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