July 28, 2014-- Email #40

July 28, 2014

Santiago, Philippines

Dear Family,

Sounds like ya'll's been having a lot of fun back in 'Murica. Well, I've been having quite of bit of fun myself, as always. Ya'll might be nervous that summer will eventually come to an end. Well, no four-seasons here! The only four seasons we have here is a flavor of Tang. We have hot, really hot, and wet. And it goes year-round. Really fun week. And yes, Mom, I've been able to use my music. I'll explain.

On Tuesday we had Zone Conference in Cauayan. All 20 of us in the Santiago North Zone were crammed in a little Jeepnee for the 2 hour ride. We had some awesome training from President and Sister Rahlf on the Restoration. I think we should never be fearless to tell people that Jesus Christ Himself is the leader of this Church, and that we can trace back our authority to Jesus Himself. It is an immensely important message that we shouldn't hold back. The best part is that God, our Loving Heavenly Father, is the one who gives us this knowledge by the Spirit, and that we don't need to depend upon the doctrines of men. Remember that. Remember that blessing. Always remember your Father, and pour your heart out to Him in prayer, that the truth may become clearer, and deceit more apparent. 

After the conference was over, we went into the mission office to stock up on pamphlets. Suddenly, it began raining heavily. It's typhoon season in the Philippines, so rainfall can come at anytime unexpectedly. We all had to hang out in the mission office for a while until the rain stopped. Some of the Polynesian Elders started doing some a-capella, so I joined in doing bass. We locked in perfectly. It was super fun. We sang all sorts of hymns, at the request of our listeners. Elder Lavalua said "Yep, anything you want us to sing, you got it. We're like a missionary jukebox." I like the ring of Missionary Jukebox. Hopefully we'll get together for future musical numbers.

On Friday I had splits with Elder Enuake. He is from New Zealand. He's a huge Poly, so no wonder he was a rugby player. He was offered a scholarship and place on a very nice rugby team at the same time he was filling out his mission papers. He said it wasn't much of a question that the mission was much more important. He's only been out in the field for about 2 or 3 months, but he's really awesome. We had a lot of fun finding new investigators in their area, and learning to understand his extremely thick New Zealand accent. They had some BYU devotionals downloaded on their flashdrive, so I watched some given by Jeffrey R. Holland. I learned some awesome things.

We should never look back. Of course, the past is what has shaped us into who we are, and it is important to learn from past mistakes, but we cannot dwell in moments already lived, whether painful or pleasant. We need to have greater faith in the things in store for us, than the things that have already occurred. We've had a lot of amazing experiences. We've learned a lot. We've lived, laughed, and loved. We've cried, begged, and lost. But we're not done yet. The fight is not over. Improvement and progression are one eternal round. We'll never be done. All we need to do is keep pressing forward, enduring to the end, and it will all be worth it. When the children of Israel were on the shores of the Red Sea, legions of Egyptians surrounding them, fearing for their lives, and Moses still not sure as to what they would do, many of them thought it might be better to just give up, and go back. But I have no doubt that Moses, with the relationship he had with God, knew for certain that "going back" in the sense of "giving up" was not in God's vocabulary. Moses knew God have given him power, so in a step of faith, feet probably already wet, and still uncertain of the exact outcome, he reached out to the sea. And it parted. 

As it says in D&C 8:3 "Now, behold, this is the spirit of revelation; behold, this is the spirit by which Moses brought the children of Israel through the Red Sea on dry ground." It's a gradual process, and often requires us to go through some difficult, seemingly hopeless circumstances first. But the epiphone will always come. It's waiting for us. Don't give up before it arrives. You've got a higher path prepared for you than that. It's the Kingdom of God, and I'd like us to all get there together. 

-Elder Kocherhans

Picture: Me and Elder Enuake got to watch a pig slaughter. There she is. I'm told it's illegal to post on facebook...? So yeah, use your best judgement. 

editors note:  (I'm posting a cropped version so you can just see Jordan and not the subject of the photo.  

 Ewwww....Pass the bacon...:-)

This is Elder Enuake with Mista' Pig.