Aug. 28, 2012

Pamilya ko!

It sounds like the open house really was beautiful. As I sat in the celestial room this morning I could not help but think about how amazing it is, and how one day I will be able to be there with all of you. I actually had a great experience with the temple this week. 

It started last night. We, in our last hour of class, at the very end of the day were learning about the power of the Holy Ghost in conversion. It did not start out all that great because..well! It was the last hour of the day. My brain was fried and I was just ready to be done. We watched a very great video on the spirit, and then we were supposed to role play. Usually, one of you acts like an investigator while the other teaches you the topic the teacher had chosen, and then we switch. This time was a little different. We were told we could either act like an investigator, or be ourselves. I asked kasama ko if he could be himself when I taught him. I figured it could be fun, and it would be a very new experience. We were also told that we needed to follow the spirit and teach whatever we were prompted to teach. Ok...this whole thing just got much harder. Kasama ko already knows so much, what in the world was I going to teach him? I decided to start of with a personal prayer and then go for it. We are told that if we have faith, and if we will open our mouth the Lord will give us the very thing which we should say. He definitely did that for me. I felt impressed to talk about the power of the spirit, and the ability to feel that in the celestial room of the temple. I wish I had time to tell you all what I said, but it was far too much, and honestly I can not remember it all. But the spirit was so strong, and halfway through I just started bawling. What I said ended up being for me far more than it was for Elder Hansen.

Mom, Ipinadala tayo ng Diyos sa mundo, upang matuto at umunlad. God sent us to earth to learn and grow. I definitely believe that and I have grown to love that over the past month and a half. I am loving being here at the MTC, and learning tungkol sa ang ebanghelyo. Learning about the gospel...It is incredible how the spirit works, and how it can take someone like me, who hated school with a passion, and turn me into something better. I wake up every single morning excited to learn something new. I am praying for each of you guys daily, and I love hearing that all is going well, and that everyone is happy.

Dad, it sounds like your lesson is going to be incredible. You are an incredible leader, and know so much. I always wish that I had you here to ask questions. I have so many questions about doctrine that I wish I could ask you. Maybe I will start writing them down and sending them to you in my weekly letter.

Everyone keeps being told that the grammer in their letters is getting worse as they learn more Tagalog. I just want to apologize in advance for having bad grammer. If you want to fix it you are more than welcome to :)

I love you all, I pray for you daily and hope to hear from you soon!

Elder Leonard

Another one bites the dust

Well! Another week down. I actually do not have much to say about this week. I guess it just was not very out of the ordinary. It had its ups, and its downs, its spiritual moments...and times when I ruined the spirit. I guess I will share this experience with you.

 

It goes back to sunday a week ago. Our district leader was in a meeting with our branch president. He finishes the meeting and comes back in our class, and tells us that the branch president wanted to meet with whoever was teaching the following week. (sunday two days ago) Well! I had taught the very first sunday here, so my hand was staying down....everyone else decided to keep their hands down too. Elder Kauvaka said come on! Someone, hurry, the president is waiting for you. Still, no one. So! I stood up and volunteered for kasama ko and I to teach. We walk in and everyone from the other districts in our zone that were teaching the following week was also in there. He just wanted to give us some pointers on what we could do to have a fantastic lesson. The topic was faith.

Sunday came around and kasama ko and I spent almost four hours studying together and preparing. We had what we felt was going to be an amazing lesson planned. About two hours before we were supposed to teach Elder Kauvaka told us that the guy over our Branch president, President Jenkins was going to be sitting in on it...oh snap! Now the pressure was on. Well, class starts and president Jenkins wanted to know what our district goals were. We explained them to him and he tore it apart. I guess they were not good goals because, "they could not be measured." Wow! Our mga guru (teachers) loved our goals. Well, I was already kinda annoyed with this old man, and then we started our lesson..we said one line and he took over. I sat there at the front of the room feeling like a fool. Who does this guy think he is? I spent all morning preparing. We ended up listening to him teach about faith in christ and what that really is, what it really means, on a deeper level. I was annoyed, so the whole time I answered his questions with a haha I actually AM smart attitude. Yeah, I was totally being cocky, and a bit immature. At the end of the meeting he asked kasama ko to bear his testimony...The whole class was crying, everyone except for me. President Jenkins left and everyone was talking about how spiritual it was, and how they learnded so much.

 

I sat there trying to figure out why it was that I did not have such a great experience. And then it hit me. I let my pride get in the way. I was not acting like the savior, i was not being humble. I missed out on one incredible, very spiritual, testimony building opportunity, all because this man, who has been around a lot longer than me, and knows far more about the gospel, decided to follow the spirit and teach us all something that we needed to hear. I was in a bad mood. I was so upset with myself. How could I be so stubborn and stupid?

 

kasama ko decided to help me out. He sat me down and asked me what was going on. Why was I in such a bad mood? So I explained all of this to him. He turned it on me and helped me realize that I learned something far more important. He helped me realize that this had all happened for a reason, that the Lord needed to humble me, and it was much better here than out in the field. I swore to myself at that moment that I will not let my pride get in the way again. Never again will I miss out on an opportunity to feel the spirit because I myself, was not following the spirit. I love kasama ko. He helped me realize my problem, and turn this whole experience into a positive one.

 

Well, pamilya! It sounds like the family reunion was fun, let Jeff know that he is in my prayers. I also want to thank all of you for the prayers, and for the fasting. I am not worrying about the language anymore. I am doing the best that i can, and the Lord will take care of the rest. He will bless me to know this language when the time is right. It is coming, I am able to say more and more every single day.

 

Mahal ko kayo. Ang Diyos ang ating, ama sa langit. Alam ko po na tagapagligtas si Jesucristo. Alam ko po na buhay si manunubos ko. Alam ko po na totoo ang simbahan ni Jesucristo ang mga banal sa mga huling araw. Nagpapasalamat po ako para sa pagbabayad-sala ni Jesucristo. Alam ko po na mahal po tayo ng Diyos. Alam ko po na salita ng Diyos, ang aklat ni Mormon. Sa pangalan ni Jesucristo, Amen.

 

I love you all. God is our heavenly father. I know that Jesus Christ is my Savior. I know that my redeemer lives. I know the church of Jesus Christ of latter day saints is true. I am grateful for the atonement of Jesus Christ. I know God is loving. I know that the book of Mormon is the word of god. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Another week down!

So! This week has been a great week, It started out with last sunday being fast sunday, and then some of us fasted again on tuesday, and then we fasted again on Sunday. So three times in 7 days. before my mission you could not have paid me enough to fast three times in one week. But it has been a very spiritual week. For some reason fasting and asking the Lord for the help that you need is just amazing. This last Sunday was a fast as a zone. We got together on Saturday night and knelt down, all forty of us, and fasted to help with the language. I can already see the improvement. The scentence structure is starting to make more sense, i am memorizing words easier, and to to it off, kasama ko at ako gave our first mensahe to our investigator Brother Boyet...without any notes!!!!!!! We talked about pananampalataya (faith) and magsisisi (repentance). It was not incredible, our Tagalog was very broken, but we were able to get our message across. And at the end i felt impressed to ask him "Gagawin po ba ninyong magbabinyag?" Or, will you be baptized. He said yes!!! So, we are having a "baptism" on September 3 for brother Boyet, and our other investigator said he will pray to know if the gospel is totoo (true), and if so he will be baptized on the 7 of September. Even though they are fake investigators it is still really spiritual and fun to see them progress. I can not explain how amazing missionary work is.

 

Well, i can not think of anything else big that happened this week. Except we hit the half way mark! Only four weeks till we leave? I think that is right, but you kinda lose track of time in this place. I really love it here though, the spirit is always so strong.

This morning was also really great. We went to the temple. For the first time since i received my endowments i did enitiatories, or however you spell it. It was actually really cool, and then i went and sat in the Celestial room for awhile. It is amazing haw you can receive revelation every single time you sit in there. I just can not get enough. And! We eat temple breakfast everytime we go. I actually had a cool experience there too. As i was in line to pay for my food the girl in front of me was paying. She is from Japan and knows less english than i know Tagalog, so you can imagine she is struggling. Well, she pulled out some money to pay for her food...problem. It was not american money. The guy was trying to explain to her that she can not use that but she was not understanding. So! I had the opportunity to jump in and pay for her breakfast. It took her a minute but she finally figured out what was going on. It was really great being able to serve. I am forever grateful for this opportunity to be serving the Lord and my "brothers and sisters." Oh yeah! and to make it better just before this whole thing i was standing in line, singing to kasama ko "have i done any good in the world today." Crazy right?!

 

Anyway! time is up, i will be sending home another letter, but dont send my card back yet, because there is a bunch more that i need sent to me too. I love you all, mahal ko kayo!

 

Signing out,

Elder Leonard

Week Three

Pamilya!!

It is insane how the time is just flying in here. I said i was going to send a letter home with everything else i want to say but i just did not have time to send it. I will send it off today with another letter about this last week.

I really only have time to share one experience this week...yes, it will take a half an hour to tell this whole story. So! On my first sunday here we watched a talk given by Elder Bednar here at the MTC last christmas. In the talk he spoke about what he called the "hostile phase." He explained this to be when an Elder wakes up one morning and is mad at the world. Annoyed with his companion, thinks the teachers are out to get him, does not want to talk to anyone, just all around a really horrible person to be around. And the only way to get out of this was by giving service. We all laughed at this thinking that even though he said it happens to everyone here in the MTC, it surely would not happen to us...right? Wrong! This last monday i woke up in the worst mood. EVERYONE was annoying me. My Kasama, Sister Schuhmann, Sister Walker, like everyone! And the worst part was, i did not care. I was ok with just being in a bad mood. This went on the whole day, and let me tell you, i know it was bad. I had to go back and apologize to a few of the Elders in my district for how i had treated them. Well i was done, i did not want to see anyone. I was in bed before ten...that is how bad it was. As i was laying in bed my Kasama decided to iron my shirt for the upcoming day. He was determined to help me be in a better mood. After ironing my shirt he looked in Elder Kauvaka's closet deciding he would iron one of his shirts too. We only found four shirts and three pairs of socks. We knew that his family did not have money, but we had no clue that it was that bad. I immedietely felt horrible. Both my kasama and i gave him two pairs of socks so that he would have seven total, and it still left me with more than i needed. He asked about the socks and we just told him that we had too many. He did not seem happy that we had done this, but he still wore the new socks the next day :) Well, he still only had four shirts. And not only that, but he is a pretty big boy. He is Tongan, and played line in high school. But! was offered a scholarship to UCLA to be a fullback. Anyway! He sweats a lot being so big so after wearing the shirts once, it stunk. We decided that we were going to get him a few shirts. We talked with Sister Schuhmann and Sister Walker and they decided they were going to help as well. It was going to be a sacrifice, but we were all willing to go in there and spend $20 each to help him out. He is the most giving, helpful, nice, incredible missionary i know. If you knew him you would do anything you could to help him. So we found out where we needed to go to buy the shirts.

We go in there asking if we could buy a few shirts for a guy. She gave us a slip and told us we needed to have it signed by someone here at the MTC if he needed assistance. We told her no, this was our gift to him. We were going to buy them as a gift to him. So! She called up mr mac and just like we thought, it was going to be $20 a shirt. We told her that we wanted three. She said ok and then just walked out of the room. It was a little weird, not going to lie. About five minutes later she comes back in holding a stack of shirts. With a smile on her face, she said that they just happened to have six of the exact shirt that we were looking for. The exact size. We were happy, but told her we only needed three. That is how many we decided we were all willing to pay for. She looked at us and said no, this is my gift to you. My jaw dropped and i just about fainted. I KNEW that the Lord was looking out for our amazing friend Elder Kuavaka. What are the chances? Six shirts in the very unique size that we needed? It was such a huge miracle.

We take them back to our room, in the middle of the day. We knew we would not be caught by him because everyone else in the MTC was in class. As we went to hang the shirts up we realized that none of us had the hangers to do that with. We walked out in the hall and saw that the door to another room was open. Puzzled we walked in and saw a few missionaries we had never seen before. I asked if they happened to have and hangers we could have. Without me even asking they gave us six hangers. Boom! Another miracle!

He has been very grateful to wear these shirts. After a few days we explained the whole thing to him, so that he could see how the Lord was looking out for him. I know that the Lord was looking out for all of us. Not only did it help him, but it helped me get out of my "hostile phase." I sat down for dinner that night and thanked the Lord for the many miracles that had happened throughout the day. For the first time in my life i cried while praying. I know for a fact that the Lord hears our prayers and that he cares for each and every one of us. We have all been placed in each others lives for a reason. To help build the kingdom of heaven, and to bring others, our brothers and sisters, unto christ.

I love you all and i am so grateful for everything that you have all done for me. Thank you for the prayers..keep them coming!

Mahal Ko Kayo,

Elder Leonard