Hey Mum and Whanau,
It' has been a pretty good week, super busy, but at the same time super fun. I'm doing fine and no sickness but I just need to try and catch up on some lost sleep. Thanks for the very lengthy email and pictures. Its great to hear that everything's going well back home.
One of our main purposes here in Mindoro is to help grow the Church. President DeLaMare understands the state that the church is in and he has put so much trust in us to be able to set up and strengthen the church while we are here. It has been such a great learning experience for me to know how a Ward/Branch is supposed to function and the different problems that arise on a Ward/Branch level.
We have been able to participate in regular meetings with the Branch Presidency and have established a great trust with them through talking, having family home evening at the Branch President's house, giving service and working super hard to build that trust between us and the Branch Presidency members. In our weekly meeting we help in training the Branch President with the different responsibilities that he has to fulfill. He is doing well but a lot of time is taken up in the training and meetings that we haven't done a lot of proselyting work as missionaries.
We keep moving forward because we have to strengthen the leaders so that they in turn can strengthen the rest of the Branch. It is truly a privilege to help in this great work and I am learning so much.
Anyway's, we had our zone activity today and that was sweet! We had district meeting in the morning and then we went out to eat as a zone. Later we went to the beach and played volleyball then we started with the program we had planned for everyone. The plan for the activity was for everyone to get to know the different cultures within the zone. For example, we have missionaries from many different places in the Philippines and then all the foreigners - some from Canada, Samoa, Tonga, New Zealand, Hawaii and a lot of American's from different States. The Samoan's sung a song, some of the Filipino's danced, the Canadian's explained the differences between American's and Canadian's and then for New Zealand, I sang a song and then I did the haka. I used the t/shirts you sent me with the map of NZ on to give an overview of what's in New Zealand and talked a little bit about the culture. It was so funny because after I did the haka everyone was silent. I think they were scared! Haha! But it was sweet and it really reminded me of home and Church College.
It's so good to hear that the family are all doing ok and that Josh (Elder Solomon) is doing well on his mission. How's Jordan? Teaching the gospel, especially the plan of salvation, you learn about how important families really are to God's plan and how hard Satan tries to pull families apart.
I am so grateful for this opportunity to serve and for everything I am learning. It truly is awesome.
I love you all, I love this work and I look forward to the 10 months I have left.
Elder Chadderton
P.s. Jiamer as a boys name for Danii's baby!
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