Dear Mom, Dad, Ryan, and all my friends and family,
Well the craziness continues…. My replacement has come in on Wednesday. Elder Cox from Morgan, Utah. He’s 6’4” and he’s super hilarious. He’s only been in the mission for 3 transfers
so far, about 4 and a half months, and now he’s going to be the new Finance
Secretary. He’s overwhelmed, of course;
there is a lot to learn and not a lot of time to learn it in. So I’m trying to teach him as much as I can
but make sure that he can retain it all. Fortunately, I’ve taken care of most of the
problems that we’ve been facing so far, so he’ll be able to have some time to
adjust before he gets hit with the hard stuff. I’ll most likely be called in to spend another
day or two after I transfer to finish training him. Things have been so busy
lately we’ve been on the road most of the time and not so much in the office.
Like for example on Tuesday, we spent the entire day
after lunch at the LTO (Philippines DMV) helping Ben and Sister DeLaMare get
his license. Which took like 4 hours of
waiting in a room with like a hundred people and no air conditioning. The
weather is getting very hot very fast. I’m
not so excited now to be going out to the Field in the middle of Philippines
summer. Anyway, after that I was just
setting everything up for Elder Cox for when he gets in.
Training the Last few days has
been good. Yesterday, though we went to
get Elder Cox his license, which is a lot easier than Ben’s because we just
need to convert his existing driver’s license to a Philippines one. Because here in the Philippines, if you have
an American license, you are over-qualified to drive here. Haha!!!. But unfortunately, when we were getting Elder
Cox’s eye’s checked, I found out that he is legally blind in one eye, so the
physician sent us to the hospital to get a doctor to approve his sight for
driving. So we spent a long time driving
to the hospital, got him the letter that approves him to drive, went back to
the physician and then over to the LTO and, lo and behold, it was already
closed! We missed it by 15 minutes!!! >.< Sayang
naman!!! (Too bad!) Anyway, we were quite upset about
that, but through all of the driving we learned a lot about each other, and had
so much fun! Haha!!! We had
a great conversation about families and how much way more we appreciate them
now than before. I mean, I started to
think about it, and all of my life I’ve had a loving family who supported me in
everything I did, and of course we would have our rough times. But rough times here involve people living in
houses as big as my bathroom, or family members being sent to jail or killed on
the street. Or that even strong members
of the church would be fighting over whether or not their child should go on a
mission because they need help providing for the family (it is a very cultural
thing that when you are old enough, you get a job and help provide for the
family), in which case some families disown their kids for choosing to serve
God. My companion is the only active
member in his family, and everyone was against him serving a mission. He’s the 2nd youngest of 7 and everyone is of
a different faith, and both of his parents are dead. But he’s still here serving strong. I know he will receive a hundred fold for his
sacrifice. Just being in the Philippines,
it makes all the worries or problems I have seem so miniscule in comparison. I realize then that I have been so blessed in
my life. I think everyone should live in
a third world country for a good long while in order to appreciate what they
really have and realize that no hardship we face is anything in comparison to
living by the day and not knowing whether or not you’ll have food for tomorrow,
or living in a room big enough for everyone to sleep laying side by side.
In
other craziness, Transfer week starts on Monday!!! Luckily, I’ll only deal with it until
Wednesday afternoon when I finally go back to the Field! I have no idea where I’m going yet. I’ll let you know next week. Haha! Probably
on a Monday. Oh! In other news, Elder Stoddard is also
transferring! Which means that there will be a new Assistant to the President. We called him earlier today…it
is....*drumroll* …Elder WILDE!!! My
batch at the MTC! He’s going to be the new
assistant. Good on him! The funny part is that he is Elder Cox’s
Trainer so they are so excited to be kabahay (housemates) again! Haha! It was a funny call because he was freaking
out. Haha!!!
I’ve been reading Jesus the Christ and the New Testament lately and I
had a very interesting reading of the parable of the talents. How the Master gave one servant 5 talents, the
second servant 2 talents and the third servant 1 talent, and he went on his
way. When he came back the 1st servant
brought back 5 talents and was made a lord over many things, the 2nd servant
brought back four talents and was made a lord over many things, and the last
servant brought back the same 1 talent that he hid and the Master chastised him
and called him a slothful servant. Then
it came to me that the first servant and the 2nd servant both got the same
exact blessing even though one earned more than the other. But the point was that the both of them did
the best with what they started with and made more with it. Double for the both of them, and they both received
the same praise and the same blessing. This means to me that even though you
may not have the most opportunities or the most talents or circumstances, if
you make the best with it and do all you can, the Lord will bless you as much
as the elect of the earth, who started out with more. So let us remember that no matter our
circumstances, if we do our best, we can receive the best of all blessings. It is not about how much you make, but what
you can do with what you have.
Well, I do believe I have made a
decision, and I’ll talk about it with the new mission president, but I’ve
decided that I'll be going to school in January and being home for Christmas
break will be a perfect way to adjust back to the real world, di'ba? Anyway, that is how I feel right now and is
the path I will be following. I’ll serve
the Lord the rest of my life, I’ve already promised Him that, so I should
pursue this course.
Well thank you for again staying
up with me to chat. I love you all so
much! I love you and appreciate how our
home is a shelter from the storm. But I have
to go now and give others a chance to email. ^_^ You
all are the best! I wish you all a great
week and hope that you will magnify your talents and bless the lives of others.
Doing You Proud,
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