February 22, 2013 - Breaking News!

Dear Mom, Dad, Ryan, and those who just love life!

                Well, first off, I’d like to give a special Shout-Out to Mariah Kerr for getting her mission call!  She has been called to serve in the Philippines San Pablo Mission, which is literally right next to mine and I am super “Proud” of her and her desire to serve.  I know that she and her family will be extremely blessed from her service.  ^_^  Mabuhay mula sa Philippines, Sister Kerr!!!  (Welcome, from the Philippines, Sister Kerr!)

               

                Breaking News… President and Sister DeLaMare, who will have finished they’re 3-year term this July 1^st, have announced the names of the new Mission President and his wife: Carlos and Marites Revillo.  The Revillos have lived in the Philippines, the US, and are currently in Singapore.  He is the head of Quality and Regulatory Compliance for the Kellogg Company.  This is great exciting news and I am sure that Brother and Sister Revillo will be instruments in helping this mission go to the next level.  ^_^

                More Breaking News!  We'll have 58 new missions opening around the world on July 1st and 4 new missions in the Philippines!  The missions that are being split are the Baguio Mission, being split into the Urdaneta Mission up north.  The Manila Mission will be split to become the Cavite Mission (so the southern part of Manila Mission is split off).  The Naga Mission will split and the Legaspi Mission will be created.  The Cebu Mission will be split to create the new Cebu East Mission.  In other news, of the 58 new missions around the world, California will gain 3 new missions and Brazil and Mexico respectively will both gain 8 new missions.  The work is truly hastening and the Lord is guiding us through it all.  This is evident in the new missionary programs that have been released.  About 3 years ago, the 8 fundamental lessons were introduced to make missionaries more Spirit driven teachers; then the 12-week training program to give new missionaries more opportunity to lead and teach after the MTC.  And then, the time at the MTC had been cut for all languages by a 1/3^rd to accommodate the increase of missionaries from the dropping of the age of eligible missionaries.  This work is truly amazing and I’m so glad to be right the middle of it all!  I’m also excited to see my friends and even my brother join the Work that has brought my family and I so much joy.  This work is moving; the work is changing lives, and as we see more people accept the Gospel, we’ll see great improvements and changes in nations and all around the world.

                

                As for me, I do not have much to report but that we’re running around like crazy to keep up with all of the changes…haha!  I love it!  And transfer week is coming up!!!  We are losing 11 and gaining 15 so the total increase in our mission will be 4, bringing us from 172 missionaries to 176.  Our sisters are still not increasing as much as we thought it would, but they’ll be coming soon, I can feel it.  ^_^  I just need to take the time to “be still” more often and just take things one at a time and I’ll be good.  I am not transferring this transfer which will make 6 months in the office if I transfer next transfer…we’ll see what happens.

              Other than that, I wish you all a great week and I invite you to pause when you are stressed and let the Holy Spirit guide… for we are not required to run more than we have strength.   Okay, I have to go now, it's been a while and there is still much to do.  I love you and I thank you for having perfect attendance in e-mailing me.  ^_^  It means so much to me!  I love you!  Have a great week, okay?  ^_^

Doing you Proud,

Elder Froude ^_^

 PS…

Oh btw, I successfully defeated the virus that infected all of my USBs and my Camera and everything is okay!!!!  I have a lot of pictures now!  

Getting my surprise Valentine's package!  BEST DAY EVER!

Want some Buko (coconut) shake?  Yummy!

Choose The Right

Made some no-bake peanut butter cookies.  Yum!

Self explanatory

My friend, Mariah's great news!

February 16, 2013 - Hi, y'all!

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 ^_^

February 1, 2013 - Happy Birthday, Dad!

Dear Dad, Mom, Ryan, and all y’all who may or may not watch the Super Bowl tomorrow,

First off, I just want to say, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DAD!!!  Wohoo!!! It’s your birthday!!! Happy 51^st, Dad!  Sorry, I couldn’t be there again, but just think, this will be the last birthday you have where I won’t be there!  This time next year we’ll celebrate your birthday together! Then you’ll be able to tell me about how things are going, but in Tagalog. Haha!  ^_^  Mark it on your calendar (though mom probably already marked it for you haha)!

            

Allow me to send a special tribute to my dad in this blog. My father has been a great example to me in all things that pertain to what a man should be. He has been, to me  a great symbol of hard work.  Just knowing where he’s come from and what he’s had to do to get to where he is now in life, with his family and his business and as a bishop in the church really astounds me whenever I think about it. I most definitely appreciate it a lot more now having lived with, walked with, and talked with many different types of people in the Philippines. He’s been a wonderful example to me of what a father should do. I remember He would always come to my home soccer games after school and cheer for me, even if I didn’t play that much at kahit na pumalpak ako maraming veses (even when I made a lot of mistakes)! He would always come to my home tennis matches and root for me. I think I always gave him heart attacks junior year when I went to super tiebreakers, like every time!  Haha! He was always there to support me and that’s what I really appreciated the most. He’s also been a great example to me of what being a good husband means. My dad would always open the car door for my mom, and every Friday night was their date night. “Ang sweet niya talaga! As in!” Pwede kayong pumalakpak! (He’s really sweet!  You can all applaud!)  Haha!  It always taught me how I should treat women and how I should act when I get married. Wag kayong mag-alaala po, Mom, matagal pa yun!  (Don’t you worry, Mom, that’s not gonna happen for a long time!) So, I just wanted to say, thanks Dad, for everything. And the things you’ve taught me still stay with me even all the way out here in PI. There are times when I don’t know what to do and I just remember some of the things you’ve taught me…like always spend just a little bit more to get the quality things that will last longer and such like that. I miss you and love you much, Dad!  Don’t worry about me out here, I’m being guided by our Heavenly Father always, and He’ll always guide me towards that which is good. I’ve been so protected so far in traffic out here.  Haha!  I wish you a happy birthday and hope everyone else is doing well as well. ^_^   Have a great birthday, Dad!

            

Well, now about my week. Honestly, it’s just been a nice quiet week in the office. Okay, not so much quiet but nothing super exciting happened except for we moved President DelaMare to his new house down the street because the mission home is getting renovated. But the DelaMare’s will be there till they go home in July so that will be easier for them. But man, it took 15 hours and I’m so exhausted!  Haha! My muscles are sore and everything. Talk about work!  Haha! Anyway, it was good though. The new house is so huge!  I’ve sent some pictures of it. I kept waking up last night so that didn’t help, but I’m feeling okay. Nothing feels better than a long hard day’s work. Wait hold on… January is over… shoot… that was so fast!

            

Other than that, traveling to Antipolo and driving through the mountain province was quite beautiful and amazing. I miss the province.

            

I also had the opportunity to give a blessing to Sister Enderle.  She is Elder Enderle’s wife and is the sweetest lady I’ve ever met. She’s been sick lately and asked us to give her a blessing. Elder Peralta anointed and I gave the blessing. It is interesting how the Spirit works when you are giving a blessing. When most people describe the feelings of the Spirit, they describe it as something told them to do something, or they felt prompted to do something, but when you are giving a blessing, it’s different. It’s more like your words are being guided to say what they need to hear. Like it’s on a set of train tracks made by the Lord. The Spirit was the Guide and the Lord was the Voice. I was but a mouthpiece for him to bless his daughter. After the blessing she shook our hands as she cried. I then felt at that time, the importance of opening your mouth and speaking the words of Christ with faith. Though we say something that may not seem grand or profound, the Holy Ghost is the one who will testify to them that what you say is true and they will hear what the Lord needs them to hear. (Alma 36:5)

            

Let us all be ready to open our mouths to speak the words of Christ to those who are in need of the hope and light that the gospel gives. Let us all be clean enough and worthy enough for the light of the Lord to shine through us and for the spirit to dwell with us. For the Spirit is the teacher, the converter, the comforter. There is too much we cannot do because we are human, nonetheless, “I can do all thing through Christ who strengthens me.”-Philippians 4:13

Doing you Proud,

Elder Ian Froude, son of Bishop Jonathan Froude

January 25, 2013 - Full Moon Tonight!

Dear Mom, Dad, Ryan, and all those who enjoy reading this blog!

Well, even though my one year mark has passed I have been extended 2 weeks in my mission which means I won’t be home till the end of January next year. Time moves by so quick doesn’t it. Which means, I’ve only got “Five hundred, twenty-five thousand moments so dear.  Five hundred, twenty-five thousand, six hundred minutes!  How do you measure the time of a year?” -Rent

            

Saturday, I finally bought my watch. Got a haircut.  Ano pa?  Nothing really important except for the fact that I love teaching with my companion. We taught Sister Santillian on Tuesday night. Elder Peralta suggested that we should teach about the tree of life. He had an animated video, which gave a very great interpretation of the tree of life. The Spirit was so strong in that lesson, that everything that was said seemed to be right, we were able to discern her concern and share to her what needed to be shared, and that was, because of the Atonement of Jesus Christ you can repent, you can be clean, you can come back.  Because simply, He loves us. And that was what really got her and made her feel the Spirit when she realized that she was a daughter of God and that He is here to guide her, especially through the scriptures.

            

Oh my goodness!  Friday was like the busiest day and I loved it so much because so many different things happened and plans changed so much. Okay, so here’s what was going on.  Elder Peralta and I were going to go to lunch and then go to the post office to pick up like 32 packages for the mission. That was a big job to do on its own when suddenly, while on the way to the post office, we get a call from Elder and Sister Harris. They were asking me a few questions about which missionaries have the temple in their area and such.  Anyway after the questions, Elder Harris told us that the Macaranas family (the family of a sister missionary who just went home in November) were getting sealed that day in the temple because the father became active and worthy to enter. Well, they were planning to until they found out that the baptismal paperwork for their youngest son, Paulo Macaranas, was not valid so he couldn’t go inside and get sealed with them. Elder Harris asked if we could get the Baptismal font ready for them by the time they get back to the chapel. As soon as we heard that we pulled a U turn on EDSA where the traffic is usually bad and takes us 45 minutes to get back but I took every shortcut I knew.  I got there miraculously in 15 minutes. Once we got to the chapel, with President DelaMare’s permission, we arranged a baptismal service for Paulo within the hour.  Elder Peralta started working on the paper work for Paulo, I did the baptismal interview (my first time doing one by the way!) and we got all of the papers filled out and prepared for the temple president.  At the request of the family, Elder Peralta performed the baptism, and we sent Paulo back to the temple where his father is to be confirmed and ordained and then sealed in the temple. *sigh* That was one busy afternoon, let me tell you!  Haha!. Elder Harris took care of all of the phone calls to the mission president, their branch president , and the temple president to make sure we were doing the procedure right. The interview went by smoothly because he is a child of record and knew most everything about the gospel and understands its principles. But anyway, we did a baptism… no one expected it but I’m still counting it because we did so much to make it happen.

Spiritual Experience!

Thursday night, we decided to go visit Vincent DeGuzman.  He’s 22 and a potential missionary but he’s been less active since last year and needs a little bit of motivation to come back and hopefully go on a mission. We’ve been teaching him for about 2 months now and we haven’t seen much progression with him. This was Elder Peralta’s first time teaching him so I filled him in on all of the details. I felt impressed to pray before we left the car but I quickly shrugged it off.  Then I felt impressed again to pray so I asked Elder Peralta if we could pray for inspiration before we go.  After the prayer, we entered the house and began to just ask him how he was doing and such. We had planned to teach about  missionary work and its importance, but I had thought that maybe we should ask him about his goals for 2013. I quickly disregarded the thought because it is almost the end of January and we already had a plan, but after the opening prayer I decided to ask him about the new year and what he wants to do. I know now that this impression came from the Holy Ghost because when I had asked him this, the once shy Vincent suddenly opened up and began to share his plans to change and to become better as a person. He recognized that he has become less active so he wants to find a new job and come back. And then he kept opening up concerns and such to us that we were able to teach and resolve with the Word of God and it ended up being a really great lesson. The spirit of teaching is burning within me and has been a sweet, sweet feeling that I’ve missed so much. Thanks to my companion and also his willingness to follow the Spirit, we’ve been able to have great lessons lately.

            

I hope all is well for you and I can’t wait to share more of my adventures with you. If you can, share some of your adventures with me at julien.froude@myldsmail.net. I know I’d love to hear them.  ^_^  It’s kind of awkward talking about myself the whole time. Haha!  Joke lang!

Doing you Proud,

Elder Froude ^_^

P.S.

Here’s my answer to your question, Mom:

Okay, well standing in holy places to me means not bringing your worldly/unholy things and habits with you. When Moses went to talk to the Lord face to face, he asked Moses to take off his shoes, so that it can be a holier place. Much like Moses, we need to leave behind that which is dirty or distracting from the Spirit of God if we wish to stand in holier places. As a missionary, my success is 100% dependent on whether or not I have the spirit with me. Listening to music, watching movies, or even thoughts,  if they are inappropriate, will cause you to leave the presence of the Spirit. (Note: it is a big misconception that the Spirit leaves when you sin or do something wrong. On the contrary, the Spirit is a constant companion and will always reside with the righteous, rather, it is us who leave the Spirit when we sin. It is our decision to leave it behind or to take it with us from day to day.) I can testify to you that one song, or one movie, or a good time with friend, is not worth the consequence of losing the guidance of the Spirit, the light that it gives us. I know that all of my education, and experience is next to nothing if I do not stand in a holier place as a servant of God. Therefore, I have decided to leave behind all that is dirty, all that will cause me to leave the spirit.

How's that?

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.

January 11, 2013 - One Year Mark!!!

Dear Mom, Dad, and Ryan,

                Wow, life has been just awesome! Busy and I’m a little kulang(lacking) on sleep this last week because of emergency transfers, taking zone leaders to the airport and just catching up from transfer week so things have been a little bit crazy, but all in all, life is great and I’m learning so much.

                

                My companion is awesome! He’s a really great loving guy.  He’s pretty humble too and I enjoy how he applies the gospel to everything.  He’s been helping me speak Tagalog a lot more because I’ve been slacking living with Americans the last 2 transfers. He’s the best!  I just feel sorry for him a lot of the time because he had almost no training for his new position so he’s stressing about it.  I’ve been doing my best to help him and it works out a lot of the time but we are just always stressed trying to get all of our work done, especially since we’re on call by president.  So we just do what we can. The president sends us out to run some errands or we need to get a few things and it just takes up so much time being in traffic.  Speaking of which, we had to do some emergency transfers yesterday.  5 companionships were affected.  And guess what? They were all at different ends of the mission from each other, so that took up our whole morning, and I got lost on the way home so that took us a while too.  Haha!  Man, life is crazy, but I’m so glad I have my supportive companion with me. He’s always making stressful times happier times and we talk about a lot of things so we are quite open with each other.  It’s fun. 

                Other than that, we are just doing our normal running around trying to keep the mission running; all of the behind the scenes stuff and it’s been good.  Oh, I was able to teach a district meeting for my district for the first time this transfer.  It was great!  We were able to set very specific goals to work on to help us focus on finding and bringing more priesthood to the church.  Our goals were: 

1.         5 referrals asked for (not necessarily received) each day per companionship.

2.        Member visits about sharing the gospel

3.        Focus on teaching potential priesthood

So with these goals, we are hoping to get more finding done and get the wards more involved with missionary work. I have high hopes for these goals because I have prayed about them and feel they are what my district needs. Later, after the meeting, Sister Shumway came up to me and said, “Thanks for these great specific goals. I have been praying about how we’re going to tackle this area and your goals have been an answer to my worries. It’s comforting to know that our district leader has been seeking revelation for our areas.” One thing I’ve learned and have been seeking to do is pray for confirmation regarding goals and solutions to certain needs and hardships about our areas. It was something that helped guide us in Mindoro and something I want to bring over to the City too.  So I can’t wait to see how this affects the missionaries in my district in the next few weeks.

Other than that, I am officially one year old in the mission. Whoohoo!!!  It’s bittersweet, but all I can do is just keep serving with all my heart and mind and I’ll make it the best last year of my mission. I can’t wait to see how this next adventure will unfold.  I can’t wait to see how this will make me grow, and I can’t wait to go out and help those people the Lord has prepared.

I hope you all are doing well.  Until next time…

Doing you Proud,

Elder Froude ^_^

Playing with my camera

Being resourceful and improvising

With Sister Shumway, a sister I served with in Mindoro

More missionaries

My new companion, Elder Peralta (a different Peralta), left foreground, Elder Duenas (he used to be my DL in Mindoro, now an AP) sitting on the chair, Elder Stoddard (AP), and me.  We're the office missionaries.

January 3, 2013 - Happy New Year!!!

Dear Mom, Dad, Ryan, and everyone who survived the Mayan predicted end-of-the-world day,

Well, it is 2013 and things are going well here in the Philippines. And there have been a lot of major changes lately. Well for one, it is 2013!!! We happened to spend New Year’s with the DelaMare’s playing games and watching fireworks. Wow, the fireworks here are so intense, it’s like world war 3 and you are just surrounded by fireworks going off all of the time! Haha!  The next day the streets were just full of firework debris and broken glass.  Haha!  It was intense! And of course, this was the Monday and Tuesday of transfer week. Exit night and transfer day were slowly approaching our office staff.

*cultural note* the best thing about New Years and Christmas here is that there is no traffic the day of or the day after because everyone is basically hung over

*cultural note* fireworks are bought by basically everyone in Metro Manila and they light them all off so close to each other on New Year’s Eve

Well, then Exit Day came around, and let me tell you, 16 sister missionaries going home in the same room is pretty intense. When we were picking up some of the sisters the night before, it was really tough to see all of their housemates crying, saying goodbye to each other and such. Man, sisters just give off such a strong atmosphere of emotion! I remember driving a few of them home from the Memorial Cemetery and I just remember listening to the song we had in the car and I suddenly felt that something was really wrong and I looked in the mirror and all the sister were basically on the verge of tears  because they are going home. Shoot!  It felt really awkward, so Elder Peralta and I performed our song for them that we came up with on our first day together and it perked them up a bit. After wards, we were all able to go to the temple for their last time in the Philippines. And yes, there was more crying but that’s to be expected. Then we all came to the mission home for the testimony meeting. I enjoyed how this batch of missionaries going home was entirely spiritual testimonies and not storymonies or I’lljusttellfunnystoriesfrommymission-monies. The Spirit was really strong even though it was sad to see such strong sisters leave the mission, but alas, their journey continues and so do ours.

               

               It’s just that the occurrence of change in the mission is just so frequent, it’s like you finally feel like you’re getting to know someone and then you transfer, or someone else transfers. You finally set up a good pattern, and then boom! Transfers. It is pretty sad sometimes, and I’m usually anxious when it comes to transfer day, but in the end, change is usually the best thing for us, no? In life, things change all of the time, adapting is part of learning, part of growing, and each change brings on a new opportunity to use the principles of the gospel to become better people. And in my case, change brought me a new companion that is just hilarious and great at being a missionary. Anyway, change is just a regular thing in missionary life.

Well, Best Day Ever!  Elder Duenas is now the official new AP.  Elder Waite became Elder Herr’s companion in Mindoro, and Elder Rhodes took Elder Waite’s spot in Morong, Rizal. So, people are moving around quite often.  Elder Alvarez is now a district leader in Pasig! Good on him! He’s a great missionary.

                

                Other than that, we’ve just been kulang (lacking) on sleep because of New Years, getting missionaries to the airport and other such mission occurrences that require my driving skills. Elder Peralta is my new companion now. Not my trainer, a different Peralta. This one knows how to cook and sing and is super clean and magaling (great) at being a missionary and happy! I’ve been so excited to teach with him cause I’ve been feeling the Spirit so strong when we teach. It’s good ! ^_^  I hope we are getting to our investigators and less actives. All 5 of them… haha! That’s life in the office.  All in all, life is good, the apartment is the cleanest it’s ever been, and things are looking up for the area.

                

                 As for 2013, I think I’ve found out what my purpose is on my mission, and that is to serve the other missionaries. Like literally and figuratively, I just always feel the happiest when I help out other people, or help missionaries get the things they need to bring people to the gospel. I’ve had several people say they love being around me because I make them feel happy and help them relieve the stress they feel in their areas. I guess just making people feel good in general, but this year I am going to focus on serving others, and helping them prepare or grow or whatever the Lord needs me to do. With my Year mark coming up, I am going to have to give it more of my all. More to the Lord, more to my investigators and less actives, and more to the mission. Giving of myself for others, I think is my purpose here. Like a candle, how it consumes itself while giving off light. I believe that is me. It’s been my favorite symbol of late. ^_^

Well, I hope you have had  great news and a great time reflecting on who you are, who you want to become, and how you are going to get there.  Remember that the great gift the Lord has given us is the opportunity to change and become better, repentance.  It is never too late. An elder who went home after a few months on his mission has now returned and is going to Mindoro!  He has such a different atmosphere about him now and you can tell he’s ready to make miracles happen.  This time, he’s here for the right reasons and he’s changed for the better. I promise you all that you can change and become a better you through the power of Christ and His Gospel. Trust in him and trust in your leaders.  I pray we will all have the courage to change ourselves to become more like Him, in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Doing you Proud,

Elder Froude ^_^

Happy New Year!!!!

Goofing off with Elder Stoddard and Sis. DelaMare

Unique ukelele!  I gotta get me one!

Restaurant tables set up as chess boards.  Cool!

Yummy breakfast!  Tocilog!

My new companion, Elder Peralta