Hey Mom!
I didn't forget about e-mail today! I got on this morning, pretty early and there wasn't an email from you yet so I decided I would wait until later. Sorry for making you wait. When I write letter's to Kelsey, we have a designated "Urgent Q's & A's" section where we list all the things we want to be sure the other person responds to! Maybe you could try something like that. I've also heard that there have been a lack of post to my Mission blog lately... maybe you could look into that for me? =) Anyways, all is well here. Another week down, and only a few more to go! I get more and more excited the closer it gets. I have more excitement for departure than I do for Christmas! You asked about travel plans... we haven't gotten any word on that yet. It seems like most of the previous districts got theirs the week before the left. Don't worry, I'll let you know when I know. I spent most of the morning writing letters back to everyone that has sent me things this week. I received some letters from Sarah, Karlee, The Packers, and Jamie, along with a care package from Grandma, Tara/The Jackson family, and you. I was surprised to see a package in the mail from "Tara Jackson." Inside was a stocking stuffed with candy, as well as there family Christmas card. I'm not sure if the stocking came from Tara or her whole family so I send Thanks to all of them. I wrote a quick note to Dad, Hunter, and Jamie that should be coming soon. I figured you could have the e-mail, but I'll probably write you another letter this week telling you about Christmas and what not. We will be having a GA on Sunday, they just haven't told us who yet. They like to keep everything under wraps here. I'm looking forward to having a few days that aren't the usual routine. They have things planned for Christmas Eve as well. I feel like I type and type but don't get much down on the page. I'm sorry for that!!.
What else did you write about...
Oh, we did recieve 20 new elders into our Branch this week. We haven't seen them much yet though because they haven't finished their first 3 days, and they all live on the 4th floor of our residence halls. We all live on the bottom floor (thankfully). One of the new Elders is actually my old district leader's brother (my district leader was adopted into their family). I think that's pretty cool that they'll both be going to the Philippines!
One more cool thing I want to share before I go is an experience from last night. Last night we had TRC which is where we teach volunteer members that know Tagalog. They are usually just BYU students. That's what we expected going in, but to our surprise we had a Filipino Mother and her two daughters. They live here in Oram. Anyways, it was a really cool lesson! She asked us where we were serving and we told her Angeles. She got really excited and told us that they had family there that weren't members. She asked us to try and find them, and teach them if we could. We told her we would try our best to help her! Anyways, we went on with out lesson and gave an overview of the Restoration (Ang Pananumbalik) and then shared a quick Christmas message with them. We had to translate our lesson into English for the daughters which was fine by us!! It was a neat experience and they Spirit was really strong as we talked about Christ being the "Pure love of God" as talked about in 1 Nephi 11:16-23. When Nephi is shown the baby Jesus in Mary's arms, he can FEEL that pure love, and instantly knows the meaning of the Tree of live. The Angel didn't have to tell him. What a cool insight!!
I didn't forget about e-mail today! I got on this morning, pretty early and there wasn't an email from you yet so I decided I would wait until later. Sorry for making you wait. When I write letter's to Kelsey, we have a designated "Urgent Q's & A's" section where we list all the things we want to be sure the other person responds to! Maybe you could try something like that. I've also heard that there have been a lack of post to my Mission blog lately... maybe you could look into that for me? =) Anyways, all is well here. Another week down, and only a few more to go! I get more and more excited the closer it gets. I have more excitement for departure than I do for Christmas! You asked about travel plans... we haven't gotten any word on that yet. It seems like most of the previous districts got theirs the week before the left. Don't worry, I'll let you know when I know. I spent most of the morning writing letters back to everyone that has sent me things this week. I received some letters from Sarah, Karlee, The Packers, and Jamie, along with a care package from Grandma, Tara/The Jackson family, and you. I was surprised to see a package in the mail from "Tara Jackson." Inside was a stocking stuffed with candy, as well as there family Christmas card. I'm not sure if the stocking came from Tara or her whole family so I send Thanks to all of them. I wrote a quick note to Dad, Hunter, and Jamie that should be coming soon. I figured you could have the e-mail, but I'll probably write you another letter this week telling you about Christmas and what not. We will be having a GA on Sunday, they just haven't told us who yet. They like to keep everything under wraps here. I'm looking forward to having a few days that aren't the usual routine. They have things planned for Christmas Eve as well. I feel like I type and type but don't get much down on the page. I'm sorry for that!!.
What else did you write about...
Oh, we did recieve 20 new elders into our Branch this week. We haven't seen them much yet though because they haven't finished their first 3 days, and they all live on the 4th floor of our residence halls. We all live on the bottom floor (thankfully). One of the new Elders is actually my old district leader's brother (my district leader was adopted into their family). I think that's pretty cool that they'll both be going to the Philippines!
One more cool thing I want to share before I go is an experience from last night. Last night we had TRC which is where we teach volunteer members that know Tagalog. They are usually just BYU students. That's what we expected going in, but to our surprise we had a Filipino Mother and her two daughters. They live here in Oram. Anyways, it was a really cool lesson! She asked us where we were serving and we told her Angeles. She got really excited and told us that they had family there that weren't members. She asked us to try and find them, and teach them if we could. We told her we would try our best to help her! Anyways, we went on with out lesson and gave an overview of the Restoration (Ang Pananumbalik) and then shared a quick Christmas message with them. We had to translate our lesson into English for the daughters which was fine by us!! It was a neat experience and they Spirit was really strong as we talked about Christ being the "Pure love of God" as talked about in 1 Nephi 11:16-23. When Nephi is shown the baby Jesus in Mary's arms, he can FEEL that pure love, and instantly knows the meaning of the Tree of live. The Angel didn't have to tell him. What a cool insight!!
I'm glad to hear that everything is going well at home. I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas. I'll be thinking about you a lot on Christmas eve and day! One of the things I'll miss is staying up late and playing Wii with my brothers. Staying up playing Mario is a tradition almost as old as building the fort itself! If I really wanted to, I could make the bottom bunk a fort for myself since my companion sleeps on the other bunk. We still don't have roommates. Our old Zone Leader left a few weeks ago with Elder Fisher and Elder Hubble, and they called another one after, Elder Shaw and Elder Frishnick. Elder Shaw actually came out on a mission earlier and went to the Philippines but had to return home because of some issues. He's back now, and also pretty fluent in Tagalog, so that helps our branch. He's in one of the other branches that came in at the same time as me. There's three of our districts that came in together.
I love you all, and can't wait to hear more from you soon! I'll try to quickly check my email later tonight!
Mahal kita!!
I love you all, and can't wait to hear more from you soon! I'll try to quickly check my email later tonight!
Mahal kita!!
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