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| May 13, 2013 |
Saturday, May 18, 2013
May 13, 2013 - The End
So... It's my last p-day.
That's weird.
I think I've said that's weird in like all my recent emails.. haha
So I don't really know what to say cuz I don't have a ton of time nor do I feel like emailing cuz I'm so close to going home.. haha
So yesterday was Mother's Day! Happy Mother's Day to everyone, but especially mothers! haha But so I was thinking yesterday during church about what I would send home today, and I decided to share what I love most about serving a mision. So in church yesterday the primary had a pretty cool presentation. They sang a couple songs and had a slide show put together with pictures and videos of all the primary children wishing their mom's happy mother's day. I LOVED watching the mom's beam whenever their kids came up and just something make someone so happy makes my day. So what I've loved most about my mission is seeing people find TRUE happiness in the gospel! Everything in their lives change! It's so cool and just makes me sooo happy to see that change and to be around people that have found peace "not as the world gives" but as the Savior does. Seeing people glowing with happiness and the spirit of Christ is definitely worth my two years here and if you have the opportunity to serve a mission I pray that you will not take that lightly and just do it. You won't regret it. It's so great! Thanks everyone for your support! I'll see most of you pretty soon!
Love
Elder Michael Gadberry
That's weird.
I think I've said that's weird in like all my recent emails.. haha
So I don't really know what to say cuz I don't have a ton of time nor do I feel like emailing cuz I'm so close to going home.. haha
So yesterday was Mother's Day! Happy Mother's Day to everyone, but especially mothers! haha But so I was thinking yesterday during church about what I would send home today, and I decided to share what I love most about serving a mision. So in church yesterday the primary had a pretty cool presentation. They sang a couple songs and had a slide show put together with pictures and videos of all the primary children wishing their mom's happy mother's day. I LOVED watching the mom's beam whenever their kids came up and just something make someone so happy makes my day. So what I've loved most about my mission is seeing people find TRUE happiness in the gospel! Everything in their lives change! It's so cool and just makes me sooo happy to see that change and to be around people that have found peace "not as the world gives" but as the Savior does. Seeing people glowing with happiness and the spirit of Christ is definitely worth my two years here and if you have the opportunity to serve a mission I pray that you will not take that lightly and just do it. You won't regret it. It's so great! Thanks everyone for your support! I'll see most of you pretty soon!
Love
Elder Michael Gadberry
May 6, 2013 E-Mail!
Okay so umm.. I only have one of these left after this.. not cool.
Well I guess it's okay cuz then I'll be in more instant communication with all you guys so that'll be cool too I guess.
It seems like you don't have much to say about your companion, how's it going? Are you finishing strong? Has the mission had any 18 yr. olds come yet? Is it hard to train a greenie and be a DL? Is a greenie a little like dealing with Deacons as a Priest?
Haha it's going really good! Overall I'm pretty sad to leave cuz I think the ward is finally starting to get their stuff together. We feel the overall spirits of the ward picking up and it's been cool to see. This past week our church attendance jumped up from 126 to 176 and it wasn't even any special sunday. We had a total of 17 less-actives and investigators at church so it was super awesome! Of course I'm finishing strong! Two weeks ago we had interviews with President. And here's the story... So we walked in just as another zone in the mission was finishing and so I started chattin it up with my batch cuz i heart my batch. But he's like don't worry President will give you a talk about being trunky... haha So I was like okay whatever. So it came time for my interview and it went pretty good. I always enjoy getting to spend time with President. Over the course of the interview he didn't mention like anything at all about trunkyness... So I was like okay.. Then as we ended with a prayer he was like just remember.. sprint to the finish. Finish strong! And I was like of course president. You won't have to worry about me. And he replied, "I know. That's why I didn't spend too much time on it during the interview." So with that I was honored by that and even more motivated to finish strong. I've heard of far too many great missionaries here that don't finish strong, and then thats what their last companions remember them as and I'm like that's really too bad cuz they were actually a really good missionary. So yeah... that's not goin be me. But yes. My comp and the ward and everyone are teasing me about how soon I'm going home. Training and being a DL isn't too bad. I don't treat him as a greenie. I have him take the lead in essentially everything. He just can't quite teach as much as me yet. But he's way good. We get along super well as well so it's always a lovely day in the neighborhood.
In other news, it's stinkin hot here. hahaha
So I just wanna share one story from this week. It was awesome! So we're visiting with a recent convert who is also less-active. So we shared a lesson about our baptismal covenants and about how important it is to take the sacrament. At the end of the lesson she finally opened up to us about why she's really not coming to church. She said she was offended and hurt by things said to her. She feels that we're the only ones that care about her. She was crying as she told us. She loves the Savior, wants to do what's right, but just said that she's essentially lost the desire to go to church over what had happened. As she ended her story, she looked up at me and said, "Well that's it. That's why I don't want to go to church. I feel like I am closer to the Savior here on Sunday than at the church. Is that a sin?" As she looked at me waiting for my answer, my heart went out to her. I was grateful for having enough love to listen, and try and empathize with her. She only wants to do what's right. And as much as I wanted to tell her that everything is okay. The Savior loves you and understands that that's why you're not going to church. I was guided by the Holy Ghost and had to tell her of 4 truths that I know to be true. 1. I know it really hurts when others are mean or inconsiderate towards us, but I know we have a Savior and Heavenly Father who love us more than we can imagine. 2. I know the Savior experience unkindness everyday of His life. He suffered it and persevered, and will be able to help you overcome these emotional pains. 3. I know that weekly partaking of the sacrament is a commandment that we should observe and follow. and 4. I know that you will come to see the sacrament as the best medicine to heal our spiritual and emotional wounds. As I thought about the experience later, I remembered Elder Hollands quote in PMG, "If you listen with love, you need not wonder what to say."
So I don't have any crazy stories for you about chickens running around our apartment but umm I do go home in a couple weeks. That's a pretty crazy story, huh? haha
Hope you guys have a great weeks!
Love
Elder Michael Gadberry
Pictures
234 -- My favorite political campaign here for no reason whatsoever. All the campaigns drive around blasting re-makes of popular songs to make you wanna vote for them. It's pretty crazy and different than America
235 -- That's like the Philippines original White House.. We walk by it at least twice a day.
236 -- Airplanes fly over us allllll the time. A constant reminder of what ultimately will come to pass
Well I guess it's okay cuz then I'll be in more instant communication with all you guys so that'll be cool too I guess.
It seems like you don't have much to say about your companion, how's it going? Are you finishing strong? Has the mission had any 18 yr. olds come yet? Is it hard to train a greenie and be a DL? Is a greenie a little like dealing with Deacons as a Priest?
Haha it's going really good! Overall I'm pretty sad to leave cuz I think the ward is finally starting to get their stuff together. We feel the overall spirits of the ward picking up and it's been cool to see. This past week our church attendance jumped up from 126 to 176 and it wasn't even any special sunday. We had a total of 17 less-actives and investigators at church so it was super awesome! Of course I'm finishing strong! Two weeks ago we had interviews with President. And here's the story... So we walked in just as another zone in the mission was finishing and so I started chattin it up with my batch cuz i heart my batch. But he's like don't worry President will give you a talk about being trunky... haha So I was like okay whatever. So it came time for my interview and it went pretty good. I always enjoy getting to spend time with President. Over the course of the interview he didn't mention like anything at all about trunkyness... So I was like okay.. Then as we ended with a prayer he was like just remember.. sprint to the finish. Finish strong! And I was like of course president. You won't have to worry about me. And he replied, "I know. That's why I didn't spend too much time on it during the interview." So with that I was honored by that and even more motivated to finish strong. I've heard of far too many great missionaries here that don't finish strong, and then thats what their last companions remember them as and I'm like that's really too bad cuz they were actually a really good missionary. So yeah... that's not goin be me. But yes. My comp and the ward and everyone are teasing me about how soon I'm going home. Training and being a DL isn't too bad. I don't treat him as a greenie. I have him take the lead in essentially everything. He just can't quite teach as much as me yet. But he's way good. We get along super well as well so it's always a lovely day in the neighborhood.
In other news, it's stinkin hot here. hahaha
So I just wanna share one story from this week. It was awesome! So we're visiting with a recent convert who is also less-active. So we shared a lesson about our baptismal covenants and about how important it is to take the sacrament. At the end of the lesson she finally opened up to us about why she's really not coming to church. She said she was offended and hurt by things said to her. She feels that we're the only ones that care about her. She was crying as she told us. She loves the Savior, wants to do what's right, but just said that she's essentially lost the desire to go to church over what had happened. As she ended her story, she looked up at me and said, "Well that's it. That's why I don't want to go to church. I feel like I am closer to the Savior here on Sunday than at the church. Is that a sin?" As she looked at me waiting for my answer, my heart went out to her. I was grateful for having enough love to listen, and try and empathize with her. She only wants to do what's right. And as much as I wanted to tell her that everything is okay. The Savior loves you and understands that that's why you're not going to church. I was guided by the Holy Ghost and had to tell her of 4 truths that I know to be true. 1. I know it really hurts when others are mean or inconsiderate towards us, but I know we have a Savior and Heavenly Father who love us more than we can imagine. 2. I know the Savior experience unkindness everyday of His life. He suffered it and persevered, and will be able to help you overcome these emotional pains. 3. I know that weekly partaking of the sacrament is a commandment that we should observe and follow. and 4. I know that you will come to see the sacrament as the best medicine to heal our spiritual and emotional wounds. As I thought about the experience later, I remembered Elder Hollands quote in PMG, "If you listen with love, you need not wonder what to say."
So I don't have any crazy stories for you about chickens running around our apartment but umm I do go home in a couple weeks. That's a pretty crazy story, huh? haha
Hope you guys have a great weeks!
Love
Elder Michael Gadberry
Pictures
234 -- My favorite political campaign here for no reason whatsoever. All the campaigns drive around blasting re-makes of popular songs to make you wanna vote for them. It's pretty crazy and different than America
235 -- That's like the Philippines original White House.. We walk by it at least twice a day.
236 -- Airplanes fly over us allllll the time. A constant reminder of what ultimately will come to pass
April 27, 2013 E-Mail!
Well the countdown continues to countdown unfortunately.. haha
Yeah here in the Philippines you have to go to church four times in a row in order to be baptized. If we could just baptized people after one week we'd have like well over ten baptisms here in this area already.. haha But because of that very fact, they created a rule here that you have to go to church four times in a row before you can get baptized.
Hmm.. I don't really know what to talk about.. so I'll start by telling you about my pictures. So the first half of them is quite the story. So Monday night we were planning I believe.. no I think we were just cleaning up the house at this point and we heard like a noise of something falling outside the apartment. We went and looked what it was and this chicken comes running in the house! We're like uhh.. there's a chicken in the house..? Seriously? So then we got our camera's on video mode and chased the chicken around the house. haha It was pretty funny. The video is too big to send home unfortunately. We chased him outside but then he came running back in! We were like seriously?? So then we chased him some more until he found himself a nice cozy place he liked under the stairs. So of course we didn't dare touch him cuz Napoleon Dynamite warned us that chickens have large talons. So then for a while we kept cleaning. After a while I was like okay seriously we gotta get this chicken out of the house. So we tried feeding him. We couldn't figure out what exactly chickens eat.. so we gave him bread cuz everything eats bread. haha He actually ate some of it! Oh and we named him Clyde. So i lured him out of his spot with the bread and just by getting too close to him. So then I got him over towards the door but he just wouldn't go out! So we're at a pickle again... Finally being the manly man that I am. I start being nice to the chicken and he lets me touch him and pet him and stuff. So we're like friends now at this point. Then I pull the backstabber move and grab him and pick him up and place him outside. We even made him a little bed out of cardboard with bread.. but he still kept trying to wander in. So finally we stuck him outside and closed the door (we usually keep the door open to get air so we don't die of heat). He then slept the whole night on our huge cardboard box that we use as a trash can out in front of our house.
Another set of pictures was at our National Day of Service! It was pretty legit. We had to get up at like 4:30 to do it though and then when we got back we were full of appointments so we didn't get to rest at all. But we helped build houses at this relocation place for squatters. It's supposed to be really cheap houses for people that currently make their houses out of scraps of wood and aluminum roofing and cardboard. So that was a lot of fun! We made cement by hand and that's cool! But kinda hard! But then I had to give a talk the next day in sacrament meeting and I was able to compare what we did at service to missionary work and it went pretty well! I'm still not a fan though of talking in front of people.. but whatev.
In other news, I had two baptismal interviews! It was pretty funny and like different than any other interview I've had. They we two young girls, like primary age. The first one was super shy, and ended up being afraid of water.. haha I said, "so do you feel like you're ready for baptism?" "No." "Huh? Why?? Do you want to be baptized?" "No." I was like huh?? what do I do here?? So it turns out she was just afraid of water.. hahaha So I helped explain that to her and she passed the interview. The second one started crying before I even shook her hand! Apparently, she has like a fear of white people, and especially ones with blue eyes... which my companion has.. haha So finally she got the courage to do the interview and it went super well! So then the next day, I get a text from the sisters in their area and they're like what'd you do to the kids?? They love you! They keep asking about you and want you to baptize them.. haha So I consider that a successful turn around. haha
So that's kinda all I can think of ... i'm running out of time cuz I was looking for material for my district meeting tomorrow. So I hope you have have a great week though! Keep being awesome!
Love
Elder Michael Gadberry
Yeah here in the Philippines you have to go to church four times in a row in order to be baptized. If we could just baptized people after one week we'd have like well over ten baptisms here in this area already.. haha But because of that very fact, they created a rule here that you have to go to church four times in a row before you can get baptized.
Hmm.. I don't really know what to talk about.. so I'll start by telling you about my pictures. So the first half of them is quite the story. So Monday night we were planning I believe.. no I think we were just cleaning up the house at this point and we heard like a noise of something falling outside the apartment. We went and looked what it was and this chicken comes running in the house! We're like uhh.. there's a chicken in the house..? Seriously? So then we got our camera's on video mode and chased the chicken around the house. haha It was pretty funny. The video is too big to send home unfortunately. We chased him outside but then he came running back in! We were like seriously?? So then we chased him some more until he found himself a nice cozy place he liked under the stairs. So of course we didn't dare touch him cuz Napoleon Dynamite warned us that chickens have large talons. So then for a while we kept cleaning. After a while I was like okay seriously we gotta get this chicken out of the house. So we tried feeding him. We couldn't figure out what exactly chickens eat.. so we gave him bread cuz everything eats bread. haha He actually ate some of it! Oh and we named him Clyde. So i lured him out of his spot with the bread and just by getting too close to him. So then I got him over towards the door but he just wouldn't go out! So we're at a pickle again... Finally being the manly man that I am. I start being nice to the chicken and he lets me touch him and pet him and stuff. So we're like friends now at this point. Then I pull the backstabber move and grab him and pick him up and place him outside. We even made him a little bed out of cardboard with bread.. but he still kept trying to wander in. So finally we stuck him outside and closed the door (we usually keep the door open to get air so we don't die of heat). He then slept the whole night on our huge cardboard box that we use as a trash can out in front of our house.
Another set of pictures was at our National Day of Service! It was pretty legit. We had to get up at like 4:30 to do it though and then when we got back we were full of appointments so we didn't get to rest at all. But we helped build houses at this relocation place for squatters. It's supposed to be really cheap houses for people that currently make their houses out of scraps of wood and aluminum roofing and cardboard. So that was a lot of fun! We made cement by hand and that's cool! But kinda hard! But then I had to give a talk the next day in sacrament meeting and I was able to compare what we did at service to missionary work and it went pretty well! I'm still not a fan though of talking in front of people.. but whatev.
In other news, I had two baptismal interviews! It was pretty funny and like different than any other interview I've had. They we two young girls, like primary age. The first one was super shy, and ended up being afraid of water.. haha I said, "so do you feel like you're ready for baptism?" "No." "Huh? Why?? Do you want to be baptized?" "No." I was like huh?? what do I do here?? So it turns out she was just afraid of water.. hahaha So I helped explain that to her and she passed the interview. The second one started crying before I even shook her hand! Apparently, she has like a fear of white people, and especially ones with blue eyes... which my companion has.. haha So finally she got the courage to do the interview and it went super well! So then the next day, I get a text from the sisters in their area and they're like what'd you do to the kids?? They love you! They keep asking about you and want you to baptize them.. haha So I consider that a successful turn around. haha
So that's kinda all I can think of ... i'm running out of time cuz I was looking for material for my district meeting tomorrow. So I hope you have have a great week though! Keep being awesome!
Love
Elder Michael Gadberry
April 20, 2013 E-mail!
Well, How's it going everyone? I assume everyone is anxiously awaiting my return home...
haha just kidding. but it's getting closer. lame.
So this past week has been a really good one too! As always!�
So anything happen with transfers?
Umm..nope. Most everything stayed the same. I got one new sister in my district but she was in my zone in San Gab for a transfer so I kinda already know her already. Elder Handy and Elder Jensen stayed as our ZLs and I think half the other district transferred. It's kinda funny cuz me and my companion and Elder Handy and Elder Jensen are the only americans now in the zone, so that's pretty fun.
Did you have investigators make it to church this week?
So that's the bad news. We had one. Which means we're not going to have any baptisms before I go home..but it's all good. We're working super hard and we saw a lot of progression in some of our investigators but to our great surprise they didn't make it to church.. I was thinking about it and I was kinda like ugh.. I can't wait till I get home and I don't feel guilty every time people don't come to church.. But then I was thinking about the Savior and I was like the Savior's done every thing he's possibly can to bring Salvation to everyone but still the majority of the people in the world don't really care. I figure I don't have too much to complain about when looked at from that perspective. Oh well. A couple of scriptures I read that kinda helped here Jacob 5:41,46-47 and Alma 32:38-39.
Okay first things first, I must tell you of .......... the aswang. haha It's a Filipino mythical beast much like a vampire, but like they seriously believe in it. So on Tuesday we were sitting down with investigators and they told me all about it. So this is what I gathered. The aswang is half-man, half-bird. He eats people and especially enjoys the sick and pregnant. He's on duty from 6pm to 4am. He also has the ability to shift into other animals like dogs bigger than a man. But normally he's just normal man size. During the day he's just a man, but changes at night. His weaknesses are essentially those that of your average mythological vampire. So with that said... you guys should all watch out for the aswangs.
In other news, it was sooooooooooo hot this week.
Now let's turn the time over to Elder Gadberry for a report on our food for the week. So.. Wednesday on our morning jog.. we saw a guy carrying a dead dog by it's hind legs in one hand a big long knife in the other hand. Yeah.. I'm pretty sure he was about to make him some breakfast. In other cooking news, I started cooking hotdogs with onions and garlic and then with the taters too and it's super beast. Then one time we ate at this crazy fancy japanese sushi place that was a buffet. It was pretty legit cuz they also had allll kinds of meat and your table had a grill in the middle and you cook your own meat and it was all you can eat and super good. #IDidntEatSushi
Okay and one more story! About a couple Crunch bars..haha So we went to the doctor for Elder Phillips and when we were buying medicine later we ran into this really nice Couple Missionaries from Hawaii. As we were heading out the door the sister gave us each a hundred pesos to buy us some candy! Score! So I went and bought two Crunch bars. So then we were off. We got a taxi and headed back to the office to get reimbursed for Elder Phillip's meds. So the taxi driver that gave us a ride back was super nice and we talked the whole way to the office. As we got out, I was like can we leave you with a book that you can read? He's like yeah sure! So I gave him a Book of Mormon with our names and numbers and then I was like you like chocolate?? He's like yeah! So I was like here take this. And he was pumped! (That's the new game plan give out candy with the book of mormon.. haha). So I lost one Crunch there. Then as we walked into the office I was like I gotta hook Sister D up. Sister D! Here I got you some candy! And then I was down to none. . . . The moral of the story? I shoulda bought three Crunch bars. hahaha But I learned a couple things actually from that experience. 1. Because that one sister was nice to me, I wanted to be nice to everyone else. Simple acts of kindness spread. and 2. Those candy bars were gifts per say. If we look at those like gifts from God, I believe that all gifts from God are given to us not to benefit us, but to benefit others. So when we're nice, when we share, we are doing what God would want us to do. We are "playing nicely with our brothers and sisters." And like every Earthly parent, of course our Father in Heaven is overjoyed when we too are kind to our brothers and sisters.�
But now I gotta get rollin! I don't have too much more to add! Hope you guys have a great week!�
Love
Elder Gadberry
Pictures
The Japanese place
My delicious hotdogs
Sunset�
haha just kidding. but it's getting closer. lame.
So this past week has been a really good one too! As always!�
So anything happen with transfers?
Umm..nope. Most everything stayed the same. I got one new sister in my district but she was in my zone in San Gab for a transfer so I kinda already know her already. Elder Handy and Elder Jensen stayed as our ZLs and I think half the other district transferred. It's kinda funny cuz me and my companion and Elder Handy and Elder Jensen are the only americans now in the zone, so that's pretty fun.
Did you have investigators make it to church this week?
So that's the bad news. We had one. Which means we're not going to have any baptisms before I go home..but it's all good. We're working super hard and we saw a lot of progression in some of our investigators but to our great surprise they didn't make it to church.. I was thinking about it and I was kinda like ugh.. I can't wait till I get home and I don't feel guilty every time people don't come to church.. But then I was thinking about the Savior and I was like the Savior's done every thing he's possibly can to bring Salvation to everyone but still the majority of the people in the world don't really care. I figure I don't have too much to complain about when looked at from that perspective. Oh well. A couple of scriptures I read that kinda helped here Jacob 5:41,46-47 and Alma 32:38-39.
Okay first things first, I must tell you of .......... the aswang. haha It's a Filipino mythical beast much like a vampire, but like they seriously believe in it. So on Tuesday we were sitting down with investigators and they told me all about it. So this is what I gathered. The aswang is half-man, half-bird. He eats people and especially enjoys the sick and pregnant. He's on duty from 6pm to 4am. He also has the ability to shift into other animals like dogs bigger than a man. But normally he's just normal man size. During the day he's just a man, but changes at night. His weaknesses are essentially those that of your average mythological vampire. So with that said... you guys should all watch out for the aswangs.
In other news, it was sooooooooooo hot this week.
Now let's turn the time over to Elder Gadberry for a report on our food for the week. So.. Wednesday on our morning jog.. we saw a guy carrying a dead dog by it's hind legs in one hand a big long knife in the other hand. Yeah.. I'm pretty sure he was about to make him some breakfast. In other cooking news, I started cooking hotdogs with onions and garlic and then with the taters too and it's super beast. Then one time we ate at this crazy fancy japanese sushi place that was a buffet. It was pretty legit cuz they also had allll kinds of meat and your table had a grill in the middle and you cook your own meat and it was all you can eat and super good. #IDidntEatSushi
Okay and one more story! About a couple Crunch bars..haha So we went to the doctor for Elder Phillips and when we were buying medicine later we ran into this really nice Couple Missionaries from Hawaii. As we were heading out the door the sister gave us each a hundred pesos to buy us some candy! Score! So I went and bought two Crunch bars. So then we were off. We got a taxi and headed back to the office to get reimbursed for Elder Phillip's meds. So the taxi driver that gave us a ride back was super nice and we talked the whole way to the office. As we got out, I was like can we leave you with a book that you can read? He's like yeah sure! So I gave him a Book of Mormon with our names and numbers and then I was like you like chocolate?? He's like yeah! So I was like here take this. And he was pumped! (That's the new game plan give out candy with the book of mormon.. haha). So I lost one Crunch there. Then as we walked into the office I was like I gotta hook Sister D up. Sister D! Here I got you some candy! And then I was down to none. . . . The moral of the story? I shoulda bought three Crunch bars. hahaha But I learned a couple things actually from that experience. 1. Because that one sister was nice to me, I wanted to be nice to everyone else. Simple acts of kindness spread. and 2. Those candy bars were gifts per say. If we look at those like gifts from God, I believe that all gifts from God are given to us not to benefit us, but to benefit others. So when we're nice, when we share, we are doing what God would want us to do. We are "playing nicely with our brothers and sisters." And like every Earthly parent, of course our Father in Heaven is overjoyed when we too are kind to our brothers and sisters.�
But now I gotta get rollin! I don't have too much more to add! Hope you guys have a great week!�
Love
Elder Gadberry
Pictures
The Japanese place
My delicious hotdogs
Sunset�
April 13, 2013 E-Mail!
And just like that another week passes by... lame.
Extra, Extra read all about it!
--Elder Gadberry is rockin a new pair of shoes
--General Conference was beast and a half as always!
--And I forgot my journal to look at to know what to talk about!
haha We'll see what I remember...
So about what I mentioned already.. So last week we had that investigator give me those new shoes and I love him for it! Well I love him no matter what but especially for being so kinda as to offer me his shoes. Well what I didn't mention because yeah just because is that they're not the highest quality so the leather, well I'm pretty sure its not really leather, but within the first day of wearing them it started cracking and falling off and stuff.. It kinda looked like skin whenever you start peeling from the sun.. haha But anyways Mythor still rocks and a half. So I was wearing those shoes one day and we were teaching Brother Chris who is the nonmember husband of one of the members. He's always been nice and listened to the missionaries but hasn't ever committed to baptism or anything and he doesn't wanna feel like he's being forced into something. So now its finally our turn to try again.. haha So in our first visit with him we just told him that we weren't going to ask him to do anything that he doesn't wanna do or doesn't feel comfortable doing, we just challenge him to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it and thats it. We're not going to force him to go to church, we're not going to even talk about baptism. Just read the book. So now even in our return appointments there we're just going to sit down and read a chapter in the BoM with them and help him pray and get an answer if its true. But anyways after our first lesson with him. We shook hands, thanked them for their time, and headed out. We were like halfway down the road when his daughter came running and was like Elder! Tawag ka ni Momma. Which means mom's calling for you. So I was like okay... why..? Apparently after we had left brother had gone in and gotten a couple pairs of his shoes and wanted me to take one... So yeah. This guy rocks and a half too. And these shoes are doing good thus far! I'm wearing them right now. haha
And so yeah. General Conference was super cool! I loved it! Umm... Let me think about which ones I liked the best.. Starting with Priesthood session.. I really liked Tad R. Callister for some reason. I really liked how he taught that as a leader we don't shine best when we give a great lesson or when we are in the spotlight, but we really shine best when those under us per say are in the spotlight and rockin it. Pres. Uchtdorf also had two awesome talks! He mentioned in Priesthood one of the things I truly believe. That if we truly understand our relationship with God as one of His children. It will completely change our life, our actions, and how we face adversity. That was also taught by Elder Christoffel Golden Jr. on Sunday. One of my favorites was also definitely Elder Craig A Cardon's about repentance. He taught repentance in that talk as well as I've ever heard it. As always I love Elder Scott's. And of course Jeffrey R. Holland's was great as always! And I really loved Elder Erich Kopishcke's talk about being accepted of God. But it was also super important what he said about feeling accepted is really important no matter what and is a great motivating factor for people. But of course they were allll good! I sat on the edge of my chair for all five sessions eagerly taking notes. Now I'm going back over my notes and adding more thoughts and ideas and scriptures and making goals as to how I can apply stuff that stuck out to me into my life. Good stuff!
Umm.. unfortunately.. I can't remember anything else that was too exciting or funny... I wish I had my journal... haha But oh well. I at least got some pictures for you. Most of them aren't from this week cuz I just now stole them from Elder Phillips's camera.
Well, I hope you guys have a great another great week!
Love
Elder Michael Gadberry
Pictures
275 -- Me and a huge pile of clam shells.. Or at least I think they're clams..
280/281 -- One of the coolest things in our area! #TheBridge
318 -- We have a cute little dog that lives by us. We call him Adobo. . . . google adobo and then laugh.
322 -- Our bishop and his wife and daughter at first first birthday party! I'm pretty sure more people attended that than all my birthday's combined.. haha We filled up the church.
340 -- Me and Elder Jensen
341 -- Me and Elder Phillips
342 -- Me being attractive.
349 -- My district!
353 -- All the guys in our zone
366 -- Our zone
367/369 -- my district again!
Extra, Extra read all about it!
--Elder Gadberry is rockin a new pair of shoes
--General Conference was beast and a half as always!
--And I forgot my journal to look at to know what to talk about!
haha We'll see what I remember...
So about what I mentioned already.. So last week we had that investigator give me those new shoes and I love him for it! Well I love him no matter what but especially for being so kinda as to offer me his shoes. Well what I didn't mention because yeah just because is that they're not the highest quality so the leather, well I'm pretty sure its not really leather, but within the first day of wearing them it started cracking and falling off and stuff.. It kinda looked like skin whenever you start peeling from the sun.. haha But anyways Mythor still rocks and a half. So I was wearing those shoes one day and we were teaching Brother Chris who is the nonmember husband of one of the members. He's always been nice and listened to the missionaries but hasn't ever committed to baptism or anything and he doesn't wanna feel like he's being forced into something. So now its finally our turn to try again.. haha So in our first visit with him we just told him that we weren't going to ask him to do anything that he doesn't wanna do or doesn't feel comfortable doing, we just challenge him to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it and thats it. We're not going to force him to go to church, we're not going to even talk about baptism. Just read the book. So now even in our return appointments there we're just going to sit down and read a chapter in the BoM with them and help him pray and get an answer if its true. But anyways after our first lesson with him. We shook hands, thanked them for their time, and headed out. We were like halfway down the road when his daughter came running and was like Elder! Tawag ka ni Momma. Which means mom's calling for you. So I was like okay... why..? Apparently after we had left brother had gone in and gotten a couple pairs of his shoes and wanted me to take one... So yeah. This guy rocks and a half too. And these shoes are doing good thus far! I'm wearing them right now. haha
And so yeah. General Conference was super cool! I loved it! Umm... Let me think about which ones I liked the best.. Starting with Priesthood session.. I really liked Tad R. Callister for some reason. I really liked how he taught that as a leader we don't shine best when we give a great lesson or when we are in the spotlight, but we really shine best when those under us per say are in the spotlight and rockin it. Pres. Uchtdorf also had two awesome talks! He mentioned in Priesthood one of the things I truly believe. That if we truly understand our relationship with God as one of His children. It will completely change our life, our actions, and how we face adversity. That was also taught by Elder Christoffel Golden Jr. on Sunday. One of my favorites was also definitely Elder Craig A Cardon's about repentance. He taught repentance in that talk as well as I've ever heard it. As always I love Elder Scott's. And of course Jeffrey R. Holland's was great as always! And I really loved Elder Erich Kopishcke's talk about being accepted of God. But it was also super important what he said about feeling accepted is really important no matter what and is a great motivating factor for people. But of course they were allll good! I sat on the edge of my chair for all five sessions eagerly taking notes. Now I'm going back over my notes and adding more thoughts and ideas and scriptures and making goals as to how I can apply stuff that stuck out to me into my life. Good stuff!
Umm.. unfortunately.. I can't remember anything else that was too exciting or funny... I wish I had my journal... haha But oh well. I at least got some pictures for you. Most of them aren't from this week cuz I just now stole them from Elder Phillips's camera.
Well, I hope you guys have a great another great week!
Love
Elder Michael Gadberry
Pictures
275 -- Me and a huge pile of clam shells.. Or at least I think they're clams..
280/281 -- One of the coolest things in our area! #TheBridge
318 -- We have a cute little dog that lives by us. We call him Adobo. . . . google adobo and then laugh.
322 -- Our bishop and his wife and daughter at first first birthday party! I'm pretty sure more people attended that than all my birthday's combined.. haha We filled up the church.
340 -- Me and Elder Jensen
341 -- Me and Elder Phillips
342 -- Me being attractive.
349 -- My district!
353 -- All the guys in our zone
366 -- Our zone
367/369 -- my district again!
April 6, 2013 E-Mail!
Last Preparation day of my second to last transfer.
trash.
Sorry for not getting an email to you guys last week.. But my Holy Week was pretty good. Complete with a Holy Thursday but definitely a Good Friday. haha I got lots of pictures for you guys though so check those out!
So this week was pretty sweet. I'd like to begin by sharing another story about why Filipinos are like the best people ever. So I have these shoes... And they're pretty well destroyed.. But hey, "My life is like my shoes to be worn out in service." (Pres. Kimball) But anyways.. our investigator Bro Mythor. Who is legit. We've met with him like 3 times and he's already well into 2 Nephi. But he's like Elder Gadberry you're shoes are shot! (Of course I'm taking some liberty with the translation) and I was like yeah...but it's all good. I'm kinda close to going home anyways and I don't wanna buy new ones. So he's like well here take a pair of mine. (He's a fireman). I was like well what about you aren't you going to need these?? He's like nah.. take em! And I'm like no way they're yours and he's like take it its okay I've got a bunch. And then at that point his wife chimes in verifying that he has a bunch. So I'm like fine..'in the mouth of two witnesses' right?? haha And then I accept them. So I got a new pair of shoes for free! I love this guy!
Another story. So we've got this one family who's like awesome and a half. It's the family with the ancient nanay who looks like she's 120. But earlier this week they were telling us about how much they love the scriptures. They say that if they don't read a little bit of them before they go to bed they feel like something's missing and then when they do go to sleep in their little simple home where they just sleep on the floor. They always make sure that their Aklat ni Mormon is always near and it brings them peace and comfort. I loveee the beautiful simple faith of some many of the people here!
So then we have this other family who is super cool too! They're actually former investigators of Elder Hopkins so I feel super honored to teach them. And I really think this is going to be their time to get baptized! We visited them once and they were talking about even though they were never baptized they felt that they missed the church and wanted to start going to church again. So then Sunday they came to church! It was sweet! To be honest.. I'm not too sure we're going to get anyone baptized before I leave. I really hope so.. But since we've struggled getting people to church it's going to take a lot of help from the Lord for it to happen. But even if we don't I'm content cuz right now we have over twenty people that have accepted baptismal dates so at the very least I'll hopefully help set Elder Phillips up to have a bomb next couple months.
One more story about how awesome the saints are here! So Saturday night we were walking along the highway going to our next appointment when we hear "hey elders!" from behind us. Brother Macky, our 1st Counselor in the Bishopric, came riding up to us on his bike. Keep in mind this is no like road bike or anything this like the bike that you and your friends rode around the neighborhood before you were big enough to ride a mountain bike that had all the fancy gears and stuff. haha He told us that he just got done with overtime at work, which is considerable distance away from where we met him, and that he was late for PEC, which is on the other side of Kawit. It's about 7pm now and PEC started at 6:30 and he's going straight there from work no break no dinner no nothin. What a stud. And this is after he spent his Thursday evening working with us and helping us teach the family I mentioned above that Elder Hopkins started teaching.
In other news....
We were invited to the birthday party for this nanay investigator of ours who's daughter is a member. So I was like Nay! How old are you going to be?? She's like 83! I was like wow! Nice! And then her katulong helper person was like Nay! You're only turning 78! You're not 83 yet.. haha So then We showed up at their house on her birthday and I was like Happy Birthday Nay! She's like thanks! I turn 83 today! ....I guess she hadn't read the big hugetarpaulin on their well that said "Happy 78th Birthday Nanay Bising!" ....#OldPeople hahaha =D
Another funny one was when we taught this other less-active family. So we just got done teaching about faith and all the different aspects of it and what true faith is. With a special focus on acting! Faith AND works! So yeah it went pretty good! So we go, "So do you guys have any questions?" Brother Mike then comes up with a good one! One I don't think I've ever heard before or will ever hear again.. "So what can you say about people getting struck down with lightning from above?" Thankfully his mother who's like 70 had the answer to that question. "You dummy. That's not lightning from God it's coming from the clouds!" "Well that's still above," Mike argued. And with that Mom was silenced. "So umm.. thanks for your time.. We'll drop by again next week.... but umm.. before we go can we maybe say a prayer? (that we don't get struck down by lightning... haha just kidding)"
My mission rocks.
Love
Elder Michael Gadberry
Pictures
174 -- View on a Mini-Bus
178/181 -- Sweet sunset!
183 -- Playing with my camera before ballin this morning.
trash.
Sorry for not getting an email to you guys last week.. But my Holy Week was pretty good. Complete with a Holy Thursday but definitely a Good Friday. haha I got lots of pictures for you guys though so check those out!
So this week was pretty sweet. I'd like to begin by sharing another story about why Filipinos are like the best people ever. So I have these shoes... And they're pretty well destroyed.. But hey, "My life is like my shoes to be worn out in service." (Pres. Kimball) But anyways.. our investigator Bro Mythor. Who is legit. We've met with him like 3 times and he's already well into 2 Nephi. But he's like Elder Gadberry you're shoes are shot! (Of course I'm taking some liberty with the translation) and I was like yeah...but it's all good. I'm kinda close to going home anyways and I don't wanna buy new ones. So he's like well here take a pair of mine. (He's a fireman). I was like well what about you aren't you going to need these?? He's like nah.. take em! And I'm like no way they're yours and he's like take it its okay I've got a bunch. And then at that point his wife chimes in verifying that he has a bunch. So I'm like fine..'in the mouth of two witnesses' right?? haha And then I accept them. So I got a new pair of shoes for free! I love this guy!
Another story. So we've got this one family who's like awesome and a half. It's the family with the ancient nanay who looks like she's 120. But earlier this week they were telling us about how much they love the scriptures. They say that if they don't read a little bit of them before they go to bed they feel like something's missing and then when they do go to sleep in their little simple home where they just sleep on the floor. They always make sure that their Aklat ni Mormon is always near and it brings them peace and comfort. I loveee the beautiful simple faith of some many of the people here!
So then we have this other family who is super cool too! They're actually former investigators of Elder Hopkins so I feel super honored to teach them. And I really think this is going to be their time to get baptized! We visited them once and they were talking about even though they were never baptized they felt that they missed the church and wanted to start going to church again. So then Sunday they came to church! It was sweet! To be honest.. I'm not too sure we're going to get anyone baptized before I leave. I really hope so.. But since we've struggled getting people to church it's going to take a lot of help from the Lord for it to happen. But even if we don't I'm content cuz right now we have over twenty people that have accepted baptismal dates so at the very least I'll hopefully help set Elder Phillips up to have a bomb next couple months.
One more story about how awesome the saints are here! So Saturday night we were walking along the highway going to our next appointment when we hear "hey elders!" from behind us. Brother Macky, our 1st Counselor in the Bishopric, came riding up to us on his bike. Keep in mind this is no like road bike or anything this like the bike that you and your friends rode around the neighborhood before you were big enough to ride a mountain bike that had all the fancy gears and stuff. haha He told us that he just got done with overtime at work, which is considerable distance away from where we met him, and that he was late for PEC, which is on the other side of Kawit. It's about 7pm now and PEC started at 6:30 and he's going straight there from work no break no dinner no nothin. What a stud. And this is after he spent his Thursday evening working with us and helping us teach the family I mentioned above that Elder Hopkins started teaching.
In other news....
We were invited to the birthday party for this nanay investigator of ours who's daughter is a member. So I was like Nay! How old are you going to be?? She's like 83! I was like wow! Nice! And then her katulong helper person was like Nay! You're only turning 78! You're not 83 yet.. haha So then We showed up at their house on her birthday and I was like Happy Birthday Nay! She's like thanks! I turn 83 today! ....I guess she hadn't read the big hugetarpaulin on their well that said "Happy 78th Birthday Nanay Bising!" ....#OldPeople hahaha =D
Another funny one was when we taught this other less-active family. So we just got done teaching about faith and all the different aspects of it and what true faith is. With a special focus on acting! Faith AND works! So yeah it went pretty good! So we go, "So do you guys have any questions?" Brother Mike then comes up with a good one! One I don't think I've ever heard before or will ever hear again.. "So what can you say about people getting struck down with lightning from above?" Thankfully his mother who's like 70 had the answer to that question. "You dummy. That's not lightning from God it's coming from the clouds!" "Well that's still above," Mike argued. And with that Mom was silenced. "So umm.. thanks for your time.. We'll drop by again next week.... but umm.. before we go can we maybe say a prayer? (that we don't get struck down by lightning... haha just kidding)"
My mission rocks.
Love
Elder Michael Gadberry
Pictures
174 -- View on a Mini-Bus
178/181 -- Sweet sunset!
183 -- Playing with my camera before ballin this morning.
March 25, 2013 E-Mail!
Hey everyone!
How goes it?? Over here life is great! We had a very good but interesting and different week this week. But hey you know I loved it! haha
So is your companion a sickly person or just having trouble in a foreign country?
I think its just the adjustment.. you know those utah boys... They haven't had a lick of humidity their whole lives.. hahaha But yeah he's pretty much adjusted now and has improved a lot and is doing really great!
So what kind of reaction have the Catholics had concerning the new Pope? The Philippines is a pretty Catholic country, right?
Umm.. to be honest I haven't heard too much more than that the Pope resigned. . . .which is kinda unexpected.. But umm I know its on the news and stuff but hey surprise! We don't watch tv... haha So I don't know too much. But yes the Philippines is mostly Catholic. This week is Holy Week so everyone's just going to party all week and yeah we'll see what its like out here cuz last Holy Week I was in the office and it was super weird cuz Makati the business central of the Philippines turned into a complete ghost town and it was kinda freaky.. but super nice for driving! haha So I don't know if we're going to have a Holy Week (in that everyone is too busy partying to listen to us) or a Holy Week! meaning that this week goes crazy! you have to say it like you would say holy cow except replace cow for week... But anyways that's the kinda week we're going to have fa sho!
So this week was funny..
Monday was preparation day! Nothing too excited or out of the ordinary..
Tuesday was like a regular day. We had district meeting and stuff. But we did have something pretty cool happen on Tuesday.. So on Monday evening we felt like we should visit Jonathan a guy that we've taught once and every time we've gone back he's "busy" but says "come back again another day!" So we go by there every once and a while cuz it doesn't really hurt anything. So we wrote him in our plans. Upon returning from district meeting we were walking back home and we saw on of our members here in Kawit. She was like Elders! Do you know where Sister Connie lives? I was like "No! We've been looking for her house for like three weeks now and haven't found it!" So she said that she had talked to her and explained to us where her house was. Our schedule was pretty full but we said that we'd try to go there if we had time. So our first appointment was Jonathan and I was like well we know if Jonathan falls through we were supposed to visit Sister Connie all along. Sure enough that's what happened! haha So we go find Sister Connie and she's super nice and awesome but kinda less active.. haha But mostly because she has to take care of her mom who is 92 turning 93 in May... She looks like she's 115. hahaha But the ancient of days complained to whole time about all the pain she was in and that she wanted to die and stuff like that.. it was kinda distracting cuz she was like wailing this.. but Sister Connie says that she's not actually in pain cuz they've taken her to the doctor and they say that nothing is really wrong with her just the classic old people stuff and arthritis and what not.(I can't wait until he becomes 'old people') But I've got a story about her later this week... But anyways apparently Connie had prayed the night before wondering why the elders never visit her and requesting that we visit. So that's the whole story! You see how like crazy that is but simple! The Lord is crazy! On our end we felt to visit Jonathan, someone who would probably fall through but lives really close to Connie. Then our member friend played a big role too because she saw Connie earlier that day and knew that she was wondering about the elders and then she just "happened" to be on the road when we were heading home and could tell us where Connie lives. The Lord answers prayers!
Wednesday Elder Phillips spent the day in General Trias while Elder Declaro and I went to Makati for an essentially all day leadership training thingy. It went pretty good. I had been asked to teach our missionaries how to have an effective district meeting and I think that that went okay but who knows.. haha
Then Thursday I went back to Makati for a follow training meeting on trainers and trainees in the 12 week program and so that was another pretty cool meeting. I actually enjoy attending meetings now.. I like learning, its cool! And so then afterwards we got some food with some of the missionaries and headed off to the temple. So we got to go to the temple and then we headed back home and passed out.
Then Friday yup... we went BACK to Manila again! This time because Elder Phillips had a doctors appointment.. So that went okay as well but I had to spend a ton of money on travel this week... ugh. But at least Friday we got back in time to get a few appointments in, but then after that we traveled again to Rosario this time to sleep there cuz we were going to help our Zone Leaders move Saturday morning.
So Saturday finally. We help the ZLs move and that took forever and a half.. haha Then I'm like over an hour late for baptismal interviews in Cavite City.. But they were patient and waited. So we headed over there and by the time we were done there we finally get back to Kawit at 8 just in time for one appointment and so we do that and pass out. haha
Ayan.. and now its Sunday. and hey! it was normal! woo! haha So we followed up with Sister Connie again and it was strangely quiet at their house.. So I was like how's nanay doing? And she's like "you know elder.. she said she got better! She said Tuesday when you guys were here and you went and sat down on the couch with her she said that she felt air enter her body again and later that night she was like 'salamat sa diyos! Nakakagaling yung dalawa na yun...' (ask me to do my ancient nanay voice when I got home cuz its pretty funny but sounds just like her)." But anyways there she said essentially, "thank god! Those two healed me!" So I was like whoa! That's pretty crazy but pretty cool for sure!
And then we finished Sunday and now I'm here writing you guys.
In other news.... I decided that I'm mature now.
I just spend two hours with Elder Paddock trying to figure out how to put a dead bolt in the door... and it was interesting! haha #I'mABigBoyNow
Well.. I'mma get running. Hope you guys have a holy week! haha
Ingatz!
Elder Michael Gadberry
How goes it?? Over here life is great! We had a very good but interesting and different week this week. But hey you know I loved it! haha
So is your companion a sickly person or just having trouble in a foreign country?
I think its just the adjustment.. you know those utah boys... They haven't had a lick of humidity their whole lives.. hahaha But yeah he's pretty much adjusted now and has improved a lot and is doing really great!
So what kind of reaction have the Catholics had concerning the new Pope? The Philippines is a pretty Catholic country, right?
Umm.. to be honest I haven't heard too much more than that the Pope resigned. . . .which is kinda unexpected.. But umm I know its on the news and stuff but hey surprise! We don't watch tv... haha So I don't know too much. But yes the Philippines is mostly Catholic. This week is Holy Week so everyone's just going to party all week and yeah we'll see what its like out here cuz last Holy Week I was in the office and it was super weird cuz Makati the business central of the Philippines turned into a complete ghost town and it was kinda freaky.. but super nice for driving! haha So I don't know if we're going to have a Holy Week (in that everyone is too busy partying to listen to us) or a Holy Week! meaning that this week goes crazy! you have to say it like you would say holy cow except replace cow for week... But anyways that's the kinda week we're going to have fa sho!
So this week was funny..
Monday was preparation day! Nothing too excited or out of the ordinary..
Tuesday was like a regular day. We had district meeting and stuff. But we did have something pretty cool happen on Tuesday.. So on Monday evening we felt like we should visit Jonathan a guy that we've taught once and every time we've gone back he's "busy" but says "come back again another day!" So we go by there every once and a while cuz it doesn't really hurt anything. So we wrote him in our plans. Upon returning from district meeting we were walking back home and we saw on of our members here in Kawit. She was like Elders! Do you know where Sister Connie lives? I was like "No! We've been looking for her house for like three weeks now and haven't found it!" So she said that she had talked to her and explained to us where her house was. Our schedule was pretty full but we said that we'd try to go there if we had time. So our first appointment was Jonathan and I was like well we know if Jonathan falls through we were supposed to visit Sister Connie all along. Sure enough that's what happened! haha So we go find Sister Connie and she's super nice and awesome but kinda less active.. haha But mostly because she has to take care of her mom who is 92 turning 93 in May... She looks like she's 115. hahaha But the ancient of days complained to whole time about all the pain she was in and that she wanted to die and stuff like that.. it was kinda distracting cuz she was like wailing this.. but Sister Connie says that she's not actually in pain cuz they've taken her to the doctor and they say that nothing is really wrong with her just the classic old people stuff and arthritis and what not.(I can't wait until he becomes 'old people') But I've got a story about her later this week... But anyways apparently Connie had prayed the night before wondering why the elders never visit her and requesting that we visit. So that's the whole story! You see how like crazy that is but simple! The Lord is crazy! On our end we felt to visit Jonathan, someone who would probably fall through but lives really close to Connie. Then our member friend played a big role too because she saw Connie earlier that day and knew that she was wondering about the elders and then she just "happened" to be on the road when we were heading home and could tell us where Connie lives. The Lord answers prayers!
Wednesday Elder Phillips spent the day in General Trias while Elder Declaro and I went to Makati for an essentially all day leadership training thingy. It went pretty good. I had been asked to teach our missionaries how to have an effective district meeting and I think that that went okay but who knows.. haha
Then Thursday I went back to Makati for a follow training meeting on trainers and trainees in the 12 week program and so that was another pretty cool meeting. I actually enjoy attending meetings now.. I like learning, its cool! And so then afterwards we got some food with some of the missionaries and headed off to the temple. So we got to go to the temple and then we headed back home and passed out.
Then Friday yup... we went BACK to Manila again! This time because Elder Phillips had a doctors appointment.. So that went okay as well but I had to spend a ton of money on travel this week... ugh. But at least Friday we got back in time to get a few appointments in, but then after that we traveled again to Rosario this time to sleep there cuz we were going to help our Zone Leaders move Saturday morning.
So Saturday finally. We help the ZLs move and that took forever and a half.. haha Then I'm like over an hour late for baptismal interviews in Cavite City.. But they were patient and waited. So we headed over there and by the time we were done there we finally get back to Kawit at 8 just in time for one appointment and so we do that and pass out. haha
Ayan.. and now its Sunday. and hey! it was normal! woo! haha So we followed up with Sister Connie again and it was strangely quiet at their house.. So I was like how's nanay doing? And she's like "you know elder.. she said she got better! She said Tuesday when you guys were here and you went and sat down on the couch with her she said that she felt air enter her body again and later that night she was like 'salamat sa diyos! Nakakagaling yung dalawa na yun...' (ask me to do my ancient nanay voice when I got home cuz its pretty funny but sounds just like her)." But anyways there she said essentially, "thank god! Those two healed me!" So I was like whoa! That's pretty crazy but pretty cool for sure!
And then we finished Sunday and now I'm here writing you guys.
In other news.... I decided that I'm mature now.
I just spend two hours with Elder Paddock trying to figure out how to put a dead bolt in the door... and it was interesting! haha #I'mABigBoyNow
Well.. I'mma get running. Hope you guys have a holy week! haha
Ingatz!
Elder Michael Gadberry
March 18, 2013 E-Mail!
Hey everyone!
Life's going great here! We finally had investigators that came to church!!! haha
My parents made a comment about how legit that church was, so I figured I ought to let you know that that isn't actually where we go to church that was a different branch back in the san gabriel zone.. But it is super legit! Maybe I'll send you guys a picture of our building next time if I remember.
How is Elder Phillips feeling/doing as a new missionary in the Philippines?
He's doing really good now. He's starting to love it. But he still has been healthy like a total of 3 days so far this transfer.. haha by the end of the day he's usually just trying to get home cuz he's starting to feel like trash. But he's a really good missionary. I've already had him starting to lead us in like everything even though he's still trying to get a hang of the language but even then he can at least lead planning and study and finding and even at least start the lessons and what not so he's a stud. (he's from Logan, Ut)
Okay so I'll follow the pattern of telling you guys all about one of our days cuz I got too much to say about everything else.. so today's day is Wednesday!
It started with an awesome study.. as always. This week I realized that I really like studying... that's weird. haha I guess that will be good for when I get back to school in a few months considering studying was one of my weakest points there.. haha But I studied an old talk about Elder Faust called "A Personal Relationship with the Savior" and that was super good! You guys should read it if you get a chance.
Then in companionship study we're in this thing called the 12 week program which is a training program for new missionaries. Matt will know that here in not too long (shout out to Matt Wells who is leaving for his mission next week, YEA Matt!!). So with that we were studying about teaching people, not lessons and so we talked a lot about listening. Which is like the coolest part of missionary work! I love listening it's like seriously the most important part. Even if you're speaking a foreign language if you just listen with love.. things will work out. (see my experience approximately 18 months ago... haha).
So after that and lunch and language study we headed out to work. So this guy named Ven-ven was supposed to work with us, but never showed up... lame. but it's whatev we went on anyways. Our first appointment was with Jeanette and Kathy a couple pretty new investigators. It was awesome cuz they had like a ton of questions and like seriously they were all answered by the Restoration. Like why are there so many churches? What's the difference between the Book of Mormon and Bible? Why are there a bunch of different Bibles? What's the difference between Mormons and Catholics? But like the best question they asked was 1. Can we read the Book of Mormon?? and 2. Can we go to church so we can see what you guys do there?? So yeah.. that lesson was fun. Unfortunately I got pretty excited at the fact that the Restoration answered all their questions that I kinda hogged the lesson.. But it went awesome!
After that we went to three more appointments that actually fell through.. haha Such is life sometimes as a missionary but of course you never get discouraged just talk to people and do what you can.
So then we went and bought a cake! It was the birthday of one of our investigators so we surprised her with cake! It was pretty funny cuz the cake comes in this big bright yellow box... so we were like uhh.. paano ito.. or like uhh how are we going to do this cuz we don't want it to be super obvious that we're walking around the Philippines with a cake.. haha So the cake didn't fit in anything that we had at the house so I had to empty out my backpack and it actually fit in there! But not completely.. haha plus of course you can't wear the backpack or else the cake will get squished so I had to walk awkwardly to our next appointment with a big ol cake in my backpack carrying it in front of me as if I'm delivering a pizza.. haha But all is well we made it to the appointment safely and not too terribly awkwardly.. haha So we tought a lesson on enduring to the end cuz that's where we were in the lessons and so I geniusly used the example that we told them that if they "endure" till the end of the lesson there will be cake.. But the cake�heavenly�father has in store for us if we endure to the end as A LOT better than the cake we brought.. haha They thought that that was pretty funny.. haha So then we ate the cake and took pictures and it was awesome. It turns out that Wynbie who turned 22.. that this is her first birthday cake ever so she was pretty happy about that and it made us feel all nice and warm and tingly inside... hahaha
So then after that we went to this new investigator family. The daughter is a friend of a member family and is really interested but she says her family isn't ready. So with that in mind I tried to figure out what they really wanted to learn from us because they readily welcomed us in and willingly listened. So I asked the mom if she wanted to know more about mormons and the church and the book or mormon or if she was more interested in learning more about god's plan for them and where we came from, why we're here, and where we are going. and so she chose the second so we're going to teach them more about the Plan of Salvation and hopefully teaching according to their interests and desires will prove to be effective with them. We'll see!
Then we headed home and planned and I wrote in my journal and then we called it a night! So it was an awesome day! I love doing missionary work!�
Hope you all have a great week! Thanks for all your support and just for being who you are!�
Love
Elder Michael Gadberry
Life's going great here! We finally had investigators that came to church!!! haha
My parents made a comment about how legit that church was, so I figured I ought to let you know that that isn't actually where we go to church that was a different branch back in the san gabriel zone.. But it is super legit! Maybe I'll send you guys a picture of our building next time if I remember.
How is Elder Phillips feeling/doing as a new missionary in the Philippines?
He's doing really good now. He's starting to love it. But he still has been healthy like a total of 3 days so far this transfer.. haha by the end of the day he's usually just trying to get home cuz he's starting to feel like trash. But he's a really good missionary. I've already had him starting to lead us in like everything even though he's still trying to get a hang of the language but even then he can at least lead planning and study and finding and even at least start the lessons and what not so he's a stud. (he's from Logan, Ut)
Okay so I'll follow the pattern of telling you guys all about one of our days cuz I got too much to say about everything else.. so today's day is Wednesday!
It started with an awesome study.. as always. This week I realized that I really like studying... that's weird. haha I guess that will be good for when I get back to school in a few months considering studying was one of my weakest points there.. haha But I studied an old talk about Elder Faust called "A Personal Relationship with the Savior" and that was super good! You guys should read it if you get a chance.
Then in companionship study we're in this thing called the 12 week program which is a training program for new missionaries. Matt will know that here in not too long (shout out to Matt Wells who is leaving for his mission next week, YEA Matt!!). So with that we were studying about teaching people, not lessons and so we talked a lot about listening. Which is like the coolest part of missionary work! I love listening it's like seriously the most important part. Even if you're speaking a foreign language if you just listen with love.. things will work out. (see my experience approximately 18 months ago... haha).
So after that and lunch and language study we headed out to work. So this guy named Ven-ven was supposed to work with us, but never showed up... lame. but it's whatev we went on anyways. Our first appointment was with Jeanette and Kathy a couple pretty new investigators. It was awesome cuz they had like a ton of questions and like seriously they were all answered by the Restoration. Like why are there so many churches? What's the difference between the Book of Mormon and Bible? Why are there a bunch of different Bibles? What's the difference between Mormons and Catholics? But like the best question they asked was 1. Can we read the Book of Mormon?? and 2. Can we go to church so we can see what you guys do there?? So yeah.. that lesson was fun. Unfortunately I got pretty excited at the fact that the Restoration answered all their questions that I kinda hogged the lesson.. But it went awesome!
After that we went to three more appointments that actually fell through.. haha Such is life sometimes as a missionary but of course you never get discouraged just talk to people and do what you can.
So then we went and bought a cake! It was the birthday of one of our investigators so we surprised her with cake! It was pretty funny cuz the cake comes in this big bright yellow box... so we were like uhh.. paano ito.. or like uhh how are we going to do this cuz we don't want it to be super obvious that we're walking around the Philippines with a cake.. haha So the cake didn't fit in anything that we had at the house so I had to empty out my backpack and it actually fit in there! But not completely.. haha plus of course you can't wear the backpack or else the cake will get squished so I had to walk awkwardly to our next appointment with a big ol cake in my backpack carrying it in front of me as if I'm delivering a pizza.. haha But all is well we made it to the appointment safely and not too terribly awkwardly.. haha So we tought a lesson on enduring to the end cuz that's where we were in the lessons and so I geniusly used the example that we told them that if they "endure" till the end of the lesson there will be cake.. But the cake�heavenly�father has in store for us if we endure to the end as A LOT better than the cake we brought.. haha They thought that that was pretty funny.. haha So then we ate the cake and took pictures and it was awesome. It turns out that Wynbie who turned 22.. that this is her first birthday cake ever so she was pretty happy about that and it made us feel all nice and warm and tingly inside... hahaha
So then after that we went to this new investigator family. The daughter is a friend of a member family and is really interested but she says her family isn't ready. So with that in mind I tried to figure out what they really wanted to learn from us because they readily welcomed us in and willingly listened. So I asked the mom if she wanted to know more about mormons and the church and the book or mormon or if she was more interested in learning more about god's plan for them and where we came from, why we're here, and where we are going. and so she chose the second so we're going to teach them more about the Plan of Salvation and hopefully teaching according to their interests and desires will prove to be effective with them. We'll see!
Then we headed home and planned and I wrote in my journal and then we called it a night! So it was an awesome day! I love doing missionary work!�
Hope you all have a great week! Thanks for all your support and just for being who you are!�
Love
Elder Michael Gadberry
Sunday, March 17, 2013
March 11, 2013 E-Mail!
Heyyyy!
My companion is feeling a lot better today we just ate some Pizza Hut so we're good to go! haha They asked me where I was going to eat first when I get home.. I thought about it a little and I think I decided BDubs!! haha So party at BDubs when I get back! haha
So life's been great here! I've really enjoyed it. I've really seen the hand of the Lord in the work. It's been difficult but exciting and all that jazz. Da best. So I'mma just start answering my parents questions cuz I think it'll explain the last couple weeks pretty well.
Who is the new missionary and where is he from?
So check this out. My comps Elder Phillips from Logan, UT. He's super legit. He's actually a big baseball fan which is really rare, and he's already doing well out here in the field. He's one of the eighteen year old's! Boom! He's only a few months older than Caleb... haha He's one of a few in the group that just got here that's eighteen. So it's pretty cool.
Are you going to miss being a zone leader?
Umm.. yeah maybe. It's okay, but I feel like I'm closer to my people as a district leader so I think I might like that better. But whatever is whatever.. haha I'm still just a missionary like everyone else.. =D
How do your transfers work?
Transfers here have just recently changed. We used to all go to Buendia and meet and then do the transfers there, but now it's up to the ZLs to coordinate with their missionaries to get them where they're supposed to go and they should almost always have a companion so that makes things complicated as well sometimes and yeah.. that's how it works.
what's the new area like? How is your companion?
So I'm in Kawit, Cavite now. Serving in the Kawit Ward. It's a pretty small ward because it's recently split and when it split the other ward took a lot of leadership with it as well so we're still like "kulang" a second counselor in the bishopric and a few other spots in the ward. But its all good. I really like our ward so far. The area is interesting. It's like a rural city.. cuz its pretty built up not a whole lot of wide open fields and what not but its not like super city cuz there's not even a mcdonalds here.. haha That's the ultimate judge of how city your area is (notice city is being used here as an adjective... I can't remember if we do that in english as well..). haha But me and Elder Phillips are doing good! We're working hard in a pretty difficult area. The Ward Mission Leader told me yesterday that aside from the baptism that happened like a week before we got there, they haven't had a baptism for like six months. The WML says he doesnt remember the last baptism they had.. haha So yeah! Good thing we're looking at baptizing like 6 in April! They just gotta start coming to church, but other than that they're super cool!
So I'll just tell you a little bit about yesterday cuz it was awesome! And I don't have that much time to tell you about every other day.. so I'll just tell you a lot about one day. haha
So like I mentioned above.. we just need these people to come to church! We unfortunately didn't have any investigators at church yesterday.. that's like a first my whole mission.. But it went alright! It was a good chance to get to know our WML, Robert, who's super cool. We didn't have anyone attend our Gospel Essentials class so instead we taught language study to Elder Phillips.. haha It was pretty fun. Apparently Robert knew Elder Hopkins back in the day cuz he was assigned here so that's pretty sweet! I'm going to die in one of my trainer's areas. It was also super weird/legit at church cuz we had this one lady come up and ask us what time church started. So we told her and she looked at us kinda weird and then she was like oh, I'm from Maryland.. haha So then we spoke english to her... Apparently she grew up here but actually lived in Urbana for a while! URBANA! As in my home stake! WHAAA?? weird. haha She said her husband went to the U of I.. so that's why.
So after church we got some lunch and then headed out to work. The very first family we visited was a less-active family that actually loved Elder Hopkins so I was like having flashbacks like crazy yesterday so that was pretty fun. And there Elder Phillips got to participate in his first priesthood blessing! Woo!
So after that we had a couple appointments fall through and I happened to remember this referral we got in an area we'd never heard of. So we decided to check that out. It turns out that thats like the prettiest part of our area and it's super cool! Hence the pictures that are super pretty at that river. It made Elder Phillips really happy cuz he really wants to see some scenery out here and most of Kawit doesn't have too much to offer. So we end of finding this referral and it turns out that she had a one month old child that had died just last month. I asked the missionaries that gave us the referral if they knew that and they had no idea. So it was perfect and totally guided by the Lord. And we were able to share with her and testify simply and clearly from Moroni 8 as to where her child is now and that he is saved because of Christ's Atonement. And that was what made my day. Well the river and beautiful area was super cool, but I get excited when I meet someone or share something with someone that is exactly what they need to hear and it helps them in someway. I know that this sister was touched because I felt, too, felt the Spirit so strongly there, and I'm grateful that I was able to bring a glimmer of hope into the life of this sister.
So after that, my companions stomach started hurting real bad but he trooped out one final lesson. Luckily we had a ward missionary working with us cuz Elder Phillips couldn't do much in that last lesson so the ward missionary helped me teach. We taught the Plan of Salvation to them and it went super well! They had a bunch of questions for us and you could just tell from their eyes that they were getting and absorbing everything we were teaching. The Spirit really helped me answer their questions and it went really well and shed some light for them regarding Heavenly Father's plan for them and their families.
So that was kinda Sunday and it was awesome! I'm loving it here and I'm sending you a bunch of pictures so you guys better love it!
Well I'mma head out.. so I'll catch you guys later!
Love
Elder Michael Gadberry
My companion is feeling a lot better today we just ate some Pizza Hut so we're good to go! haha They asked me where I was going to eat first when I get home.. I thought about it a little and I think I decided BDubs!! haha So party at BDubs when I get back! haha
So life's been great here! I've really enjoyed it. I've really seen the hand of the Lord in the work. It's been difficult but exciting and all that jazz. Da best. So I'mma just start answering my parents questions cuz I think it'll explain the last couple weeks pretty well.
Who is the new missionary and where is he from?
So check this out. My comps Elder Phillips from Logan, UT. He's super legit. He's actually a big baseball fan which is really rare, and he's already doing well out here in the field. He's one of the eighteen year old's! Boom! He's only a few months older than Caleb... haha He's one of a few in the group that just got here that's eighteen. So it's pretty cool.
Are you going to miss being a zone leader?
Umm.. yeah maybe. It's okay, but I feel like I'm closer to my people as a district leader so I think I might like that better. But whatever is whatever.. haha I'm still just a missionary like everyone else.. =D
How do your transfers work?
Transfers here have just recently changed. We used to all go to Buendia and meet and then do the transfers there, but now it's up to the ZLs to coordinate with their missionaries to get them where they're supposed to go and they should almost always have a companion so that makes things complicated as well sometimes and yeah.. that's how it works.
what's the new area like? How is your companion?
So I'm in Kawit, Cavite now. Serving in the Kawit Ward. It's a pretty small ward because it's recently split and when it split the other ward took a lot of leadership with it as well so we're still like "kulang" a second counselor in the bishopric and a few other spots in the ward. But its all good. I really like our ward so far. The area is interesting. It's like a rural city.. cuz its pretty built up not a whole lot of wide open fields and what not but its not like super city cuz there's not even a mcdonalds here.. haha That's the ultimate judge of how city your area is (notice city is being used here as an adjective... I can't remember if we do that in english as well..). haha But me and Elder Phillips are doing good! We're working hard in a pretty difficult area. The Ward Mission Leader told me yesterday that aside from the baptism that happened like a week before we got there, they haven't had a baptism for like six months. The WML says he doesnt remember the last baptism they had.. haha So yeah! Good thing we're looking at baptizing like 6 in April! They just gotta start coming to church, but other than that they're super cool!
So I'll just tell you a little bit about yesterday cuz it was awesome! And I don't have that much time to tell you about every other day.. so I'll just tell you a lot about one day. haha
So like I mentioned above.. we just need these people to come to church! We unfortunately didn't have any investigators at church yesterday.. that's like a first my whole mission.. But it went alright! It was a good chance to get to know our WML, Robert, who's super cool. We didn't have anyone attend our Gospel Essentials class so instead we taught language study to Elder Phillips.. haha It was pretty fun. Apparently Robert knew Elder Hopkins back in the day cuz he was assigned here so that's pretty sweet! I'm going to die in one of my trainer's areas. It was also super weird/legit at church cuz we had this one lady come up and ask us what time church started. So we told her and she looked at us kinda weird and then she was like oh, I'm from Maryland.. haha So then we spoke english to her... Apparently she grew up here but actually lived in Urbana for a while! URBANA! As in my home stake! WHAAA?? weird. haha She said her husband went to the U of I.. so that's why.
So after church we got some lunch and then headed out to work. The very first family we visited was a less-active family that actually loved Elder Hopkins so I was like having flashbacks like crazy yesterday so that was pretty fun. And there Elder Phillips got to participate in his first priesthood blessing! Woo!
So after that we had a couple appointments fall through and I happened to remember this referral we got in an area we'd never heard of. So we decided to check that out. It turns out that thats like the prettiest part of our area and it's super cool! Hence the pictures that are super pretty at that river. It made Elder Phillips really happy cuz he really wants to see some scenery out here and most of Kawit doesn't have too much to offer. So we end of finding this referral and it turns out that she had a one month old child that had died just last month. I asked the missionaries that gave us the referral if they knew that and they had no idea. So it was perfect and totally guided by the Lord. And we were able to share with her and testify simply and clearly from Moroni 8 as to where her child is now and that he is saved because of Christ's Atonement. And that was what made my day. Well the river and beautiful area was super cool, but I get excited when I meet someone or share something with someone that is exactly what they need to hear and it helps them in someway. I know that this sister was touched because I felt, too, felt the Spirit so strongly there, and I'm grateful that I was able to bring a glimmer of hope into the life of this sister.
So after that, my companions stomach started hurting real bad but he trooped out one final lesson. Luckily we had a ward missionary working with us cuz Elder Phillips couldn't do much in that last lesson so the ward missionary helped me teach. We taught the Plan of Salvation to them and it went super well! They had a bunch of questions for us and you could just tell from their eyes that they were getting and absorbing everything we were teaching. The Spirit really helped me answer their questions and it went really well and shed some light for them regarding Heavenly Father's plan for them and their families.
So that was kinda Sunday and it was awesome! I'm loving it here and I'm sending you a bunch of pictures so you guys better love it!
Well I'mma head out.. so I'll catch you guys later!
Love
Elder Michael Gadberry
Saturday, March 2, 2013
February 24, 2013 E-Mail!
Hey how's it going everyone?!
Well we're coming up on a new transfer one of my last dalawa... whoa. I think I'll save what's happening to me until the veryyyy end of this email so that way you guys have to read the wholeeee thing and umm.. I win? Okay maybe I'll be nicer and just hide it somewhere in the middle of the email so that way you can't just skip to the very end and figure it out. boom. haha We'll just see.
But hey! this week went really well. We got exciting news that we're getting four new missions here in the Philippines! One of them, the Cavite Philippines Mission is right in the heart of our mission. The works really awesome here! Of all the areas that are getting new missions the Philippines had the third most next to Brazil and Mexico so that shows kinda how great the works going here! So actually my last two areas would be under that Cavite mission but I'll be home by that time it'll go into effect like July 1 cuz that's when the world gets new mission presidents. So that's pretty exciting to see! One of our themes recently is "God is hastening His work!" And He really is. It's exciting!
So this week I've been thinking a lot about like what the Lord has in store for kinda like His plan for me, what He wants me to do. It's funny because one of the themes of my mission I feel like is a quote I heard early on from Elder Ardern. "The Lord is easy to please, but difficult to satisfy." So yeah.. everyone time I feel like I'm at a good point like I've got stuff down. Essentially the Lord comes to me and says (I'm putting words in the Lord's mouth but this is what it feels like) "Wow! Good job! Now I need you to give me just a little bit more. Do this a little bit better or you're not doing very good at this lets work on that a little bit." And its almost always kinda frustrating at first but in the end its for the best. This week I was studying a little bit in 1 Nephi 17. And I was like, you know what Nephi and all them probably thought when they got to Bountiful that it was the "promised land" that they were promised. They didn't realize that the Lord has much more in store for them. So then when the Lord came to Nephi and was like hey! I got somethin for you to do. Nephi with his awesome faith didn't say umm... I don't need a boat. Thanks though! I'm happy here... Plus I don't even like fish that much.. I'll stick to hunting. haha However his brother's didn't realize what the Lord had in store for them. So like Nephi I've been trying to figure out all that the Lord wants me to do and improve and just do it. Especially with me transferring and what not. Oops! Spoiler alert. haha
So we went on exchanges twice this week. haha Waiting till the last minute. We're supposed to go on exchanges at least once a transfer with our two district leaders but we hadn't done it yet. Well actually we were just planning on doing one this week and one the upcoming week. But it was kinda cool cuz we talked with one of our district leaders at district meeting about their area and about some things that need to improve and how we could help them and what not. So after that we were walking down the road to go to work and I though to myself, "It'd be kinda cool to do like an unplanned exchange with them just so we can kinda see what their area is really like and how we can help them." So shortly after that Elder Orth turns to me and goes, "Hey you wanna ask them if they wanna do an exchange right now just for today??" So luckily, my companion is more in tune with the Spirit than I am so we were able to catch that opportunity before it flew away. So that day I worked in the DLs area with him and we had a pretty good day and I think we were able to help them just make their work a little more effective. So that was pretty cool.
Another day we unknowingly were led to visit another family. We got there and sister was like elders! It's great to see you! come in come in. So we came in and started talking to them and low and behold she had been praying that we'd visit them that day because she had been in the hospital the day previous and it was like the middle of the night so she didn't want to text us. But we were able to share a really powerful lesson to them because they're a family that has recently returned and they're just trying to get their lives in line with the gospel and get back to the temple and then we gave sister a blessing because her husband can't right now.. But yeah! It was really cool because the Lord's hand is all over the work! Like if there's one testimony I have more than anything else since I've been out here is that the Lord's hand moves daily in all of our lives, we just have to look for it. (and then give thanks. =D ).
So in my other news of the week, when I was on exchanges on Tuesday. One of the recent converts there legitimately thought that I was Indian. So Darsh! We're brothers! haha She's like are you Indian? I was probably pretty obviously surprised and was like umm nope. And then she was like it's cuz you have dark hair.. haha So yeah.. I'm Elder Darshan Gadberry.
Well I should get wrapping up..but I was looking over my notes from the week and I could tell you guys a ton more but don't have time... But yeah I am transferring this upcoming week and for my last two transfers I will be in Kawit, Cavite training a new missionary and also fulfilling the role of a district leader. So that's pretty exciting! We'll see how things go.. haha
Well hope you guys have an awesome week!
Love
Elder Michael Gadberry
Pictures finally!
Umm.. a bunch of people in the zone are training also so after our trainers meeting we went to McDo.
Oh and my groceries last week! ALL CHOCOLATE! except for some extremely healthy bananas... haha I still do what I do. haha
And... the Mancilla family! Brother is gettin baptized shortly after I'm gone! The rest are members. I heart them.
Well we're coming up on a new transfer one of my last dalawa... whoa. I think I'll save what's happening to me until the veryyyy end of this email so that way you guys have to read the wholeeee thing and umm.. I win? Okay maybe I'll be nicer and just hide it somewhere in the middle of the email so that way you can't just skip to the very end and figure it out. boom. haha We'll just see.
But hey! this week went really well. We got exciting news that we're getting four new missions here in the Philippines! One of them, the Cavite Philippines Mission is right in the heart of our mission. The works really awesome here! Of all the areas that are getting new missions the Philippines had the third most next to Brazil and Mexico so that shows kinda how great the works going here! So actually my last two areas would be under that Cavite mission but I'll be home by that time it'll go into effect like July 1 cuz that's when the world gets new mission presidents. So that's pretty exciting to see! One of our themes recently is "God is hastening His work!" And He really is. It's exciting!
So this week I've been thinking a lot about like what the Lord has in store for kinda like His plan for me, what He wants me to do. It's funny because one of the themes of my mission I feel like is a quote I heard early on from Elder Ardern. "The Lord is easy to please, but difficult to satisfy." So yeah.. everyone time I feel like I'm at a good point like I've got stuff down. Essentially the Lord comes to me and says (I'm putting words in the Lord's mouth but this is what it feels like) "Wow! Good job! Now I need you to give me just a little bit more. Do this a little bit better or you're not doing very good at this lets work on that a little bit." And its almost always kinda frustrating at first but in the end its for the best. This week I was studying a little bit in 1 Nephi 17. And I was like, you know what Nephi and all them probably thought when they got to Bountiful that it was the "promised land" that they were promised. They didn't realize that the Lord has much more in store for them. So then when the Lord came to Nephi and was like hey! I got somethin for you to do. Nephi with his awesome faith didn't say umm... I don't need a boat. Thanks though! I'm happy here... Plus I don't even like fish that much.. I'll stick to hunting. haha However his brother's didn't realize what the Lord had in store for them. So like Nephi I've been trying to figure out all that the Lord wants me to do and improve and just do it. Especially with me transferring and what not. Oops! Spoiler alert. haha
So we went on exchanges twice this week. haha Waiting till the last minute. We're supposed to go on exchanges at least once a transfer with our two district leaders but we hadn't done it yet. Well actually we were just planning on doing one this week and one the upcoming week. But it was kinda cool cuz we talked with one of our district leaders at district meeting about their area and about some things that need to improve and how we could help them and what not. So after that we were walking down the road to go to work and I though to myself, "It'd be kinda cool to do like an unplanned exchange with them just so we can kinda see what their area is really like and how we can help them." So shortly after that Elder Orth turns to me and goes, "Hey you wanna ask them if they wanna do an exchange right now just for today??" So luckily, my companion is more in tune with the Spirit than I am so we were able to catch that opportunity before it flew away. So that day I worked in the DLs area with him and we had a pretty good day and I think we were able to help them just make their work a little more effective. So that was pretty cool.
Another day we unknowingly were led to visit another family. We got there and sister was like elders! It's great to see you! come in come in. So we came in and started talking to them and low and behold she had been praying that we'd visit them that day because she had been in the hospital the day previous and it was like the middle of the night so she didn't want to text us. But we were able to share a really powerful lesson to them because they're a family that has recently returned and they're just trying to get their lives in line with the gospel and get back to the temple and then we gave sister a blessing because her husband can't right now.. But yeah! It was really cool because the Lord's hand is all over the work! Like if there's one testimony I have more than anything else since I've been out here is that the Lord's hand moves daily in all of our lives, we just have to look for it. (and then give thanks. =D ).
So in my other news of the week, when I was on exchanges on Tuesday. One of the recent converts there legitimately thought that I was Indian. So Darsh! We're brothers! haha She's like are you Indian? I was probably pretty obviously surprised and was like umm nope. And then she was like it's cuz you have dark hair.. haha So yeah.. I'm Elder Darshan Gadberry.
Well I should get wrapping up..but I was looking over my notes from the week and I could tell you guys a ton more but don't have time... But yeah I am transferring this upcoming week and for my last two transfers I will be in Kawit, Cavite training a new missionary and also fulfilling the role of a district leader. So that's pretty exciting! We'll see how things go.. haha
Well hope you guys have an awesome week!
Love
Elder Michael Gadberry
Pictures finally!
Umm.. a bunch of people in the zone are training also so after our trainers meeting we went to McDo.
Oh and my groceries last week! ALL CHOCOLATE! except for some extremely healthy bananas... haha I still do what I do. haha
And... the Mancilla family! Brother is gettin baptized shortly after I'm gone! The rest are members. I heart them.
Sunday, February 24, 2013
February 17, 2013 E-Mail!
hey hey hey!
My mom "reklamo"-ed about the basketball last email.. so I guess I
won't talk about basketball this week.... haha But this week was
another awesome one! We had lots of stuff going on. We had Zone
Conference on Thursday and then Temple Tour on Saturday. Have I ever
told you guys about temple tour? I'm not too sure.. I might talk about
it later if I have time but yeah.. we'll see.
How did the zone meeting go? Were the changes made received well?
How is the zone doing?
The zone meeting went really well! We had a missionary tell us it was
"the best one he's had so far." So we consider that good feedback.
haha Umm.. oh yeah! President Stucki and Sister Stucki attended our
meeting so that was kinda nerve racking but good at the same time.
They said it was really inspiring as well. We definitely don't say
that they stole our ideas but it was kinda cool to see how similar the
things that we focused on in our zone meeting were to the things
focused on in Zone Conference. It meant to me that we were inspired in
what we taught cuz what the Lord wanted for our zone is also what
needs to be focused on in the whole mission. But the zone is doing
really good! February is looking pretty good but we're really excited
for March.
Are your activation efforts going well?
Yep! We've had two already in February and we're on track to get one
more family of three next week! Then in March we've got all kinds of
prospects working slowly toward reactivation that will hopefully turn
out in March.
After you get the members reactivated is your next step the temple
(after receiving the priesthood)? Is that something missionaries work
on or do you turn it over to the branch? Is there a time limit that
they have to wait, or is it just when they are ready for the next
step?
Yep!
The next step is most definitely the temple. Umm.. we're supposed
to continue to still help them because just like recent converts its
pretty lame to baptize them and then never go back to them but
unfortunately stuff like that happens to an extent.. So with recently
returning members there's a bunch of tools we have to keep them on the
right track and get them to the temple. The pinaka-best is the "New
and Returning Member Form" if there's any branch clerks reading this
then you might know what I'm talking about but its the best! The time
they have to wait umm kinda depends I believe. If its a recent convert
they have to wait a yr to get endowed but can do baptisms for the dead
as soon as possible. But with returning members I believe they can get
headed to the temple as soon as they can pass the interview and also
become worthy. So we've got a few that are need to get sealed but,
usually brother, is still fighting to put away the cigs and what not..
so yeah.
So what's the hold up on your branch becoming a ward? Members?
Priesthood? Leadership?
I believe they've started doing the "paperwork" or somethin to make
that request... but I don't know what that consists of.. I feel like
they might have to wait till like district conference to do it but
again I don't know. I'm just a missionary.. I don't know how the
church works.. haha But we're good on members number wise.. We're just
on the border when it comes to worthy, full tithe paying Melchizedek
priesthood holders. But I think we're like in the clear. Hopefully
once we become a stake we'll also become a ward here in Biñan, if not
two wards. I know back in the day when this was under the Las Piñas
Stake we were a ward and not just a ward.. two wards.. haha. So
hopefully that happens again with our reactivation efforts and us
becoming a stake.
Alright! So I think this week I'll give you one kinda funny story
about how much Filipino's love white guys. And then I'll tell you guys
all about our incredibly awesome day that was totally guided by the
Lord.
So one night we were walking home after a long day of work. All of a
sudden one of these huge like charter buses (charter buses in the
states are like everyday use here for public transportation from city
to city and what not) pulls up beside us and slows down. At first I
didn't notice it. I figured he was dropping someone off there. But
apparently the driver yelled at my companion to hop on. So we looked
at each other confused, shrug, and hop on the bus! haha So they ask us
where we're going and we're like Filinvest and they're like ah okay
we'll drop you off at Napacor which was just like a couple minutes
away but it was awesome nonetheless cuz it woulda taken us another ten
minutes to get there. So we got to talk to them a little bit. The bus
drivers name was Greg and there was only one other guy on the bus, his
friend Guillermo. They were from towns far away from Biñan but they
were super nice. They said they had met missionaries before and he
thought it was awesome that they could speak Tagalog. His explanation
for giving us a ride was "natutuwa ako pag may nakikita akong
foreigner." For those of you that didn't catch that.. it makes him
happy whenever he sees a foreigner. That's kinda a weird translation
but that's what it is! haha So of course I replied "Well, natutuwa
kami pag may libreng sakay...haha" (Translation: Glad we have a free ride!)
I'll let you figure that one out.
But it was awesome! So yeah.. I heart the Philippines. haha Those guys
were super nice.
So in other news, we had a really cool day on Wednesday. It was
perfect cuz like for the first time ever.. Our first three
appointments all went really well and we got to all of them and they
were all like perfectly on time. And it was perfect cuz on the way to
our next appointment we get a call from San Gab and they say that
they're supposed to have a baptism today at five (it's like 3:30) and
they don't have water at their chapel and there's no water at GMA's
chapel or even at Carmona (yeah i know.. seriously?? haha). But
anyways because of how on time we were we had time to take a few
minutes to run to our chapel and get permission and get the font
filling up. For like a random thing out of nowhere it went super
smoothly. We were even able to invite an investigator and a
less-active to attend and they said they were going to. So we got that
started and went to another appointment and went back to the chapel
for the baptism. We kept waiting and waiting for our investigator but
they never showed up... But the crazy thing was that out of nowhere
Paulo walks thru the doors of the church! Now Paulo is like our most
frustrating less-active cuz he keeps saying that he'll go to church
but nothing happens and we've never seen him at the church. But he
relayed to us the next day that he got off work early and for whatever
reason and thought to go by the church and low and behold there was a
baptism that just happened to be happening and he had been telling us
for a couple weeks now to let him know if there's a baptism cuz he
wants to attend one and remember his and what not. So how about that?
Then the baptism was short and sweet and we were able to finish with a
really successful night. It doesn't sound like anything too crazy..
cuz its not. But the day previous I had a personal study about
gratitude sparked by Luke 17:11-19 about the 10 lepers that Christ
healed and only one came back and said thank you. One of the thoughts
that I had about that was "to do and to be obedient and to have faith
is good [because that's what all ten lepers did]. But to recognize a
power beyond your own and to give thanks to that power is far better,
and will ultimately leave you in better standing with God. [For it was
only the grateful leper that was made "whole"]." So that's what I saw
in that day. That the day just went too good for it to be from my own
ability at all, that thanks deserved to be to good for the success
that we had.
So we're seeing the hand of the Lord in our work and we're loving it!
We're now going into the last full week of the transfer.. that's
weird. haha But its going to be great! Hope you guys are all doing
great still. Have a great week!
Love
Elder Michael Gadberry
My mom "reklamo"-ed about the basketball last email.. so I guess I
won't talk about basketball this week.... haha But this week was
another awesome one! We had lots of stuff going on. We had Zone
Conference on Thursday and then Temple Tour on Saturday. Have I ever
told you guys about temple tour? I'm not too sure.. I might talk about
it later if I have time but yeah.. we'll see.
How did the zone meeting go? Were the changes made received well?
How is the zone doing?
The zone meeting went really well! We had a missionary tell us it was
"the best one he's had so far." So we consider that good feedback.
haha Umm.. oh yeah! President Stucki and Sister Stucki attended our
meeting so that was kinda nerve racking but good at the same time.
They said it was really inspiring as well. We definitely don't say
that they stole our ideas but it was kinda cool to see how similar the
things that we focused on in our zone meeting were to the things
focused on in Zone Conference. It meant to me that we were inspired in
what we taught cuz what the Lord wanted for our zone is also what
needs to be focused on in the whole mission. But the zone is doing
really good! February is looking pretty good but we're really excited
for March.
Are your activation efforts going well?
Yep! We've had two already in February and we're on track to get one
more family of three next week! Then in March we've got all kinds of
prospects working slowly toward reactivation that will hopefully turn
out in March.
After you get the members reactivated is your next step the temple
(after receiving the priesthood)? Is that something missionaries work
on or do you turn it over to the branch? Is there a time limit that
they have to wait, or is it just when they are ready for the next
step?
Yep!
The next step is most definitely the temple. Umm.. we're supposed
to continue to still help them because just like recent converts its
pretty lame to baptize them and then never go back to them but
unfortunately stuff like that happens to an extent.. So with recently
returning members there's a bunch of tools we have to keep them on the
right track and get them to the temple. The pinaka-best is the "New
and Returning Member Form" if there's any branch clerks reading this
then you might know what I'm talking about but its the best! The time
they have to wait umm kinda depends I believe. If its a recent convert
they have to wait a yr to get endowed but can do baptisms for the dead
as soon as possible. But with returning members I believe they can get
headed to the temple as soon as they can pass the interview and also
become worthy. So we've got a few that are need to get sealed but,
usually brother, is still fighting to put away the cigs and what not..
so yeah.
So what's the hold up on your branch becoming a ward? Members?
Priesthood? Leadership?
I believe they've started doing the "paperwork" or somethin to make
that request... but I don't know what that consists of.. I feel like
they might have to wait till like district conference to do it but
again I don't know. I'm just a missionary.. I don't know how the
church works.. haha But we're good on members number wise.. We're just
on the border when it comes to worthy, full tithe paying Melchizedek
priesthood holders. But I think we're like in the clear. Hopefully
once we become a stake we'll also become a ward here in Biñan, if not
two wards. I know back in the day when this was under the Las Piñas
Stake we were a ward and not just a ward.. two wards.. haha. So
hopefully that happens again with our reactivation efforts and us
becoming a stake.
Alright! So I think this week I'll give you one kinda funny story
about how much Filipino's love white guys. And then I'll tell you guys
all about our incredibly awesome day that was totally guided by the
Lord.
So one night we were walking home after a long day of work. All of a
sudden one of these huge like charter buses (charter buses in the
states are like everyday use here for public transportation from city
to city and what not) pulls up beside us and slows down. At first I
didn't notice it. I figured he was dropping someone off there. But
apparently the driver yelled at my companion to hop on. So we looked
at each other confused, shrug, and hop on the bus! haha So they ask us
where we're going and we're like Filinvest and they're like ah okay
we'll drop you off at Napacor which was just like a couple minutes
away but it was awesome nonetheless cuz it woulda taken us another ten
minutes to get there. So we got to talk to them a little bit. The bus
drivers name was Greg and there was only one other guy on the bus, his
friend Guillermo. They were from towns far away from Biñan but they
were super nice. They said they had met missionaries before and he
thought it was awesome that they could speak Tagalog. His explanation
for giving us a ride was "natutuwa ako pag may nakikita akong
foreigner." For those of you that didn't catch that.. it makes him
happy whenever he sees a foreigner. That's kinda a weird translation
but that's what it is! haha So of course I replied "Well, natutuwa
kami pag may libreng sakay...haha" (Translation: Glad we have a free ride!)
I'll let you figure that one out.
But it was awesome! So yeah.. I heart the Philippines. haha Those guys
were super nice.
So in other news, we had a really cool day on Wednesday. It was
perfect cuz like for the first time ever.. Our first three
appointments all went really well and we got to all of them and they
were all like perfectly on time. And it was perfect cuz on the way to
our next appointment we get a call from San Gab and they say that
they're supposed to have a baptism today at five (it's like 3:30) and
they don't have water at their chapel and there's no water at GMA's
chapel or even at Carmona (yeah i know.. seriously?? haha). But
anyways because of how on time we were we had time to take a few
minutes to run to our chapel and get permission and get the font
filling up. For like a random thing out of nowhere it went super
smoothly. We were even able to invite an investigator and a
less-active to attend and they said they were going to. So we got that
started and went to another appointment and went back to the chapel
for the baptism. We kept waiting and waiting for our investigator but
they never showed up... But the crazy thing was that out of nowhere
Paulo walks thru the doors of the church! Now Paulo is like our most
frustrating less-active cuz he keeps saying that he'll go to church
but nothing happens and we've never seen him at the church. But he
relayed to us the next day that he got off work early and for whatever
reason and thought to go by the church and low and behold there was a
baptism that just happened to be happening and he had been telling us
for a couple weeks now to let him know if there's a baptism cuz he
wants to attend one and remember his and what not. So how about that?
Then the baptism was short and sweet and we were able to finish with a
really successful night. It doesn't sound like anything too crazy..
cuz its not. But the day previous I had a personal study about
gratitude sparked by Luke 17:11-19 about the 10 lepers that Christ
healed and only one came back and said thank you. One of the thoughts
that I had about that was "to do and to be obedient and to have faith
is good [because that's what all ten lepers did]. But to recognize a
power beyond your own and to give thanks to that power is far better,
and will ultimately leave you in better standing with God. [For it was
only the grateful leper that was made "whole"]." So that's what I saw
in that day. That the day just went too good for it to be from my own
ability at all, that thanks deserved to be to good for the success
that we had.
So we're seeing the hand of the Lord in our work and we're loving it!
We're now going into the last full week of the transfer.. that's
weird. haha But its going to be great! Hope you guys are all doing
great still. Have a great week!
Love
Elder Michael Gadberry
Friday, February 15, 2013
February 10, 2013 E-Mail!
Hey everyone!
How's life over there?? Life is going great here! Finally got some people around me here that enjoy playing basketball so we've gotten to ball like the last two or three preparation days. Woo! Filipino basketball is definitely way different than basketball in the states. So don't judge me when I get back and I play basketball funny. At first I wasn't a big fan of it cuz it's just way too fast and not that pretty. In competitive games, they always play in a 2-3, so I always just think it's cuz they don't like playing defense cuz it's all about offense. But it also kinda works too because generally Filipinos can't shoot. It's all about one person driving, and then kicking it out. Now it's his turn to drive, and dump it off to someone else. It's all very close to the rim. So I make my money sitting there hitting really easy mid-range jumpers haha. But when they play full court it's even more different.. cherry picking is a viable strategy here.. I was like when that happens in the states the game is essentially over and it gets no fun real fast but that's just how they roll here. But now I really enjoy playing. It's a lot of fun.
One thing I was talking about with my companion earlier today was kinda about basketball. We were talking about pre-mission life and I was like I thought it was going to be this huge thing to give up ESPN, basketball, soccer, baseball and all that jazz. But I've found that it's actually not been that big of a deal.. So it's been cool to see that I can live without it and I've learned I think how to not take it too far. (I still don't think I ever took it too far before.. haha). But I'm grateful to learn that there is more to life than what's on channel 27 and 28.. haha That was ESPN and ESPN2 ...I think. =D haha But you guys get what I mean right?? haha
So this week has been another great one, so hopefully I can relay that in my email today.
It sounds like the Seachon family is doing really great! Did they make it to church this Sunday as well?
Yup! It's funny because the Nanay has been there four times in a row now, but she always has iba't ibang kasama.. or umm.. there's always a different group of them that comes with her every Sunday..there! haha So it's going pretty good. It's been kinda hard to teach there though! haha Children here are like wild. I know everyone will say children everywhere are wild but like it's just different here. It's super hard to teach families. Cuz everyone, yes everyone, at some point during the lesson gets up to stop a crying kid or check on the rice they're cooking or go get something they forgot or go buy something for dinner or just lots of stuff. "Basta" there's always someone coming and going.. So sometimes we in our minds get jealous of those missionaries in America that when they show up to teach a family, mom and dad are sitting there on the couch and the kids are there too and they're not like playing with toys or fighting with the other 20 little kids at the house or just making constant noise.. haha Of course I know that rarely do the U.S. missionaries get like the "perfect" teaching situation.. but we like to think that life is hard here... hahaha
I follow Apollo Ohno (the speed skater) on twitter and he was recently in Manila. He tweeted a picture of a ginormous halo halo. He said he ate about half of it.
Hey me too! I remember tweeting at him back in the day... but he never tweeted back at me.. #ThatWasSoTwoYearsAgo. haha But yeah halo halos are cool! It's a tradition in the mission that on your first day here you go out to work with the missionaries that are assigned not too far away and they're supposed to take you to get a halo halo at the end of working with them for a few hours. I still remember that.. haha At the time I wasn't a big fan of it.. well actually the ice cream part is super good but all that jazz and junk in it is.... interesting. But not it's definitely pretty good. I like it, but still don't eat it terribly often.
Hey umm.. sorry this is super short but umm.. yeah I gotta get going.. sorry!
Love
Elder Michael Gadberry
How's life over there?? Life is going great here! Finally got some people around me here that enjoy playing basketball so we've gotten to ball like the last two or three preparation days. Woo! Filipino basketball is definitely way different than basketball in the states. So don't judge me when I get back and I play basketball funny. At first I wasn't a big fan of it cuz it's just way too fast and not that pretty. In competitive games, they always play in a 2-3, so I always just think it's cuz they don't like playing defense cuz it's all about offense. But it also kinda works too because generally Filipinos can't shoot. It's all about one person driving, and then kicking it out. Now it's his turn to drive, and dump it off to someone else. It's all very close to the rim. So I make my money sitting there hitting really easy mid-range jumpers haha. But when they play full court it's even more different.. cherry picking is a viable strategy here.. I was like when that happens in the states the game is essentially over and it gets no fun real fast but that's just how they roll here. But now I really enjoy playing. It's a lot of fun.
One thing I was talking about with my companion earlier today was kinda about basketball. We were talking about pre-mission life and I was like I thought it was going to be this huge thing to give up ESPN, basketball, soccer, baseball and all that jazz. But I've found that it's actually not been that big of a deal.. So it's been cool to see that I can live without it and I've learned I think how to not take it too far. (I still don't think I ever took it too far before.. haha). But I'm grateful to learn that there is more to life than what's on channel 27 and 28.. haha That was ESPN and ESPN2 ...I think. =D haha But you guys get what I mean right?? haha
So this week has been another great one, so hopefully I can relay that in my email today.
It sounds like the Seachon family is doing really great! Did they make it to church this Sunday as well?
Yup! It's funny because the Nanay has been there four times in a row now, but she always has iba't ibang kasama.. or umm.. there's always a different group of them that comes with her every Sunday..there! haha So it's going pretty good. It's been kinda hard to teach there though! haha Children here are like wild. I know everyone will say children everywhere are wild but like it's just different here. It's super hard to teach families. Cuz everyone, yes everyone, at some point during the lesson gets up to stop a crying kid or check on the rice they're cooking or go get something they forgot or go buy something for dinner or just lots of stuff. "Basta" there's always someone coming and going.. So sometimes we in our minds get jealous of those missionaries in America that when they show up to teach a family, mom and dad are sitting there on the couch and the kids are there too and they're not like playing with toys or fighting with the other 20 little kids at the house or just making constant noise.. haha Of course I know that rarely do the U.S. missionaries get like the "perfect" teaching situation.. but we like to think that life is hard here... hahaha
I follow Apollo Ohno (the speed skater) on twitter and he was recently in Manila. He tweeted a picture of a ginormous halo halo. He said he ate about half of it.
Hey me too! I remember tweeting at him back in the day... but he never tweeted back at me.. #ThatWasSoTwoYearsAgo. haha But yeah halo halos are cool! It's a tradition in the mission that on your first day here you go out to work with the missionaries that are assigned not too far away and they're supposed to take you to get a halo halo at the end of working with them for a few hours. I still remember that.. haha At the time I wasn't a big fan of it.. well actually the ice cream part is super good but all that jazz and junk in it is.... interesting. But not it's definitely pretty good. I like it, but still don't eat it terribly often.
Hey umm.. sorry this is super short but umm.. yeah I gotta get going.. sorry!
Love
Elder Michael Gadberry
Tuesday, February 12, 2013
February 3, 2013 E-Mail! Paki-sayaw!
What it do everyone?? haha
So the story behind the subject "paki-sayaw" goes like this. We have a missionary in our apartment who's still fairly new so this week he decided that he was only going to speak Tagalog in the house so he can practice more. So one day we were washing our clothes and I was at the faucet filling up my washing bin (if you remember a longggg time ago I said washing clothes by hand was kinda cool. . . . .it's not. haha =D). But anyways, he wanted to use that faucet and so he was asking me to move. So he said, "Paki-move elder Gadberry." I replied, "Huh? What's move??" He said, "Ugh.. okay. Ano ang move sa Tagalog?" I smiled and replied, "Sayaw." So he's like "okay... paki-sayaw Elder Gadberry." So then I looked at him again, smiled, and did a little dance. He was just about as confused as you all. So go to google translate and type in paki-sayaw. (To save you time, it said "please dance") Then laugh. His Filipino companion laughed pretty hard and called me bastos. Which if you google translate that it probably best translates in this case as "cheeky." haha I'm just too funny.
We haven't asked about Filipino food for awhile. Do you have a favorite dish? Are you still eating lots of stuff you never would have dreamt of eating four years ago? Just curious...
Umm food here is still good! It seems pretty normal now.. A little while ago I was thinking about it and I was like what really is Filipino food?? Like if I wanted to have you guys eat something Filipino what would it be? It took me a little while to think of stuff cuz everything is just too normal now. But my favorite is definitely called Tinola. I think I kwento-ed about it a long time ago. And it's still my favorite. It's chicken with like herbal spices and ginger and papaya and it's easy to make they say but I've never tried.. People ask a lot how often we eat rice back home and I'm like ummm maybe one a month.. And I always remember the ever famous and geniusly named: Rice-Hamburger-Cheese.(it's actually called hamburger-rice and cheese and on the menu for dinner tonight) I bet you can't figure out what thats made of... Now I realize that lots of stuff tastes good with rice! . . .not just cheese and hamburger.. hahaha Did I tell you guys about pancit?? I can't remember but at first I thought it was super good! But now it's like soooo old. haha You guys remember Aladdin when every time the sultan sees what's his name the parrot guy... but anyways the sultan always shoves crackers in his mouth and he thinks that the parrot likes it but he actually doesn't really... haha That's kinda how pancit now is for us.. haha Almost everyday we eat it cuz that's a common easy thing to make or give to guests so that's what we get.. haha But I'm sure once I get back home I'll start to miss it.
Missionary transfer trivia - February is a no transfer month. The last time that happened was July 2012.
Actually.. They're now adjusting our transfers for whatever reason. I think they said its to fit in with the new MTC changes or something I dont know.. But this is just a five week transfer that will end Feb 28 haha. So that's why my going home week will be May 22nd ish instead of may 29th like it shoulda been. #GettinJipped
Did you meet the missionary that you hadn't met yet from the Middle East yet? Your zone seems to be very international. Is that typical of the mission or just your zone?
Actually it turns out that she's Filipino as well.. haha She just had a name I hadn't ever heard here yet. So that puts us at 3 filipinos. Woo! Umm.. I think this might be the most diverse but I feel like the mission as a whole is pretty diverse. But I don't know..
Okay! So this weeks cool story and funny both come from the Seachon family. They're awesome! So which do you want first? . . . . .
The majority of you replied cool story. So that's what it shall be.
So it was awesome! We're seeing some real blessings from our hard work. The Seachon family has been to church 3 times now after this week. But earlier this week we went by there to teach cuz everything fell through so we thought to go by and ask them how church went and if they had any questions or anything like that. So they asked us a few questions and we were able to help them so that was really good but then Nanay started telling us about her experience at church. She said back in the day she started feeling bad about not going to church cuz she hadn't gone to church for a long time. So she decided to go to church. So she went to her church and after the services she ended up coming out of there feeling no different and even kinda feeling worse, she said. So she decided that church wasn't for her. However, she kinda shared these feelings with her family and her dad (who is LDS) invited her to listen to the missionaries or come to church. She declined and even would hide from the missionaries if they were ever around their house. But as life went on she kept thinking about these experiences. She kept feeling that she can't find Christ.. She said that I feel like I know Christ and I love Him and I want to follow Him. . .but I just couldn't find him. So she kinda just accepted that as it was, but then she kept thinking and living and was like why am I hiding from missionaries? They're just like regular people... trying to help.. what they share is good.. So then she said, "Shortly after, we showed up with her brother, Maurice." On the other side of the story. Brother Maurice randomly came up to me and said hey I have a cousin that I want you guys to visit and hopefully help her come back to church. So we excitedly agreed and made plans that week to visit them. So we showed up and had a pretty good lesson and that's how we began teaching them.
After some really awesome lessons there, we finally got them committed to go to church. We visited them on Tuesday and taught and they committed to go to church. We re-scheduled for Saturday, primarily to remind them about going to church. Come Saturday night Elder Orth for some reason was feeling like trash and his stomach really hurt him.. so we needed to call it a night, for his sake, but we decided to at least go by the Seachons and show our dedication and remind them about church. So that's what we did and they came to church! We didn't think anything of it but Nanay related to us on this Tuesday that by Saturday that week she was having second thoughts about going to church.. But then when we showed up Saturday night even though Elder Orth was in a lot of pain she said to herself that these guys really care about us and said that she decided for sure to go to church. She said that it was awesome! And she really enjoyed it. And the second week as well! The second week apparently in RS they discussed Elder Perry's talk about his mom. I think the talk was "Becoming Better Parents" but I'm not too sure. She said she really felt that lesson and talk. She said there was a lot of english being used by some of the other sisters that she didn't understand it all but she really felt it. So after she kinda told us about her experience she looked at me right in the eyes and said, "Nahanap ko siya. ....Nahanap ko siya" "I found Him. ...I found Him." It was such a powerful experience because one of my pinaka-favorite things to do as a missionary is to smile and say with all the conviction and love I can muster, "Yes. Yes you have." "You've found what you're looking for." "Yes. That is the Spirit telling you that this is true." It's so awesome! I love the Lord for preparing awesome people and being able to use me to help them grow closer to Him!
So on the other end of the spectrum.. That less-active in the family that Maurice wanted us to visit has her own family and her husband is one of those guys that when he's not at work he's drinking. haha He's pretty funny and I joke with him a lot so he always jokes with me and is like let's drink! And all that stuff.. So this past time he was like let's drink! And I was like nah.. you guys go ahead.. haha So then after the lesson he was like okay time to drink! Luckily, I had a plan for this. So cleverly, I replied, "Ah nah.. I'm good. I already had some Tang." (from that family). He replies, "This is Tang too! ...Tang-Red Horse! (Red horse is a very famous beer here). I kinda laughed cuz I thought it was actually pretty clever. ... I'm going to have to put a lot of faith in his church experience... haha But yeah that was kinda a funny story for the week.. But I gotta get rollin!
Hope you guys have a great week!
Love
Elder Michael Gadberry
So the story behind the subject "paki-sayaw" goes like this. We have a missionary in our apartment who's still fairly new so this week he decided that he was only going to speak Tagalog in the house so he can practice more. So one day we were washing our clothes and I was at the faucet filling up my washing bin (if you remember a longggg time ago I said washing clothes by hand was kinda cool. . . . .it's not. haha =D). But anyways, he wanted to use that faucet and so he was asking me to move. So he said, "Paki-move elder Gadberry." I replied, "Huh? What's move??" He said, "Ugh.. okay. Ano ang move sa Tagalog?" I smiled and replied, "Sayaw." So he's like "okay... paki-sayaw Elder Gadberry." So then I looked at him again, smiled, and did a little dance. He was just about as confused as you all. So go to google translate and type in paki-sayaw. (To save you time, it said "please dance") Then laugh. His Filipino companion laughed pretty hard and called me bastos. Which if you google translate that it probably best translates in this case as "cheeky." haha I'm just too funny.
We haven't asked about Filipino food for awhile. Do you have a favorite dish? Are you still eating lots of stuff you never would have dreamt of eating four years ago? Just curious...
Umm food here is still good! It seems pretty normal now.. A little while ago I was thinking about it and I was like what really is Filipino food?? Like if I wanted to have you guys eat something Filipino what would it be? It took me a little while to think of stuff cuz everything is just too normal now. But my favorite is definitely called Tinola. I think I kwento-ed about it a long time ago. And it's still my favorite. It's chicken with like herbal spices and ginger and papaya and it's easy to make they say but I've never tried.. People ask a lot how often we eat rice back home and I'm like ummm maybe one a month.. And I always remember the ever famous and geniusly named: Rice-Hamburger-Cheese.(it's actually called hamburger-rice and cheese and on the menu for dinner tonight) I bet you can't figure out what thats made of... Now I realize that lots of stuff tastes good with rice! . . .not just cheese and hamburger.. hahaha Did I tell you guys about pancit?? I can't remember but at first I thought it was super good! But now it's like soooo old. haha You guys remember Aladdin when every time the sultan sees what's his name the parrot guy... but anyways the sultan always shoves crackers in his mouth and he thinks that the parrot likes it but he actually doesn't really... haha That's kinda how pancit now is for us.. haha Almost everyday we eat it cuz that's a common easy thing to make or give to guests so that's what we get.. haha But I'm sure once I get back home I'll start to miss it.
Missionary transfer trivia - February is a no transfer month. The last time that happened was July 2012.
Actually.. They're now adjusting our transfers for whatever reason. I think they said its to fit in with the new MTC changes or something I dont know.. But this is just a five week transfer that will end Feb 28 haha. So that's why my going home week will be May 22nd ish instead of may 29th like it shoulda been. #GettinJipped
Did you meet the missionary that you hadn't met yet from the Middle East yet? Your zone seems to be very international. Is that typical of the mission or just your zone?
Actually it turns out that she's Filipino as well.. haha She just had a name I hadn't ever heard here yet. So that puts us at 3 filipinos. Woo! Umm.. I think this might be the most diverse but I feel like the mission as a whole is pretty diverse. But I don't know..
Okay! So this weeks cool story and funny both come from the Seachon family. They're awesome! So which do you want first? . . . . .
The majority of you replied cool story. So that's what it shall be.
So it was awesome! We're seeing some real blessings from our hard work. The Seachon family has been to church 3 times now after this week. But earlier this week we went by there to teach cuz everything fell through so we thought to go by and ask them how church went and if they had any questions or anything like that. So they asked us a few questions and we were able to help them so that was really good but then Nanay started telling us about her experience at church. She said back in the day she started feeling bad about not going to church cuz she hadn't gone to church for a long time. So she decided to go to church. So she went to her church and after the services she ended up coming out of there feeling no different and even kinda feeling worse, she said. So she decided that church wasn't for her. However, she kinda shared these feelings with her family and her dad (who is LDS) invited her to listen to the missionaries or come to church. She declined and even would hide from the missionaries if they were ever around their house. But as life went on she kept thinking about these experiences. She kept feeling that she can't find Christ.. She said that I feel like I know Christ and I love Him and I want to follow Him. . .but I just couldn't find him. So she kinda just accepted that as it was, but then she kept thinking and living and was like why am I hiding from missionaries? They're just like regular people... trying to help.. what they share is good.. So then she said, "Shortly after, we showed up with her brother, Maurice." On the other side of the story. Brother Maurice randomly came up to me and said hey I have a cousin that I want you guys to visit and hopefully help her come back to church. So we excitedly agreed and made plans that week to visit them. So we showed up and had a pretty good lesson and that's how we began teaching them.
After some really awesome lessons there, we finally got them committed to go to church. We visited them on Tuesday and taught and they committed to go to church. We re-scheduled for Saturday, primarily to remind them about going to church. Come Saturday night Elder Orth for some reason was feeling like trash and his stomach really hurt him.. so we needed to call it a night, for his sake, but we decided to at least go by the Seachons and show our dedication and remind them about church. So that's what we did and they came to church! We didn't think anything of it but Nanay related to us on this Tuesday that by Saturday that week she was having second thoughts about going to church.. But then when we showed up Saturday night even though Elder Orth was in a lot of pain she said to herself that these guys really care about us and said that she decided for sure to go to church. She said that it was awesome! And she really enjoyed it. And the second week as well! The second week apparently in RS they discussed Elder Perry's talk about his mom. I think the talk was "Becoming Better Parents" but I'm not too sure. She said she really felt that lesson and talk. She said there was a lot of english being used by some of the other sisters that she didn't understand it all but she really felt it. So after she kinda told us about her experience she looked at me right in the eyes and said, "Nahanap ko siya. ....Nahanap ko siya" "I found Him. ...I found Him." It was such a powerful experience because one of my pinaka-favorite things to do as a missionary is to smile and say with all the conviction and love I can muster, "Yes. Yes you have." "You've found what you're looking for." "Yes. That is the Spirit telling you that this is true." It's so awesome! I love the Lord for preparing awesome people and being able to use me to help them grow closer to Him!
So on the other end of the spectrum.. That less-active in the family that Maurice wanted us to visit has her own family and her husband is one of those guys that when he's not at work he's drinking. haha He's pretty funny and I joke with him a lot so he always jokes with me and is like let's drink! And all that stuff.. So this past time he was like let's drink! And I was like nah.. you guys go ahead.. haha So then after the lesson he was like okay time to drink! Luckily, I had a plan for this. So cleverly, I replied, "Ah nah.. I'm good. I already had some Tang." (from that family). He replies, "This is Tang too! ...Tang-Red Horse! (Red horse is a very famous beer here). I kinda laughed cuz I thought it was actually pretty clever. ... I'm going to have to put a lot of faith in his church experience... haha But yeah that was kinda a funny story for the week.. But I gotta get rollin!
Hope you guys have a great week!
Love
Elder Michael Gadberry
Thursday, February 7, 2013
January 27, 2013 E-Mail!
Hey Everyone!
So how's life? I'm doing especially good today.. Not really sure why today is any better than any other day but I feel great! I think it all started with church yesterday. Like the sacrament was especially refreshing! Which sounds like super weird to say I just realized but hopefully you guys get what I mean... And if you dont.... ask someone that does... hahaha But I felt like 100% after sacrament meeting yesterday it was awesome!
How did this Sunday go?
My parents were asking how'd this sunday go cuz of how good last sunday was. And like I just said spiritually it was super refreshing. And I even had a interesting spiritual experience there too. So what happened my companion was asked to speak and he had totally forgotten... So he goes up there to speak and before that he was like I have no idea what I'm going to say...we'll see how this goes.. haha So as he started talking I remembered what it says in Preach My Gospel in chapter 10 that when you're not talking you should pray for your companion. And so I was like well... we're not exactly teaching a lesson here... buuuut I'll try it anyways! haha So I started praying for him and I felt the Spirit powerfully it was pretty cool. And his talk ended up going pretty good! My companion is a beast so I don't think he needed my prayers but he had them just in case.. haha. Also we had about the same turn out as last week. But this was the fourth Sunday in a row for the Francisco family so now we can finally count them as returning! WOO! It's like baptizing a family! Except the temple is even closer than the year wait of a normal convert. =D
How did you interview with the Pres go? Did he give you any ideas about what would happen from this point forward transfer-wise?
Interviews were awesome! He asked us for three goals that we had for 2013, and he also gave us the opportunity to share our testimony of the Savior with him. So it was really cool. Just so you know so you guys can hold me accountable for my goals as well...My first goal is to study and apply the principles of revelation so that I can be better at receiving revelation for myself and anyone else that may be under my stewardship. Second, in relation to my ever nearing return home, I've made a goal to read the Book of Mormon everyday. And third, I want to continue to really come to know Christ personally and experience His Atonement. I also came to him with a concerns of mine. Probably the one that he helped me the most with is I asked him how do you make long prayers more effective? He told me that actually our prayers don't really have to be long. I was like well I wanna pray for my investigators, my less-actives, members here in Binan, everyone in my zone, my family, my friends like everyone! And then in PMG it counsels us to give an accounting for our day's activities and also our next day's plans in our prayers.... So I was like how do I do that?? I told him what I kinda have tried to start doing is before praying I think about the day and things that we need and blessing I saw and what not and then I pray. President Stucki said that thats what he would tell me to do because there was one time when Joseph Smith called someone on a mission and the only counsel he gave him was to "keep your prayers short." So he told me that often he remembers that Heavenly Father knows all things and the needs of all so he ponders out in his mind that things that are most important and approaches him full of thanks and with a few questions or special blessings that he feels are the most pertinent. So I'm super grateful for an awesome mission president! He told me and Elder Orth that we would be together for one more but he didn't say like just one more or anything. So I don't have any hints. What we figure is if I don't transfer here at the end of february then I'm going to die here but we'll see!
BTW, how many missionaries are in your zone?
We have 7 companionships which is about average. But as more missionaries come we're looking to add another set of missionaries in 2 or 3 different areas in our zone. So we're going to become a pretty large zone hopefully. We have 2 sets of sisters and the rest elders. We've got 6 americans, 1 guamanian from texas, 1 canadian, 2 filipinos, 1 sri lankan, 1 poly, 1 american from the India mission that's waiting for his visa to get renewed, and 1 from the middle east that I haven't actually met yet so I don't know for sure. We rock. haha
Here's my new gospel insight for the week! I was like somewhat blown away when I received this inspiration. So I hope you guys have seen Elder Bednar's videos called Patterns of Light. If you havent.... you should really watch them. It's a three part short video series that is like life changing. So anyways Elder Bednar in the third part of the series teaches that generally there's about three types of revelation. First revelation like light coming because of a flip of a light switch where it kinda just hits you and its clear. Second, there's revelation like light from a sunrise. Where it's not really clear when the light gets there but it kinda just comes gradually but you know that there's light. And third, and most common he says, is like a foggy day in which you never see the whole picture real clearly but you have just enough light to make the next step into the fog and then you can see far enough ahead to take the next step or two and so on and so forth until you get to your destination. So in district meeting Elder Young taught about receiving revelation and we used three examples from the scriptures in 1 Nephi 11:1, D&C 76:19, and D&C 138:1-11. And as we looked those over.. I realized that those were the three ways that Elder Bednar said! Nephi's is the light switch kind because he was sitting there pondering and then BOOM. Swept up into a mountain. haha And then D&C 76:19 is the sunrise because it says that their eyes of their understanding was touched and the vision opened up. So opening our eyes sometimes, especially in the dark, sometimes takes some adjustment like the slow light received in a sunrise. Because it said that they were translating and then they stopped and "marveled" so for me at least that's the second kind. Then the third kind is in D&C138 because it came after days and days of pondering and then he went to the scriptures and pondered some more and then was inspired to read in 1 peter and then he thought some more and then the revelation came. To me thats a good example of step by step and then coming to a final destination. So yeah!
In less spiritual news, we had a member take us out to eat and he actually doesn't speak Tagalog cuz he's from Indonesia. So he's teaching me Indonesian! Buuuutt.. Saya idak visa bahasa Indonesian. ha! haha He says I could learn it in a month... ummm not too sure on that one.. haha In other other news... every time I go into a public bathroom here I'm reminded of the St. Louis Zoo because it smells just like the monkey house. always. hahaha
In more other news... I now understand why I was ALWAYS late for church and seminary. It served a purpose! So that way I could tell Sister Celorico on Thursday that it's alright if you're late cuz it's more important that you're there! And I could personally relate to her and testify that even though we should try our best to be on time it's more important to be late a little than to not be there at all... So I now feel justified in my being late always... hahaha =D Just kidding. You guys should not follow my example of lateness =)
Well I gotta get running! But I hope you guys all have a great week! Thanks to you all for being awesome friends family and dogs! Shout out to Santabelle!
Love,
Elder Michael Gadberry
PS -- Shout out to Elder Alvey for behold tis his birthday today! Boom shocka locka.
So how's life? I'm doing especially good today.. Not really sure why today is any better than any other day but I feel great! I think it all started with church yesterday. Like the sacrament was especially refreshing! Which sounds like super weird to say I just realized but hopefully you guys get what I mean... And if you dont.... ask someone that does... hahaha But I felt like 100% after sacrament meeting yesterday it was awesome!
How did this Sunday go?
My parents were asking how'd this sunday go cuz of how good last sunday was. And like I just said spiritually it was super refreshing. And I even had a interesting spiritual experience there too. So what happened my companion was asked to speak and he had totally forgotten... So he goes up there to speak and before that he was like I have no idea what I'm going to say...we'll see how this goes.. haha So as he started talking I remembered what it says in Preach My Gospel in chapter 10 that when you're not talking you should pray for your companion. And so I was like well... we're not exactly teaching a lesson here... buuuut I'll try it anyways! haha So I started praying for him and I felt the Spirit powerfully it was pretty cool. And his talk ended up going pretty good! My companion is a beast so I don't think he needed my prayers but he had them just in case.. haha. Also we had about the same turn out as last week. But this was the fourth Sunday in a row for the Francisco family so now we can finally count them as returning! WOO! It's like baptizing a family! Except the temple is even closer than the year wait of a normal convert. =D
How did you interview with the Pres go? Did he give you any ideas about what would happen from this point forward transfer-wise?
Interviews were awesome! He asked us for three goals that we had for 2013, and he also gave us the opportunity to share our testimony of the Savior with him. So it was really cool. Just so you know so you guys can hold me accountable for my goals as well...My first goal is to study and apply the principles of revelation so that I can be better at receiving revelation for myself and anyone else that may be under my stewardship. Second, in relation to my ever nearing return home, I've made a goal to read the Book of Mormon everyday. And third, I want to continue to really come to know Christ personally and experience His Atonement. I also came to him with a concerns of mine. Probably the one that he helped me the most with is I asked him how do you make long prayers more effective? He told me that actually our prayers don't really have to be long. I was like well I wanna pray for my investigators, my less-actives, members here in Binan, everyone in my zone, my family, my friends like everyone! And then in PMG it counsels us to give an accounting for our day's activities and also our next day's plans in our prayers.... So I was like how do I do that?? I told him what I kinda have tried to start doing is before praying I think about the day and things that we need and blessing I saw and what not and then I pray. President Stucki said that thats what he would tell me to do because there was one time when Joseph Smith called someone on a mission and the only counsel he gave him was to "keep your prayers short." So he told me that often he remembers that Heavenly Father knows all things and the needs of all so he ponders out in his mind that things that are most important and approaches him full of thanks and with a few questions or special blessings that he feels are the most pertinent. So I'm super grateful for an awesome mission president! He told me and Elder Orth that we would be together for one more but he didn't say like just one more or anything. So I don't have any hints. What we figure is if I don't transfer here at the end of february then I'm going to die here but we'll see!
BTW, how many missionaries are in your zone?
We have 7 companionships which is about average. But as more missionaries come we're looking to add another set of missionaries in 2 or 3 different areas in our zone. So we're going to become a pretty large zone hopefully. We have 2 sets of sisters and the rest elders. We've got 6 americans, 1 guamanian from texas, 1 canadian, 2 filipinos, 1 sri lankan, 1 poly, 1 american from the India mission that's waiting for his visa to get renewed, and 1 from the middle east that I haven't actually met yet so I don't know for sure. We rock. haha
Here's my new gospel insight for the week! I was like somewhat blown away when I received this inspiration. So I hope you guys have seen Elder Bednar's videos called Patterns of Light. If you havent.... you should really watch them. It's a three part short video series that is like life changing. So anyways Elder Bednar in the third part of the series teaches that generally there's about three types of revelation. First revelation like light coming because of a flip of a light switch where it kinda just hits you and its clear. Second, there's revelation like light from a sunrise. Where it's not really clear when the light gets there but it kinda just comes gradually but you know that there's light. And third, and most common he says, is like a foggy day in which you never see the whole picture real clearly but you have just enough light to make the next step into the fog and then you can see far enough ahead to take the next step or two and so on and so forth until you get to your destination. So in district meeting Elder Young taught about receiving revelation and we used three examples from the scriptures in 1 Nephi 11:1, D&C 76:19, and D&C 138:1-11. And as we looked those over.. I realized that those were the three ways that Elder Bednar said! Nephi's is the light switch kind because he was sitting there pondering and then BOOM. Swept up into a mountain. haha And then D&C 76:19 is the sunrise because it says that their eyes of their understanding was touched and the vision opened up. So opening our eyes sometimes, especially in the dark, sometimes takes some adjustment like the slow light received in a sunrise. Because it said that they were translating and then they stopped and "marveled" so for me at least that's the second kind. Then the third kind is in D&C138 because it came after days and days of pondering and then he went to the scriptures and pondered some more and then was inspired to read in 1 peter and then he thought some more and then the revelation came. To me thats a good example of step by step and then coming to a final destination. So yeah!
In less spiritual news, we had a member take us out to eat and he actually doesn't speak Tagalog cuz he's from Indonesia. So he's teaching me Indonesian! Buuuutt.. Saya idak visa bahasa Indonesian. ha! haha He says I could learn it in a month... ummm not too sure on that one.. haha In other other news... every time I go into a public bathroom here I'm reminded of the St. Louis Zoo because it smells just like the monkey house. always. hahaha
In more other news... I now understand why I was ALWAYS late for church and seminary. It served a purpose! So that way I could tell Sister Celorico on Thursday that it's alright if you're late cuz it's more important that you're there! And I could personally relate to her and testify that even though we should try our best to be on time it's more important to be late a little than to not be there at all... So I now feel justified in my being late always... hahaha =D Just kidding. You guys should not follow my example of lateness =)
Well I gotta get running! But I hope you guys all have a great week! Thanks to you all for being awesome friends family and dogs! Shout out to Santabelle!
Love,
Elder Michael Gadberry
PS -- Shout out to Elder Alvey for behold tis his birthday today! Boom shocka locka.
Wednesday, February 6, 2013
January 20, 2013 E-Mail!
Musta naman kayo diyan??
I haven't said this in a long time but.. I love Tagalog! It's so fun! And I love marveling at how far I've come since I first got here or since the MTC... It's amazing! But it's so not me cuz there's like some white people that literally live here and have lived here for a while but still can't speak the language.. So chalk the language learning up to the Lord! Hit me up after the mission and I'll try and teach ya something!
So I was curious, how do you decide what to concentrate on for your personal study?
Umm... it depends on if I have something cool that I'm studying about. But most consistently I read a little bit of Preach My Gospel and about a chapter in the Book of Mormon. Those are like the foundation of my study and then with extra time I study specifically for people if I haven't already covered them in my study or I study a general conference talk. But a lot of times PMG and BoM takes up my study cuz it's awesome stuff! And I don't read very fast.. I always am referencing back and forth between stuff and like trying to figure stuff out and what not cuz like over the course of my mission I think I've read the BoM cover to cover once.. haha And like a year ago I decided I was going to read PMG cover to cover and I'm still not done with that. Cuz its not just reading cover to cover but it's looking up all the scriptures and cross referencing things and studying further things I don't quite understand. But seriously. I go slow. haha But I like it I feel like I get more out of it.
Do you think they'll put additional missionaries on Coron?
I really want them to! . . . but its not too likely..
So this week was great! Guess what... sounds like a broken record but I started another new form of journal keeping! hahaha (This is going to be real fun trying to sort out all my different journals and what not when I get home.. haha) But I decided that since I don't have time at night to plan and update the area book and write in my journal and eat dinner and do everything...I'm making my journal writing easier cuz that's usually the thing that gets kicked off first when I have too much to do.. So now.. It's working good! But I'm doing what I call a "Notes-Style Journal." Kung saan, I write the events and highlights of the day in a format as you would taking notes like bullet points and what not.. so now its a lot faster and I still have a day to day record! #genius. #HopefullyItLasts haha So I will now refer to my "NSJ" to give you guys the highlights of the week!
Umm I'm short on time so I'll just tell you this one story. So on Saturday it was like terrible.. haha Our first appointment was a baptismal interview in San Gabriel like an hour away.. So we did that. I got to interview the guy and it went really well. So after that we went back to Binan and went to our appointments for the day. We only had 4 hours before our big appointment of the day with the Seachon family. So what happened is every single one of our appointments before that fell through... So we're like okay thats whatev so we started using our CMIS to contact members in the area that we don't already know. We went around and around and around and around.... and couldn't find a single person that we were looking for. #AdressesInThePhilippinesStink So that was napaka-frustrating. So we sat down to look over our records for anyone else to visit. And as we were sitting a guy on a motor scooter stopped and introduced himself as a less-active member and asked what time church was. So we got his info and all that and told him and he went on his way. And that was literally the only tiny bit of success we had that day because as our last appointment approached Elder Orth started getting really sick.. so we couldn't even go to that.. So we went home pretty frustrated and we were like... well at least a lot of people should be going to church tomorrow.. And then we were like, "If they don't come to church, we should just go home..." haha we were kidding of course but yeah.. you get our point. So then Sunday came AND. . . everyone came to church! And we had a few people bring their friends too! In all we had 9 investigators at church and probably 6 or seven less-actives! It was a super pick me up and much needed! So I'm so grateful that the Lord heard our murmuring....? haha just kidding but it was just really nice to see that our hard work wasn't wasted that the people we're teaching are progressing and it's goin be all good!
So I better get running cuz I still have to email President in less than twenty three minutes... (computer time is timed here cuz we're at an internet cafe... it's annoying..) So I hope you have a great week!
Love
Elder Michael Gadberry
I haven't said this in a long time but.. I love Tagalog! It's so fun! And I love marveling at how far I've come since I first got here or since the MTC... It's amazing! But it's so not me cuz there's like some white people that literally live here and have lived here for a while but still can't speak the language.. So chalk the language learning up to the Lord! Hit me up after the mission and I'll try and teach ya something!
So I was curious, how do you decide what to concentrate on for your personal study?
Umm... it depends on if I have something cool that I'm studying about. But most consistently I read a little bit of Preach My Gospel and about a chapter in the Book of Mormon. Those are like the foundation of my study and then with extra time I study specifically for people if I haven't already covered them in my study or I study a general conference talk. But a lot of times PMG and BoM takes up my study cuz it's awesome stuff! And I don't read very fast.. I always am referencing back and forth between stuff and like trying to figure stuff out and what not cuz like over the course of my mission I think I've read the BoM cover to cover once.. haha And like a year ago I decided I was going to read PMG cover to cover and I'm still not done with that. Cuz its not just reading cover to cover but it's looking up all the scriptures and cross referencing things and studying further things I don't quite understand. But seriously. I go slow. haha But I like it I feel like I get more out of it.
Do you think they'll put additional missionaries on Coron?
I really want them to! . . . but its not too likely..
So this week was great! Guess what... sounds like a broken record but I started another new form of journal keeping! hahaha (This is going to be real fun trying to sort out all my different journals and what not when I get home.. haha) But I decided that since I don't have time at night to plan and update the area book and write in my journal and eat dinner and do everything...I'm making my journal writing easier cuz that's usually the thing that gets kicked off first when I have too much to do.. So now.. It's working good! But I'm doing what I call a "Notes-Style Journal." Kung saan, I write the events and highlights of the day in a format as you would taking notes like bullet points and what not.. so now its a lot faster and I still have a day to day record! #genius. #HopefullyItLasts haha So I will now refer to my "NSJ" to give you guys the highlights of the week!
Umm I'm short on time so I'll just tell you this one story. So on Saturday it was like terrible.. haha Our first appointment was a baptismal interview in San Gabriel like an hour away.. So we did that. I got to interview the guy and it went really well. So after that we went back to Binan and went to our appointments for the day. We only had 4 hours before our big appointment of the day with the Seachon family. So what happened is every single one of our appointments before that fell through... So we're like okay thats whatev so we started using our CMIS to contact members in the area that we don't already know. We went around and around and around and around.... and couldn't find a single person that we were looking for. #AdressesInThePhilippinesStink So that was napaka-frustrating. So we sat down to look over our records for anyone else to visit. And as we were sitting a guy on a motor scooter stopped and introduced himself as a less-active member and asked what time church was. So we got his info and all that and told him and he went on his way. And that was literally the only tiny bit of success we had that day because as our last appointment approached Elder Orth started getting really sick.. so we couldn't even go to that.. So we went home pretty frustrated and we were like... well at least a lot of people should be going to church tomorrow.. And then we were like, "If they don't come to church, we should just go home..." haha we were kidding of course but yeah.. you get our point. So then Sunday came AND. . . everyone came to church! And we had a few people bring their friends too! In all we had 9 investigators at church and probably 6 or seven less-actives! It was a super pick me up and much needed! So I'm so grateful that the Lord heard our murmuring....? haha just kidding but it was just really nice to see that our hard work wasn't wasted that the people we're teaching are progressing and it's goin be all good!
So I better get running cuz I still have to email President in less than twenty three minutes... (computer time is timed here cuz we're at an internet cafe... it's annoying..) So I hope you have a great week!
Love
Elder Michael Gadberry
Tuesday, February 5, 2013
January 13, 2013 E-Mail!
Howdy errbody!
How's it goin...? =) Over here it's partly cloudy with yet another great week under my belt. Good stuff.. haha I'm too funny. As in. Too..funny.
How hard is it for the members to get to the temple? Is it close enough that it isn't too much of a sacrifice?
It's not too hard. It's not too much of a sacrifice except I think one of the biggest challenges is finding the time to go. I feel like everyone with a job here works monday thru saturday and they're lucky if they have sunday off. We have a lot of members out here that haven't gone to the temple though. I feel like its kinda due to a lack of information. I know its a misconception among many members that they think that if their whole family aren't members than they can't go. It's probably due to everyone teaching that families can be together forever so then the members think that if they're not getting sealed they can't go..
So is the weather more normal now?
Actually not really... It's not supposed to be raining now but it rained like half the week and got reallyyyy cold! We're talking probably like below 70 degrees! haha But seriously, every morning when I woke up I would hurry up and put my jacket on. Then I would go exercise real hard with the jacket on so I can get really hot before taking the now even colder shower.. haha
Have you guys experienced the influx of new missionaries yet?
Nah not really yet.. I think probably the next couple transfers we'll begin to see it cuz they're asking us if there's any areas in our zone where we think that having more missionaries would be helpful. We're thinking Binan might get another set! That'll put three sets of us in here.. but its much needed with all the work that needs to get done.
When do you normally find out about transfers? Any rumors/speculation as to what will happen to your companionship?
Umm.. no news.. We have interviews with President on Friday so we might get some info there.. but if we don't get info there we should get info the next monday so either way it wont make a difference for you guys.. No idea whats happening to us. I don't see why we wouldn't stay another here but we'll see!
So I'll just share with you guys a couple experiences this week.
First, it was pretty interesting one day. We had an appointment in the early afternoon and that went pretty good. So after that we went to some of our next appointments. We went to three different places.. and our people weren't there or had to cancel or what not. And these people are like kinda far away from each other.. We probably went like 2 or 3 hrs just walking around to these places. And like literally, everything fell through. So then like the least likely option was one of the only options we had left. We had tried to visit this guy multiple times and he's never there nor do they know when he'll be there so its kinda frustrating.. So we went to him and he was there! It was crazy! And we had a really good lesson! So when I was thinking about it.. that's how it had to be! This guy is always the first one that we drop off our schedule when we start getting behind so in order for us to visit him... everything else had to fall through! haha It sounds kinda lame but I was actually thankful for the Lord's hand in that case. Even though half the day was really frustrating.. it had to be that way so that way we would talk to Brother Asuncion and the Lord knew that! I thought it was cool.
Another thing, for part of this week I was kinda frustrated by my personal studies.. I would have good studies but like I felt like that was it. They weren't that effective. So unfortunately, I was kinda murmuring in my head.. But then came Saturday and in one appointment I used little pieces from almost all my personal studies that week and I was pretty much immediately humbled... haha And I decided I should stop murmuring and just do work.. haha
And a third thing, I just wanna brag for a sec.. But not about me about Sister Rocelyn the sister that got baptized on Dec 26! So this Sunday they reorganized the Relief Society and Sister Rocelyn was called to serve as a Secretary in the Relief Society Presidency! I'm so pumped for her cuz it's not like due to lack of options cuz this "branch" has around 250 people going to church every week.So we're like super pumped for her and she's going to do a ton of good there! Woo!
Well I better wrap up! Running out of time! We gotta make it to a birthday here shortly! Woo! haha I'll throw some pics on here. These are from the zone activity we just had today. Good times. =D
Have a great day! week! month! year! life!
Love
Elder Michael Gadberry
How's it goin...? =) Over here it's partly cloudy with yet another great week under my belt. Good stuff.. haha I'm too funny. As in. Too..funny.
How hard is it for the members to get to the temple? Is it close enough that it isn't too much of a sacrifice?
It's not too hard. It's not too much of a sacrifice except I think one of the biggest challenges is finding the time to go. I feel like everyone with a job here works monday thru saturday and they're lucky if they have sunday off. We have a lot of members out here that haven't gone to the temple though. I feel like its kinda due to a lack of information. I know its a misconception among many members that they think that if their whole family aren't members than they can't go. It's probably due to everyone teaching that families can be together forever so then the members think that if they're not getting sealed they can't go..
So is the weather more normal now?
Actually not really... It's not supposed to be raining now but it rained like half the week and got reallyyyy cold! We're talking probably like below 70 degrees! haha But seriously, every morning when I woke up I would hurry up and put my jacket on. Then I would go exercise real hard with the jacket on so I can get really hot before taking the now even colder shower.. haha
Have you guys experienced the influx of new missionaries yet?
Nah not really yet.. I think probably the next couple transfers we'll begin to see it cuz they're asking us if there's any areas in our zone where we think that having more missionaries would be helpful. We're thinking Binan might get another set! That'll put three sets of us in here.. but its much needed with all the work that needs to get done.
When do you normally find out about transfers? Any rumors/speculation as to what will happen to your companionship?
Umm.. no news.. We have interviews with President on Friday so we might get some info there.. but if we don't get info there we should get info the next monday so either way it wont make a difference for you guys.. No idea whats happening to us. I don't see why we wouldn't stay another here but we'll see!
So I'll just share with you guys a couple experiences this week.
First, it was pretty interesting one day. We had an appointment in the early afternoon and that went pretty good. So after that we went to some of our next appointments. We went to three different places.. and our people weren't there or had to cancel or what not. And these people are like kinda far away from each other.. We probably went like 2 or 3 hrs just walking around to these places. And like literally, everything fell through. So then like the least likely option was one of the only options we had left. We had tried to visit this guy multiple times and he's never there nor do they know when he'll be there so its kinda frustrating.. So we went to him and he was there! It was crazy! And we had a really good lesson! So when I was thinking about it.. that's how it had to be! This guy is always the first one that we drop off our schedule when we start getting behind so in order for us to visit him... everything else had to fall through! haha It sounds kinda lame but I was actually thankful for the Lord's hand in that case. Even though half the day was really frustrating.. it had to be that way so that way we would talk to Brother Asuncion and the Lord knew that! I thought it was cool.
Another thing, for part of this week I was kinda frustrated by my personal studies.. I would have good studies but like I felt like that was it. They weren't that effective. So unfortunately, I was kinda murmuring in my head.. But then came Saturday and in one appointment I used little pieces from almost all my personal studies that week and I was pretty much immediately humbled... haha And I decided I should stop murmuring and just do work.. haha
And a third thing, I just wanna brag for a sec.. But not about me about Sister Rocelyn the sister that got baptized on Dec 26! So this Sunday they reorganized the Relief Society and Sister Rocelyn was called to serve as a Secretary in the Relief Society Presidency! I'm so pumped for her cuz it's not like due to lack of options cuz this "branch" has around 250 people going to church every week.So we're like super pumped for her and she's going to do a ton of good there! Woo!
Well I better wrap up! Running out of time! We gotta make it to a birthday here shortly! Woo! haha I'll throw some pics on here. These are from the zone activity we just had today. Good times. =D
Have a great day! week! month! year! life!
Love
Elder Michael Gadberry
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