Week 45 - June 10th, 2019 (Dingras, Philippines)

Some of the youth at church

A warm summer's greeting to all of you! It's great to be able to write to you all this toasty day, I hope you all are enjoying the start of vacation. We've had a great week here, somehow we live in a perpetual state of every day being hotter than the last, but life continues. Anyways, school has started again for everyone here, so we're back into the year and everyone is getting ready to start planting rice. They have to wait until the rain gets strong though, as they have to flood the fields in order to plant. So lots of people are resting right now, waiting out the rain, which is good news for us because we've got a lot of people who have down time and want to talk. We've met with some super nice people this past week, so generous and thoughtful even though we just met them. That's something I admire hugely about these people here, their capacity for kindness even in hardship. We've had like 5 different people we are teaching give us big bags of mangoes when we stop by, they just love to give what they have. I have much to learn from them. We have this one lady we have been teaching from Cali, a barangay in our area, who just came to church this last Sunday, and she is just so sweet and always welcoming to us and we are really excited for her and her family, but she is just one example of the goodness of these people.

B-day of sister Jonah

I've also been thinking a lot about miracles these past couple days, and what they are and how we get them. Sometimes I overthink miracles, but really they are simply events and opportunities that we cannot understand because we don't know the processes behind them. But God knows, because He is the Creator and Organizer of all processes. For example, modern medicine is a miracle by the standards of just 100 years ago. Even now, for I certainly don 't understand it. But in that same category, modern-day miracles are just as possible, but they function according to our faith, our belief in these higher processes. In other words, they function and are brought about according to the heed we are willing to give to commandments and advice from God that we do not fully understand. That's why obedience is the first law of everything. If we want the impossible, or in other words, a miracle, we have to live  our lives in a matter wherein we are expecting the impossible- doing all we can to follow the instructions of One who knows better than us so that these higher processes may be brought about in our lives. The chief of which being the change that comes as a soul draws close unto Christ, and is reborn in Him through repentance and baptism- of all the miracles, I can't think of one greater or more long lasting than the change that these truths bring about- the Gospel and Atonement in action. So miracles are possible- and quite probable- if we are willing to live after His laws, after His manner of everlasting happiness. So I hope you all see some great miracles this week from your wonderful living. I love you all, have a great one!

Love,
Elder Griffitts