Week 65

December 11, 2011

Dear Family and Friends, 

Elder Teh

Wow! Another week has passed. Sometimes we stop and wonder where the time has gone. It just seems like it was yesterday that we wrote. We just got back from our District Conference meetings in Biñan today. The conference was very good. The district is very close to becoming a stake. It was good to see the members of the district that we haven’t seen for some time. Elder Teh gave some very good counsel about reading scriptures and staying close to Heavenly Father. It was very basic doctrine but very wise and timely.     

 In our weekly office meeting, President Stucki informed us that the new mission office would probably be finished at the end of next week – so we may be moving the office just before we leave. He asked me to organize the move – too bad we don’t have any moving experience.  I am also in the process of getting a 2012 mission calendar put together – I have come to appreciate the clerks and executive secretaries that helped me in so many ways for so many years. And finally, President asked us when we thought it would be best for us to move to Palawan –we discussed the options and if the training goes well, we will leave for Palawan on December 27th. That just happens to be our wedding anniversary – what better anniversary gift than to go to a tropical island and live for 6 months?    

We have 7 missionaries that will be leaving on this coming Saturday. They are leaving early to be home in time for school winter semester to begin. So we have a ‘partial’ transfer this week. We will also welcome our new office couple on Tuesday. They will arrive about 10:30pm on Tuesday and probably spend Wednesday in the recovery stage. Thursday is our mission Christmas Party. That should be fun. We did get to look at the apartment for the new office couple on Friday. It is about 15 minutes away from the office – although on Friday afternoon it took us almost 1 hour to get to the apartment because it was just one of those wonderful Manila traffic days.

It has rained every day this week. The rain has been a steady rainfall with no wind or thunder, just a good soaking rain. The rain clears out the pollution from the sky but sometimes you just wish you could be dry.    

We have had a couple of wonderful experiences over the past 2 days. Friday afternoon we just got back into the office after making the ‘mail run’ and the assistant’s called to see if we could be at their discussion that evening. They needed a member to be with them since they were teaching a single sister. We were excited for the opportunity. When we arrived at the church, the missionaries weren’t there yet (wonderful traffic day) so we sat and talked with their investigator. She is delightful. She is Chinese! She speaks English and is working here in Manila for a mining company. It was so nice to talk with her and learn about her family. When the Elders came they taught her about tithing and they asked if we could explain some things about tithing and to bear our testimonies. We loved it. We love the office and have learned some wonderful things here but I miss teaching the people. What a blessing it was for us to be a part of her gospel experience. She will be baptized on Saturday December 10th and was very excited when we asked if we could come to her baptism.

Saturday morning we started out early to travel to a baptism in our little branch. Sister Aubrie Cayanas was baptized. We were excited to be there to witness her baptism. We have been blessed to teach the Gospel Essentials class for the past 4 weeks and to have her in the class. Her countenance has been ‘lit up’ by the gospel. It won’t be long and her brother will be baptized also.  After the baptism, the brethren met to do their ‘unified’ home teaching. Since we were there for the baptism and we were going to the Saturday meetings of District Confidence later that afternoon, I wanted to go home teaching with them. I was assigned to go with the Branch President and a recent convert (Brother Santos). It was so good to go back and visit some of the families that we had visited and taught while we were assigned in the branch. I thought it was more than a coincidence that I was able to go with the Branch President. We visited 3 families and were able to ‘really teach’ them not just visit them. They were good visits. I know that we all felt the spirit and hopefully both the new convert and the Branch President understood a little better about what we should do when we home teach. I was impressed to be very bold in speaking and teaching the families. I apologized to the Branch President afterwards but he was grateful for the messages we were impressed to teach the families. I told him that in order to bring them back to church they need to be taught correct principles and not scolded for not coming to church. We have to give them what the world cannot give them. If we give them what the world has they will have no incentive to change their lives. There just isn’t anything better than teaching the gospel.

Well, this week has the makings of a very busy week. We hope that you are all doing well. Christmas is almost upon us. I’m sure that you are all ready for the holidays.  We hope that you are enjoying good health and that you are happy. We love you all. We miss you very much, especially at this time of year. Thank you again for your prayers and your love. We love you. Remember to BE good, DO good, and BE men and women of Christ. And always remember to say your prayers. 

Love, 
Mom and Dad, Grandma and Grandpa, Janene and Grant