my limitations and to make sure I'm not slacking off. It's kinda weird. But definitely something to learn. I miss teammates..haha
Friday, I got another blessing! Well I got like tons of blessings everyday but I'm really bad at noticing and being grateful for them.. =( Well I got a text from President Nepomuceno in Coron, asking about the stuff that he had sent to the office and needed us to do. Well, I'd been super busy with other stuff that I had forgotten needed to be done for the Area Office, so I hadn't gotten around to doing that for him yet. So...he actually did what I shoulda done for me, and figured out that I just have to send the receipts back to him. Yay! Now I don't have to worry about that either! Thanks! And thanks to my parents being awesome, and sending me EFY CDs, I heard a song that was legit and super true! (All Times, All Things, All Places - EFY 2006) The lyrics go like "It's not in the letter, i can't wait to open. It's nor in the badge that will carry his name. It's not gonna in just three weeks of study Or magically come when I get on a plane, So today I'm becoming who I'm meant to be, The worthy unshakeable witness he needs." I guess to a certain extent I thought it would all just come to me once I became a missionary, I would somehow magically be great! But definitely not true. Surprise! I'm still me! haha But looking back there's so much more I wish I had done to better prepare myself so I can do as much as I can, but hey what's done is done, and I'm doin my best with what I've got and at the same time working super hard to make myself as good as I can so I can do as much as I can for the Lord in the short two years I have to give to him. Later that day, I was working on the Monthly Reports that needed to be done for the Area Office. I did all I could, and admittedly, I was a little lost and didn't know where to go from there. So I was like Venus! Help! I'm kinda lost and don't know where to go from here! She emailed me back and was like you did great elder! That's actually way way more than you needed to do, thanks! I was like YES! Also, yesterday I talked to Elder Spencer a lot about life and growing up and I realized again how AWESOME! my friends are! I'm so grateful for them all! I told him all about what we did growing up and all that jazz and Spence was just like man...I wish I had awesome friends like yours. And I'm like yeah...my friends pretty much rock. Thanks everyone! You all seriously do!
News for today, I bought my first pair of fake Ray Bans. They're red and cost me approximately $2.10. hahaha. My goal is to just over time collect a bunch of them so I can coordinate with all my outfits! #ImSoCool! haha Also, I had an impulse/craving buy. I totally bought Pop-Tarts this morning! How great is that?? haha I'm pumped regardless Also, I got contact from an apartment owner looking for Elder Castillo. Um yeah...I'm the replacement of his replacement...haha Elder Stirland totally called that that would happen sometime. So props to him.
Well that's about it! We get to go to a baptism soon for one of the Sister's in our district and then we're gettin fed afterwards. Woo! #Pumped haha I kinda miss Twitter..haha But all's good here! Love you all and miss you all! Thanks!
Love
Elder Michael Gadberry
Pictures
0001 - After a few weeks without a door, we got a cool new half door thingy!
0003 - Elder Spencer is super good at drawing. He just saw this picture on the internet and wanted to draw it. And he finished and gave it to me. So yeah, so now I have the girl no one knows. He likes to draw and then not keep whatever it was that he drew so that's why I got that one.
0005 - Yeah, I don't know what's up with that....
0011 - Okay...this is one reason why I don't know if I could work in an office the rest of my life. I just get so bored of just sitting in the chair all day! I gotta switch it up.
4787/4788 - So we've taken a liking to this drink cuz it's super cheap and it's not water...haha Well just the other week I realized that in one bottle of that you get over 6 days worth of Vitamin C, each bottle is equivalent to 8 oranges, and there's 1 mg of Vitamin C in each bottle for every 1 mL per bottle. This stuff is great! .....maybe. haha
4790 - The cool new 1 piso coin! It's pretty legit!
4791/4792 - So these are the sisters who are having the baptism. They asked Elder Spencer to make a program for them. He didn't really want to, so I said I would. I was joking with them and said I was just going to put a big picture of me on it, and they're like just make sure you have us on there too! Well, it turns out that Elder Spencer did make the program (pretty good huh?) and so I told him I needed to changed all the pictures. So I changed all the pictures to those ones and printed off a couple of those to freak out the sisters. It totally worked! It was hilarious, they loved it.
4793 - Having a green blinker is definitely not legal in the states. But there's a ton of stuff like it here! haha
4794 - Surprise! This is Elder Koochin our beloved District Leader and my batch! Elder Victorio was disappointed that he wasn't included on the fake baptismal program so he insisted that we take a picture to replace the one with me and Elder Stirland since he's gone now. #NoLove haha
4799 - Stolen from Spence. Eating at the Indian place way back
4812 - Stolen from Spence. I'm doing the dishes, I think! I actually kinda like doing the dishes...or at least more than other stuff for whatever reason
4827 - Stolen from Spence. A better District Picture from last transfer
I really do appreciate you more than you know.
Love,
Elder Michael Gadberry
So yal'll this week has been pretty great! Don't worry I don't think I'mma be writin nearly as much as last week...That last one was a novellll! haha But it was great right? Just nod your head. Thanks!
So....my parents like didn't email me this week. Well my dad sent a short one and he only asked one question so of course, I'll answer that first. He said, "Spring training is in full swing. Spring games are happening. Jaron told me that you gave away your Cardinal hat! Who did you give it to???"
It's true. It seems strange that I would ever do that right? haha But I don't know, lots of people love hats here but they don't really have any good ones (meaning both quality and team wise (ie There's very little Cardinal hats)), so I gave mine to Brother Tonton out in Coron cuz he's awesome! He became one of my best friends out there, I'll tell you a little bit about him. I think he was baptized with his family when he was eight in Puerto Princesa. But fell away from the church during his teenage years. Got into basketball, and bad friends, and eventually wound up living a life that included drinking nearly every night and smoking 1-2 packs of cigarettes a day. Well fast-forward to 2011, he's I think 23, and he tells President Nepomuceno that he wants to change. So Pres hires him for his company and brings him out to Coron. From his first day in Coron he hasn't touched cigarettes or alcohol again. He's completely determined to serve a mission, working with the missionaries out there as much as he can around work, and often times passing up going to like social things to stay home and read the scriptures. He's an AWESOME example to me, and even wrote in my BR that I was the biggest help to him and taught him how to teach and how to testify. Such an incredible compliment to me, who's still long from being perfect at any sort of teaching. Well, anyways he took a liking to my hat, and it was "bagay sa kanya" (essentially it looked good on him/meant for kinda thing) so before I left I gave it to him. He's still doin great and he's puttin his mission papers in July and it's exciting! He's probably one of the hardest-working and happiest people I know. He's always laughing and just loving life now, it's so great! =D
This is him:
So let's get to the past week shall we? Well I first gotta tell you a fairly embarrassing story that you're goin judge me for, but it was awesome! So last preparation day after we got done emailing Elder Spencer and I walked the twenty feet to get to the chapel so he could practice/teach-himself-how-to-play piano. I was like cool. This will give me a chance to sit down and write some letters and there's even a basketball game going right outside the window that I can watch a bit, sweet! So I sit down and start writing the Demers (finally, huh? haha). Well I get about a paragraph into it and I can't bare it anymore...I HAD to go change and play basketball... (Sorry!! =) ). So I went and got my stuff out of the car and got ready to play. Well...I forgot two things. . .socks and shoes. Hmm...Well I just rocked my church socks (I was wearing tall navy blue socks that day, to make it worse my shorts were black...not good) and then Elder Spencer let me borrow his old athletic shoes of his that just hang out here at the office that are size 12! haha So I was like whatever, half these Filipinos are playing in flip-flops anyways (one of these days I'll have to tell you guys how much Filipinos LOVE the game of basketball it's really unreal, but for today just realize that they LOVE the game and will play with anything). So I get over there, and right away they let me in! I was pumped! Especially cuz it's like 5 and we have a ward mission fireside at 6..haha So I got to play for a while! It was so fun! I was doin my thing, rocking the passing show just cuz I love to pass. And it's funny cuz here even for a pick-up game you get like an audience that will just stand around and watch like the whole time, so that made it kinda fun. Well eventually I found out it was like 5:45, so I subbed myself out and had to hurry and get ready. Well obviously I dont have time to shower, and there's no showers at the church...so yeah. I had to rock the try-my-best-to-clean-up-given-the-circumstances but hey I found some Fe-breeze that I used to make it a little better. It was pretty bad, but hey it's the Philippines, not exactly the best smelling country in the world...haha So I felt like a grime ball, but it was totally worth it. Don't judge me. =) Well we made it to the Fireside at like umm..6:30 to find just a few people hangin out waiting to start. Yeah, like no one showed up..haha Finally a few people trickled in and started an hour and half late at 7:30. But the fireside itself was pretty good! I enjoyed it.
Sunday was sad.. =( But great of course! But we got to church and all that jazz. And no one that we've been teaching showed up! We thought for sure the Locanlale family were coming cuz they said they were! So we think that they probably had a good excuse but we're not too sure cuz we haven't been able to visit them yet this week. We tried a couple times but they weren't around/they were closed up cuz it was late-ish. But Sunday was tight, I got to talk to one of the new elders that we just got for while cuz he's serving int he same ward as us (there's four missionaries in our ward). His name is Elder Pascual and he's from down in Mindoro. He's so legit! He's only here till this upcoming Monday. And then he's shipping off to the Provo MTC (if you're in Provo look for him!) cuz he's gotta learn English cuz he's been assigned to serve in the Salt Lake City South Mission! He's such a cool guy. He thinks we're the coolest ever cuz we come over here and have to learn a language and adjust to food, culture, money, and everything. And I'm like you're doin the same thing in the States! And we just hit it off really well and I'm excited but sorry to have him leavin so soon. (Parent's please exclude this next remark but I figured you guys should know this: But while I was talkin to him I found out he's from a family of 10 (one of his little brothers died). He is the first missionary in his family. And his companion said that his family really doesn't have too much money. I also found out, he doesn't have luggage and he only has one suit. So first I asked Jackson how many suits they use in Utah and he said he has 3-4 and most people have that many but a few have 2 and he knows one person that only has 1 but it's super hard for him cuz he can't even get it dry cleaned cuz he only has one. So I talked to President Stucki about it and asked him if there would be a way that I could give him my suit cuz it should fit him, and told him the situation and he actually said that he wants to help him/the mission can help him. So we worked it out where we got him some money to go buy two more suits and some luggage. But I told Elder Pascual that since they only had a few days to find everything that if he couldn't find a suit that he could have mine. So I haven't heard from them weather they were successful or not but if they weren't I'll have to buy a new suit out here before I go home, just a heads up maybe. Hope that's okay! =/ ) So then later that evening I sat down to do some more studies and wanted to study from last General Conference. I opened my studies with a prayer (see Preach My Gospel..haha) and actually felt inspired to read President Uchtdorf's talk from the General Relief Society entitled Forget Me Not. Oh geez, it was soooo good! Like seriously, read it. That's it. Thank you =D
Monday rolled around and I was kinda worrying. Because I told the Spencer's that they would for sure have those checks they needed on Monday and I even committed to driving the checks to them that afternoon because they were "coding" (meaning their license plate says it's illegal for them to drive in Makati) on Monday. So I reallyyyy needed the checks to be there. Well, they were there! I was pumped! So then we drove to San Pedro, it was the first time either of us had driven there and driving here it napaka-confusing (ie super confusing). Well, we only got lost like twice. But we made it! It was actually a little blessing (I'm trying to notice those more) how things all worked out cuz Sister Venus from the Area Office was supposed to come down and train me. Well I forgot about that when I said I would drive to San Pedro, so I emailed Venus and it actually worked out well cuz she was having her daughter's bday party that day anyways. So the rest of the day was pretty normal just did some office work. And then the Assistant's brought us home Indian food made by one of our Indian Sisters in the mission and that was our dinner and it was great! It's weird how lots of food actually tastes good. haha
Tuesday was more of the same. Having to deal with more and more people now, I've come to more appreciate the nice ones. I had to tell one of the apartment owners that we didn't have a new contract or another rent payment for her cuz the missionaries in that apartment might be moving. And I wasn't looking forward to this conversation. But she was super nice! I was like seriously super grateful for that, and now I hope that they don't move cuz she's nice! haha Venus came in in the afternoon to start my training. It was kinda hard cuz it was mostly Tagalog, well mostly Taglish, but it went super well! They usually reserve two days for training, well we knocked it out in three hours. I'm not too sure what that means, but hey it let us both get more work done this week. Then that evening, Elder Spencer kinda backed into someones car...but there was no damage or anything so it's all good but yeah..I already drive 95% of the time but now it'll probably be even more. He just does not like driving. Good thing I still love it! =D
Wednesday was the day that the Spencers were supposed to get the other check that they've been waiting for for like 3 weeks...So of course we had bank issues again! UGH! I hateeee telling the Spencers that their checks aren't available....It's not my fault! This time the person that's supposed to approve the checks wasn't there so we had to wait till tomorrow to get them approved I guess. This was also the day that I saved the entire Philippines! Okay well...I saved all the missions in the Philippines! Well, maybe more accurately stated it would be I may have helped a few financial secretaries here in the Philippines if they haven't figured it out already or if they even care...haha But when Venus and I were training we were training to figure something out on iMOS, well we couldn't figure out how it worked. So on Wednesday I was kinda playin around with iMOS and I figured it out! And I was like Venus! I figured it out! And sent her an email and then she sent it to all the Missions here in the Philippines. So yeah...legit? I think so. hahaha
Thursday started off great. On Tue and Thur we have to get to the office early at 8 because the Dietrich's go up to the Area Office and get mail and whatever else. So I got to the Office and started my Personal Study there. It was great! I was sittin at my computer so I had my scriptures with me and could use the computer to cross reference scriptures and I also found that you can download the new Book of Mormon manuals from lds.org, so I did that. That was the manual that was suggested for BoM class last year, that I bought and then umm kinda never used...Well now I know it's awesome! So use it! After studies I got my little blessing of Thursday. President Stucki called the office looking for Sister Dietrich and she wasn't there, but he remembered that he was going to send me some SSS information that I needed to help figure that stuff out. I had made note to ask him about it, but probably would have forgotten throughout the course of the day. But just out of the blue he called and got it to me! Thanks! Well I was FINALLY able to get that other check to the Spencers, but things just can't go how they're supposed to be can they? At least not with this check they can't. So because of the confusion with the check iMOS ended up printing the check twice. So the checks worth double than what it's supposed to be...haha Well, hopefully the owner will take it and be happy. And hopefully we won't forget to pay them again in like November. haha Well all is good now cuz the Spencers are happy and I got brownies from them haha That evening I learned another thing I'm goin learn in the office. This one's about leadership. I feel like I kinda know how to lead already to an extent because of all my athletics experiences and whatever else. Well here, I've realized that I have to kinda figure out how to lead myself, per say. Because now I don't have teammates to push on, I don't have people to gauge myself off of, I'm alone. It's up to me to figure out how much I can do, and find my limitations and to make sure I'm not slacking off. It's kinda weird. But definitely something to learn. I miss teammates..haha
Friday, I got another blessing! Well I got like tons of blessings everyday but I'm really bad at noticing and being grateful for them.. =( Well I got a text from President Nepomuceno in Coron, asking about the stuff that he had sent to the office and needed us to do. Well, I'd been super busy with other stuff that I had forgotten needed to be done for the Area Office, so I hadn't gotten around to doing that for him yet. So...he actually did what I shoulda done for me, and figured out that I just have to send the receipts back to him. Yay! Now I don't have to worry about that either! Thanks! And thanks to my parents being awesome, and sending me EFY CDs, I heard a song that was legit and super true! (All Times, All Things, All Places - EFY 2006) The lyrics go like "It's not in the letter, i can't wait to open. It's nor in the badge that will carry his name. It's not gonna in just three weeks of study Or magically come when I get on a plane, So today I'm becoming who I'm meant to be, The worthy unshakeable witness he needs." I guess to a certain extent I thought it would all just come to me once I became a missionary, I would somehow magically be great! But definitely not true. Surprise! I'm still me! haha But looking back there's so much more I wish I had done to better prepare myself so I can do as much as I can, but hey what's done is done, and I'm doin my best with what I've got and at the same time working super hard to make myself as good as I can so I can do as much as I can for the Lord in the short two years I have to give to him. Later that day, I was working on the Monthly Reports that needed to be done for the Area Office. I did all I could, and admittedly, I was a little lost and didn't know where to go from there. So I was like Venus! Help! I'm kinda lost and don't know where to go from here! She emailed me back and was like you did great elder! That's actually way way more than you needed to do, thanks! I was like YES! Also, yesterday I talked to Elder Spencer a lot about life and growing up and I realized again how AWESOME! my friends are! I'm so grateful for them all! I told him all about what we did growing up and all that jazz and Spence was just like man...I wish I had awesome friends like yours. And I'm like yeah...my friends pretty much rock. Thanks everyone! You all seriously do!
News for today, I bought my first pair of fake Ray Bans. They're red and cost me approximately $2.10. hahaha. My goal is to just over time collect a bunch of them so I can coordinate with all my outfits! #ImSoCool! haha Also, I had an impulse/craving buy. I totally bought Pop-Tarts this morning! How great is that?? haha I'm pumped regardless Also, I got contact from an apartment owner looking for Elder Castillo. Um yeah...I'm the replacement of his replacement...haha Elder Stirland totally called that that would happen sometime. So props to him.
Well that's about it! We get to go to a baptism soon for one of the Sister's in our district and then we're gettin fed afterwards. Woo! #Pumped haha I kinda miss Twitter..haha But all's good here! Love you all and miss you all! Thanks!
Love
Elder Michael Gadberry
Pictures
0001 - After a few weeks without a door, we got a cool new half door thingy!
0003 - Elder Spencer is super good at drawing. He just saw this picture on the internet and wanted to draw it. And he finished and gave it to me. So yeah, so now I have the girl no one knows. He likes to draw and then not keep whatever it was that he drew so that's why I got that one.
0005 - Yeah, I don't know what's up with that....
0011 - Okay...this is one reason why I don't know if I could work in an office the rest of my life. I just get so bored of just sitting in the chair all day! I gotta switch it up.
4787/4788 - So we've taken a liking to this drink cuz it's super cheap and it's not water...haha Well just the other week I realized that in one bottle of that you get over 6 days worth of Vitamin C, each bottle is equivalent to 8 oranges, and there's 1 mg of Vitamin C in each bottle for every 1 mL per bottle. This stuff is great! .....maybe. haha
4790 - The cool new 1 piso coin! It's pretty legit!
4791/4792 - So these are the sisters who are having the baptism. They asked Elder Spencer to make a program for them. He didn't really want to, so I said I would. I was joking with them and said I was just going to put a big picture of me on it, and they're like just make sure you have us on there too! Well, it turns out that Elder Spencer did make the program (pretty good huh?) and so I told him I needed to changed all the pictures. So I changed all the pictures to those ones and printed off a couple of those to freak out the sisters. It totally worked! It was hilarious, they loved it.
4793 - Having a green blinker is definitely not legal in the states. But there's a ton of stuff like it here! haha
4794 - Surprise! This is Elder Koochin our beloved District Leader and my batch! Elder Victorio was disappointed that he wasn't included on the fake baptismal program so he insisted that we take a picture to replace the one with me and Elder Stirland since he's gone now. #NoLove haha
4799 - Stolen from Spence. Eating at the Indian place way back
4812 - Stolen from Spence. I'm doing the dishes, I think! I actually kinda like doing the dishes...or at least more than other stuff for whatever reason
4827 - Stolen from Spence. A better District Picture from last transfer
3-3-12 E-mail!
Hey everyone!
This week has gone ridiculously fast, ridiculously bad, and ridiculously awesome! More on the awesome side of course, but it's been like the fastest week ever cuz we were superrrr busy alllll the time!
I only had a couple questions asked from my parents so let's answer those first.
Well first of all, they were complaining AGAIN about my preparation day being on Saturday. Which was actually done by the mission president, so obviously it's inspired....so get over it! =D hahaha But then they asked Speaking of P-Day's are there sightseeing things to do in Manila? "What do you do? I only got to Seoul once during my mission and was way jealous of the Seoul missionaries. They had access to all of the western fast food restaurants and some of the best shopping in the country. Hopefully Manila is like that for you. I already know you have all the fast food places available to you."
Well there may be sightseeing but...we don't have a whole lot of chance to do stuff on preparation day. It usually goes like this: hear alarm, think evil thoughts at my alarm, repent..(getting ready process)...Personal Study, Companionship Study, wash clothes/get clothes washed, go to the mall and buy food and other junk for the week, come home, get clothes, eat, go to the office, email, do all the office work we have, and then work. And that's pretty much our day. It varies little by little like today after emailing hopefully I'll get to shoot hoops while Elder Spencer plays piano. Crap. I forgot my shoes... =( So looks like I'll just write some letters/BRs to peeps/Coron/whoever else. So hopefully we'll find time to do cool stuff sometime! And the shopping here is great! They go like all out on malls here, like they're all better than malls in America it's funny. And you can get pretty much everything you could possibly want here.
"I imagine that the language isn't perfect but that you are pretty proficient by now. Is that accurate? Keep working hard on that."
Yeah it's nowhere near perfect/nowhere near where I want to be by the time I go home. I'm goin sound like a pure Filipino by the time I go home! But I've got a long way to go for that...haha Like the people I talk to are always impressed when they ask how long I've been here and I tell them around 7 months, but still I'mma get way good! So I'm still workin hard and praying for it and trying my best to pick up on all the little expressions/ways they say words/like the ways they use certain words and stuff like that. Cuz it's pretty easy to take an English sentance and just put it in Tagalog but they don't necessarily say it the same way we would so that's not speaking Filipino that's speaking English but translating it into Tagalog. So that's kinda where I'm trying to get to, I'm pumped! I love the language! Kahit super frustrating siya.
Ayos! So I gotta start you guys off with last Saturday, apparently it was after I had emailed you guys already cuz I didn't mention it last time. But I just wrote down one thing on my Notes to Journal. It was "Relief Society Tribute Song." Okay if you haven't heard this yet, you have GOT to check it out! So Elder Spencer and I were looking at music for a CD and we were looking at Alex Boyé cuz he's pretty legit. So I saw a song called Relief Society Tribute Song and I was like check that out! Kinda jokingly and then we sampled it and I loveddd it! I'm totes bumpin to that when I get back home! Spence wasn't a big fan...But Sister Dietrich thought it was hilarious. So seriously, check it out! It's totally not the Alex Boyé that I had heard before but I loved it!
Then Sunday was awesome! The week before we hadn't been able to go out and visit like anyone cuz of going-home missionaries, transfer days, and then new missionaries coming in, but come Sunday morning our legit investigator Palma texted us and was like hey is there church this morning?? We were like YES! And so he came! And then another In-active family, the Locanlale family, made it to church again! That's the second time in a row, and they're really committed to returning to church. They even brought an investigator with them. Church was awesome! In Priesthood we spent the entire time, playing an activity (typical Priesthood lesson, huh? haha). So Elder Spencer sat there and talked to Palma and I sat there and talked to our slightly, less-active Ward Mission Leader, Brother Arnold, about swimming cuz he's an avid swimmer. But from the planning that was going on I did get one thing. It's called BYOR. In the States you've probably heard BYOB but here it's BYOR, Bring Your Own Rice...hahaha I loved it! The Dietrich's were nice enough to have us over for lunch and then that night there was a fireside. We weren't able to make it, but the 2nd Counselor in the General Young Womens Presidency, or better known as the prophet's daughter...haha But she came out to do a fireside and apparently that was pretty cool.
Monday was fairly uneventful, cuz we spent half the morning/afternoon in the car...haha We had to go up to the Area Office and I missed a turn without even thinking, and cuz of traffic it took us 45 mintutes just to turn around and get going the direction we needed to go...haha Apartments were annoying on Monday (even more so later in the week). And that night I was reading Jesus the Christ, and I'm LOVIN it! It's soooo good! This week I marveled a lot at the Lord. Later in the week I was reading in the Book of Mormon and Matthew 18 and I was like WOW! His love is so unreal. Specifically in Matthew its recorded of the people calling him a drunk, a devil worshiper, the people tried to stone him more than once, everything! But he still loved them so much to take upon Him all that and Atone for their sins. Inspite of all that, he still lived a perfect, spotless, blameless life! I was truly just like whoa...that's the Savior's true love, that's the love that I need to develop. He truly knows everything that I'm experiencing it, he knows it so perfectly that I can say I am not alone in anything, that's one of the many miracles of the Atonement. And I'm grateful for that.
Tuesday was pretty interesting. I was pretty proud of myself that morning when I made myself a sandwich. Check it out mom, I happily ate a peanut butter sandwich with wheat bread AND cruchy peanut butter! Crazy huh?? hahaha I got my package on Tuesday from my parents and realized why I went to EFY like every year I could......so I could have the CDs for my mission! duh! hahaha Just kidding I loveddd EFY, but the CDs are definitely a big plus now. I started a project that kinda got pushed onto me because it kinda got forgotten/they didn't think it was important/Elder Stirland didn't really know how to do it. But now I've gotta figure out how to get/do Social Security payments and all the other benefits paid for President Stucki's house-help. I've gotta like get it started and set-up and paid and everything I don't even know where to start! But I've got my help at the Area Office to help me. Also I had a good 'ol TMoL (Tender Mercy of the Lord), I had lost my black binder that had a bunch of not necessarily important stuff but very helpful and useful...And I couldn't find it for like almost a week! But then as I was looking for it again today I just thought to look by my filing cabinet and there it was! Woo! That night when we went out to work we tried to stop by Ponce cuz he'd come back to church but then missed like the last two weeks. We found out that he's just been pretty sick the last to weeks so that was a relief! That night I was laying in bed, just thinking and what not and I realized that I have zero, like literally zero finance experience....I didn't take any high school classes, I took Econ 110 at BYU but that's too general to help much, so I was like crap, what have I gotten myself into...welp, it'll be a great time to learn to trust in the Lord and just hope that He will help my solve problems and learn quickly.
Wednesday was like ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! I had an awesome Personal Study in 3 Nephi 17 and Matthew 18, so good! And then starting at 9, my phone went crazy! I got a call from a couple elders with problems. Then I get a call from some Sisters that were freaking out about their water bill, it's rather hard to understand Tagalog on the phone let alone when people are freaking out...haha And then they called again, a little more calm about how they hate their apartment and really need to find a new one. I told them to hurry up (cuz they were already supposed to be looking for one). Then they called me back again like shortly after saying that they found one haha. At the same time I'm trying to update the Spencers (the senior couple that when things go right, make my job a whole lot easier with apartments) and call UCPB to get my checks and call Office Haven to pay for a bill. It was like crazy! I didn't like it! haha I already didn't like talking on the phone but I definitely realized I don't like talking on the phone in Tagalog even more! haha Then I got to the office and iMOS is down! That's a church run thingy that I HAVE to have to do like anything! So I was not happy. Then it finally came back, and I cheered....literally. The Dietrich's laughed at me. Then I finally was able to pick-up the checks. And the one check I needed, I really needed just this one check, the others could wait. But the ONE check I needed wasn't there! AGH!! So I email Venus at the Area Office and was like ummm...I really need that check. (paraphrasing of course) and she's like well they had like an error in Salt Lake and it couldn't be printed...but this is what we're goin do! So we figured that out and they were going to have that check for me on Thursday. So the whole day was like: "Problem! Freak-out! Solution?" It was a roller coaster...good thing I loveee roller coasters...hahaha The highlight of the day for sure was well we got out support. So Elder Spencer and I were out paying bills and we were at a mall-ish area to pay for some phone bills. Well right across the way is one, an ATM and two, and Krispy Kream! So we literally walked 200 feet to the ATM, withdraw our support, walked another 30 seconds further and bought Krispy Kream. Definitely the best way to spend freshly-received support! hahaha =D After all that, we actually were able to get out to our area and work! We visited the Locanlale's and Sister Gozon and her family! It was great! But because of upcoming ZLC after working out in the area for a little while, Elder Spencer had to go back to the office and wrap up a couple things. WEDNESDAY WAS CRAZY!
Thursday was pretty crazy as well, but in comparison it was like the calm between the storms of Wednesday and ZLC on Friday...haha The Senior Couples out on Palawan got in and it was cool to see them, but at the same time that added some more work that I needed to do for them that I had totally forgotten about, but it wasn't bad at all....well, except for when all the problems popped up on Friday, just you wait...haha I picked up the check I needed from the Area Office, it was actually support for one of the Zones out on Palawan (Narra) and a couple other areas in the other Palawan Zone (Taytay and Roxas). These elders don't have ATMs out where their serving (crazy huh?! I totes wanna go there now...) so I have to get their support and send it to them using a service called Palawan Pawnshop. So I got that checked and cashed it...well it's ChinaBank and it is like a "Made in China" kinda bank...haha So they were short 1000 peso bills so I got like 70% of the support in 500 peso bills....it was pretty ridiculous. I tried to put it in my bag and like my bad was like bulging, it was funny. But at least I had what I needed! Then we were walking back to our car and ran into a nice Senior Missionary who worked for the Missionary Recovery Center. And for those of you who don't know (probably all of you....haha) but the Philippines is right about to open their new MTC, and so I asked him about that and he said it was super nice! He also said that it's going to be the 2nd biggest MTC in the world of course behind Provo. How legit is that?? I'm tellin ya, the Philippines is where it's at! In the Area Broadcast at the beginning of the year one of the Area Presidency had remarked that the day will come that the gospel will be preached in Asia, mostly by Filipinos, and that the Philippines is the country that is opening the door to take the gospel to all of Asia largely due to the Philippines being the one or one of only a few Christian Asian countries. Pretty cool! I got a call that afternoon from a Branch President, and it was President Nepomuceno from Coron!! It was awesome! But then Sister Dietrich told me that the lead singer of the Monkees died....and I was sad... =( But I got to sing a couple Monkees songs for the office cuz the other people besides me and the Dietrich's didn't know who they were! My big triumph of the day is that I fixed one of the major apartment problems! We had an apartment in Tondo (apparently it's like the Compton of the Philippines so I REALLY wanna be assigned there!) that the owner was kinda harassing the missionaries there about payments, when we were actually paid up to date. But I was lookin at stuff and saw where the confusion was coming from and solved it! It was great! And relieving!
Friday was not good. But great, of course! =D hahaha Even these crazy days where everything goes wrong I loveeee it! It's kinda weird. I'm just happy =). So I was rushing to get checks ready for both the Spencers (senior apartment helper couple) as well as the Zone Leaders in Palawan who were visiting. So I did everything right, I got it requested, approved, and prepared to be picked up Friday morning....I get to the bank....and...."We're sorry sir. We couldn't print the checks, our system had an error, we're trying to fix it." (Can I quote people in English if they said it in Tagalog? Basta...I'm goin do it..haha) AHHHH! One top of the checks for the Palawan peeps, I had a couple others that the Spencers reallyyyy needed for new apartments but because of system errors they've had to wait like two weeks. So I had to tell them that their checks weren't ready either and they were not happy...And it's not even my fault! But I'm the one people are frustrated with! So I was kinda complaining to Elder Spencer and he was like well I've learned that from everything that happens, there's a reason and an opportunity to learn...Ugh! I know that! But I don't wanna learn right now! I just want my stupid checks! So to be honest I'm still trying to figure out what I'm learning from that but there's probably somethin. Elder Spencer drove Friday...well kinda (I drive like 13 out of 14 days), after he hit 3 curbs and got pulled over once, he decided to call it a day...hahaha But Elder Spencer's a smart guy! It was his one year mark that day and we had some bonding experiences sharing our deep dark secrets, just kidding, but we did have some great bonding and sharing about each other. I like talkin with him, he's great! In spite of all the craziness, we made it out to our area and got to watch the Restoration video with the Locanlale family! It was a pretty hectic lesson, they have a 4 yr old that is absolutely terrible, but it was awesome! And we spent a little extra time there just kinda hanging out with them and it was so good! Like they opened up, Nanay was mockingly singing grenade by Bruno Marz, her daughter was more comfortable than we've ever seen her, and everyone was laughing and enjoying themselves and it was awesome! We came out of that lesson like on cloud 9! I loveee this work so much! I can't say that this work isn't true when you have like a terrible day, nothing goes right, but you have one good lesson and you just can't help but be beaming. It's so true and so awesome! Only the gospel can make one so happy, so simply.
Well that was my long hectic week. I've heard complaints about my parents not posting stuff on the blog, so hopefully this will get posted before april...haha just kidding! I'm doing AWESOME! Miss you all, but loveee it here! =D
Love,
<----Am I legit or what? I made it myself, be jealous...hahaha
Pictures - Not too many but a few!
4769 - The shirt Elder Stirland and I bought for Elder Spencer for his birthday cuz he loves Converse, it's pretty legit!
4770 - Hey look it's the temple!
4771/4772 - So in the states intersections are like a kinda strict thing, you stay in your lane, stay between the lines and all that jazz. Well here....it's not the intersection itself that's the most dangerous part about driving but it's right before the intersection. Everyone just kinda goes where ever they feel like and it's really usually super sketch...haha The first one is the intersection right before we get to the office. And the second one is on the way to our area where they actually have two, two-lane roads that merge into one, three-lane road....at the intersection...that one is NOT fun! haha
4775 - The assistants really burnt their rice and I thought it was funny...cuz it's kinda hard to burn rice in a rice cooker...
4777 - Look at Elder Spencer!
4778 - One of my spreadsheets,I just wanted to take a picture mostly..
This week has gone ridiculously fast, ridiculously bad, and ridiculously awesome! More on the awesome side of course, but it's been like the fastest week ever cuz we were superrrr busy alllll the time!
I only had a couple questions asked from my parents so let's answer those first.
Well first of all, they were complaining AGAIN about my preparation day being on Saturday. Which was actually done by the mission president, so obviously it's inspired....so get over it! =D hahaha But then they asked Speaking of P-Day's are there sightseeing things to do in Manila? "What do you do? I only got to Seoul once during my mission and was way jealous of the Seoul missionaries. They had access to all of the western fast food restaurants and some of the best shopping in the country. Hopefully Manila is like that for you. I already know you have all the fast food places available to you."
Well there may be sightseeing but...we don't have a whole lot of chance to do stuff on preparation day. It usually goes like this: hear alarm, think evil thoughts at my alarm, repent..(getting ready process)...Personal Study, Companionship Study, wash clothes/get clothes washed, go to the mall and buy food and other junk for the week, come home, get clothes, eat, go to the office, email, do all the office work we have, and then work. And that's pretty much our day. It varies little by little like today after emailing hopefully I'll get to shoot hoops while Elder Spencer plays piano. Crap. I forgot my shoes... =( So looks like I'll just write some letters/BRs to peeps/Coron/whoever else. So hopefully we'll find time to do cool stuff sometime! And the shopping here is great! They go like all out on malls here, like they're all better than malls in America it's funny. And you can get pretty much everything you could possibly want here.
"I imagine that the language isn't perfect but that you are pretty proficient by now. Is that accurate? Keep working hard on that."
Yeah it's nowhere near perfect/nowhere near where I want to be by the time I go home. I'm goin sound like a pure Filipino by the time I go home! But I've got a long way to go for that...haha Like the people I talk to are always impressed when they ask how long I've been here and I tell them around 7 months, but still I'mma get way good! So I'm still workin hard and praying for it and trying my best to pick up on all the little expressions/ways they say words/like the ways they use certain words and stuff like that. Cuz it's pretty easy to take an English sentance and just put it in Tagalog but they don't necessarily say it the same way we would so that's not speaking Filipino that's speaking English but translating it into Tagalog. So that's kinda where I'm trying to get to, I'm pumped! I love the language! Kahit super frustrating siya.
Ayos! So I gotta start you guys off with last Saturday, apparently it was after I had emailed you guys already cuz I didn't mention it last time. But I just wrote down one thing on my Notes to Journal. It was "Relief Society Tribute Song." Okay if you haven't heard this yet, you have GOT to check it out! So Elder Spencer and I were looking at music for a CD and we were looking at Alex Boyé cuz he's pretty legit. So I saw a song called Relief Society Tribute Song and I was like check that out! Kinda jokingly and then we sampled it and I loveddd it! I'm totes bumpin to that when I get back home! Spence wasn't a big fan...But Sister Dietrich thought it was hilarious. So seriously, check it out! It's totally not the Alex Boyé that I had heard before but I loved it!
Then Sunday was awesome! The week before we hadn't been able to go out and visit like anyone cuz of going-home missionaries, transfer days, and then new missionaries coming in, but come Sunday morning our legit investigator Palma texted us and was like hey is there church this morning?? We were like YES! And so he came! And then another In-active family, the Locanlale family, made it to church again! That's the second time in a row, and they're really committed to returning to church. They even brought an investigator with them. Church was awesome! In Priesthood we spent the entire time, playing an activity (typical Priesthood lesson, huh? haha). So Elder Spencer sat there and talked to Palma and I sat there and talked to our slightly, less-active Ward Mission Leader, Brother Arnold, about swimming cuz he's an avid swimmer. But from the planning that was going on I did get one thing. It's called BYOR. In the States you've probably heard BYOB but here it's BYOR, Bring Your Own Rice...hahaha I loved it! The Dietrich's were nice enough to have us over for lunch and then that night there was a fireside. We weren't able to make it, but the 2nd Counselor in the General Young Womens Presidency, or better known as the prophet's daughter...haha But she came out to do a fireside and apparently that was pretty cool.
Monday was fairly uneventful, cuz we spent half the morning/afternoon in the car...haha We had to go up to the Area Office and I missed a turn without even thinking, and cuz of traffic it took us 45 mintutes just to turn around and get going the direction we needed to go...haha Apartments were annoying on Monday (even more so later in the week). And that night I was reading Jesus the Christ, and I'm LOVIN it! It's soooo good! This week I marveled a lot at the Lord. Later in the week I was reading in the Book of Mormon and Matthew 18 and I was like WOW! His love is so unreal. Specifically in Matthew its recorded of the people calling him a drunk, a devil worshiper, the people tried to stone him more than once, everything! But he still loved them so much to take upon Him all that and Atone for their sins. Inspite of all that, he still lived a perfect, spotless, blameless life! I was truly just like whoa...that's the Savior's true love, that's the love that I need to develop. He truly knows everything that I'm experiencing it, he knows it so perfectly that I can say I am not alone in anything, that's one of the many miracles of the Atonement. And I'm grateful for that.
Tuesday was pretty interesting. I was pretty proud of myself that morning when I made myself a sandwich. Check it out mom, I happily ate a peanut butter sandwich with wheat bread AND cruchy peanut butter! Crazy huh?? hahaha I got my package on Tuesday from my parents and realized why I went to EFY like every year I could......so I could have the CDs for my mission! duh! hahaha Just kidding I loveddd EFY, but the CDs are definitely a big plus now. I started a project that kinda got pushed onto me because it kinda got forgotten/they didn't think it was important/Elder Stirland didn't really know how to do it. But now I've gotta figure out how to get/do Social Security payments and all the other benefits paid for President Stucki's house-help. I've gotta like get it started and set-up and paid and everything I don't even know where to start! But I've got my help at the Area Office to help me. Also I had a good 'ol TMoL (Tender Mercy of the Lord), I had lost my black binder that had a bunch of not necessarily important stuff but very helpful and useful...And I couldn't find it for like almost a week! But then as I was looking for it again today I just thought to look by my filing cabinet and there it was! Woo! That night when we went out to work we tried to stop by Ponce cuz he'd come back to church but then missed like the last two weeks. We found out that he's just been pretty sick the last to weeks so that was a relief! That night I was laying in bed, just thinking and what not and I realized that I have zero, like literally zero finance experience....I didn't take any high school classes, I took Econ 110 at BYU but that's too general to help much, so I was like crap, what have I gotten myself into...welp, it'll be a great time to learn to trust in the Lord and just hope that He will help my solve problems and learn quickly.
Wednesday was like ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! I had an awesome Personal Study in 3 Nephi 17 and Matthew 18, so good! And then starting at 9, my phone went crazy! I got a call from a couple elders with problems. Then I get a call from some Sisters that were freaking out about their water bill, it's rather hard to understand Tagalog on the phone let alone when people are freaking out...haha And then they called again, a little more calm about how they hate their apartment and really need to find a new one. I told them to hurry up (cuz they were already supposed to be looking for one). Then they called me back again like shortly after saying that they found one haha. At the same time I'm trying to update the Spencers (the senior couple that when things go right, make my job a whole lot easier with apartments) and call UCPB to get my checks and call Office Haven to pay for a bill. It was like crazy! I didn't like it! haha I already didn't like talking on the phone but I definitely realized I don't like talking on the phone in Tagalog even more! haha Then I got to the office and iMOS is down! That's a church run thingy that I HAVE to have to do like anything! So I was not happy. Then it finally came back, and I cheered....literally. The Dietrich's laughed at me. Then I finally was able to pick-up the checks. And the one check I needed, I really needed just this one check, the others could wait. But the ONE check I needed wasn't there! AGH!! So I email Venus at the Area Office and was like ummm...I really need that check. (paraphrasing of course) and she's like well they had like an error in Salt Lake and it couldn't be printed...but this is what we're goin do! So we figured that out and they were going to have that check for me on Thursday. So the whole day was like: "Problem! Freak-out! Solution?" It was a roller coaster...good thing I loveee roller coasters...hahaha The highlight of the day for sure was well we got out support. So Elder Spencer and I were out paying bills and we were at a mall-ish area to pay for some phone bills. Well right across the way is one, an ATM and two, and Krispy Kream! So we literally walked 200 feet to the ATM, withdraw our support, walked another 30 seconds further and bought Krispy Kream. Definitely the best way to spend freshly-received support! hahaha =D After all that, we actually were able to get out to our area and work! We visited the Locanlale's and Sister Gozon and her family! It was great! But because of upcoming ZLC after working out in the area for a little while, Elder Spencer had to go back to the office and wrap up a couple things. WEDNESDAY WAS CRAZY!
Thursday was pretty crazy as well, but in comparison it was like the calm between the storms of Wednesday and ZLC on Friday...haha The Senior Couples out on Palawan got in and it was cool to see them, but at the same time that added some more work that I needed to do for them that I had totally forgotten about, but it wasn't bad at all....well, except for when all the problems popped up on Friday, just you wait...haha I picked up the check I needed from the Area Office, it was actually support for one of the Zones out on Palawan (Narra) and a couple other areas in the other Palawan Zone (Taytay and Roxas). These elders don't have ATMs out where their serving (crazy huh?! I totes wanna go there now...) so I have to get their support and send it to them using a service called Palawan Pawnshop. So I got that checked and cashed it...well it's ChinaBank and it is like a "Made in China" kinda bank...haha So they were short 1000 peso bills so I got like 70% of the support in 500 peso bills....it was pretty ridiculous. I tried to put it in my bag and like my bad was like bulging, it was funny. But at least I had what I needed! Then we were walking back to our car and ran into a nice Senior Missionary who worked for the Missionary Recovery Center. And for those of you who don't know (probably all of you....haha) but the Philippines is right about to open their new MTC, and so I asked him about that and he said it was super nice! He also said that it's going to be the 2nd biggest MTC in the world of course behind Provo. How legit is that?? I'm tellin ya, the Philippines is where it's at! In the Area Broadcast at the beginning of the year one of the Area Presidency had remarked that the day will come that the gospel will be preached in Asia, mostly by Filipinos, and that the Philippines is the country that is opening the door to take the gospel to all of Asia largely due to the Philippines being the one or one of only a few Christian Asian countries. Pretty cool! I got a call that afternoon from a Branch President, and it was President Nepomuceno from Coron!! It was awesome! But then Sister Dietrich told me that the lead singer of the Monkees died....and I was sad... =( But I got to sing a couple Monkees songs for the office cuz the other people besides me and the Dietrich's didn't know who they were! My big triumph of the day is that I fixed one of the major apartment problems! We had an apartment in Tondo (apparently it's like the Compton of the Philippines so I REALLY wanna be assigned there!) that the owner was kinda harassing the missionaries there about payments, when we were actually paid up to date. But I was lookin at stuff and saw where the confusion was coming from and solved it! It was great! And relieving!
Friday was not good. But great, of course! =D hahaha Even these crazy days where everything goes wrong I loveeee it! It's kinda weird. I'm just happy =). So I was rushing to get checks ready for both the Spencers (senior apartment helper couple) as well as the Zone Leaders in Palawan who were visiting. So I did everything right, I got it requested, approved, and prepared to be picked up Friday morning....I get to the bank....and...."We're sorry sir. We couldn't print the checks, our system had an error, we're trying to fix it." (Can I quote people in English if they said it in Tagalog? Basta...I'm goin do it..haha) AHHHH! One top of the checks for the Palawan peeps, I had a couple others that the Spencers reallyyyy needed for new apartments but because of system errors they've had to wait like two weeks. So I had to tell them that their checks weren't ready either and they were not happy...And it's not even my fault! But I'm the one people are frustrated with! So I was kinda complaining to Elder Spencer and he was like well I've learned that from everything that happens, there's a reason and an opportunity to learn...Ugh! I know that! But I don't wanna learn right now! I just want my stupid checks! So to be honest I'm still trying to figure out what I'm learning from that but there's probably somethin. Elder Spencer drove Friday...well kinda (I drive like 13 out of 14 days), after he hit 3 curbs and got pulled over once, he decided to call it a day...hahaha But Elder Spencer's a smart guy! It was his one year mark that day and we had some bonding experiences sharing our deep dark secrets, just kidding, but we did have some great bonding and sharing about each other. I like talkin with him, he's great! In spite of all the craziness, we made it out to our area and got to watch the Restoration video with the Locanlale family! It was a pretty hectic lesson, they have a 4 yr old that is absolutely terrible, but it was awesome! And we spent a little extra time there just kinda hanging out with them and it was so good! Like they opened up, Nanay was mockingly singing grenade by Bruno Marz, her daughter was more comfortable than we've ever seen her, and everyone was laughing and enjoying themselves and it was awesome! We came out of that lesson like on cloud 9! I loveee this work so much! I can't say that this work isn't true when you have like a terrible day, nothing goes right, but you have one good lesson and you just can't help but be beaming. It's so true and so awesome! Only the gospel can make one so happy, so simply.
Well that was my long hectic week. I've heard complaints about my parents not posting stuff on the blog, so hopefully this will get posted before april...haha just kidding! I'm doing AWESOME! Miss you all, but loveee it here! =D
Love,
<----Am I legit or what? I made it myself, be jealous...hahaha
Pictures - Not too many but a few!
4769 - The shirt Elder Stirland and I bought for Elder Spencer for his birthday cuz he loves Converse, it's pretty legit!
4770 - Hey look it's the temple!
4771/4772 - So in the states intersections are like a kinda strict thing, you stay in your lane, stay between the lines and all that jazz. Well here....it's not the intersection itself that's the most dangerous part about driving but it's right before the intersection. Everyone just kinda goes where ever they feel like and it's really usually super sketch...haha The first one is the intersection right before we get to the office. And the second one is on the way to our area where they actually have two, two-lane roads that merge into one, three-lane road....at the intersection...that one is NOT fun! haha
4775 - The assistants really burnt their rice and I thought it was funny...cuz it's kinda hard to burn rice in a rice cooker...
4777 - Look at Elder Spencer!
4778 - One of my spreadsheets,I just wanted to take a picture mostly..
Thursday, March 8, 2012
2-25-11 E-mail!
Howdy ya'll!
Look at me, I still got some MidWest in me! haha
So this week was crazy! It was transfer week...so yeah. Usually I write stuff down in my planner like what happened and what not so I can tell you all buuuttt so much was going on alllll the time that I got like nothing written down...so I'm sure I'll end up forgetting most of it. Sorry! I'll answer questions first so maybe that'll help me remember stuff.
So are you on your own now? Nervous? Did Elder Stirland get sent out of the city?
Yep. "I'm all aloneeee...there's no one here beeeeside meee! .....But you've gotta have friends!" Well of course I'm not all alone cuz that's kinda bawal (against the rules). I've got my trustee 'ol companion Elder Spencer! But as far as Finances go, I'm pretty much on my own. I've got Sister Venus up at the Area Office that can help me. And if I have any quick questions I just text or call Elder Stirland..haha Am I nervous? I little bit. I've actually adjusted pretty well. I'm gettin most everything that I need to get done, done. I have realized one thing that I'm definitely going to learn from working in here. I'm goin learn how to focus on one thing and prioritize. Cuz like the first couple days I was by myself, I'd start on something and then I'd remember something else that needed to get done, and then I'd think of another one! And soon enough I've got four projects going on my desk/computer, and I've forgotten the first thing I was doing...and it's super confusing...So yeah, I'll figure that out! It's a great learning experience! =D And well Elder Stirland got transferred to Manila. The San Juan area and was a district leader there (he was actually a district leader as well in the office for our Mandaluyong District). However...just earlier today some stuff went down and he got emergency transferred to Naic to be one of their Zone Leaders. Which is cool cuz Naic is like the most provincial area here on the mainland so that's good.
So working out somewhat again? Good for you!
Mommm....You wake up at 6:30 every morning and exercise! I'm obedient nga! hahaha (The "nga" is my Tagalog why of emphasizing that I'm obedient! haha). My favorite is to do sit-ups cuz I can close my eyes and pretend that I'm still sleeping.. =D
How is the teaching going? Do you do much tracting or is it mostly from referrals? Maybe you should start singing David Archaletta songs to get your foot in the door.
Well....that's another thing about transfer week....we have yet been able to make it to our area to do any work this week. Transfer week is super hectic cuz at the beginning of the week you have the Going-Home missionaries and their activities Mon-Wed and then transfer day on Wednesday and then New Missionary Orientation on Thursday and then Friday you're trying to get every thing straightened out that just happened. And for me it was even more busy cuz I have to re-deposit any money that I've withdrawn for various expenses over the past month and that has to happen on the 24th of each month...And so I have to make sure the amount that what I have equals the amount that the website says I have. If it doesn't....well that's definitely not good...haha But last month we actually missed the deadline to "close the month" So Venus (our Area Office helper) fixed it so that we just have to close both Jan and Feb on the 24th of Feb so that made it a little harder to get everything set-up and ready, but I got it done! And it's all good! As far as tracting goes, the Area Presidency/President Stucki have pretty much done away with it. They're stressing that our focus is on the less-active/in-actives and we don't need to spend all our time looking for new people. So the ideal work is to visit those less-active families, help re-activate them, ask for referrals from them, and work on completing part-member families. Which this way is a highly more effective way of missionary work because with tracting....you don't really have a whole lot of success. Well here in the Philippines it's not hard to have people to teach but it's more difficult to have true success. Kinda like what dad told me (though he meant it in a different realm) being busy isn't necessarily being successful. So our focus here is on the less-active, their families, and part-member families. But of course if you don't have a ton of less-active's in your area you'll have to tract still a little and do that jazz. So yeah. I've realized it's kinda hard to put into words how we work out here, so you guys should just come out here and work with us! =D
Did you ever get new shoes and new pants? Did you get a package yet?
Well I was actually going to tell you guys about the shoes! So thanks mom for the inspired question! You'd be a great missionary! Well I maybe I never mentioned this way back when but the shoes I always wear for working are these beat up brown ones that Elder Hopkins left for me (he's had them for two years. And I've decided that I like to rock the brown cuz I used to always rock the khaki but that's too light colored for missionaries so now my go-to is brown) But anyways, I've got his brown shoes (I've got a nice pair of brown shoes too that I love, so I only wear them in the office, to church, and to like mission events to keep them nice) and they're beat up but since those are the only ones I have I have to wear them even if I'm wearing black, grey, or blue pants....It kinda drives me nuts..haha But Elder Belarmino just went home and left a pair of shoes behind and they were black and so I inherited those as well. So my shoe problem is solved! It's funny cuz now the two pairs shoes I've inherited have both come from former APs (Assistant to the President), so I've got some big shoes to fill....haha get it?? I'm hilarious! The pants are another great story! Elder Stirland had had some fabric passed down to him and didn't want it anymore so I got it, and now all I have to do is take it to someone to get it made into pants and it'll cost me like ten bucks or somethin =D Nope, no package yet!
ps - It's really more difficult to write on a Friday night as opposed to Sunday
Oh geez....look at my parents murmuring...please feel free to chastise them! =D
So this week was great! Transfer week actually went super smoothly! Well for me it seemed it went smoothly and the other guys did say it went really good compared to other transfers, so that's great! Tuesday I literally spent alllll day and into the night getting all the apartment rent payments ready. Remember the 60 some odd checks I had to sign for last time? Yeah I had to get those into envelopes, addressed to their landlords, with acknowledgment receipts, and tax documents. It was crazyyy! But I got it done! Wooo!
So Wednesday was transfer day. We got up at about 3:30 in the morning to take all the Palawan bound missionaries to the airport....NOT FUN! Made it back to the office grabbed a donut from 7-Eleven across the street and prepared for war! haha All in all the day went well! It was a little stressful, but I don't feel stress so no worries =) I actually enjoyed it. It's kinda fun, it's like game-time! I got to see Elder Bagahansol (he's now a Zone Leader in Manila) and here about everyone in Coron! They're doing great! I missssssss them! He every brought with him a letter for me from the Durans!!! =D I MISSSS THEM!!! =( I'mma write them ASAP probably after I get done emailing you all if I've got time. Then after the chaos of transfer day, we were kinda hanging out in the office catching our breath, and this fairly sketchy lookin guy came into the office and just started talking with Sister Dietrich...He said he was a member the church from Hong Kong but has been other places as well. He wanted to know when church was on Sunday. He knows a bunch of languages and just got his masters in like being a Spy or whatever you should take to do that cuz that's what he wanted to do be a intelligence agent. So he seemed nice enough, eventually left and like an hour later some cop and army guy show up at the office (as I'm trying to pay this delivery boy for some office supplies...awkward...haha) with the sketchy dude! They asked us if he had been here like he said and that he just seemed sketchy. We were confused and he offered to show us his temple recommend so we looked at it and vouched for him. And they kinda took him outside and let him go I guess. Who woulda thought that the temple recommend would also serve as a "get out of jail free" card? haha =)
Thursday was pretty much my first full day on my own! It was kinda crazy but okay. We had new missionary orientation and I gotta give my spiel on finances and what not so we were there for that. But while we were sittin there I get a text and apparently there's missionaries at the mission office that need me to come reimburse them cuz they just got back from the hospital and they dont have enough money to get home (at least that's what they said). So that was annoying/frustrating cuz I had to make them wait there for like 2 hours cuz I couldn't leave the orientation. They're actually supposed to set up an appointment to come to the office and get reimbursed so we can make sure that we're there, so if they woulda done that we wouldn't have had issues, but that didn't happen so there were issues..ugh. But it worked out fine, they just had to wait a long time..haha But we had another missionary that had some issues and I was able to get it all worked out for them and they were super grateful and it like made my day! I loveee making people happy. =D But then I had to tell some other missionaries that I couldn't drive them to their area with all their luggage.....I hate saying no...haha But I'm so proud of my batch! (Batch means people you either came into the field with or going home with) I love them! There's only 5 new missionaries and 3 of them are being trained by my batch! My batch is so good! We're all actually doing super well! I love it! Also, for all of you following my favorite music...I've got another recommendation! My new favorite is a group called Eclipse. It has nothing to do with Twilight.......unfortunately....haha. But it's like a synthesized a Capella group. They have some cool stuff! Some of their songs are a little too much but I love most of them! Like All Creatures of Our God and King, For the Beauty of the Earth, Go with Me, I Believe in Christ, and Be Still My Soul is pretty good too. Check it out!
Friday was the wind-down-ish day. I got pretty much caught up on most of my work to go back to normal starting next week. On top of having to close my account I had to get everyone's support ready by Sunday...so I had lot's of stuff to do but I think it's all good! It seems like there's a billion apartment problems so I'll have to figure out that stuff...ugh. That part probably scares me the most about my job..oh well. Wish me luck! haha We had "survival lunch" again! This time it was even worse! We went to Outback Steakhouse (once again, another American place that the first time I've gone to it is in the Philippines..haha) but we get there and they have UEFA Champions League (soccer!) up on their TV! UGH! It was Chelsea and Napoli. But luckily like ten minutes later the worker, of course, got bored of soccer and changed it to a basketball game, like any other Filipino would do, and I lost interest cuz it was like the Hawks or something...haha
So yeah..that was kinda this week! Sorry for the lame week..just super busy. It was one of the those weeks where you feel like a missionary but not necessarily as much as you normally would. But it is pretty cool to see the Lord help me and direct me in this kind of work and still help me even though I'm not being like the "normal" missionary. Cuz even though I'm in the office, I can still feel the help and direction of the Spirit, and it's great! I'm starting to try and read like a conference talk a day from the last conference and I started earlier this morning. I love conference! It's so good. I tried to prayerfully select what talk I should start with and I really felt I should read "Missionaries Are a Treasure of the Church" by Elder Kazukiko Yamashita. So I did, and it was great! Also, as I was flipping through trying to decide where to start I saw one of my friends from BYU pictured in there, that was random but legit! I was like hey! I know you! Cool stuff. Well that was my week! Please stay tuned for next week!
Love you!!
Elder Michael Gadberry
Pictures--Just a couple cuz I was BUSY! haha
It's my batch! at the mission home for new missionary orientation! They're pretty legit. Sister Stonick on the far-left is already on her second round training. She trained on her third transfer here. Sister Packard next to me, was in my district at the MTC and is taring it up as well! And Elder Christie is from Australia! Well even better, from Tazmania! How legit is that? And his "anak" is 6'5", game-over. My batch wins. The end.
Look at me, I still got some MidWest in me! haha
So this week was crazy! It was transfer week...so yeah. Usually I write stuff down in my planner like what happened and what not so I can tell you all buuuttt so much was going on alllll the time that I got like nothing written down...so I'm sure I'll end up forgetting most of it. Sorry! I'll answer questions first so maybe that'll help me remember stuff.
So are you on your own now? Nervous? Did Elder Stirland get sent out of the city?
Yep. "I'm all aloneeee...there's no one here beeeeside meee! .....But you've gotta have friends!" Well of course I'm not all alone cuz that's kinda bawal (against the rules). I've got my trustee 'ol companion Elder Spencer! But as far as Finances go, I'm pretty much on my own. I've got Sister Venus up at the Area Office that can help me. And if I have any quick questions I just text or call Elder Stirland..haha Am I nervous? I little bit. I've actually adjusted pretty well. I'm gettin most everything that I need to get done, done. I have realized one thing that I'm definitely going to learn from working in here. I'm goin learn how to focus on one thing and prioritize. Cuz like the first couple days I was by myself, I'd start on something and then I'd remember something else that needed to get done, and then I'd think of another one! And soon enough I've got four projects going on my desk/computer, and I've forgotten the first thing I was doing...and it's super confusing...So yeah, I'll figure that out! It's a great learning experience! =D And well Elder Stirland got transferred to Manila. The San Juan area and was a district leader there (he was actually a district leader as well in the office for our Mandaluyong District). However...just earlier today some stuff went down and he got emergency transferred to Naic to be one of their Zone Leaders. Which is cool cuz Naic is like the most provincial area here on the mainland so that's good.
So working out somewhat again? Good for you!
Mommm....You wake up at 6:30 every morning and exercise! I'm obedient nga! hahaha (The "nga" is my Tagalog why of emphasizing that I'm obedient! haha). My favorite is to do sit-ups cuz I can close my eyes and pretend that I'm still sleeping.. =D
How is the teaching going? Do you do much tracting or is it mostly from referrals? Maybe you should start singing David Archaletta songs to get your foot in the door.
Well....that's another thing about transfer week....we have yet been able to make it to our area to do any work this week. Transfer week is super hectic cuz at the beginning of the week you have the Going-Home missionaries and their activities Mon-Wed and then transfer day on Wednesday and then New Missionary Orientation on Thursday and then Friday you're trying to get every thing straightened out that just happened. And for me it was even more busy cuz I have to re-deposit any money that I've withdrawn for various expenses over the past month and that has to happen on the 24th of each month...And so I have to make sure the amount that what I have equals the amount that the website says I have. If it doesn't....well that's definitely not good...haha But last month we actually missed the deadline to "close the month" So Venus (our Area Office helper) fixed it so that we just have to close both Jan and Feb on the 24th of Feb so that made it a little harder to get everything set-up and ready, but I got it done! And it's all good! As far as tracting goes, the Area Presidency/President Stucki have pretty much done away with it. They're stressing that our focus is on the less-active/in-actives and we don't need to spend all our time looking for new people. So the ideal work is to visit those less-active families, help re-activate them, ask for referrals from them, and work on completing part-member families. Which this way is a highly more effective way of missionary work because with tracting....you don't really have a whole lot of success. Well here in the Philippines it's not hard to have people to teach but it's more difficult to have true success. Kinda like what dad told me (though he meant it in a different realm) being busy isn't necessarily being successful. So our focus here is on the less-active, their families, and part-member families. But of course if you don't have a ton of less-active's in your area you'll have to tract still a little and do that jazz. So yeah. I've realized it's kinda hard to put into words how we work out here, so you guys should just come out here and work with us! =D
Did you ever get new shoes and new pants? Did you get a package yet?
Well I was actually going to tell you guys about the shoes! So thanks mom for the inspired question! You'd be a great missionary! Well I maybe I never mentioned this way back when but the shoes I always wear for working are these beat up brown ones that Elder Hopkins left for me (he's had them for two years. And I've decided that I like to rock the brown cuz I used to always rock the khaki but that's too light colored for missionaries so now my go-to is brown) But anyways, I've got his brown shoes (I've got a nice pair of brown shoes too that I love, so I only wear them in the office, to church, and to like mission events to keep them nice) and they're beat up but since those are the only ones I have I have to wear them even if I'm wearing black, grey, or blue pants....It kinda drives me nuts..haha But Elder Belarmino just went home and left a pair of shoes behind and they were black and so I inherited those as well. So my shoe problem is solved! It's funny cuz now the two pairs shoes I've inherited have both come from former APs (Assistant to the President), so I've got some big shoes to fill....haha get it?? I'm hilarious! The pants are another great story! Elder Stirland had had some fabric passed down to him and didn't want it anymore so I got it, and now all I have to do is take it to someone to get it made into pants and it'll cost me like ten bucks or somethin =D Nope, no package yet!
ps - It's really more difficult to write on a Friday night as opposed to Sunday
Oh geez....look at my parents murmuring...please feel free to chastise them! =D
So this week was great! Transfer week actually went super smoothly! Well for me it seemed it went smoothly and the other guys did say it went really good compared to other transfers, so that's great! Tuesday I literally spent alllll day and into the night getting all the apartment rent payments ready. Remember the 60 some odd checks I had to sign for last time? Yeah I had to get those into envelopes, addressed to their landlords, with acknowledgment receipts, and tax documents. It was crazyyy! But I got it done! Wooo!
So Wednesday was transfer day. We got up at about 3:30 in the morning to take all the Palawan bound missionaries to the airport....NOT FUN! Made it back to the office grabbed a donut from 7-Eleven across the street and prepared for war! haha All in all the day went well! It was a little stressful, but I don't feel stress so no worries =) I actually enjoyed it. It's kinda fun, it's like game-time! I got to see Elder Bagahansol (he's now a Zone Leader in Manila) and here about everyone in Coron! They're doing great! I missssssss them! He every brought with him a letter for me from the Durans!!! =D I MISSSS THEM!!! =( I'mma write them ASAP probably after I get done emailing you all if I've got time. Then after the chaos of transfer day, we were kinda hanging out in the office catching our breath, and this fairly sketchy lookin guy came into the office and just started talking with Sister Dietrich...He said he was a member the church from Hong Kong but has been other places as well. He wanted to know when church was on Sunday. He knows a bunch of languages and just got his masters in like being a Spy or whatever you should take to do that cuz that's what he wanted to do be a intelligence agent. So he seemed nice enough, eventually left and like an hour later some cop and army guy show up at the office (as I'm trying to pay this delivery boy for some office supplies...awkward...haha) with the sketchy dude! They asked us if he had been here like he said and that he just seemed sketchy. We were confused and he offered to show us his temple recommend so we looked at it and vouched for him. And they kinda took him outside and let him go I guess. Who woulda thought that the temple recommend would also serve as a "get out of jail free" card? haha =)
Thursday was pretty much my first full day on my own! It was kinda crazy but okay. We had new missionary orientation and I gotta give my spiel on finances and what not so we were there for that. But while we were sittin there I get a text and apparently there's missionaries at the mission office that need me to come reimburse them cuz they just got back from the hospital and they dont have enough money to get home (at least that's what they said). So that was annoying/frustrating cuz I had to make them wait there for like 2 hours cuz I couldn't leave the orientation. They're actually supposed to set up an appointment to come to the office and get reimbursed so we can make sure that we're there, so if they woulda done that we wouldn't have had issues, but that didn't happen so there were issues..ugh. But it worked out fine, they just had to wait a long time..haha But we had another missionary that had some issues and I was able to get it all worked out for them and they were super grateful and it like made my day! I loveee making people happy. =D But then I had to tell some other missionaries that I couldn't drive them to their area with all their luggage.....I hate saying no...haha But I'm so proud of my batch! (Batch means people you either came into the field with or going home with) I love them! There's only 5 new missionaries and 3 of them are being trained by my batch! My batch is so good! We're all actually doing super well! I love it! Also, for all of you following my favorite music...I've got another recommendation! My new favorite is a group called Eclipse. It has nothing to do with Twilight.......unfortunately....haha. But it's like a synthesized a Capella group. They have some cool stuff! Some of their songs are a little too much but I love most of them! Like All Creatures of Our God and King, For the Beauty of the Earth, Go with Me, I Believe in Christ, and Be Still My Soul is pretty good too. Check it out!
Friday was the wind-down-ish day. I got pretty much caught up on most of my work to go back to normal starting next week. On top of having to close my account I had to get everyone's support ready by Sunday...so I had lot's of stuff to do but I think it's all good! It seems like there's a billion apartment problems so I'll have to figure out that stuff...ugh. That part probably scares me the most about my job..oh well. Wish me luck! haha We had "survival lunch" again! This time it was even worse! We went to Outback Steakhouse (once again, another American place that the first time I've gone to it is in the Philippines..haha) but we get there and they have UEFA Champions League (soccer!) up on their TV! UGH! It was Chelsea and Napoli. But luckily like ten minutes later the worker, of course, got bored of soccer and changed it to a basketball game, like any other Filipino would do, and I lost interest cuz it was like the Hawks or something...haha
So yeah..that was kinda this week! Sorry for the lame week..just super busy. It was one of the those weeks where you feel like a missionary but not necessarily as much as you normally would. But it is pretty cool to see the Lord help me and direct me in this kind of work and still help me even though I'm not being like the "normal" missionary. Cuz even though I'm in the office, I can still feel the help and direction of the Spirit, and it's great! I'm starting to try and read like a conference talk a day from the last conference and I started earlier this morning. I love conference! It's so good. I tried to prayerfully select what talk I should start with and I really felt I should read "Missionaries Are a Treasure of the Church" by Elder Kazukiko Yamashita. So I did, and it was great! Also, as I was flipping through trying to decide where to start I saw one of my friends from BYU pictured in there, that was random but legit! I was like hey! I know you! Cool stuff. Well that was my week! Please stay tuned for next week!
Love you!!
Elder Michael Gadberry
Pictures--Just a couple cuz I was BUSY! haha
It's my batch! at the mission home for new missionary orientation! They're pretty legit. Sister Stonick on the far-left is already on her second round training. She trained on her third transfer here. Sister Packard next to me, was in my district at the MTC and is taring it up as well! And Elder Christie is from Australia! Well even better, from Tazmania! How legit is that? And his "anak" is 6'5", game-over. My batch wins. The end.
Sunday, March 4, 2012
2-17-12 E-mail!
Editor's Note: I'm trying to catch up. For those of you who may have lost track, Michael is now serving in the Mission Office as the financial secretary. It's a very busy hectic responsibility which leaves him with much less time for "real" missionary work. He still seems to be loving what he is doing. Enjoy...
Hey Everyone!
Oh geez, here come the questions...haha
Have you been able to get out more to teach?
Not really unfortunately!! =( Because with transfers coming up we have a lotttt of things to get prepared so we haven't gotten to do nearly as much area work as we would like. We had a few successes though. On Tuesday we went to a members house and were able to share a message with her and her less-active son that she really wants to get active again and get on a mission. The thing with the son is that he started dating this girl and it turns out she's a member. So now they're going to church and it's good stuff! But it better not stay too good cuzzz he kinda needs to serve a mission....haha But for the rest of the week when we were out workin, it wasn't so successful. There were a couple nights where it was like, "ugh. we woulda been more productive if we woulda just stayed at the office." Which is quite the annoying thing to think/realize. But at the same time of course there's absolutely no success in the area if we just stay at the office. But it's all good, we'll tear it up next week of course!
So had your license for 2 weeks and pulled over 2 times...is that a mission record?
Nope! =D I guess Elder Soules (Supplies elder before Elder Spencer) managed to get like three or four times in a day...haha It's not my fault! I am a good driver! The cops here are just picky/werid. But it's all good! I haven't hit anything! Elder Spencer has though....haha but it was before I came in.
Have you totally given up eating like a Philippino?
NO! I love Filipino! It's good stuff! Just when you don't have a whole lot of time to cook and you don't have a too many members in your area to feed you, you just gotta go to McDo (the Filipino for Mickey Ds; pronounced Mac-Doe). I'm actually quite surprised how much I like this food! That's one of the things I was kinda worried about before coming out here (if you guys know me, you know that I was pickyyyyyy) but I actually prayed about it a little and haven't thought about it since. I really consider it a small but awesome blessing from the Lord.
Maybe with your P-Day on Sat. you'll be able to see the sites in the city?
Maybe. But we'll see. We're still pretty busy with office stuff even when it's p-day. But as always, it's all good! =D
I actually asked my dad a question this week. Kinda about all that he learned when he was Financial Secretary because I really don't want to just use this time as FS (Finance Secretary; for typing purposes) as just a time to learn about management, business, money, and that kinda stuff. But I wanna learn alllll that I can. So he gave me some awesome counsel. One of the things that he said that I've really noticed too is the great blessing of getting to work close to the Mission President. It's a ridiculously uplifting experience to do that. He's such an inspired man, and pretty much like Superman with a million and five things on his plate and able to accomplish all of it with such inspiration and correctness.
He also mentioned about he much his language grew even though he wasn't out proselyting as much as other missionaries. And just recently actually I've had a realization about my language skills. A lot of missionaries kind of describe becoming fluent as a process but just one day you wake up and you get it, like it clicks. Well, I wouldn't say that happened to me, but I'll try to describe how I feel/what I experienced. So I was thinking about the language (I do that alottttt hahaha =D) and I kinda realized like "you know what? I get it now." It's like I don't worry anymore about not knowing, I just talk. But it's not that I know everything, it's just that over the past transfer I've come to not be afraid of speaking. The people here are always complimenting your Tagalog cuz one, you're white and two, white people don't speak Tagalog. So I've always kinda considered that an empty compliment. But I realized that maybe I should listen to it more, accept it, and grow off of it. Because for me "becoming fluent" is a process of "becoming confident." Maybe I've "gotten it" a lot longer than I think but I've really seen myself grow. Just the other day I realized, "hey! I'm not scared to talk to anyone anymore." And that's really been the thing holding me back the most, I think. But it's all good! I'm lovin it!
So now it's time to for....MATHBMA! Or in other words..Mentioning of All the Things that Haven't Been Mentioned Above! Personally, I prefer the acronym.
So let's start with Sunday! Sunday was great cuz Albert Ponce, our in-active member we're teaching. Made it to church again! Which means he's fully active again! Which now in our mission, is pretty much a baptism! President wants us to send in pictures and stories of all people we've been able to re-activate. Our mission has a goal to re-activate I think 3800 people this year. We're going big-time! Also, for lunch we made AMU! Or in other words American Mix-Up! Again, I prefer the acronym. So what we did, is we boiled a bunch of little potatoes, threw in some pork n beans, AND chopped up Moby Chick(en) (the leftover of my huge Chili's chicken) and mixed it all together and ate it! It was great! It actually tasted pretty good, you should try it. In other news, I could like barely walk cuz I decided to start the jump program that Coach Reed always made us do for basketball Saturday morning for exercise. Yeah, I was sore....for like two days. hahaha
Monday was grand! One of the things I've had to realize here is that sometimes you learn a lot more from making mistakes (one of the reasons I didn't like speaking Tagalog to people is because I hate making mistakes and saying something wrong, but it's all good now! =) ) but here in the office I've made soooo many mistakes! On Friday, I had to get Elder and Sister Spencer a couple apartment rent checks and the documents that go with it and it took me like 10 tries, seriously. I even managed to print a Withholding Tax Form onto an envelope! haha Which pretty much summed up my frustration..haha But I've definitely learned that most of the time, as long as the mistake isn't too bad, it's a great opportunity to learn. Ugh. That means my philosophy, was wrong. Oh well I was wrong. I guess there's a first time for everything....haha =D juuuust kidding! Okay so our companionship is pretty much awesome. Elder Stirland and I love to joke around and entertain and especially compliment Elder Spencer. Elder Spencer is awesome! Just sometimes he doesn't believe it. So pretty much daily Elder Stirland and I get the uke out and start singing about how awesome he is and how we love him. The chorus is the same but we improv the verses and it usually goes quite terribly but it's fun. So Monday night we wanted to put to entertain Elder Spencer, so we're like we're going to do some Whose Line is it Anyways? We did a few scenes before bed and the last one was Batman (me) and Superman (Elder Stirland) sitting down for some lunch. We got Elder Spencer to laugh super hard and it was indeed hilarious. I love these guys!
Oh geeeez. Tuesday was Valentines Day! Sister Dietrich is definitely my Valentine cuz she got me Hershey Kisses and that's like all I need...haha But for District Meeting we, mostly Elder Stirland, bought this huuuge 36 inch pizza for Valentines Day/because Elder Stirland is leaving. It was actually pretty good. Also, my companions are ridiculous. They love throwing all the attention on me especially if someone says something about my eyelashes (it may seem ridiculous but literally everyone does... =/ ) so as soon as someone says something or as soon as the attention gets put on me they just go to town cuz they know the more attention they put on me, the redder I get. It's quite annoying. hahaha But in some cases, I have been dubbed Elder Strawberry because of it. Oh geez.
Wednesday was kinda cool from the start! In Companionship study we were trying to figure out what we should teach to the Capitli family. It was not going good. There were some many directions we could take and I wanted to share this scripture, Elder Stirland liked another one, and it was just hard to get the lesson plan together. So we stopped, and prayed. Immediately I felt that the other scriptures were better, we became more united in the direction to take, and were able to put together a seemingly great lesson plan! (Which we still haven't been able to teach...but still! haha) It was a pretty cool experience. Later I got the experience to call an apartment owner and tell them that we're moving out and we need our money back....Yeah not exactly the call I wanted to make...but I did it. And it went surprisingly well! Like to the point I'm not entirely sure they understood everything cuz they essentially just said "that's fine when will you be out?" So yeah. Hopefully it did go well! After that, we had an office meeting with everyone in the office and President. I was given the responsibility to cover the finance part of that meeting and to explain how we're doing on our budget after January, and why some things are over budget and other things are under. I was kinda nervous, but it went great! I'm enjoying this stuff.
Thursday was the test! Elder Stirland, as the District Leader, went on exchanges with two of the elders in our district. So I was all alone in the FS (financial secretary) position that day! I was feeling like a star, they couldn't stop my shine; I was lovin' cloud nine, my head's in the sky. I was solo, I was ridin' solo. (get the reference? haha) But I was ridin' solo. And It went well! My planner is completely full of stuff I wrote down throughout the day, but I got a lot done, solved some problems on my own, and it was a good confidence boost for this upcoming week! Oh geez...Elder Stirland is almost gone... When Elder Spencer and I went out to the area, we had no success. Except we talked to this one guy. Now before you get to thinkin it was some great experience, stop. haha This is one of the stranger people I've talked to. This guy, without a forehead and a cigarette in his hand, stops us and was like Mormons?? We were like yes, how's it going. He goes on to tell us he wants us to teach him, he wants to learn about the Bible, and even wants to go to church! Alright, it's going great; and it's even better cuz I'm ninety percent sure he's not drunk. score! We continue talking to him. We find out he doesn't have a forehead because he tried to committ suicide by shooting himself up through the mouth, it didn't work and cost 1.3 million pesos to fix. Okay, that's a little weird, but maybe, just maybe, he was saved for a reason, realizes it and wants to learn more about the church. So we tell him where and when church is, give him a pamphlet and tell him we'll come visit sometime.
Oh yesterday was fun too. I got to pick up my checks from the bank! ....There were 62 of them. Not fun. We had to request all the rents for all the apartments for the next quarter of payment. And for each check, I had to print my name and then sign over it. You might think other missionaries get a good work out walking around everyday, but hey my hand got a pretty good one signing all those checks! haha That night in our area, we tried to visit one of the Less-Active families that we actually really like. We got there and Tatay (Tagalog for father; it's not uncommon to call someone Tatay even if he's not your father) is really kinda heavily drunk...He saw us and was like Elders! Come here! I love you! I'm drunk! He reached out to shake our hands and then went all out and kissed them, too. haha We told him we'd come back another time. And he was like okay! When?? We said maybe tomorrow or the next day. And he was like okay! Sorry I'm drunk, I love you! So then we continued on to our next appointment. Successful right? haha At our next appointment, we had a pretty good lesson with Palma our investigator. We talked about lots of things, and he lovesss reading the Book of Mormon. He's studying it like hardcore. He asked us who Ameliki's brother was that it talks about in Omni 1:30, and a few other kinda weird but good questions from which you can really tell he's studying the Book of Mormon. He's great!
Today was good. Had a pre-birthday lunch for Elder Spencer. Went shopping. And got our hair cuts. Be tee dubs, hair cuts still kinda freak me out. I always just sit there waiting and pondering like what I'm going to say to the guy so he'll cut it how I want it. But I was even like that in the States...haha So hopefully it looks good!
Well that was super long, sorry! Hope all is well with all of you!
Love
Elder Michael Gadberry
Hey Everyone!
Oh geez, here come the questions...haha
Have you been able to get out more to teach?
Not really unfortunately!! =( Because with transfers coming up we have a lotttt of things to get prepared so we haven't gotten to do nearly as much area work as we would like. We had a few successes though. On Tuesday we went to a members house and were able to share a message with her and her less-active son that she really wants to get active again and get on a mission. The thing with the son is that he started dating this girl and it turns out she's a member. So now they're going to church and it's good stuff! But it better not stay too good cuzzz he kinda needs to serve a mission....haha But for the rest of the week when we were out workin, it wasn't so successful. There were a couple nights where it was like, "ugh. we woulda been more productive if we woulda just stayed at the office." Which is quite the annoying thing to think/realize. But at the same time of course there's absolutely no success in the area if we just stay at the office. But it's all good, we'll tear it up next week of course!
So had your license for 2 weeks and pulled over 2 times...is that a mission record?
Nope! =D I guess Elder Soules (Supplies elder before Elder Spencer) managed to get like three or four times in a day...haha It's not my fault! I am a good driver! The cops here are just picky/werid. But it's all good! I haven't hit anything! Elder Spencer has though....haha but it was before I came in.
Have you totally given up eating like a Philippino?
NO! I love Filipino! It's good stuff! Just when you don't have a whole lot of time to cook and you don't have a too many members in your area to feed you, you just gotta go to McDo (the Filipino for Mickey Ds; pronounced Mac-Doe). I'm actually quite surprised how much I like this food! That's one of the things I was kinda worried about before coming out here (if you guys know me, you know that I was pickyyyyyy) but I actually prayed about it a little and haven't thought about it since. I really consider it a small but awesome blessing from the Lord.
Maybe with your P-Day on Sat. you'll be able to see the sites in the city?
Maybe. But we'll see. We're still pretty busy with office stuff even when it's p-day. But as always, it's all good! =D
I actually asked my dad a question this week. Kinda about all that he learned when he was Financial Secretary because I really don't want to just use this time as FS (Finance Secretary; for typing purposes) as just a time to learn about management, business, money, and that kinda stuff. But I wanna learn alllll that I can. So he gave me some awesome counsel. One of the things that he said that I've really noticed too is the great blessing of getting to work close to the Mission President. It's a ridiculously uplifting experience to do that. He's such an inspired man, and pretty much like Superman with a million and five things on his plate and able to accomplish all of it with such inspiration and correctness.
He also mentioned about he much his language grew even though he wasn't out proselyting as much as other missionaries. And just recently actually I've had a realization about my language skills. A lot of missionaries kind of describe becoming fluent as a process but just one day you wake up and you get it, like it clicks. Well, I wouldn't say that happened to me, but I'll try to describe how I feel/what I experienced. So I was thinking about the language (I do that alottttt hahaha =D) and I kinda realized like "you know what? I get it now." It's like I don't worry anymore about not knowing, I just talk. But it's not that I know everything, it's just that over the past transfer I've come to not be afraid of speaking. The people here are always complimenting your Tagalog cuz one, you're white and two, white people don't speak Tagalog. So I've always kinda considered that an empty compliment. But I realized that maybe I should listen to it more, accept it, and grow off of it. Because for me "becoming fluent" is a process of "becoming confident." Maybe I've "gotten it" a lot longer than I think but I've really seen myself grow. Just the other day I realized, "hey! I'm not scared to talk to anyone anymore." And that's really been the thing holding me back the most, I think. But it's all good! I'm lovin it!
So now it's time to for....MATHBMA! Or in other words..Mentioning of All the Things that Haven't Been Mentioned Above! Personally, I prefer the acronym.
So let's start with Sunday! Sunday was great cuz Albert Ponce, our in-active member we're teaching. Made it to church again! Which means he's fully active again! Which now in our mission, is pretty much a baptism! President wants us to send in pictures and stories of all people we've been able to re-activate. Our mission has a goal to re-activate I think 3800 people this year. We're going big-time! Also, for lunch we made AMU! Or in other words American Mix-Up! Again, I prefer the acronym. So what we did, is we boiled a bunch of little potatoes, threw in some pork n beans, AND chopped up Moby Chick(en) (the leftover of my huge Chili's chicken) and mixed it all together and ate it! It was great! It actually tasted pretty good, you should try it. In other news, I could like barely walk cuz I decided to start the jump program that Coach Reed always made us do for basketball Saturday morning for exercise. Yeah, I was sore....for like two days. hahaha
Monday was grand! One of the things I've had to realize here is that sometimes you learn a lot more from making mistakes (one of the reasons I didn't like speaking Tagalog to people is because I hate making mistakes and saying something wrong, but it's all good now! =) ) but here in the office I've made soooo many mistakes! On Friday, I had to get Elder and Sister Spencer a couple apartment rent checks and the documents that go with it and it took me like 10 tries, seriously. I even managed to print a Withholding Tax Form onto an envelope! haha Which pretty much summed up my frustration..haha But I've definitely learned that most of the time, as long as the mistake isn't too bad, it's a great opportunity to learn. Ugh. That means my philosophy, was wrong. Oh well I was wrong. I guess there's a first time for everything....haha =D juuuust kidding! Okay so our companionship is pretty much awesome. Elder Stirland and I love to joke around and entertain and especially compliment Elder Spencer. Elder Spencer is awesome! Just sometimes he doesn't believe it. So pretty much daily Elder Stirland and I get the uke out and start singing about how awesome he is and how we love him. The chorus is the same but we improv the verses and it usually goes quite terribly but it's fun. So Monday night we wanted to put to entertain Elder Spencer, so we're like we're going to do some Whose Line is it Anyways? We did a few scenes before bed and the last one was Batman (me) and Superman (Elder Stirland) sitting down for some lunch. We got Elder Spencer to laugh super hard and it was indeed hilarious. I love these guys!
Oh geeeez. Tuesday was Valentines Day! Sister Dietrich is definitely my Valentine cuz she got me Hershey Kisses and that's like all I need...haha But for District Meeting we, mostly Elder Stirland, bought this huuuge 36 inch pizza for Valentines Day/because Elder Stirland is leaving. It was actually pretty good. Also, my companions are ridiculous. They love throwing all the attention on me especially if someone says something about my eyelashes (it may seem ridiculous but literally everyone does... =/ ) so as soon as someone says something or as soon as the attention gets put on me they just go to town cuz they know the more attention they put on me, the redder I get. It's quite annoying. hahaha But in some cases, I have been dubbed Elder Strawberry because of it. Oh geez.
Wednesday was kinda cool from the start! In Companionship study we were trying to figure out what we should teach to the Capitli family. It was not going good. There were some many directions we could take and I wanted to share this scripture, Elder Stirland liked another one, and it was just hard to get the lesson plan together. So we stopped, and prayed. Immediately I felt that the other scriptures were better, we became more united in the direction to take, and were able to put together a seemingly great lesson plan! (Which we still haven't been able to teach...but still! haha) It was a pretty cool experience. Later I got the experience to call an apartment owner and tell them that we're moving out and we need our money back....Yeah not exactly the call I wanted to make...but I did it. And it went surprisingly well! Like to the point I'm not entirely sure they understood everything cuz they essentially just said "that's fine when will you be out?" So yeah. Hopefully it did go well! After that, we had an office meeting with everyone in the office and President. I was given the responsibility to cover the finance part of that meeting and to explain how we're doing on our budget after January, and why some things are over budget and other things are under. I was kinda nervous, but it went great! I'm enjoying this stuff.
Thursday was the test! Elder Stirland, as the District Leader, went on exchanges with two of the elders in our district. So I was all alone in the FS (financial secretary) position that day! I was feeling like a star, they couldn't stop my shine; I was lovin' cloud nine, my head's in the sky. I was solo, I was ridin' solo. (get the reference? haha) But I was ridin' solo. And It went well! My planner is completely full of stuff I wrote down throughout the day, but I got a lot done, solved some problems on my own, and it was a good confidence boost for this upcoming week! Oh geez...Elder Stirland is almost gone... When Elder Spencer and I went out to the area, we had no success. Except we talked to this one guy. Now before you get to thinkin it was some great experience, stop. haha This is one of the stranger people I've talked to. This guy, without a forehead and a cigarette in his hand, stops us and was like Mormons?? We were like yes, how's it going. He goes on to tell us he wants us to teach him, he wants to learn about the Bible, and even wants to go to church! Alright, it's going great; and it's even better cuz I'm ninety percent sure he's not drunk. score! We continue talking to him. We find out he doesn't have a forehead because he tried to committ suicide by shooting himself up through the mouth, it didn't work and cost 1.3 million pesos to fix. Okay, that's a little weird, but maybe, just maybe, he was saved for a reason, realizes it and wants to learn more about the church. So we tell him where and when church is, give him a pamphlet and tell him we'll come visit sometime.
Oh yesterday was fun too. I got to pick up my checks from the bank! ....There were 62 of them. Not fun. We had to request all the rents for all the apartments for the next quarter of payment. And for each check, I had to print my name and then sign over it. You might think other missionaries get a good work out walking around everyday, but hey my hand got a pretty good one signing all those checks! haha That night in our area, we tried to visit one of the Less-Active families that we actually really like. We got there and Tatay (Tagalog for father; it's not uncommon to call someone Tatay even if he's not your father) is really kinda heavily drunk...He saw us and was like Elders! Come here! I love you! I'm drunk! He reached out to shake our hands and then went all out and kissed them, too. haha We told him we'd come back another time. And he was like okay! When?? We said maybe tomorrow or the next day. And he was like okay! Sorry I'm drunk, I love you! So then we continued on to our next appointment. Successful right? haha At our next appointment, we had a pretty good lesson with Palma our investigator. We talked about lots of things, and he lovesss reading the Book of Mormon. He's studying it like hardcore. He asked us who Ameliki's brother was that it talks about in Omni 1:30, and a few other kinda weird but good questions from which you can really tell he's studying the Book of Mormon. He's great!
Today was good. Had a pre-birthday lunch for Elder Spencer. Went shopping. And got our hair cuts. Be tee dubs, hair cuts still kinda freak me out. I always just sit there waiting and pondering like what I'm going to say to the guy so he'll cut it how I want it. But I was even like that in the States...haha So hopefully it looks good!
Well that was super long, sorry! Hope all is well with all of you!
Love
Elder Michael Gadberry
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