The Best 2 Years For My Life

[

Regarding Elder Matthew O. Richardson's conference talk during which he referred to his mission as "the best two years for my life"]

I did notice the phrase that the president of sunday school used 'The best two years for my life'.  In our district meeting that is what i bore my testimony on. And that is what paul had shared with me before i left. Trust me i would not consider this to be the best two years of my life. I feel i have had better moments, but everything i have done here is unforgettable and helped me learn and grow so that makes it the best two years for my life. I honestly have learned more in the Gospel then i could have anywhere else. I learned teaching skills that will be used my whole life afterwards. I have definitely learned to be more Christ like then i actually thought i could be, Especially in these last weeks.

So this is my last week i get to be a Full Time Missionary but i know it will not be the last time i do missionary work, and even so i know i have work to do. We will celebrate {my birthday] when i get back. Thanks for the birthday wishes and all the support everyone has given me along this journey. I thank those who helped in ways that were not necessary but wanted to help anyways, you for sure will receive those blessings you are in need of for your charitable works. I know the greatest thing i learned here was to "Learn of Christ, but do not just teach of Christ, Teach by Christ" If we teach by or with Christ we will teach his pure Gospel and people will grow faster and stronger. Help people exercise their free agency by moving towards Christ. Free Agency is a Great Gift of God, to choose to love Him and be more like Him. He gave us this Gift to experience life, but not only to experience life but to Choose to Love him and Follow him by our own Free Will. Because we know that when we do things that we choose to do we enjoy it a lot more, and when we choose to do the things the Lord asks, we will Enjoy being with Him even more. I know that those who feel far from the Lord or do not believe that he exists, Only have their eyes closed, backs turned, hands clenched and just need to open their eyes or turn around or open their hands to be accepted of Him or Believe in Him, because he is waiting and is willing. There is a scripture that was quoted in Conference i know it is also found in D&C 88: 63 but i think there is a better verse in the Bible, not sure of the reference. "Draw near unto me and I will draw near[er] unto you;..."  If we but take the chance to come unto Christ and Heavenly Father even if we take One step, i know that they will gladly take Two steps towards us. I challenge all who read this to take a step towards Christ and Heavenly Father. Whether it be Believe that they are Real, or Read some more in the Scriptures, share your beliefs with another, or even invite them to listen to the Gospel. Come unto Christ everyone and be perfected in him. I undoubtedly know that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is the one and only true church on the Earth, that has living Prophets to guide and help us return to our Heaven Father if we but choose to Follow the Counsel of the Lord in all our Doings. I know that no man is forgotten by God but man will forget God, and when we forget Him we need only to humble our selves and ask him for forgiveness and we will Gladly forget our faults, wrongs and Short comings. I plead as Prophets of Old pled for people to come be Followers of the True Gospel and Teachings of Jesus Christ, to learn how to obtain everlasting happiness, and I do so humbly in the sacred name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Still Lost

yeah i went to the meeting house locator... Northville is on the map but the roads are not charted. We had a member work with us but we got lost and did not make appointments.  i once had 8 lessons a day now it went down to 3.

General Conference will be shown this saturday and sunday. saturday morning is priesthood session then after that will be the first session

Annoyed and Lost

just reallllllyyyyyyy annoyed at a lot of things..

why i am so mad right now is [the mission president]  just transfered Elder Cruz... Elder Cruz has been down and out for a week and a half.. i have worked in my area for no more than 8 days tops.. My area is a freaking maze. i get lost just trying to get home from church... and church is around the corner! and now i have to get a new companion and magically get us home on thursday. Last thursday me and Elder Cruz got lost in Angeles City trying to get home... we ended up going around in Circles for about 2 hours! We have an area that is just horrible [to find your way around] that has all of our investigators. We tried to send members to visit them.. they came back reporting that they couldnt find their house...our area we work in is Northville and its a maze really. i am looking at maps and can not find my own house. i literally know NOTHING about my area.

well we have to go because we have this JUBILEE thing about the church..  we have to sit in a room and wait for people to talk to us. we can not even be missionaries there [proselytize] but our president demands our presence.

More First Aid, Please!

So talk about my new area.. I am in Bulaon, Angeles... i am in the middle of two giant cities  San Fernando and Angeles. I am not in a City but its not a farm area either. i love walking around in my area we have two places called.. Saudi and Mexico. We do not work in Mexico, but we work in Saudi. the people are nice so you can tell people there are area missionaries working in Saudi...(philippines)   hahahaa but yeah work is good we have a lot of investigators which is nice!  My companion is also preparing to go home in two transfers so we are veterans and just get out and do work.

I bought a new knife for our kitchen.... you probably can see where this story is going if i am telling you about a new knife. hahaha the Ironic thing about all of this... i also bought  some tongs for our kitchen... Elder Cruz was washing the dishes and he went to wash.... no not the knife.. the Tongs and cut his thumb! so i was like just put alcohol on it and i have a band aid for you... and then the time came.. I was cutting up some Cabbage and i wanted to cut out its heart (if that is what its called) the hard part at the base... and i asked elder cruz what the word for sharp was... he tells me... i restate that the knife is very sharp... then i turn to cut out the heart of the cabbage... and OOPS.... i cut open the base of my index finger on my left hand... hahaha i laughed and told Elder Cruz not to look cause he probably would have passed out if he saw the blood. so I wrapped my finger up .. and yeah i finished cooking.  anyways my finger is all healed up it is really sore though but the skin is closing up. That was friday night i cut my finger. So all is well. 

Well i do not know what else to say. our apartment is really nice actually we have a little balcony that we hang out on at nights and talk. I am just enjoying the time i have left here that is for sure.

Traveling Around

we went out of town...  my companion had to take a test to get into byu hawaii so yeah i have been traveling around and sitting around we just got back to our area and so we were just emailing to let our families know we are okay and that we will write more next week okay!!! soo yeah love my new area and comp... more to read next time!

Transfers, Scones & First Aid

i am getting transfered to Angeles Bulaon area  i will spend my last 5 weeks there working. So this will be a nice little last area. Well a lot of good things that i am leaving behind here... Investigators coming to church and preparing to be baptized which should happen in Oct. I am also missing out on the opening of a very nice chapel that will be used on the 25th of this month. 

But this was the week of SCONES!!!!! Yeah i ate scones several times this week.. sadly no chili but it was great. There is this bread place and the bread they make is basically the scone dough we use. They bake their bread so i just asked to buy the dough.. this was new to them and a string of questions followed. I told them i was going to simply fry the bread. In this culture if there is a way they do something then that is the only way you can do it. Once someone becomes adventurous and tries something different.. they will normally take a lot of crap along the way. Non believers and what not but then when they try it and its good they are like wow this can be done! So i just was like yeah i am going to fry it... yes it tastes good really good. hahaha and it did! 

[what I learned] while on exchanges with a fellow american Elder from utah.. he was outside with a machete opening coconuts... when he comes into the house stating "Houston we have a problem..." and goes to the sink... instantly  i knew he chopped his finger.... so i state.. "yep you chopped your finger didnt ya?" and he was like "yep".  Now this Elder is a down hill mountain biker and has a good amount of cuts and scars now from his past days. And being the walking hazard that i am, of course blood and things like this do not phase me at all. So we needed to get this wrapped and apply pressure. It was a pretty nasty gash in his index finger lots of blood. I was like well i need something to wrap this with.. he tells me to grab that sock.. yes it was clean. so i destroy the sock so that we can use it as a good wrap. Tell him to put his hand above his head. After 20 mins he needs to shower. so i told him we will get it all taken care of afterwards.  so now we use the second sock to tie it down. the Elder did have a first aid kit so we had gauze pads to use as well and med tape. we needed to wash the cut because the machete was nasty and rusty looking... so alcohol was needed to clean it.... i grabbed his kitchen knife and told him to bite on the handle... he refused as if he could handle it... I told him he needs to or else it will hurt a lot more...  so he was like okay. so i poured the alcohol in the cut... it obviously hurt a whole lot. But after i got it all nice and bandaged he was surprised that there was no pain at all. And now it is nice looking and no pain. He really needed stitches tho it was really bad. but it healed up nicely now and he will be okay. so that was this last week! 

well love ya all and see ya all in 5 weeks 

Rain, Rubber Boots & Pizza Hut

Yes it has been rainy but its not bad or anything. There was some strong winds but nothing serious. Yeah this typhoon [Nanmadol] is way strong but it does not effect us. and if so we all have 72 hour kits we had to make and so if i was stuck in my house, we would survive. so no need to worry

my shoes are still usable but i do not use them because they are just CRAPPY looking! so i found a pair of rubber boots and then cut about a fourth off from them and put flip flops that are nice and soft inside them to make them comfortable. I wear them everyday and never have wet feet! and they look cool!

Got my flight plans last week so that is cool to know but whatever. its a holiday here (National Heroes Day) for like 3 days. We just went to the Mall earlier and it was just packed with people... wayyyy fun! Ate pizza hut. we have a new investigator we just met and he came to church... nice guy! thats what we have been doing in short