April 6, 2013 E-Mail!

Last Preparation day of my second to last transfer.


trash.


Sorry for not getting an email to you guys last week.. But my Holy Week was pretty good. Complete with a Holy Thursday but definitely a Good Friday. haha I got lots of pictures for you guys though so check those out!


So this week was pretty sweet. I'd like to begin by sharing another story about why Filipinos are like the best people ever. So I have these shoes... And they're pretty well destroyed.. But hey, "My life is like my shoes to be worn out in service." (Pres. Kimball) But anyways.. our investigator Bro Mythor. Who is legit. We've met with him like 3 times and he's already well into 2 Nephi. But he's like Elder Gadberry you're shoes are shot! (Of course I'm taking some liberty with the translation) and I was like yeah...but it's all good. I'm kinda close to going home anyways and I don't wanna buy new ones. So he's like well here take a pair of mine. (He's a fireman). I was like well what about you aren't you going to need these?? He's like nah.. take em! And I'm like no way they're yours and he's like take it its okay I've got a bunch. And then at that point his wife chimes in verifying that he has a bunch. So I'm like fine..'in the mouth of two witnesses' right?? haha And then I accept them. So I got a new pair of shoes for free! I love this guy!


Another story. So we've got this one family who's like awesome and a half. It's the family with the ancient nanay who looks like she's 120. But earlier this week they were telling us about how much they love the scriptures. They say that if they don't read a little bit of them before they go to bed they feel like something's missing and then when they do go to sleep in their little simple home where they just sleep on the floor. They always make sure that their Aklat ni Mormon is always near and it brings them peace and comfort. I loveee the beautiful simple faith of some many of the people here!


So then we have this other family who is super cool too! They're actually former investigators of Elder Hopkins so I feel super honored to teach them. And I really think this is going to be their time to get baptized! We visited them once and they were talking about even though they were never baptized they felt that they missed the church and wanted to start going to church again. So then Sunday they came to church! It was sweet! To be honest.. I'm not too sure we're going to get anyone baptized before I leave. I really hope so.. But since we've struggled getting people to church it's going to take a lot of help from the Lord for it to happen. But even if we don't I'm content cuz right now we have over twenty people that have accepted baptismal dates so at the very least I'll hopefully help set Elder Phillips up to have a bomb next couple months.


One more story about how awesome the saints are here! So Saturday night we were walking along the highway going to our next appointment when we hear "hey elders!" from behind us. Brother Macky, our 1st Counselor in the Bishopric, came riding up to us on his bike. Keep in mind this is no like road bike or anything this like the bike that you and your friends rode around the neighborhood before you were big enough to ride a mountain bike that had all the fancy gears and stuff. haha He told us that he just got done with overtime at work, which is considerable distance away from where we met him, and that he was late for PEC, which is on the other side of Kawit. It's about 7pm now and PEC started at 6:30 and he's going straight there from work no break no dinner no nothin. What a stud. And this is after he spent his Thursday evening working with us and helping us teach the family I mentioned above that Elder Hopkins started teaching.


In other news....


We were invited to the birthday party for this nanay investigator of ours who's daughter is a member. So I was like Nay! How old are you going to be?? She's like 83! I was like wow! Nice! And then her katulong helper person was like Nay! You're only turning 78! You're not 83 yet.. haha So then We showed up at their house on her birthday and I was like Happy Birthday Nay! She's like thanks! I turn 83 today! ....I guess she hadn't read the big hugetarpaulin on their well that said "Happy 78th Birthday Nanay Bising!" ....#OldPeople hahaha =D


Another funny one was when we taught this other less-active family. So we just got done teaching about faith and all the different aspects of it and what true faith is. With a special focus on acting! Faith AND works! So yeah it went pretty good! So we go, "So do you guys have any questions?" Brother Mike then comes up with a good one! One I don't think I've ever heard before or will ever hear again.. "So what can you say about people getting struck down with lightning from above?" Thankfully his mother who's like 70 had the answer to that question. "You dummy. That's not lightning from God it's coming from the clouds!" "Well that's still above," Mike argued. And with that Mom was silenced. "So umm.. thanks for your time.. We'll drop by again next week.... but umm.. before we go can we maybe say a prayer? (that we don't get struck down by lightning... haha just kidding)"





My mission rocks.


Love
Elder Michael Gadberry




Pictures
174 -- View on a Mini-Bus
178/181 -- Sweet sunset!
183 -- Playing with my camera before ballin this morning.