Letter #44 (June 6th, 2012)

Hey all,
So things are great apart from having to say goodbye to Elder
Dela Cerna and send him to Cebu for his final few days of the mission.
I'm going to tell about the last week before telling you what happened
this morning at transfer calls. So this week it has been raining with
same types of wind... but EVERY DAY almost. Same thins happened to me
and Dela Cerna except he had a umbrella which didnt do him very well
and i had a new raincoat which left my pants wet from the knee down
(cause philos are short...) luckily i had on my waterproof shoes...
all i need now are some waterproof socks to go with them... jejeje
Oh! forgot to tell you... Zambo is so primitive
that when it rains we lose power... every time it rains it brown
outs... it sucks!

After we had a farewell FHE (more of a FHAfternoon) we headed to
Dumaguete, I brought extra clothes cause I knew I would be there until
Fri waiting for me new companion. Elder Dela Cerna bought
us pizza for dinner and for the zone leaders as well and we had pizza,
soft drinks and ice cream (I bought the ice cream) for dinner. It was
great! then that next morning at 2am we put him on a bus to Cebu and
then headed back home to sleep. That day on Tues I worked with Elder
Ashdown the whole day. We got two lessons only that day but they were
really powerful lessons. WE watched the Prophet of The Restoration
DVD with one of them and she cried through the movie. You could see
that she could really feel the spirit from the movie and the life of
Joseph Smith. We had a ton of fruit for lunch... a whole pineapple,
bananas and mangos, with the left over ice cream... I have pictures
for the next emailing.

Then today we headed to a beach to have transfer calls and guess
what!... I'm training again! I have another anak! Elder Holley has
another apo! So I got no heads up about this like previous trainers
have these last couple of transfers... surprised jud ko! But I'm
excited to get the opportunity again cause I really enjoyed it the
last time as well (even though it was really hard). So I have to go to
Cebu again! KAPOY! So tomorrow afternoon I will go there on a bus at
2pm and then come back Fri night. Lucky I have clothes with me cause
the is no time to go back to Zambo to get any extra. So I'll be in
Zambo another 2 transfers hopefully all things going well, which means
my anak will be there for my B'day AND my 1 year mark (how lucky is
he!). Which means i can also really help this branch out a little
longer and see some more progress there.

Something from Elder Nelson... he taught us to not distract from the
Spirit. He explained that we need to be careful about the things we
are doing whether they will help us to focus and listen to the Spirit
or if they are going to make it harder for others to feel the Spirit
and harder for us to listen to and follow its promptings. I think that
applies to our everyday lives... we need to watch the things we are
doing that they allow us to feel of the Spirit to be guided in making
the right choices. If we are in situations which distract from the
Spirit, how are we going to know what the right thing for us to do is?

I have a short story about a man who wanted to build his own house but
didn't have quite the knowledge to do so. So he approached someone
about it a he said come with me tomorrow and I will show you how to
build a house. So the next day he went with this man and the man
pulled out a ton of blueprints and showed them to the man and said
"and that is how you build a house," and left him. The next day he
tried a different man, and this time the man said "sit here and watch
me" and proceeded to build a house, and when he was done said "and
that is how you build a house," and left him. Then the third day the
man sought out one final man to teach him how to build a house, and he
found a man who said "I can teach you how to build a house," and he
pulled out his tool box and held up a saw. "This is a saw," he said
"and you use this to cut your wood," and thus he proceeded to teach
the man to build his house.
Another important thing to teach is the why... the why is the most
important of all... WHY do you need to have ward council?... what will
happen and WHY if it doesn't happen?
That is something that has really been our focus here right now and
will be for a good few years. Helping the members to understand the
WHY of their callings.
So I hope that helps and that you can work things out...
I'll email you next week all the news of the new companion.
Miss you and love you all so much.
Elder Taylor Addison Cox