Hi Mom, Hi Dad, Hi Ryan, Hi Y’all!
Well, to start off, we had to wonderful opportunity to hear from not 1
but 2 general authorities today! The first one being Elder Nielson of the
Philippines Area Presidency, and then Elder Allen F. Packer of the Seventy; the
executive director of family history. And of course we heard from their wives
as well, and they were all great speakers. I just want to share a few things
with you. First, in Elder Neilson’s opening remarks, he said that family
history is just booming throughout the world. 1.7 million names a day are being
digitized and processed in Family History website of the church. One of the
reasons why Elder Packer was here was because he and his team have come to digitize
the national records of the Philippines. Which means that family history work
for Filipinos is going to be much easier with all of the new records they are
adding to the website. It’s super exciting especially for completing families!
4.7 million names have already been added.
Sister Packer talked about the desire to be a better missionary every
day. Because, of course, we all have things to work on. But she said that if we
are not striving to change ourselves for the better every day, if we do not
have the goal to be better tomorrow than we are today, then we are not fully
living our potential. At least that is what I got out of it. The Spirit was the
main topic and how “exact obedience” is key to keeping the Spirit with you at
all times. Which is totally true! D&C 84:82, “I the Lord am bound when ye
do what I say, but when ye do not what I say, ye have no promise.” Prospective
missionaries… memorize and live this! You will be so much happier on your
mission, trust me. Yes, that means, Obedience=Spirit=Happiness.
Elder Packer gave a really great interpretation on the focus on
missionary work in John 15:16 (I invite you to read and ponder it). I
volunteered to read the scripture…to my surprise he had me stand for like 15
minutes as we dissected this scripture just to read small parts of it between
his discourses. So, of course, I felt weird standing the whole time but it was
interesting to hear his talk. He then further went on to invite us to ask the
right questions when praying to the Lord. He asked us to pray for confirmation
as to whether or not we’re supposed to be in our areas, and if our companions
are who God wants to be our companions. So it was great!
Saturday was basically the worst
day ever. I mean okay, being able to hear the talks of two general authorities
and their wives were great but then after that it all went downhill. So, we had
to go back to the office to get an elder’s support card that I forgot to get to
him after the meeting so that took like half an hour to get there and back. Then
while going to lunch I was going to pull into a small parking lot in front of a
store. I signaled and found a space so I went to turn in, but there was another
guy and he didn’t stop and we collided. I can’t say it’s not my fault, but I
can’t say it wasn’t his fault either. The fact of the matter was neither of us
stopped and so we hit each other. And I spent most of my day at the police
station filling out a police report. >.<
It was the scariest thing ever. No one
was hurt. The truck only got a scratch but the other guy had his light taken
out and his front bumper smashed. It was really all cause I made a bad judgment
call. Basta, I called the people at the Area office as soon as I could and they
sent some people to help us. So, after all that fiasco the guy didn’t press
charges and everything is okay for the most part. The church workers told me
that everything is fine and the insurance will cover all of the damage costs
and that I should be more careful next time.
Then we went to the office to try to email you all but the lds email was
down for maintenance all day. Then I tried to copy pictures and got a virus on
my SD card and my back up USB, which is killing me right now because I’m afraid
I’ll lose all my pictures soon. I was super stressed and was about to tear
someone’s head off so I went into one of the separate rooms and started
praying. I really didn’t want to go out and teach that night because of everything
that happened but I told the Lord I’d serve him even if all of these horrible
things happened today. So we went out to work and got punted all night…. Sad
day.
To brighten things up, I
remembered the words from Sister Packer which said “we should strive to be
better missionaries tomorrow than we are today.” So I thought about that and
dedicated myself to improving myself each day. I was just thinking that, you know,
the Lord knows I wanted to do that, so He brought me so low on Saturday so I’d
have an easy place to start progressing and changing myself from. Haha! Just looking
on the positive side. Anyway, everything is okay now.
Yesterday I learned something
very interesting. And it was about teaching with the Spirit. We had some
missionaries with us who were American but going to the India mission. So they
did not speak much Tagalog but they went to teach with us until their plane
came. Anyway, they spoke mostly English when they taught, but nonetheless when
they spoke the investigators listened, and when they taught, the Spirit flooded
the room and it was very interesting for me to see. I was worried so much about
my language and whether or not they understand me and worried not enough about
the language of the Spirit which can speak to all hearts in all tongues. It
helped me refocus my efforts as a missionary. Not just teaching, but to teach
with the Spirit. Not to speak much, but to say more by saying less.
Okay, I know it’s late so I'll
say goodnight to you now. Thank you for staying up with me! You have been of
such comfort and help today. I love you all! ^_^ Hoping you are all doing great
and I hope you have a good week!
Doing you Proud,
Elder Froude ^_^
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