well everyone hello. i read your letters. and then i looked at the time. so the ones i did respond to and the ones i didnt im sorry ha. next week ill get there earlier.

 as far as how is the work here im still workin hard. its a good thing that the lord doesnt jusge our efforts in an area by the choices of others... but im stilll working hard ha were having some struggles with people getting busy that used to be super legit and all that fun stuff. but it gives you a great chance to go and find other people that want to listen too. 

another one of my mission buddies is going home this week.. and the others are all winding down also. the ones that were 6 weeks (1 cycle) ahead of me when i was new are all going home early which means in about 2 and a half months my batch will be the senior missionaries for a long time. thats kinda cool to think about. rashes are going away (man what a relief) so thats good. as for other things im learning how to cook pretty well im happy about that. im enjoying the work and im super rushed right now so ill be more interesting next week. i love you all ! elder landeen

Allen wrote a short letter to Mike and I instead of a longer general letter, but there was a part I wanted to share with you. I had told him about my lesson this week in Gospel Essentials and some of my thoughts about the topic and this was his response:

 

anyways... thats my favorite thing to talk about is the atonement. geffrey r hollands talk "the loneliest journey ever made" is probably the best thing i have found about that. the thing that i never understood before which im starting to see more now is the whole part oft the atonement that helps the innocent. were saved from sins but were also strengthened in trials. "footsteps in the sand" is a great one there. we never seem to recognize the help we are recieving in the moment but when we look back almost always we are able to recognize how much help is really there the whole time.

i can remember when i was really little... i dono if was 10 or how old... i do remember though it was before you had your operation on your first knee when your knees were doing the worst.. and i remember you laying down in bed because they hurt so bad.. and i remember praying in my room that god would make my knees hurt unstead of yours.. ( its interesting to me the small memories that i do still have and others that i cant recall for the life of me ) the prayer wasnt answered the way i expected it as a little kid, but things have worked out. (: your still hurt and that hasnt seemed to change and i dont know your feelings about that but one thing that i have kinda felt about the savior and the atonement... is it has seemed to work kinda like this for me. god wants us to learn and grow more than he wants us to be comfortable. and since this life is all about learning.... learning christlike attributes... not very often does something big and miraculous (like a blessing that miraculously takes away the trial). it can and does but not very often. ive found for me that if we compare a trial in life to a long walk, the atonement isnt going to drop a car off so we can just drive to the end... but i feel like christ will come and walk with us so we arent walking alone. didnt take the long walk away, we are still walking but we have the comfort of company. and then if the time comes that we've hit our limit, thats when christ will carry us. think about life if we always got cars to take us to the end of our problems, things the savior said like "go the extra mile" and how he carried his own cross... would have a lot less meaning for us.

 

 

Allen has an amazing focus on the things that are most important. I appreciated knowing his experience as a child and the faith he exhibited on my behalf.

 

Mike and Paula

ill tell you about my fun experience this week. new years was good but i have a full body rash.. and i mean head to toe. its on the mend i didnt take any pictures because my memory card has had problems since last week so sorry you wont get to see it but it was bad probably the ith\chiest thing ive ever had before. and they have these caterpilliars here that are super colorful with long hairs they when you touch them they have like poison or something in their hairs that itches like crazy. i have a couple scars from them. ill come home with skin looking like i have cancer ha ha. but thats okay. 

i only have one short thing i wanna add in here that i read this morning in 1st nephi about the characteristics of nephi that i find pretty cool. here in 1 nephi chapter 2 verse 16. nephi after he heard the things his father said he didnt just believe he. he had great desires to know of the mysteries of god FOR HIMSELF and he didnt just accept it, he sought his own confirmation. he saught to find out if what he heard was true, he asked in faith, and the spirit softened his spirit.

di we have that same great desire? i mean nephis faith is great we all know that but he was an ordinary person, laman and lemuel also listened to their dad and heard the things nephi heard... what was the difference? we can say faith and thats true but the thing that impressed me was his desire. in alma 32 he starts the seed as a desire to know... and nephis great desire is to know the mysteries of god. i thought something interesting because my whole life i had thought that those kind of things dont really happen to us... but then i thought about the true desires of my heart for my whole life and well i couldnt say that my great desire of my heart was to know of the mysteries of god.. what if that was THE desire of our heart. above all else. and we acted accordingly. i think the world would be a different place to live in if that was how it was. 

anyways thats it outa time. love you all till next week.... elder landeen.

hello everyone. dad said it perfectly when wrote "your probably having a hard time thinking of things to write since we talked to you just last week" and totoo iyan (thats true) ill do my best to make this as interesting as possible. 

before you read this letter i need you to do something. log onto lds .org and look up the mormon messages an unexpected gift. no cheating okay really watch it before you continue.

okay so now that youve felt the spirit that i did ill continue.

          i think a lot about my life. about when i was young wondering what it will be like when im in high school and can drive, to when i was in middle school and my biggest problem was the first time i thought i loved someone (ha ha) and then life started the get a little more serious. of wondering if i was going to go on a mission, or if my friend will be sent back to juvenile detention. then more real to when one of my closest old friends told me she was a heroine addict and had thought about ending her life. 

         

         i think about the pain our choices cause the people we love. about how such small decisions (it seems small) can have such big consequences on our personal lives and more importantly on the lives of our loved once. satans really good at convincing that people should accept you for who you are and they shouldnt be upset with you, theyre getting upset for no reason. and thats the hard thing about it is most of the time, the people making the worst choices deep down inside have no intention of hurting anyone. there are those few that have fallen so ldeeply into sin that they are past feeling... but at least from my experience the path of sin has an interesting way of pulling us in slowly until before we know it the only thing that seems to "excite" or "interest" you are thing that hurt you and the ones you love but like i said before satan is good.

        i also think a lot about how parents somehow keep loving kids no matter how many times they loose trust, or how much the innocent people in life are always the ones that seem to be hurt not deservingly... and then the hardest to understand is how the savior could love us so much to experience it all... not deservingly.. i think it says it best in isaiah 53. and the thing that always seems to get me is how the very people he loved and served and prayed for and came to save are the ones who rejected him. and he knew it, and knew he would be betrayed, and knew he would be mocked and left alone.... and he did it anyways.... 

       and now were here and we have our own trials and times where we feel alone. and even though they arent the same as the saviors at some times we feel like its more than we can handle. think about those times... whether its by your own choices, the choices of others... and then think about that video. the unexpected gift.. think about all the little things that we have because of the savior. about the way that even though we feel along sometimes we are never alone. and in those times where we feel that way theres always somehow something... its not always big and i think more often than not they go unnoticed. but if you think back on the times that were the hardest... thats when the lord is the closest. i know thats true in my life and i could never express enough my gratitude for all of you and for the savior. and im completely convinced that its all true. that the savior lives and its not just a belief to make life better or an idea  to give us comfort but its real and tangible. im so glad im serving a mission i cant even express it.. this is the best i can and its kulang pa. 

anyways i love you all and i want you all to remember that if your having those same chillenges... remember where i once was and now am... because of the savior.

love you all...............                                                                                                                                                                                elder landeen

http://www.lds.org/pages/mormon-messages?lang=eng

hello everyone

its close to christmas and i think ill start out talking of our mission christmas devotional we had this past  saturday for bambang and solano districts (i know those names dont mean anything to you) it was held in solano and man was it good. it was good for 2 reasons for me. first of all was president carlos spoke, and this was the first time ive heard him speak my whole mission to anyone other than missionarys. it makes you remember how good these mission presidents are at preaching the gospel. he talked about something that about ripped my heart in two. he started about talking about the life of jesus christ and then he talked about the circumstances of the saviors life, how he was born into a very poor humble family, and he didnt live a life of luxury... he didnt ride in chariots and horses rather he walked to where he was going.. and he eventually talked about the atonement. then he shared with us news about that 2 year old kid that went into an elementary school and killed 20 little children and his mother.this was probably the worst thing i have ever heard. he talked about how wonderful a thing the savior did for us and how even in the worst of circumstances like this tragedy... the savior made it okay when he accomplished the atonement. he then spoke to all the people and kind of boldly said now when you think about your lives and think why is this happening to me. why dont i have a good job or why do i have these trials or why am i not popular or why did this horrible thing happen to my family he said think of the savior, he experienced all of these things and he didnt do anything bad to anyone and ask yourself... am i better than him? 

what a question when your in a trial. am i better than him? 

next reason it was good was because during the closing song of i believe in christ they did something kind of cool where they had one sister missionary start the song by herself then slowly throughout the song as time one by one all the other missionaries (including me) stood up and starting singing with he. it was like one by one we were standing as witnesses and telling everyone there that we believe in christ. the spirit was very powerful and it was one of those moments where your mind races back through your whole life and every decision you have every made and then yu come back to reality and realize your on the other side of the world speaking a crazy language that used to sound like jibberish teaching and testifying about the savior and... well i think you get the point im trying to make.

im greatful for my mission, and for the savior, for a family that believes in christ and knows about the truth, that isnt blinded by the false doctrines of men, and for the heritage of faith that was willing to sacrifice all to follow the voice of a prophet. after reading moms email about when a prophet told all mothers to be at home im greatfull for parents that have the faith to follow the prophet. im greatful for grandparents and cousins that serve missions, and brothers that show me how to be a good man, and bishops that dont stop loving and counciling, for ward members cheering silently on the sidelines  and angels working on both sides of the veil, writing letters and helping when your weak. i could go on for a long time but i just wanted to say thank you for your love i feel your prayers, i think of you often and hope that in some way or another that the way the savior stepped into my life, the way he used all of you in the process, and the hope that i have because of it will have helped build your testimony in him. 

i want you all to know im not a better person because of what i decided to do in the past or what ive learned from it, im not a better person because i changed or stopped doing wrong things, and im not a better person from any decision ive ever made. im a better person because of the savior, because he made me better. because he changed me and because he loved me enough to send angels into my life to find me as one of his lost sheep.

i love you all.                                                                                                                    elder landeen

This week Allen sent some random thoughts to us again.  I took them and have pasted them in this email. 

 

its transfer day and im pretty sure my companion is getting transfered. thats kinda sad because hes been great. this has been such a rewarding 2 cycles starting with absolutely 0 and now,.. well were having much success more that i could have imagioned. i love it here im happy and i dont wanna come home ha im a missionary now inside and out.

i think the best feeling this week was i got a letter from sister deguzman from santiago and she told me her and larry and their kids are still active and they have a plan to go to the temple when they hit their 1 year which is in about 2 months. she told me that she doesnt doubt her decision or faith and she wrote her testimony in the letter. thats about the best thing you could ever hear as a missionary. dan mansiban is a priesthood holder and hes working with the missionarys. hes the miracle that confirmed past doubt that i was called here by a living prophet.

opening this area has been so great and its been a divine companionship. this past sunday was so great we had some less actives come for the first time as well as some investigators accept baptismal dates.

ive lost myself in the work to the best of my abilities and i've found myself in the process. its a great feeling to know who you want to be,.. what you want to be like how you want to treat others. and knowing you can do it.

we have banaue and thats cool but the rest is basically just bukids ( rice fields ) more bukids ha. and its exactly what i needed. i get to teach a humble hard working people that are straite out of joseph smiths time of religious confusing. i dono if you can imagine how it is here theres a different churst on every corner, with different missionaries from them stopping by confusing people, i cant even explain it just read josephg smith history and thats how it is. and im here telling them the truth with the spirit in the room telling them its true.

what more could i want?

 

He also send some pictures of the area he is in now.  I am attaching them to this email. He said they went hiking in the area and cooked their own meal - rice and hot dogs.  He said he's gone native - he hiked in flip flops!

Love you!

Mike and Paula

Allen's letter was very short this week.  Here's what he said:

 

this week was good im loving life. ah life is good. so good. i cant even say how things have been. i dont know how i will every come home...

im short on time so i wont be all that long with this email but just wanted you to know i was thinking of you.

Short and to the point, I guess. 

 

Love you all,

Mike and Paula