Hey guys! How's it goin? Good? Good!
Well....I haven't actually written for two weeks now...sorry! But its been a great two weeks! I'm not too sure what to say. So kinda like the last email I'll just give you like a highlight of the week that I didn't write..haha
Last Sunday was fast Sunday and one of the things I was fasting for was that we might have success in our area or that we might have a baptism because President has expressed on a few occasions that it would be really cool to see the office elders having a baptism. And actually when I opened my fast and prayed that we might have a baptism, I felt really a good about it, but at the same time I had no idea where it would come from. Later that evening as we were going coming again from an appointment that had fallen through we went to our, more or less, last option...haha It was Brother Palma, who we haven't been able to contact since Elder Stirland left. So I actually told Elder Pugmire that, “Okay maybe the Lord is trying to help us out here and telling us not to waste our time there, so if he’s not here again maybe that’s what that means.” Well we made it to his house, and he was there!
I was more than surprised but very excited. As we kind of caught up with him, he mentioned that he wasn’t quite sure why there were so many churches in the world, and that really struck my mind, and so when we went to start the lesson I asked, “Brother Palma, you mentioned earlier that you weren’t too sure why there were so many churches in the world. Would you like to know why that is? We have a message that is exactly about that.” So immediately we caught his attention, and it led to a really great lesson in which we touched on prophets and dispensations, taught the life of Christ, the Apostasy, and the Restoration and throughout we focused on the importance of priesthood authority. The bad thing, though, was that, after talking about it later, Elder Pugmire and I both missed the prompting to extend him a baptismal invitation....haha oops. From that experience I really learned: one, the power of fasting; two, it strengthened my testimony in the Lord hearing and answering our prayers; three, I need to just be more confident in extending those invitations because they are invitations to repent and come unto Christ, and there really should be no reason to be afraid to invite someone to come unto Christ.
I had one more pretty cool experience. We had a guy from San Juan (Elder Pugmire's old area) come into the office cuz he was in the area. He talked with Elder Pugmire for a little bit and ultimately asked for a blessing of comfort because him and his family are recently reactivated and are now trying to prepare to go to the temple and they seem to be facing some tough decisions and challenges. However, at the same time, I needed to get to the bank to pick up some checks and the bank closed in thirty minutes. Admittedly, I was getting pretty anxious while Elder Pugmire was talking to him, and then when Elder Pugmire said that he asked for a blessing, I immediately had this feeling that I can only put into words as, “Patience. These things come first.” So we proceeded to give him a blessing. During the course of the blessing, I had a thought come into my mind, and shortly thereafter, Elder Pugmire said that exact thought and I was deeply touched by the Spirit nearly to the point of tears. Afterwards, we were able to make to the bank and I didn’t have any problems getting the checks. I learned so much from that little experience. Those words, I hope, will always stay with me: “Patience. These things come first.” Especially as life gets busier and busier, I hope to always remember: Patience. The Lord comes first; or patience. Your family comes first; or whatever it is that I need to stop and do at the moment. I also learned that that blessing really was inspired, that the Holy Ghost really does put thoughts into our minds and words into our mouths.
So that was a couple highlights from a couple weeks ago (well probably longer considering the time my parents take to get this out (especially if you're viewing this via blog..)) =). This past week was great as well! It was a little crazy though.. It was transfer week and we had to get what normally takes 4 days and squeeze it into 3 because President had a mission presidents seminar this weekend. But it worked out! So it's all good.
Last Sunday was Mother's Day! Wow....cool... It means we get to call home! I feel like I just called for Christmas like a month ago...but such is life, speeding on and on and on with no stoppin it..haha Church was pretty exciting cuz the whole Advincula family made it! I was so pumped! But on the other hand neither Ponce nor Palma made it...sad =(. It was funny cuz like its Mother's Day so you usually expect talks to be about Mothers or like motherly things, I don't know..haha But our first speaker was a youth speaker and she was assigned to speak on the Law of Chasity..haha And then the next speaker was about the life of Christ, and I forgot what the last speaker was but there wasn't anything about Mothers besides the mere mention of a Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers stated at the beginning of each talk..haha Well the rest of church went really well. Our ward is trying to more or less start their home teaching program..YAY! So hopefully that gets rollin..haha Then we went out to work and that night we had dinner at the Dietrich's and spent Mother's Day with "grandma and grandpa" hahaha. I heart them! haha
So Monday morning is when I was going to call my sweet mother and wish her a happy mother's day...well...that didn't exactly go according to plan. We were heading to the office and the APs called....joy. "Hey we forgot the projector at the Mission Home and we don't wanna go get it, so can you guys get it on your way in?" Ughhh....."Yeah...we'll grab it." So we had to go do that which put us off of schedule, and then when we got there Elder Munk was on the phone with his parents. Dang it. So instead I did what any normal person would do in that situation....I went and bought Krispy Kream =D. hahaha Then I got to call my parents real quickly just to wish them a Happy Mother's Day and tell them that I'd call tomorrow morning and if not then then the next morning and if not then then the next morning and if not then then hopefully the next one...haha Then we went and played Horse with Elder Hernando and Elder Munk and Elder Pugmire in the parking lot right outside our office, and you know me, I won of course..haha And then the rest of the day went about pretty normal and cool and whatever else.
Tuesday was fun......but not so fun. So we were going to bed Monday night and get told at like 11:15 that we're supposed to be going to going-home activities on Tuesday! Which seems okay right? Well that entails waking up at 4 AM.....not so okay anymore, huh? But we made it and so we got to go to the temple so that was really good! And I even saw good'ol Elder Granger at the temple! That was crazy! I miss that guy...he's pretty awesome. After the temple we got Krispy Kream, and then went to the American World War II (I'm pretty sure...oh geez I'm losing school stuff..) Cemetery. After all that we had to get everyone to the airport, and get all the new missionaries from Provo picked up. Well we had just a couple missionaries that we were in charge of taking and we were also supposed to pick-up Elder Swainson (he came over with us but had to go back home and now he's BACK!) because he was flying in at a different terminal (I don't know how it is in the states but here different terminals are like pretty far apart like a 20-30+ minute drive sometimes).
Well we got one missionary off and it was time to pick up Elder Swainson so we go to the airport and the guy there ensures us that his flight is coming into terminal 1 (we're at 2)...we were like uhh...okay, we're just goin hang out here till the guys at Terminal 1 tell us that they have him. So he actually did end up coming into terminal 1, so we didn't get to see him =(. And so then we took the other missionary we had to their terminal to go home. So all in all I went to both terminal 1 and terminal 2 two times each...ugh! We got back to the office and I was exhausted. But we were asked to take Elder Swainson out to work in our area with us for a couple hours. So that was awesome cuz we got to work with one of our good friends and he's back again! And we even found a new inactive member to start visiting. So it worked out but one I'm exhausted at this point and two, we have like a ton left to do. After dropping Swainson back off at the Mission Home we had to run back to the Office because all the missionaries that are transferring to Palawan were coming to the office and we were in charge of getting them their tickets, making sure their luggage was underweight, and then getting them with the missionaries that they were staying with for the night. After they were all finally gone (this is like 9)..haha We had to set-up the church for transfer meeting the next day and get all their supplies (Elder Pugmire's job, I try to help) into class rooms in the church for the zones. That takes a longgg time. And we finallyyyyy got that done and made it to bed!
Woo! Wednesday! Transfer Day! Woo! Waking up at five! ugh. Well on the bright side, I got my Preach My Gospel back! Now its got a snazzy leather cover and what not, I dig. (check the pics). Only bad thing about this transfer day was it was also the same day that we were supposed to get support. So I had everyoneeee and their dog asking me if we have support...I even got a call from the Senior Couple in Palawan asking about it...I was like UGH! haha It was just kinda annoying....but I still love everyone and everything =). Another good part of transfer day is I got to see Sister Afu! She's been in Palawan for a while and so I haven't seen her forever. She was in my district at the MTC and is like the nicest person I've ever met and from New Zealand and my favorite..haha Gotta be lookin at the positives haha. Right after the transfer meeting we had New Missionary Orientation (usually on Thursday, bumped up to Friday). And that was actually really cool! I enjoyed it. I wasn't a trainer or trainee but I still learned a lot and even pitched in with a couple thoughts (hope that was okay..haha). After the orientation, I had to go with Elder Munk and Elder Baltazar with Elder Pugmire cuz Elder Hernando was leaving the office and training and neither of the APs have driver's licenses now...haha So that was interesting but it worked out. Then we finally got home and I was like completelyyyy exhausted. I was so dead..haha It was great! haha =D
Thursday was kinda ...good? Yeah I guess it was decent. We woke up early AGAIN! But this time I had to be the APs driver and take them to the US Embassy to fix something about Munk's license. So I was like okay that's good I guess, at least I get to go to the embassy, that might be kinda neat, I don't know what an embassy looks like..haha NOPE. They didn't know where parking was so I got to drop them off at the side of the road, drive around for a while to find somewhere to park, and then sit in the car for over two hours while they were inside and my companion was knocked out in the backseat sleeping..haha So I wasn't too happy about that but it was okay I guess cuz the Dietrich's texted me and was like hey! you guys need to get here quick and clean up the office cuz there's a member of the Presiding Bishopric that's coming to see it! So I was like cool! I don't mind sittin in a car doin nothin for 2 hrs if I getta meet a general authority. We get there hurriedly clean everything, and wait. They never showed up! So the APs then needed us to drive them to get the license and so that took forever too...and the whole time I was worried that I was missin the dude! But for the most part it was like nice to be with them but just kinda inconvenient at the same time. At the end of the day I bought a new tie, that was fairly expensive (twenty bucks-ish) but I love it, so it made everything better. hahaha
So remember that Mother's Day call I was supposed to make? Yeah....finally made that on Friday...hahaha =) sorry! But as you can see....I didn't have a whole lot of time to do it other days! Especially when I can only call before 11AM here.. The call home was great! I heard Santabelle barking! I almost cried...haha just kidding but it was awesome. I greeted my dad in Tagalog, he responded in Korean, and said somethin in Tagalog again with his weird Korean language came the response, and then I said somethin in Tagalog and apparently it meant somethin in Korean and he was like wait what?? haha Good times.. My families doin great! I miss them....kinda =). Just kidding their the best family in the world. Best parents. Decent brothers. And a dog that I'm going to bawl if she's not alive when I get home..haha I hope she's sealed to us too =) hahaha. I guess we'll see. For those of you that didn't know, my mom's pregnant and LOVING IT! haha Well I don't know about that...haha But it's exciting huh?? I heard she got a baby shower in which like a good 70% of the outfits were Cardinal themed....life's good as a Gadberry #SoProud =D. Sister Demer's said, "that guy doesn't have a chance to become the next World Chess Master." So yeah, all's good on the home front, I would say. Later that day we met another inactive as I was just going to a place to send money to missionary that didn't get support. We meet so many all the time its really cool! The Lord's really moving His hand over the country and helping bring people back to the fold. #CoolStuff haha
Well that's the email for this time! Kinda crazy, kinda lame, but hey it is what it is. Love it or hate it, but please love me! =D hahaha Hey remember how writing letters was mentioned at least twice in conference?? Yeah...good times...hahaha "We can write of Christ by writing letters to those who are away. Missionaries serving, sons or daughters in the military, and those we love are all blessed by letters we write. Letters from home are not just quick e-mails. Real letters provide something tangible that can be held, thought about, and cherished." Oh oops! How'd that quote get in there and bolded and underlined?? Hmm...that's weird... =D hahaha Just kidding...love you all!
Well I'm out! Love you all!
Elder Michael Gadberry
Pictures
0002 -- E. Hernando catchin some sleep on our floor.
0003-0009 - Fancy dinner for E. Hernando cuz he's leavin
0006 -- Not one of the best things I've ever tasted... The meat is ox tail and the black thing is like spoiled shrimp paste...haha They put it in a peanut butter thingy and its supposed to cancel out the shrimp thingy and yeah...didn't work too well..haha
0009 - This place was snazzy! The dude went around the restaurant singin! He was way good!
0015/0017 - My new PMG!
0018 - I saw my first ever relative of Santabelle in the Philippines! I'm just happy I got a picture of it..haha
0019/0020 -- We found this in our apartment...haha We're thinkin it came in the window..haha Needless to say, we have yet to contact "Ashley" haha Sister Dietrich thinks she's a potential investigator..hahaha
0021 - Map of our mission
0217 - Tall building
0222 - My keyboard..hey look who it is! (Coron is on the other side of the picture frame haha)
0223 - Bye, bye Te'o
0227-0232 - Indian Food night at the Sisters with the Dietrichs!
0235 - Sister Dietrich's glasses are crazier than mine! haha
0236 - Beautiful sewer thingy in front of the church
0240 - Uke time at the Dietrich's, I was playing with the settings on my camera, but this one turned out cool!
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