April 14, 2012 E-Mail

Hey guess what guys! My parents emailed me telling me that they weren't going to email me..so yeah I don't think I'm goin reward them for their bad behavior through emailing them... So this is the end. Goodbye! Love you! Elder Michael Gadberry Okay.....you got me. You know that I'm having such an awesome time out here that I just have to tell you all all about it! Actually I feel like this past week was kinda bland but I guess thats what happens when you have awesome week after awesome week after awesome week after awesome week after awesome week after...okay I think you got what I mean..haha But this week was GREAT! like every other week. But I was really bad at keep track of everything happening so I feel like this may end up being one of my lamer emails...sorry po! So with my parents not emailing me, I've got no questions to respond to...aww..ACTUALLY! I remember that I have the letters I got from some of the youth in my home branch! And they asked me questions and since I really stink I writing letters back...I'll answer those questions now! YES! PUMPED! Okay just a sec gotta grab them real quick. I carry around a lot of letters with me in my binder pretending to myself that I'll actually have time and remember to respond (he really does have good intentions to write individual letters).....buuuut yeah...ask Sister Demers about gettin letters back from me....I think she probably has the worst ratio of letters sent to letters received....SORRY! Well my youngest brother, Jacob, didn't ask me a whole lot. But he did, by the way, draw me a hang man game. Now how in the world he expects me to actually play that game without having someone with the answer so I can actually guess and figure it out....I'm not too sure, but hey it's the thought that counts right..? right..... Collin first asked if it snowed in the Philippines? Well...no. haha I think I heard rumor that like maybe somewhere up north they sometimes get snow on the very peaks of their mountains but I don't even know if that's true..haha He then asked, "what's up?" And there's not a whole lot up, just been going about doing the regular preparation day stuff. Just woke up at 4:30, took the senior couples to the airport, and went back to bed..haha And then did some laundry, went shopping with the Assistants and then ate Mang-Inasal and now I'm here! It's been great! What's up there?? Jordan was curious about the weather. Well right now it's like super hot outside. March and April, I'm pretty sure, are the "summer" months here where it doesn't really rain and it just gets really hot haha And then come May it starts raining a lot until "fall." So yeah, this isn't exactly a bad time to be spending most of your day times in an Air Conditioned office...haha Cuz there's no AC anywhere else..haha Next question from him, "Do I like using my machete?" I can't really lie....you feel pretty legit swingin a machete and choppin at stuff. It's like now this is the Philippines! haha But I haven't gotten to play with one forev! Sad... And no, Jordan, it does not snow in the Philippines..haha Claire was concerned about her spelling in her letter to me, but Claire, I'm pretty sure you spelled it all right! haha Yay! And Effingham isn't that bad Claire...it's great! Having been away from Effingham for a like a couple years now, I miss it. It's an awesome place! I told Sister Dietrich that if I don't end up needing to work near a big city for business reasons, then I think a small-ish Midwestern town is where I'd totes choose! I loved it there! She agreed cuz she was born and raised in a small town in Indiana. But idk at the same time I think pretty much everywhere is great! Most of the time life is what you want and what you make it to be. So enjoy Effingham! Surround yourself with great friends (I don't know if you can top my friends but you can try! haha) and you'll love it! Caleb, Caleb, Caleb....you better have bought that Christmas present for me that you promised in this letter! What is it by the way? I'm glad to see you're holding up the Gadberry tradition of tardiness at seminary...just kidding!! You should do better =). Just cuz you wear my clothes allllllllll the time doesn't mean you can act like me too! haha But hey at least you still go, it'll seriously benefit you in the future! Make sure you learn from seminary and not just attend as spectator. You also were sure to note that he's not embarrassed and I'm sure I can change that quite simply I'm sure.... Tara, I've been just awesome! How have you been?? My schedule is very changing because I'm in the office and we have stuff pop up alllll the time but for the most part it goes like this. 6:30am - wake up, exercise and get ready for the day. 8:00 - begin Personal Study. 9:00 - begin Companionship study. 10:00 - leave the apartment and head to the office. For the rest of the day we'll work at the office and also run from place to place doing whatever we need to get done and then around 5/6 we'll eat dinner/go out to work in our area and do the regular, awesome missionary work! And then we'll get home around 9, do our planning for the next day, and then asleep by 10:30. So yeah, that's my schedule, it's great! It was definitely kinda hard to get used to at first but has been good ever since. I've gotten really good now at waking up and getting out of bed right at 6:30 and now the next step is actually doing legit exercises...haha One time, I woke up and walked into the kitchen and started walking in circles around the island and my companions were like...umm Elder Gadberry what are you doing?? I was like "*insert morning/half-awake grumble* I'm exercising! I'm walking laps around the kitchen!" haha It was great! My companions informed me that that didn't count as exercising and I was saddened. "What rea some of your favorite experiences?" Oh geeeezz....there's like a billion! It's so hard to choose! I definitely would say having the opportunity to open Coron for missionary work and then every day that followed in Coron..haha And then also the awesome experience with the little girl that couldn't talk and now she can! Oh geez...lagot ka na, Caleb! (don't try to Google that one, it's not what it says...That means more or less like now you're caught! or Gotcha now!) Amanda says you're a crazy driver! I'd believe it! I was pretty much terrified when I was in the car with him driving...by now I figured he would have learned how to drive but apparently not...haha I guess he's just preparing himself to serve a mission here in Manila, be assigned in the office, and then experience driving here...haha Thanks for the little update on the branch! I was somewhat aware that we've got a new Branch President so that's pretty exciting! And apparently Sister Somodi also has "the most adorable baby ever named Miles." So that's pretty exciting too! Thanks Olivia! I now know that the paper you wrote on is blue...haha I'm glad you're enjoying the pictures I'm taking! I'm taking them just for you so you better keep liking them! Just let me know if they get lame and I'll try to do better! haha Miss Kennedy Ray.....I do miss keeping track of all your "likes" on Facebook! But I'm glad that you gave me an update on that! How's my month been? It's been great! I've really enjoyed it! Especially back in December when you wrote your letter cuz I was still back in Coron where it's awesome! Well the office is awesome too but I don't know if it gets too much better than being on a remote island doing missionary work...haha I'm sorry to here that your month's been "LONG!" haha But I remember like back in high school months seemed to be so long and then like with each year time seemed to be getting faster and faster and now it's like at light speed! haha And so due to the fact that I doubt that our time is actually changing....I would say enjoy your "long" months, they're good for you! haha =) Enjoy life, find the little things that make each day brighter, and thank the Lord for them cuz then you'll find more and more each day, and then, I guarantee you, you'll have less and less "LONG!" months..haha Oh geez...that was kinda long but hey! there they are! So that up there talked a little about my week but not too much so "let's get down to business.....to defeat!....the Hun!" Or just let's get down to business so I can ramble to you all about how awesome life is as a missionary and about how awesome the Philippines is and about how you all should be jealous of me! haha So I won't go into loads and loads of detail about Sunday's sessions of conference but it sufficeth me to say, "It was AWESOME!" I loveddd it! Also, Tatay Advincula was there with his daughter! (The rest of the family got to go home to their province for "summer vacation" but Tatay had to stay cuz of work and Arianne had to stay cuz of college; so that's actually good cuz I'd be super sad if they all left..haha) But like seriously after conference ended I kinda just sat there, I didn't wanna leave. It was almost like being at the temple where its so calm and peaceful and awesome that you just wanna stay forever. Well after our spiritual feast, we were pretty hungry. So we decided to go back home and have a literal feast haha. (see pictures) We pretty much just made anything and everything we had at the house and put it on the table and ate like maybe half of it...haha And a lot of the stuff was pretty creative seeing as we weren't prepared to make a feast and we only had odds and ends at the house, but it was pretty awesome So movin on down to Monday. We had like a kinda-preparation day cuz of general conference last Saturday where we didn't really have a whole preparation day. So Elder Hernando and I got up early and went and played basketball with the majority of Manila Zone. It was pretty awesome! Don't worry Dusty, I still got my game so you better keep workin on yours...haha So that was awesome to get out there and play again. I miss sports like super bad...Well only sometimes actually. I really only miss soccer the most. I need sports to stay in shape cuz I'm really bad at eating healthy, I just eat whatever. So far I haven't really gained weight or lost weight but I've just lost any in-shape-ness that I had before my mission...haha So I'll have to work on that..and that's why I need sports! Well after that we got ready for the day and what not and we had our "survival lunch" with President at Chili's! It was good! And guess what....I even ate my chicken fried steak and mashed potatoes with gravy! Well mostly only cuz I forgot to tell them I didn't want it....but still! And I survived! haha But President Stucki is like ridiculous and paid for us this time in celebration of Easter. He's like the nicest, most caring person ever and it's not just cuz he bought us Chili's but he seriously is. The sad news for the day was that I think for the first time since Elder Stirland left I did some filing away of documents that have been building up for over a transfer...hahaha I got a fair amount done but there's still like a ton left....oops! I'm just not a big fan of filing and there's really even less motivation to do it once you get behind on it..haha Then the random news of the day is that Elder Pugmire and I have taken a liking to Take it Home by Jenn Blosil on the EFY 2011 CD. It's great! I think she's got a pretty cool, unique, good voice! And it's a great song! But anyways we choreographed a dance and waited for the APs to get home and then sang and danced that song to them as they walked in the door....yeah, Elder Pugmire is going to be great in the office...hahaha And then more random news! I texted President Nepomuceno the other day cuz we sent some DVDs to Coron and then like 2 days later he texted me back "ang galing mo na magtagalog!" Which means "You're really good at speaking Tagalog!" haha And so I was like that was random but at the same time super grateful for the random compliment. Tuesday was pretty plain. I was talkin to Elder Kunzler and he was out in Narra with Elder Smith for a while and he was like yeah man, "Elder Smith talked about you a lot! He was always like you could put Elder Gadberry and I together for our whole missions and it would be awesome and we would just do awesome!'" I was like whoa! But seriously, I take that like as a huge compliment! Aren't people so nice?? I love people =). But I guess even the Area Office was closed for "Holy Week" (kinda weird I thought..haha But hey if the rest of the Philippines is closed you're not goin get a whole lot done being open..) so they started back up on Tuesday and I opened up the mission email upon arriving at the office and there was like 7 new messages and like 6 of them were for me...haha I was like ah geez..here we go! haha So for most of the day I just did kinda that. And then that evening I actually went with the Assistants to teach a lesson to one of their investigators so that was pretty cool and went really well. Then that night I was talkin to Elder Pugmire a little bit and somehow we found out that theres a pretty good chance that one of the wards my friend is assigned to is Elder Pugmires homeward! Maybe dad might remember a Joey Tirado-Grundvig from the Robinson troop at scout camp way back when but he's serving in the Ogden Mission and is doing super well out there (I've been able to follow him a little bit from emails his mom forwards out to everyone like my mom does) but he's out in Hyrum, UT last I heard and I guess those missionaries there are the same ones assigned to Elder Pugmire's ward. So I was like that's pretty legit! So Wednesday was pretty snazzy. haha For one, I woke up and already had three texts and we even had to get up at like 6....I was like wooo! Time to get started! haha Yeah, I wish I had that attitude....haha So we ended having to first drive to the mission office get some stuff to take to the missionaries at the temple and then go back to the office, but hey I don't mind driving at all so it's all good! But the sad news was that I found out that Brother Jucaban and Tatay Espayos haven't actually been baptized! =( So apparently I misunderstood Kuya Wilson's wife when she told me or she thought that they had just got baptized or maybe it was just that they were almost getting baptized idk...But he's still doing good! The APs talked to the elders out there and he's still doin good and will probably get baptized here shortly but the elders out there pushed it back a little bit because they said he wasn't able to make General Conference. Oh well, it'll come! haha I really loved Thursday, too. I started with a pretty great personal study in Ether! Most of you guys know the story. It's the part where the Lord lights the stones for the Brother of Jared so that way they can travel across the sea in light and not stuck sittin in the dark. Check this verse it's pretty legit. Ether 6:3 says, “And thus the Lord caused stones to shine in darkness, to give light unto men, women, and children, that they might not cross the great waters in darkness.” And immediately I thought about the “stones” that the Lord has given me to shine and direct me in my life, and also about how I can be or become a “stone” for others as they cross the great waters of mortality. There I realized again just how blessed I am, and how much the Lord cares for me and for everyone. Looking back at my life, I feel I can say that I was raised carefully and with a watchful eye both by parents and by the Lord. I think back to all my teachers in the church, my friends in school, my awesome family, the experiences I’ve had, and I know that the Lord has carefully prepared me to be a “stone” for others, to shine forth amongst the dark seas of life and to help others along their way, and I’m just happy I’ve been able to do that and I am able to continue being that example through missionary work. So think about your "stones" in your life and be grateful for them and in turn, work on polishing yourself so that way the Lord may use you to shine forth in the darkness. Speaking of my awesome family, a lot of the senior couples came into the office on Thursday and gave me stuff to do! But while they were giving me stuff to do they would generally stop and look at the picture of my family on my desk (I've got three pictures on my desk. My family outside the St. Louis Temple with Grandma G, the Coron Branch the day we got made a branch, and a picture Nicole sent me of Semple, Me, Marc, her, Jackson, and Yocum up at Rock Canyon last spring). But the comments that came from the pictures of my family are as follows. Elder Paddock, "I like your dad's smile! He's got a good smile. He really looks like he's alive. He's alive right?" haha Sister Paddock "That's your mom? She's really pretty and looks really young." Sister Dietrich, "When I first saw that I though she (pointing at Grandma) was your mom and this one (pointing at Mom) was your sister...haha She's really pretty!" All those are kinda estimates cuz I can't remember exactly what they said but it was pretty close to those. Remember way back when, when I jumped through hoops to get the Forinash's money to furnish their hosue? Yeah....on Thursday I got alllllll those receipts...and now I get to review them...NOT looking forward to that...haha But it's whatev. It's kinda like that other stuff and being a detective and finding stuff and referencing other pages and yeah....I'm trying to make it somewhat entertaining! haha Friday was snazzy as well. We got a text in the morning saying that the Dietrich's made french toast and to go on up. So that was a nice little blessing right off the bat! haha The Dietrich's are like the ultimate blessing to working in the office! haha. We all were talking with Sister Dietrich for a little while that day at the office and she's convinced that I should be a lawyer...Like I swear the lawyers are the bad people in the Book of Mormon...haha just kidding. But she says I have the right personality for it...haha idk I guess we'll see. But at the same time she would know cuz she's worked in law offices for half her life and in the juvenile delinquent system for the other half..haha We had another ZLC (Zone Leader Conference) that we got to supply with supplies, mail, reimbursements, working funds, and rides to the airport..haha It went great! I got to talk to Elder Stirland a little bit and Elder Labinpuno and got lunch, so it doesn't get any better than that. Well Friday of course....we're coding. So we're driving, well I'm driving back to the office and we get pulled over! Wooo! So you know me...I do my thang I get out of it no problem the guy was actually pretty nice about it...haha We had the two special assignments in the car with us and that was the first time we've been pulled over with Elder Pugmire. So they were all lovin it, the whole gettin pulled over talking to him for a little bit and then getting out of it. Well while they're still talkin about that...another guy waves us over! So we go over there and I'm like "we just came from your friend down the road..haha" and he's like oh really? And the Elder Te'o from the backseat yells up "Yeah, we just talked to your friend back there." And then he was like okay go ahead..haha But then we finally made it to the office but it was funny. So now I'm 6 for 6...haha Random news of the day: Sometimes when I'm laying down at night I hear airplanes flying over outside and I'm like I totes remember hearing those in St. Louis every time we were at grandma's. Shout out to Grandma G! Miss you! Also! I got another letter from Grandma C! Thanks sooo much! I really appreciate it! Love you all! Well that was about my week....maybe next time I'll actually get an email from my parents....I hope you all have an awesome week! I really appreciate all the support from you all and everything that you guys have done and continue to do! Thanks so much! Love you all! Love Elder Michael Gadberry Pictures 0141-0150 -- Are literal feast after our spiritual feast 0151 -- When we balled in Manila it was right next to FEU which is one of the big schools here. Actually right there where we balled is right in the middle of a bunch of really big universities like FEU, UP, Ateneo, UST, and probably a bunch more colleges. 152/153 - Snazzy new picture set-up we got in the office 154 - Elder Pugmire sittin on steps. Oh yeah, that's the temple back there 155 -- I'm goin be honest...'di ko na-gets...haha 156 -- But that's pretty snazzy right? 162/164 -- Chillin a little bit waitin for ZLC to finish up 165 -- Another sweet view from the Dietrichs! 169 -- We were going to take pictures in front of that but the lighting was bad and it was really hot. But hey look at me! Even on my mission I'm texting! haha My phone is like always gettin somethin...haha