Elder Drake McFall: Week 83 – araw ng mga ama!

Kamusta Kayo?

I think first is to say thanks to each one of you who is a father! Never underestimate your role and ability to change the lives of those around you and the impact you have already made on countless individuals. To stay on that for a second, I also just think to say that don't think that your role as a father is just to those that are your own children, but there are many people to whom you can be father figure to that need your positive influence and righteousness.

If I told you we are still having miracles would you believe me? You have to, so I am not worried. I think Josephine is still our miracle with just how well she is doing. As we taught her this week we were able to really answer some good questions as we finished teaching lesson 2-Ang plano ng Kaligtasan at tapos nagtuturo kami sa Lesson 3-ang Ebanghelyo ni Jesucristo. Okay that is all the Tagalog you get. It is probably off a little anyways... haha I am working on it though! She is really just absorbing the teaching and she is understanding how this will change and affect her life. She has been sharing the gospel to all her friends and family back in the Philippines because she wants them to experience what she is going through. She is witnessing her life change, and she wants that for others. Pretty excited for her to say the least. Still just helping her work towards the 5th of July for her Baptism!

Another miracle would be we are really just starting to find some of those elect that are being prepared to hear the gospel. Remember in 1 Nephi 22:25 "And he gathereth his children from the four quarters of the earth; and he numbereth his sheep , and they know him; and there shall be one fold and one shepherd; and he shall feed his sheep, and in him they shall find pasture." Right now there is such a hastening from all corners of the earth for others to hear the message of the restoration and be given the opportunity to accept and act on the message. We are now teaching one family that is from Sierra Leone that have great faith and are willing to experiment upon the word. We will be going over there again tonight to teach more. We are giving a big focus on just allowing them to receive that witness and answer directly from our loving Father in Heaven. Although we can reason things out in the scriptures, that will not bring the same conviction to those truths as would a whispering from the Spirit. The other one, which we have set up for tonight, is a lady and her 4 kids from Ghana. We don't know too much more yet, but tonight we will! One more that I will mention is a brother named Laurent, from Cameroon. He met good old Elder Laceste, my old companion, downtown and they got talking and he wanted to learn more. We gave him a call and he wanted us to come over. We taught him the first lesson, man that spirit was strong. He wanted to come to church, but had to go up to work. But we gave him the address and he wants to go to church up in Dawson Creek where he will be working the next 3 weeks. We will see where it goes! Although it may not seem like much, we are being blessed with opportunities to testify and teach these truths, what more could we really ask! When we are given a chance to testify, the Spirit will then be able to help each and every person to know and understand these truths for themselves.

This last Saturday was really neat, we were able to attend this Filipino Independence day celebration that was held at the City hall in Edmonton. It was a bunch of just little speeches, dances, and other things. It was a great event for us to be out there and meeting a lot of different people. We were able to get some good contacts that hopefully will pan out in the future. I have really grown to find when you can find something that you can just enjoy with someone you are able to instantly connect and you then sharing your feelings and testimony of the Restoration is one that will flow so naturally, even with a stranger. That was a neat! That night we had our long awaited city wide Filipino Fireside that we had put together. It was held on the south side back in Millwoods. We had between 150-200 people come, a good chunk of non members as well. It was a fun night, tons of food(what do you expect with Filipinos), and just a good opportunity to make friendships. Another side note on that though, right before that started when we got down to the stake center it was a child of record baptism for the Olsen family back in Bearspaw, who I loved! Tons of the ward down there were at the church and so I got to chat with a bunch of them and catch up! It was amazing! I miss those people! They were like family to me, well when you are in an area like that it is kinda bound to happen! It was just so nice to see some old familiar faces and see how they were doing. I guess with that it was nearly the same with The Filipino fireside because it was city wide, so going back to when I was with Elder Laceste covering the entire city I was then able to see a lot of those Filipinos I haven't seen in a while and we were all able to catch up as well! It was just the greatest day!!

Life is good. I have nothing to complain about. I love you all! I was reading more of the general conference talks from this last conference and one that continues to stick out to me is the talk of Elder Richard G. Scott, entitled "I have given you an example". He talks all about how we can love others and by doing so that then allows us to be a part of their live, to change their lives. That coupled with the talk from Pres. Thomas S. Monson, "Love, the Essence of the Gospel", really just helped me think all about how we need to show an increase of love to those around us and allow that love to be given freely to others with no expectation of anything in return. We do things for others simply because that is what our perfect example would do. We do this because this is how we allow others to feel that love that God has for them. If you feel others have wronged you, think back to how many times you have wronged our Father in Heaven and yet he still continues to forgive you. We all need to be filled with a greater measure of mercy to those around us. I say this because of the experiences I am having with those I am working with here on my mission and something I am personally working on. If we can master this principle, we will be able to help multitudes of people in their lives and help them on their way back to their Heavenly Home. I am grateful for all of you back at my earthly home! Love you! Talk to you soon!

Love, Elder McFall

The Tags and flags!