Week 9

Kumusta po kayo pamilya ko!?

Excited ako para sa Philippines. I am almost ready to go! I am just finishing up some laundry today and then I need to pack it up and then clean my room. I am in great shape time wise. It was tough getting sleep last night. I was just thinking of how drastically different my life is about to become. It is so exciting and scary at the same time. I will be so glad when these next 30 or so hours are over and I am actually getting to do what I've been wanting to do for six months now. Isn't it crazy to think that I got my call 6 months ago today? It seems so far away now. The language has just been moving along in leaps and bounds for all of us. I hope I will be able to communicate well with natives when I get there. Thank you all for the letters this week. It is so nice to have all of your support. It really does mean a whole lot to me to receive so many encouraging words and to hear what others are up to.

I will call home at like 6:30 LA time. I think that is what you said. I will double check.

So this week the streak continued! We had David A Bednar come and speak to us. We set a definite record with four apostles in a row. He gave a powerhouse of a talk too! Man, he is awesome. He spoke about the individual definitions and the relationships between doctrine- principles- and applications. He said that Doctrine always answers the question of "Why?" Principles always answer the question of "What?" and Application always answers the question of "How?" He said that WAY too often we focus on solving behavioral problems with an application solution. Like an example was this family that would bake a cake on the first of the month and give it to the home-teachers whenever they got there. If they waited too long the home-teachers would just get a moldy cake. While this scheme or gimmick is clever, it does not change the attitude of the home-teacher. When they get a new assignment, they will just go back to cramming their assignment to home-teach at the end of the month. Rather, we need to determine: "What doctrine, if understood, will change behavior?" If we can do this then we will be so much more effective. We need to search the scriptures for doctrine that if the person understands, they would not dare misbehave again. It is powerful, no? He said that our "schemes or gimmicks" are not enough. He even went as far to say that we are being prideful because we think that our innovation or creativeness will be more effective than the Lord's true and everlasting doctrine. He said "it is like relying on the arm of flesh." He likened this to teaching, church leadership, parenting, anything. He said this phrase like 15 times so you know it is important "The Doctrine is always the answer." That is what he entitled his talk too.

So I am so happy that I got to see all 4 of these apostles. Pretty incredible, eh?

Well I need to get going and pack up. I will call tonight! I can't wait to hear everyone's voices!

Alam ko po na totoo Ang Simbahan na ito. Ako ay misyonero para sa simbahan na ito. Ako ang tagapagligtas ng Diyos at mahal ko Siya! Kung susundin natin ang mga kautusan Niya, magiging tayo mas ligaya at magkakaroon po tayo mas kagalakhan at kapayapaan sa ating buhay. Pupunta ako sa Pilipines para maglingkod sa lahat ng mga tao doon. Maglilingkod ako sama buong puso at tunay layunin. Sana maririnig ng mga tao ang aking mensahe. Mahal ko kayo at Nananalangin ko sa inyo araw araw!

Ingat kayo! (okay these Google translations are really starting to crack me up)

Elder Lowry