January 18, 2013 - I've been thinking...

Dear Mom, Dad, Ryan, and everyone who accidently wore different colored socks but were too lazy to change them,

Another busy week, Elder Peralta is starting to catch on to his new assignment as the Mission Secretary. That’s good; he’s really starting to catch up on all of the work he has to do so I can focus on mine. I’ve been helping him learn how to drive and do some typing exercises. He’s a great humble guy and I love serving with him. I just feel like we learn so much from each other.  I feel bad for our area though.  So, before we had 6 missionaries in the Ward. The Assistants (who are almost never there), us, and the Cubao Sisters. Well, Sister Velasco, who extended her mission, finished her extension and went home on Wednesday. That leaves the job of working in the whole of Cubao to the APs and us office elders. I just feel so bad for the area because we haven’t been able to work in it all week. Sayang (Too bad), we’ve had appointments but they would cancel on us, which was usually a good thing since we’ve been stuck in traffic almost every night.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what I am going to do after my mission. I’ve been able to talk to a lot of missionaries going home about what they are going to do with their life when they get back. A lot of them have some idea, and a few of them were just freaking out about what they were going to do when they get home. The bishop in my ward right now talked to me for a long time about having plans and planning at a ward party one time. It is important to have plans when you get off of your mission. Because most of the missionaries that go less active after their missions are ones who told him they didn’t know what their plans were after the mission. I mean, of course I have plans, I have goals to reach after my mission and I’ve been talking to Elder Stoddard about them last night and we had a interesting conversation.

It’s funny because we were both doing Mechanical Engineering majors before our missions.  Haha!  Anyway, I guess I’ll keep this part shorter. Well, the reason why I went into mechanical engineering was for the many options open for me after my first 4 years so that I can do whatever I wanted and have a solid resume with me for graduate school for whatever field I desire to pursue.  I’ve been watching a lot of the “I’m a Mormon” videos during my breaks and the most of the videos with people that I respect after only seeing 3 minutes of their lives are people that have done something to change the lives of many people. Like creating Bulgarian orphanages, or innovating prosthetic legs, or trying to find the cure to cancer. In any case, what I admire about these people  is that they do their job well, help people, and still have time to go home to their families. I guess that is what really is important for me and what I want to do after the mission is that I want to be able to come home to my family every night and be there for my kids while they are growing up. Much like “Jack” in this video http://www.mormonchannel.org/tv-ads?v=912421103001

I’ve also been talking with a lot of the senior couples that we work with a lot in the office. Elder Enderle is one I really respect. He a convert that lived in Alaska and he told me that he used to work big machines. Like bulldozers and such. He got a job offer to work big equipment in the mountains and earn much more money. The only problem is that he would be away from home for several months at a time. He then immediately declined the offer and said, “I didn’t get married to be away from my family.” And after that, made enough money in life to have gone on 3 missions with his wife and do many great things with plans to go on more missions. ^_^ Their children are successful; their grand children are successful; and all because they were following principles of the gospel.  That’s what I want. 

Hey mom, hey dad, I have to go and finish up the things I need to do for P-day. I love you! Thanks for emailing me today! Have a great weekend and I'll email you next week, okay? LOVE YOU!

Doing you Proud,

Elder Froude ^_^

P.S.

I got Christmas cards from the Diakoumopoulos Family, The Wawro family, Sis. Thorderson,  Andres’, Mama, and many others.  Can I just say thank you to those who sent me a card for Christmas?  It really made my day, even though it came like 20 days late. Haha!  That’s Manila mail for you.

Manila Philippines Temple

Driving in the Philippines

EDSA traffic.  Horrible!

Good to see the Whitings again!

Taking the Whitings to the airport at 4 am.

Elder and Sister Whiting on their way back to Mindoro.