Happy Father's Day! So I’ve been thinking, since Mom got a Skype
call I figured I should do a Father's Day tribute to Dad. :) Let's
see...
First off, I want to say Thank You, Dad for all that you
have blessed me with in this life and all of the hard sacrifices and trials you
had to go through to give me, Lauren, and Ryan a good life. Being on a mission you appreciate all the hard
work that goes into things you used to take for granted... like warm showers,
air conditioning, washer and dryer, a nice house that is not made out of
bamboo, toilet paper, filtered water whenever you want, internet. You know those things you don't really think
about until you're on an island in the middle of the Pacific and realize you
don't have any of these things. Haha! Or
rather, expensive or hard to obtain things. I am very grateful that I did grow up having
those things that have been provided by the blood, sweat, and tears of my hard
working father. But even more so, the
wonderful example of what it means to be a man that he has provided me with. For when you're out in the world on your own,
it is not my education that I refer back to or what I’ve seen on TV, but it is
the things my father did when I was growing up that I rely on to get me through
life's trials.
Like how to treat women with respect, I learned from my
father. How to worship God; the
importance of God in my life. How to
treat others, how to be hospitable. Manners, as well. But most importantly, how to be a great
priesthood holder. I see my dad always
doing his priesthood duties, yes, even frequent home teaching. When he was my home teaching companion is when
I first learned about the importance of a less active member to God, which is, incidentally,
our focus here in Quezon City Mission. We
would always visit them and never gave up on them for they each are children of
God. I really respect how well my Dad
has been able to balance his callings, his job, and his family to where each
has the right amount of attention it needs. The way my dad treats my mom is something I
will take with me as well. Every Friday
night, my dad would take my mom out on a date and I saw how that always made
her happy. ^_^ He is also the greatest
example of how hard work brings great blessings. From working two jobs in San Francisco when he
was a teenager, to joining the military, to building his business from nothing
and helping me provide for my mission. My dad is astig (cool) talaga! Mabuti at mabait talaga!!! (He is a good guy.) Siya
ay ang magandang halimbawa sa akin na pagiging isang anak ng Diyos. (He is a great
example to me on how to be a son of God.) These
are the things my Dad has done to be the great example of a man to me. I hope to grow up to become just like him
someday. And I know he's going to say,
"I don't want you to be like me, I want you to be better than me!" Well, you make it quite a difficult task,
Dad! Haha! Happy Father's Day ^_^ I love you so much.
Updates on me this week:
Time has been going by so fast; this week has been one
big blur, really! It stormed for 3 days
here and flooded a bit. I'm glad I have
the cheap rubber shoes but it still get my socks wet. Haha! The rural areas we teach at are hard to get to
in the rain. But it's all good. The worst part here is when the brown outs
happen and the fans don't work. It gets
hot real fast without fans! And if it is
a brown out, the whole city has no power unless you have a generator… kinda
sucks. LOL! I miss constant electricity! There was a brown out once while I was
showering. No lights and a cold bucket
of water was all I had. Haha! Such is the life of a missionary. I love it!
San Jose City is actually quite small but it's so
beautiful over here. Earlier this week I
walked along the beach to our next appointment. It was great! The island is nice, the missionaries and
couples are great. We have a great time but the work is so much harder here. It's hard to explain. But I love it here and I will do my best. We get way less lessons a week than I did in
Pasig but it's a whole different game here in Mindoro. It's interesting, to say the least. They have 1 Jollibee restaurant here and
that's about it for fast food. We eat a
lot of sizzling plates and when it storms, chicken or beef mami. My favorite right now is lechon. Haha!
90 pesos only and comes with rice. XD When we go out to eat we always see at least
one member either on the street or at the plaza. Today, we saw 3 while going to
a zone luncheon. Haha!
Elder Olvido, my companion, has been here since 1
transfer ago lang pero he is a year and
a month old. He's from Cebu…quite tall
for a Filipino. He loves this one video game, DOTA. I have no idea what it is but, apparently,
he's ranked #4 in Cebu and #16 in Manila.
Big deal here, I suppose. Not too talkative, but that's fine. We have similar tastes in music when it comes
to Paramore and Colbie Callait(sp) and some OPM. Haha!
Btw, can you email me more Tagalog lyrics? So I can learn what they mean. I can understand now. :)
About the branch president and the branch, I actually
haven't had the opportunity to talk much with the branch president. (A branch is smaller than a ward and their church leader is
called a branch president instead of a bishop.) He's always
running around and such. But he respects
and trusts us as missionaries so that is a good thing. Yes, President Whiting is like our mission
president here, except we see him all the time and we're so close to him. We had lunch at their house yesterday after
church. That was awesome!…one of the things
I really love about being here in Mindoro. He is a counselor to President DelaMare which is great because
it gives him authority on the island and so every leader here respects him and
his opinions on things.
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| Pres. and Sis. Whiting, our senior couple missionaries |
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| Having Family Home Evening (FHE) with the Novencido family |
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| All 10 missionaries in our branch! |
About the language. .. You know that moment when someone
talks to you in another language and without thinking you reply in that
language and don't realize it till after the conversation? That's where I am right now :) I'm great at speaking. But understanding all of this Mindoro Tagalog
is different for me so I need to do more vocab study, but it's going along well
:) Mas mabuti na ang tagalog ko. (My Tagalog is a lot
better now.) Excited na ako
talaga na magiging fluent sa Tagalog! XD (I’m excited to be fluent in Tagalog.) Taglish pa rin minsan pero ayos
lang. Haha! (I still speak Tagalog-English sometimes but it’s
okay.)
I did hear Someone Like You by Adele play in the Jollibee.
It reminded me of that SNL skit we used
to watch. Haha! Good times.
Oh, I do have kwento pala (story). I had a dream 2 nights ago…I was shopping with
Ryan and we were looking for socks and an alarm clock. So then, I found all my stuff and Mom was
looking for clothes for me for Sunday, because I could attend church at our
home ward for Father's Day then go back out to the field. Then I was like, YAY, Mom has great taste so I
can trust what she picks out for me. Then
I woke up, and I was sad it wasn't real. It was when I was getting homesick because I
didn't know anyone here.
I'm running out of time and I still need to write
president so I'll end it here. I love
you all! Here are my scriptural thoughts of awesomeness this week. Ponder and be edified by D&C 100:15,
D&C 64:33, 2Nephi 4:15-16. Enjoy!
Love you all, thanks for all of the emails and support. Btw, I am 100% better now!
Doing you Proud,
Elder Froude ^_^
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