03-31-12 E-mail

Oh hey! I didn't see you there... Well, I'm glad you've come back to read yet another week of what goes down in Elder Michael Gadberry's life. It's a really great life, you should give it a shot sometime, you'll love it! Don't worry there's only like sixty some odd of these left...hahaha Wooooo! Questions "muna." Well my parents mentioned going to Band-O-Rama the other night and then they abbreviated it and I realized the abbreviation of Band-O-Rama is BOR...haha I'm sure it is kinda a bore...not exactly my favorite concert but hey it was dece. I'm sure my dad thinks he's clever in making that abbreviation.. So what is your crazy awesome good news? You have all of our collective curiosity piqued... Oh do I now? What is it a whole two people? And I'm sure it's not quite piqued yet....so you'll have to wait a while. I'll talk about it later. I'mma make you work for it, you're going to have to read the whole letter until you find it! There's no point if I just tell you now and up front then I'm going to lose all my readers! Come on now...it's good business! If Caleb and I go to J-Dawgs is there anyone in particular we should say Hi to? Do you want us to look anyone up? Okay I only went to J-Dawgs like once a week, it's not like I knew anyone there! haha I probably shoulda as often as we went...if I remember right it was every Friday for lunch we'd go. Me, Ryan Baldwin (servin in South Africa!), Jackson Alvey (in the good 'ol SLC), and Alan (in Ecuador) and a few other fairly regulars include Marc Skiles (Brazil) and Jamison Weeks (Baltimore) and sometimes Tanner Ellsworth and Wes Turner (in Japan and Minnesota). I think....that's everyone (I hope I didn't forget anyone!)...and we would have randoms that only went once or twice and it was great! But I don't know who to have you look up! Here I'll have people look you up. Hey everyone! If you're reading this and in Provo or Rexburg, a week from now (around April 6 (idk the exact dates)) but my dad and brother are coming to your town! You should find them and say hi! "Lovest ya'll me? Find my dad and brother and say hi!" Thanks! =D So now it's on you guys, parents, to get this out before you go out there! Old bald guy named Kirk??? Really??? Oops, sorry! I guess I haven't seen him in like 10 months, so I can't honestly say he's the old bald guy....Who knows? Maybe he's gotten younger and grew hair again! Well I guess you all probably know but I can't honestly say that he's old and bald for myself. So I will retract that statement of mine and let you all judge for yourself. We say Tyler Yocum at Jimmy John's tonight. He said to tell you Hi! He misses you. How is he doing on the writing thing? Slacking??? Dusty said to to tell you Hi and that he misses you. He had a dream a couple of weeks ago that you were home. Umm...he's doing decent I guess. I hear from him enough. I haven't heard from Semple or Darsh forever though! DUSTY! Keep dreaming buddy! Eventually dreams come true! hahaha =D General Conference is this week. Will you be able to watch it now or will it be a week late again? Ugh! I'm totes jell of you guys! Yeah, it'll be next week. That's kinda weird that April Conference starts in March... Oh speaking of March 31st! Please wish Katie and Kevin happy birthdays for me! Shout out! Anything exciting about Easter there? Well....the Dietrich's are big Easter lovers. So of course we're goin do somethin! So don't you worry about that. Actually the Philippines as a country doesn't really celebrate Easter...it's weird cuz we ALWAYS did stuff at Grandma's and what not for easter. Well Sister Dietrich was going to make us easter baskets....buuut she can't find any, in the whole country..haha But she manage to get that green plastic grass like stuff that just makes a big mess, so don't worry about that. And she managed to find Easter candy. So we've got plenty of chocolate to snack on. haha OH YEAH! Don't worry Gadberries! There's a decent chance I'll even still get to dye eggs this year! I think the Dietrichs were goin get some stuff ready to dye eggs some evening...hahaha PUMPED! =D Well that's all the feedback from my parents so let's get to the week! The sooner I get through everything, the sooner you'll get to know the BIG, AWESOME, EXCITING news! But I can't just skip to it cuz this is pretty much my journal...haha So the last Sunday was AWESOME! But it wasn't part of the "BIG. AWESOME, EXCITING news," sorry! Keep waiting. Patience is a virtue =). Well...we were at church and just sittin there it had just started and people were still comin (like everyone's late for church here; I guess I can relate...haha it's not like I was ever late on Sunday in Effingham...) but the Advincula family walked in the door! The whole family! That was a first! Tatay and Arianne and then the twins Audrey and Aubrey and then the youngest Sydney! Woo! The kids all went and sat by like their friends I think and so Tatay didn't have anywhere to go cuz that bench was full, so he came and sat by me. nbd, it just like made my life... Then after sacrament meeting I talked to Brother Wilson Perez (usually just call him Kuya Wilson (Kuya = older brother but can be used for everyone)). His cousin is Janice Anohan in Coron! So he went and visited them and just got back! So of course I had to ask him allll about it! He said they're doing really good down there! Sister Janice's husband, Dante, is still hesitant to accept the gospel but it'll come. He said lots of people asked about me and said to tell me hi. And also that Tatay Espiyos and Brother Jucaban just recently got baptized! YESSSS! I loveeee Brother Jucaban! He's such an awesome guy and I was soooo pumped to hear that he was able to overcome his habit of smoking and join the church with his family! If they stay on track, they'll be able to come a get sealed in the temple before I leave! I'll have to make sure that goes down. I've already decided that I'm going back to Coron at some point on my mission, preferably to end it. But of course...I'm not in charge of that..so please pray for it for me! haha Then after everything that day, we just had a grand 'ol time cuz Elder Stirland came back and spent the night at our apartment cuz they had to bring stuff down to Elder Osumo who got stuck in the hospital for an extra day..haha So Monday was BIG! But it wasn't part of the "BIG. AWESOME, EXCITING news," sorry! Keep waiting. Patience is a virtue =). Okay just kidding, it wasn't that big but it was cool nonetheless! Among the highlights for the day was that I decided to create a Done Did List in my planner each day. Cuz you've got the to-do list on one side but sometimes you've got lots of other stuff that you do that just pop up and it's not on the to-do list. So that's where the Done Did List comes into play. So now I can keep track of everything I got done in one day and compare it to my to-do list. So yeah, I Done Did that! haha Also, I realized that here in the office I'm living my dream! Okay so growing up, I always wanted to sign stuff and like autograph stuff. Well now, I probably sign my name like 20+ times a day! How cool is that?? But it's not exactly how I had imagined it...But hey there's not too much of a difference between a Major League Baseball player and a Finance Secretary...right? Also, we were finally able to find President's SS number! Now it's time for the next step...make a bunch of payments I have no idea how to do or where to go. Game. Lastly, I decided what I'm goin do in free-time in the office or time where I'm taking a break! I'm going to do Indexing from familysearch.org! It's pretty legit. I remember doing it a little at BYU (mostly cuz I was on the Temple and Indexing Committee..haha) But It's pretty cool! And a good use of free-time! Oh geez...Tuesday was EXCITING! But it wasn't part of the "BIG. AWESOME, EXCITING news," sorry! Keep waiting. Patience is a virtue =). But contrary to Monday, Tuesday was actually pretty exciting. I had to solve a problem regarding how to get Elders in Palawan money that they needed cuz their Zone Leaders ran out of money because they haven't sent me their working fund in two months in spite of my asking repeatedly for it...but hey it worked out! And I think they're even going to send me their working fund soon! Woo! haha Next was district meeting, and it was one of the sisters in my zone's birthday! So that was exciting. While we were at district meeting the Dietrich's ran out and got a cake for her so when we came back to the office we had cake and ice cream! Woo! And lastly but like most importantly.....I got my letters from Sister Ray from some of the youth out there in Effingham! I'm hoping to write back....buuuut yeah...talk to Sister Demers about the whole writing back process.. =) I'll do it! I promise! Wednesday was lame. That night I learned that I cannot beat Elder Baltazar at chess. The end. haha just kidding but it wasn't that exciting of a day. I think I was just kinda busy all day so I didn't write down a whole lot of went down. But Filipinos actually like to play chess a pretty good amount I think, and I've played Elder Baltazar a couple times and lost both times... =( I'm super rusty! haha Oh! and on Tuesday we had our "Matrix Meeting" that's where we meet as an office and go over everything that's going to happen on Transfer Week. So it's like the un-official start of transfer week and getting everything ready for that. So let the craziness begin! Thursday was SAD! But great! But it wasn't part of the "BIG. AWESOME, EXCITING news," sorry! Keep waiting. Patience is a virtue =). Elder Spencer and I had the opportunity to meet with President Stucki for a little bit that morning. It's a wonderful opportunity cuz he's always superrr busy! It's like impossible to be a mission president haha But the news from Elder Spencer is that President told him he's going to be transferring....sad... So he'll get a few weeks to train the guy who's replacing him and then go off to the field. I'mma miss him.. oh well! haha He was like Sister Dietrich's hero on Thursday cuz he managed to "unlock" her Android phone so that she can use it here in the Philippines. She was like more than just a little bit pumped...haha Later I had to call an apartment owner...I was kinda terrified...But I did it! And it went great! She was actually pretty nice, so it was great! And it went smoothly and now I totally get why things weren't working as I expected them to work out with the San Juan apartment. But I think we've got it solved, so don't worry! Later that night, Elder Spencer said he was really grateful to have me as an companion and I really helped him learn more about himself and what else not. It was cute. =) hahaha just kidding but I appreciated it! Our like highlight of the week from our area happened on Thursday too! We got to teach Brother Ponce and we were actually sharing about the Plan of Salvation and talked a lot about decisions and prayer. Towards the end of the lesson he really opened up to us, it was great! He said that when he was less-active he got into drinking and even drugs but now he's doing his best to stay away from all of that. And it was just a really good sign cuz I think if he was still into those things, there's no way he would have admitted it to us, so I'm excited for him. He's doin good! Okay, okay okay. It's the moment you've allllll been waiting for! It's the day where something amazing happened! Well two things kinda happened at the same time and one was good news and the other one bad-ish. Which do you want first? Good or bad? Okay thank you Jakey for the suggestion! He said bad if you didn't hear him. So on the way to the office...we got pulled over...again! But this time it was just cuz we were coding (ie. we're not allowed to drive our car on Fridays). He wasn't too nice, but eventually I was able to convince him that we're servants of God and we don't have time or money to pay a ticket or go get our license from their office, and that because we share the gospel each and every day we have to drive everyday even when coding. So eventually he got it and we got to go. It was good! But because of him stopping us we may have missed the AWESOME news! Remember the dad with the daughter that came in and asked for a blessing? Yeah the dad came back in on Friday morning. He told Sister Dietrich that his daughter just had the surgery the other day and was recovering from it today and it was completely successful! He said that his daughter was able to speak and even laugh.....for the FIRST time in her life! How's that for a miracle? Sister Dietrich said that the father was crying when he was telling her, I'm sad we weren't there to talk to him a little.. =( I kinda laughed at myself because I didn't realize that she couldn't talk, I just thought that she was super shy. But yeah...she couldn't talk. But now she can! Holy cow! I got to be one of the instruments in Heavenly Father's hands to give a blessing by the Priesthood, to one of His daughters, whom he loves and through His power she was able to be healed and now has the ability to talk and laugh and enjoy life. That's incredible. The rest of the day was pretty great too. Regarding the chocolate in the office, it's to help us all lose weight....haha I guess the Dietrich's heard somethin about how eating chocolate a couple times a week is actually healthy and will help you lose weight. But since we're trying to lose weight quickly we usually eat a couple day...that's how it works right? In order to help us on that track, Elder Spencer and I introduced the Dietrich's to the fact that here in the Philippines, McDonald's delivers...hahaha In other news, the office got a new laminator and its cool! I got to laminate things for Elder Spencer for like a couple hrs on Friday, it was great! I only got it all jammed up twice! But me being Mr. Fix-it, was of course, able to fix it...haha Also, I have a USB here at the office and I decided to name it Jimmer-time. Makes sense huh? Well, thanks so Elder Spencer's expertise, I even got it to pop up with a picture of Jimmer as it's icon. My life is complete. Jimmermania shall never die! hahaha And with that, I'll end my week. I gotta go get my haircut...again pretty terrified but we'll see how it goes. So wasn't that great news worth it?? That's soooo cool! I'm still doin great here, I'm lovin it! And ready to keep pushin onward "doin my thang" haha Thanks everyone for all your support and great examples you have been and are to me! THANKS! BYE! LOVE! ME, Elder Michael Gadberry Pictures - not too many, sorry! 100_2999 -- Look at me! I'm on a Jeepney! Ton of numbers -- Okay Sister Dietrich got her Android to work so she said she needed to take our pictures so that way she could put our pictures on her phone for caller ID, so of course I said, "wait! just a second!" So I ran out to the car, got my glasses and then saw the flower pot when I ran back in grabbed that too and then took the picture. 0082 -- So that's where I slept the whole first transfer here and then again on Sunday cuz I let Elder Stirland have his bed again for a night..haha But I kinda like the floor, it's nice! 0083 -- Okay...it's Krispy Kreams birthday...we kinda have to buy donuts! haha 0085/0086 -- Sister Gupta and her companion eatin cake in the office 0089 -- Just another thing to add to traffic in Makati...haha