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| October 28, 2012 |
Sunday, November 4, 2012
October 28, 2012 E-Mail!
Top of the mornin to ya!
Well 'tis truly a saddening week. I found out that I will be leaving beloved Ternate.. But other than that its been a wonderful week! I got some stories for you all. Just you wait.
You know that when you get home you have to give a report to the stake leadership, right?
Yeah I know. And Sister Demers told me that Pres Lunt is gettin released.. I was really sad! I really wanted to be able to sit down with him and get released by him.. But yeah I'll be ready to report. It'll be complete with slides, graphs, etc. It's going to be the best report they've ever seen! haha What am I even supposed to do when I report to them?? haha
Any chance of being transferred this time?
Yeah its pretty final now.. I'm going to be transferring and Elder Handy gets to stay. President Stucki told me that he really thought that I'd be staying here in Ternate and training a new missionary, but as he prayed about it he really felt that I should instead become a Zone Leader. So next transfer I'll become a ZL, and according to the "daw" it will most likely be in the San Gabriel Zone. But President did tell me at the same time he told me I'mma be a ZL that that I will be training before I go home so we'll see what all goes down.
So like I said I got a couple stories for you! They're kinda like black and white.
So one day we had to go to Manila so we got up and had to get ready real quick in the morning and the cold shower was especially cold! Cuz of the broken bridge in Naic we had to take a tricycle and a mini-bus just to get to the bus to get us to Manila. And normally that bus should be able to pick us up in Ternate and we just ride it all the way there.. To make things worse it was raining all day and I didn't have an umbrella! So I had to ride on the outside of the tricycle and I got really wet and with the wind coming at us it was really cold! Then we finally made it to the mini-bus! Luckily the mini-bus has windows that can go up and down... Sure enough.. I got the window that didn't wanna stay up! So I got wet and cold on the mini-bus as well! Then we finally made it to the bus and we were pretty wet then we got on the Air Con bus and it was freezing! We finally made it to the city and fetched a taxi.. it took us like 3 taxis before someone took us.. And this driver was pretty inappropriate and it was just weird... We gave him a Law of Chastity pamphlet.. hahaha =) Next, Elder Handy had to go to a meeting in which I wasn't included so I just had to sit there forever.. and wait.. BORING! haha So finally that got done and we started heading back home. The taxi we took to the buses dropped us off at the wrong spot.. so we waited for a while in the POURING rain and tried to get a bus but cuz of where he dropped us they were all full. And like it was seriously pouring.. we got SOAKED! So then we had to eventually take another taxi back to the spot where we shoulda got dropped off at.. So that cost extra money and it was a short ride. But finally we got on the bus and made it home. So yeah.. it was a greattt... day.. =) haha
So day number one (see above) was actually AWESOME! So story one was essentially all that happened, but this version is how we all, or at least me, saw it. So in my planner I recorded that day as the best worst day ever cuz it was a blast! haha It's all about perspective! So after the mini-bus and stuff we made it to Tanza where we met Elder Pugmire and Elder Cooper, probably two of my favorite missionaries ever! haha Plus we ate at McDo before we headed to Manila so I had some good 'ol pancakes! So then we traveled on to Manila and I got to catch up some with Elder Pugmire. We finally made it to Manila for the Trainer's Meeting but before the meeting we got pizza! And I haven't had pizza forever! So that was awesome and Sister Lopez, another one of my favorites!, hooked me up with an extra piece.. Then before the meeting President pulled me aside and talked to me a while and told me I was going to be a ZL and so that was kinda cool but bitter-sweet at the same time.. So during the meeting was actually okay cuz I went and helped Elder Grob. I got a lot of filing done for him and we were able to catch up a little bit too. So at first when the taxi dropped us off at the wrong spot on the way home it kinda did suck but then we got soaked and me and Elder Pugmire were just like "Come what may and love it!" hahaha so it was actually pretty comical. Especially when we decided we had to cross the 8 lane freeway to get to the other side to get a taxi.. Just imagine 4 white guys in shirts and ties, one of them carrying a big cardboard box, running across the freeway and climbing over the median. Waiting there for a little bit while the cars went flying by and then sprinting across the other four lanes to get to the other side. It was pretty hilarious. Then when we finally got on the bus we even got a seat! So it was awesome! We usually have to stand. So we sat down and I started reading Sister Demer's letter and it was super awesome and uplifting especially for having had somewhat of a cold, wet day cuz she was kind of enough to share her testimony with me. Then on the way home the Paddocks offered to pick us up in Naic and take us the rest of the way to Ternate. So not only did they pick us up but they had a nice hot home cooked meal ready for us! Then we actually had time to get one appointment in, and that was kinda fun cuz we ran to that as well cuz of the rain. And it ended up being a really awesome lesson. The end. haha
So my point was that even when a day could possibly suck.. You gotta look at the positives. You gotta rock the "come what may and love it attitude." You gotta notice the tender mercies of the Lord and just enjoy the journey and the company. =) Cuz I actually remember saying a prayer in the taxi after having the realization that we are going to get SOAKED, so I prayed and asked if Heavenly Father would stop the rain or just somehow make it so we didn't get too wet but eventually I just asked for a tender mercy whatever it may be. And you can see all kinds of tender mercies that were sprinkled into my life. So I gotta get running this week. I had lots of other awesome stuff to tell you about this week but I've run out of time.. Sorry! So basically... never allow yourself to have a bad day! Stay positve! Stay fresh! haha Hope you guys all have great weeks even if its the Best Worst Week Ever! haha
Love you all!
Elder Michael Gadberry
Well 'tis truly a saddening week. I found out that I will be leaving beloved Ternate.. But other than that its been a wonderful week! I got some stories for you all. Just you wait.
You know that when you get home you have to give a report to the stake leadership, right?
Yeah I know. And Sister Demers told me that Pres Lunt is gettin released.. I was really sad! I really wanted to be able to sit down with him and get released by him.. But yeah I'll be ready to report. It'll be complete with slides, graphs, etc. It's going to be the best report they've ever seen! haha What am I even supposed to do when I report to them?? haha
Any chance of being transferred this time?
Yeah its pretty final now.. I'm going to be transferring and Elder Handy gets to stay. President Stucki told me that he really thought that I'd be staying here in Ternate and training a new missionary, but as he prayed about it he really felt that I should instead become a Zone Leader. So next transfer I'll become a ZL, and according to the "daw" it will most likely be in the San Gabriel Zone. But President did tell me at the same time he told me I'mma be a ZL that that I will be training before I go home so we'll see what all goes down.
So like I said I got a couple stories for you! They're kinda like black and white.
So one day we had to go to Manila so we got up and had to get ready real quick in the morning and the cold shower was especially cold! Cuz of the broken bridge in Naic we had to take a tricycle and a mini-bus just to get to the bus to get us to Manila. And normally that bus should be able to pick us up in Ternate and we just ride it all the way there.. To make things worse it was raining all day and I didn't have an umbrella! So I had to ride on the outside of the tricycle and I got really wet and with the wind coming at us it was really cold! Then we finally made it to the mini-bus! Luckily the mini-bus has windows that can go up and down... Sure enough.. I got the window that didn't wanna stay up! So I got wet and cold on the mini-bus as well! Then we finally made it to the bus and we were pretty wet then we got on the Air Con bus and it was freezing! We finally made it to the city and fetched a taxi.. it took us like 3 taxis before someone took us.. And this driver was pretty inappropriate and it was just weird... We gave him a Law of Chastity pamphlet.. hahaha =) Next, Elder Handy had to go to a meeting in which I wasn't included so I just had to sit there forever.. and wait.. BORING! haha So finally that got done and we started heading back home. The taxi we took to the buses dropped us off at the wrong spot.. so we waited for a while in the POURING rain and tried to get a bus but cuz of where he dropped us they were all full. And like it was seriously pouring.. we got SOAKED! So then we had to eventually take another taxi back to the spot where we shoulda got dropped off at.. So that cost extra money and it was a short ride. But finally we got on the bus and made it home. So yeah.. it was a greattt... day.. =) haha
So day number one (see above) was actually AWESOME! So story one was essentially all that happened, but this version is how we all, or at least me, saw it. So in my planner I recorded that day as the best worst day ever cuz it was a blast! haha It's all about perspective! So after the mini-bus and stuff we made it to Tanza where we met Elder Pugmire and Elder Cooper, probably two of my favorite missionaries ever! haha Plus we ate at McDo before we headed to Manila so I had some good 'ol pancakes! So then we traveled on to Manila and I got to catch up some with Elder Pugmire. We finally made it to Manila for the Trainer's Meeting but before the meeting we got pizza! And I haven't had pizza forever! So that was awesome and Sister Lopez, another one of my favorites!, hooked me up with an extra piece.. Then before the meeting President pulled me aside and talked to me a while and told me I was going to be a ZL and so that was kinda cool but bitter-sweet at the same time.. So during the meeting was actually okay cuz I went and helped Elder Grob. I got a lot of filing done for him and we were able to catch up a little bit too. So at first when the taxi dropped us off at the wrong spot on the way home it kinda did suck but then we got soaked and me and Elder Pugmire were just like "Come what may and love it!" hahaha so it was actually pretty comical. Especially when we decided we had to cross the 8 lane freeway to get to the other side to get a taxi.. Just imagine 4 white guys in shirts and ties, one of them carrying a big cardboard box, running across the freeway and climbing over the median. Waiting there for a little bit while the cars went flying by and then sprinting across the other four lanes to get to the other side. It was pretty hilarious. Then when we finally got on the bus we even got a seat! So it was awesome! We usually have to stand. So we sat down and I started reading Sister Demer's letter and it was super awesome and uplifting especially for having had somewhat of a cold, wet day cuz she was kind of enough to share her testimony with me. Then on the way home the Paddocks offered to pick us up in Naic and take us the rest of the way to Ternate. So not only did they pick us up but they had a nice hot home cooked meal ready for us! Then we actually had time to get one appointment in, and that was kinda fun cuz we ran to that as well cuz of the rain. And it ended up being a really awesome lesson. The end. haha
So my point was that even when a day could possibly suck.. You gotta look at the positives. You gotta rock the "come what may and love it attitude." You gotta notice the tender mercies of the Lord and just enjoy the journey and the company. =) Cuz I actually remember saying a prayer in the taxi after having the realization that we are going to get SOAKED, so I prayed and asked if Heavenly Father would stop the rain or just somehow make it so we didn't get too wet but eventually I just asked for a tender mercy whatever it may be. And you can see all kinds of tender mercies that were sprinkled into my life. So I gotta get running this week. I had lots of other awesome stuff to tell you about this week but I've run out of time.. Sorry! So basically... never allow yourself to have a bad day! Stay positve! Stay fresh! haha Hope you guys all have great weeks even if its the Best Worst Week Ever! haha
Love you all!
Elder Michael Gadberry
October 21, 2012 E-mail!
Dear Super-Cool Family,
Apparently, according to my mother's email, I'm Elder Super Cool. So apparently there has been some court case in which the last name Gadberry was changed to Super-Cool and rightfully so. I'll be sure to get that change into the mission office as soon as I can so I can get an Elder Super Cool name tag made. The sad thing is that I don't think most of the Filipinos will think its as legit as I do.. #TagalogIsADifferentLanguage
Howdy kid, how are you doing?
Also, much to the surprise of my mother's family, she's now a full blooded midwesterner. I'm so proud of her. A hardy, darn-tootin howdy to you to mother! And all of you reading this email! #MidWest4LYFE haha But this week has been another awesome one! It had everything from 5 baptisms and no confirmations, to a 42 year old less-active with 10 kids, to an 82 year old lady that topped him with 15, to a very young naked child that threw a fit when his dad got baptized, to a guy thats read almost all of 1 Nephi in a week or so, to seeing a 4 day old baby, to hearing lots of news about Coron, to the Spirit helping me better understand where people are coming from, to us missing the opportunity to eat some more wild boar, to unknowingly wandering unto the property of the ex-mayor, all the way to the highlight of the week... hearing my toddler-hood favorite song.. Achy Breaky Heart... haha My aunts better have read this email.. if not you better tell them that I heard that song and thought of them.. haha
I bet it feels good to have people accept the Gospel and to be an instrument in God's hand!
There's pretty much nothing that feels better than knowing that you were an instrument in God's hands! President Monson always says that he knows no better feeling than knowing that you were used as an instrument to answer the prayer of someone else. And its so true! There really is no better feeling that seeing the Lord's hand in your life and knowing that the Lord placed you there to help someone. Like for example, I had exchanges this week with Elder Caliao. And while we were studying he asked me a couple questions and raised a couple concerns that he hadn't yet been able to find answers to. And when he asked me the questions it was just really cool to see that the Lord had helped me find answers to those questions previously not really for myself but also that I could help others and in this case Elder Caliao. One of the answers came like over two years ago... and another one stemmed from something insignificant that Elder Handy said about a week ago that I just happened to remember. While I was answering his questions I remember thinking to myself that the Lord gave me those answers so that I could help him and I was like whoa! Cool! He was impressed and thought I knew like everything but if he had asked me anything else I probably didnt know the answer.. haha
So is the rainy season over? What is the weather doing for you?
Yeah! Oops.. Let's not jinx it.. I think/hope so.. haha It only rained once this week! And sure enough we were caught in it without an umbrella cuz it just out of nowhere started pouring.. haha but all is well.
Yeah mom! 3 Nephi 19:9 rocks! I feel like I've felt the Spirit a lot recently. And I've LOVE it! Its something that I'm reallyyy grateful for. But like I said last week. Feeling the Spirit absolutely rocks but its even better when we follow what its telling us to do. Still trying to get better at that part! But I've had lots of cool spiritual experiences this week. Especially with the scriptures! I've only read like the first 10 verses of 2 Nephi 2 and I felt like received oodles of new insight for myself. Its been really awesome to study that. Another really awesome thing I've started studying was about Captain Moroni! So a couple weeks ago I was thinking about it and the scriptures teach that at the second coming/millennium, Satan will eventually be bound. But the scriptures and living prophets also have said that Satan won't be bound because Christ binds him, but he will be bound because of the righteousness of the people (1 Nephi 22:26). So I was like well.. how are we so righteous that we bind Satan? So I thought about Captain Moroni who, "if all men had been and were and ever would be like unto Moroni...the devil would never have power over the hearts of the children of men (Alma 48:17)." So I thought that thats the key! We gotta become like Moroni! or at least acquire attributes that he has. So I've started to do an in-depth study on his life and characteristics. Which so far I've found mostly isn't anything out-of-reach for the normal person. As Elder Hales said two conferences ago, "You may say that sounds like just being a faithful Latter-day Saint! You are right. The standard for temple recommend holders is not too high for us to achieve. It is simply to faithfully live the gospel and follow the prophets." Elder Hales was talking about holding a temple recommend but really most of the attributes that I've found in Moroni so far "sounds like just being a faithful Latter-day Saint."
So yeah.. I don't know if I have anything else too exciting to tell you about.. haha Oh and about the baptisms.. The sisters in Manda 3rd came here to do their baptisms so they could do it in the ocean. So we joked that they were our baptisms.. haha We spent a lot of time this week working with our guys with baptismal dates. We should have a 2/3 more getting baptized this upcoming Saturday! Woo! But I'm really excited still for Brother Arthur. I'm still trying to figure out whats softened his heart and told him that its time to seriously listen to the elders. He's almost made it to 2 Nephi and is really enjoying it! He's asking us like legit questions that actually matter and you can just tell that he's committed. Its really exciting. Right now we're projecting I think 4 baptisms of guys that will get the priesthood and thats really exciting for me. Well.. I better get going I gotta get a lot of stuff done on the computer this week so this is a short one. Sorry! Ask me questions and you'll get better responses! haha
Well have an awesome week!
Love
Elder Michael Gadberry
Mom! Tell Andrew King Happy Birthday for me on Tuesday!
October 14, 2012 E-mail!
Hey again!
So I emailed you not too long ago, but of course lots of stuff happened since I last emailed you so you get to hear about it! I'll try to keep my conference thoughts to a minimum so not to bore you. But as always it was on AWESOME conference. haha
Did that baptism happen in the office? That awesome that you and your comp were the ones to get her started.
Yep! I don't know where the source is but I heard that that was the first baptism in the office for 12 years so thats pretty cool. From talking with Elder Grob and Elder Pugmire things seem to be going pretty good in their area now. But its still super stressful trying to get everything done and get out to the area every night on time. Speaking of Elder Pugmire, he's now joined me out here in the Naic Zone! He's in the other district but I saw him at conference and it was awesome.
Well.. I didn't have many questions to answer so lets get to my week! Well I guess its only last Thursday - Monday so its only a few days. So this week has been really exciting! We had 7 more people accept baptismal invitations! And that was mostly if not all just from Thursday to Sunday. So its been an awesome last few days!
Well.. I didn't have many questions to answer so lets get to my week! Well I guess its only last Thursday - Monday so its only a few days. So this week has been really exciting! We had 7 more people accept baptismal invitations! And that was mostly if not all just from Thursday to Sunday. So its been an awesome last few days!
One of our new families, the Angeles family, is awesome! They used to be taught back in the day but kinda stopped for whatever reason. We started teaching them the Plan of Salvation because family is super important to them and they really liked it. And Sister asked us last night what she needs to do to become an eternal family. So they're really exciting! In other news, last night they fed us wild boar, and on Wednesday we were supposed to eat monkey with them but we went to the temple instead.. hahaha
And another family that I've talked about a fair amount, the Dingco's, have even more excitement! So Totoy Dingco was the one guys we baptized since I've been here. Well when of Mom's children is less-active and lives there with them. She's been coming to church more recently and her husband is not a member. He used to be taught but stopped probably cuz he didn't really wanna change his ways. But now for whatever reason out of the blue he's decided to take it seriously again. He's like expecting to get baptized this time around. And told Elder Handy that he's realized that he really needs the Lord in his life. And then Mom's brother-in-law lives there and apparently he's been there for a little while and something has always told him to go and listen to us but he never did. But the same night we unexpectedly started teaching Arthur. He listened as well and said something like "I've listened to a bunch of churches, but this is different. Their message is right and beautiful." So its pretty exciting!
We had some more part-member excitement! About a week or two ago, we decided to ask this one dad if we could come and share a message with him and his family. And to the surprise of his family he agreed! So we got to teach him this week and it went awesome! I feel like we might have overloaded him with info, but he believes that it could be true but we encouraged him to pray about it of course.
So I better get going we got lots of stuff to do today.. haha I didn't even get to tell you about Gen Conf. maybe I will next week.. I don't know.. we'll see.
I'm out!
Love,
Elder Michael Gadberry
October 7, 2012 E-Mail!
Hey ya'll!
So this has been a pretty normal week I think, but you know what that means... Its been awesome! haha I love being here and doing missionary work. It rocks! You guys are lucky though cuz you got to see conference and I haven't yet.. =( haha
Hey Elder, you ready for some young missionaries?
Yeah I am! That's awesome! We had fast and testimony meeting on Sunday and the District President got up first spilt the beans. But thats awesome and exciting! I hope everyone takes the opportunity to serve earlier cuz obviously there's a reason that its been bumped up! Well theres probably a bunch of reasons why it got bumped up. But we need more missionaries! "It's getting late." -- Elder Holland. But yeah, thats exciting. I'm pumped! I heard rumors even while I was at BYU that they were bumping up the girls to like 19 or somethin like that but I don't know if they were well-based rumors or just girls at BYU that wanted to serve missions and didn't think it was fair that they had to wait while we didn't.. haha
What are you doing for shoes? Are you getting them anytime soon?
Umm.. I'm gettin by! haha My black ones that I inherited from Stirland, the soles have fallen off.. haha The nice brown ones I brought with me were the ones that I wore everyday after the black ones broke but now they have holes in the bottom so they get lots of mud and water inside them.. haha And so now I'm wearing the brown ones Elder Hopkins gave me way back.. haha I stopped wearing them cuz they turned into an ant home but then I cleaned them and now I wear them everyday but they're in pretty rough shape too. So I'll get some new shoes.... sometime. hahaha
So first things first, we got some exciting news from the office! They had the first baptism in 12 years (daw) just a couple weeks ago. It was a girl named Angie that lives with a Less-Active family. She started listening to us way back with me and Elder Spencer and we taught her the Restoration, but then she kinda disappeared for a while. One night she was at the Locanlale's house again when Elder Pugmire and I planned to teach the Plan of Salvation. It went really well, and Elder Pugmire thinks that thats what got her really interested because apparently she's lost both her parents and thats why she's living with the Locanlale's. So that was really cool to hear that! Last Friday, we went into Makati for an appointment and so I got to go help around the office while Elder Paddock and Elder Handy headed to the area office. So that was fun. Hence the random picture of Elder Pugmire with the HUGE pizza.. haha Going into the office is always good cuz I got to help Elder Grob out with some stuff so it was perfect. And they've always got all kinds of stories for me. And Sister Dietrich hooked me up with a bag of candy! hahaha
In other past area news, the Nepomuceno's from Coron had their baby! It's their second, after Josh. Apparently they named him Lyle, after President Stucki! hahaha #IMissCoron
We've had some exciting stuff happen in our apartment.. haha Our shower faucet broke.. Like the part that screws into the wall rusted and broke off.. So now everytime we want to use water we have to go outside and turn on the water and then afterwards go back out and turn it off... And then when its on it just gushes out of the wall like a fire hose.. hahaha We've had to be pretty creative. It's hard to wash dishes without running water but hey its me we're talking about.. I make it work. hahaha
So we got really exciting news the other day. May's husband, Eduardo, finally brought his Book of Mormon to work! He even told his boss last week that he was Mormon, and even stood up for the church when his boss told him that he thought that we didn't believe in God.. hahaha And so the other day May told us she got a text from his last night saying something like "I'm just now getting to bed. I was up till 11 reading that Book of Mormon." How awesome is that?? Pretty cool!
Really the work this week has been really good. I love doing the Lord's week! I've come to realize the truth of something Sister Demer's wrote me in a letter. I don't know if she meant it in this context, but really liked it. She said, "Feeling the Spirit is wonderful and following (it's promptings) makes the experience all the better." I thought about that and I was like YEAH! Its great and wonderful to feel the Spirit but what makes it even better is when we act upon that feeling. So I've been trying to do that as much as I can. Acting upon the promptings that come to mind.
In other news, I swear I saw Jake Bowlin in San Juan, Ternate the other day.. I even laughed when I saw the kid cuz I totally though it was him.. haha Sorry for those of you that don't know him... Also, I spent half a lesson yesterday in what's called the Filipino squat, something I have been working on forever! haha If you don't know what that is, it is how the Filipinos squat down when they're just hanging out. It's like in the position of a catcher in baseball but the main difference is that they keep their heels on the ground.. its hard! Try it! But I was pumped when I could hold that position comfortably for half the lesson.. I still have a long way to go cuz Filipinos can stay there for like hours.. haha
Hope you all have a great week! Just a warning.. I'm goin have all kinds of Conference Commentary next week... hahaha Sorry! But at least you got a warning! Love you all! Keep being awesome!
Love
Elder Michael Gadberry
Pictures
0017 -- Me in a tricycle! haha
0004 -- Looks like prison no?
0007 -- I look good with spiked hair.. haha
0008 -- Goats are like the weirdest animals ever.
0009 -- Big pizza.
0010/0011 -- The guy in the yellow is Joel. He plants rice in the mud. He reads his scriptures everyday. And he is a Mormon.
0013 -- Tut, tut. Looks like rain.
0015 -- Don't know if you guys have seen this yet but this is my silently scary looking frog wallet/coin purse. I got it from the mentioned above, Nepomuceno's.
So this has been a pretty normal week I think, but you know what that means... Its been awesome! haha I love being here and doing missionary work. It rocks! You guys are lucky though cuz you got to see conference and I haven't yet.. =( haha
Hey Elder, you ready for some young missionaries?
Yeah I am! That's awesome! We had fast and testimony meeting on Sunday and the District President got up first spilt the beans. But thats awesome and exciting! I hope everyone takes the opportunity to serve earlier cuz obviously there's a reason that its been bumped up! Well theres probably a bunch of reasons why it got bumped up. But we need more missionaries! "It's getting late." -- Elder Holland. But yeah, thats exciting. I'm pumped! I heard rumors even while I was at BYU that they were bumping up the girls to like 19 or somethin like that but I don't know if they were well-based rumors or just girls at BYU that wanted to serve missions and didn't think it was fair that they had to wait while we didn't.. haha
What are you doing for shoes? Are you getting them anytime soon?
Umm.. I'm gettin by! haha My black ones that I inherited from Stirland, the soles have fallen off.. haha The nice brown ones I brought with me were the ones that I wore everyday after the black ones broke but now they have holes in the bottom so they get lots of mud and water inside them.. haha And so now I'm wearing the brown ones Elder Hopkins gave me way back.. haha I stopped wearing them cuz they turned into an ant home but then I cleaned them and now I wear them everyday but they're in pretty rough shape too. So I'll get some new shoes.... sometime. hahaha
So first things first, we got some exciting news from the office! They had the first baptism in 12 years (daw) just a couple weeks ago. It was a girl named Angie that lives with a Less-Active family. She started listening to us way back with me and Elder Spencer and we taught her the Restoration, but then she kinda disappeared for a while. One night she was at the Locanlale's house again when Elder Pugmire and I planned to teach the Plan of Salvation. It went really well, and Elder Pugmire thinks that thats what got her really interested because apparently she's lost both her parents and thats why she's living with the Locanlale's. So that was really cool to hear that! Last Friday, we went into Makati for an appointment and so I got to go help around the office while Elder Paddock and Elder Handy headed to the area office. So that was fun. Hence the random picture of Elder Pugmire with the HUGE pizza.. haha Going into the office is always good cuz I got to help Elder Grob out with some stuff so it was perfect. And they've always got all kinds of stories for me. And Sister Dietrich hooked me up with a bag of candy! hahaha
In other past area news, the Nepomuceno's from Coron had their baby! It's their second, after Josh. Apparently they named him Lyle, after President Stucki! hahaha #IMissCoron
We've had some exciting stuff happen in our apartment.. haha Our shower faucet broke.. Like the part that screws into the wall rusted and broke off.. So now everytime we want to use water we have to go outside and turn on the water and then afterwards go back out and turn it off... And then when its on it just gushes out of the wall like a fire hose.. hahaha We've had to be pretty creative. It's hard to wash dishes without running water but hey its me we're talking about.. I make it work. hahaha
So we got really exciting news the other day. May's husband, Eduardo, finally brought his Book of Mormon to work! He even told his boss last week that he was Mormon, and even stood up for the church when his boss told him that he thought that we didn't believe in God.. hahaha And so the other day May told us she got a text from his last night saying something like "I'm just now getting to bed. I was up till 11 reading that Book of Mormon." How awesome is that?? Pretty cool!
Really the work this week has been really good. I love doing the Lord's week! I've come to realize the truth of something Sister Demer's wrote me in a letter. I don't know if she meant it in this context, but really liked it. She said, "Feeling the Spirit is wonderful and following (it's promptings) makes the experience all the better." I thought about that and I was like YEAH! Its great and wonderful to feel the Spirit but what makes it even better is when we act upon that feeling. So I've been trying to do that as much as I can. Acting upon the promptings that come to mind.
In other news, I swear I saw Jake Bowlin in San Juan, Ternate the other day.. I even laughed when I saw the kid cuz I totally though it was him.. haha Sorry for those of you that don't know him... Also, I spent half a lesson yesterday in what's called the Filipino squat, something I have been working on forever! haha If you don't know what that is, it is how the Filipinos squat down when they're just hanging out. It's like in the position of a catcher in baseball but the main difference is that they keep their heels on the ground.. its hard! Try it! But I was pumped when I could hold that position comfortably for half the lesson.. I still have a long way to go cuz Filipinos can stay there for like hours.. haha
Hope you all have a great week! Just a warning.. I'm goin have all kinds of Conference Commentary next week... hahaha Sorry! But at least you got a warning! Love you all! Keep being awesome!
Love
Elder Michael Gadberry
Pictures
0017 -- Me in a tricycle! haha
0004 -- Looks like prison no?
0007 -- I look good with spiked hair.. haha
0008 -- Goats are like the weirdest animals ever.
0009 -- Big pizza.
0010/0011 -- The guy in the yellow is Joel. He plants rice in the mud. He reads his scriptures everyday. And he is a Mormon.
0013 -- Tut, tut. Looks like rain.
0015 -- Don't know if you guys have seen this yet but this is my silently scary looking frog wallet/coin purse. I got it from the mentioned above, Nepomuceno's.
September 30, 2012 E-mail!
Muzta na kao!
Thats a reference to Tagalog text language... Its ridiculous.. You thought brb, ttyl, ppl, whts up, etc was bad. . .You have no idea! haha Sometimes it takes some real deciphering.. Like if someone, not me cuz I spell stuff out, were to text "babalik tayo mamaya kay Jhun-Jhun para kumain (We'll go back to Jhun-Jhun's later to eat)" They would probably text it, "ba2lik tao ma2ya ky Jhun2x pra kain" Its napaka-confusing sometimes but I kinda love it at the same time. Elder Stirland was a big fan of it..
So this past week was pretty great! Lots of exciting stuff went down...I think. haha I'll let you all be the judge! haha
First of all shout out to Sister Demers and Sister Webb and Claire and Olivia and Jordan for their salutation in my parents email. And props for Caleb for rockin the Gadberry and gettin the eagle done the week of your birthday! (Last week when we emailed Michael there were some youth at the house tying blankets for part of Caleb's Eagle Scout project, and yes, Caleb got his paperwork turned in the day before his birthday #cuttingitclose)
Hey, did you ever get my package from Japan? Also, Sister Demers sent you a package. Did you get hers? Sister Demers is wondering how long it takes to get DearElder.com letters. Please let us know the transit time on those letters.
Yeah I sure did! thanks!!! I got them both and it was awesome! We already finished listening to the Joseph Smith CDs from Sister Demers and they were awesome and a half! The dearelders I usually actually get those about a week and a half after they're sent. In the office it was usually Sister Demers would write her letter on Sunday and then not that Tuesday but the Tuesday after I would get it. And now I don't work in the place where the letters are received so it takes about 2 weeks to get to me.. But its pretty fast nonetheless!
We get to listen to General Conference next week. Do you still get to listen in English the next week?
Nope! =( It'll be in English but its not till the 13th and 14th here. But its all good! I'm pumped!! Conference is the best! I'm reading up on the past two conferences so that way I won't forget them when the new one comes up.
So this week was pretty exciting! Looking back through the week, we had a lot of success with May's (Just got baptized) family. One time this week May was like "you know der (der was what like 90% of Filipinos call Elders cuz its shorter and they shorten most everything) its really cool when you read the scriptures when its quiet and no ones around cuz its like you really feel it its just different than when you have kids running around. Its really powerful when its quiet." I was like YEAH! Thats the Spirit! haha I was so pumped to hear that 1. She's still reading and 2. She's feeling the Spirit while she reads. And then come Sunday she needed our help cuz she wanted to pay tithing but didn't know how to fill out the form.. haha So we helped her. She's incredible! And her kids now want to get baptized. We're still working on the husband. He's gone 6 of 7 days so we keep challenging him to read the Book of Mormon while he's away so we'll see..
On Tuesday we had district meeting and it went surprisingly well! I think its because I used an analogy about dating in relation to the focus of our district meeting.. haha It was pretty funny but whenever I was planning for district meeting thats what came to mind and it made perfect sense! So it was the Spirit.. haha After that I went on a half-day split with the ZLs cuz both them and the sisters had people they needed interviewed for baptism. It was awesome to work with Elder Griffin. It was a lot of fun and we had some really cool experiences. It wasn't a full exchange so we didn't really get to plan together or what not but the whole day we kept having the same ideas! The Spirit really helped us work in unity even when we didn't have the opportunity to plan stuff out real well. It was kinda like just getting the game plan as we walked to the houses... haha We met one new less-active and had a good lesson with that family. And the mom is pregnant and told us that the missionaries who baptized her family named her youngest son so of course Elder Griffin is like well this one should be named Derek! And I'm like yeah! Derek Michael! She laughed and said she would do it.... so Elder Griffin and I just might have named our very first children that aren't actually our children.. haha And then later that evening as we were walking back towards the main town part, Elder Griffin was telling me about how there's cobras out there and him and Elder Antonio saw them a lot.. I kinda doubted it but then.. I took a step on something weird and I told Elder Griffin to shine the light on it and yup.. it was a snake.. It was kinda freaky haha We think it was dead cuz it wasn't moving but I don't know if I killed it or if it was already dead.. #CloseCall.. haha
Last Sunday we talked to Brother Joel about his parents who live next door to him. He said that they used to be taught and we asked if he thought we could start visiting them again. He said, yeah! So we started teaching them this week and it was awesome! On Thursday night we went there to teach them. Well actually on Tuesday we just planned to stop by and follow up on their reading but we got in there and over the course of the conversation Joel comes over and it just led perfectly into a teaching situation. We had a short lesson prepared just in case we did teach them but what we taught wasn't even what we planned. It was an incredible lesson though! Completely led by the Spirit. There were times when I was talking and I literally thought to myself.. "okay. words are coming too easily and coming out too easily." haha It was probably the best I'd ever explained Christ's church and the Great Apostasy. It was incredible! And then Joel bore powerful testimony of how he came to know that Joseph Smith was a true prophet. Everyone in the house was feeling the Spirit. Tatay was still a little hard hearted though cuz he's like (we found out the next day) that he told his wife that we still didn't wanna change religions. #BornCatholicDieCatholic #OldPeopleHere... haha So I don't think he's denying that what we taught was true but he just doesn't wanna change...
We had to tell the golden investigator, Lolito, this week that he can't get baptized unless he leaves his wife or waits 5 years. #StupidLawsInThePhilippines It was sad.. but he took it pretty well. I think that he'll wait it out. He knows the church is true and loves going to church and what not and loves his wife as well its just too bad that he, who got snubbed by his first wife, can't get baptized cuz the country doesn't allow divorce.
In other cool news, the Balansag family is showing some good progress! We've been working on getting them back to church forever! But now Dad is around a lot and he's really pushing on getting the family back to church its awesome! But anyways, we gave the family, mostly Mark King the 9 year-old, a children's Book of Mormon, but of course the 11, 14, and 16 year old girls read it too.. haha But the 11 year old really loves Lehi's dream about the tree of life and the iron rod cuz we've taught a lesson or two about it to them and they all really got it and liked it. But Mary Jane read Lehi's dream in the children's BoM and then that night she had it! She ran up to me after sacrament meeting and told me all about it! In short, she said that it was dark and she was with another girl but didn't know who it was and they saw a really bright white tree and they started movin towards it and found the iron rod and held onto it until they made it to the tree and they ate the fruit! She said when they ate it their whole countenance changed and it was awesome! How cool is that?!?! I told her to right it down so she wouldn't forget it.
In other pogi news, I was told by a crazy 15 year-old girl that I look like Superman.
Haha so yeah.. This week was pretty awesome! Chalk it down as another awesome week in the mission of Elder Michael Gadberry. Hope you all are still doin great!
Love you!
Elder Michael Gadberry
Thats a reference to Tagalog text language... Its ridiculous.. You thought brb, ttyl, ppl, whts up, etc was bad. . .You have no idea! haha Sometimes it takes some real deciphering.. Like if someone, not me cuz I spell stuff out, were to text "babalik tayo mamaya kay Jhun-Jhun para kumain (We'll go back to Jhun-Jhun's later to eat)" They would probably text it, "ba2lik tao ma2ya ky Jhun2x pra kain" Its napaka-confusing sometimes but I kinda love it at the same time. Elder Stirland was a big fan of it..
So this past week was pretty great! Lots of exciting stuff went down...I think. haha I'll let you all be the judge! haha
First of all shout out to Sister Demers and Sister Webb and Claire and Olivia and Jordan for their salutation in my parents email. And props for Caleb for rockin the Gadberry and gettin the eagle done the week of your birthday! (Last week when we emailed Michael there were some youth at the house tying blankets for part of Caleb's Eagle Scout project, and yes, Caleb got his paperwork turned in the day before his birthday #cuttingitclose)
Hey, did you ever get my package from Japan? Also, Sister Demers sent you a package. Did you get hers? Sister Demers is wondering how long it takes to get DearElder.com letters. Please let us know the transit time on those letters.
Yeah I sure did! thanks!!! I got them both and it was awesome! We already finished listening to the Joseph Smith CDs from Sister Demers and they were awesome and a half! The dearelders I usually actually get those about a week and a half after they're sent. In the office it was usually Sister Demers would write her letter on Sunday and then not that Tuesday but the Tuesday after I would get it. And now I don't work in the place where the letters are received so it takes about 2 weeks to get to me.. But its pretty fast nonetheless!
We get to listen to General Conference next week. Do you still get to listen in English the next week?
Nope! =( It'll be in English but its not till the 13th and 14th here. But its all good! I'm pumped!! Conference is the best! I'm reading up on the past two conferences so that way I won't forget them when the new one comes up.
So this week was pretty exciting! Looking back through the week, we had a lot of success with May's (Just got baptized) family. One time this week May was like "you know der (der was what like 90% of Filipinos call Elders cuz its shorter and they shorten most everything) its really cool when you read the scriptures when its quiet and no ones around cuz its like you really feel it its just different than when you have kids running around. Its really powerful when its quiet." I was like YEAH! Thats the Spirit! haha I was so pumped to hear that 1. She's still reading and 2. She's feeling the Spirit while she reads. And then come Sunday she needed our help cuz she wanted to pay tithing but didn't know how to fill out the form.. haha So we helped her. She's incredible! And her kids now want to get baptized. We're still working on the husband. He's gone 6 of 7 days so we keep challenging him to read the Book of Mormon while he's away so we'll see..
On Tuesday we had district meeting and it went surprisingly well! I think its because I used an analogy about dating in relation to the focus of our district meeting.. haha It was pretty funny but whenever I was planning for district meeting thats what came to mind and it made perfect sense! So it was the Spirit.. haha After that I went on a half-day split with the ZLs cuz both them and the sisters had people they needed interviewed for baptism. It was awesome to work with Elder Griffin. It was a lot of fun and we had some really cool experiences. It wasn't a full exchange so we didn't really get to plan together or what not but the whole day we kept having the same ideas! The Spirit really helped us work in unity even when we didn't have the opportunity to plan stuff out real well. It was kinda like just getting the game plan as we walked to the houses... haha We met one new less-active and had a good lesson with that family. And the mom is pregnant and told us that the missionaries who baptized her family named her youngest son so of course Elder Griffin is like well this one should be named Derek! And I'm like yeah! Derek Michael! She laughed and said she would do it.... so Elder Griffin and I just might have named our very first children that aren't actually our children.. haha And then later that evening as we were walking back towards the main town part, Elder Griffin was telling me about how there's cobras out there and him and Elder Antonio saw them a lot.. I kinda doubted it but then.. I took a step on something weird and I told Elder Griffin to shine the light on it and yup.. it was a snake.. It was kinda freaky haha We think it was dead cuz it wasn't moving but I don't know if I killed it or if it was already dead.. #CloseCall.. haha
Last Sunday we talked to Brother Joel about his parents who live next door to him. He said that they used to be taught and we asked if he thought we could start visiting them again. He said, yeah! So we started teaching them this week and it was awesome! On Thursday night we went there to teach them. Well actually on Tuesday we just planned to stop by and follow up on their reading but we got in there and over the course of the conversation Joel comes over and it just led perfectly into a teaching situation. We had a short lesson prepared just in case we did teach them but what we taught wasn't even what we planned. It was an incredible lesson though! Completely led by the Spirit. There were times when I was talking and I literally thought to myself.. "okay. words are coming too easily and coming out too easily." haha It was probably the best I'd ever explained Christ's church and the Great Apostasy. It was incredible! And then Joel bore powerful testimony of how he came to know that Joseph Smith was a true prophet. Everyone in the house was feeling the Spirit. Tatay was still a little hard hearted though cuz he's like (we found out the next day) that he told his wife that we still didn't wanna change religions. #BornCatholicDieCatholic #OldPeopleHere... haha So I don't think he's denying that what we taught was true but he just doesn't wanna change...
We had to tell the golden investigator, Lolito, this week that he can't get baptized unless he leaves his wife or waits 5 years. #StupidLawsInThePhilippines It was sad.. but he took it pretty well. I think that he'll wait it out. He knows the church is true and loves going to church and what not and loves his wife as well its just too bad that he, who got snubbed by his first wife, can't get baptized cuz the country doesn't allow divorce.
In other cool news, the Balansag family is showing some good progress! We've been working on getting them back to church forever! But now Dad is around a lot and he's really pushing on getting the family back to church its awesome! But anyways, we gave the family, mostly Mark King the 9 year-old, a children's Book of Mormon, but of course the 11, 14, and 16 year old girls read it too.. haha But the 11 year old really loves Lehi's dream about the tree of life and the iron rod cuz we've taught a lesson or two about it to them and they all really got it and liked it. But Mary Jane read Lehi's dream in the children's BoM and then that night she had it! She ran up to me after sacrament meeting and told me all about it! In short, she said that it was dark and she was with another girl but didn't know who it was and they saw a really bright white tree and they started movin towards it and found the iron rod and held onto it until they made it to the tree and they ate the fruit! She said when they ate it their whole countenance changed and it was awesome! How cool is that?!?! I told her to right it down so she wouldn't forget it.
In other pogi news, I was told by a crazy 15 year-old girl that I look like Superman.
Haha so yeah.. This week was pretty awesome! Chalk it down as another awesome week in the mission of Elder Michael Gadberry. Hope you all are still doin great!
Love you!
Elder Michael Gadberry
Sept. 23, 2012 E-mail
This week rocked pretty hard. From my memory I can't think of anything terribly exciting that happened but I don't know I guess we'll see if I can think of anything.
Any changes on transfer week? Was it nice to finally not have to run around like a crazy guy taking care of other people's problems?
Umm.. Nope! Not really. My district stayed the same for the most part. Elder Handy and I stayed. Elder Bollena and Elder Caliao stayed. Sister Afu stayed! But her comp left. Her companion this transfer is a ward missionary. And then one of my ZLs moved. And Elder Gagnon my ZL in the office came over. Which is pretty funny cuz I told him that we'd always be in the same zone.. haha But yeah it was nice! We didn't even have to go to transfer day! We had to go to the area office though which was an adventure in and of itself... but at least I didn't have to solve everyone's problems! Well actually the solving people's problems part of finance was kinda cool I kinda liked it. It was the other stuff, the more like bookkeeping stuff that kinda gets old.. haha
Grandma's turn!
What happened to the papaya lady and her husband? Is he going to be baptized also?
Well the papaya lady and her family is different than the one with the husband that we're working hard on. The papaya lady is doin pretty good this week. She wants to go to church and do all that jazz but the care-taker of the land that her family is living on told them that if they change religions then they were going to get kicked off the land... #dumb. So we're trying to work on that.. Ate May's husband, the lady that just got baptized. Is still progressing I guess little by little. He seems to have good feelings towards us but he's not home for 6 days a week so its hard to teach him. So we'll see what happens, but his times will come. We're trying to get him to take a Book of Mormon to Makati with him so he can read it after work but I think he's forgotten every time. But seriously.. if he would do that he'll come to know its true!
BTW, what did you do with the papaya?
Umm.. I kinda put it on the fridge till I forgot about it and it went bad.... #oops!
So like the awesome thing about missionary work is that like you're pretty much always led by the Spirit even when you don't know it! Just one example from this past week on one night. So we were running late and we had to decided to visit this one family or the other and not really thinking about it I was just like I feel like we should visit the Atip family rather than Macmac and his family. So we did that. So we get there and we find that the members who live next door had a kid that had a really bad fever/flu and he couldn't even get up off the ground and could barely open his eyes. So we gave him a blessing, and the next day he was like four times better he wasn't hot. His feet/knees were still kinda swollen so he had some trouble walking but he was still outside playing with the other kids.. haha And then later that night we were heading to Lolito's but Elder Handy said maybe we should go to Balansag instead. We said, nah.. we'll go there tomorrow or somethin. So we go to Lolito and find out that he's not there.. haha So then we go to the Balansag family and it was perfect because the father who is NEVER there was there! So thats why we needed to go! Cuz he was there and was leaving the next day.. The spirit rocks!
I noticed something on Sunday that was kinda sad. There was a total of 5 families at sacrament on Sunday that both parents were there. And of those 5 only one of them have been sealed in the temple already... And thats the problem across the whole country.. It really made me realize how lucky I am to have my family and to be sealed to them forever.
In other news, the song Starships really makes me wanna dance... hahaha
Well I better get going, I'm starving! Time to go eat some rice and chicken at Mang-Inasal!
Love
Elder Michael Gadberry
Pictures
The crazy pictures with Filipino's -- those are the majority of our Branch Missionaries. They're crazy! But awesome!
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