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
Sunday, February 24, 2013
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
January 6, 2012 E-Mail!
Hey Everyone!
Last week I had a cool little insight about "ka-trunky-han" per say.. (Trunky: being excited about going home and maybe not working as hard) Our new Distric Leader here in Biñan is on his last transfer and so he hasn't had the best mission but he's be given the DL assignment here in his last transfer. So last week, President Stucki gave me a specific assignment to talk to him and help him get/stay on track. Of course, I wasn't too excited for that prospect considering I'm one of the least confrontational guys ever buttt.. I did what I could. So I sat down with him and mostly just reviewed his responsibilities as a DL and gave him what tips I had for him and we were able to discuss any questions or concerns that he had and it went really good. I actually was also asked to address to him about finishing his mission strong and not slacking off and so as I thought about it, the Spirit inspired me with an a really cool idea and it really helped me and I think it helped our DL as well. So I'm pretty proud to call myself an athlete. So with that comes the expectation of finishing strong. What kind of athlete quits when the game is close and there's only one quarter, five minutes, or one minute left to play? Even if the game isn't close, athletes go strong to the finish. so I explained to him that the mission is kind of like a basketball game. Usually, its the last quarter or two minutes of the game that's the most important. I explained to him at this point he's in that last two minutes stage of his mission and that he isn't just another player but that the Lord has called him to step up and be a captain or a leader. I really thought about that after our conversation and thought it really inspiring because there is no athlete that would ever quit and just look forward to the next game especially in the "crunch time." That is the time when you go your hardest, when you finish strong, so that way at the end of the game you can say, "we did it," and then begin looking forward and preparing for the next step. So I'm really grateful for the Spirit and those times in life where we think we're teaching but it's actually us being taught. I love what it says in D&C 50:22, I believe, where it says that when things are taught and received by the Spirit both are edified and rejoice together.
So let's get to what the parents are askin..
Any idea what will happen on the upcoming transfer?
Umm... like none whatsoever... We've still got a couple weeks though I think. We figure we'll stay one more but that's what Elder Tenny and I thought as well.. so we'll see! The Lord's will be done. =D
It sounds like the reactivation efforts are going well. Any new success stories from this week?
YES! This week was awesome for less-active work! Brother Xernan made it to church for the fourth time in a row so he's officially "returning." Which is like a baptism if you do it well. Because in the rescue mission you should be reteaching these people. So you have to teach better than the first missionaries did and help them experience that "mighty change of heart" that is conversion. Because reactivating and stopping is the same as baptizing and then stopping. It leaves a great chance for them to fall away again. So Xernan got ordained a couple weeks ago to the Aaronic Priesthood and we're working on getting him to the temple to do baptisms for the dead and also trying to get him to do institute.
Just overall, church was awesome! Cuz we had almost all of the Less-actives that we're teaching show up to church! We had like 10+ less-actives at sacrament meeting! Two of them were families that came for the first time! So like seriously I was super pumped for them!
Then, one of our somewhat recently reactivated branch missionaries told us that he had a couple cousins that he wanted us to visit and help reactivate. So one day we went there and met them and it went really well! A lot of them are not yet members so thats super exciting for us. They were really receptive and we've already taught them twice. In our area, especially with the current situation with us being super close to "stake-hood," we've been asked by President Stucki focus on 1. Cleaning up the records and 2. Focus on the Melchizedek Priesthood. He promised us that if we would not be short on people to teach. And we've already seen that being fulfilled. Because if we ever have holes in our schedule we go directly to the ward directory and try to contact some new people and see if they're there. So we kinda rarely do your classic walking down the street talking with john smith on the side of the road in order to find. But we've seen the promise being fulfilled because we nearly led the zone in New Investigators this week even though we never really did the classic idea of finding. So that's been really cool to see.
Sorry to cut this pretty short but I gotta get running sorry! But I'll try to describe the pics for you cuz that fills in some of the holes in the week.
I hope you guys have an awesome week!
Love
Elder Michael Gadberry
Pictures
0383-0386 -- So Elder Orth made salsa on New Years! It was super good! But we thought that those nacho chips was the best part! Read the box and then look at the pictures and see if you can make any connections.
0387 -- All the JUNK I ate at New Years.. =D
0388-0403 -- Chillin and fireworks! I can't send them but I've got 3 ten minute videos of non-stop fireworks.. haha Hit me up when I get home and we'll watch them and rejoice. haha
0404/0405 -- We bought Elder Atoigue a cake for his birthday! woo! haha
0407 -- Elder Grob's Christmas present for me. #classic He ate all the pez already. #NotCool
7777-7784 -- Havin fun on the jeepney.
7789 -- New Years with Elder Cahilig
286 -- old birthday pic from elder guam
347 -- elder orth and i look like tards in this picture... haha
360-365 -- New Years pics some more #goodtimes
Last week I had a cool little insight about "ka-trunky-han" per say.. (Trunky: being excited about going home and maybe not working as hard) Our new Distric Leader here in Biñan is on his last transfer and so he hasn't had the best mission but he's be given the DL assignment here in his last transfer. So last week, President Stucki gave me a specific assignment to talk to him and help him get/stay on track. Of course, I wasn't too excited for that prospect considering I'm one of the least confrontational guys ever buttt.. I did what I could. So I sat down with him and mostly just reviewed his responsibilities as a DL and gave him what tips I had for him and we were able to discuss any questions or concerns that he had and it went really good. I actually was also asked to address to him about finishing his mission strong and not slacking off and so as I thought about it, the Spirit inspired me with an a really cool idea and it really helped me and I think it helped our DL as well. So I'm pretty proud to call myself an athlete. So with that comes the expectation of finishing strong. What kind of athlete quits when the game is close and there's only one quarter, five minutes, or one minute left to play? Even if the game isn't close, athletes go strong to the finish. so I explained to him that the mission is kind of like a basketball game. Usually, its the last quarter or two minutes of the game that's the most important. I explained to him at this point he's in that last two minutes stage of his mission and that he isn't just another player but that the Lord has called him to step up and be a captain or a leader. I really thought about that after our conversation and thought it really inspiring because there is no athlete that would ever quit and just look forward to the next game especially in the "crunch time." That is the time when you go your hardest, when you finish strong, so that way at the end of the game you can say, "we did it," and then begin looking forward and preparing for the next step. So I'm really grateful for the Spirit and those times in life where we think we're teaching but it's actually us being taught. I love what it says in D&C 50:22, I believe, where it says that when things are taught and received by the Spirit both are edified and rejoice together.
So let's get to what the parents are askin..
Any idea what will happen on the upcoming transfer?
Umm... like none whatsoever... We've still got a couple weeks though I think. We figure we'll stay one more but that's what Elder Tenny and I thought as well.. so we'll see! The Lord's will be done. =D
It sounds like the reactivation efforts are going well. Any new success stories from this week?
YES! This week was awesome for less-active work! Brother Xernan made it to church for the fourth time in a row so he's officially "returning." Which is like a baptism if you do it well. Because in the rescue mission you should be reteaching these people. So you have to teach better than the first missionaries did and help them experience that "mighty change of heart" that is conversion. Because reactivating and stopping is the same as baptizing and then stopping. It leaves a great chance for them to fall away again. So Xernan got ordained a couple weeks ago to the Aaronic Priesthood and we're working on getting him to the temple to do baptisms for the dead and also trying to get him to do institute.
Just overall, church was awesome! Cuz we had almost all of the Less-actives that we're teaching show up to church! We had like 10+ less-actives at sacrament meeting! Two of them were families that came for the first time! So like seriously I was super pumped for them!
Then, one of our somewhat recently reactivated branch missionaries told us that he had a couple cousins that he wanted us to visit and help reactivate. So one day we went there and met them and it went really well! A lot of them are not yet members so thats super exciting for us. They were really receptive and we've already taught them twice. In our area, especially with the current situation with us being super close to "stake-hood," we've been asked by President Stucki focus on 1. Cleaning up the records and 2. Focus on the Melchizedek Priesthood. He promised us that if we would not be short on people to teach. And we've already seen that being fulfilled. Because if we ever have holes in our schedule we go directly to the ward directory and try to contact some new people and see if they're there. So we kinda rarely do your classic walking down the street talking with john smith on the side of the road in order to find. But we've seen the promise being fulfilled because we nearly led the zone in New Investigators this week even though we never really did the classic idea of finding. So that's been really cool to see.
Sorry to cut this pretty short but I gotta get running sorry! But I'll try to describe the pics for you cuz that fills in some of the holes in the week.
I hope you guys have an awesome week!
Love
Elder Michael Gadberry
Pictures
0383-0386 -- So Elder Orth made salsa on New Years! It was super good! But we thought that those nacho chips was the best part! Read the box and then look at the pictures and see if you can make any connections.
0387 -- All the JUNK I ate at New Years.. =D
0388-0403 -- Chillin and fireworks! I can't send them but I've got 3 ten minute videos of non-stop fireworks.. haha Hit me up when I get home and we'll watch them and rejoice. haha
0404/0405 -- We bought Elder Atoigue a cake for his birthday! woo! haha
0407 -- Elder Grob's Christmas present for me. #classic He ate all the pez already. #NotCool
7777-7784 -- Havin fun on the jeepney.
7789 -- New Years with Elder Cahilig
286 -- old birthday pic from elder guam
347 -- elder orth and i look like tards in this picture... haha
360-365 -- New Years pics some more #goodtimes
December 31, 2012 E-Mail!
So.. una sa lahat,
Happy New Year to everyone!
My parents asked me if new year was a big deal here in the Philippines and I'd like to answer that with a quote from my current Branch President yesterday in Sacrament Meeting. He said, "Happy New Year ulit po sa inyong lahat at sana pagdating ng next Sunday, buo pa rin ang mga darili po natin.. *snicker-snicker*" Which means, "Happy New Year again (respect kwan) to you all at hopefully when arrived next sunday, whole still is our fingers" Which in english means, Happy New Year again to all of you and hopefully when we come back again next sunday, we all still have our fingers. hahaha So "sa madaling salita" New Years is a big deal here and it's quite the dangerous holiday. Every year there's more than a handful of deaths from fireworks.. Some Filipinos think its crazy and dangerous but others, especially children take pride in making their street look and sound like a war zone. And just to kinda like add to how intense it is....I wasn't the one that described it as a war zone.. thats the people here..
Has it already been 6 months for Elder Grob doing the finances? That seemed to fly by.
Yeah I think it has been like 6 months actually... super weird! I don't know if I mentioned it last time.. actually I just remembered I did but yeah there's a new guy in the office. He's super cool. I always called Elder Grob sunshine so Elder Record gets a nickname too and I dubbed him supastar. So yeah... Fun fact of the day!
So how are the activation efforts going? Can you do splits with members to cover more ground?
Hey now that would sound like a great idea right?? Well.. it would be great except... no one wants to help. Well they all say they want to help but no matter how many times we request visiting teachers or home teachers or just a member to go with us to meet the less-active....nothin. But as far as mine and Elder Orth's efforts its going super good! We're teaching some really good lessons and seeing some progression and its really exciting. We're literally watching these people repent and change their lives even just a little and its really great to have the opportunity to see it and share the gospel with them. I really consider it a privilege to teach these people, especially the less-actives because this is a chance to help someone really experience conversion and lasting change for the better. Because "true doctrine understood changes behavior faster than even a study of behavior can change behavior." So that's what we're really trying to do.
Umm... sorry talaga sa superrrr short email but I gotta get going! We have an early curfew tonight... hahaha But I hope you enjoy the pictures from:
Rocelyn's baptism! (ex-baptist missionary and now essentially a LDS missionary! She's so awesome! Sharing the gospel and everything!)
Kuya Wilson! -- he was the 2nd counselor of the bishopric in Manda 2nd and superrr cool! His sister is sister janice from coron and so we've kinda had like a automatic bond from that cuz he was actually baptized in coron back when his family were the only members there and there were no missionaries or anything.
I also saw the Dingco's! And that's Daniel Dingco who has finally been baptized! Me and Elder Handy started teaching him...well more like he finally started listening to us cuz we were always at their house and then him and arthur got baptized a few weeks after I left ternate.
And then we had a lot of fun on the jeepney after temple tour...
And one of our ward missionaries got her mission call to Bagio!
And Elder Cayme created the san gab zone on the chalk board.. that's us!
So I hope you all have wonderful new years! Be safe!
Happy New Year to everyone!
My parents asked me if new year was a big deal here in the Philippines and I'd like to answer that with a quote from my current Branch President yesterday in Sacrament Meeting. He said, "Happy New Year ulit po sa inyong lahat at sana pagdating ng next Sunday, buo pa rin ang mga darili po natin.. *snicker-snicker*" Which means, "Happy New Year again (respect kwan) to you all at hopefully when arrived next sunday, whole still is our fingers" Which in english means, Happy New Year again to all of you and hopefully when we come back again next sunday, we all still have our fingers. hahaha So "sa madaling salita" New Years is a big deal here and it's quite the dangerous holiday. Every year there's more than a handful of deaths from fireworks.. Some Filipinos think its crazy and dangerous but others, especially children take pride in making their street look and sound like a war zone. And just to kinda like add to how intense it is....I wasn't the one that described it as a war zone.. thats the people here..
Has it already been 6 months for Elder Grob doing the finances? That seemed to fly by.
Yeah I think it has been like 6 months actually... super weird! I don't know if I mentioned it last time.. actually I just remembered I did but yeah there's a new guy in the office. He's super cool. I always called Elder Grob sunshine so Elder Record gets a nickname too and I dubbed him supastar. So yeah... Fun fact of the day!
So how are the activation efforts going? Can you do splits with members to cover more ground?
Hey now that would sound like a great idea right?? Well.. it would be great except... no one wants to help. Well they all say they want to help but no matter how many times we request visiting teachers or home teachers or just a member to go with us to meet the less-active....nothin. But as far as mine and Elder Orth's efforts its going super good! We're teaching some really good lessons and seeing some progression and its really exciting. We're literally watching these people repent and change their lives even just a little and its really great to have the opportunity to see it and share the gospel with them. I really consider it a privilege to teach these people, especially the less-actives because this is a chance to help someone really experience conversion and lasting change for the better. Because "true doctrine understood changes behavior faster than even a study of behavior can change behavior." So that's what we're really trying to do.
Umm... sorry talaga sa superrrr short email but I gotta get going! We have an early curfew tonight... hahaha But I hope you enjoy the pictures from:
Rocelyn's baptism! (ex-baptist missionary and now essentially a LDS missionary! She's so awesome! Sharing the gospel and everything!)
Kuya Wilson! -- he was the 2nd counselor of the bishopric in Manda 2nd and superrr cool! His sister is sister janice from coron and so we've kinda had like a automatic bond from that cuz he was actually baptized in coron back when his family were the only members there and there were no missionaries or anything.
I also saw the Dingco's! And that's Daniel Dingco who has finally been baptized! Me and Elder Handy started teaching him...well more like he finally started listening to us cuz we were always at their house and then him and arthur got baptized a few weeks after I left ternate.
And then we had a lot of fun on the jeepney after temple tour...
And one of our ward missionaries got her mission call to Bagio!
And Elder Cayme created the san gab zone on the chalk board.. that's us!
So I hope you all have wonderful new years! Be safe!
December 26, 2012 E-Mail!
Maligayong Pasko!
I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! Cuz we definitely had a great one here in the Philippines!
So you are hosting the Mission Christmas party? That's pretty cool. I'm sure you did awesome. We need a story or two from that.
Well I was going to but it didn't end up happening.. You know how I said I felt like crap last Sunday but I'm getting better? Yeah...I didn't exactly get better till like yesterday... I spent the last week feeling pretty trashy.. it was super annoying. Like last Wednesday I didn't have a voice.. so that was real interesting. I actually kinda enjoyed it cuz it was a different experience. Originally I was supposed to just like not talk but then once we get into a lesson I can't just "not talk." haha So what I ended up doing was I had to be very choosy about my words and what I said cuz I could only get like a sentence out at a time. So it was actually pretty cool to really think and try to listen to the Spirit to only say what really needed to be said. I also decided to rely on the scriptures.. haha I was like since I can't talk, I'll just have the scriptures say what I want to say! So that was fun as well.
That is fantastic about Brother Marvin! Keep us posted on him please.
So yeah.. Latest news from his is no news.. haha He actually attended the branch christmas party on Thursday but didn't make it to church on Sunday. So yeah, we're not too sure why but that's how it goes with "Mystery Marvin" So you know what they say.. "no news is good news." . . . right? haha maybe not in this case...
So since this is the first time in forever that I've been able to send pics maybe I'll just explain life and the pics for the rest of the email.
0316 -- Elder Tenny and I with Sister Rocelyn. She's super legit! She's getting baptized tomorrow! Her husband is a member (pero less-active.. haha) and she used to be a baptist missionary. So she's super cool cuz she's already sharing the gospel with people. She's bringing her little Book of Mormon everywhere she goes and she really understands like that when she becomes a member she still has lots of stuff to do like callings and go to the temple and what not and she's excited.
0317 -- Now this is one of my favorite pictures my whole mission. It's Elder Tenny with one of the Recent Converts here in Biñan. His name is Jericho and he's like a 4"6' deacon.. haha He's like the most innocent person ever. We taught them about Lehi's dream and he wanted to know what kinda of fruit the fruit of the tree of life was. Just so you know, he decided they were grapes cuz thats his favorite. The tree is also a magic tree because it never runs out of fruit. And the people holding the iron rod really have the better end of the deal cuz the people in the great and spacious building might have a big nice building but they don't have any food so they'll starve whereas the other people of the tree that produces fruit and its not really that important to have a big house cuz you can just sleep on the ground if you want.
0318 -- Elder Tenny and I drinking the water out of coconuts. It's okay... It's just really warm so it'd taste better if it were cold.
0323 -- Yeah.. idk.. just playing around with black and white
0324-0327 -- The San Gabriel Zone at the Christmas party
0333 -- Elder Griffin haha
0334/0335 -- The Finance generation! Me, then Elder Grob and we now welcome Elder Record!
0336/0337 -- Me and Sister Lopez and then throw in Elder Robbins! I miss Elder Robbins.. what a guy! haha
0339/0340 -- Elder Pugmire and I with Santa Dietrich.. haha
0342 -- Our Branch Presidency present BeeGees at the Christmas party
0344-0348 -- Our Zone Christmas FHE at the Forinash's! It was awesome! We even went caroling! Which brings up a new fun culture fact. Here in the Philippines children always go caroling but they do so to make money. They come to your house mumble through a song... if you're lucky... and then ask you for money.. haha It makes caroling more of a nuisance than a joyous event of the season. But of course we just went caroling to sing to people in the neighborhood and it was awesome it made Christmas feel more like Christmas.
0349/0350 -- We stuffed the whole zone in the van and went home while I led the zone in shouting christmas songs that we were longing to sing like Jingle Bells, Frosty the Snowman, I'm dreaming of a white christmas and all that jazz. Don't worry I didn't forget the "Elf" classic... Santa Claus is Coming to Town.
0353-0356 -- Woke up Christmas morning and started playing with our toys.. haha Bad-mitten and Hello Kitty Uno! haha
0358 -- Christmas lunch with Sister Garcia! It was like the best food EVER! We've got some pasta and I think its called like Chinese Ham or Pork and some chicken cooked with lemon and other vegetables and what not. SO GOOD! Oh and thats Elder Cahilig by the way.. haha Elder Atoigue's new comp.
0359 -- Traffic here in Biñan STINKS! Even on Christmas! Yes that is a line of jeepneys going off into the distance..
0360 -- Thats the church here in Binan
0361-0363 -- Christmas dinner with the Cañada family and some branch missionaries.
So thats all my pics! I better get going now! Sorry! Hope you all have a great week! And a great holiday season! Do something nice for someone for me! Thanks! haha
Love you all!
Elder Michael Gadberry
Sunday, February 3, 2013
December 18, 2012 E-Mail!
Halo ang aking mga minamahal sa buhay,
First of all parents... in the states "Halo" is an incredibly overplayed and not terribly exciting video game. Secondly, in the Philippines... Halo means mixed.. When ever dad comes over here I'll be sure that he eats a halo-halo. Actually, chances are he'd actually like it.. #DadsWeird Third, thanks for trying. haha Okay sorry for being hard on you but thats just how I roll.. sometimes.. kinda.. yeah....
Well this email is going to be pretty short cuz we have like zero time today.. sorry! First preparation day of the transfer and we had a lot of stuff we had to get done..
What does OYM stand for? As in "a rather hilarious OYM we had the other day".
It means "Open Your Mouth" as in times where you talk to someone to share the gospel. I'm not very good at it.. still kinda how I was in not a big fan of starting conversations with people I don't know... but I've gotten a tonnn better since coming on the mission!
So how is your new companion, eh? How long has he been out, eh?
ha. ha. ha. You see, my companion's Canadian.. So my new companion is Elder Orth from British Columbia a town called Cranbrook. He's pretty cool. He's been out only about 14 months and this is his third area. He's kinda different than Elder Tenny but at the same time we've gotten tight like right away so its been pretty cool. I like being a ZL cuz it means that your companion is definitely going to be good, so thats always a plus.
Is it unusual that other than when you were on Coron you've only had English speaking companions?
Umm.. I think so.. haha But some of that was thrown off cuz of my time in the office.. But I know there's at least another missionary that's only had three transfers of Filipino companions. At least this one's not American, he's Canadian.. haha Another interesting thing is though of all my american companions only two have been from utah the missionary capital of the world.. haha
So how is Brother Marvin doing?
Brother Marvin is incredible! He went to church this week again. So we got to teach him again. It's awesome because our incredibly skilled, ex-district presidency counselor, Brother Balute has decided to be his fellowshipper. So we got to teach him again after church and it was awesome. Brother Balute was there and we taught the Restoration. I actually invited Brother Balute to teach about Joseph Smith because 1. I felt like trash that day, so I couldn't talk too much. (don't worry I'm getting better) 2. Sometimes people only allow the members to share their testimony at the end but I feel that you should involve them much more. Especially when its someone of his caliber because when he gets to teach and not just bear testimony it will increase Brother Marvin's testimony that someone else other than these two missionaries knows its true. And it will increase his trust in Brother Balute and increase Brother Balute's desire for Brother Marvin's conversion. And I was also thinking that because Brother Balute was so involved in the lesson it will increase his desire and his excitement to share the gospel with more people, opening the doors for referrals down the road. So it was really cool! I testified of living prophets and apostles and showed him the picture from the conference edition of the Liahona that I carry around with me to him. He thought that that was really cool and even noticed at the bottom of the page where it listed the Presidency of the Seventy. He's like so you guys have a seventy too?? I was like yeah! Just like Christ's church in the Bible! And he thought it was really cool because he remembered reading about the seventies organized and sent forth to teach the gospel. So we're super excited for him. We've got a branch Christmas Party on Thursday and he said he's going to attend so its going to be great! We also have a mission christmas party that day so its going to be a pretty sick day.. haha
So the dinner pictures, was that a zonie council meeting dinner?
Yes.
haha
So with my short time I'm goin have to close this.. sorry! But I might suggest something that guys can do that I've really appreciated lately. Every night before I go to bed I review the day and I look for at least three times in which I saw the hand of the Lord in my life. I look for little blessings that I wasn't expecting or people's hearts being softened or ideas given to me to share or words given to me to speak or things that happened to me to in the past that perfectly applied to something today or just anything like surviving a tricycle ride from a fairly obviously intoxicated driver.. haha! I suggested this idea to one of our LAs that actually just officially returned this Sunday.. Yay! and she thought it was an awesome idea and said she was going to try it. At first actually it was kinda hard to pick those things out but I know that the Lord's hand is in all of our lives and we'll see it more and more as we look for it and as we become grateful receivers of the Lord's gifts like President Uchtdorf kinda talked about at the Christmas Devo. But as I've been looking better for the Lord's hand I see it more and more all over the place and I'm extremely grateful for it.
So I hope you all have wonderful weeks!
Love
Elder Michael Gadberry
First of all parents... in the states "Halo" is an incredibly overplayed and not terribly exciting video game. Secondly, in the Philippines... Halo means mixed.. When ever dad comes over here I'll be sure that he eats a halo-halo. Actually, chances are he'd actually like it.. #DadsWeird Third, thanks for trying. haha Okay sorry for being hard on you but thats just how I roll.. sometimes.. kinda.. yeah....
Well this email is going to be pretty short cuz we have like zero time today.. sorry! First preparation day of the transfer and we had a lot of stuff we had to get done..
What does OYM stand for? As in "a rather hilarious OYM we had the other day".
It means "Open Your Mouth" as in times where you talk to someone to share the gospel. I'm not very good at it.. still kinda how I was in not a big fan of starting conversations with people I don't know... but I've gotten a tonnn better since coming on the mission!
So how is your new companion, eh? How long has he been out, eh?
ha. ha. ha. You see, my companion's Canadian.. So my new companion is Elder Orth from British Columbia a town called Cranbrook. He's pretty cool. He's been out only about 14 months and this is his third area. He's kinda different than Elder Tenny but at the same time we've gotten tight like right away so its been pretty cool. I like being a ZL cuz it means that your companion is definitely going to be good, so thats always a plus.
Is it unusual that other than when you were on Coron you've only had English speaking companions?
Umm.. I think so.. haha But some of that was thrown off cuz of my time in the office.. But I know there's at least another missionary that's only had three transfers of Filipino companions. At least this one's not American, he's Canadian.. haha Another interesting thing is though of all my american companions only two have been from utah the missionary capital of the world.. haha
So how is Brother Marvin doing?
Brother Marvin is incredible! He went to church this week again. So we got to teach him again. It's awesome because our incredibly skilled, ex-district presidency counselor, Brother Balute has decided to be his fellowshipper. So we got to teach him again after church and it was awesome. Brother Balute was there and we taught the Restoration. I actually invited Brother Balute to teach about Joseph Smith because 1. I felt like trash that day, so I couldn't talk too much. (don't worry I'm getting better) 2. Sometimes people only allow the members to share their testimony at the end but I feel that you should involve them much more. Especially when its someone of his caliber because when he gets to teach and not just bear testimony it will increase Brother Marvin's testimony that someone else other than these two missionaries knows its true. And it will increase his trust in Brother Balute and increase Brother Balute's desire for Brother Marvin's conversion. And I was also thinking that because Brother Balute was so involved in the lesson it will increase his desire and his excitement to share the gospel with more people, opening the doors for referrals down the road. So it was really cool! I testified of living prophets and apostles and showed him the picture from the conference edition of the Liahona that I carry around with me to him. He thought that that was really cool and even noticed at the bottom of the page where it listed the Presidency of the Seventy. He's like so you guys have a seventy too?? I was like yeah! Just like Christ's church in the Bible! And he thought it was really cool because he remembered reading about the seventies organized and sent forth to teach the gospel. So we're super excited for him. We've got a branch Christmas Party on Thursday and he said he's going to attend so its going to be great! We also have a mission christmas party that day so its going to be a pretty sick day.. haha
So the dinner pictures, was that a zonie council meeting dinner?
Yes.
haha
So with my short time I'm goin have to close this.. sorry! But I might suggest something that guys can do that I've really appreciated lately. Every night before I go to bed I review the day and I look for at least three times in which I saw the hand of the Lord in my life. I look for little blessings that I wasn't expecting or people's hearts being softened or ideas given to me to share or words given to me to speak or things that happened to me to in the past that perfectly applied to something today or just anything like surviving a tricycle ride from a fairly obviously intoxicated driver.. haha! I suggested this idea to one of our LAs that actually just officially returned this Sunday.. Yay! and she thought it was an awesome idea and said she was going to try it. At first actually it was kinda hard to pick those things out but I know that the Lord's hand is in all of our lives and we'll see it more and more as we look for it and as we become grateful receivers of the Lord's gifts like President Uchtdorf kinda talked about at the Christmas Devo. But as I've been looking better for the Lord's hand I see it more and more all over the place and I'm extremely grateful for it.
So I hope you all have wonderful weeks!
Love
Elder Michael Gadberry
December 10, 2012 E-Mail!
So how kicks it everyone??
I figured I'd subject this letter based on a rather hilarious OYM we had the other day. It's actually fairly common but this time we gave that response. Kasi what happens is people see and when we talk to them they're obviously asking what religion we are and so then they look at our nametags and see the name of the church but Jesus Christ is in bigger letters of course so sometimes thats all they catch.. haha But the lady we were talking to laughed and we were able to share with her and her cousin a little bit...
So this past week was wonderful! It was a lot of fun and pretty exciting. It ended in the news that Elder Tenny and I will be separating.. unfortunately.. But its okay I guess. I'mma stay here and get a new companion, a new Zone Leader named Elder Orth from Canada so I'm pretty excited. So lets review what my parents said shall we?
So did someone in your new area find out that it was your birthday?
Nah.. I kept it pretty quiet.. Not too many people found out besides a few of the branch missionaries. But we still kinda celebrated it. Biñan B had a baptism and so after the baptism and our other work for the day we went out to eat and also bought a cake... and ate it. hahaha Quite the celebration! haha But my birthday was really good. We had a really good day of work that day and Binan B's investigator that has been an investigator for over a year now, finally got baptized! So that was really exciting!
So are both you and your companion staying there for a bit? Will you be able to see the baptisms?
Well as stated above, Elder Tenny is goin be transferring... It's sad.. Especially cuz he's going to Makati. He's had a incredibly city mission experience so far.. haha So we decided that if he wasn't transferring to Palawan then he should just stay here.. but nope he's goin be going. But we're projecting at least two baptisms in December and then at least one in January.. so its pretty exciting. We're going to really try to focus on LA Melch Priesthood though cuz we're super close to becoming a stake.
I know I remind you of this every transfer, but you only have four transfers left. Weird huh?
Jerk. hahaha
So this week was great.. I decided that I really wanna learn to play the piano! haha So I decided to start teaching myself before district meeting on Tuesday.. haha Of course based off the wonderful example of my dad, I start with Sweet Hour of Prayer! haha I almost got it down too! I can play both the right hand and the left hand but I can't play right and left hand together... haha So I wish I had listened to my mom when she tried to teach me.. haha But I can't go back so I'll keep trying to learn on my own in my free time! haha
I'd like to take this time now too share an absolutely hilarious story. I literally started crying because I was laughing so hard.. So to paint the picture we have a dinner appointment with our ex-branch president, newly appointed district president (i.e. stake president). So their oldest is about a 6 yr old girl that only speaks english and her english is as if she were on tv, its like a very child-like but formal english. It's just a very funny kind of english and she's very animated when she talks to you. So we get to the appointment and they're still finishing up preparing the food so we sit down and their daughter proceeds to show off her toys to us as children normally do. At some point she grabbed Elder Tenny's nose, a normal Philippine child thing. Elder Tenny goes, "I think Elder Gadberry wants you to grab his nose now." "No don't grab my nose. My nose hurts." Girl - "Elder Gadberry, why does your nose hurt?" "Cuz Elder Tenny hit me." Elder Tenny - "No. Don't listen to him. He's not telling the truth." Girl - "Elder Gadberry! Why are you not telling the truth? Heavenly Father will kill you!" hahahaha Probably the funniest thing ever.. haha We later related the story to her father who jokingly informed us that they're teaching the Mosaic Law to her. haha
So onto cooler things! So like Wednesday for whatever reason was kinda rough.. It was one of those days where you just kinda feel off and you don't know why.. but for how off Wednesday was Thursday was so awesome! Filled with spiritual experiences. And its funny how when you have a powerful spiritual experience you just automatically start noticing the hand of the Lord in your life in lots of other places. And its not cuz the Lord's hand wasn't in your life before, but you just didn't notice it or recognize it. So it started out cool because we're teaching the wife of a less-active member and the wife is doing super good but the brother is struggling, but recently he's slowly but surely been hanging out more around us and talking to us. So the Lord's definitely softening his heart and it rocks! The next lesson was incredible! We had to fix a problem between an RC and a investigator of ours.. so we went to RC to share with them. They were noticeably stressed when we got there, but it was amazing to see how quickly, in this case, the gospel can change the lives of people because by the time that we left we all had a very calm and reflective attitude. It was amazing because as we talked things out. One of the sisters shared with us some concerns she had kept within herself because she didn't want to alarm her sister. She was just concerned about if she was doing things right and if Heavenly Father approved of what she was doing and she was more than anything concerned for her family. It was such a wonderful opportunity to share with them and to testify powerfully of the love of Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. I absolutely love testifying of their love! I know that they love each and every single one of us more than I know the truthfulness of anything else! Later that evening this lady stopped us as we were walking and asked us what time church was because she's not from here and was wondering. So of course we told her and went on our way. But as we were walking away I was like wait! We were probably just the answer to her prayer or at least a concern of hers. Heavenly Father knows us! He knew that he had a daughter that was in an unfamiliar area and wanted to go to church. So what does He do? He places her right in the path of two missionaries, whom she knows she can ask to know what time church is. #Incredible Also, earlier in that day we ran into Brother Marvin and found out that he had finished the Book of Mormon. For more on Brother Marvin, keep reading.
So about four weeks ago, I was on an exchange with Elder Quintana. We stopped at a tindahan to get some drinks. After drinking we decided to talk to this guy standing text to the tindahan. He didn't seem too interested but we left him a Restoration pamphlet and tried to set a return appointment. He said that he didn't live in the neighborhood and would probably be moving, so he didn't wanna commit to a return appointment. Oh good, right?? So a few days later in the week, we received what we called the text message from heaven. It was a guy named Marvin that had gotten our number and wanted a Book of Mormon. So of course we jumped on that and was at his house in less than an hour. He was surprised at our swiftness. haha So we shared a powerful, but basic message about the gospel and about the Book of Mormon. We then tried to set a return appointment. He declined saying that the people he lived with wouldn't be happy if other missionaries kept coming to his house. However, he assured us that he would read the BoM and he even said he'd go to church. The first week passed and he didn't go to church. The next Sunday we texted him again and invited him to church. This week he actually came! We were so surprised! And that's when the nickname "Mystery Marvin" came because he again refused a return appointment but assured us that he would keep reading the Book of Mormon and would go to church again. The next week came and he wasn't at church. So then on Thursday we ran into him like I said above and he informed us that he had finished the Book of Mormon but he had somewhere to go so we'd just see him on Sunday. So Sunday came and he came to church! And we were able to teach him at the church after church! WOO! This guy is incredible! He's read the whole Book of Mormon already AND understood it! He mentioned to us about Lehi, Nephi, Mosiah, Alma, Samuel, Christ's visit to America and even about the three Nephites! He was like so after Christ was resurrected, apparently he went to America! Which makes sense cuz of John 10:16 about the lost sheep. He even was like there was a prophecy in the Bible about another book that would be like the Bible, I think its in Isaiah... So we're super excited for him. It's pretty crazy.
So yeah this week was super great! And getting sung to is probably one of the most awkward things... It's right up there next to being in an elevator with strangers.. haha But I hope you all have a great week!
Love you!
Elder Michael Gadberry
Pictures
I have a ton of pics this time and I just want to comment on one. I would like to inform the "hungry" children in America to not worry a 3rd world country known as the Philippines will help you. Isn't hunger a normal part of life?? haha
I figured I'd subject this letter based on a rather hilarious OYM we had the other day. It's actually fairly common but this time we gave that response. Kasi what happens is people see and when we talk to them they're obviously asking what religion we are and so then they look at our nametags and see the name of the church but Jesus Christ is in bigger letters of course so sometimes thats all they catch.. haha But the lady we were talking to laughed and we were able to share with her and her cousin a little bit...
So this past week was wonderful! It was a lot of fun and pretty exciting. It ended in the news that Elder Tenny and I will be separating.. unfortunately.. But its okay I guess. I'mma stay here and get a new companion, a new Zone Leader named Elder Orth from Canada so I'm pretty excited. So lets review what my parents said shall we?
So did someone in your new area find out that it was your birthday?
Nah.. I kept it pretty quiet.. Not too many people found out besides a few of the branch missionaries. But we still kinda celebrated it. Biñan B had a baptism and so after the baptism and our other work for the day we went out to eat and also bought a cake... and ate it. hahaha Quite the celebration! haha But my birthday was really good. We had a really good day of work that day and Binan B's investigator that has been an investigator for over a year now, finally got baptized! So that was really exciting!
So are both you and your companion staying there for a bit? Will you be able to see the baptisms?
Well as stated above, Elder Tenny is goin be transferring... It's sad.. Especially cuz he's going to Makati. He's had a incredibly city mission experience so far.. haha So we decided that if he wasn't transferring to Palawan then he should just stay here.. but nope he's goin be going. But we're projecting at least two baptisms in December and then at least one in January.. so its pretty exciting. We're going to really try to focus on LA Melch Priesthood though cuz we're super close to becoming a stake.
I know I remind you of this every transfer, but you only have four transfers left. Weird huh?
Jerk. hahaha
So this week was great.. I decided that I really wanna learn to play the piano! haha So I decided to start teaching myself before district meeting on Tuesday.. haha Of course based off the wonderful example of my dad, I start with Sweet Hour of Prayer! haha I almost got it down too! I can play both the right hand and the left hand but I can't play right and left hand together... haha So I wish I had listened to my mom when she tried to teach me.. haha But I can't go back so I'll keep trying to learn on my own in my free time! haha
I'd like to take this time now too share an absolutely hilarious story. I literally started crying because I was laughing so hard.. So to paint the picture we have a dinner appointment with our ex-branch president, newly appointed district president (i.e. stake president). So their oldest is about a 6 yr old girl that only speaks english and her english is as if she were on tv, its like a very child-like but formal english. It's just a very funny kind of english and she's very animated when she talks to you. So we get to the appointment and they're still finishing up preparing the food so we sit down and their daughter proceeds to show off her toys to us as children normally do. At some point she grabbed Elder Tenny's nose, a normal Philippine child thing. Elder Tenny goes, "I think Elder Gadberry wants you to grab his nose now." "No don't grab my nose. My nose hurts." Girl - "Elder Gadberry, why does your nose hurt?" "Cuz Elder Tenny hit me." Elder Tenny - "No. Don't listen to him. He's not telling the truth." Girl - "Elder Gadberry! Why are you not telling the truth? Heavenly Father will kill you!" hahahaha Probably the funniest thing ever.. haha We later related the story to her father who jokingly informed us that they're teaching the Mosaic Law to her. haha
So onto cooler things! So like Wednesday for whatever reason was kinda rough.. It was one of those days where you just kinda feel off and you don't know why.. but for how off Wednesday was Thursday was so awesome! Filled with spiritual experiences. And its funny how when you have a powerful spiritual experience you just automatically start noticing the hand of the Lord in your life in lots of other places. And its not cuz the Lord's hand wasn't in your life before, but you just didn't notice it or recognize it. So it started out cool because we're teaching the wife of a less-active member and the wife is doing super good but the brother is struggling, but recently he's slowly but surely been hanging out more around us and talking to us. So the Lord's definitely softening his heart and it rocks! The next lesson was incredible! We had to fix a problem between an RC and a investigator of ours.. so we went to RC to share with them. They were noticeably stressed when we got there, but it was amazing to see how quickly, in this case, the gospel can change the lives of people because by the time that we left we all had a very calm and reflective attitude. It was amazing because as we talked things out. One of the sisters shared with us some concerns she had kept within herself because she didn't want to alarm her sister. She was just concerned about if she was doing things right and if Heavenly Father approved of what she was doing and she was more than anything concerned for her family. It was such a wonderful opportunity to share with them and to testify powerfully of the love of Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. I absolutely love testifying of their love! I know that they love each and every single one of us more than I know the truthfulness of anything else! Later that evening this lady stopped us as we were walking and asked us what time church was because she's not from here and was wondering. So of course we told her and went on our way. But as we were walking away I was like wait! We were probably just the answer to her prayer or at least a concern of hers. Heavenly Father knows us! He knew that he had a daughter that was in an unfamiliar area and wanted to go to church. So what does He do? He places her right in the path of two missionaries, whom she knows she can ask to know what time church is. #Incredible Also, earlier in that day we ran into Brother Marvin and found out that he had finished the Book of Mormon. For more on Brother Marvin, keep reading.
So about four weeks ago, I was on an exchange with Elder Quintana. We stopped at a tindahan to get some drinks. After drinking we decided to talk to this guy standing text to the tindahan. He didn't seem too interested but we left him a Restoration pamphlet and tried to set a return appointment. He said that he didn't live in the neighborhood and would probably be moving, so he didn't wanna commit to a return appointment. Oh good, right?? So a few days later in the week, we received what we called the text message from heaven. It was a guy named Marvin that had gotten our number and wanted a Book of Mormon. So of course we jumped on that and was at his house in less than an hour. He was surprised at our swiftness. haha So we shared a powerful, but basic message about the gospel and about the Book of Mormon. We then tried to set a return appointment. He declined saying that the people he lived with wouldn't be happy if other missionaries kept coming to his house. However, he assured us that he would read the BoM and he even said he'd go to church. The first week passed and he didn't go to church. The next Sunday we texted him again and invited him to church. This week he actually came! We were so surprised! And that's when the nickname "Mystery Marvin" came because he again refused a return appointment but assured us that he would keep reading the Book of Mormon and would go to church again. The next week came and he wasn't at church. So then on Thursday we ran into him like I said above and he informed us that he had finished the Book of Mormon but he had somewhere to go so we'd just see him on Sunday. So Sunday came and he came to church! And we were able to teach him at the church after church! WOO! This guy is incredible! He's read the whole Book of Mormon already AND understood it! He mentioned to us about Lehi, Nephi, Mosiah, Alma, Samuel, Christ's visit to America and even about the three Nephites! He was like so after Christ was resurrected, apparently he went to America! Which makes sense cuz of John 10:16 about the lost sheep. He even was like there was a prophecy in the Bible about another book that would be like the Bible, I think its in Isaiah... So we're super excited for him. It's pretty crazy.
So yeah this week was super great! And getting sung to is probably one of the most awkward things... It's right up there next to being in an elevator with strangers.. haha But I hope you all have a great week!
Love you!
Elder Michael Gadberry
Pictures
I have a ton of pics this time and I just want to comment on one. I would like to inform the "hungry" children in America to not worry a 3rd world country known as the Philippines will help you. Isn't hunger a normal part of life?? haha
December 2, 2012 E-Mail!
Hello mga tao,
So this time my ever so clever mother called me "Elder berry, ....get it? Like elderberry the....berry,"
No. No, I don't "get it." hahaha But I thought I had heard every variation of Gadberry that there possibly was before my mission but when you take that name and take it to another country.... you learn a few more.. haha People here are a big fan of my name cuz it looks and sounds like Cadbury. I like to tell them its not Cadbury its a fake/off-brand. Its pretty funny cuz the Philippines is swimming in fake/off-brands of popular companies.
I'm thinking of you right now with sounds of "Elf" in the background.
Good! =D I miss that movie like a Gadberry misses a soccer ball after being in a foreign, basketball loving country for the last year and a half. It's actually kinda bad I've had a few dreams recently of soccer.... haha
So how are the reactivation efforts going? Do you have a lot of support from the members?
Umm... its alright.. so far we haven't seen too much success... Actually the less-actives that Elder Tenny and I are teaching are less-actives that have already been counted as "returning members" but have essentially started to fall back into less-activity... Which goes along with the thing that I actually talked about in our special ZLC with Elder Neilson.. Our job is not done at baptism or at reactivation. Especially for less-actives, if they don't experience that "mighty change of heart" or experience the cleansing power of the Atonement through repentance, it is often only a matter of time until those recently reactivated members my slip back into the less active status. Its really just a matter for becoming more and more converted to the Lord like a lot of General Conference was about last time. (By the way, do I have a GenCon Ensign on the way??). Members, like most everywhere, are supportive of the missionaries but don't do a whole lot. According to our old Branch President (cuz we just got a new one this week cuz the old one has been called as District President), but he says that our Visiting teaching is pretty good but home teaching is greatly lacking... so yeah... #SameProblemNewPlace Plus its kinda hard cuz we're in a branch at has over 1000 members on the rolls and about 200-250 average sacrament meeting attendance.. to me thats almost unmanageable.. its so many people that its hard to know where to begin..
So this Friday is the zone leader meeting? Do you have better things to report?
Yep! We're going to be reporting on Friday... umm.. the month of November was pretty disappointing.. Well actually it wasn't so disappointing as it was just we didn't get the goals we thought we would. The people we thought were going to get baptized in Nov. will be baptized in December and so December is looking really exciting. As a zone of 6 companionships we're currently projecting 15 baptisms and 10 reactivations in the month of December so thats pretty sweet. It's going to be a little embarrassing to have set such high numbers in November and then having to report that we came up quite short. But on the other side of things we're excited for whats going to happen in December.
Okay so funny slash somewhat embarrassing story for the week!
So every Saturday we have an appointment at this one family that is incredibly wealthy, like their house is nicer than most of the homes I've been in in America. The guy has a coral aquarium of my dreams! Complete with Nemo, his dad, Dory, and others! But we can talk aquariums another time just let me know. haha But this is an active family in which the father has recently been reactivated. The father has asked us to teach him again because he feels that he has zero faith. He's incredible when we teach. It's amazing to teach him because you can just see it in his eyes the longing to know, the desire to believe. But this past Saturday we had lunch there. This was on the table for lunch: BBQ Ribs, mashed potatoes, and this potato salad kinda thing. So umm.. yeah. This is not you're regular Filipino lunch... haha So confession... I have not eaten ribs before. So it was pretty funny cuz we're sitting at the table with a Filipino family and its the American kid thats strugglin figuring out how to eat his ribs... hahaha Luckily, I dont think anyone noticed but it made me laugh.. haha
Elder Tenny and I are doing super good. We're loving it and trying to do our best. One of the things that we've done really well, actually surprisingly well, is using the scriptures. It's really fun to teach via the scriptures! We answer almost everything via the Book of Mormon or the Bible and sometimes D&C. Our scripture knowledge really compliments each other, and so often one of us will suggest to do something to share something and the other will be like, "That's exactly what I was thinking!" So our companionship is doing really good. We're loving it. One sad thing that was actually a good learning experience for me happened this week on a jeepney. So we're sitting there on the jeepney going to our next appointment. This guy sits next to me and for whatever reason I feel like I want to talk to him... So I'm trying to figure out what to say.. I'm like maybe I'll ask him what time it is or somethin.. But eventually we got closer to where we got off and I still hadn't talked to him. So about the point where we get off he goes, "Elder, where are you guys assigned?" We got to say like two sentences to him and found out he's a less-active member in San Pedro that had even gone to the temple in SLC but has since fallen away, and then we had to get off. I got off and was like dang it!! Elder Tenny asked me what was up. I was like since the time he got on the jeep I felt that I should talk to him but I didn't!! He said, "You felt that too?? I was trying to figure out how I could talk to him but I felt like I was kinda far away." So yeah... count that as a blatant missed prompting by Elder Gadberry... it really frustrated me but has helped me to resolve to be more bold in following promptings.
Well unfortunately I have to get runnin again, so sorry again! haha Also, its my bday this week so thanks for the wishes but shhhh... they don't know here yet.. haha Gotta keep the spotlight away from me.. haha
Well I hope you guys have a great week! Love you all!
Elder Michael Gadberry
So this time my ever so clever mother called me "Elder berry, ....get it? Like elderberry the....berry,"
No. No, I don't "get it." hahaha But I thought I had heard every variation of Gadberry that there possibly was before my mission but when you take that name and take it to another country.... you learn a few more.. haha People here are a big fan of my name cuz it looks and sounds like Cadbury. I like to tell them its not Cadbury its a fake/off-brand. Its pretty funny cuz the Philippines is swimming in fake/off-brands of popular companies.
I'm thinking of you right now with sounds of "Elf" in the background.
Good! =D I miss that movie like a Gadberry misses a soccer ball after being in a foreign, basketball loving country for the last year and a half. It's actually kinda bad I've had a few dreams recently of soccer.... haha
So how are the reactivation efforts going? Do you have a lot of support from the members?
Umm... its alright.. so far we haven't seen too much success... Actually the less-actives that Elder Tenny and I are teaching are less-actives that have already been counted as "returning members" but have essentially started to fall back into less-activity... Which goes along with the thing that I actually talked about in our special ZLC with Elder Neilson.. Our job is not done at baptism or at reactivation. Especially for less-actives, if they don't experience that "mighty change of heart" or experience the cleansing power of the Atonement through repentance, it is often only a matter of time until those recently reactivated members my slip back into the less active status. Its really just a matter for becoming more and more converted to the Lord like a lot of General Conference was about last time. (By the way, do I have a GenCon Ensign on the way??). Members, like most everywhere, are supportive of the missionaries but don't do a whole lot. According to our old Branch President (cuz we just got a new one this week cuz the old one has been called as District President), but he says that our Visiting teaching is pretty good but home teaching is greatly lacking... so yeah... #SameProblemNewPlace Plus its kinda hard cuz we're in a branch at has over 1000 members on the rolls and about 200-250 average sacrament meeting attendance.. to me thats almost unmanageable.. its so many people that its hard to know where to begin..
So this Friday is the zone leader meeting? Do you have better things to report?
Yep! We're going to be reporting on Friday... umm.. the month of November was pretty disappointing.. Well actually it wasn't so disappointing as it was just we didn't get the goals we thought we would. The people we thought were going to get baptized in Nov. will be baptized in December and so December is looking really exciting. As a zone of 6 companionships we're currently projecting 15 baptisms and 10 reactivations in the month of December so thats pretty sweet. It's going to be a little embarrassing to have set such high numbers in November and then having to report that we came up quite short. But on the other side of things we're excited for whats going to happen in December.
Okay so funny slash somewhat embarrassing story for the week!
So every Saturday we have an appointment at this one family that is incredibly wealthy, like their house is nicer than most of the homes I've been in in America. The guy has a coral aquarium of my dreams! Complete with Nemo, his dad, Dory, and others! But we can talk aquariums another time just let me know. haha But this is an active family in which the father has recently been reactivated. The father has asked us to teach him again because he feels that he has zero faith. He's incredible when we teach. It's amazing to teach him because you can just see it in his eyes the longing to know, the desire to believe. But this past Saturday we had lunch there. This was on the table for lunch: BBQ Ribs, mashed potatoes, and this potato salad kinda thing. So umm.. yeah. This is not you're regular Filipino lunch... haha So confession... I have not eaten ribs before. So it was pretty funny cuz we're sitting at the table with a Filipino family and its the American kid thats strugglin figuring out how to eat his ribs... hahaha Luckily, I dont think anyone noticed but it made me laugh.. haha
Elder Tenny and I are doing super good. We're loving it and trying to do our best. One of the things that we've done really well, actually surprisingly well, is using the scriptures. It's really fun to teach via the scriptures! We answer almost everything via the Book of Mormon or the Bible and sometimes D&C. Our scripture knowledge really compliments each other, and so often one of us will suggest to do something to share something and the other will be like, "That's exactly what I was thinking!" So our companionship is doing really good. We're loving it. One sad thing that was actually a good learning experience for me happened this week on a jeepney. So we're sitting there on the jeepney going to our next appointment. This guy sits next to me and for whatever reason I feel like I want to talk to him... So I'm trying to figure out what to say.. I'm like maybe I'll ask him what time it is or somethin.. But eventually we got closer to where we got off and I still hadn't talked to him. So about the point where we get off he goes, "Elder, where are you guys assigned?" We got to say like two sentences to him and found out he's a less-active member in San Pedro that had even gone to the temple in SLC but has since fallen away, and then we had to get off. I got off and was like dang it!! Elder Tenny asked me what was up. I was like since the time he got on the jeep I felt that I should talk to him but I didn't!! He said, "You felt that too?? I was trying to figure out how I could talk to him but I felt like I was kinda far away." So yeah... count that as a blatant missed prompting by Elder Gadberry... it really frustrated me but has helped me to resolve to be more bold in following promptings.
Well unfortunately I have to get runnin again, so sorry again! haha Also, its my bday this week so thanks for the wishes but shhhh... they don't know here yet.. haha Gotta keep the spotlight away from me.. haha
Well I hope you guys have a great week! Love you all!
Elder Michael Gadberry
November 25, 2012 E-Mail
Mga Minamahal kong kapatid,
Unang una, pasensya na kayo na maiksi talaga ang email ko noong nakaraang linggo. Sabi ng mga magulang ko na di na sila magtatanong para mas exciting ang mga emails ko.. Nakakalungkot naman yan.. kasi ewan ko kung saan ko dapat magsimula.. So seguro isasalin nila ito mamaya para sa next time, magtatanong sila at di na kayo malilito sa Tagalog kong letter.
Google translate doesn't do a very good job with that but maybe you guys can figure it out.. =)
((( Google Translate said: First and foremost, that patience really short you email me on last week. My parents said that they could not ask more exciting for the emails I have .. Sadly turn yan .. because I ewan where should I start .. So they translated this insurance later for the next time, and they ask you not ashamed to I Tagalog letter.)))
But yeah.. My parents didn't ask anything at all this week so we'll see how this letter goes.. haha But lots of exciting stuff happened this week I was already planning on talking a lot about it so yeah.. This week was Thanksgiving! And we actually celebrated it! We celebrated it in style. Cuz this week was actually also our mission's mission tour. Which means we have a general authority come and tour our mission. We had Elder Neilson of the Seventy come. He's also in the Area Presidency here in the Philippines. It went superrr good. At the end I felt like we just got done with General Conference. We, as Zone Leaders, got a lot of time with him so it was really cool. Before the "Province" meeting of the mission tour on Wednesday. All the Province Zone Leaders had a meeting
with him. It was really cool because he treated us "as future bishops and stake presidents and leaders of the church." He talked a lot about observing and then acting. He reminded us that there were created two things, things to act and things to be acted upon. We as people are things to act, but too often we give up our agency and become objects by doing nothing, by just going with the flow.
One thing he said that I really liked is that he explained that by not acting we're giving up our agency, the very thing we fought for in the pre-mortal life. Satan sought and seeks to control and eventually take our agency away, and many people don't do anything and voluntarily give up that God given gift. He then invited us to sit on the stand with them and "observe our missionaries." It was really cool because he taught me a lot. I realized that as a Zone Leader, I'm not just another missionary. Like I am, but I'm not at the same time. I have a responsibility to address the needs of the missionaries in my zone as well.
After that meeting we had our Zone Conference/Mission Tour and it was really cool. He essentially started by thanking us all for our service and saying that he knows how hard it is but he said thats just how it is, "in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, we do hard things. Salvation is not easy; it requires our very best" For me,being a missionary isn't that hard, but being a great missionary or being the best missionary you can be... now thats difficult. Its hard cuz sometimes its real easy to reach a point in your progress where you can coast or say I got this now. But thats what you gotta avoid when you're trying to be the best missionary, the best disciple you can be. You can't coast. You can't be overly content. You gotta be grateful for the Lord's help, and then ask yourself what do I need to still improve on? And then go back to work. haha Yeah its hard sometimes but you just kinda gotta do it.
Elder Neilson told us the following story at our Special ZLC that we had with him Thursday night, after we we ate a Thanksgiving feast! #Boom! #MashedTaters&Turkey #NoGravyPlease#OhAndDontForgetTheChocolatePie #ThankYou =D hahaha But he related to us what happened when he first got called to be a general authority. He said that he got to church headquarters and got to his office and waited. He was supposed to have some sort of training or something daw. So he had the secretary call down and ask for information. They said that they'd let him know when they need him. So he waited in his office all day. You know just read some scriptures, get yourself settled and all that jazz then he went home. No word about what he's supposed to do. Then the second day same thing happened. Called down a couple times and they said they'd let him know when they needed him. So then I believe it was towards the end of the second day, that he was called into the office of one of the senior apostles. The apostle sat him down and welcomed him. He then said, "Elder Neilson, I understand that much of your life you've been a lawyer. Is that correct?" "Yes." "So that means you've always been scheduled every minute of your day." "Yeah, pretty much." "Well you're not a lawyer anymore. You're a called and set apart servant of the Lord, and it's not like that anymore. So I want you to go back to your office and become." And the interview was over. That was a challenge that he left with all of us at the end of ZLC. He challenged all of us to "go and become." So thats what I'm really striving to do, so I'm excited! At ZLC he also asked us to share one thing that the Spirit taught each of us during the zone conference we had.
It was really cool because every single thing that the other ZLs shared was something that I made special note of during the conference as well. The thing that I shared about was something that we talked about for a little bit during the conference. I felt that as missionaries we really need to do a better job of finishing the job. Our job is not done after baptism or after reactivation. Our job isn't done until both of those kinds of people make it to the temple to receive the saving ordinances there. It's true that members can help ALOT with that part of the journey, but missionaries can help a lot as well, especially here in the Philippines where leadership and fellowship isn't always there. So its up to us sometimes. I thought to myself.. well I wouldn't play a soccer game only to let someone else finish it... The ends the most important part! So yeah thats my spiel on our Mission Tour..
. . . And now I'm out of time.. hahaha Sorry you guys just got a long email about what I learned and nothin too much about experiences or our investigators or what not. Maybe next week.. haha Hope you guys keep being awesome!
Love you!
Elder Michael Gadberry
Unang una, pasensya na kayo na maiksi talaga ang email ko noong nakaraang linggo. Sabi ng mga magulang ko na di na sila magtatanong para mas exciting ang mga emails ko.. Nakakalungkot naman yan.. kasi ewan ko kung saan ko dapat magsimula.. So seguro isasalin nila ito mamaya para sa next time, magtatanong sila at di na kayo malilito sa Tagalog kong letter.
Google translate doesn't do a very good job with that but maybe you guys can figure it out.. =)
((( Google Translate said: First and foremost, that patience really short you email me on last week. My parents said that they could not ask more exciting for the emails I have .. Sadly turn yan .. because I ewan where should I start .. So they translated this insurance later for the next time, and they ask you not ashamed to I Tagalog letter.)))
But yeah.. My parents didn't ask anything at all this week so we'll see how this letter goes.. haha But lots of exciting stuff happened this week I was already planning on talking a lot about it so yeah.. This week was Thanksgiving! And we actually celebrated it! We celebrated it in style. Cuz this week was actually also our mission's mission tour. Which means we have a general authority come and tour our mission. We had Elder Neilson of the Seventy come. He's also in the Area Presidency here in the Philippines. It went superrr good. At the end I felt like we just got done with General Conference. We, as Zone Leaders, got a lot of time with him so it was really cool. Before the "Province" meeting of the mission tour on Wednesday. All the Province Zone Leaders had a meeting
with him. It was really cool because he treated us "as future bishops and stake presidents and leaders of the church." He talked a lot about observing and then acting. He reminded us that there were created two things, things to act and things to be acted upon. We as people are things to act, but too often we give up our agency and become objects by doing nothing, by just going with the flow.
One thing he said that I really liked is that he explained that by not acting we're giving up our agency, the very thing we fought for in the pre-mortal life. Satan sought and seeks to control and eventually take our agency away, and many people don't do anything and voluntarily give up that God given gift. He then invited us to sit on the stand with them and "observe our missionaries." It was really cool because he taught me a lot. I realized that as a Zone Leader, I'm not just another missionary. Like I am, but I'm not at the same time. I have a responsibility to address the needs of the missionaries in my zone as well.
After that meeting we had our Zone Conference/Mission Tour and it was really cool. He essentially started by thanking us all for our service and saying that he knows how hard it is but he said thats just how it is, "in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, we do hard things. Salvation is not easy; it requires our very best" For me,being a missionary isn't that hard, but being a great missionary or being the best missionary you can be... now thats difficult. Its hard cuz sometimes its real easy to reach a point in your progress where you can coast or say I got this now. But thats what you gotta avoid when you're trying to be the best missionary, the best disciple you can be. You can't coast. You can't be overly content. You gotta be grateful for the Lord's help, and then ask yourself what do I need to still improve on? And then go back to work. haha Yeah its hard sometimes but you just kinda gotta do it.
Elder Neilson told us the following story at our Special ZLC that we had with him Thursday night, after we we ate a Thanksgiving feast! #Boom! #MashedTaters&Turkey #NoGravyPlease#OhAndDontForgetTheChocolatePie #ThankYou =D hahaha But he related to us what happened when he first got called to be a general authority. He said that he got to church headquarters and got to his office and waited. He was supposed to have some sort of training or something daw. So he had the secretary call down and ask for information. They said that they'd let him know when they need him. So he waited in his office all day. You know just read some scriptures, get yourself settled and all that jazz then he went home. No word about what he's supposed to do. Then the second day same thing happened. Called down a couple times and they said they'd let him know when they needed him. So then I believe it was towards the end of the second day, that he was called into the office of one of the senior apostles. The apostle sat him down and welcomed him. He then said, "Elder Neilson, I understand that much of your life you've been a lawyer. Is that correct?" "Yes." "So that means you've always been scheduled every minute of your day." "Yeah, pretty much." "Well you're not a lawyer anymore. You're a called and set apart servant of the Lord, and it's not like that anymore. So I want you to go back to your office and become." And the interview was over. That was a challenge that he left with all of us at the end of ZLC. He challenged all of us to "go and become." So thats what I'm really striving to do, so I'm excited! At ZLC he also asked us to share one thing that the Spirit taught each of us during the zone conference we had.
It was really cool because every single thing that the other ZLs shared was something that I made special note of during the conference as well. The thing that I shared about was something that we talked about for a little bit during the conference. I felt that as missionaries we really need to do a better job of finishing the job. Our job is not done after baptism or after reactivation. Our job isn't done until both of those kinds of people make it to the temple to receive the saving ordinances there. It's true that members can help ALOT with that part of the journey, but missionaries can help a lot as well, especially here in the Philippines where leadership and fellowship isn't always there. So its up to us sometimes. I thought to myself.. well I wouldn't play a soccer game only to let someone else finish it... The ends the most important part! So yeah thats my spiel on our Mission Tour..
. . . And now I'm out of time.. hahaha Sorry you guys just got a long email about what I learned and nothin too much about experiences or our investigators or what not. Maybe next week.. haha Hope you guys keep being awesome!
Love you!
Elder Michael Gadberry
November 18, 2012 E-Mail!
So this is a story all about how...
I'm doing in the Philippines. haha In case you were wondering, concerned, or just slightly curious. I'm doin great! haha Whats that? The 100th week in a row that I've reported my status as "great." haha Sorry.. things dont change too much with me apparently.
Did you get our last package, the one with the white pull-over in it?
I did get it! Thank you!!! It got here just in time. It got here the same night the APs were doing exchanges with us, so just in time for the APs to eat all my food... haha just kidding.. It didn't get ubos-ed by them like that. But thanks again for that!
Why did it take you so long to get back from the temple? How did you get there? Pres. Baxter wanted to know how often you get to go to the temple?
It took us forever to get back from the temple cuz its pretty far away from us and the Philippines is super "ma-traffic" haha Going to the temple consists of a tricycle, then a jeepney, then a bus, then walking a while to get there. Coming back you take a shuttle, then a bus, then a jeepney, then a tricycle. Plus buses have routes in which sometimes they take longer routes to make better money via picking up more people. So its not the fastest trip home, especially when there's traffic. We get to go to the temple a lot! Its usually about once a month but at the very least once a transfer. Its nice.
So did the Baptist missionary lady decide to get baptized?
Yeah she's pretty committed to be baptized. She said she'll be baptized before the end of the year. She's doing awesome still but is kinda frustrating too cuz after that awesome answer to her prayer....she didn't go to church. After going to the temple tour Saturday..... she didn't go to church. UGH. So we're goin have to be a little more bold but loving in our commitment to go to church... We're not too sure why she's not going to church it doesnt really seem like anything should be stopping her.. We do have a little bit of fellowshipping problems in the branch but we're working that out.. so yeah..
What will it take for the branch to become a ward?
They said that we're super close... As far as our branch goes..I think we're pretty ready but at the district level I think we're still "kulang sa" active Melchizedek Priesthood-holders.... #GoFigure But apparently the estimation is that we can become a stake in 6 months to a year! So I kinda hope I stay here till I go home and hopefully get to see us become a stake! So we're still focusing on priesthood and reactivating priesthood holders and potential priesthood holders so its goin be good.
How's the ZL thing going? Do you have zonie council where all of the ZL's go to meet with the president for a couple of hours/morning/day? I always enjoyed those meetings. There was always a lot of really good instruction and it was great to see a bunch of my friends who were also ZL's.
It's going pretty good. Its not too different. Our zone is really talented. We set some really high goals as a zone for the month of November and its looking like we're going to fall quite short of that.... so we're not looking too forward to going and reporting that at ZLC in a couple weeks.. But on the positive side the names behind the goals that we set haven't really gone away they just aren't ready yet. So we're really expecting to see a very very exciting December as far as baptisms, reactivations, and retention goes. But yeah we do ZLC the first Friday of every month and its nice. Its really helpful and I get to see a lot of my close friends here in the mission. Its really cool.
This is sad cuz we had a really cool week with lots of really cool experiences, but I'm short on time so I really gotta get running... =( So yeah.. sorry that this is really short! But know that I'm doing great! We should have another exciting week coming up so the next email should be great! So I hope you guys are all doing great! "If you chance to meet a frown, do not let it stay. Quickly turn it upside down and smile that frown away." haha =D
Love
Elder Michael Gadberry
I'm doing in the Philippines. haha In case you were wondering, concerned, or just slightly curious. I'm doin great! haha Whats that? The 100th week in a row that I've reported my status as "great." haha Sorry.. things dont change too much with me apparently.
Did you get our last package, the one with the white pull-over in it?
I did get it! Thank you!!! It got here just in time. It got here the same night the APs were doing exchanges with us, so just in time for the APs to eat all my food... haha just kidding.. It didn't get ubos-ed by them like that. But thanks again for that!
Why did it take you so long to get back from the temple? How did you get there? Pres. Baxter wanted to know how often you get to go to the temple?
It took us forever to get back from the temple cuz its pretty far away from us and the Philippines is super "ma-traffic" haha Going to the temple consists of a tricycle, then a jeepney, then a bus, then walking a while to get there. Coming back you take a shuttle, then a bus, then a jeepney, then a tricycle. Plus buses have routes in which sometimes they take longer routes to make better money via picking up more people. So its not the fastest trip home, especially when there's traffic. We get to go to the temple a lot! Its usually about once a month but at the very least once a transfer. Its nice.
So did the Baptist missionary lady decide to get baptized?
Yeah she's pretty committed to be baptized. She said she'll be baptized before the end of the year. She's doing awesome still but is kinda frustrating too cuz after that awesome answer to her prayer....she didn't go to church. After going to the temple tour Saturday..... she didn't go to church. UGH. So we're goin have to be a little more bold but loving in our commitment to go to church... We're not too sure why she's not going to church it doesnt really seem like anything should be stopping her.. We do have a little bit of fellowshipping problems in the branch but we're working that out.. so yeah..
What will it take for the branch to become a ward?
They said that we're super close... As far as our branch goes..I think we're pretty ready but at the district level I think we're still "kulang sa" active Melchizedek Priesthood-holders.... #GoFigure But apparently the estimation is that we can become a stake in 6 months to a year! So I kinda hope I stay here till I go home and hopefully get to see us become a stake! So we're still focusing on priesthood and reactivating priesthood holders and potential priesthood holders so its goin be good.
How's the ZL thing going? Do you have zonie council where all of the ZL's go to meet with the president for a couple of hours/morning/day? I always enjoyed those meetings. There was always a lot of really good instruction and it was great to see a bunch of my friends who were also ZL's.
It's going pretty good. Its not too different. Our zone is really talented. We set some really high goals as a zone for the month of November and its looking like we're going to fall quite short of that.... so we're not looking too forward to going and reporting that at ZLC in a couple weeks.. But on the positive side the names behind the goals that we set haven't really gone away they just aren't ready yet. So we're really expecting to see a very very exciting December as far as baptisms, reactivations, and retention goes. But yeah we do ZLC the first Friday of every month and its nice. Its really helpful and I get to see a lot of my close friends here in the mission. Its really cool.
This is sad cuz we had a really cool week with lots of really cool experiences, but I'm short on time so I really gotta get running... =( So yeah.. sorry that this is really short! But know that I'm doing great! We should have another exciting week coming up so the next email should be great! So I hope you guys are all doing great! "If you chance to meet a frown, do not let it stay. Quickly turn it upside down and smile that frown away." haha =D
Love
Elder Michael Gadberry
November 14, 2012 E-Mail!
Hello!
I'm tired... haha And I don't really know what to write so I'mma just
get started and we'll see what comes out.. haha That sounded kinda
negative.. so just know that I'm still doing awesome na awesome just
tired today cuz we went to the temple early this morning and it took
us 3 hours to get back home.. haha
So its Wednesday and I'm emailing you guys cuz they switched it to
whenever we have temple day, we don't have preparation day on Monday
instead we have it on Wendesday with our temple day. So its different,
but alright, but tiring cuz we lose a lot of the day in traveling. But
the weeks been pretty great! Lets see what I can tell about it....
Everyday here has been a blast for the most part.. Elder Tenny and I
are having a lot of fun together and doing some really good work. I'm
excited for those that we're teaching and then the Lord's really
helped us find some starting points with the reactivation work.
So we'll start with a couple funny stories.. cuz we've got them pretty
much everyday.. haha This has been a bahay favorite recently.. haha
Hopefully its as funny in english as it is in Tagalog and in person..
haha So we're teaching this awesome less-active family that we love
and we're closing the lesson. So I ask the 10 yr old son to pray. Now
the 10 yr old son looks essentially just like a asian version of the
kid from "Up" and he's super cute. So in his little kid voice he goes,
"Okay po ba kung maiksi lang po siya? (Okay? If short just it?
hahaha)" Of course we respond, "Siempre! Okay na okay yan. (Of course!
Very okay that)." So he follows it up with a, "Okay po ba kung walang
boses (okay? If no voice)" With that we respond.. "Umm.. di pwede..
dapat may boses (Umm.. no can.. should have voice)" So now the kid is
faced with a big problem and takes a second to think about it. You can
see the wheels a churnin in his head.. So he comes up with his
solution. "Okay. Walang boses na lang. (Okay. No voice just.)" Then he
quickly bows his head and folds his arms. We proceed to do the same.
So we're sitting there for a while and then we here a quiet, "Amen."
And we all chime in with an agreeing amen. hahaha Probably one of my
favorite prayers my whole mission.. haha
Okay! Funny story number two! This one is actually really hilarious
but maybe you guys might think so so much cuz you havent experienced
it. So here in the Philippines white people get called "Joe" ALLLLLLLL
the time.. haha In fact most of us "Joe"s get pretty sick of it
because of how frequent it is. I know Elder Tenny isn't a big fan of
it and it made the story all the better.. haha So my first Sunday here
we are invited to attend the funeral service of our Branch Mission
Leader's grandma. So we go and its packed! They have us in a room and
its soooo full! And they even ended up setting up about 20-30 chairs
outside the room that got filled too. So the service was really
impressive. It was a real uplifting experience with testimonies shared
and spiritual thoughts and talks and what not. So at the end they
opened the floor for a little bit for whoever wanted to get up and
share a little bit. So it started going great. And then the last guy
got up. He was the last guy cuz he took forever! And made sure
everyone knew that he wasn't a member of the church and
da-da-da-da-da-da.. Which is fine and all but please focus your
comments on the deceased person and things like that rather than
yourself, your beliefs, your money, etc.. So yeah he's finally
wrapping up when he notices my companion sitting in the crowd. He
goes, "Hey Joe! Why you here now?! Okay that I speak in Tagalog?" Or
something similar to that. So in perfect Tagalog, my companion informs
him that "That he in fact does not know how to speak Tagalog." All the
members in the room laugh, and the guy goes, "Joe can speak the
Tagalog!" And sits down. And then we sang and prayed and the program
ended. hahaha It was pretty hilarious.
PS-I'm not a Joe =) Some people ask if I'm Fil-Am... #safe
Alright! So those were hilarious.. it least to us.. haha I'm going to
go back home and have no sense of humor at all... haha So on the other
side of things I'll try and share a couple really uplifting
experiences. So we have this one investigator that was actually a
Baptist missionary at one point and she's super cool. So she loves the
Book of Mormon and believes the church and everything is true but is
hesitant on baptism because of the position she holds in her church
and all that stuff. So she's praying on it still. So we go over there
one night and we notice that she's kind of down. Obviously something
was bothering her. So over the course of talking with her she tells us
"You know that feeling when you're praying and praying but you feel
that no one is listening or you don't know if you're getting answers?
Thats what I feel like right now when I pray." So we share with her a
few really powerful scriptures about prayer from the Book of Mormon,
we shared our testimonies, and we even shared the "Footprints in the
sand" story that she actually already knew. So we did all we could and
left hoping that we helped her. So when we go back she's sooo excited
to see us! She tells us all about her experience and that she got such
a powerful answer and that the Lord answered her prayers, and she knew
completely that the Book of Mormon was true and that she knew the
church was true and that he blessed her in all these other problems
that she had also. It was such a powerful lesson probably one of the
most spirit-filled ones I've had thus far here in Biñan and all we
essentially had to do was to testify that we know that God answered
her prayers, that the Book of Mormon is true, that the church is true,
and most importantly that God loves her and knows her personally.
Cool story number two! So this happened.. Monday! But started on
Sunday. So Sunday we went and talked to our Branch President (newly
called District President this past Sunday) and we got the branch's
list of fifteen names of less active persons that the branch is
focusing on. So Monday, without a preparation day, we decided to
contact a few of those people. So we wandered around looking a lot on
Monday but it was actually really successful. We stopped and talked to
one of the families on the list. They were SUPER nice but Sister was
just heading out the door to go to work and brother was taking her
there. So sister excused herself to go get ready and we talked to
brother for a while. Like I said he was way nice and I really enjoyed
getting to know him a little. So then sister comes back out and
brother leaves to go get the motorcycle ready. Sister sits down and
starts to talk with us and then just starts crying... We were like
what? Why? Whats wrong?? She tells us, "Elders, I really wanna go back
to church. I really miss it. I don't want to go by myself though. I
want my husband to go. I need him to take the lead." We were able to
set up a return appointment with them and we're pumped to go back and
share with them. So this was another really cool experience where we
had the wonderful experience of being the answer to someones prayer.
Like usual, we didn't even know her situation...but the Lord did. Its
just another testimony to me that whenever you do what you're supposed
to and you're obedient, you will be lead by the spirit. It's kinda
like I've heard Elder Bednar teach before that we shouldn't worry
about whether its the Spirit or not. If its a good thought/good thing,
just do it because "all good things come from God."
So yeah, I'm lovin it here, even if its not as pretty as Coron or
Ternate... haha My kabahays are jealous of my mission experience, and
I'm incredibly grateful to have opportunity to serve the Lord in the
ways I've been blessed to do so and I'm so excited to continue going
forth doing the work of the Lord! So I'll hit you guys up again in a
few days! haha
Love
Elder Michael Gadberry
Sorry! No pictures! I couldn't find my memory card reader... #UhOh
I'm tired... haha And I don't really know what to write so I'mma just
get started and we'll see what comes out.. haha That sounded kinda
negative.. so just know that I'm still doing awesome na awesome just
tired today cuz we went to the temple early this morning and it took
us 3 hours to get back home.. haha
So its Wednesday and I'm emailing you guys cuz they switched it to
whenever we have temple day, we don't have preparation day on Monday
instead we have it on Wendesday with our temple day. So its different,
but alright, but tiring cuz we lose a lot of the day in traveling. But
the weeks been pretty great! Lets see what I can tell about it....
Everyday here has been a blast for the most part.. Elder Tenny and I
are having a lot of fun together and doing some really good work. I'm
excited for those that we're teaching and then the Lord's really
helped us find some starting points with the reactivation work.
So we'll start with a couple funny stories.. cuz we've got them pretty
much everyday.. haha This has been a bahay favorite recently.. haha
Hopefully its as funny in english as it is in Tagalog and in person..
haha So we're teaching this awesome less-active family that we love
and we're closing the lesson. So I ask the 10 yr old son to pray. Now
the 10 yr old son looks essentially just like a asian version of the
kid from "Up" and he's super cute. So in his little kid voice he goes,
"Okay po ba kung maiksi lang po siya? (Okay? If short just it?
hahaha)" Of course we respond, "Siempre! Okay na okay yan. (Of course!
Very okay that)." So he follows it up with a, "Okay po ba kung walang
boses (okay? If no voice)" With that we respond.. "Umm.. di pwede..
dapat may boses (Umm.. no can.. should have voice)" So now the kid is
faced with a big problem and takes a second to think about it. You can
see the wheels a churnin in his head.. So he comes up with his
solution. "Okay. Walang boses na lang. (Okay. No voice just.)" Then he
quickly bows his head and folds his arms. We proceed to do the same.
So we're sitting there for a while and then we here a quiet, "Amen."
And we all chime in with an agreeing amen. hahaha Probably one of my
favorite prayers my whole mission.. haha
Okay! Funny story number two! This one is actually really hilarious
but maybe you guys might think so so much cuz you havent experienced
it. So here in the Philippines white people get called "Joe" ALLLLLLLL
the time.. haha In fact most of us "Joe"s get pretty sick of it
because of how frequent it is. I know Elder Tenny isn't a big fan of
it and it made the story all the better.. haha So my first Sunday here
we are invited to attend the funeral service of our Branch Mission
Leader's grandma. So we go and its packed! They have us in a room and
its soooo full! And they even ended up setting up about 20-30 chairs
outside the room that got filled too. So the service was really
impressive. It was a real uplifting experience with testimonies shared
and spiritual thoughts and talks and what not. So at the end they
opened the floor for a little bit for whoever wanted to get up and
share a little bit. So it started going great. And then the last guy
got up. He was the last guy cuz he took forever! And made sure
everyone knew that he wasn't a member of the church and
da-da-da-da-da-da.. Which is fine and all but please focus your
comments on the deceased person and things like that rather than
yourself, your beliefs, your money, etc.. So yeah he's finally
wrapping up when he notices my companion sitting in the crowd. He
goes, "Hey Joe! Why you here now?! Okay that I speak in Tagalog?" Or
something similar to that. So in perfect Tagalog, my companion informs
him that "That he in fact does not know how to speak Tagalog." All the
members in the room laugh, and the guy goes, "Joe can speak the
Tagalog!" And sits down. And then we sang and prayed and the program
ended. hahaha It was pretty hilarious.
PS-I'm not a Joe =) Some people ask if I'm Fil-Am... #safe
Alright! So those were hilarious.. it least to us.. haha I'm going to
go back home and have no sense of humor at all... haha So on the other
side of things I'll try and share a couple really uplifting
experiences. So we have this one investigator that was actually a
Baptist missionary at one point and she's super cool. So she loves the
Book of Mormon and believes the church and everything is true but is
hesitant on baptism because of the position she holds in her church
and all that stuff. So she's praying on it still. So we go over there
one night and we notice that she's kind of down. Obviously something
was bothering her. So over the course of talking with her she tells us
"You know that feeling when you're praying and praying but you feel
that no one is listening or you don't know if you're getting answers?
Thats what I feel like right now when I pray." So we share with her a
few really powerful scriptures about prayer from the Book of Mormon,
we shared our testimonies, and we even shared the "Footprints in the
sand" story that she actually already knew. So we did all we could and
left hoping that we helped her. So when we go back she's sooo excited
to see us! She tells us all about her experience and that she got such
a powerful answer and that the Lord answered her prayers, and she knew
completely that the Book of Mormon was true and that she knew the
church was true and that he blessed her in all these other problems
that she had also. It was such a powerful lesson probably one of the
most spirit-filled ones I've had thus far here in Biñan and all we
essentially had to do was to testify that we know that God answered
her prayers, that the Book of Mormon is true, that the church is true,
and most importantly that God loves her and knows her personally.
Cool story number two! So this happened.. Monday! But started on
Sunday. So Sunday we went and talked to our Branch President (newly
called District President this past Sunday) and we got the branch's
list of fifteen names of less active persons that the branch is
focusing on. So Monday, without a preparation day, we decided to
contact a few of those people. So we wandered around looking a lot on
Monday but it was actually really successful. We stopped and talked to
one of the families on the list. They were SUPER nice but Sister was
just heading out the door to go to work and brother was taking her
there. So sister excused herself to go get ready and we talked to
brother for a while. Like I said he was way nice and I really enjoyed
getting to know him a little. So then sister comes back out and
brother leaves to go get the motorcycle ready. Sister sits down and
starts to talk with us and then just starts crying... We were like
what? Why? Whats wrong?? She tells us, "Elders, I really wanna go back
to church. I really miss it. I don't want to go by myself though. I
want my husband to go. I need him to take the lead." We were able to
set up a return appointment with them and we're pumped to go back and
share with them. So this was another really cool experience where we
had the wonderful experience of being the answer to someones prayer.
Like usual, we didn't even know her situation...but the Lord did. Its
just another testimony to me that whenever you do what you're supposed
to and you're obedient, you will be lead by the spirit. It's kinda
like I've heard Elder Bednar teach before that we shouldn't worry
about whether its the Spirit or not. If its a good thought/good thing,
just do it because "all good things come from God."
So yeah, I'm lovin it here, even if its not as pretty as Coron or
Ternate... haha My kabahays are jealous of my mission experience, and
I'm incredibly grateful to have opportunity to serve the Lord in the
ways I've been blessed to do so and I'm so excited to continue going
forth doing the work of the Lord! So I'll hit you guys up again in a
few days! haha
Love
Elder Michael Gadberry
Sorry! No pictures! I couldn't find my memory card reader... #UhOh
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