November 29, 2014

Happy Birthday to Sister Teresa Robinson

We had a fun Thanksgiving; I am sure that mother is telling you all about it. We had two sets of Elders and one set of Sisters and the Ward mission leader over for a meal at noon and then took three meals to families of their choice. One of the families is a lady who is going to be baptized on Dec. 6. We first met her at a “group “ meeting about four weeks ago. (a group, is an extension of a Ward we live in but they live a good distance out of the town where our ward is so they hold church meetings in a small room near the Elder’s apartment.). Sister Robinson made a connection with this sister and was holding her hands and the sister was crying. The sister so appreciated the encouragement that she received from Sister Robinson that on the next Sunday, Stake Conference, the sister found her and gave her a small gift that she had made. My companion sure has a way of connecting with people on a personal level.

This past week we gave talks in two wards. I will share part of the message from my talk. This talk was similar to one that I gave at Tia’s baptism. I still like what I learned from the scripture reference. (2 Kings 5) Some Great Thing.

The story is that of Naaman who was captain of the host of Syria, who had become a leper. I told the story in more detail than I will here, but when Naaman came to Elisha seeking a cure for his leprosy he was told to wash in the river Jordan seven times. Naaman was wroth and went away. He was expecting much more of a show of power in calling upon the Lord. Naaman’s servants “spake unto him and said, My father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it?"

The words “some great thing” caught my attention. The words must have caught the attention of Naaman too because he then went into the river Jordan 7 times and became clean.

What would “some great thing” possibly be? Would it be to kill a lion or a bear or to lead in a battle and defeat an enemy of Israel? The truth is that there is no “great thing” that Naaman could have done to bring about the desired result of curing leprosy.

The story is like baptism but it was not baptism. Naaman was invited to do a simple thing under the direction of a prophet of God and act in faith.

We may know people who have done pretty “great things” but could they have done these things without having already been blessed by Heavenly Father? Such as strong body, good health, sound mind, and so forth.

I have come to believe there was only one truly great thing that has been done on earth and that is the Life and Atonement of our Savior Jesus Christ. He is the only one who could have accomplished that. He does not ask us to do “some great thing” to receive the benefit of His Great Thing. Like “baptism for the remission of sins”; how is it possible that that is all we have to do? It is not really all that we have to do; we need to keep his commandments and endure to the end but still it is an amazing gift.

When we take the Sacrament each week we can remember “Some Great Thing” that was done for us.

I love you all. Have joy in your hearts.

Love Dad

Hats off to Tim

We had a week of substituting for Institute.  D&C 89, 93 and the Gospel and the Productive Life!  What a challenge.  And Filipinos don't like to participate much, they talk very softly, and the language is Ilonguisg. Theirs plus ours.  It was fun though and, of course, those who come are earnest seekers of truth.  They were delightful.
But the job was stressful for us, a good exercise.  We are not coming home to apply for the job:)
We were at the Center at 5:30 am, Monday morning class was at 6:30.  No one showed up until 7.  It was a good class for us as we just went back and forth.  There were only like 7 people plus us present.  Tuesday -Thursday classes were mostly in the evening and we started on time but about half came a half hour late and a few came for the last 30 minutes.  We started with a song, prayer, spiritual thought, and announcements and a video of President Uchtdorf's conference talk on light and truth.  It was surprising that they had not heard it.  Anyway, that all took the first half hour at least for two of the classes.
Now I will back up and start where I left off last week.
Sunday we spoke in Molo 1st Ward, then Molo 2nd Ward; we took lunch to Analisa at the hospital.  Her baby, Harold had his surgery and it was a success.  They cut his scalp from ear to ear over the top, pulled down the skin and fixed the hole where it was leaking fluid in the bridge of his nose and sinuses.  I know it sounds awful.  I was so worried for her and the baby but it went well and he already looks better and seems happier.  He acts like he recognizes me.  The nice thing is that she felt The Lord taking care of her.  She needed money for blood that Harold needed so she went to the media and it was donated.  And all the medicine that the baby needed was in the hospital so that was taken care of.  And while I was out of town, the relief society and the bishop came to visit.  It was good to catch up with her when we got back into town. By the way, we gave her a candle with the scriptures to do with her family for the month of December.  We ate lunch and returned to Molo 2nd ward because the Bishop wanted My Path done at 4:00.  There were 30 in attendance.  It turned out great.  Butch went with us.  Ray had the bishop help and he did great!  We got to the bungalow about 6:30 and started working on the Institute lesson.
Monday morning about 6 came and they were all a half hour late but they had time to stay so we went a half hour later.  They wanted to visit with us.  They were all adults.  At 10 we went shopping for our Thanksgiving feast:) We have three Americans in our district so we are feeding the district, and our ward mission leader, he is a young student.  After shopping we had lunch and took a meal to Analisa, she was asleep by her baby so we just left lunch on her bed. We returned to the Center to study for the Word of Wisdom lesson section 89 D&C for tomorrow.  Then Butch texted us to meet him at the Molo church.  He was waiting for us to give us dinner.  I thought he was doing some demonstration at the church and wanted us to taste but when we got there we discovered he had made us this beautifully displayed, top of the line tasting dinner.  You can see it on Butch's facebook page.  The green leaf was totally yummy.  I will try to get his sauce recipe, it was really the best!  I felt like crying.  He is so good to us.  I am humbled by this mission experience.  I thought we came to give but we are the receivers.
Tuesday was district meeting and Elder Bacay came the last of his four lessons on how to be a great missionary.  And he knows how because he really is one. Then we gave the sisters a ride to the store and the zone leaders a ride downtown and we went to McDonalds for a big and tasty, and back to the Center to teach Institute.  Here is a question for you:  is section 89 the first time The Lord instituted a health code?  I immediately thought of Daniel and the Kings meat and strong drink vs. the Israelites code.  But then it occurred to me that Adam and Eve were prohibited from eating of the fruit and that it would cause physical and spiritual consequences...after partaking of the fruit, they were subject to death and they were cast out of His presence.  The Word of Wisdom is a physical and spiritual law also.  Just my new thought, maybe it already occurred to all of you.  April 2014 GC had a cool story about Elder Voen Hwan Choi of the Seventy.  After his mission, he had to join the service in South Korea.  It is the law.  He was assigned to the presidential guard.  Look it up and see what happened.  Also, another interesting thought came from a class member.  The question: how do we apply the blood of the Lamb that was painted over the door of the Israelites to our lives?  You know likening the scriptures to ourselves.  Answer: we partake of His flesh and blood each week during the sacrament.  I thought this pretty insightful.
Wednesday I prepared little loaf size cheese cakes for Thanksgiving.  We studied again for Institute D&C 93 then went to the hospital again.  Jeffrey, her husband came to pick them up to go home.  But I just had gotten there about 5 minutes before and had brought her a small children's songbook from Sister Walton and the candle with scriptures for her to do with her husband and other three children at home during December.  If we had waited, we would have missed them.  We are getting better at quiet small promptings.
We visited our 91 year old but I don't think she is ready.  We asked her to set a time to get ready.  I don't know.  We have done all we can.  Any way, we got stuck in a deep ditch and had to be pulled out.  We tried to visit Elder Finau but we didn't know where he lived and the Elders didn't know we were in a hurry, so we will go tomorrow.  We went to the Institute to teach again.  There were 20 there, three were recent converts, 1 - 11 months, 1 - 9 months, 1 - 1 month and one non member.  I hope we were clear windows of His Light and Truth.
Thursday we hurried to the store and picked up some probiotics for Elder Finau and went to visit him.  He said it felt like his parents had come.  He has decided to go home and get well and then go wherever to finish his mission after that.  He has tried so hard.  He really is a great guy but this is not a good place to get sick and get medical help.  This is the second missionary we have seen go home sick just while we have been here.  We returned to the bungalow to fix noodles with vegetables, brown rice was already cooked and we purchased some chickens cooked over charcoal.  We had store-bought rolls and the cheesecake for dessert.  We also had a mix of chippies like chex mix except there aren't any chex here:). We made our own mix.  After we ate, the missionaries peeled carrots, cut up onions, red peppers, cabbage and stir fried it, added noodles and we boxed it all up and took to three families that they had picked out and talked with and drove to their homes with the hot dinner and a jello dessert and a drink.  Then the missionaries went tracting from there.  We finished and hurried to the Institute for our last class of the week.
Friday we went to the Center, then to the dock to pick up self reliance pamphlets and books from the boat, returned to the Center to put it all away and helped a sister student with registering for a PEF loan for second semester.  At least we called and got help.  We had leftovers for dinner:) and are getting ready for tomorrow.  We were able to get a load of wash in this morning and had it hanging to dry all day.
Yesterday was perfect weather for all those people in here.  It rained all day and kept the temperature to probably 75, quite nice.  So with all that cooking, it was very helpful.
Saturday we had a community service project at a catholic school.  We painted, cut grass,  and raked leaves.  It is always fun to be with the missionaries.  We cooked potatoes for my birthday with butter, sour cream, chives, and cheese and had a steak from the US.  It was almost a quarter of an inch thick.  It was all we could find.
We went to McDonalds and had apple pie a la mode, split it:) so nobody has to worry about my weight:).  Tomorrow is fast Sunday for the mission, first, third, and fifth Sundays.
That's been our week.  We love you.  Make sure you don't try to send anything except e mails.  Things don't get here.  Happy Thanksgiving!  Mom, Sister Robinson

Week 2/3

Oh I love you all so much!  Writing emails is basically the most stressful time of the week!  There's just so much I want to tell you all and I want to respond to everyone's emails individually but there just isn't time.  Especially since I haven't updated really for two weeks.  But I will be writing again on Monday since that's when P-day will usually be.  This week they moved it to Thursday for Thanksgiving.

So traveling to Sacramento went well.  It was a little sad again to say goodbye to the people I grew to love at the MTC but it was so exciting to get where I was going.  President and Sister Jardine are super nice and just great people.  On Wednesday (18th I believe) I met my trainer and was given my specific assignment within the mission.  I am in the Lodi (low-dye) Zone, Galt 2nd ward.  So the town I am in is Galt, and I can't quite tell the size of it exactly but it seems that it is basically "country."  It's just a bunch of nice little subdivisions and it's really beautiful here.  Lots of variety in the vegetation and really pretty trees.  The weather is nice.  It basically feels like late summer/early fall.  Also, I'm full time bike.  So we just ride around all day.  It's been quite the adventure figuring out how to ride in a skirt but I'm getting much better.  I was super awkward at dismounting and mounting the first few days but I'm doing pretty well now.  My trainer is Sister Barfuss.  I have been super blessed with her.  She is really obedient and hard working and she teaches really well.  I still get frustrated occasionally because I don't necessarily feel that my input is listened to that well but she is super great and really easy to work with and now that it's been a week we are getting into a pretty good swing of things together.  She is from Farmington, Utah and has been out six months only so she was made a trainer pretty "young."  The picture is us with Sister Weaver, Sister Barfuss' trainer.

Well I have been told so many times that missions are hard, but it turns out I had mentally prepared myself for a different kind of hard than it actually is.  I was prepared for it being hard to talk to people, or frustrating when people didn't keep commitments or didn't progress.  I was NOT prepared to not even have people to teach.  The first couple of days were so frustrating for me because we were just biking around trying to get appointments and talk to less actives and potentials and no one wanted to make appointments.  Our only appointments were practice lessons with members and dinner appointments.  So I pretty much felt like I was doing nothing but waste time.  I knew that wasn't a very productive way to think so I was trying hard to be positive and just enjoy the work and have faith that eventually someone would be willing to listen but it was hard at first.  Possibly the hardest part was how frustrated I was with myself for not having a perfectly happy attitude about it.  I guess eventually I just realized I was expecting myself to be perfect right off the bat so I decided I'd just work on being positive and give myself two or three days before I could expect myself to have positivity come naturally.  Well I guess I did pretty well at faking it because Sister Barfuss has commented more than once how positive and happy I am all the time.  Proof that the Lord can make our weaknesses strengths. :)

So by Friday I was feeling pretty positive and motivated and while studying I just really got the impression that it was the day to get an investigator. (Days feel really long around here because so much happens in a day so Friday felt like it had been much longer than 2 days).  So we set a goal to have an investigator by the end of that day.  Little did I know at the time that in order to count an investigator you have to have a lesson with them and a follow up appointment set.  Had I realized that I might not have had as much faith that it was possible but I think Heavenly Father wanted me to see the power of faith and see His hand in the work that day.  Well that day ended up being a day of miracles.

Miracle number one:

Less active member (Nikki) that we had an appointment with said a prayer with us.  In all the times she's been taught she has never agreed to pray before.

Miracle number two:

This is more a tender mercy that was also the means of a miracle.  We didn't have a dinner appointment that day and so we weren't going to be able to eat dinner until 8:30 or so and I wasn't feeling really happy about that.  I had prayed (I know this is a little silly) for help being cheerful while hungry.  Well halfway through the day our Ward Mission Leader called us and told us we had a dinner appointment with the Dobernecks.  Sister Barfuss then told me that their daughter is dating a non member and we proceeded to plan a lesson to teach.  I'll come back to the miracle part of this later but it was just awesome to see how I was taken care of.

Miracle number three:

We needed to cut up some fliers to take around to people to invite them to the ward Christmas party. At the exact moment we ended up finally making it to the church to do that some former investigators were there preparing for a community service project.  Their names are Mondo and Quina and when we saw them we offered to help.  We just know that we were sent there at the perfect time to soften their hearts with our service.  Besides that we also were able to continue helping with that community event which was putting together Thanksgiving baskets of food for community members in need.  It's a pretty big thing that the Catholic church started, and invited our church to be part of.  We got to meet a lot of Catholic people and I think it really did a lot to create good feelings towards us and the church.

Miracle number four:

At our dinner appointment with the Dobernecks we met Joe, our new investigator!  We taught a lesson during dinner and he agreed to meet with us again!  That experience really gave me a testimony of setting inspired goals and working hard in faith.  Heavenly Father really led us along that day and it was amazing to see His hand.  We had our second lesson with Joe on Monday and he is GOLDEN.  He has no religious background but he says looking back on his life he can see how Heavenly Father has been strengthening him and he also feels he has already received an answer to prayer that the church is true.  Since he has been learning some things through the Dobernecks he had been pondering some weeks ago and praying and then randomly saw the sister missionaries (including Sister Barfuss) on their bikes and he said he had this feeling he couldn't describe and knew he wanted to know more about the church.  We are really excited to keep working with him.

Well I include way too many details because this is really long and I'm about out of time.  On Monday I will share some more general things about the area and just funny little things that happen and about where I am living and things.  And also more about the Thanksgiving service project because it was so cool to be part of.  We are eating Thanksgiving dinner at a members house out in the country today.  Our whole zone was invited by them.  How sweet is that?  People are so generous.  I love you all!

Sister Robinson

first service project, me and hermana fly at the church for the thanksgiving baskets service

What's thanksgiving?

Haha. That's a good question. And one that all the Chileans ask if it ever comes up. haha. But you'll just have to all eat some for me! woo hoo! Thanksgiving by proxy. Or perhaps vicariously eating, haha. That could be irreverent. Oh well. Hurray for sins of ignorance. This week was so much fun. And it's my companion's birthday today! Thanks goodness it was on p day so we could party a ton! But anyway...

Hey guys!

How is everyone doing? I heard that the earth's supply of chocolate is gonna run out by 2020. But I've chosen not to believe it. Who knows, though. And I heard Bill Cosby got accused for something unfortunate. So that's too bad that they want to ruin my childhood and trust in funny, nice, black comedians. Also, since they don't have Thanksgiving here I have already started giving out Christmas presents. It's really fun. The idea was Mom's. But I had to translate it into Spanish. So that was a fun challenge. And we play the guitar and I sing a Christmas song to them when we gift it. They love it. And one lady in our ward is making us these sick sweaters to look like the Chilean flag. So you can look forward to that pic. 

Also, all the missionaries are way excited here because we heard that there was gonna be an announcement from 'the church' of something new for the missions to do for Christmas. So our imaginations run wild, of course. There's talk of the church taking over the U.S. government for Christmas. Haha. I guess we'll just have to see...

As far as investigators go we don't really have any new ones, but the ones we have are progressing and we're finally getting some good friends for them all in the ward and their baptism dates are all coming up here, soon. Pray for them. Satan tries so hard to get them at this time. When they're open and susceptible to all sorts of random garbage that people say about the church. But luckily, it's the church of God, and it can never again be taken from the earth. Thank goodness for that. 

I never before thought about the fun that I would have on the mission. Literally every part of it is so fun! It's amazing how fulfilling it is. Like, don't get me wrong... there are some rough times. But they're so short and small in comparison with the good things that happen. haha. Speaking of which, I got attacked by so many dogs this week. I don't know what it was. But they really wanted to get a taste of this hunk. But they didn't. I won. Sometimes by running with my companion as fast as possible. And once because right as one was about to bite my leg my companion just booted it in the face. We had to repent for that a little later, but at least I don't have to get shots. And.... you're gonna think this is really sad. But the dogs here are all so beaten and traumatized that all you have to do to get them to leave you alone is bend down like you're picking up a rock. And even the biggest St. Bernard runs away super fast. But it's a law here that you can't kill them. So people just kick them and beat them until they're mean and hurt and scared. It's pretty sad. So we try to just be nice to them and love them. They'll be saved in cute puppy heaven. But enough with the hippie save the dogs stuff.

The biggest thing I learned this week was really obvious. But really profound and true. And more so because of it's simplicity. But I realized that the blessings that come to us are a direct result of our obedience. And there are many promises in the scriptures about that. There is a law, formed before the foundation of the world... I don't remember exactly how it goes because I only know it in Spanish. But something about that the blessings we receive are a direct result to the law upon which it is predicated. And it's so true. But what can be learned more is the degree of your personal obedience. And that's when it really is cool, because only you and God know how dedicated you are to obedience. It's the same as the pharisees and sadducees.They knew the commandments, and even made up some new ones. But they weren't really obedient. They were keeping the commandments to be seen by other men and to take advantage of the more humble people. True obedience starts with a love of the Savior and therefore a love for his counsel and commandments. And then you're well on your path to salvation, and to happiness. It's so cool. Because when you do that your mere presence will uplift and edify the people you interact with. How would that be? To have people just love having you around because they love how they feel when you're there. And what they feel is the Savor's love, through you. I can think of no greater honor. 

Also, just some food for thought. The temple here was announced in 2009. It's been announced that they were really gonna start it at least 5 times since then, and still there's nothing. It's been announced to start again in the spring of 2015. But now it's kind of a joke among the missionaries. And the cause of much discussion among the members. What more do we need to do? Are we not ready? Did we do something wrong? and all sorts of questions like these. But you should also know that the potential in my ward right now here is 1,000 members. And that's fairly typical. But the attendance (which has gone up by about 20 and rising since we've arrived) is about 110. Talk about plenty of less active people to work with. But the thing is, that there were so many people baptized all at once and not enough priesthood to keep track of it all. And now there's plenty of leadership, or sufficient, but not enough active members. And the people that were baptized already forgot the church and have joined another one to find the friendship and help they needed. It is sad. And a work to do. But it's rewarding to help the less active people come back to church. It's interesting to see the dynamics here, and I could talk about it for a really long time. But that's all I'll say. You can send me your thoughts. I'm not looking for anything. I just thought it was interesting and possible profundity and edification to be found in it.

Much love to you all! Have an amazing week! It's almost Christmas! ;)

Elder Robinson

El Regalon

Sunday November 23. Second chances!

Another great week.
Elder Robinson spoke at City Ward on Sunday.  Then we went to Molo 1st Ward council meeting.  Then to the San Miguel group meeting.. We finally went home but I had a feeling that we were not through for the day.  We went to Visyas Hospital....do you believe The Lord gives second chances?  Remember about a month or six weeks ago a sister bore her testimony and I did not take care of her?  Well, I had a second chance!  Analisa was at the hospital with her four month old baby boy and we found them and took her dinner.  He, Harold will have surgery on Thursday.  There is a hole where fluid leaks into his face from his skull or something like that.  I feel so grateful for second chances.  We will visit her all week.
Then, we went to another home where the Elders administered the sacrament and I gave a short talk.  The Sister had a stroke, but she is still very pretty.  There was house help there and the daughter.  The Sister did not want me to leave and Ray had to come back in the house to get me.  What a dear.  ....anyway, it was a big Sunday.
Monday, preparation day..I washed a load of clothes, went to the Center(that is a church on Jalandoni Street where Institute is held, family history has a room there and self reliance center is there also).  Sessions, a member/leadership support couple missionary came from Antique and looked for us to have lunch with and so we all went to McDonalds:) I know.  We would never even go there in the states, but it is the best it gets here, then we went grocery shopping which always wears me out because I don't recognize the food still.  It is as foreign as the language.  They have different fruits and vegetables and I don't know what things are and I can't find stuff I'm looking for and the employees don't understand.  I asked for pumpkin the other day.  Well, we gave that up.  We took a meal to Analisa at the hospital and visited and then back to the bungalow.
Tuesday was district meeting with our new zone leaders.  Then practiced making some Filipino noodles and vegetables in preparation for our Thanksgiving celebration.  It turned out great so we took it along with rice to Analisa and her non member husband, Jeffrey who was at the hospital now.  I hope the missionaries visit him while he is there.  They live way way out in the bushes.  But she said he has read the Book of Mormon.  We also visited our 91 year old mother to get a date for her to be sealed to her deceased husband.  She is thinking about it.  Next we had our meeting with Sister Cagape and the volunteers at the Center.  Received an email from Aunt Ranae and she has connections with Sister Cagape.  Their friends the Mortimers served as mission president and as temple president in Cebu and they know each other very well.  It was fun telling her.  Charity won't remember, of course, but Linda Mortimer made her blessing hat.
Wednesday we did another load of wash, took lunch to Analisa and Jeffrey, then went to the Center and ran off leaders guides because we don't have any except online. To the mission home next to make arrangements with the guard to have the gate open at 4 am so we can leave the truck there and take a taxi to the airport Thursday a.m.
Yes, Thursday we left early and took a flight to Manila where we took a taxi to the office there at the Manila MTC and then drove 4 hours to LaLuze Resort where we had training meetings for self reliance, had dinner on the beach (it was beautiful), and played some fun games that we can't wait to play with our grandkids and children:)
We also were able to visit with other self reliance missionary couples and find out what and how they do what they do and that was very very helpful.  We went to our room and slept and then up early for breakfast and more meetings.  A four hour trip back to Manila and then Jim, one of the self reliance employees decided to take us to the American cemetery in Manila.  I can only say it was a very reverent, humble experience.  Then he drove us to our hotel by the airport.  We went to the mall across the street, wow!  The lights looked like giant kaleidoscopes.  We ate dinner there and it was very good.  When we returned to the lobby, a young 30 year old American hygienist had gotten separated from her group.  She was there with a dentist on another island, Tacloban, the one that was wiped out.  He served his mission in the Philippines years ago and when the typhoon hit, he came over and helped build houses, but he is really a dentist, so he came back with her and some others to do dental work for the missionaries going out and those hurting.  They were really busy.  Anyway, they were on different planes and her phone ran out of batteries, he had her backpack with her charger and could not find him.  Anyway, we fed her and spent an hour or so with her until she could make a good plan of what to do and she went to another hotel.  Of all crazy things, she is from Bountiful over by Winegars grocery store!
We slept well and flew back to Iloilo Saturday am, took a van to SM City (a mall), and then a taxi to the mission office church, we sat in on a grow my business self reliance meeting, picked up the truck, went to our bungalow, picked up some My Path booklets and headed to another meeting back at the mission office church.  We came home about 5 pm and we are tired.  Busy, rewarding week.  But I am so thankful for second chances, but I hope that I am more aware next time an opportunity of any kind to do good comes my way..Make my hands like those from Galilee, with love, Mother T, Grandma, Sister Robinson

Sacramento!

Sorry if I missed anyone!  I just have a quick minute to let you all know that I am now in Sacramento!  I'm exhausted, it was a super early morning.  Since the last email I learned so much again!  It is just crazy how much you learn at the MTC!  Hopefully I can update more on that on my next P-Day, which will probably be a week from today I'm guessing.  I feel a little overwhelmed again but I'll get over it faster this time :)  I'm really working on establishing who I want to be as a missionary.  I thought I had a pretty good idea before, but it's expanding.  I'm safe, I'm healthy, and I'm excited for everything I will learn this week!  I have appreciated and enjoyed all the emails so much!  I haven't quite gotten around to reading them all yet...email time goes SO fast!  But it just is fun to have things to look forward to reading.  I love you all so much!

Sister Robinson

November 16, 2014

The weather here has become more mild; usually 80 degrees. We also haven’t had much rain for the last three weeks. I have heard that winter type weather has come early in Utah and Idaho.

This week we have gone to the north part of the island two times. (we left Sunday to go to Roxas, after conference, came back on Monday and went to Kalibo on Friday and came back on Saturday night.) The trainings were for different purposes each time. I think that we will not need to go as often after these initial trainings are done because then the Stakes and wards will be able to carry forward with their own people. This week we will be flying to Manila for a training of Self Reliance missionaries and employees.

We had a Zone meeting this week with the new zone leaders and several new Elders and Sisters in our Zone. We had several Elders and Sisters go home last week. We had gotten to enjoy them a lot in the few weeks we have been here and we are missing them.

Today I gave a talk in the Iloilo City Ward. I talked about the blessings of living the gospel. Commandments are really invitations to have blessings extended to us.( D&C 130:20-21 ) Anyway, I guess it was some of the things I talked about in my missionary farewell.

It was heartwarming to hear about the events surrounding Charity leaving for her mission. Thanks to everyone for making it so special. Charity’s mission setting apart was emotional to us, as the expression of our Stake President that the Lord loves our family, was related to us. We feel Heavenly Father’s love each day. I love all of you and we pray for each of you everyday,

I love you,  Dad