"Singing in the Rain"

-We can Skype, I'll have to go to Lipa though. Let's do it at 10:00 AM on Monday my time.

-No more packages or letters ( His birthday pkg. sent in March hasn’t arrived yet)

-My new umbrella broke...I'll buy a new one at some point

-Thank you is "salamat"; My name is "Ako po si (Name); Yes is "oo" (You literally say o twice, in Tagalog there's no sound like moooooo with multiple o's

-Please thank GF for the awesome emails and advice. I'll respond next week when I have more time

Well it was a crazy week. Preparation Day came at the right time because I was so so exhausted! We had exchanges this week with our Zone Leaders, a training meeting in San Pablo for trainers and trainees, a baptismal interview, and a baptism! We honestly can't have a regular day here!

Our exchanges were good this week. I was here in Cuenca with Elder B. (Zone Leader). We had a pretty good time together! We only taught a few lessons, and we had nine appointments cancel on us in one day!. Ugh! No joke, I think we walked about 6 miles. On top of that it started pouring rain so our shoes and pants were soaked! If we had nothing to talk about it might have been the most miserable day ever but we made it pretty fun. 

On Thursday we had a "training" meeting in San Pablo for all trainers and trainees. The reason I say "training" meeting is because it has a dual purpose!  This is how the meeting went, the trainers went into one room with the Assistants to the President, and then the trainees (new missionaries) went in a room with the President. The trainers just talk about how everything's going, but President gets the real scoop on what's going on when he was talking to the new missionaries! these new missionaries spill everything to him!   Let's just say President learned a lot!. I'm so glad my companion and I are keeping all the rules!

During our meeting I think Sister Peterson learned that President Peterson's mother had just died. It was truly a poignant moment. After the meeting she took President into a room told him,  About 10 minutes later he came out, genuine smile on his face, bright eyed, and acts like nothing happened. Only a few of us knew what had happened, so to most everyone, everything was normal. I was truly amazed at his love for the missionaries and his ability to just get back to work.

Our baptism this week was awesome! It wasn't as smooth or as organized as I would have liked, but it was great. The brother getting baptized bore his testimony afterward, and is already talking about going to the Temple. His daughter has a baptismal goal date for June 2, and should be baptized with her younger brother. Their family looked so happy together. I recalled an experience in my first area, where we had an investigator tell us he wanted to be baptized, but didn't want to receive the Holy Ghost. We asked him why and he said, "I can handle the baptism of water, but I'm not sure about the baptism by fire!"

I read this week a talk given by a former mission president who's now a member of the Seventy. It's called "The 4th Missionary" and you can find it on the web. He say's there are 4 kinds of missionaries, and the 4th kind, is the kind we all need to be. I'll let you read it, but I'd like to share a quote from it that really struck me. He said, "The Natural man is an enemy to God. (the natural man is the part of us that wants to give in to the temptations of the flesh). Christ didn't come to torment the natural man; he came to drive the natural man away from us. " Woah...pretty strong. His point was, how often do we feel conflicted between our conscience and the natural man. Christ came to rid us of the natural man, and we can separate ourselves from the natural man. It's not easy, but we've been given all we need. He's given us the example and the way to do it, the Gospel. If we will follow him in all things, stand by him in all places, we will be able to conquer whatever may stand in our way. What have we to fear? The Lord is with us!

Love,

Elder Yost