Hey Mum,
First things first, "HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!" Have fun on your trip and know that I love you and I will pray for you.
How is everything going? We're doing great here in the Philippines. I continue to love it here in Mindoro and am still enduring the intense heat. It is great! Thanks for the emails and pictures. Please send all the uncles and aunties my love because I love them all and I'm so grateful for all that they do for me and for you as my family.
It looks like Uncle Rana is healing well and you can tell he has dropped a bit of weight. Please give him my best and tell him to, "Magtiis hanggang wakas" (endure to the end).
One of the things that I have learnt here in the Philippines is that we all struggle to magtiis hanggang waka or endure to the end. It is one of the principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ and for many it is the hardest to keep. That is one of the reasons why there are so many less actives here in the Philippines and in the church worldwide because they don't have a strong foundation and so they struggle to magtiis. One of the hardest things to see here is when a whole family becomes less active because of the weaknesses of others in their family. Really sad so you can see we need to have a foundation on Jesus Christ and continue to nourish that foundation and make sure that it is strong, supported and matatag. The basics, however simple they may be, are soooooo important in every family. If those things are taught and practiced in the home, then families will over come trials and not suffer and they will not fall away from the Church.
I love this work and my eyes have been opened to the things that I must do for my family and the importance of, "the small and simple things". I am so grateful for you and how you taught our family these things. I didn't know how important they were until I came on my mission and saw what happens to families that don't have their foundations upon Jesus Christ. I love the gospel of the Lord and am grateful for the opportunity that I have to share that. One of my favourite songs that the Moleni Brothers sing is, "Give Your Heart." I know that Jesus Christ gave everything he had, even his own life and all he asks us to do is follow him by keeping his commandments and magtiis hanggang wakas.
Well, now that the serious part of my email is over, I hope you enjoy the pictures. We had our Zone activity today and we went to a Resort in a place called Calintaan. It was on the beach as you can see in the pictures we played volleyball, had a swim (haha, jokes) and had a feed. It was an awesome activity filled with success and that is why this email is a little bit later than usual.
Also, I don't know if I told you, but as missionaries we held a training workshop for the auxiliary leaders in our Branch. It was focused on accountability which in Tagalog is, "Pananagutan." It was sweet and the leaders seemed to really enjoy it. We had fun teaching and we were all, "Edified and uplifted."
The mission is amazing and I know when that time comes I'm really going to miss it.
I love you all heaps az, heaps az and I pray for you always and I know that the Lord is helping you. Maraming salamat sa lahat ng inyong ginagawa sa akin habang dito ako. nararamdaman ko and inyong mga espiritu at pagmamahal araw-araw. ingat kayo at magtiis hanggang wakas.
Elder Chadderton
P.s. I still haven't received your package but I hope it comes this week as we have interviews this week with President DeLaMare so hopefully they'll bring it over.
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