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
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