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Friday, June 24, 2016

Laoag Week 95

Hello Po Francis Family, 

Everything is going great. I had a fantastic week this last week and I had some interesting things happen to me when we were working. Some things that I really liked this week - we taught this less active tatay name Tatay P. Mamasig and we focused our lesson on family and temple sealing and really explained to him how family is the center of the gospel and how families can be together forever.  We shared Helaman 10:7 with him and talked about being sealed together as a family and and we really opened him up and he started to cry and he testified to us about how important the gospel is in his life and he is glad that he became a member of the true church.  We will keep working on him to build up his testimony and try to get him active again. 
 
 
So that was a cool experience that happened this week.  Also on Thursday me and Elder Gabuyo went on splits with two of the members and I worked in Lataag, one of our far areas and while I was out there I was getting rejected and yelled at by Iglesia Ni Cristo members.  I had some people say some mean things to me but I stood strong and my testimony of the gospel is getting stronger every day.  I told them I know that our message was true and I would not sacrifice two years of my life if I  did not know it was true.  Some of them listened to what I had to say and that's when I gave my testimony about the gospel and how it brings joy and happiness to our lives, centering it on Christ and his Atonement. I had some of them really thinking and interested in our message, so that was a cool experience that I had and the spirit really took over and guided me and told me to stand strong and to not give up. 

I read a good talk from last general conference by President Monson.   I really liked when he talked about Choices and he had two quotes that really stuck out to me and this is one of them.  "The choices we make determine our destiny."  I really liked this quote because it makes me think the choices we make here on earth will require what will happen to us after our life and for me as a missionary the choices that I make here on my mission will determine what will happen after my mission. So we always need to make the right choices and use freedom to choose the right way and we will see the blessings that Heavenly Father has for us. The second quote was  "May we ever choose the harder right instead of the easier wrong." I really took this to myself also and even some of the harder things that are in store for us or the hard things that Heavenly Father has in store for us are usually the rights things for us and the simple easy stuff is usually wrong and can lead us into doing things that we should not be doing. Here on earth we have two paths we can take the right path which will lead us to happiness and peace in this life or the wrong path can lead us to strange paths and into the darkness of the world. 
 
 
Something else I really liked in his talk is when he talked about Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. He really had a good point I liked and he said that when Alice came to a crossroad with two paths before her and each stretching onward but opposite directions. Then she is confronted by the cat and Alice says to the cat "Which path should I take". The cat answers back to her "That depends where you want to go. If you do not know where you want to go, it doesn't matter what path you take." So I really like what it said and then President Monson said unlike Alice we know where we want to go, and it doesn't matter which way we go, for the path we follow in this life leads to our destination in the next life." I would like to focus on this principle here.  We as members know which path we are on and which one we need to take back to our Heavenly Father, but we have obstacles that can lead us away or distract us from our destination.  When we have strong faith in Christ and put our trust in him we will be guided in this life and on the right path to our Heavenly Father. 
 
 
So that was some of the spiritual things that happened to me this week and I feel like even though I  am closer going home I am enduring to the end,  and it is still hard and really hot but it is absolutely worth it and I will never regret making this choice of serving a full time mission. I miss you all so much and love you all so much too and hope you have a great summer.  I hope you are all safe.  I am praying for you always and can't wait to see you in 10 weeks. Mahal na Mahal ko kayo at ingat po kayo palagi at Patuloy kayo manalangin sa diyos para sa tulong nya sa inyong mga pagsubok at tukso at patuloy lang kayo magbasa sa book of mormon malamanan ninyo ang mga salita ng diyos at anong dapat ninyong gawin na makabalik sa piling ng ating ama sa langit, at patuloy lang kayo magsimba para sa kapayapaan at kaligayhan sa buhay po ninyo. 

Mahal ko kayo
Elder Francis 

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