11 March 2013

Magandang Hapon po!

Kumusta!

Sounds like a busy schedule for the new President and Sister Nay at the MTC! Haha. I am glad you now get to experience those devotionals on a weekly basis. You are now considered a lucky group of people! I didn't realize that President Nally is the new MTC President, he was a counselor when I was there. If you havn't yet, you will hopefully get to experience the special version of "Called To Serve" that his wife plays on the piano and involves everyone standing up partway through. I only experienced it a couple times while I was there, but every time it was super awesome and it invites the Spirit like nothing else. Hopefully you get used to giving those talks and training-but at least you usually know when you are going to be speaking, unlike the missionaries having to give impromptu ones. I remember having to do that once. Good times. But, after being out in the mission for so long, I'm just used to doing a lot of stuff impromptu now. And preparing for talks and trainings now is a lot easier than it was before. One of the extra blessings of serving a mission. :)

Just last Saturday Elder Villania and I gave a special fireside for the YSA here in Gamu (most of which are preparing to leave on missions within a year) about the Book of Mormon and how important it is in all of our lives, especially in their lives preparing to become missionaries, because that is the best tool we have to use while teaching. The Book of Mormon literally is the keystone of our religion. No wonder the Book of Mormon had to be published before the Church was actually restored in 1830.

It is definitely starting to feel like summer again here. Earlier today while I was washing clothes, sweat was dripping off of my forehead onto my clothes as I was scrubbing them down. The drips of sweat coming from the folds in the elbow and knees are always fun too. I can't wait to see how much hotter it gets in a few months!

President Carlos just announced today that the Church Missionary Department has changed its policy in the White Handbook regarding email restrictions, and now we are able to email all family AND friends, as longs as they are not in mission boundaries. So, that makes it quite a bit easier to try to stay in touch with people! Seems how I have about 0 free time to hand write letters to friends, this will be a great opportunity for me to actually write to people I haven't written or replied to in a long time. So, for my friends who are still reading these letters and want me to write them, send me an email so I can be able to reply.

Last week's Family Home Evening at the Lapitan family home was really fun. Seems how President and Sister Carlos came, along with the Assistants, it was quite a rare thing to have such a family home evening. But the 14 year old Lapitan sister gave a really awesome lesson about sacrifice, and even tied it in with how it is a big sacrifice to try and keep the Sabbath day holy and paying tithing. She was the one that even volunteered to give the lesson when she found out President was coming and spent quite some time before trying to prepare. She, along with her 2 younger brothers, are certainly going to be awesome missionaries in the coming years.

One of the greatest privileges of being a Zone Leader is being able to go on frequent exchanges with other Elders to be able to help train them, and most of all, be able to learn from them. Even though we all teach essentially the same lessons out of Preach My Gospel, it is interesting to see that every missionary has their own teaching style and emphasis on certain things. As part of the exchanges of course, it is also a great time to ask the missionary how they are doing and how their companionship is doing. This week while on exchanges, an Elder opened up many different concerns and problems about how he was struggling to be a good example and find the joy in the work. By no coincidence, what I read just a few minutes earlier in the Doctrine and Covenants in my personal study was able to help him out. One small example how the Spirit directs this work and helps all of us when needed.

Mahal ko kayo. Maraming Salamat para sa inyong support sa akin.

Ingat palagi!

Elder Nay

D&C 24:8