Bonjour!
Yep, I'm now in a French speaking mission. just kidding. But I got to spend the last two days watching conference and I loveeeeeedddddddddddddddddd it! Like I was totally glued to it the whole time! I hope everyone else enjoyed it! I willingly (as opposed to those dreaded times in seminary) took notes on conference and tabbed a solid 21 pages of notes! And we still haven't seen Sunday Afternoon yet! So yeah I loved it! It's such an awesome privilege to hear from the living prophet and his apostles and other servants of the Lord.
So I'll talk about my week first and then about conference.
So Monday, we had a sweet FHE with the Durans. The lesson was good and all, but we all know its all about the games right? haha So we played this game where you make a mountain of flour and put a piece of chocolate on top and you take turns cutting away from the flour until someone knocks the chocolate down. Then, the person who knocks it down has to fetch the chocolate in the flour with their mouth. It was definitely way entertaining. Especially cuz I never lost. I still was attacked by flour though of course. Check out the pics.
So on Tuesday we had exchanges, cuz the ZLs or APs or someone encouraged us to have exchanges often, like twice a month or so. So Elder Osumo and I kicked it today. We visited Sister Lagrosa, and we extended to her the baptismal date of Nov 5th and she gladly accepted it! Its exciting! Later that night, we show up at Sister Aurora's to teach and her whole family is just chillin in their home blasting music and dancing crazily together. They were loving it. I loved to see them having so much fun together. Then I thought about my family doing the same thing....and yeah...the Gadberries don't roll like that hahaha
Wednesday was the birthday of Caleb and Grandma! HAPPY BIRTHDAY! On Wednesday, I had a pretty cool experience at the Jucaban's that night. We taught about Joseph Smith and the Restoration and invited Brother Jucaban to pray at the end of the lesson and told him if he would like he could ask right now if Joseph Smith's experience was true. When he prayed, he asked. I felt the Spirit quietly and subtly witness to me that it was true, I don't know if he felt it, I hope he did but it was cool to have the Spirit witness to me that it is true as someone else prays. It doesn't sound too exciting but it was cool, okay?! haha
On Thursday, our friends at Manneken Pis (a restaurant here in Coron we commonly go to and have become pretty good friends with the employees) decided to pick people that they think we looked like. Originally they said I was Justin Beiber, but then they decided I look like the Governor of Palawan, Baham Mitra. So apparently the people here think I look like Zac Effron, Justin Beiber and Baham Mitra. Hopefully that's good haha Later at Aurora's she told us that her husband had been thrown in prison. Her husband is a fisherman, but here they fish by diving into the water and using spear guns to catch the fish. For whatever reason something they were using (which everyone uses I guess) is illegal. So they were caught at thrown into prison. Aurora was really worried so said a prayer with her family that night, and the next time we saw her which I believe was Friday, everything with him as alright, they were released. I'm not too sure on all the details, cuz it was in Tagalog..haha But I guess Marvin Duran got caught the same night for the same thing on their boat but they had nicer captures, so he was fine too.
Friday, we did service out at Bayo Bayo Dos. Its pretty far away from us but we went out there to clean up their beach. Its really pretty out there (I have a few pictures from out there) and their beach was in much need of cleaning. It was pretty fun. Later that day, I saw someone wearing a Cardinals hat. Maybe that was the Lord's way of telling me that the Cardinals made the playoffs and are in the NLCS!!!! WOOOOOOOO! Jakey slipped it to me. (You rock bro!) I can't believe they came back from 10.5 out and are now in the NLCS. That's awesome! Alright, off to Saturday and back to missionary mode.
So Saturday, when my alarm went off I could barely hear it due to the very very very strong rain we had that morning. So immediately, I was like crap, the members here are not goin be able to make it to watch conference! I was pumped for them to get to see President Monson and the other Apostles! So of course, I prayed, duh. haha (Oh and by the way twice here we've seen a shirt that says "Pray [in big letters and underneath it it says] It works. We've been debating weather that shirt says "Pray. It works" or "Pray it works.") So I prayed and then took a shower, by the time I was out of the shower, the rain had completely stopped. But unfortunately maybe like a half an hour later it picked back up again. I wasn't too worried about the rain being a factor, I kinda took the stop of rain earlier as a reassurance that the rain will stop or at least not be a factor in stopping our members and investigators from coming. It rained allllll morning. But at about noon (we started conference at 1) it stopped/sprinkled until 1 or 1:30. Then it rained pretty much the rest of the day. So Saturday I got to watch Saturday Morning Session and the Priesthood Session. They rocked! From the very beginning I loved Elder Scotts talk about the scriptures, followed by Sister Thompsons talk about the Holy Ghost and personal revelation. Her talk was sweet and reassuring. She said if we diligently keep the commandments and ask in faith, answers will come. As well as, often times the spirit or revelation operates so delicately that you do not even consciously recognize it working within you. And the story she shared about the lady that said "I didn't keep a testimony, my testimony kept me." Her talk was awesome! And President Monson is pretty much hilarious. All the talks were awesome! But Dieters was awesomest! I think.. It's so amazing that the Lord created everything and does everything for us. And not just for us as a whole but for us individually. The Lord created the world not out of boredom but in order to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man. A couple things he said that I loved was, "Compared to God, man is nothing. But to God, man is everything." As well as something along the lines of "What matters most to the Lord is that I am doing the best I can, my heart is inclined towards him, and I am helping those in need around me." That was an awesome Session I could go on for a while but I'll stop cuz this will be really long. Hollands talk in the Priesthood Session was straight up beast. Go read it again. Favorite quote (probably not exactly correct) but somethin like "I am looking for men, young and old, who care enough about the gospel to stand up and speak up! We are at war." And Elder Waddell's talk about missionary work rocked too! I don't wanna just go on and on about everything I wrote down so I'll skip to President Monson's talk. He talked a little bit about how "the world says that moral decisions and moral problems are to be solved individually and personally." How sad would it be if that were true? We would be living life without direction, without help, and without purpose. However, how great are the commandments of God? In those we find direction, we have help, and we most definitely have a purpose or a goal in life. Moving on to Sunday now
Sunday! We watched the Saturday Afternoon Session as well as Sunday Morning. I found out that the people here in Coron understand conference better if its in English rather than Tagalog. I guess the Tagalog is too fast or too deep or somethin I'm not too sure. On Sunday most of them opted to watch it in English rather than Tagalog. The Saturday Afternoon Session's primary choir was astig! One of the speakers was Ian S Ardern of the Seventy. I met him! He was at the airport with Elder Teh (the only Filipino GA, also of the Seventy) one time when we were about to fly back to Coron. It was the most random meeting of those two, but I met them! I liked his talk about using our time affectively. "Let us be as quick to kneel as we are to text." Good thing I don't have a phone anymore so I can't feel guilty about that! =D Carl B Cook reminded us that we must look up, and step up, and as we do so we will cheer up. It's so important that we constantly rely on the Lord especially through any difficulty we're experiencing. He knows how to help us, He will help us, and we will be happier. And we all want to be happy right? Duh! Just do it! Ugh! everything was awesome! L. Tom Perry encouraged us not to be shy when talking about the church. We have nothing to be ashamed of! Definitely was fairly guilty of that before the mission. Off to Sunday Morning, my session with the most notes, but I have run out of time write about really... Maybe I'll share more next time. Sunday for lunch we cooked the pork we had leftover, in Coke and it was lami! (Cebuano for delicious -- I'm living with two Cebuanos haha) And I learned a funny Tagalog pick up line! This is it, you can translate it if you like "Apoy ka ba?" "Bakit?" "Kasi alab you." I found it hilarious.
Allllright! That was reallyyyy long sorry. Adieu
Love
Elder Michael Gadberry
Picture Explantions
1023--Funny translation of a kids english/tagalog story
1024-1043 -- Flour FHE!
1044 -- Much of the "Manggahan Kids" that are always there when we teach Aurora. Plus Ruby and Rose who are actually investigators and great ones at that
1046 -- me and Rhea Mae and Renz; Aurora's kids
1051-1062 -- Pictures taken from Bayo Bayo Dos
1063/1065 -- Dinner!
1069/1071 -- Different Dinner!
Thursday, October 13, 2011
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
10-3-2011 E-mail!
What up party people!
Alright! So we got de-stroyed! by the typhoon! It was awesome! Joke lang it wasn't too bad here. It was just super rainy on Monday and Tuesday and kinda on Wednesday, and fairly windy on Monday and Tuesday. We had a little bit of damage done to our apartment from it, but like at no point was I scared or anything. What's a little rain and wind anyways? haha
So I'll just kinda go day by day from looking at my journal and adding my own commentary and what not
Tuesday was definitely like the best day. Cuz we went out to try and teach Marjury and Jomar Pelayo, and we get there and find our that Marjury has had her baby that morning! It was exciting! I got to see a baby that was ten hours old! It was a girl, and she was 10 hrs old and still didn't have a name. What a poor, confused little baby. just kidding. But she really didn't have a name yet. Later that day we were taking a tricycle between appointments and I saw a girl wearing a Cardinals t-shirt!! I was PUMPED! haha So we were teaching and find way out in Manggahan and we had an appointment in Tagum so we started walking back from Manggahan to Tagum. When we were about halfway in between the two, Bogs stops and is like "Do you hear that?" I heard something but wasn't sure what cuz it sounded far away. So we continued for a couple minutes, then it started sprinkling a little, and Bogs was like Run! So we take off running to Tagum as it starts pouringgg it was like a solid 10 minute run. It was awesome! We got there and took shelter in Jaime's tindahan. Where I found Jaime rockin a Jo-Bros t-shirt hahaha. Later while we were eating in the apartment, we got a call from one of the Paranaque elders to ask Bogs a question cuz that was where he was before he came here. So after they talked I got to talk to Elder Labinpuno and Tenny for a little bit. Elder Tenny is a fairly fresh missionary from my zone at the MTC and so I got to catch up with him and see how he's doing a bit, it sounds like he's doing great! And just when you thought the night was out of excitement. We went out to the Decleto's and as we were walking on the tulay, I took a step and CRACK! The tulay breaks and my left leg is headin for the water! haha I fell like halfway up my thigh of my left leg but luckily I was able to catch myself before I got wet. So that was legit too! Then after we were done teaching for the night we started heading back to the apartment when it starts pouring again! So we were running down the middle of the street in the middle of the city until a tricycle finally came. By the way I attached a fairly good picture of a tricycle to this email. And yep, that was just Tuesday.
Wednesday -- The finance elder called to see how I was taking the BYU loss, again, for the second time! I told him since I go to BYU and I'm so much better than everyone else, I'm going to take the loss in stride and not say anything about it. hahaha And remember Sister Lagrosa? I hated teaching her cuz she always just laughed at our Tagalog and I felt teaching her was worthless, but now she's becoming one of my favorite investigators! We've been reteaching the Restoration and she's really getting it! I think she's really close to getting a baptismal date, pumped!
Thrusday -- Was a fairly normal day. It was the anniversary of 2 months of missionaries in Coron so that was cool! It's a weird problem that we have here. We have so many investigators that we're teaching nearly everyday to help prepare them for baptism that it makes it hard to get "New Investigators." That's like a good problem to have, but we need to be getting new investigators like everyday but its almost like we don't have time for it, so yeah that's kinda frustrating but okay too I guess.
Friday, Friday. Doin community service on Friday -- So we had service in the morning, and we were going to fix the tulay that I broke but Josaphine's husband wasn't there and he had the stuff we needed to fix it. So we go off looking for a different service project. We go out on a different tulay and find these guys that maybe Brother Arnold knew that were building a house. And they let us help! So I got to help kinda build a house. They were pouring cement down around the wooden sticks that were the foundation. (Unfortunately I didn't have my camera) So we got to literally make and mix cement, legit! Like they pretty much made it from scratch and yeah I got to do it and it was tight, yo. Also, we were out teaching in Manggahan first to the Gueta family and then to Aurora's family. When we taught at Aurora's family there were 11 kids ages 3-10 there, ughhh haha But pretty fun. The kids out there loveee us. It makes going out there pretty fun. Also in those 11 little kids, one of them pee-ed on Bogs while we were teaching. It was hilarious. Even he thought it was funny so it was okay. The other day it just struck me that it was weird that at every house we go to, we sit on the floor. I just had never though of that. Like most anywhere else, we'd have chairs or somethin. But most of the time here its just the floor. Because of my inflexibility, sometimes its hard but it really hasn't been bad at all. Looks like I'm goin be savin money on furniture in the future! haha just kidding I can still enjoy a nice soft couch.
Saturday -- Well in the morning when me and Robbins went out running we passed this like group of like 6 dogs just laying in the road. Yeah, they were not happy letting us pass. They started chasing us and what not but we escaped and went a different route. To find kind of a trail (kind of a trail because we kinda made the trail ourselves at the same time haha) that over looks Coron beautifully. I'll get pictures of it sometime. That night we went out to Manggahan to teach again. When we teach at Aurora's one of Rhea Mae's (Aurora's daughter) best friends (Clarina) is always there and participates and is awesome. Well this time her very drunk mother came along, too and informed us repeatedly that she wanted to teach for her kids and got all emotional and what not. I felt really bad for her because like the kids and the adults that were around thought it was hilarious that she was making a fool of herself, and I felt really bad for Clarina cuz she had to see her mom like this and probably had to put up with this fairly often. Drunk people are very annoying.
Sunday was great! It was fast and testimony meeting so that is always great! Especially cuz the members here and even nonmembers are so willing to get up and share their testimonies. There were no pauses in the meeting. Our attendance this week got back up around 70 with a solid 67, and Elder Bagahansol and I had 15 investigators attend the church. It was great. Also while we were out working I saw a guy wearing a BYU tank-top! It was legit! But I'm 99% sure he's never heard of BYU and isn't a member, as is the case with most all shirts and stuff people where here. They usually don't know what it says or means if its in English or originates from America. While we were teaching Nelda Pelayo, we were talking about the gospel and how it blesses families and about eternal families and she was talking about how badly she wants her family to stay together and how amazing it would be if she could be with her parents, who have died, again, and she started crying and it almost made me cry...She's so awesome! I'm afraid I'm goin get transferred on October 19th! I don't wanna goooo! If I have to leave, I'm taking all my investigators and members with me.
So General Conference here goes down like this. We'll watch it this upcoming weekend. And they're goin have it for us in Tagalog! But Elder Robbins and I get to watch everything but the Priesthood session in English so that's a relief. I heard they're building another temple in Provo! That's crazy! hahaha Life out here is going so fast! I'm almost a quarter of the way through my mission! Ahh! Transfers are flying and I love it!
Love you all!
Elder Michael Gadberry
Pictures
1012--Rain on Monday!
1013--Me rockin the glasses and a TOMMY HILFIGER (my favorite and almost only tie brand but I had to leave most of them behind) tie I found here for 80 pesos!
1014-- Jeepney
1016--Tricycle
1017-- Renz! Aurora's youngest. He wears his school uniform shirt to church so he can be like a missionary
1021 -- Our "washing machine" That's right I'm hardcore! haha
Alright! So we got de-stroyed! by the typhoon! It was awesome! Joke lang it wasn't too bad here. It was just super rainy on Monday and Tuesday and kinda on Wednesday, and fairly windy on Monday and Tuesday. We had a little bit of damage done to our apartment from it, but like at no point was I scared or anything. What's a little rain and wind anyways? haha
So I'll just kinda go day by day from looking at my journal and adding my own commentary and what not
Tuesday was definitely like the best day. Cuz we went out to try and teach Marjury and Jomar Pelayo, and we get there and find our that Marjury has had her baby that morning! It was exciting! I got to see a baby that was ten hours old! It was a girl, and she was 10 hrs old and still didn't have a name. What a poor, confused little baby. just kidding. But she really didn't have a name yet. Later that day we were taking a tricycle between appointments and I saw a girl wearing a Cardinals t-shirt!! I was PUMPED! haha So we were teaching and find way out in Manggahan and we had an appointment in Tagum so we started walking back from Manggahan to Tagum. When we were about halfway in between the two, Bogs stops and is like "Do you hear that?" I heard something but wasn't sure what cuz it sounded far away. So we continued for a couple minutes, then it started sprinkling a little, and Bogs was like Run! So we take off running to Tagum as it starts pouringgg it was like a solid 10 minute run. It was awesome! We got there and took shelter in Jaime's tindahan. Where I found Jaime rockin a Jo-Bros t-shirt hahaha. Later while we were eating in the apartment, we got a call from one of the Paranaque elders to ask Bogs a question cuz that was where he was before he came here. So after they talked I got to talk to Elder Labinpuno and Tenny for a little bit. Elder Tenny is a fairly fresh missionary from my zone at the MTC and so I got to catch up with him and see how he's doing a bit, it sounds like he's doing great! And just when you thought the night was out of excitement. We went out to the Decleto's and as we were walking on the tulay, I took a step and CRACK! The tulay breaks and my left leg is headin for the water! haha I fell like halfway up my thigh of my left leg but luckily I was able to catch myself before I got wet. So that was legit too! Then after we were done teaching for the night we started heading back to the apartment when it starts pouring again! So we were running down the middle of the street in the middle of the city until a tricycle finally came. By the way I attached a fairly good picture of a tricycle to this email. And yep, that was just Tuesday.
Wednesday -- The finance elder called to see how I was taking the BYU loss, again, for the second time! I told him since I go to BYU and I'm so much better than everyone else, I'm going to take the loss in stride and not say anything about it. hahaha And remember Sister Lagrosa? I hated teaching her cuz she always just laughed at our Tagalog and I felt teaching her was worthless, but now she's becoming one of my favorite investigators! We've been reteaching the Restoration and she's really getting it! I think she's really close to getting a baptismal date, pumped!
Thrusday -- Was a fairly normal day. It was the anniversary of 2 months of missionaries in Coron so that was cool! It's a weird problem that we have here. We have so many investigators that we're teaching nearly everyday to help prepare them for baptism that it makes it hard to get "New Investigators." That's like a good problem to have, but we need to be getting new investigators like everyday but its almost like we don't have time for it, so yeah that's kinda frustrating but okay too I guess.
Friday, Friday. Doin community service on Friday -- So we had service in the morning, and we were going to fix the tulay that I broke but Josaphine's husband wasn't there and he had the stuff we needed to fix it. So we go off looking for a different service project. We go out on a different tulay and find these guys that maybe Brother Arnold knew that were building a house. And they let us help! So I got to help kinda build a house. They were pouring cement down around the wooden sticks that were the foundation. (Unfortunately I didn't have my camera) So we got to literally make and mix cement, legit! Like they pretty much made it from scratch and yeah I got to do it and it was tight, yo. Also, we were out teaching in Manggahan first to the Gueta family and then to Aurora's family. When we taught at Aurora's family there were 11 kids ages 3-10 there, ughhh haha But pretty fun. The kids out there loveee us. It makes going out there pretty fun. Also in those 11 little kids, one of them pee-ed on Bogs while we were teaching. It was hilarious. Even he thought it was funny so it was okay. The other day it just struck me that it was weird that at every house we go to, we sit on the floor. I just had never though of that. Like most anywhere else, we'd have chairs or somethin. But most of the time here its just the floor. Because of my inflexibility, sometimes its hard but it really hasn't been bad at all. Looks like I'm goin be savin money on furniture in the future! haha just kidding I can still enjoy a nice soft couch.
Saturday -- Well in the morning when me and Robbins went out running we passed this like group of like 6 dogs just laying in the road. Yeah, they were not happy letting us pass. They started chasing us and what not but we escaped and went a different route. To find kind of a trail (kind of a trail because we kinda made the trail ourselves at the same time haha) that over looks Coron beautifully. I'll get pictures of it sometime. That night we went out to Manggahan to teach again. When we teach at Aurora's one of Rhea Mae's (Aurora's daughter) best friends (Clarina) is always there and participates and is awesome. Well this time her very drunk mother came along, too and informed us repeatedly that she wanted to teach for her kids and got all emotional and what not. I felt really bad for her because like the kids and the adults that were around thought it was hilarious that she was making a fool of herself, and I felt really bad for Clarina cuz she had to see her mom like this and probably had to put up with this fairly often. Drunk people are very annoying.
Sunday was great! It was fast and testimony meeting so that is always great! Especially cuz the members here and even nonmembers are so willing to get up and share their testimonies. There were no pauses in the meeting. Our attendance this week got back up around 70 with a solid 67, and Elder Bagahansol and I had 15 investigators attend the church. It was great. Also while we were out working I saw a guy wearing a BYU tank-top! It was legit! But I'm 99% sure he's never heard of BYU and isn't a member, as is the case with most all shirts and stuff people where here. They usually don't know what it says or means if its in English or originates from America. While we were teaching Nelda Pelayo, we were talking about the gospel and how it blesses families and about eternal families and she was talking about how badly she wants her family to stay together and how amazing it would be if she could be with her parents, who have died, again, and she started crying and it almost made me cry...She's so awesome! I'm afraid I'm goin get transferred on October 19th! I don't wanna goooo! If I have to leave, I'm taking all my investigators and members with me.
So General Conference here goes down like this. We'll watch it this upcoming weekend. And they're goin have it for us in Tagalog! But Elder Robbins and I get to watch everything but the Priesthood session in English so that's a relief. I heard they're building another temple in Provo! That's crazy! hahaha Life out here is going so fast! I'm almost a quarter of the way through my mission! Ahh! Transfers are flying and I love it!
Love you all!
Elder Michael Gadberry
Pictures
1012--Rain on Monday!
1013--Me rockin the glasses and a TOMMY HILFIGER (my favorite and almost only tie brand but I had to leave most of them behind) tie I found here for 80 pesos!
1014-- Jeepney
1016--Tricycle
1017-- Renz! Aurora's youngest. He wears his school uniform shirt to church so he can be like a missionary
1021 -- Our "washing machine" That's right I'm hardcore! haha
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
9-26-2011 E-mail!
Alright, Alright. Alright-Alright-Alright. Hey! (Props to anyone that got that!)
So you know how last week was great? Well this week was like pretty much the opposite...
juuust kidding! This week was great too of course!
haha I must share this experience from last Monday. So we went out to the shore to try and see the sunset at the end of p-day and it was fairly anti-climatic, I only got like one decent picture. But as we were leaving, I was walking with Elder Osumo and this high school girl tries to discretely take a picture of me with her phone. She turned around and took it and then went back to talking with her friend. Osumo was like "You saw that right?" I was like "yep." It was pretty hilarious. And I'm ridiculously good looking.
So on Tuesday we had our District Meeting. I'll just pretty much copy what I wrote in my journal for Tuesday. "In District Meeting this morning, we learned about listening (From Preach My Gospel). Elder Bagahansol said that this lesson was especially for Elder Robbins and I, which, quite frankly, I wasn't too happy when he said that cuz I don't like being singled out like that. I thought 'One, obviously I'm trying my best to listen, but its kinda hard when you can't understand what's going on sometimes. And two, if I'm not constantly planning out what I should say in my head, I won't have anything to say.' But by the end I, slightly grudgingly, said to myself, 'Alright, whatever. I'll try it. I'm going to just listen to our investigators, pray I understand, and pray I have something halfway intelligent/correct to say.' So somewhat begrudgingly, I decided to test the Lord on His promise that my mouth will be filled, and I won't be confounded before men. So we went about our day. At the Maanyo's we were informed that Coron has received reports of an aswang (means mythical creature, in this case a vampire and I was informed yesterday by Ivy that the aswang likes to feed on Pregnant ladies) and there has already been two victims. In relation to "aswang," I related Elder Robbins' story about his district at the MTC always saying "May aswang po ba kayo? (Do you have a monster?" instead of "May asawa po ba kayo? (Do you have a spouse?) And they thought that was hilarous. Later, I learned some Cuyonon! The dialect they have here in Coron/Palawan. It's not too common, but plenty of people here know at least some." So yeah that was Tuesday!
Wednesday was the mark of 8 weeks now in the Philippines! And Sunday meant two months out here! and 4 months into my mission! That's crazy! Also, on Wednesday I finally smartened up a bit. Elder Robbins is a big time runner. But Elder Osumo is not a runner at all, so Robbins has been kinda dying being out here unable to run so finally I decided I should start running with him so we started on Wednesday.
On Thursday we had exchanges because we had 5 people in need on baptismal interviews by Elder Osumo on Thursday. So pretty much the whole day he was interviewing while I was chilling outside or wherever else with the kids or whoever else. So I got a bunch of Tagalog practice! An experiece I wrote in my journal "While interviewing the Lucerianos, the rest of us were chillin at the Durans. Now that was hard core practice. I had the young kids competing for my attention, Ivy and Arliza talking to me about music and whatever else, and then more like a regular conversation with Alriza cuz she does not stop talking (She even told me that herself haha). But I did pretty good! I focused on listening and understanding and I didn't do too bad!"
But Friday was where its at! I'm just copying the journal for this one. "Well first things first, I got up to go run like a good person when...Pala! May palaka so aking sapatos! (That's right you have to look that up). Yeah, I wasn't too happy about that. Kasi it's like 6:30, so I'm like barely conscious and I go to put on my shoe and felt something weird. I saw what it was, was fairly startled, and threw my shoe on the ground. The thing was huge! Like the size of a Ding Dong Hostess cake (ask Yocum about Hostess cakes). After I macho-ly removed the thing from my shoe by thrusting my shoe to the ground and it was all good. Later we went to Stephanies. So we get there and Josaphine is doing this ladies nails and the ladies' husband is there too. So we couldnt really teach but that's ok cuz we mostly needed to get info from Stephanie for her BCR. Well Bogs, was doing that so I was left to pretty much fend for myself, great.... So the husband starts talking to me. At first he didn't think I knew Tagalog, then he thught I didn't know very much because I had only been here for 2 months, and by the end he was very impressed! We talked for like 25 minutes! He said he was a born-again christian and he was a missionary like on a boat for 12 years. He told me he got to travel much of Asia. I told him that my dad served a mission in Korea. So he asked if my family were members of the church, too. He asked a little about my family. I told him about us. He said that like they used music for his mission and for church. He asked if we had music for church. I said we do but just piano. He asked if I played. I said no but I wish I did (fact.). But I do play trombone. He told me his favorite was piano but he also taught himself guitar, accordian, drums, and I think a couple other things, I forgot. I was impressed. He let me in on the 'secret' to learning anything like that. He said 'If you want to learn to ride a bike, first get a bike. If you want to learn to play basketball, buy a ball. So if you want to learn guitar, you've gotta get a guitar first; then practice for 20min-1hr a day and you'll learn it.' That wasn't all our conversation, pretty much the highlights. But it was legit. The Lord rocks! This guy originally thought my Tagalog would be minimal and funny/entertaining, then we ended up having a cool conversation! D&C 100:5! It wasn't a gospel conversation, but I was still not confounded before men. That experience gave me confidence for the rest of the day. The Durans had offered to make all 4 of us dinner that night so we get there and they still had a little while until it was ready so we hung outand Robbins and I were having Tagalog conversations, our comps were impressed. And yeah pretty much Tagalog was fun today."
Then Saturday we had 5 baptisms (Edna, JJ, Aurora, Stephanie, and RJ)! Four of them were our investigators (should've been 5 but Keith was sick and couldn't make it with his mom and brother). We now have a font at the church. They constructed it in less than a week, definitely with some help from the Lord. They had to get up at 5 Saturday morning to finish it, and we were still filling it up with water until like 9:30. The service was supposed to start at 9..haha We had to fill it up by dumping bucket after bucket after bucket of water into the font it was pretty classic. The water was like barely past my knees and I was supposed to baptize 2 full grown adults (one of them pregnant!) Yeah that was hard..haha Of our 4 investigators being baptized I got the honor of doing 3 of the baptisms. It was sweet! But later we visted Edna because E-Kay (my "best friend" haha) had a really bad fever. We gave her a blessing but Sunday she ended up going to the hospital, I think she's okay now but I haven't heard anything new. The hospital here is definitely different..haha Ok so unlike E-Kay cuz she was sick she didn't say like anything, but when she was at the hospital and they were putting on IV in her to keep her hydrated she got a little more like E-Kay. She shouted at the nurse and everyone else there "Mamatay kayo lahat!" Keep in mind that she's like 3..haha But that means "You will all die!" hahaha So yeah she wasn't happy with that IV but after that was done she went back to her depressing self. Also, on Sunday I heard the song that we Cha-Chaed to allll the time in Social Dance, and so I, of course, had to cha-cha for Stephanie and Josaphine is was pretty funny.
So yeah that was really long too, sorry! But that was pretty much my week. I would like to give any faithful readers the opportunity to ask me any questions that they might be curious about. So if you read this and have a question for me. Email it to my parents and they'll email me any questions in their next email.
Love you all!
Elder Michael Gadberry
So you know how last week was great? Well this week was like pretty much the opposite...
juuust kidding! This week was great too of course!
haha I must share this experience from last Monday. So we went out to the shore to try and see the sunset at the end of p-day and it was fairly anti-climatic, I only got like one decent picture. But as we were leaving, I was walking with Elder Osumo and this high school girl tries to discretely take a picture of me with her phone. She turned around and took it and then went back to talking with her friend. Osumo was like "You saw that right?" I was like "yep." It was pretty hilarious. And I'm ridiculously good looking.
So on Tuesday we had our District Meeting. I'll just pretty much copy what I wrote in my journal for Tuesday. "In District Meeting this morning, we learned about listening (From Preach My Gospel). Elder Bagahansol said that this lesson was especially for Elder Robbins and I, which, quite frankly, I wasn't too happy when he said that cuz I don't like being singled out like that. I thought 'One, obviously I'm trying my best to listen, but its kinda hard when you can't understand what's going on sometimes. And two, if I'm not constantly planning out what I should say in my head, I won't have anything to say.' But by the end I, slightly grudgingly, said to myself, 'Alright, whatever. I'll try it. I'm going to just listen to our investigators, pray I understand, and pray I have something halfway intelligent/correct to say.' So somewhat begrudgingly, I decided to test the Lord on His promise that my mouth will be filled, and I won't be confounded before men. So we went about our day. At the Maanyo's we were informed that Coron has received reports of an aswang (means mythical creature, in this case a vampire and I was informed yesterday by Ivy that the aswang likes to feed on Pregnant ladies) and there has already been two victims. In relation to "aswang," I related Elder Robbins' story about his district at the MTC always saying "May aswang po ba kayo? (Do you have a monster?" instead of "May asawa po ba kayo? (Do you have a spouse?) And they thought that was hilarous. Later, I learned some Cuyonon! The dialect they have here in Coron/Palawan. It's not too common, but plenty of people here know at least some." So yeah that was Tuesday!
Wednesday was the mark of 8 weeks now in the Philippines! And Sunday meant two months out here! and 4 months into my mission! That's crazy! Also, on Wednesday I finally smartened up a bit. Elder Robbins is a big time runner. But Elder Osumo is not a runner at all, so Robbins has been kinda dying being out here unable to run so finally I decided I should start running with him so we started on Wednesday.
On Thursday we had exchanges because we had 5 people in need on baptismal interviews by Elder Osumo on Thursday. So pretty much the whole day he was interviewing while I was chilling outside or wherever else with the kids or whoever else. So I got a bunch of Tagalog practice! An experiece I wrote in my journal "While interviewing the Lucerianos, the rest of us were chillin at the Durans. Now that was hard core practice. I had the young kids competing for my attention, Ivy and Arliza talking to me about music and whatever else, and then more like a regular conversation with Alriza cuz she does not stop talking (She even told me that herself haha). But I did pretty good! I focused on listening and understanding and I didn't do too bad!"
But Friday was where its at! I'm just copying the journal for this one. "Well first things first, I got up to go run like a good person when...Pala! May palaka so aking sapatos! (That's right you have to look that up). Yeah, I wasn't too happy about that. Kasi it's like 6:30, so I'm like barely conscious and I go to put on my shoe and felt something weird. I saw what it was, was fairly startled, and threw my shoe on the ground. The thing was huge! Like the size of a Ding Dong Hostess cake (ask Yocum about Hostess cakes). After I macho-ly removed the thing from my shoe by thrusting my shoe to the ground and it was all good. Later we went to Stephanies. So we get there and Josaphine is doing this ladies nails and the ladies' husband is there too. So we couldnt really teach but that's ok cuz we mostly needed to get info from Stephanie for her BCR. Well Bogs, was doing that so I was left to pretty much fend for myself, great.... So the husband starts talking to me. At first he didn't think I knew Tagalog, then he thught I didn't know very much because I had only been here for 2 months, and by the end he was very impressed! We talked for like 25 minutes! He said he was a born-again christian and he was a missionary like on a boat for 12 years. He told me he got to travel much of Asia. I told him that my dad served a mission in Korea. So he asked if my family were members of the church, too. He asked a little about my family. I told him about us. He said that like they used music for his mission and for church. He asked if we had music for church. I said we do but just piano. He asked if I played. I said no but I wish I did (fact.). But I do play trombone. He told me his favorite was piano but he also taught himself guitar, accordian, drums, and I think a couple other things, I forgot. I was impressed. He let me in on the 'secret' to learning anything like that. He said 'If you want to learn to ride a bike, first get a bike. If you want to learn to play basketball, buy a ball. So if you want to learn guitar, you've gotta get a guitar first; then practice for 20min-1hr a day and you'll learn it.' That wasn't all our conversation, pretty much the highlights. But it was legit. The Lord rocks! This guy originally thought my Tagalog would be minimal and funny/entertaining, then we ended up having a cool conversation! D&C 100:5! It wasn't a gospel conversation, but I was still not confounded before men. That experience gave me confidence for the rest of the day. The Durans had offered to make all 4 of us dinner that night so we get there and they still had a little while until it was ready so we hung outand Robbins and I were having Tagalog conversations, our comps were impressed. And yeah pretty much Tagalog was fun today."
Then Saturday we had 5 baptisms (Edna, JJ, Aurora, Stephanie, and RJ)! Four of them were our investigators (should've been 5 but Keith was sick and couldn't make it with his mom and brother). We now have a font at the church. They constructed it in less than a week, definitely with some help from the Lord. They had to get up at 5 Saturday morning to finish it, and we were still filling it up with water until like 9:30. The service was supposed to start at 9..haha We had to fill it up by dumping bucket after bucket after bucket of water into the font it was pretty classic. The water was like barely past my knees and I was supposed to baptize 2 full grown adults (one of them pregnant!) Yeah that was hard..haha Of our 4 investigators being baptized I got the honor of doing 3 of the baptisms. It was sweet! But later we visted Edna because E-Kay (my "best friend" haha) had a really bad fever. We gave her a blessing but Sunday she ended up going to the hospital, I think she's okay now but I haven't heard anything new. The hospital here is definitely different..haha Ok so unlike E-Kay cuz she was sick she didn't say like anything, but when she was at the hospital and they were putting on IV in her to keep her hydrated she got a little more like E-Kay. She shouted at the nurse and everyone else there "Mamatay kayo lahat!" Keep in mind that she's like 3..haha But that means "You will all die!" hahaha So yeah she wasn't happy with that IV but after that was done she went back to her depressing self. Also, on Sunday I heard the song that we Cha-Chaed to allll the time in Social Dance, and so I, of course, had to cha-cha for Stephanie and Josaphine is was pretty funny.
So yeah that was really long too, sorry! But that was pretty much my week. I would like to give any faithful readers the opportunity to ask me any questions that they might be curious about. So if you read this and have a question for me. Email it to my parents and they'll email me any questions in their next email.
Love you all!
Elder Michael Gadberry
Thursday, September 22, 2011
Coron Island: September 19, 2011
The latest, greatest (and long!) e-mail from Michael! He has a new companion, still on Coron and still loving it. Hopefully there are pictures above this post that are referenced in his e-mail below. Also, as a point of reference, Michael's right eye is pretty weak. That will mean something in a few paragraphs.
Ayos!
Got you all some more pics on the way. My parents asked about the bird in the picture on the last one, and that is a dissected Balut. I bought Elder Hopkins balut the night before he left cuz he said he wanted to try it but hadn't tried it yet. So Elder Osumo and I went on a snack run for everyone and I had to pick up some balut. We bought 2 Hopkins (barely) ate on, he had lots of trouble. And he culdnt do another so smartly, we decided to dissect it and that is what the inside of a balut looks like.
This time I brought my journal with me so I have a better idea of what went down this week. Get pumped! haha So lets start with Tuesday, that night we had a lesson with Dante. My companion followed up and then turned the time over to me. I knew what we planned on sharing but I had no idea like how to do it in Tagalog or where to start and what not. But then I just had an idea of where to go with it and I followed that thought and I was able to teach much of the lesson in
good Tagalog. I know that the Spirit helped me out there cuz well I taught in Tagalog and I dont know Tagalog haha, but also because of how smooth and powerful the lesson was too. Kind of like Nephi being led by the Spirit not knowing before hand what he should do. Or in D&C take no thought before hand what ye shall say but it will be granted you in the very moment that portion that is meted unto every man. Or something close to that. Also on Tuesday, I saw a Filipino squirrel And its like half the size of squirrels in America.
So on Thursday, I got to play Filipino style pool. Its pretty legit! I've got pictures of it that I sent. The cue ball is actually a wooden black puck, and the balls are smaller red, plastic pucks with papers with numbers on them taped on top. Its legit. I actually think its easier than regular style pool. Pool is huge here. Which is kinda cool but not when you're a missionary and you gotta teach people that gambling is bad..haha Also that little crab you see in the pictures....Yeah not a fan. My companion hoped down in the mud when it was low tide and caught him, then proceeded to torture me with him for like ten minutes! Much to the entertainment of him and Aurora Albuera the sister we were teaching at the moment. But it was pretty funny. At some point during the day I did something to mess with Robbins (I've forgotten what now...haha) but then I came back home and I found my desk in the bathroom. It was pretty hilarious. We took
some fun pictures with that.
Alright! Friday was pretty eventful, too. It was an exciting day cuz we got our support for the second half of the month! And the ATM gave us our support in all 100 peso bills...so that was fairly entertaining. By the way "Skater Boi" just came on on the radio here in the internet shop and me Robbins and Osumo just looked at each other and laughed. Classic song. (Osumo is totally American. More fluent in english than some Americans. Knows all the slang. Only listens to American music. And will not watch a movie or show if its not in english). Back to Friday. (cue Rebecca Black) First of all during Weekly Planning, for whatever reason, my comp was getting on my nerves and I have no idea why...So when he went to the bathroom I said a quick prayer, looked back at my scriptures and saw Alma 34:29, it says "If ye do not remember to be charitable, ye are as dross, which the refiners do cast out, (it being of no worth) and is trodden under the foot of men." I read that, chuckled to myself, tried to remember that, and had a great rest of plannning and rest of the day.
Later that night, we were getting in Mark Velasquez's (Jelyn's husband) tricycle. It was dark and I turned to go around to the back and Bam!I ran right into the corner of a really low tin roof thingy. It didnt hurt but of course it bled a fair amount. Luckily, Mark and Bogs were there right away to clean it up. Bogs had alcohol so we got it really clean (SO DON'T WORRY!). I had three thoughts come into my head. First, crap if this is bad, I'm going to get sent back to Manila and not be able to come back here... Second, Since Jesus suffered all out pains and afflictions, I might need to repent of this cuz this is a really dumb thing to make him suffer. And third and mostly overall, I was grateful that it didnt actually get my eye cuz that was my left eye and if it gets damaged we may have issues. And so yeah that was eventful. Whenever someone asks me what happened I tell them "Nagustohan ko maging kagaya ni Pacquio. (I wanted to be like Pacquio)." But that night Mark gave us some bad news. He said that there's been a lot of talk on his side of the family about Jelyn going to our church and being baptized, and his parents are devout Catholics and were not happy about it. So he told us we'd be welcome to still come and share and what not but she probably won't be going to church anymore. So yeah either tonight or tomorrow night we're going over there to sort all of that out. Hopefully it works out.
So I know that the Lord's definitely been helping out my Tagalog cuz Saturday we visited the Lagrosas and when me and Hopkins visited there they pretty much just laughed through the entire lessons, but still went to church on Sunday, much to our surprise...haha They laughed not because our Tagalog was wrong they just thought it was hilarious that a couple Americans were speaking Tagalog I guess...haha But Saturday we stopped by and I was hoping to speak minimally. But Elder Bagahansol told me to teach her about sacrament. So I was like uhh ok I'll try (this isn't going to go well...). Plus this was pretty much the first time I taught it like myself usually I just have a couple inputs. So I tried and she understand and it went good and she didn't laugh at my Tagalog at all! It was awesome!
So yeah that's the highlights of my week pretty much. Yesterday at church we had 56 people there, and Elder Bagahansol and I had 17 investigators at church it was a good Sunday.
The dirt road pics: We went out there with Bro and Sis Duran to meet some lost members and it was pretty tight. The tiny kitten we saw in the streets. To be blunt, it probably won't live very long. There are a ton of dogs and cats in the streets. The snowman was created by Elder Robbins in our little freezer.
So yep, wow that was long. I love everyone that actually reads this whole thing. And if you dont actually read this I still love you, but not as much.
Love
Elder Michael Gadberry
Ayos!
Got you all some more pics on the way. My parents asked about the bird in the picture on the last one, and that is a dissected Balut. I bought Elder Hopkins balut the night before he left cuz he said he wanted to try it but hadn't tried it yet. So Elder Osumo and I went on a snack run for everyone and I had to pick up some balut. We bought 2 Hopkins (barely) ate on, he had lots of trouble. And he culdnt do another so smartly, we decided to dissect it and that is what the inside of a balut looks like.
This time I brought my journal with me so I have a better idea of what went down this week. Get pumped! haha So lets start with Tuesday, that night we had a lesson with Dante. My companion followed up and then turned the time over to me. I knew what we planned on sharing but I had no idea like how to do it in Tagalog or where to start and what not. But then I just had an idea of where to go with it and I followed that thought and I was able to teach much of the lesson in
good Tagalog. I know that the Spirit helped me out there cuz well I taught in Tagalog and I dont know Tagalog haha, but also because of how smooth and powerful the lesson was too. Kind of like Nephi being led by the Spirit not knowing before hand what he should do. Or in D&C take no thought before hand what ye shall say but it will be granted you in the very moment that portion that is meted unto every man. Or something close to that. Also on Tuesday, I saw a Filipino squirrel And its like half the size of squirrels in America.
So on Thursday, I got to play Filipino style pool. Its pretty legit! I've got pictures of it that I sent. The cue ball is actually a wooden black puck, and the balls are smaller red, plastic pucks with papers with numbers on them taped on top. Its legit. I actually think its easier than regular style pool. Pool is huge here. Which is kinda cool but not when you're a missionary and you gotta teach people that gambling is bad..haha Also that little crab you see in the pictures....Yeah not a fan. My companion hoped down in the mud when it was low tide and caught him, then proceeded to torture me with him for like ten minutes! Much to the entertainment of him and Aurora Albuera the sister we were teaching at the moment. But it was pretty funny. At some point during the day I did something to mess with Robbins (I've forgotten what now...haha) but then I came back home and I found my desk in the bathroom. It was pretty hilarious. We took
some fun pictures with that.
Alright! Friday was pretty eventful, too. It was an exciting day cuz we got our support for the second half of the month! And the ATM gave us our support in all 100 peso bills...so that was fairly entertaining. By the way "Skater Boi" just came on on the radio here in the internet shop and me Robbins and Osumo just looked at each other and laughed. Classic song. (Osumo is totally American. More fluent in english than some Americans. Knows all the slang. Only listens to American music. And will not watch a movie or show if its not in english). Back to Friday. (cue Rebecca Black) First of all during Weekly Planning, for whatever reason, my comp was getting on my nerves and I have no idea why...So when he went to the bathroom I said a quick prayer, looked back at my scriptures and saw Alma 34:29, it says "If ye do not remember to be charitable, ye are as dross, which the refiners do cast out, (it being of no worth) and is trodden under the foot of men." I read that, chuckled to myself, tried to remember that, and had a great rest of plannning and rest of the day.
Later that night, we were getting in Mark Velasquez's (Jelyn's husband) tricycle. It was dark and I turned to go around to the back and Bam!I ran right into the corner of a really low tin roof thingy. It didnt hurt but of course it bled a fair amount. Luckily, Mark and Bogs were there right away to clean it up. Bogs had alcohol so we got it really clean (SO DON'T WORRY!). I had three thoughts come into my head. First, crap if this is bad, I'm going to get sent back to Manila and not be able to come back here... Second, Since Jesus suffered all out pains and afflictions, I might need to repent of this cuz this is a really dumb thing to make him suffer. And third and mostly overall, I was grateful that it didnt actually get my eye cuz that was my left eye and if it gets damaged we may have issues. And so yeah that was eventful. Whenever someone asks me what happened I tell them "Nagustohan ko maging kagaya ni Pacquio. (I wanted to be like Pacquio)." But that night Mark gave us some bad news. He said that there's been a lot of talk on his side of the family about Jelyn going to our church and being baptized, and his parents are devout Catholics and were not happy about it. So he told us we'd be welcome to still come and share and what not but she probably won't be going to church anymore. So yeah either tonight or tomorrow night we're going over there to sort all of that out. Hopefully it works out.
So I know that the Lord's definitely been helping out my Tagalog cuz Saturday we visited the Lagrosas and when me and Hopkins visited there they pretty much just laughed through the entire lessons, but still went to church on Sunday, much to our surprise...haha They laughed not because our Tagalog was wrong they just thought it was hilarious that a couple Americans were speaking Tagalog I guess...haha But Saturday we stopped by and I was hoping to speak minimally. But Elder Bagahansol told me to teach her about sacrament. So I was like uhh ok I'll try (this isn't going to go well...). Plus this was pretty much the first time I taught it like myself usually I just have a couple inputs. So I tried and she understand and it went good and she didn't laugh at my Tagalog at all! It was awesome!
So yeah that's the highlights of my week pretty much. Yesterday at church we had 56 people there, and Elder Bagahansol and I had 17 investigators at church it was a good Sunday.
The dirt road pics: We went out there with Bro and Sis Duran to meet some lost members and it was pretty tight. The tiny kitten we saw in the streets. To be blunt, it probably won't live very long. There are a ton of dogs and cats in the streets. The snowman was created by Elder Robbins in our little freezer.
So yep, wow that was long. I love everyone that actually reads this whole thing. And if you dont actually read this I still love you, but not as much.
Love
Elder Michael Gadberry
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