5-21-2012

Hello Family,

 It sure was good to Skype last week, but I think for Christmas I would rather talk to you one at a time haha it was kind of crazy.

So right after we stopped talking on Skype, me and Elder James got a text from the APs and It said that I was going to be transferred! 

So now I am in Ilagan, Elder Galang is my companion and he is 1/4 American (his grandpappy is a GI) we share an apartment with the Zone Leaders, and my companion is a District leader, I guess president Carlos is trying to get me to shape up haha

You are in luck this week because I have kept a list of things that I want to tell you so that I wouldn't forget! 

So here is my list of cool things

Brother Pete, He is this American that lives in Tuguegarao and he loves the missionaries, he also used to be a cook on a NAVY ship so he shows his love to the missionaries by cooking delicious food in mass quantities. He also has really cool fishing stories.

In my new ward there is this member that actually lives in downtown Salt Lake! He just spent his vacation here and now he is bringing his whole family to America. I got to talk to him for a little bit and he told me about all the cool things happening in Utah. 

Now I would like to tell you more about the people, I hope you dont mind that I keep up this list form thing, it helps me write more.

The people are incredibly nice

They are super easy to talk to, a lot of the times I can just go up and ask them their name, age, how big is their family, and then talk about the gospel

They are friendly, they always say hi, and good morning, day, evening.

When they see Americans they Shout out "Hey Joe" or "Americano" sometimes its annoying

When we share the Restoration with them and ask if we can teach them more they usually say "Next time" but it usually means they don't want to. they are just to polite to tell us that they aren't interested 

There is also what I like to call the "Ambitious Drunk." its common for the older men here to come home from work and just get hammered, and then they see us and tell us how they want to change their evil ways and just completely turn around, but then we go and visit them when they are sober and they don't want anything to do with us, but that's agency for ya 

There are also the people that invite us in to teach them just because I am American, haha in my last area we were in this lesson and I was in the middle of bearing my testimony about Joseph Smith and the Lady we were teaching just pulls out a camera and snaps a picture of me haha she said she wanted to tell her friends that an American visits her haha

So now about my new area, out neighbors are members and they have a washing machine and they let us use it! no more raw knuckles for a little while haha, Also our apartment is above a motorcycle dealership! Talk about tender mercies of the Lord haha And Remember how we share the apartment with the ZLs? well good, one of them is Elder Gloria, who was also my trainer! and a super cool kid and the other is Elder Oliver from Filmore Utah and is also a super cool kid...so yeah that's about it (oscar from the office)

So now I want to talk about this analogy that I thought of, although I wouldn't be surprised if it has been used by an apostle before because we tend to think alike hahaha 

So Imagine that we are back in the day where if you wanted travel somewhere you had to take trip on a ship. The place we are coming from in this little analogy is of course the preexistence and our destination is the Celestial kingdom, and so our life here on earth is the journey on the ship from on place to another. As members of the one and only true church we are aboard a unsinkable, Iron clad vessel. Captained by the Savior him self, and our prophet is the navigator. This vessel is also fitted with a rudder, a keel, and sails so that It can make it to our destination. Now as for the people that are not on this ship of ours, we might find them on a ship with no sails, or one missing a rudder, some of their ships have holes in the hull and will eventually sink, we might also find them clinging onto a life raft, or life preserver, and unfortunately we can also find these people swimming relying on their own strength to make to there destination.

Now back to our great unsinkable vessel, everyone on the ship is a member of the crew, and all of us have a job to do(callings) and we must all do our part, in fact that's all that the Captain asks of us. And no matter what our job is, it is important to the whole crew.

As for us missionaries, they are the dive and rescue team! just like Kevin Cosner ahah they dive into the depths to rescue people and bring them on board. 

The greatest thing about this ship is that its destination is sure, no matter what storms come it remains on course, we just need to stay on the ship, and do our best, and when those storms come we need to make sure we don't fall off back into the depths.

I love this gospel and I love this Church, I love the Book of Mormon. I am so grateful to have a knowledge of this gospel. I know it is true, every bit of it! 

I love you all and Thank you again for your love and support.

Elder Proctor