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.