I should be writing more! Email from Mom (Danielle)

 August 29, 2023

I should be writing more often!  I should be journaling all of the amazing miracles I feel every day!  

I guess I will start with today and work backwards as far as I can remember!  We had a 2nd training for all of the Trainers & new missionaries in our mission.  We have missionaries that have been in the mission for almost 4 weeks, and missionaries that have been here for almost 10 weeks and even a couple of missionaries that have been here for 8 weeks.  I thought that it went well.  It was a crazy traffic morning so we got started a little late, but that's ok because I was able to see so many of our beloved missionaries. I also got to enjoy the prelude music provided by Elder Sinamban.  We have so many musically talented missionaries!  They really bring the spirit to our gatherings and meetings.  What a blessing!  I still get nervous when I get up there in front of 58 missionaries - but I think overall I did ok.  Sometimes I get a little off topic and feel like I don’t quite have the words I’d like to express myself.  But maybe I’m getting a little better.  My topic started with the missionary purpose.  So how do you go wrong with that topic?  Our purpose is to invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end.  I also lead the trainers in a discussion as M lead the new missionaries in a discussion in the other room.  I had some good questions for the trainers and they were the ones who taught me about training new missionaries.  After we came back all together, I shared a message on not comparing ourselves with others.  I had the perfect talk to base my thoughts off of - April 2023 General Conference talk by El. Vern Stanfill - The Imperfect Harvest.  I even used a few video clips.  One Bible video of the Savior & Peter and one new video just put out by the church with 4 Apostles talking about missionary service.  Lunch was ulam & rice - our missionaries can eat so much!!!  It’s quite amazing!   We had a meeting to go over a few things with the assistants before heading back home.  As we drove home M & I both realized we were hungry.  So we made a stop at Wendy’s for early dinner.  Because the missionary portal site has been down today we decided to take advantage of the slightly cooler weather and go for a bike ride in the neighborhood.  That was really needed for us both!  The sky was beautiful as we watched the clouds turn from that blue gray color to the pink.  It will be great to have a few minutes to focus on a few just daily life items for a couple hours and hopefully get to bed early to make up for all of our early mornings lately.

The Philippines is such an interesting country.  Usually M drives and I get to just look out the window at people.  I think the Filipino people are really beautiful people.  The children are so darling.  But it is such a different life.

Well - that’s it.  Part of a day in my life.

Love, MOM