I've Already Noticed Those Feelings

This week has been absolutely crazy. As I look back now, it just feels like a blur. Here's a quick look into what we did this week. Monday-Prepared for MLC and zone conference. Tuesday-Had a meeting with all the senior couples about transfers then flew out to Palawan. Wednesday-zone conference in Palawan. Flew back to Manila. Arrived at around 11 pm. Thursday-woke up at 4:30 to head to the office and get the rest of MLC ready. Started MLC at 9. Afterward, took missionaries to the airport. Then, we returned and met with president to work on transfers. Friday-Began preparations for transfer week. Saturday-held a new trainers meeting in the morning. Finalized transfers in the afternoon. Sunday-attended our two wards, finished some special projects we've been working on to help the mission in the quest to become master teachers. There you have it. That's what our week looked like. It was awesome. I couldn't love life more. I'm learning so much and enjoying every second of it. 

Now for the good stuff. We met with our boy John this last week. He's the man. He's really starting to embrace the gospel. We watched the Restoration video with him and then talked with him about some other stuff. For some reason we felt impressed that we need to help him recognize the spirit. That's exactly what we did. We began to discuss what the spirit is and how it speaks to us. We encouraged him to really focus on how he feels when he's at church, when he's praying or reading the Book of Mormon. He stopped us and stated. "I’ve already noticed those feelings. I wonder if that's the reason I always want to meet with you guys and be at the church. Whenever I’m here I feel different. I feel warm and welcome." That was amazing. That's exactly what you're supposed to feel. John truly gets it. We also had the opportunity to share with him last night. We were at a member’s house and we shared a Mormon message about the Atonement. We then shared some other thoughts. Afterward, he came up to us and stated, "That was a really good speech!" hahah speech. He's the man. He's going to be baptized one of these days. 

Quote for the week: "The very essence of leadership is teaching." One of the things I like most about where I am right now is I have the opportunity to teach. I have the opportunity to teach those that aren't yet members about the gospel and I also have the opportunity to share with missionaries. This last week, we taught during zone conference, MLC and the new trainers meeting. It was great. We taught for an hour in zone conference, an hour in MLC and about 30 minutes in the new trainers meeting. It's amazing how the Lord teaches you new things as your teaching. Another quote that I like is this: You don't really own something till you can give it away. In other words, you don't really know something until you can teach it. It's not enough just to merely know something. We need to know it in and out. We need to know it so well that we can share it with anyone that wants to hear it. 

We had the wonderful opportunity last Sunday to sing in sacrament meeting! I forgot to mention it in my letter last week so I have to put it in this weeks. All the missionaries in our ward sang an arrangement of Joseph Smith's First Prayer. It was really nice. We had a member of our ward play the flute as well. Oh man, it was great. It directed everyone's attention away from our horrendous voices. Gotta love the flute.  

Well, that's about it for this week. I'm just going to video one of our days so you can really understand what goes on here. It's so hard to do it justice over text. I guess I’ll end with a little spiritual thought. We will never be able to earn exaltation, but because of our Savior, we can qualify for it. I'm so thankful for my savior and his perfect mercy. I know that he lives.