December 6, 2013 – Pray for my exit visa!

Dear Mom, Dad, Lauren, Elder Froude 2, and all who are excited for the Christmas season,

Well, it seems that my mission will soon be coming to a close; my adventures and all of the many great people I’ve come to meet, I will soon, regrettably, be leaving behind. It was definitely a most wonderful experience, beyond what I could have ever imagined. I could not have hand picked a better mission for me to be in, or how things could have turned out. For in all that I did and in all that I had accomplished, the Lord was there and His hand was guiding the events around me to work out not in my favor but in His favor. So in the end, everything turned out all right; no matter how much I struggled or worked hard, or thought I was all alone, I have only come to realize that He was there with me the whole time. Thanks be to my Savior who had helped me in some of the most difficult times of my life. Thanks be to the Philippines for being the perfect place to make this boy into a man. Thanks be to all of you who have supported me throughout my mission and have sent letters, gifts, advice, or even a short email; your support and your love have really helped me and inspired me to work harder.

Though the time is far spent and little remains, I have no time to relax yet, no time to falter for there are many more things that are required of me in the next couple of days in preparation for Christmas Conference, Mission Leadership Council, and of course, transfer and exit day. But before that, I would like to let you know a little bit about my week.

 I've been quite blessed this week with many great opportunities to serve and even a hot shower! ^_^ We had our Zone Conference and Christmas Conference in Mindoro and we stayed there for 2 days. President was kind enough to book us a room at a hotel where we enjoyed much great food, nice beds, air conditioning, and a hot shower!  ^_^ It was a nice break and we were able to catch up on sleep in preparation for the conferences. It was a great experience! The skits were good, the songs were great, and we were able to unwind and just enjoy being in Mindoro. We even worked for a full day over there and we had many great experiences, a few referrals, new investigators; the work is doing so well over there. Even President Gabriel, the branch president of San Jose, is looking really well. Actually, one sister I met in Mindoro, Remy Del Rosario, who used to work with us missionaries all the time back when I was assigned there, came with us on the plane back to go to the MTC. She is serving a mission! Congrats to her!

Of course, all of these great things that have happened didn’t  last long. Yesterday, we just received into our mission 11 more elders. They are all pa-uwi (returning home) missionaries but since their exit visas have not gotten back to them from Immigration, they have to stay in the Philippines for another week. I sincerely hope that does not happen to me! This also happened last transfer except it was only for 24 hours. So, everyone in my batch going home is getting restless and anxious about what might happen in the next few days. We might be delayed or something like that. I really hope not; it would be so hard to book another flight out of the country around Christmas time. It's all done by immigration in Makati. Their director got sacked so everything is so much slower now cause the new guy doesn't know what’s going on. I've done all that I can from here to try to get those visas in on time; I’ve sent emails, texts, I’ve talked to president about it. I went personally to our travel department to follow up on it. So, I've been doing all I can from here, trust me. According to President Revillo, even the area presidency are doing all they can to get these visas on time now. All hands on deck daw. Imagine how many angry parents have called them about this, so we're hoping that will speed up the process a bit.

Wow, I really don't feel like I’ll be going home in about a week. It's crazy to think about really. I'm actually going to go and visit my previous areas and say some goodbyes today so that might help me feel it more. I'm really excited to go home but I’m also going to miss the Philippines and being a full-time missionary.

Till next week!!! Thanks for being online today! I've got to go visit my old areas now! Just one more email session and I'll see you in Cali! Alright, I love you all! Have a good night!!!!

Doing you Proud,

Elder Froude ^_^

On the way to Mindoro with Elder Pedrola and Pres. Revillo

Nice view!

Touchdown!  

Good to see the old familiar area.

Remember Elder Rakuro, my batch?

 

Zone Conference in Mindoro

The hotel we stayed in called The White House.  Haha!

Ahhhhh!!!  Nice bed!!!!

With Sis. Remy Del Rosario...MTC bound!

Back to Quezon City

November 29, 2013 – Missing some turkey dinner

Dear Mom, Dad, Lauren, Elder Froude, and everyone who just enjoyed a Thanksgiving turkey dinner while I had spaghetti,

Haha! Man, I miss turkey right now! I had some turkey jerky if that counts! Well, how was Thanksgiving on your end? Here it was just okay…nothing too special happened, although, we were asked to speak at a conference for psychiatrists in our chapel that day. It’s actually been a quiet week for the most part. Well, as quiet as things get in the office. That just means we had more time to work in our area. We actually just split it again so there are 3 companionships in our ward now. We basically gave the sister missionaries most of our area and all of our investigators, except for the area around the Aurora chapel and Eastwood. So, we did a lot of finding yesterday and it felt good to go out and work again.

Other than that we just had one zone conference this week and it was good. It was a lot more organized than the last one, in regards to our workshop, mainly because we found out how to get the training video to work on President’s laptop! Yes! So that went until 5 and then we had a couple emergency transfers to do, which took us all over the mission, literally from one end to the other so we didn’t get home until midnight and that was killer. I drove for 6 hours… O.o man that was a long time, but the road we took was so nice! We went up to one of the mountain areas of our mission and the stars were so clear and there were no cars at all!!! It was a nice change from the traffic of the city.  I loved it!

But the next day I got sick, I had a sore throat which eventually led to being a cold. Nothing too bad, it just made life miserable for a little bit. We all need to feel misery every now and then to understand true happiness, di ba (isn’t that right)? Opposition in all things. In any case, it helped me to reflect and do some self-evaluation and I realized that I need to give more of my time to the Lord as I am working. Things have become a little too routine for me and I should be a little more sincere in my prayers and read my scriptures more often. But I’m repenting and trying to do better. It’s my last few weeks in my mission and I need to give it my all, and I need to give my all to the Savior as well. He gave me his all so he deserves nothing less from me. I owe it to Him. But it seems to me that the more I try to pay Him back for everything He’s given me, He blesses me more! At this rate I could never catch up but, nonetheless, I will do my best.

On the bright side though, I have been able to catch up on some rest and heal up. I still have a bit of a cold but it’s really nothing major. I do, however, feel good cause I had a good night’s sleep. And we’ve been fed by other families the last two nights.

We had a great time at the Benfit family’s house doing their first FHE as a family! They’re preparing to go to the temple and they are not looking back! Haha! It was great! Brother Todd got a little bit emotional because of all of the great changes they’ve made lately and it’s really brought them together as a family. That’s what missionary work is all about! And it’s been great to get to know them. They told me that in July they’ll move to San Francisco! I entirely want you all to meet them! It will be great! 

I finally got my travel itinerary and I'm really excited but I’m trying to not let my excitement distract me. I'm actually a little anxious about going back to the real world. Everything will be different really. Nonetheless, I will go forward with faith. My vision gave me some good direction. I'm planning to close out with nothing less than my best. I will go out with a bang! I just finished printing out and organizing a 37 page mission rules/resource book for all the missionary companionships in the entire mission made with my design! It's over 6 weeks in the making.  Haha! Then, I've been practicing Tagalog Christmas songs for our Christmas Conference. I’ve also been working on making a mission song…just new lyrics to a hymn but specifically for the Quezon City Mission. So, things are keeping me busy here. And, hopefully, I’ll be able to leave behind a lot in influencing this mission for the better.

That’s all for now! Till next week!  I love you all!

Doing you Proud,

Elder Froude ^_^

P.S.

Here are some pictures of the relief efforts we did with ABS-CBN network last week. They are newscaster/actors from the news station ABS-CBN; they are famous from the tv show It's Showtime!!! Ann Curtis announced on their news station a personal thanks to the missionaries of the Quezon City mission for their help in this project of preparing relief goods for Tacloban. This was filmed on the set of Pinoy Big Brother.  We even had a few elders interviewed. I got to meet one of the artistas. His name was Erruption. He's an RM from New Zealand that got famous in the Philippines. He was the one who got a hold of our number and called us to have us help them with this project. It was great!!! While I was carrying rice he asked for me personally and we talked for a little bit and he gave his thanks. Several elders took pictures of us but I couldn't cause I was talking to him but I’ll try to get those pictures and send it to you. Man, that guy was big!!!

Ann Curtis with other actors

November 18, 2013 – Relief Effort

Hey Mom! How's it going? I only have a short time to email you today because we are going to a news station nearby (ABS-CBN) and packing relief goods into trucks and such. So I’ll have to supervise that in a couple of hours. But I also have to get ready too. Anyway, to answer your question… yes, it's still pretty bad here. We have a whole chapel filled with relief goods and the government won't take it to Tacloban! It's crazy, it's been a week now! Here are some pictures.

Mattresses for the 16 missionaries we got from Tacloban Mission

So, the Chapel is full and ready to go but it's still sitting here. We got 16 new missionaries from Tacloban assigned to our mission.  2 of them are office elders and I have a new companion; Elder Peck. We are a tri-panionship of APs now. 

I'm not sure when I’ll be able to get online again cause this week is pretty packed. We have zone conference tomorrow, District leader training the next day, and getting my new companion a driver's license. We haven't had a P-day yet in the last week and a half.  I need a haircut! Haha! We are going to load some relief goods into trucks a little later today.

Anyway, that's how my week looks so far! We've been trying to take care of these new missionaries, taking them shopping getting them to their new areas, and interviewing them for needs and concerns. Also trying to balance all that with the Mission Leadership Council and all of the other meetings we have. It's been a long week but we're still going strong.

Doing you Proud,

Elder Froude ^_^

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!

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 ^_^

October 25, 2013 – My Birthday Letter

Dear Mom, Dad, Lauren, Elder Froude2, and everyone who wished me a great happy birthday,

What an interesting week this was! Monday was my birthday! I am now officially 21 years old! We had  breakfast at this all you can eat breakfast buffet for only 160 pesos and I treated all of my kabahay (housemates) and we all ate till we were stuffed! Then, we worked the rest of the day getting things done at the office and had an FHE (Family Home Evening) at Sister Merci's house with her family. There was also a lot of food there. Then the sister missionaries in our ward bought us cake and we had dessert outside their apartment. So, it was a good day…we had a lot of fun!

The next day on Elder Pedrola's birthday, and still technically my birthday in America, we were treated by the Revillo's to Vikings (another all you can eat restaurant) for dinner. Wow! I am so spoiled! Haha!  They treat us so well in the office. I'm just afraid I'll get white and fat before I go home... >.<  Haha! I'm already losing my tan!!!

And as newly 21, I would like to thank everyone who has supported me so far in my mission here in the Philippines. It was very much worth it and more! I have gained much appreciation for life and for my relationship with my Father in Heaven who I’ve come to know more fully, not through a peaceful and blessed life, but through the refiner's fire. My mission has not been an easy mission but I know that all of the trials that the Lord has put me through and all of the hardships I’ve had to face have made me who I am today. I trust the Lord so much more now for the many experiences he's given me and for the promises he's kept so long as I’ve kept his commandments.

I would like to thank my wonderful, loving, and supportive parents and my brother Elder Froude2 for his decision to go on a mission as well. Best of luck, Bro! Thanks be to my sister Lauren and her family and her new upcoming baby! Thanks to Tito Pepe, Tita Jackie, Tita Jona, Anton, and Anya for their emails and their birthday greetings. Also, to Tita Tina, Tita Nora, and Tita Lulu for the love that they send. Maraming salamat kay Mama (Many thanks to my Grandma Norma) for her support and many emails, Tita Lennet and Uncle Monjun for their pagmamahal (love).

This week was relatively straightforward, no need to wake up super early this week but we've been out late because of the increase in missionaries and the increasing distance our zone interviews have been. I mean, we've been going farther out. Anyway, we've just finished up the last two zones on Thursday and it was a killer 31 missionaries with 7 more that still need to be interviewed on Monday. It was a late night but fulfilling. The crazy thing is that after this next week, it's transfer week again and we'll need to start preparing...I mean a lot of planning will come up and we'll need to prepare more workshops!

On the bright side, Sister Merci is getting baptized in 4 hours so I am excited! We are still getting good missionary work done even though we're very busy. Then the Benfit family is coming along really well. We taught the Word of Wisdom and we'll finish the rest of Lesson 4 before their baptism on Nov. 10^th, close to mom's birthday. Oh and btw, Brother Todd's team won the finals for the PBA last night!

Well, that's all for now. Two months are coming to a close and I’m going into over gear…there is no time to be trunky, no time to falter, the kingdom of God is calling and I'm moving onward! I love you all!

Doing you Proud,

Elder Froude ^_^

Sister Merci's baptism day!

Me at the office

With Elder Merrill

Happy 21st birthday, Elder Froude!

This video was sent to us by Elder Froude's mission president' wife.  Thank you, Sis. Marie Revillo!