Philippines. No Photos. Don't Need Em. Good Stuff!

October 27, 2014

(Mommy note:  I love how each week his English gets worse and worse.  Means he's learning the languages quickly over there in the Philippines!) 

So....sorry but I dont have any pictures for you this week. My batch mate is using it right now so...next week lang. :) Sorry for missing you! We had a awesome Zone Activity before transfers. It was the Missionary Olympics. (My district won.) It was way fun! But we didnt get done till about 2pm here which is way past midnight over there. So...yeah! I hope everything is going alright. I have indeed been getting some mail though! I don't know how much I actually get though and if some is just missing or you forgot so I hope you are saving them all. Ill send you my weekly email so you can know what up though. Its been very interesting week. I finally got your spill on Elder Bednars talk or book or thing. It was very good! I am going to look into it some more. So next time we talk it will be November....then December....then Christmas....I am looking forward to being able to talk to you all! My english is downright terrible though so dont be laughing at me. Ummm....Not too much is new this week. I love you so much as well! All of yall! For you information. I have no idea when I can get on the cpus. I try to get here but we have had a bunch of activities lately. I don't think we have one next week so we should be able to chat next week unless an emergency happens. I doubt something will though. Anyway, floods are fun! Playing frogger with real frogs is fun! And its all fun. Im hoping to pick up fishing here too! We shall see how that goes though. We can though! Its not bawal! Love ya!!

This week was a very strange but pretty fun week! I am finishing up my training now which is amazing! It seems just like yesterday since we got here on the island and now we are leading our areas. The week started off with a District activity in Lapaz B. We all got together around the ocean and played games, made amazing food, and just enjoyed eachothers company. It was way fun! Then Elder -------- got sick. He was incredibly sick for three days so we did not teach a single lesson for those three days. But very interesting, we got one of our recent investigators back! He had a baptismal date of the 25th of October but did not pass the interview due to a small problem with the Word of Wisdom. He was rather upset and decided that he no longer wanted to see us. This is not the first time it has happened to us. But! He is the first to return. He actually found out where we lived from a member and brought us a little bit of food because he had also heard Elder ------- was sick. (He is fine now) He completely apologized for saying what he did and wanted to come back. So of course we were really happy and we are teaching him again now. Super awesome!

Thursday my companion got better and we went back to work! It is always nice to be outside and working! Firday my companion went down a bit again but it was only a small problem. Then the fun started. The last few days my companion and I have split. Elder ------------ with one member and I with another. I was with two people, Brother Mark, a recent convert to the church, and Brother Jarod, a 14 year old teacher in the Ward. We had a ton of fun! I learned a lot of new words and grammar from them. We taught a less active family named the ---------- family. They used to be very strong members but have recently all together stopped. We taught them about the Temple, (a personal favorite lesson) And the power ofthe sealing power. But we need to be worthy to go to the temple. They have not been sealed together as a family yet. We committed them to go to church on Sunday and they said that they would....they didnt. But I feel like that lesson was a big step toward them coming back. I am very excited to see if we can help them gain back their testimonies. Lastly was kahapon, Sunday. We got up and immediately went to work. We again had splits so we could cover more ground. It was that night we had the biggest spiritual experience. It was at the -------- family. Brother ------------ wife passed away not too long ago. We went to the funeral and all. We went over and visited him for the benifit of his son. His son is a RM (returned missionary) but has gone inactive. His name is -------. We all sat together and started with the basic conversation and I was trying to think what lesson we were going to teach Brother Louie. I had planned to teach the restoration and about the Book of Mormon but it just did not seem right. I then had the impression to teach the Plan of Salvation. I laid out the little pictures to show the what the plan is and then we had a brown out. Basically that means no power for a while. So Brother ----------- got a bunch of candles and in the candle light we discussed the Plan of Salvation. The Spirit was there. I loved it. We talked about where we all came from, what is our purpose here in life, and the best part, where we can go after this life! We shared our testimonies, Brother ------- and I and we were about to leave when Brother ------------- said to wait a minute. He then with tears in his eyes thanked us. Since his wife had passed away has been very lonely and had forgotten exactly where we all go after this life. He then told us that he is now at peace knowing that his wife is no longer in pain and is waiting for him. He then told us that he would like a weekly visit from us and to continue teaching him about Gods Plan.

And how glorious is that plan! It is so perfect. And so full of love. We have no need to fear what happens after this life! As long as we follow the Savior of us all can return to Him and partake of a fullness of joy! I am so thankful for the Saviors atoning sacrifice for all of us. Without it we could not progress. It is what redeems us from the Fall of mankind. I am forever indebted to Him for that.

Well, I just want to thank you for all you have done for me and those around you. We all have a purpose in life. Stand tall, Stay firm. And hold on to that rod of iron. Kabalo ako nga kabuhi si Jesu Kristo, nga polanga ka sang Dios. Kag kun kita magsunod ni Jesu Kristo, magbaton kita walay katapuson.

Elder Rubow