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| From March 24, 2012 |
Monday, April 2, 2012
3-24-12 E-mail!
Hey great friends read this...
(Hey that is pretty good.) <-- (See Julian Smith's Racist Coffee on youtube, it's a good 'un)
So guess what! This week has been another good one here in the Philippines! It's been super hot, it's evening raining today, even got some lightning and thunder!, and we only had one trip to the hospital and just all around a grand 'ol time! haha So let's cut the fluff and get right down to it.
Maybe the Blues will win their first Stanley Cup???
They shall because I'm serving the Lord. hahaha
BTW, when is the next transfer?
Be tee dubs, it's this upcoming April 4th. Pretty close! It's goin start to get hectic real soon! I actually felt that this week was pretty slow in the office so I just did my best to get stuff prepared and ready for end of the month end stuff and transfer week stuff.
It's nice that you are realizing the importance of daily prayer and scripture study, any chance you could put a bug in your brothers' ears?
Well I could try, but it probably wouldn't work too well. Especially when I don't get emails from them... =/ Called out! Boom! haha juuuust kidding....ish. =)
Do you hear much about the people you left in Coron? The ones you were teaching?
I only get news from Coron when people come from Coron so it's only every once and a while. But the other week with that specialized training Elder Anderson, currently serving in Coron, came down for that, and we gave him a ride to the airport. So like the whole time there I was just asking about everyone out there. It sounds like things are going really well! The best news for me was Brother Jucaban. If you remember him, he's the husband of a member out there and he has two little boys. He's been trying and trying to prepare for baptism but from like the beginning of my last transfer until the time I left he had gotten himself down to 2 cigarettes a day, but just couldn't give it up completely. But the news was that he finally stopped! I was pumped! So I would guess that he's getting baptized soon (I think Elder Anderson may have said today was his baptismal date..or maybe end of April...I don't know). And then Aurora's husband also has embraced the gospel and has a baptismal date in early April I believe. It's good stuff out there! Miss it!
Dad and Caleb are getting ready to go to Utah in a few weeks to see your old stomping grounds. Any requests?
Hmm...when they're in Provo they should def find time to go to J-Dawgs cuz it's where it's at! Say hi to my friends out there! (all my guy friends are out servin wherever...haha) I kinda don't really know who will still out there the semester might be over by then, but if Erin or Maddie or Wes! Oh yeah! (I heard thru the grapeline that he had to go home cuz of medical issues so if you see my old roomie say hi too!), so if you happen to see them say hi! And say hi to anyone else you run into that may read this!...so if you're reading this and are out there and see a guy that looks pretty similar to me but a little taller (ugh...I know. Don't say anything.) find him and say HI! Especially if he's with an old bald guy named Kirk. haha =D I miss BYU, it's the best!
Well this week was great! We made the resolve at the beginning of the week to get out to our area everyday cuz sometimes it's really hard when you have stuff that kinda just pop up or just have a ton of stuff to get done before the next day, but we did a good job this week! It was hard but it worked out! We only couldn't make it one day, next week will be even better. So let's start my journal shall we? Yeah this is pretty much my journal cuz I've gotten really bad at writing in my real one, that's why these kinda tend to be super long. It'll come back to haunt me, not writing in my journal, but hey for now just enjoy my journal via electronic mail.. haha
So this past Sunday was sweet! The Dietrich's had like an Office Dinner with us and the Assistants and guess what I got to eat! ......Oh come on...stop reading for half a second. Close your eyes. Guess a food. and then continue reading. . . . . . . . . . . I got to eat mashed taters! (I heart all of you who actually stopped and made a guess no matter how far off, and am very disappointed in the majority of you who did not.) I was PUMPED! They were legit! Like she bought potatoes, chopped them up, and then did whatever you do to make them mashed potatoes, I guess one of those steps would include, mashing the chopped potatoes. Our work that day was really cool as well. We got a few lessons in, one of them being with the Advincula family! It was a great lesson and directed by the Spirit! We went in there expecting to teach about scripture study and the Book of Mormon. Well we started and just the way things went it totally flowed into a lesson about prayer and praying as a family. We walked out of that lesson feeling good about it and I looked over at Elder Spencer and was like "weren't we planning on teaching scripture study..?" It was pretty cool, it's just good that we were able to kinda yield and go the direction that the Spirit was taking the lesson. But before the Advincula family we got punted and didn't really know where to go so we're just standing on the side of the road when this barber waves us over and tells us to sit down. He was always nice to us for some reason but we never sat down and talked with him. So we sat down in front of his shop on the side of the road and just started talking to him. We ended talking to him for like 40 minutes and even committed him to praying and trying to go to church. Cuz it turns out that he went to church down in Mindanao for like a year cuz one of his friends was a member but he eventually stopped going to church cuz his friend moved away. He had some great experiences but was never baptized. He's pretty busy working but we'll hopefully get to start teaching him soon.
Let's skip on down to Monday. Skippity, skip, skip. We're here! Woo! So nothin too exciting went down on Monday. However, on Monday I did learn that the Philippines had over 7800 members return to activation in just January and February and then another 2000+ baptisms after that! The work here in the Philippines is really just rollin right along it's pretty awesome! I love it! That night we got out and got to teach the favored Locanlale family! We shared a message from 2 Nephi 9:18, kinda about Enduring and the prize therein. And it was great! They even fed us afterwards! I got to talk to Nanay (ie. Mom) for a while and it turns out her and her husband are going to a marriage counselling like retreat thing this weekend so I'm thinkin it'll be a great experience for them (even though they're probably goin miss Sunday...) and then we'll be able to get Tatay (ie. Dad) more involved in teaching and the coming back to church thing. After we were out in our area we went back home and the Dietrich's were so kind as to let us borrow their washer and dryer. So while we were up there we talked to them for a while it was great! I loveee talking to them! They're so Midwest and are totes like my grandparents out here. So good!
Tuesday was pretty busy. First I had to prepare for district meeting. I had the great honor of giving the Christ-like Attribute lesson from Preach My Gospel at our District Meeting later that day. I gave it on patience. It was great! It's a really interesting attribute, one that we all can use a little bit more of at times but at the same time one that I feel that I've developed well over the past however many years. For me, it's always hardest to be patient with myself...haha It's really easy to get frustrated with my own self but I gotta stay patient and accept things as they come. I think it was an old soccer or basketball saying "to be quick, but don't hurry." So it's like that with personal progress (no not the YW thingy). I wanna progress quickly, but not rush things. I gotta enjoy where I'm at and how far I've come. And learn as much as I can from each step rather than trying to double step it like I always did walking up the stairs from the back-side of the RB after playin basketball or racquetball or whatever else there. (Yeahhh! That's right you Provo peeps know what I mean! haha) Well after we got everything done we made it out to our area again and our big lesson that night was with Ponce! We decided to start teaching him again the Plan of Salvation and it was perfect! Cuz he said that he had actually forgotten a lot of it. So we taught about Pre-Earth life and everything that happened there and why it's important and what not. It was great!
Wednesday was interesting...haha First of all, I broke the finance record (well as far as I know for me and Elder Stirland) for most actual cash carried out the bank, so that was kinda funny. But none of it's for me of course, it just goes through me to get to like the Senior Couples and whoever else I need to get it to. Like Senior Couples generally work through Working Funds, which are funds that I give them and then they spend it on the things they're doing for the mission (like apartment furnishings, taking people to the hospital, etc.) and then turn in all their receipts to me at the end of the month and based off those receipts, that's how much I give them for the next month to replenish their Working Fund. So I had two Working Funds, a check I had to cash to furnish an apartment, and another Senior Couple reimbursement all with me, so that's why I had so much. I told Elder Spencer to make sure I don't get mugged cuz that would be bad..haha I also noted that I love the feeling of things working out! The Forinashs got the money and things they needed for their new apartment and were super-grateful and thanked me for all the stuff I did for them and even commented on my eyelashes....again. Ugh. In other news, UCPB (The United Coconut Planters Bank) <-- (I know right?! Apparently thats the bank the church works through here though). But anyways...UCPB was totes playin like an Eminem CD or somethin as their like background/lobby music. It wasn't very loud but I could recognize it...haha They probably don't know how bad Eminem really is...haha But it was like Eminem after Eminem when I was there, it was funny.
Now Thursday was where it was at! We had exchanges with our District Leader, Elder Koochin. Meaning we weren't in the office at all! It was me and Elder Koochin in his area, and then Elder Victorio and Elder Spencer in ours. It started Wednesday night, so it was like a full day of being a regular missionary again! It was def cool. But I had a pretty cool Personal Study Thursday morning. Towards the end, I studied a talk from last conference by Barbara Thomson cuz she's kinda legit I decided. It was called Personal Revelation and Testimony. And I learned a lot from it! And I also learned that my Personal Revelation from that Personal Study was how to receive Personal Revelation. I thought that was kinda ironic/funny but awesome nonetheless! After Elder Koochin had our studies and had lunch, we hit the road! We even got to take a jeepney. Buuut...that was problem number one of the day...We got on that jeepney and it was sooooo bad! It had music and it was so bad! The sound system on the jeepney was actually impressive, but the music choice...not good. Like literally every other word was a swear word..Like at there was one verse by Lil Wayne...and it turned out to be like the cleanest verse...hahaha But finally, we got off the Satan jeepney and got to work! After the day I wrote down a list of "I got to:"s. So first, I got to sit on the floor of people's little houses and teach them! I loved it! I don't know why I miss that so much. I got to deal with drunk people that were like super drunk and were just dying for the two white people to talk to them. I even got to talk to one for like 5 minutes, and I couldn't understand a word he said...it was that bad. I got to get wet! We worked in the raid and got soaked! Classic. We actually had one umbrella and it was a little one that could barely fit one person. Well, we had one of the members in the area working with us so there was three of us and we all tried to squeeze under that little umbrella and it was pretty hilarious.
I got to work with my batch! I love my batch, all of them, 'nuff said. I got to give two blessings! I got to have a cold shower! Oh geez...I probably didn't mention this but our shower kinda has hot water so we're like super spoiled, but on Thursday I got a nice 'ol super cold one! It was great! haha I got to walk around allll day! Yay for exercise! I got to not worry about finance stuff! And I didn't really have any one bother me or anything the whole day. And lastly, I got to help people come unto Chrirst! =D It was a great day! I enjoyed it and learned a lot!
On Friday, I had a great personal study in Mormon! Chapter 2 to be specific. I really enjoyed how great Mormon was even in his youth! He's like 15 and 16 and recognizing the fulfilling of the prophecies of the prophets before him. And you could really tell that he studied the scriptures cuz when he was just 16 he was called upon to be the military leader for the Nephites. So he's the head of this army and is charge of telling them what to do. If you notice, the strategies that he tries are all ones that had been used and been successful with other Nephite military leaders and recorded in the scriptures. And the guys only like 16! I know I was def not good at the scriptures at 16, I'm still not that good....haha But before that! We were supposed to go to the ground-breaking of the new chapel in Mandaluyong (our city where we proselyte). Well we had to get up at like 4:45 to do that...not fun! But I was excited. So my alarm goes off and I actually get up! Look at me go! I try to wake Elder Spencer up, and he is like passed out and was not waking up at all....so I had to just go back to the couch and sleep till 6:30....it was sad but whatev. Later that afternoon, our walk-in blessing father and daughter returned! It was cool! and surprising! The operation they were going to have got postponed because his daughter had a cough, so he wanted a blessing for that so of course we did. Elder Dietrich actually gave them a ride home-ish so they wouldn't have to walk so far but like they were almost there and just ended up taking the daughter to the hospital cuz she suddenly got a fever, probably cuz of walking out in the super hot sun all day...so it's a good thing Elder Dietrich took them. So hopefully things work out for them. That evening was cool! kinda. I got an email from Venus at like 4-ish and she had some stuff I needed to look over and review and figure out. It required me like literally searching all the records I had back like like 2008 cuz like none of this stuff is on the computer and that's why she needed me to do it. But I actually was able to find all the things I needed to find and I felt cool! I felt like I was doing like detective work...hahaha It probably feels kinda like that too doing Family History work, well this was a more finance version of that..haha
Today was kinda like crazy but awesome p-day! First thing, the Dietrich's made us pancakes and bacon and spam for breakfast! I really only cared about the pancakes..haha But they made a ton so it was like all-you-can-eat pancakes we joked. After that we went to an awesome baptism for a couple missionaries in our district. It was like picture perfect! It was an awesomely done service, and the family was great! The mother was inactive and father wasn't a member. The missionaries came along and boom! Mom's trying to come back to church and dad's baptized and the entire service was like focused on enduring and going to the temple to be sealed for time and all eternity. It was cool! Afterwards, our district went to Mang-Inasal for lunch where it's unlimited rice...haha So we ate a lot. After that we tried to go shopping...then we got a call saying that we needed to go to the hospital and bring some stuff to some elders there. So there went our p-day but it was great! Cuz I got to see Elder Osumo, and it was way great to see him again. We even brought them McDonalds and it was pretty funny cuz we walked across the street from the HUGE hospital to the McDonald's that is right next to the Jaguar/Land Rover dealership...haha We thought it was pretty funny, maybe you had to be there.
So yeah. That was my great week! I better get goin now cuz it's taken me a while to write this...haha Go figure. Once I get back in the field, I'm sure my emails will shorten...haha cuz then I have to start paying for internet...haha Well, bye! I hope you all have an awesome week!
Love
Elder Michael Gadberry
Pictures
0047 -- This was our shopping cart...we didn't have a whole lot to buy...just little of this and little of that...haha
0049 -- Awww! It's a cute little puppy and Sister Lopez and Sister Terano gave me!
0050 -- NOT! Is that not creepy?? It's eyes turn green! hahaha This should definitely go on the list of toys that would give toddlers nightmares...hahaha
0056/0058 -- Okay, I was like starving and was like begging Elder Spencer to make me a sandwich. But he just kept talking to Sister Dietrich for like EVER! haha So I would come up with somethin on a sticky note walk over and stick it on his screen then sit down. It went on for a little and then I just decided to get up and make sandwiches for the two of us. Look at me go! haha Various notes include: Fuel gauge of my stomach, "SAND-WICH! please.", an adorable heart full of my love for Elder Spencer, "Please feed the finance. Thank you.", "Kakainin kita! Rawr!" (I will eat you! Rawr!), "Welcome to Hungerville. Population: me.", a diagram of myself and thoughts, "If you're hungry and you know it clap your hands. Clap! Clap!", and a simple 4-step instruction of how to make a sandwich and give it to me.
0059/0060 - We hit 10000 kilometers in the van! Woo!
0061 - The one night we were talkin to the Dietrich's, Elder Spencer fell asleep...haha
0062-0067 -- This is where Ponce lives and works and where we teach him! There's tonsss of cardboard!
0068 -- Don't smoke.
0070 -- I've always had a special affinity for signs like this. We park on Basement level 4 or we park on before.
0072 -- Exchanges! Look at him go. That's a big knife...
0073 -- I hadn't taken a picture of that yet.
0075 -- The baptism this afternoon (note that you can actually see the faces of everyone this time)
0076 -- Spence is a model.
0078/0079 -- Aww poor Elder Osumo is in the hospital...haha
(Hey that is pretty good.) <-- (See Julian Smith's Racist Coffee on youtube, it's a good 'un)
So guess what! This week has been another good one here in the Philippines! It's been super hot, it's evening raining today, even got some lightning and thunder!, and we only had one trip to the hospital and just all around a grand 'ol time! haha So let's cut the fluff and get right down to it.
Maybe the Blues will win their first Stanley Cup???
They shall because I'm serving the Lord. hahaha
BTW, when is the next transfer?
Be tee dubs, it's this upcoming April 4th. Pretty close! It's goin start to get hectic real soon! I actually felt that this week was pretty slow in the office so I just did my best to get stuff prepared and ready for end of the month end stuff and transfer week stuff.
It's nice that you are realizing the importance of daily prayer and scripture study, any chance you could put a bug in your brothers' ears?
Well I could try, but it probably wouldn't work too well. Especially when I don't get emails from them... =/ Called out! Boom! haha juuuust kidding....ish. =)
Do you hear much about the people you left in Coron? The ones you were teaching?
I only get news from Coron when people come from Coron so it's only every once and a while. But the other week with that specialized training Elder Anderson, currently serving in Coron, came down for that, and we gave him a ride to the airport. So like the whole time there I was just asking about everyone out there. It sounds like things are going really well! The best news for me was Brother Jucaban. If you remember him, he's the husband of a member out there and he has two little boys. He's been trying and trying to prepare for baptism but from like the beginning of my last transfer until the time I left he had gotten himself down to 2 cigarettes a day, but just couldn't give it up completely. But the news was that he finally stopped! I was pumped! So I would guess that he's getting baptized soon (I think Elder Anderson may have said today was his baptismal date..or maybe end of April...I don't know). And then Aurora's husband also has embraced the gospel and has a baptismal date in early April I believe. It's good stuff out there! Miss it!
Dad and Caleb are getting ready to go to Utah in a few weeks to see your old stomping grounds. Any requests?
Hmm...when they're in Provo they should def find time to go to J-Dawgs cuz it's where it's at! Say hi to my friends out there! (all my guy friends are out servin wherever...haha) I kinda don't really know who will still out there the semester might be over by then, but if Erin or Maddie or Wes! Oh yeah! (I heard thru the grapeline that he had to go home cuz of medical issues so if you see my old roomie say hi too!), so if you happen to see them say hi! And say hi to anyone else you run into that may read this!...so if you're reading this and are out there and see a guy that looks pretty similar to me but a little taller (ugh...I know. Don't say anything.) find him and say HI! Especially if he's with an old bald guy named Kirk. haha =D I miss BYU, it's the best!
Well this week was great! We made the resolve at the beginning of the week to get out to our area everyday cuz sometimes it's really hard when you have stuff that kinda just pop up or just have a ton of stuff to get done before the next day, but we did a good job this week! It was hard but it worked out! We only couldn't make it one day, next week will be even better. So let's start my journal shall we? Yeah this is pretty much my journal cuz I've gotten really bad at writing in my real one, that's why these kinda tend to be super long. It'll come back to haunt me, not writing in my journal, but hey for now just enjoy my journal via electronic mail.. haha
So this past Sunday was sweet! The Dietrich's had like an Office Dinner with us and the Assistants and guess what I got to eat! ......Oh come on...stop reading for half a second. Close your eyes. Guess a food. and then continue reading. . . . . . . . . . . I got to eat mashed taters! (I heart all of you who actually stopped and made a guess no matter how far off, and am very disappointed in the majority of you who did not.) I was PUMPED! They were legit! Like she bought potatoes, chopped them up, and then did whatever you do to make them mashed potatoes, I guess one of those steps would include, mashing the chopped potatoes. Our work that day was really cool as well. We got a few lessons in, one of them being with the Advincula family! It was a great lesson and directed by the Spirit! We went in there expecting to teach about scripture study and the Book of Mormon. Well we started and just the way things went it totally flowed into a lesson about prayer and praying as a family. We walked out of that lesson feeling good about it and I looked over at Elder Spencer and was like "weren't we planning on teaching scripture study..?" It was pretty cool, it's just good that we were able to kinda yield and go the direction that the Spirit was taking the lesson. But before the Advincula family we got punted and didn't really know where to go so we're just standing on the side of the road when this barber waves us over and tells us to sit down. He was always nice to us for some reason but we never sat down and talked with him. So we sat down in front of his shop on the side of the road and just started talking to him. We ended talking to him for like 40 minutes and even committed him to praying and trying to go to church. Cuz it turns out that he went to church down in Mindanao for like a year cuz one of his friends was a member but he eventually stopped going to church cuz his friend moved away. He had some great experiences but was never baptized. He's pretty busy working but we'll hopefully get to start teaching him soon.
Let's skip on down to Monday. Skippity, skip, skip. We're here! Woo! So nothin too exciting went down on Monday. However, on Monday I did learn that the Philippines had over 7800 members return to activation in just January and February and then another 2000+ baptisms after that! The work here in the Philippines is really just rollin right along it's pretty awesome! I love it! That night we got out and got to teach the favored Locanlale family! We shared a message from 2 Nephi 9:18, kinda about Enduring and the prize therein. And it was great! They even fed us afterwards! I got to talk to Nanay (ie. Mom) for a while and it turns out her and her husband are going to a marriage counselling like retreat thing this weekend so I'm thinkin it'll be a great experience for them (even though they're probably goin miss Sunday...) and then we'll be able to get Tatay (ie. Dad) more involved in teaching and the coming back to church thing. After we were out in our area we went back home and the Dietrich's were so kind as to let us borrow their washer and dryer. So while we were up there we talked to them for a while it was great! I loveee talking to them! They're so Midwest and are totes like my grandparents out here. So good!
Tuesday was pretty busy. First I had to prepare for district meeting. I had the great honor of giving the Christ-like Attribute lesson from Preach My Gospel at our District Meeting later that day. I gave it on patience. It was great! It's a really interesting attribute, one that we all can use a little bit more of at times but at the same time one that I feel that I've developed well over the past however many years. For me, it's always hardest to be patient with myself...haha It's really easy to get frustrated with my own self but I gotta stay patient and accept things as they come. I think it was an old soccer or basketball saying "to be quick, but don't hurry." So it's like that with personal progress (no not the YW thingy). I wanna progress quickly, but not rush things. I gotta enjoy where I'm at and how far I've come. And learn as much as I can from each step rather than trying to double step it like I always did walking up the stairs from the back-side of the RB after playin basketball or racquetball or whatever else there. (Yeahhh! That's right you Provo peeps know what I mean! haha) Well after we got everything done we made it out to our area again and our big lesson that night was with Ponce! We decided to start teaching him again the Plan of Salvation and it was perfect! Cuz he said that he had actually forgotten a lot of it. So we taught about Pre-Earth life and everything that happened there and why it's important and what not. It was great!
Wednesday was interesting...haha First of all, I broke the finance record (well as far as I know for me and Elder Stirland) for most actual cash carried out the bank, so that was kinda funny. But none of it's for me of course, it just goes through me to get to like the Senior Couples and whoever else I need to get it to. Like Senior Couples generally work through Working Funds, which are funds that I give them and then they spend it on the things they're doing for the mission (like apartment furnishings, taking people to the hospital, etc.) and then turn in all their receipts to me at the end of the month and based off those receipts, that's how much I give them for the next month to replenish their Working Fund. So I had two Working Funds, a check I had to cash to furnish an apartment, and another Senior Couple reimbursement all with me, so that's why I had so much. I told Elder Spencer to make sure I don't get mugged cuz that would be bad..haha I also noted that I love the feeling of things working out! The Forinashs got the money and things they needed for their new apartment and were super-grateful and thanked me for all the stuff I did for them and even commented on my eyelashes....again. Ugh. In other news, UCPB (The United Coconut Planters Bank) <-- (I know right?! Apparently thats the bank the church works through here though). But anyways...UCPB was totes playin like an Eminem CD or somethin as their like background/lobby music. It wasn't very loud but I could recognize it...haha They probably don't know how bad Eminem really is...haha But it was like Eminem after Eminem when I was there, it was funny.
Now Thursday was where it was at! We had exchanges with our District Leader, Elder Koochin. Meaning we weren't in the office at all! It was me and Elder Koochin in his area, and then Elder Victorio and Elder Spencer in ours. It started Wednesday night, so it was like a full day of being a regular missionary again! It was def cool. But I had a pretty cool Personal Study Thursday morning. Towards the end, I studied a talk from last conference by Barbara Thomson cuz she's kinda legit I decided. It was called Personal Revelation and Testimony. And I learned a lot from it! And I also learned that my Personal Revelation from that Personal Study was how to receive Personal Revelation. I thought that was kinda ironic/funny but awesome nonetheless! After Elder Koochin had our studies and had lunch, we hit the road! We even got to take a jeepney. Buuut...that was problem number one of the day...We got on that jeepney and it was sooooo bad! It had music and it was so bad! The sound system on the jeepney was actually impressive, but the music choice...not good. Like literally every other word was a swear word..Like at there was one verse by Lil Wayne...and it turned out to be like the cleanest verse...hahaha But finally, we got off the Satan jeepney and got to work! After the day I wrote down a list of "I got to:"s. So first, I got to sit on the floor of people's little houses and teach them! I loved it! I don't know why I miss that so much. I got to deal with drunk people that were like super drunk and were just dying for the two white people to talk to them. I even got to talk to one for like 5 minutes, and I couldn't understand a word he said...it was that bad. I got to get wet! We worked in the raid and got soaked! Classic. We actually had one umbrella and it was a little one that could barely fit one person. Well, we had one of the members in the area working with us so there was three of us and we all tried to squeeze under that little umbrella and it was pretty hilarious.
I got to work with my batch! I love my batch, all of them, 'nuff said. I got to give two blessings! I got to have a cold shower! Oh geez...I probably didn't mention this but our shower kinda has hot water so we're like super spoiled, but on Thursday I got a nice 'ol super cold one! It was great! haha I got to walk around allll day! Yay for exercise! I got to not worry about finance stuff! And I didn't really have any one bother me or anything the whole day. And lastly, I got to help people come unto Chrirst! =D It was a great day! I enjoyed it and learned a lot!
On Friday, I had a great personal study in Mormon! Chapter 2 to be specific. I really enjoyed how great Mormon was even in his youth! He's like 15 and 16 and recognizing the fulfilling of the prophecies of the prophets before him. And you could really tell that he studied the scriptures cuz when he was just 16 he was called upon to be the military leader for the Nephites. So he's the head of this army and is charge of telling them what to do. If you notice, the strategies that he tries are all ones that had been used and been successful with other Nephite military leaders and recorded in the scriptures. And the guys only like 16! I know I was def not good at the scriptures at 16, I'm still not that good....haha But before that! We were supposed to go to the ground-breaking of the new chapel in Mandaluyong (our city where we proselyte). Well we had to get up at like 4:45 to do that...not fun! But I was excited. So my alarm goes off and I actually get up! Look at me go! I try to wake Elder Spencer up, and he is like passed out and was not waking up at all....so I had to just go back to the couch and sleep till 6:30....it was sad but whatev. Later that afternoon, our walk-in blessing father and daughter returned! It was cool! and surprising! The operation they were going to have got postponed because his daughter had a cough, so he wanted a blessing for that so of course we did. Elder Dietrich actually gave them a ride home-ish so they wouldn't have to walk so far but like they were almost there and just ended up taking the daughter to the hospital cuz she suddenly got a fever, probably cuz of walking out in the super hot sun all day...so it's a good thing Elder Dietrich took them. So hopefully things work out for them. That evening was cool! kinda. I got an email from Venus at like 4-ish and she had some stuff I needed to look over and review and figure out. It required me like literally searching all the records I had back like like 2008 cuz like none of this stuff is on the computer and that's why she needed me to do it. But I actually was able to find all the things I needed to find and I felt cool! I felt like I was doing like detective work...hahaha It probably feels kinda like that too doing Family History work, well this was a more finance version of that..haha
Today was kinda like crazy but awesome p-day! First thing, the Dietrich's made us pancakes and bacon and spam for breakfast! I really only cared about the pancakes..haha But they made a ton so it was like all-you-can-eat pancakes we joked. After that we went to an awesome baptism for a couple missionaries in our district. It was like picture perfect! It was an awesomely done service, and the family was great! The mother was inactive and father wasn't a member. The missionaries came along and boom! Mom's trying to come back to church and dad's baptized and the entire service was like focused on enduring and going to the temple to be sealed for time and all eternity. It was cool! Afterwards, our district went to Mang-Inasal for lunch where it's unlimited rice...haha So we ate a lot. After that we tried to go shopping...then we got a call saying that we needed to go to the hospital and bring some stuff to some elders there. So there went our p-day but it was great! Cuz I got to see Elder Osumo, and it was way great to see him again. We even brought them McDonalds and it was pretty funny cuz we walked across the street from the HUGE hospital to the McDonald's that is right next to the Jaguar/Land Rover dealership...haha We thought it was pretty funny, maybe you had to be there.
So yeah. That was my great week! I better get goin now cuz it's taken me a while to write this...haha Go figure. Once I get back in the field, I'm sure my emails will shorten...haha cuz then I have to start paying for internet...haha Well, bye! I hope you all have an awesome week!
Love
Elder Michael Gadberry
Pictures
0047 -- This was our shopping cart...we didn't have a whole lot to buy...just little of this and little of that...haha
0049 -- Awww! It's a cute little puppy and Sister Lopez and Sister Terano gave me!
0050 -- NOT! Is that not creepy?? It's eyes turn green! hahaha This should definitely go on the list of toys that would give toddlers nightmares...hahaha
0056/0058 -- Okay, I was like starving and was like begging Elder Spencer to make me a sandwich. But he just kept talking to Sister Dietrich for like EVER! haha So I would come up with somethin on a sticky note walk over and stick it on his screen then sit down. It went on for a little and then I just decided to get up and make sandwiches for the two of us. Look at me go! haha Various notes include: Fuel gauge of my stomach, "SAND-WICH! please.", an adorable heart full of my love for Elder Spencer, "Please feed the finance. Thank you.", "Kakainin kita! Rawr!" (I will eat you! Rawr!), "Welcome to Hungerville. Population: me.", a diagram of myself and thoughts, "If you're hungry and you know it clap your hands. Clap! Clap!", and a simple 4-step instruction of how to make a sandwich and give it to me.
0059/0060 - We hit 10000 kilometers in the van! Woo!
0061 - The one night we were talkin to the Dietrich's, Elder Spencer fell asleep...haha
0062-0067 -- This is where Ponce lives and works and where we teach him! There's tonsss of cardboard!
0068 -- Don't smoke.
0070 -- I've always had a special affinity for signs like this. We park on Basement level 4 or we park on before.
0072 -- Exchanges! Look at him go. That's a big knife...
0073 -- I hadn't taken a picture of that yet.
0075 -- The baptism this afternoon (note that you can actually see the faces of everyone this time)
0076 -- Spence is a model.
0078/0079 -- Aww poor Elder Osumo is in the hospital...haha
Sunday, April 1, 2012
3-17-12 E-mail!
Umm...hello.
=)
And so passes another week in the life of Elder Michael Gadberry, as my dad mentioned, the life of Elder Michael Gadberry is flying by! It really is! Stop! But hey such is life as an Elder, and I'm lovin it. It's always cool to think about that the only other people in this church that receive such an honorary title are the Apostles and Seventy, and I, little Mikey Gadberry from the even smaller Effingham Branch of Effingham, Illinois, have been found worthy to wear such a title for two years. Cool stuff!
Here's a couple questions
Do you have ideas for your replacement?
- Okay mom...don't get crazy! Like the shortest I'll be in here is four transfers...and I'm kinda on my second...Whoa that's actually kinda weird. I'm like more than half way done with my second! It's flown by. Kinda mostly cuz office life is crazy! This week was crazy too...You'll see! But if I am only going to be in here four transfers then I'll be gettin my replacement right after next transfer. That seems kinda far but super close, so weird! Well...I've had a pretty weird/unique mission thus far...haha I'll probably hit my year mark here in the office and I'll have only had two areas..haha But I'm super grateful for my mission! How many people get to have an AP train them, on a beautiful island, that had yet to be touched my missionary work? And then! I come straight to the office and get to work pretty closely with President Stucki and the other awesome missionaries here, and I get to learn how to do some finance stuff on top of that! So ridiculously, incredibly blessed. =D
Does being there help you realize that when you're back out "in the field" you'll not bother the office over silly stuff and appreciate them more?
It does make me appreciate them more, but I never really bugged them before. I never really had any contact with them before. You know me! I'm very highly unconfrontational, therefore I don't like bringing up problems to them that don't need to be brought up.
What did you mean that your p-day has gone crazy?
Oh you'll see! It was a fun 'un! <---Rockin' the hick! =D
So let's get down to business shall we?
So last Sunday was super exciting! So we had a inactive father (Tatay Advincula!) come to church for the first! He came with two of his daughters that are pretty regular at church. Two of his other daughters kinda slept in...(I could sympathize with them...haha =) ) We loveee their family! We visited that family a while back and from the first visit Tatay said that he would come to church and there was just somethin touched him (the Spirit, duh! haha) but all three of us at the time felt he had a sincere commitment to come back to church. That's why we weren't terribly worried when he didn't go to church that week, or the week after, or the week after that...hahaha But he made this past week and was immediately fellow-shipped by none other than the Stake Patriarch, so it's going good so far! After church, we got to go out and work! Woo! If you look at our "Key Indicators," we got no work done that day. But the thing was, we only had time for a couple lessons (cuz of CIS reports (missionary thing)) but our first one was with our less-active guy that we haven't seen for a couple weeks cuz he had been out of town. We helped him talk his way through a concern he had and helped him realize the importance of coming to church a little more. But because he's now considered active, it doesn't count as any sort of lesson. After that, we tried to go to our other less-active families to see how they were doing cuz for the most part they didn't make it to church. Well, they were all gone or busy. So we didn't have anywhere to go. Elder Spencer was like well we can go to the Bata family. I was like well yeah...but why? They're completely active (Dad's like the first counselor in YM and Mom's the RS President and their four kids are 8-14 and active) and we don't have an appointment, and I don't wanna bother them. He's like well we got no where to go. I was like fine, but you're in charge (curse my grudging attitude...).
So we go over there, and are immediately welcomed in (they're like super nice..but I was still scared cuz I didn't know them that well). So we shared a message with them, well it was like her and one of her kids the rest were kinda out and about (that's just how the Philippines is) but it was awesome! She was feeling super stressed and busy and just everything was crazy in her life/mind cuz she's only been a member of the church for three years and has been called to be the RS President probably a few months before I got here. I remember specifically telling her that we were there to tell her that she can do it. We know she can, and more importantly, the Lord knows he can. That's why he's called you to be the Relief Society President. You could see her whole demeanor just change over the course of the lesson. Towards the end she was like "Elders, you know, right before you guys come over I was just sitting down at the table thinking about everythinggg that's going on with Relief Society, my job, and all my kids...but then you guys came over and I just really needed that, thank you so much!" So that was an awesome experience! My bad on my umm..unwillingness to go.
So that was our work, that night I thought about the habits I've installed into my life and am still trying to install. Two of things that are so simple but I've begun to make a habit in my life and am definitely going to continue is praying and scripture study. Before my mission, yeah...I wasn't very good at the habit of praying. Well I'd do really good for a while but then I'd slack off or just forgot and it would kinda lose priority. But since being out here I've managed to get myself totally in the habit of praying it's cool! I remember one night, just coming home and passing out. But I could not sleep! It was so weird! So then I remembered I hadn't prayed before I went to bed, so then of course, I prayed, went to bed, and didn't wake up again 'till morning! Score! And then with scriptures, sometimes in the mornings we have surprise stuff that we need to do so sometimes our studies get cut short or completely out. But I'm at least remembering to read one verse a day, so that way I don't miss any days. Like yesterday was kinda like that, so late last night I just flipped open my scriptures and read one verse, Mosiah 3:19. It was legit, read it. It's my Tatay sa mission's favorite scripture, it's scripture mastery.
So then we go to monday. So we're feelin bad about last week not getting like any work done in our area so we're like we are going to our area everyday this week! We have an FHE planned with a family in another ward but we were invited by the missionaries there, but since we're like dedicated to getting work done in our area, we left the office a little early to try to get at least one lesson in before the FHE. We get out there and the person we hope to teach, is next door playing bingo (it's a popular thing here cuz it's small gambling) so yeah she thinks we didn't see her and her daughter says thats she's left and doesn't know where she ran off to. So we're like ugh. And so after talking with her daughter, there's not enough time to get a lesson in so we just have to go to FHE. Well we went to FHE and it was AWESOME! The family was awesome and I don't know I just really liked it! And it made me miss like Coron/real missionary work so much! I won't in my planner. "I miss....sitting on the floor, weird Filipino spaghetti, tiny houses with happy families who are happy regardless of how much money they have, and Coron!" haha I've really grown to love the life here, the simpleness, but always happy, especially those with the gospel in their lives. Their always happy no matter how simple their circumstances may be and I love it! After FHE, Elder Spencer got pulled over....for going the wrong way on a one-way...haha I advise you not to do that...But there was like no signage and we'd gone that way down that road before thinking it's totally okay. But the cop was not being nice! Elder Spencer was pretty flustered so I tried my best to talk to the cop, I managed to get him to loosen up a little but it still took us forever to get him to let us go...haha But right as he was walking away I yelled at him and gave him a Book of Mormon, so I'm a good missionary, right?? haha
Tuesday I was requested to create another kinda "fake" baptism program cuz Sister Terano and Sister Lopez loved the first one. So this one they requested that we created a program in which our District Leader, Elder Koochin, would be baptized and it would have like pictures of our district all over it kinda for like a district remembrance kinda thing. Everyone in the district was in on it but Elder Koochin, it was pretty funny and everyone loved it. I'll take a picture of it sometime. I had kinda a first time problem in the finance area. We had a ward missionary that was filling in for Elder Pascual since he's now in Provo (shout-out to him!). So we gave him support, and then his wallet got stolen! So I was like um...Elder Stirland! What should I do? His response, "Hm. That's a goood question." Ah gee, thanks! Cuz really we can't do anything about lost/stolen money. So yeah, that was kinda scary but I got it covered. So it's all good. Oh it was the worst! Later that afternoon, the Forinashes came in and visited the office (come to think of it I had a lot of interaction with them this week). But they walked into the office and Sister Forinash stops..and kinda looks at me for a second. I didn't really think anything about it cuz I figured she was just thinking or somethin. But then next thing she says..."They were right....those eyelashes are totally wasted on you." Aghhh! I'm tellin you it's so bad! And then Sister Dietrich chimes in somethin about my nice, thick hair. I'm like I swear I left my grandma in St. Louis...hahaha Miss you Grandma!
Wedneday, kinda started the craziness! We got a new senior couple in our mission, Elder and Sister Paddock from Florida! So we got the assignment to take them to get their drivers licenses. Well the closest one isn't even in our mission, it's Quezon City Mission but it's not too far. But I'm still learning all these places and Elder Spencer isn't the best at directions, but does pretty well. So from the beginning I was sure it was going to be an adventure. Sure enough it was! We left the office at like 11 and got to the exit around like 12:30. And then took a wrong turn....We drove around for 2 hours before we corrected ourselves and made it back on the right course...hahaha But the Paddocks got an awesome view of Philippine life and I enjoyed seeing everything, Elder Spencer was a little stressed about being lost, but it's whatev, enjoy it! hahaha So that process took forever! Then we had to pick up Sister Bhitrokoti from the Missionary Recovery Center by the temple on our way home. She's pretty legit, super quiet but mostly cuz she doesn't even know english very well. But she's from Nepal! Legit, huh?? So we picked them up, one of the sisters at the MRC was actually in the same zone as Elder Altig (one of my good friends in my district in the MTC) and so that was cool to here about him a little bit. And the senior couple that runs the MRC kinda raved about President Stucki for a little. They were like "we love 'em all (the mission presidents), but he's just like head and shoulders above the rest. He really is on top of his game." I was like, "I know. He's pretty awesome!" Of course, I only thought it, but it's cool to see other people notice that of him. As soon as we got back to the office we dropped the Paddocks off with the Dietrich's, dropped Sister Bhitrakoti off with the Assistants to take her back to her companion, and then we went around and went straight to our area. We got no office work in that day...haha So we get out there and it's not so good. We had three appointments scheduled and like a couple hours to work. Tatay Advincula's daughter, Arianne, who's super legit and wants to serve mission here in like a year, was meeting us at our first appointment cuz we wanted to have a fellow-shipper there for that family. Well...we got there and talked for a while...and guess what! Nanay (more or less - "Mom") is next door playing bingo again! She kinda hides herself and thinks we don't see her but yeah. So strike one. The other appointment was a no go cuz Nanay there doesn't really like us for whatever reason and so we saw her walking down the road the other way as we were driving up...haha ugh. So we're like umm Arianne, when's your dad gettin home so we can share with you guys? And it actually happened to be a little earlier than expected so we kinda just hung out with them for a little until Tatay got there, and we had an awesome lesson about the Restoration! And they love having us over! Arianne if I wan't on my mission would totes like by my best friend haha We totes talked about Twilight while we were waiting...she's team Edward in case you were wondering...haha Their family is so cool! Mom is working over in Saudi Arabia (fairly common here, there's money there) but is hopefully coming back later this year, and their oldest son is currently serving in the Iloilo mission. As we were leaving Tatay insisted on giving us each two oranges and a bottle of water after they had already fed us to an extent. They're too nice!
Thursday continued the craziness cuz it was specialized training. This specialized training was for all the District and Zone Leaders in the mission. So we had 50 some odd missionaries to deal with both Thursday and Friday. And I had to order 24 pizzas for lunch on Thursday! That's a lot! But training was so cool! We weren't part of most of it, but we consequently had a ton of stuff to do because of it. Mostly getting missionaries from place to place, doing reimbursements, and getting supplies to them for all their zones. Most importantly I get to see Elder Smith! My MTC companion! I haven't seen him since the second day we got here, it was so good to see him again. He's just doing awesome out there in Quezon, Palawan in the middle of nowhere...haha I did get to help with this one leadership game/activity (see pictures) and it was so fun. But definitely an activity that you could learn from. Everyone on your team was given roles (like leader, robot, optimist, pessimist, etc) and they had to perform those and your team had to work together to complete all of the tasks. Well in my group Elder Stirland (old finance guy) and Elder Gillette got the roles of pessimist by chance and it was just hilarious cuz they're two very optimistic people and I was just dying the whole time. It was so fun!
Let's see on Friday, I wrote "CRAZY!" and like underlined it seven times...haha My morning was consumed with things that had to be done in a timely manner, but it all got done! Then around lunch, we had this father dressed very poorly, to be honest, and his maybe 12 year-old daughter, who wasn't looking any better, came into our office and asked if we had any oil. They had just walked to the church from Pateros. Which is at least a few hours...cuz he was taking his daughter to the hospital and wanted her to have a blessing before they went. What faith! They went out of their way to come a receive a blessing that things would be okay. We gladly gave them one, and it was such a great experience! Afterwards, we had them sit down and rest and I asked them if they had eaten and he said they hadn't, so I made them sandwiches (that's all we had in the office!) and gave them a couple oranges (seriously, office resources are limited...haha). And then they were off. I'm sure we'll never find out what will happen to them, but I'm sure things will work out for the best. Not too long after that, Elder and Sister Forinash give me a visit. They're not terribly happy cuz they have been more or less "emergency transferred" to a new house that literally has no furnishings. So they're leaving where they had been for the past while to a brand new place, they're not too excited and kinda stressed. Let me just tell you, it is not fun dealing with stressed people! Augh! I'm not a fan...but yeah I kinda understand where their comin from. So to make things work I have to cancel our appointments that night so we can go shopping to get them some of those essentials. At the same time, we have to take Sister Bhitrakoti to her companion again (she spends the day studying english at the office and then goes back to her companion at night). We're driving maybe 5 miles...and it took as 2 hours to make that trip! Traffic was soooo bad! That kinda drove me half way insane, but I coped by getting super sarcastic at the traffic and Elder Spencer was lovin it. So cuz of that trip that totally made it so I didn't have time to buy stuff for the Forinashs...But sittin in all that traffic wasn't too bad. Elder Spencer and I were kinda feelin bad about not getting out to our area like we had hoped. But I had a thought that came into my mind, and I believe it was from the Spirit cuz I felt it whenever I shared it with Elder Spencer. But I thought about President Monson and about how he's known for "going about doing good." So I kinda thought to myself, as a missionary I should definitely always be "going about doing good." So am I doing that? And I actually could say that I was. I was doing all I could to serve those around me, and get all the things done so that things could function. I think I'm going to try to keep that in mind for the rest of my mission/life, to try to always go about doing good. Also, Elder Spencer was like "you know...you've been great. You've done a really good job." I was like huh? He said with everything thing thats happened and popped up and everyone stressing around you, you've just done really good. Thanks cuz I know I definitely stress out too much. So I was definitely grateful to hear that but it didn't solve any problems...haha So eventually I had to call the Forinash's and tell them I didn't get their stuff, but did actually have a solution. And they said that it was fine! And they even thanked me for "doing double back-flips for them trying to get everything done." So that was nice =). Oh and for lunch, I had Wendys. =D
Today was crazy as well! Okay...we were supposed to get up at 4:30 to take missionaries to the airport after specialized training of Thursday and Friday. Yeah....we both slept through our alarms but luckily Elder Baltazar woke us up at 5:30 right about the time we were supposed to leave...haha But we made it to the Mission Home in time and even got them to the airport early! Next step, drive back home, wait a while, trade the Dietrich's cars, and then go pick-up Elder Anderson, who's going to my beloved Coron. Well on the way home, I get a call from the Forinashs that says that they really need to be able to meet us or someone at the office at 8:30 rather than like noon as we had planned. So the Dietrich's weren't able to get here that early and that's who I had left the Forinash's stuff with cuz we would be taking Elder Anderson to the airport. So 1. luckily, the Dietrich's and us live in the same apartment building. And 2. I had to run upstairs and get all that stuff, and then hurryyy and get to the office before the Forinashs. Well of course, it needed to get done, and we were doing it just to try and serve the Lord and his missionaries, so it worked out like perfectly. The Forinashs were super grateful and Sister Forinash even snuck in a hug while I was distracted talking to Elder Forinash. So I'm just grateful that everything worked out. After that we got Elder Anderson to the airport and then came back to office to find out that the Dietrich's are having a bit of a family crisis/emergency. So they asked us to join them in prayer and also even asked for mine and Elder Spencer's council on the matter or advice. And Sister Dietrich liked it so much that she sent it to her son. So one of the life lessons I've definitely learned this week is always being worthy to do those things like give a blessing or pray for guidance from heaven. We had at least two (maybe more that I didn't notice or can't think of) experiences this week where it was just completely out of the blue but we were called upon to exercise faith and our priesthood as bearers of the Holy Priesthood of God. Also, like my new favorite song is called Believe by Cherie Call. Lovin it!
Okay, I'm sorry. This was ridiculously long. If it's lame just tell me....I'll try to make them shorter. But all in all, I'm doing great out here! I'm learnin. I'm livin. I'm servin. And I'm just lovin it! Hope all is well with all of you!
Love
Elder Michael Gadberry
Pictures
0007 - Sister Lopez and Sister Terano's baptism. They accidently took it on a funky setting on my camera but it kinda almost looks cool maybe...but I'm over there on the far right with Elder Victorio and Elder Pascual
0019 - Again, super bad picture. But I'm on a jeepney! With my batch!
0021-0026 - FHE on Monday!
0027 - I found the GMA tower! Here in the Philippines there's two major stations GMA and ABS-CBN and all the actors/actresses have a contract with one or the other and the people here generally have a preference whether they like GMA or ABS-CBN. So I'm goin have to pick a side sometime just for fun...haha
0028 - Sister Paddock gettin her license
0029 - Cool little jeepney
0031 - 0036 -- That leadership game/activity I told you about
0037/0038 -- Elder Smith!
0040/0042 -- Umm..yeah. I'm the cool guy that wears the glasses to work in the office. "Like I always told my daughters, 'I'm glad you have high enough self-esteem to wear something like that.'" -- Sister Dietrich hahaha
0045 -- Hey look it's me! Just kidding...we don't look the same, right??
0046 -- Not the prettiest morning but hey look! a pigeon! haha
=)
And so passes another week in the life of Elder Michael Gadberry, as my dad mentioned, the life of Elder Michael Gadberry is flying by! It really is! Stop! But hey such is life as an Elder, and I'm lovin it. It's always cool to think about that the only other people in this church that receive such an honorary title are the Apostles and Seventy, and I, little Mikey Gadberry from the even smaller Effingham Branch of Effingham, Illinois, have been found worthy to wear such a title for two years. Cool stuff!
Here's a couple questions
Do you have ideas for your replacement?
- Okay mom...don't get crazy! Like the shortest I'll be in here is four transfers...and I'm kinda on my second...Whoa that's actually kinda weird. I'm like more than half way done with my second! It's flown by. Kinda mostly cuz office life is crazy! This week was crazy too...You'll see! But if I am only going to be in here four transfers then I'll be gettin my replacement right after next transfer. That seems kinda far but super close, so weird! Well...I've had a pretty weird/unique mission thus far...haha I'll probably hit my year mark here in the office and I'll have only had two areas..haha But I'm super grateful for my mission! How many people get to have an AP train them, on a beautiful island, that had yet to be touched my missionary work? And then! I come straight to the office and get to work pretty closely with President Stucki and the other awesome missionaries here, and I get to learn how to do some finance stuff on top of that! So ridiculously, incredibly blessed. =D
Does being there help you realize that when you're back out "in the field" you'll not bother the office over silly stuff and appreciate them more?
It does make me appreciate them more, but I never really bugged them before. I never really had any contact with them before. You know me! I'm very highly unconfrontational, therefore I don't like bringing up problems to them that don't need to be brought up.
What did you mean that your p-day has gone crazy?
Oh you'll see! It was a fun 'un! <---Rockin' the hick! =D
So let's get down to business shall we?
So last Sunday was super exciting! So we had a inactive father (Tatay Advincula!) come to church for the first! He came with two of his daughters that are pretty regular at church. Two of his other daughters kinda slept in...(I could sympathize with them...haha =) ) We loveee their family! We visited that family a while back and from the first visit Tatay said that he would come to church and there was just somethin touched him (the Spirit, duh! haha) but all three of us at the time felt he had a sincere commitment to come back to church. That's why we weren't terribly worried when he didn't go to church that week, or the week after, or the week after that...hahaha But he made this past week and was immediately fellow-shipped by none other than the Stake Patriarch, so it's going good so far! After church, we got to go out and work! Woo! If you look at our "Key Indicators," we got no work done that day. But the thing was, we only had time for a couple lessons (cuz of CIS reports (missionary thing)) but our first one was with our less-active guy that we haven't seen for a couple weeks cuz he had been out of town. We helped him talk his way through a concern he had and helped him realize the importance of coming to church a little more. But because he's now considered active, it doesn't count as any sort of lesson. After that, we tried to go to our other less-active families to see how they were doing cuz for the most part they didn't make it to church. Well, they were all gone or busy. So we didn't have anywhere to go. Elder Spencer was like well we can go to the Bata family. I was like well yeah...but why? They're completely active (Dad's like the first counselor in YM and Mom's the RS President and their four kids are 8-14 and active) and we don't have an appointment, and I don't wanna bother them. He's like well we got no where to go. I was like fine, but you're in charge (curse my grudging attitude...).
So we go over there, and are immediately welcomed in (they're like super nice..but I was still scared cuz I didn't know them that well). So we shared a message with them, well it was like her and one of her kids the rest were kinda out and about (that's just how the Philippines is) but it was awesome! She was feeling super stressed and busy and just everything was crazy in her life/mind cuz she's only been a member of the church for three years and has been called to be the RS President probably a few months before I got here. I remember specifically telling her that we were there to tell her that she can do it. We know she can, and more importantly, the Lord knows he can. That's why he's called you to be the Relief Society President. You could see her whole demeanor just change over the course of the lesson. Towards the end she was like "Elders, you know, right before you guys come over I was just sitting down at the table thinking about everythinggg that's going on with Relief Society, my job, and all my kids...but then you guys came over and I just really needed that, thank you so much!" So that was an awesome experience! My bad on my umm..unwillingness to go.
So that was our work, that night I thought about the habits I've installed into my life and am still trying to install. Two of things that are so simple but I've begun to make a habit in my life and am definitely going to continue is praying and scripture study. Before my mission, yeah...I wasn't very good at the habit of praying. Well I'd do really good for a while but then I'd slack off or just forgot and it would kinda lose priority. But since being out here I've managed to get myself totally in the habit of praying it's cool! I remember one night, just coming home and passing out. But I could not sleep! It was so weird! So then I remembered I hadn't prayed before I went to bed, so then of course, I prayed, went to bed, and didn't wake up again 'till morning! Score! And then with scriptures, sometimes in the mornings we have surprise stuff that we need to do so sometimes our studies get cut short or completely out. But I'm at least remembering to read one verse a day, so that way I don't miss any days. Like yesterday was kinda like that, so late last night I just flipped open my scriptures and read one verse, Mosiah 3:19. It was legit, read it. It's my Tatay sa mission's favorite scripture, it's scripture mastery.
So then we go to monday. So we're feelin bad about last week not getting like any work done in our area so we're like we are going to our area everyday this week! We have an FHE planned with a family in another ward but we were invited by the missionaries there, but since we're like dedicated to getting work done in our area, we left the office a little early to try to get at least one lesson in before the FHE. We get out there and the person we hope to teach, is next door playing bingo (it's a popular thing here cuz it's small gambling) so yeah she thinks we didn't see her and her daughter says thats she's left and doesn't know where she ran off to. So we're like ugh. And so after talking with her daughter, there's not enough time to get a lesson in so we just have to go to FHE. Well we went to FHE and it was AWESOME! The family was awesome and I don't know I just really liked it! And it made me miss like Coron/real missionary work so much! I won't in my planner. "I miss....sitting on the floor, weird Filipino spaghetti, tiny houses with happy families who are happy regardless of how much money they have, and Coron!" haha I've really grown to love the life here, the simpleness, but always happy, especially those with the gospel in their lives. Their always happy no matter how simple their circumstances may be and I love it! After FHE, Elder Spencer got pulled over....for going the wrong way on a one-way...haha I advise you not to do that...But there was like no signage and we'd gone that way down that road before thinking it's totally okay. But the cop was not being nice! Elder Spencer was pretty flustered so I tried my best to talk to the cop, I managed to get him to loosen up a little but it still took us forever to get him to let us go...haha But right as he was walking away I yelled at him and gave him a Book of Mormon, so I'm a good missionary, right?? haha
Tuesday I was requested to create another kinda "fake" baptism program cuz Sister Terano and Sister Lopez loved the first one. So this one they requested that we created a program in which our District Leader, Elder Koochin, would be baptized and it would have like pictures of our district all over it kinda for like a district remembrance kinda thing. Everyone in the district was in on it but Elder Koochin, it was pretty funny and everyone loved it. I'll take a picture of it sometime. I had kinda a first time problem in the finance area. We had a ward missionary that was filling in for Elder Pascual since he's now in Provo (shout-out to him!). So we gave him support, and then his wallet got stolen! So I was like um...Elder Stirland! What should I do? His response, "Hm. That's a goood question." Ah gee, thanks! Cuz really we can't do anything about lost/stolen money. So yeah, that was kinda scary but I got it covered. So it's all good. Oh it was the worst! Later that afternoon, the Forinashes came in and visited the office (come to think of it I had a lot of interaction with them this week). But they walked into the office and Sister Forinash stops..and kinda looks at me for a second. I didn't really think anything about it cuz I figured she was just thinking or somethin. But then next thing she says..."They were right....those eyelashes are totally wasted on you." Aghhh! I'm tellin you it's so bad! And then Sister Dietrich chimes in somethin about my nice, thick hair. I'm like I swear I left my grandma in St. Louis...hahaha Miss you Grandma!
Wedneday, kinda started the craziness! We got a new senior couple in our mission, Elder and Sister Paddock from Florida! So we got the assignment to take them to get their drivers licenses. Well the closest one isn't even in our mission, it's Quezon City Mission but it's not too far. But I'm still learning all these places and Elder Spencer isn't the best at directions, but does pretty well. So from the beginning I was sure it was going to be an adventure. Sure enough it was! We left the office at like 11 and got to the exit around like 12:30. And then took a wrong turn....We drove around for 2 hours before we corrected ourselves and made it back on the right course...hahaha But the Paddocks got an awesome view of Philippine life and I enjoyed seeing everything, Elder Spencer was a little stressed about being lost, but it's whatev, enjoy it! hahaha So that process took forever! Then we had to pick up Sister Bhitrokoti from the Missionary Recovery Center by the temple on our way home. She's pretty legit, super quiet but mostly cuz she doesn't even know english very well. But she's from Nepal! Legit, huh?? So we picked them up, one of the sisters at the MRC was actually in the same zone as Elder Altig (one of my good friends in my district in the MTC) and so that was cool to here about him a little bit. And the senior couple that runs the MRC kinda raved about President Stucki for a little. They were like "we love 'em all (the mission presidents), but he's just like head and shoulders above the rest. He really is on top of his game." I was like, "I know. He's pretty awesome!" Of course, I only thought it, but it's cool to see other people notice that of him. As soon as we got back to the office we dropped the Paddocks off with the Dietrich's, dropped Sister Bhitrakoti off with the Assistants to take her back to her companion, and then we went around and went straight to our area. We got no office work in that day...haha So we get out there and it's not so good. We had three appointments scheduled and like a couple hours to work. Tatay Advincula's daughter, Arianne, who's super legit and wants to serve mission here in like a year, was meeting us at our first appointment cuz we wanted to have a fellow-shipper there for that family. Well...we got there and talked for a while...and guess what! Nanay (more or less - "Mom") is next door playing bingo again! She kinda hides herself and thinks we don't see her but yeah. So strike one. The other appointment was a no go cuz Nanay there doesn't really like us for whatever reason and so we saw her walking down the road the other way as we were driving up...haha ugh. So we're like umm Arianne, when's your dad gettin home so we can share with you guys? And it actually happened to be a little earlier than expected so we kinda just hung out with them for a little until Tatay got there, and we had an awesome lesson about the Restoration! And they love having us over! Arianne if I wan't on my mission would totes like by my best friend haha We totes talked about Twilight while we were waiting...she's team Edward in case you were wondering...haha Their family is so cool! Mom is working over in Saudi Arabia (fairly common here, there's money there) but is hopefully coming back later this year, and their oldest son is currently serving in the Iloilo mission. As we were leaving Tatay insisted on giving us each two oranges and a bottle of water after they had already fed us to an extent. They're too nice!
Thursday continued the craziness cuz it was specialized training. This specialized training was for all the District and Zone Leaders in the mission. So we had 50 some odd missionaries to deal with both Thursday and Friday. And I had to order 24 pizzas for lunch on Thursday! That's a lot! But training was so cool! We weren't part of most of it, but we consequently had a ton of stuff to do because of it. Mostly getting missionaries from place to place, doing reimbursements, and getting supplies to them for all their zones. Most importantly I get to see Elder Smith! My MTC companion! I haven't seen him since the second day we got here, it was so good to see him again. He's just doing awesome out there in Quezon, Palawan in the middle of nowhere...haha I did get to help with this one leadership game/activity (see pictures) and it was so fun. But definitely an activity that you could learn from. Everyone on your team was given roles (like leader, robot, optimist, pessimist, etc) and they had to perform those and your team had to work together to complete all of the tasks. Well in my group Elder Stirland (old finance guy) and Elder Gillette got the roles of pessimist by chance and it was just hilarious cuz they're two very optimistic people and I was just dying the whole time. It was so fun!
Let's see on Friday, I wrote "CRAZY!" and like underlined it seven times...haha My morning was consumed with things that had to be done in a timely manner, but it all got done! Then around lunch, we had this father dressed very poorly, to be honest, and his maybe 12 year-old daughter, who wasn't looking any better, came into our office and asked if we had any oil. They had just walked to the church from Pateros. Which is at least a few hours...cuz he was taking his daughter to the hospital and wanted her to have a blessing before they went. What faith! They went out of their way to come a receive a blessing that things would be okay. We gladly gave them one, and it was such a great experience! Afterwards, we had them sit down and rest and I asked them if they had eaten and he said they hadn't, so I made them sandwiches (that's all we had in the office!) and gave them a couple oranges (seriously, office resources are limited...haha). And then they were off. I'm sure we'll never find out what will happen to them, but I'm sure things will work out for the best. Not too long after that, Elder and Sister Forinash give me a visit. They're not terribly happy cuz they have been more or less "emergency transferred" to a new house that literally has no furnishings. So they're leaving where they had been for the past while to a brand new place, they're not too excited and kinda stressed. Let me just tell you, it is not fun dealing with stressed people! Augh! I'm not a fan...but yeah I kinda understand where their comin from. So to make things work I have to cancel our appointments that night so we can go shopping to get them some of those essentials. At the same time, we have to take Sister Bhitrakoti to her companion again (she spends the day studying english at the office and then goes back to her companion at night). We're driving maybe 5 miles...and it took as 2 hours to make that trip! Traffic was soooo bad! That kinda drove me half way insane, but I coped by getting super sarcastic at the traffic and Elder Spencer was lovin it. So cuz of that trip that totally made it so I didn't have time to buy stuff for the Forinashs...But sittin in all that traffic wasn't too bad. Elder Spencer and I were kinda feelin bad about not getting out to our area like we had hoped. But I had a thought that came into my mind, and I believe it was from the Spirit cuz I felt it whenever I shared it with Elder Spencer. But I thought about President Monson and about how he's known for "going about doing good." So I kinda thought to myself, as a missionary I should definitely always be "going about doing good." So am I doing that? And I actually could say that I was. I was doing all I could to serve those around me, and get all the things done so that things could function. I think I'm going to try to keep that in mind for the rest of my mission/life, to try to always go about doing good. Also, Elder Spencer was like "you know...you've been great. You've done a really good job." I was like huh? He said with everything thing thats happened and popped up and everyone stressing around you, you've just done really good. Thanks cuz I know I definitely stress out too much. So I was definitely grateful to hear that but it didn't solve any problems...haha So eventually I had to call the Forinash's and tell them I didn't get their stuff, but did actually have a solution. And they said that it was fine! And they even thanked me for "doing double back-flips for them trying to get everything done." So that was nice =). Oh and for lunch, I had Wendys. =D
Today was crazy as well! Okay...we were supposed to get up at 4:30 to take missionaries to the airport after specialized training of Thursday and Friday. Yeah....we both slept through our alarms but luckily Elder Baltazar woke us up at 5:30 right about the time we were supposed to leave...haha But we made it to the Mission Home in time and even got them to the airport early! Next step, drive back home, wait a while, trade the Dietrich's cars, and then go pick-up Elder Anderson, who's going to my beloved Coron. Well on the way home, I get a call from the Forinashs that says that they really need to be able to meet us or someone at the office at 8:30 rather than like noon as we had planned. So the Dietrich's weren't able to get here that early and that's who I had left the Forinash's stuff with cuz we would be taking Elder Anderson to the airport. So 1. luckily, the Dietrich's and us live in the same apartment building. And 2. I had to run upstairs and get all that stuff, and then hurryyy and get to the office before the Forinashs. Well of course, it needed to get done, and we were doing it just to try and serve the Lord and his missionaries, so it worked out like perfectly. The Forinashs were super grateful and Sister Forinash even snuck in a hug while I was distracted talking to Elder Forinash. So I'm just grateful that everything worked out. After that we got Elder Anderson to the airport and then came back to office to find out that the Dietrich's are having a bit of a family crisis/emergency. So they asked us to join them in prayer and also even asked for mine and Elder Spencer's council on the matter or advice. And Sister Dietrich liked it so much that she sent it to her son. So one of the life lessons I've definitely learned this week is always being worthy to do those things like give a blessing or pray for guidance from heaven. We had at least two (maybe more that I didn't notice or can't think of) experiences this week where it was just completely out of the blue but we were called upon to exercise faith and our priesthood as bearers of the Holy Priesthood of God. Also, like my new favorite song is called Believe by Cherie Call. Lovin it!
Okay, I'm sorry. This was ridiculously long. If it's lame just tell me....I'll try to make them shorter. But all in all, I'm doing great out here! I'm learnin. I'm livin. I'm servin. And I'm just lovin it! Hope all is well with all of you!
Love
Elder Michael Gadberry
Pictures
0007 - Sister Lopez and Sister Terano's baptism. They accidently took it on a funky setting on my camera but it kinda almost looks cool maybe...but I'm over there on the far right with Elder Victorio and Elder Pascual
0019 - Again, super bad picture. But I'm on a jeepney! With my batch!
0021-0026 - FHE on Monday!
0027 - I found the GMA tower! Here in the Philippines there's two major stations GMA and ABS-CBN and all the actors/actresses have a contract with one or the other and the people here generally have a preference whether they like GMA or ABS-CBN. So I'm goin have to pick a side sometime just for fun...haha
0028 - Sister Paddock gettin her license
0029 - Cool little jeepney
0031 - 0036 -- That leadership game/activity I told you about
0037/0038 -- Elder Smith!
0040/0042 -- Umm..yeah. I'm the cool guy that wears the glasses to work in the office. "Like I always told my daughters, 'I'm glad you have high enough self-esteem to wear something like that.'" -- Sister Dietrich hahaha
0045 -- Hey look it's me! Just kidding...we don't look the same, right??
0046 -- Not the prettiest morning but hey look! a pigeon! haha
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