Wednesday, November 13, 2013

November 8, 2013 – Crazy Week!


Dear Mom, Dad, Elder Froude 2, Lauren, and everyone who've heard about the super typhoon Yolanda,

                Well, I’m happy to announce that the Typhoon Yolanda is almost over and my mission specifically was not so much affected. Just strong winds and a little rain here and there. Other missions, however, were not so lucky. Please pray for the people in Tacloban, Leyte, and Samar. Those areas were hit the hardest and over 1000 people were killed so far. They say it was a stronger storm than hurricane Katrina. 

                This week was transfer week! We had a storm before the real storm.  Long story short, we had to have 3 pasaway (disobedient) elders at our apartment for 3 days, dealt with another situation in which many elders came in to be interviewed and president had to change transfers last second which put us behind schedule by a day. But we managed to get through it even if we were later than we wanted to be.

                Anyway, so from transfer day, we went into exit day a day behind schedule. We took the pa-uwi (exiting or returning) Filipino missionaries to the bus stop to go home all before 6:30 am. The American pa-uwi missionaries had their flight delayed by a day because their passports were still at immigration in Manila. My companion and I split up and I went with the exiting missionaries to the War Memorial while my companion took over fixing transfers in the office. Remember how I said I didn’t want to be a party planner? That’s because I had to keep track of all 15 pa-uwi missionaries and make sure they made it all into the right cars and make sure we had enough shuttles.  Just a ton of logistics but it was like herding cats! They all wanted to be everywhere at once and they were never always together! Haha! It was a handful, I tell you.  (P.S. Remind me never to have 15 kids. :p) 

Then we had to take the new missionaries to the mission home. It was intense! But we made it 30 minutes late to the MTC but started on time in the mission home for orientation and trainer meeting. This time I went to the office to make sure the shuttles had enough drivers to take all the missionaries to their respective areas. This was the smoothest part of the week. I gave each driver a specific set of directions and everyone made it out of the mission home in a car with their luggage, all in 10 minutes. Way better than last transfer. Whew!

And for the last few days we’ve been having Mindoro bound missionaries and a super typhoon to deal with, which luckily, has been not as bad in the Metro Manila area as it has been in other areas. Barely room to breathe but we still managed to have the Benfit family interviewed for baptism and they will be baptized tomorrow night. We endure so much this week and to end it with a baptism of a golden family makes it all worth it.  ^_^  Every struggle, every obstacle, every setback, and then to help 2 young souls enter into the covenant of baptism makes all the bad events seem like nothing. Thanks be to God that everything worked in His way and, miraculously, we could help these two young men join their parents in the gospel.  ^_^ Enzo, the 15 year old, asked me to baptize him. I'm so honored! Missionary life is good. It’s all worth it! 

Okay, Ii'm going to log out now. Thanks for staying up with me and updating me on things going on at home! I'll talk to you next week. Then it will only be 5 more email sessions before I'm home! Goodnight! Love you!

Doing you Proud,
Elder Froude ^_^

P.S.
We have had free food almost all this week! We are so blessed!

Christmas is in full swing here in the Philippines!
Purple tie day!
This is where we buy hot bread rolls.  Yum!
A burning school close to our church building. Scary!


Tuesday, November 5, 2013

November 1, 2013 – And The Work continues!


Dear Mom, Dad, Elder Froude, and everyone who ate candy this week!

This week was a quite week for the office which means we worked hard in our area! We were teaching lessons like crazy this week mainly to our bap dates, the Benfit Family. We visited them about 4 times this week and then we took them to the Temple to go on a temple tour. We took them around the grounds and answered questions and helped them feel the Spirit.  We explained to them the temple ordinances and the blessings that come from it. It was a great day and they loved it! Their two sons, Carter and Enzo, are going to get baptized this Saturday in Makati. We're also helping the family focus on their next goal which is Temple Sealing.  ^_^  Thanks to the Bishop of the Makati 4th ward and their wonderful fellow shippers, they are ready for this weekend.




 We had a wonderful day of teaching on Tuesday. We went out about 4 o clock from the office to get to our appointments we had set. We went over to our first appointment and they weren't there, saying (too bad).  So then we walk to a potential investigator's house we met on Sunday. It was a long shot but we went over and knocked on the door and the mom answered the door. The dad was there eating at the table but they invited us in. This is the Cabang family, btw. We walked and introduced ourselves to the father.  We hadn't met him yet. We just taught his wife and two daughters the last time with some ward missionaries. He identified himself as Jeremy and says it's his birthday today!  Well, after inviting them to sit with us we start a lesson and their daughter who was upstairs soon followed.  Sister Cabang was very glad we are back because she had more questions about the Book of Mormon that we introduced to her last time we came. The father curiously asked, "What is this Book of Mormon you are talking about?" I looked at my companion, smiled and replied, "That's why we're here."

After an opening prayer we spent 45 minutes explaining the origin and content of the Book of Mormon. How it is a record of Jesus Christ's ministry and dealing with the ancient inhabitants of America. The father's curiosity grew; we bore our testimony of the truthfulness of this book and gave them each a copy. The father was really feeling the Spirit and thanked us for our visit. I think we found ourselves a next potential family. ^_^  They were very receptive of the Spirit.

That was the first part of that wonderful night. We then went to visit the Benfit family because their Bishop wanted to meet them with us and finalize the details of the baptism with us. We had an excellent lesson with their family and their bishop and bishop's son and the teacher's quorum president who were fellowshipping Enzo. It was definitely a great night!  The Spirit was felt and the Bishop, Bishop Bohn, expounded on our teachings and made it that much better. The Benfit family is now set! It was great to have so much support from their ward there with them. Pictures next week!

It's been a nice holiday week here in the Philippines.  Not much traffic which is really nice. We went to visit a member’s house yesterday, the Morrisons. They are fellowshipping the Benfit Family. (Note: We actually have no American families in our ward. We have investigators that live in our ward boundaries but they go to the English Branch in Makati.)  We went there and handed out candy with them for Halloween and gave Articles of Faith cards with the candy… it was fun!  Haha! Candy and the gospel! Filipinos really don’t celebrate Halloween unless you live in a rich subdivision like Eastwood or Valle Verde where there are a lot of Americans. Anyway, they fed us a nice chili dinner and were able to talk about the specifics of the baptism of Carter and Enzo.

I'm doing really good right now; we just came from an elders quorum activity. We got a free head massage, much needed, and free lunch! Best day ever!  Haha!  Thanks for staying up with me. I love you! You're the best!  I hope you have a great week! And I hope you all enjoyed this letter! Love you all!

Doing you Proud,
Elder Froude ^_^