Hey Fam,
This week was super cool because Elder Cook came to our stake! I met Elder Stevenson in the MTC, but other than that I haven't met any apostles on my mission! We were super lucky to get to meet him as he chose to come to the best zone in the mission😎 He gave an awesome talk about following the gospel. It was simple, but powerful. At the end he left his Apostolic blessing on the stake that if they continue to follow the commandments and do missionary work, they will be blessed in countless ways. The highlight of it was probably after the service when our 60 year old investigator named Ronaldo came and said "That was cool how we just got to listen to Prophet Elder Smith."😂 We had to explain Joseph Smith to him again:)
We had MLC this week and President Hughes was on a roll! He was shooting out jokes and pearls left and right😂 It was one of the most uplifting and fun leadership council I have been a part of. He was roasting some of the missionary'weekly emails to him. Here are few quotes President said:
"Don't pamper yourself. If you pamper yourself you will get soft, and if you are soft EVERYTHING will seem hard."
"Don't be a baby!"
"Life is hard for weak people."
"You want to be offended? Knock yourself out... that's your fault, not mine."
"Sincere prayer is important... But I've met a lot of sincere people that are absolute idiots! It is the real intent we need our investigators to find! Will they change their lives around if God gives them an answer? If not, why do they expect God to give them one?"
He was just laughing at himself the whole time😂 It was fun to see him enjoying what he is doing while still giving us the information we needed to hear. My favorite quote though from that meeting was
"The more you sweat in peace, the less you bleed in war."
Preparation is something we should never forget. Having that reassuring feeling that you are working hard and prepared for whatever comes next brings peace and joy into your life. That's one thing I hope I don't forget after my mission. Time is everything. However you use your time determines who you are. Whether it is playing soccer to become a soccer player, reading a book to become a reader, playing video games to become a gamer, sharing the gospel to become a missionary, waking up early to become a morning person, getting homework done right after school to not become a procrastinator, etc. Every action we do throughout the day is like a vote towards who we want our identity to be. So I invite us all to ask ourselves: Are your daily decisions voting towards the person you want to become? If not let's change and do a little better, and become a little better:)
Love you guys!
-Elder Reber
Kamusta Fam,
Quote of the Week: Don't put the key to your happiness in someone else's pocket:)
This week Jean Batong got baptized! She has a super strong testimony and her husband and kids should follow her within the next little bit. Brother Batong just has to stop smoking for a little longer so we know he doesn't go back to it after binyag:)
I had a genius idea last week to just buy tons of fruit at the palengke and just chop it all up and freeze it. Then every morning I made a smoothie with LC packets we get from our interviews. LC is protein powder from President Hughes company. It started every day off right to have a mango, banana, apple, and strawberry smoothie😂
In zone interviews we were all supposed to practi teach with President and then get a reward for how well we taught. I was the last one to go and he was like "yeahhh I'm confident you are a good teacher by now. We're not going to do the practice teaching, but do you have any questions for me?" We had a good talk and then he just gave me a full box of LC which is like 3 times the amount he usually gives in an interview😆😂 Looks like I get to keep making smoothies for a while:)
I gave a bunch of the PAT penny necklaces to members and investigators yesterday. They loved them once again so shout out to Marla Crestani 4.0😂❤️
One of the recent converts in our ward passed away this week. Josephine Gonzales was in her 50s and had a huge infection on her neck that has been swelling up like a balloon the last couple months. I talked on her one on one for like 10 mins last week at church and it was obvious she wasn't doing to hot. It's super sad though because she lived alone with her 14 year old daughter Bea. Now that Bea's mom has died she is kind of all alone now. No siblings. No parents. I'm grateful that God gave them the opportunity to learn about the Plan of Salvation before she died though. Bea has tons of member families offering to let her live with them. Although her direct family is now on the other side, she is grateful for her ward family. Count your blessings.
We had a hilarious FHE with our recent converts Prince and Charlie... And soon to be recent converts Levi, Mico Cleo, Mio Choi, and Rosalyn😉 Haha their family is awesome! I'll send a video, but basically we had Levi blind folded and told him he had to step over a stick we were holding ten times without touching it. We would hold if for a few rounds, but then Elder Castro would pull the stick out and Levi would keep stepping super high for no reason😂 He's the funniest little kid, so it made it super funny to watch the video after with him!
Masaya talaga ang buhay ko!
-Elder Reber
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