The Office

Mom and Family,

Thank you for the sweet messages! I wish I could do something special for my birthday today but we have no time.  We're really busy and things are a little stressful but I really do love it here. 

To give you a feel of the mission life here in the office, it's literally like the show "the Office." We have this mission couple, Elder and Sister Thuraman, they're from Idaho, and I've been getting pretty close to them. They have a couple of granddaughters lined up for me when I get home. The church is true.

Elder B is my companion and we're doing great. We're both opening the area and both are new assistants. Elder B is really good with computers and I do well in the training's. So we work well as a team. It's been a bit of a struggle to balance working in the area and doing stuff in the office but we're stilling having success in our area. I feel like my teaching and Tagalog has really improved. 

Last week we had a meeting with President and discussed what the mission needed. With the new year and our mission is doing well, President wanted a new fresh and new outlook of the mission. That's why he called 2 new AP's. We talked for over 4 hours and brain stormed ideas. I want to bear my testimony of revelation. It's true and works, if we are worthy and willing to submit to the Lord's will. President heavily relied on my opinion because of my success in Bangued, making the worst zone to the top baptizing zone in our mission, in such a short amount of time. I honestly can't take any credit because I'll I did was prove my nothingness to the Lord. I prayed and fasted many times and I loved the missionaries in my stewardship. And the Lord poured out His blessings. But I learned some things along the way of how to make a zone work more effectively, and gave some idea's for the mission.

After our long discussion, we came up with the theme, "Cleanse the Temple." What this means is we needed to clean the "inner vessel" before we clean the "outer vessel." This entails a lot of different components but the main focus is on obedience and other things. When I say obedience, I don't mean following all the mission rules, It's focus is on the healing that comes from being obedient, and that's what our mission needs, is healing. The two zones that I've been over are the best zones in the mission and the most obedient. Before you put the band aid you have to clean the wound. Before we eat dinner, we wash our hands. This is what we're trying to do. Keep us your prayers. 

 I have I mentioned that I love being a missionary? Well I do. I love this gospel. I love Jesus Christ and I show my love through my righteous living everyday, at least I try my best everyday. I know families can be together forever, because of the Priesthood. I can't wait to hug mom and dad. I can't wait to beat up Charlie and other punks in Maddie's life. I can't wait to play the piano with Sydnie and Emyrie dancing. I can't wait to watch PG-13 movies with Donavan and show him how to do the butcher. I can't wait to sit on Brennan's face. But before I do all that, there's work to be done. I love you all! 

Your Valiant Missionary,

Elder Strader

Assistant to the People!

^that's my motto haha