7 May 2012

EEEEEEE!!!

Hi Whanau & Mum,

Thanks for the emails and birthday cards.  It has been another great and super hot week here in Mindoro.   I mean, "Super hot!"

Thanks for all the Skype details and also for the email and postal addresses for Elder Stebbings and Elder Solomon.   I've got to write to them soon.

Yep the big one year mark has now past and I'd like to say its smooth sailing from here on in, but that's a joke as the work must go on and there is still a lot of work that needs to be done to help grow the church here in San Jose, Mindoro.   We have weekly co-ordination meetings with the missionaries and on Sunday at Branch Council the missionaries are invited to stay and give their input (fyi... the missionaries don't usually stay for the whole Branch/Ward council). It is awesome to be at these meetings and President Gabriel is lucky that he has 4 sets of missionaries assigned to his Branch.   We are here to help grow the church and that is what we are doing. 

Mum, I am just as excited as you are for the Skype call.  I was thinking how this will be the last call until Christmas then after that I will call you on my birthday (as that is what President is allowing me to do because I will be home just before Mother's Day next year), then 3 weeks after that I will be able to talk to each of you face to face.  Wow!  They say that the mission is the best two years and that is sooooooo true.  I'm just sad at how fast the time is going here and on the 9th of May I will have one year until I come home (that's my release date). I know it's going to go so, so, fast.  

I am in a place in my mission where I can express myself in Tagalog and say just about anything and the people understand what I am saying and that makes it easy to build relationships with the members which is great for the work.  I am grateful for the gifts that the Lord has given to me in speaking the language.  I look at Elders that have been here the same amount of time as I have and see the struggles that they are having with the language.  I'm not perfect but I know that the Lord blesses those who follow his council. I am so grateful for that. 

The work has been good here.  It's a lot harder than in the Mainland but we're still able to help the less active members come back into activity and having 4 companionships in the Branch really helps the work to move forward. It's awesome. 

I am going to attach some more pictures and like I said last time a picture paints a thousand words.  Oh, and the white stuff isn't snow its salt, and it's really heavy when there is a lot of it  -  super heavy!

I love you heaps and look forward to our Skype session on Mother's day!  WOOHOO!

Love you Mum and family.

Elder Chadderton