Editors note: I wanted to include all of this because it's just so...Jordan. :-) Let's just say, I had a good laugh this morning :-) The pictures... oh, the pictures..! :-D
This is how the email came this week...received in the following installments...
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(First email...)
Testing...
(one failed attempt to send a picture...)
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Mom,
I think I've got the pictures now, lemme try.
Elder Honeycut texted me and says my package has arrived, so now I just wait for an opportunity to get it. He says the charges will end up being 1200 something pesos, so like about 25 dollars or so? Speaking of which, I'm having trouble accessing my personal funds at the ATM. I haven't really used much personal at all until this point so I only realize now that there's a problem. International access maybe? Not sure.
-Elder Kocherhans
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(Several picture downloads later...)
They're working!
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(Several picture downloads later...)
My email might be a bit shorter but I need to send a lot of pictures.
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(Several picture downloads later...)
More to come... it's been a while eh?
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(Several picture downloads later...)
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December 15, 2014
Tuguegarao, Philippines
Hello Family!
I hope you enjoy those pictures. I'll get some more up next week. The time placement is a bit scattered... It ranges between the middle of August and just earlier this morning. However, I have great confidence in your contextual chronology skills; that you'll be able to figure out a rough idea of what happened where. It's not too weighty anyways. And speaking of the Skype call, what time works for you the best? I'm given some good flexibility with that.
Well, a lot of cool stuff happened this week! We had the pleasure of hearing from Elder Bowen of the 70. He came to tour the mission, teaching at Zone Conferences along the way. It was very educational. It had a lot to do with the Abrahamic covenant and how understanding it can help us live up to our full potential. When we were in the Pre-Mortal life, we were called to be among the great ones that would be sent in the last days, to aid the cause of our Savior in a dying world. As members of the Church, we have access to the blessings and powers of the Priesthood, which allows us to make the covenants not only for salvation, but exaltation. Sometimes, however, we sell this "birth-right", as you might call it, for a bowl of pottage. There was the possibility to falter, for the desire of worldly things, and we accepted that. It's one of the essential characteristics of agency. What we need to realize is that in order to be one of the few that are "chosen", we must be obedient. Many are called, but few are chosen. A.K.A., many are called, but few are obedient. We must love God more than Satan and his worldly power and dominions. That is how we gain the power available to us under the authority of the Priesthood. It is the right we own through the Abrahamic covenant, and if we hold true to it, we will be able to sit at their side, and obtain a Heavenly inheritance, including worlds without end.
Whenever we set goals and make plans, coupled with prayer, we are following a God-like pattern of Spiritual creation before physical execution. By planning, we set the spiritual blue-print for what we wish to accomplish and how to do it. Then, we execute that plan as closely as possible. Just as God created all things spiritually before He did physically, we should develop the habit of planning meticulously what we wish to accomplish, with respect to the agency of others(which really is the genius of the Plan of Salvation), and then to create it in it's physical form by carrying out what we had planned for. It's how we can become successful in life, and more importantly, how we can develop Christ-like attributes and continually work out our own salvation.
I had splits with Elder McCausland on Thursday. It wasn't as bad as I thought it might be. Heh... But really, we had a good time. We met two guys from Lebanon and Lybia studying at CSU. They were really cool! We talked with them for a while about the misconceptions people have about Arabs and Muslims, and the similarities between the Bible and the Quran. One of them told us a funny story about how strict the security at airports gets when he is there. One time, they brought out a dog to come and sniff them for explosives. His wife was afraid of dogs and started running away from it. The security held her down so the dog could sniff, all the while her husband yelling at them. He put it this way: "At that time, I wasn't very good at English, but the things I did know how to say were: 'Stop that!', 'What are you doing?' and 'What the #%&@'. At least, that's what I heard on the movies". Good stuff, haha. We invited them to church, and they would have come if there hadn't been a complication with the tricees in this city... Yay. Another reason that Tuguegarao Tricees are on my blacklist.
We had a service project on Saturday where we hauled rocks in sacks from a big field to a small construction site. Trudging through muddy jungle, hauling heavy loads... Needless to say, we felt very manly. We ended the service out by having Elder Rebojo climb up a coconut tree and getting us some fresh Buko juice. So that was delicious. Elder Rebojo is really awesome. I'm so glad we have such a strong companionship.
The DelaCruz home really feels like our home at Christmas. The Spirit is so strong there now! Sister Nida, the mother, was out of town this weekend, so we dropped by to visit Julia and Deo, the two youngest. When we came, we caught them in the middle of scripture study. Ah, what a great feeling! It's so amazing to catch your investigators keeping their commitments and living the way the Savior would have them! Like Elder Holland, I wish I can be caught doing something good when the Savior comes! I'm so excited for their baptism!
This is all I have time for today. Just keep keeping on, family! The God of Israel leads us! In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
-Elder Kocherhans
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