How's it goin? Life goin good? If you answered "good" to one or either of these questions, good! Glad to hear it! Keep enjoying life! I'm right here with ya! If you did not answer good but answered something less than outstanding or even neutral then I invite you to take a look upon your life, identify those things that are holding you back from "living the 'good' life," and think about how can you can fix those things or think about why you are allowing those things to keep you from enjoying life. =D haha Let me tell you! I'm def living the "good" life! There's nothin much better than this. It's so cool! I even got my haircut real short today and I'm still livin the good life! #NowThatsSayinSomethin hahaha =D Here's even a talk from the prophet that illustrates how we can live the "good" life! Check it out! It's not even that long! I'm pretty sure its shorter than this email! haha
So this week was actually pretty great. I really enjoyed it. Last Sunday, it was lookin like we were goin strike out again with people comin to church that we really wanted to come but then the Advincula's hurriedly walked in a little late. I was pumped! It was fast and testimony meeting, and two of them even went up and bore their testimony! It was little, twelve year old (I'm pretty sure), Sydney that got up there. She told her Sister that she really wanted to and so her sister went up there with her and those two concluded the testimony meeting. They were awesome! After, that me and Elder Pugmire taught Gospel Principles. It went pretty good. We've got a couple guys in the class that consistently steal the lesson from the teacher and generally take the lesson so far from the topic you gotta chase it down before it leaves the country. So we didn't have to teach much..haha We went out that afternoon and didn't have a whole lot of dice. Then we had wings at the Dietrich's and that was awesome. And then we went back out and had more success! And it was awesome-er! We got to meet with Palma again, and it was an awesome lesson! We focused on the Book of Mormon and the Spirit just filled the room...er..filled the roof. haha We teach him on his roof overlooking the city. It's pretty legit! But it was an awesome, powerful lesson. He said that when he reads the Book of Mormon he really feels that there's something in it. He said, "Nararamdaman ko talaga na may katotohanan sa loob ng aklat na ito." Or for you English-lovers, He really feels that there's truth in the Book of Mormon. We asked him if he had prayed about it, and he said, "Oo! Kaso, wala pang sagot, eh" Or again in English, Yeah! I just haven't got an answer yet... We testified to him that what he's feeling while he reads is a way that God is answering his prayer, and that that feeling is the Spirit and that thats the feeling he'll feel every time he reads the Book of Mormon. He also told us that for a while he kinda didn't read the Book of Mormon, but he was reading the Bible a lot. He said that he had an issue or somethin come up and he prayed for help and kinda essentially thought or said that if God would help him out he'd start reading the Book of Mormon again.
Needless to say, God answered his prayer and he started reading again and is loving it! He's so awesome! But we can only teach him like once a week. Anyways after the lesson he gave us a little snack. #TooNice We had these rolls with jam on them but then we also put hot dogs in the roll! It was kinda weird but tasted decent. That sounds like somethin Caleb and Jacob should try. After that it was time to head back home. On the way home, Elder Pugmire and I figured out why we weren't sent here to speak Tagalog. It's because if we were English speaking then we'd quote conference allll the time in lessons and probably wouldn't be able to do it seriously. haha #ConferenceJunkies
So Monday rolled right on around like it always does generally following Sunday except in rare occasions where you're flying across international date lines and your Monday just gets skipped completely. Well this Monday wasn't one of those Mondays. I haven't actually had any Monday's like that before but hey I bet its happened to someone..somewhere...sometime. Well Monday morning, in my personal study I was reading in Moroni 7. It was really cool cuz just this morning did I finish Moroni 7..haha I've spent all week on it. And I guess a little bit of last week too because it was the word "hope" in Moroni 7:3 that struck my attention sometime last week. It was almost like studying by topic. I've never really done it much, but I think I might start doing it more! I'd start reading and then somethin would stand out to me and I'd start going off on that. On Monday it was the word judge in verse 15. And I was also intrigued by how Mormon said three times that "ye may know with a perfect knowledge (good and evil)." I thought that that was interesting because nowadays it seems pretty hard to know anything with a perfect knowledge, including good and evil so I thought about and studied that for a while as well. After that we tried to take that rental van back cuz they said they would have it done by last Saturday but it wasn't...so we were like okay they better have it on Monday. Welp, no car pa rin. So then we go to the office, and the Assistants have stolen our computers too! So I can't do anything.. =( So I practiced my patience =D Well it probably didn't profit me too much...(see Moroni 7:6-7...oops =) haha) But instead I read from the Liahona. It was an amazing talk by Elder Bednar. He actually gave it at BYU a while back it's called The Atonement and the Journey Through Mortality. It's an awesome talk both Sister Stucki and Elder Dietrich encouraged me to read it, so I did! I just finished it today. #LovedIt! It's focus is on the enabling power of the Atonement often called "grace." He mentions that we all know that the Atonement was payment for our sins, but we rarely realize how encompassing it really is. "The Savior has suffered not just for our iniquities but also for the inequality, the unfairness, the pain, the anguish, and the emotional distresses that so frequently beset us. There is no physical pain, no anguish of soul, no suffering of spirit, no infirmity or weakness that you or I ever experience during our mortal journey that the Savior did not experience first. You and I in a moment of weakness may cry out, “No one understands. No one knows.” No human being, perhaps, knows. But the Son of God perfectly knows and understands, for He felt and bore our burdens before we ever did. And because He paid the ultimate price and bore that burden, He has perfect empathy and can extend to us His arm of mercy in so many phases of our life. He can reach out, touch, succor—literally run to us—and strengthen us to be more than we could ever be and help us to do that which we could never do through relying upon only our own power." He also talked about the journey of mortality. President McKay said that the purpose of the gospel is the make bad men good and good men better. Elder Bednar says, "This phrase describes the continuation and second phase of life’s journey to make “good men better” or, in other words, to become more like a saint. This second part of the journey, this process of going from good to better, is a topic about which we do not study or teach frequently enough nor understand adequately." So all in all it was anamazing talk and I LOVED IT! I spent much of this week reading it as well in personal study. You should read it! (It's in the April Liahona; http://www.lds.org/liahona/2012/04/the-atonement-and-the-journey-of-mortality?lang=eng; or here's the full-text from the devotional at BYU http://speeches.byu.edu/reader/reader.php?id=789&x=43&y=3) After studying for a little while, we bought Krispy Kreams and I was happy. =D hahaha Eventually I got my computer and had to do like a ton of stuff because its gettin time to pay for all the apartments in the mission so there's lotsss that has to be done with that. After our day, we went to go to our area and our car wouldn't start.. =/ ugh. So the Dietrich's jumped us, but so we didn't get stuck in the area with this junky rental car, we just went home and ate. We made tacos! It was like the first time we've cooked in forever cuz we never have time..haha
Tuesday morning we had to jump the car again, so we could get out of the parking garage. #ThankYouDietrichs But we were finally able to get our van back! Woo! But I start the van and there is essentially no gas at all..haha Like its below the "E" line. I was like I know I rocked the green car below the E back in the day but I don't think I trust this thing so much..haha And it was kinda frustrating cuz I had to fill up the rental car, and so I returned a car with good gas in it to get a car with nothing. But whatev I'm just happy to get the reliable, huge van back. Later that afternoon, we had district meeting and it went pretty good. It was a combined zone district meeting. It was a good lesson but I felt like half the zone didn't pay any attention to the ZLs so that was kinda frustrating, but whatev. In district meeting we talked a lot about finding, and so afterwards Elder Pugmire and I had to Mang-Inasal cuz we were starving. We're sittin there eating and this guy comes up to us and said "Do you guys know how to speak Tagalog?" (except he said it in Tagalog..haha) And so we said yeah, and he asked us like who we were and why we're here and what not and so we talked to him for a long time about the church and the Restoration and the Book of Mormon. He was super interested! Too bad he lives in a completely other mission. We gave him a Restoration pamphlet and a Book of Mormon and he gave us his info so we could send missionaries out to him. We figure that if we can start shipping out referrals from the people that we talk to everyday, our area will be blessed as well cuz 99% of the people we talk to each day aren't in our area. That evening wasn't terribly successful in the area though..haha But we were able to share with the Bata family, and schedule to have FHE with them on Monday. So I'm pumped! They're so awesome!
Wednesday was pretty normal. Studied Moroni 7, and the enabling power of the Atonement. Hit the office and prepped for all the rent payments, went to the bank and picked up some checks and what not, and just did the usual stuff...nothing too exciting. That night in the area we ran into Ditz again, which was awesome cuz we haven't been able to seem him again since our last scheduled appointment didn't work out. He was busy that night, but he asked if we'd be able to come on Friday and of course we were like sure! After the area we had to go to the mission home and pick up a couple missionaries. One is switching to a new mission (he's an awesome elder, but the Philippines has been a little rough on him, so he's been re-assigned) and the other is the companion of a missionary that just had surgery and is recovering at the MRC. So we had six elders sleepin at our apartment that night, but it was all good. We just had a super early Thursday morning haha.
So yeah...we had to wake up super early..haha The Senior Couples and President were flying to Palawan for the weekend to chillax (I'm thinkin President probably didn't get to chillax too much even though he deserves to rest a little..haha). But we had to take the Dietrich's and the Paddock's to the airport and they needed to leave the apartment by six. ew. So we took them and then went back to the house to grab the crew. So I had to reward myself for waking up that morning so we went to 7-Eleven and I bought a donut and two little school-style chocolate milk cartoons! It was awesome! But kinda expensive..cuz its milk..haha While we worked in the office Thursday we listened to Richard G. Scott the whole time..haha Elder Pugmire and I love him so we decided we were going to download like all of his talks for the last however long and then put them on a CD..haha #ScottFanatics It rained super hard when we went to lunch and so we got soaked even though we had umbrellas, so we sat in the office damp all day..haha That evening we had to take Elder Tumanuvao to the airport, but we were supposed to work with the ZLs so me and Elder Gagnon went to the airport and Elder Pugmire and Elder Berse worked in the area. Elder Gagnon and I actually made it back to do a little bit of work too, but we could kinda just talk to people because we didn't have too much time and Elder Pugmire and Elder Berse got the appointments for the night, and cuz I didn't have my bag! Have you ever tried being a missionary without a bag? Yeah. It's totes awk. I let Elder Pugmire borrow mine cuz he had accidentally left his at the house and didn't even know. So it was actually like super weird trying to work without a bag..haha Then came time to go home..and I was exhausted! "I was so tired...I was so tired." <-- one of mine and Elder Pugmire's favorite talks to quote. Listen to Adrian Ochoa's talk in Priesthood Session. This part comes right around 8 minutes into it, but the whole talk is actually really good. We just think this part is kinda funny. We're bad...haha =) (http://www.lds.org/general-conference/2012/04/aaronic-priesthood-arise-and-use-the-power-of-god?lang=eng)
So Thursday and Friday we rocked it solo in the office. Actually thats kinda weird. Can two people rock it solo? Cuz it doesn't sound good to rock it duet, but I guess thats what it was...haha But Friday was crazy! I had a tonnn of things to do. This time in Moroni 7, faith caught me attention for a little while and so did administering of angels. But I also thought about the word expedient in verse 33. Dictionary.com (kickin' it new skool) defines it as "fit or suitable for the purpose." And so the word purpose clicked in my mind to go to Moses 1:39. And so that verse kinda came into a new light for me. Through faith we will have power to do whatsoever thing is "fit or suitable for the purpose" of Jesus Christ, whose purpose is "to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man." Cool stuff! Well after that, stuff went pretty well! I had a billion checks to pick up and I was able to get them even a little earlier than expected. Then we went to LBC and paid some bills. I then sent rent to a Cavite apartment right away cuz they're trying to settle the deal a new apartment there, and then I spent much of the afternoon prepping those checks to be sent out. I had three apartments that needed their rent like right away cuz they're going to new apartments so they had to come into the office and get those checks. One of them had a little bit of an issue so that caused a bit of a panic attack but it was able to get worked out so no worries.....I hope. haha =) So then we left and headed to teach Ditz! #Finally! Yeah....no dice. I guess he had texted Ponce earlier that day and told him that, in a direct translation, "He had a walk to do with his daughter that just popped up." hahaha That's one of those funny Tagalog-English translations. Essentially he had somethin come up with his daughter so he wasn't going to be home that evening. So we shared a little bit with Ponce about the scriptures, and committed him to finding a new favorite scripture cuz he said that he couldn't think of a favorite anymore.
We had PEC that evening, so we went to that cuz bishop likes us there. This is the first one we've been able to make in a longgg time. We were a little late getting there so we hesitantly cracked the door open, and there's only two people in there! Bishop and one of his counselors..haha "Umm..Bishop? Do we still have PEC?" "Oh yes, elders! Thanks for coming! Come in, come in." So we waited for a little while longer and no one else shows up...haha So we start with just us four..haha It was kinda nice cuz we were able to get the very valuable attention of our very busy, hardworking bishop. My companion even got an invitation to speak in sacrament meeting out of it..hahaha Well later, the other elders showed up and we discussed more stuff. Like when is father's day actually? None of us knew..haha Just kidding it was actually a productive PEC in spite of the poor attendance. haha =D
So that was kinda my week! Sorry I write really long! haha But I hope you enjoy it! I'm lovin it here! Definitely "living the good life" as you should definitely be able to tell if you read this..haha Thanks for letting me steal your time a little bit! Hope you have an awesome week! Love you all! =D <3
Elder Michael Gadberry
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