HELLO!
Kumasto mo, everyone!? I hope everyone is having the opportunity to be as happy as I am. This week was so awesome! I don't even know where to start. I guess Tuesday Night Devotional would be appropriate.
As most of you know, we had the amazing opportunity to hear from a living Apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ. Elder L. Tom Perry!!! AHHH.
So, as usual, there I was sitting in choir practice before the devotional. Brother Eggit (the director guy person that waves his hands in funny patterns) was telling us about Elder Perry. The first thing he said was something like, "Let me tell you something about Elder Perry. His favorite word is enthusiasm. He is the oldest member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and his favorite word is enthusiasm." He went on to define enthusiasm as "being filled with spirit".
So, naturally, my ears perk up and I really want to test this hypothesis out. Choir comes and goes and the devotional is about to start.
Elder Perry walks into the room. Strike that. Elder Perry basically trots into the room and before taking his seat on the stand, runs over to his son who is sitting on the front row with his family and gives him a hug.
Okay pretty impressive -briskly walking/trotting. Next. JOGS up the steps onto the stand! Hahaha what is going on?? Let me just reiterate something with a little more detail - this man is 93 YEARS OLD. I already love him.
Elder Perry when on to talk about companions and why they are so important for us... not only for our physical safety, but spiritually as well. If we are following all of the mission guidelines pertaining to our companions, we won't ever have any problems. He talked about the scripture in the Bible that says something like "in the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established." I think its 2 Cor. 13:1…
Anyways, I'm sorry. I don't know if this is a bad thing or not, but the main point that I got from his talk was not ANYTHING he talked about. That's why I love the Spirit. It can teach us things that were never even said through quite feelings. As Elder Perry was talking, you could just tell how much he loved the gospel. There were so many times where the mic would get all distorted because he was yelling. Not out of anger - just because he is so enthusiastic about life and sharing the gospel. WAIT….. SO AM I!!!. I cannot even begin to explain how excited I am to devote my time to the Filipino people. Which brings me to my second point.
As I'm sure most of you are aware, The Philippines were just hit with one of the biggest typhoons (if not THE biggest) in the history of... ever. Thousands of people have lost their lives and I think I just read that about 700,000 were displaced - meaning loss of homes. This is an incredibly hard time in the Philippines. I could not be any more grateful that I am the first batch of missionaries that get sent in to serve. These wonderful, kind people are in desperate need of help.
The first thing that Elder Perry talked about on Tuesday, literally the first words out of his mouth, was about this devastation. He told a story about the missionaries in Tacloban (where the eye of the typhoon was). After a few days of not knowing where about a third of the missionaries were, finally the last 24 were found. They all had tickets to fly out of Tacloban, but were unable to board the plane because of others paying such high prices and taking their seats.
As they were standing out in front of the plane, wondering what to do next, a United States Air Force Sergeant approached them and asked what they were doing. After describing the situation, the pilot looked at the missionaries, then at his cargo jet behind him, then back: "Let's get out of here" he said.
I know that this was no coincidence. This was not by chance. This was a miracle. Every single missionary in the Tacloban mission is safe and accounted for. Elder Perry said that Tuesday morning, the Quorum of the Twelve and First Presidency of the church met in the Salt Lake City Temple and just expressed their thanks to our Father in Heaven for about an hour for watching out for and protecting His missionaries. I am so humbled and grateful to know that we are prayed for by our Prophet Thomas S. Monson, his counselors, and the Twelve Apostles.
Alright well I am out of time, but I want you all to know how grateful I am to be here right now, at this time in my life. I know it's where my Father in Heaven wants me. I love this Gospel. I love this work. And I can't wait to enthusiastically share it with the world.
I love you all! I'm sorry this was so long - it seemed appropriate. Thank you for everything! I'm leaving on Monday!!
18 NOV 2013
Leave SLC @ 4:58pm
20 NOV 2013
Arrive at Manila @ 4:00am
Leave Manila @ 7:00am
Arrive at Cebu @ 8:15am
Byeee!
Kinasingkasing,
Elder James Ryan Jacobs
P.S. If you want a good study topic, Alma 32 has been the topic of some of my studies this week. If you don't have a Book of Mormon, get one:)
