Dear Family,
This has been a great and crazy week! Honestly don't even know where to start with this email. I guess I will just start with a congratulations to Kailei and Brad for their wedding, and thank you to all of the people who helped make that day super special for them! The card board cut out of myself looked pretty dang good if I do say so myself! hahaha I also send my thoughts and prayers to everyone as they prepare for Grandpas funeral. I am so thankful for the life that he lead and for the understanding that we are able to have that he still lives and that he is in a better place. Doesn't make it any easier, but at least we can hold strong to those beliefs! As I watched the broadcast on S
unday, I was very moved by the fact that President Monson said that he had been really having a hard time with the loss of his wife! I don't think anyone came up to President Monson and told him that he needs to get happy or that he needs to get over it and have more faith in the plan of Salvation. It was an answer to prayers for me that even the prophet of God struggles with the loss of a dear loved one. So for all the family who may have had some people get down on you for grieving the loss, don't let them get to you! We have a testimony of this Gospel, but it still hurts! I am just so thankful that at the end of the day, we are still able to have all of our memories, and to be able to know that we will be with him again in just a short time.
Speaking of the Broadcast, what an inspired and uplifting experience! I hope that as many members as possible were able to go and to feel loved and supported by our great quorum of the the 12 and other leaders of the church. As I sat and watched that historical broadcast, I was inspired to become a better missionary! I don't consider myself lazy by any means, but at the same time there is soooo much more that I could be doing. I was so impressed by the story of Scott and the boldness that Elder Perry explained that he had. For a young 20 year old missionary in today's age to be
compared to the sons of Mosiah is amazing! I was so motivated by that comment and have rededicated myself to talking to anyone and everyone on the street! As we have been out in down town of San Francisco, it blows my mind how many people we see each day each minute! Ha Mesa is nothing compared to even the smallest city out here in this mission. We are small town living compared to what I have seen this past week. I have seen crazy people wearing some crazy things! (Don't ask!) Poor Elder Santiago... He cried the first night that we got back to the apartment after being out in down town! He lives in a very very small town in the Philippines, and grew up on a small little rice farm. He had never seen anything like what we saw out there that night. He has since adapted to the culture I think, but I have to keep a close eye on him. Haha I don't know how many times I have had to grab his arm and pull him along with me tell him not to stare at different things that go on out there. Saturday though we went out to the pier out by A
lcatraz and we started seeing some amazing blessings! We got off the Bart (Mesa light rail type thing) no more then 30 seconds off the B
art we were approached by a man who said that he was a member and that he had a daughter out on a mission. We talked for a few minutes, and as he walked away, another lady came up to us and told us that she was sooo thankful to see two white shirts and ties out in down town! She said that she had been praying to see missionaries out there for months and that we were an answer to prayers. We had a group of young ladies that came up to us and said that they were members and that we needed to teach the friends that they were with. ha the friends were just as shocked as we were and kinda just shuffled away, but man was it an amazing experience! Every where we turned we were being thanked for being there or meeting less actives and giving referrals. We didn't find any Filipino people, but we sure did hand out a ton of cards and pamphlets to white people! This work is taking off and we are so blessed to be apart of it.
Me and Elder Santiago have made a deal that I am going to turn him into a powerful and bold missionary if he will teach me the language asap! I haven't learned a thing really yet and it has been so hard for me to switch from Cebuano to Tagalog. But we are excited to have our deal and our new goals that we have set! We are working so hard. I have never been as tired as I have been the last three days ever on my mission. We have been basically running from place to place and trying to get used to the new areas. What an adventure we are having!
Our investigator pool now that we have split the area is very very low. We only have one investigator at this point... Her name is Sister Amporias, and at this point is not very solid. I have faith that she has great potential, but at the same time, we are worried that she is going to drop us here in a week or so. We keep praying for her and studying for her in hopes that we will be able to keep her around. We are really hoping that we are able to find new investigators as the time goes on.
We were very blessed on Tuesday to be able to go and have dinner with the Sudweeks family. They came all the way from Brentwood to take us to dinner. Haha I didn't realize how terrible I looked in the picture I sent home the other week at Wendy's... I guess I scared Sister Sudweeks a bit and so Brother Sudweeks wanted to come take us to dinner. The zone leaders gave the ok, and so it was awesome to be able to spend the time with them. I was able to talk with Brayden for a bit and to catch up on how things are going with him and all his auto stuff. He will be up in BYU Idaho in January, and so I hope to be able to go and visit him and Elder Garver when I get home, maybe going and spending a few days with Aunt Kim and the family! I was very thankful to be able to spend that hour with them, because Brother Sudweeks has a spirit about him that is just addicting!
Honestly just being in the same room with him for an hour made me feel so much better! He was able to share a few words of advice and council with me that helped a bunch too. I will always be indebted to this family for their love and kindness!
My mission sure is going great! I love this work so much. The more the leaders talk about hastening the work and all these great changes that are going to be taking place, I just wish that I could be a missionary forever! It was a great feeling, cause I have been a bit trunky this past week with all the things going on and with the news of Grandpa. Please let me know if there is anything I can do for the funeral or a part that you would like me to type out. I think the funeral is this coming week, so it's probably to late. But in Grandmas letter I sent last week there are a few more stories and a few more thoughts that I shared with her. Ha mom sure got a surprise when I told her about the reasons for me ditching school. Ha guess momma doesn't know everything! I honestly thought for sure that we were caught a few times as I was driving away and saw grandmas van coming down the other way! Haha They probably knew something was up, but I am just so glad that I was able to share those memories with Grandpa. President sure did laugh hard at a few of the stories I told him.
me to get up in the tree. I'm not sure if I told this one last email, but he would always tell me that I was
on to that walker and told him that if he was going to complain about the once I picked then for him to get up in the tree and get them himself! Ha I had to be careful what I said though, cause honestly he was the type of man that would have tossed the walker to the side and climbed right up there with me! Ha great times great times!
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