Week 50 - July 15th, 2019 (Santa Teresita, Philippines)

Hello everyone! It's great to have some time to write this week- it has been a great past week, we are having a great time here in Santa Teresita. The branch here is awesome, we have been able to go out with a few of the members this past week, and I've pretty much had enough time to explore the greater part of the area. We have one part of our area, a little neighborhood, right on the beach which is really cool- they are all fishermen and just live right on the sand. We also have some great families that have accepted the invitation to follow Christ's example and be baptized in these upcoming weeks, and we are excited to work with them to make this happen. Elder Pacapac is awesome- he's on his last cycle, and wants to work hard these last weeks, and we are having a great time. We went out to Santa Ana as well this past week for some interviews, it was so beautiful there- our zone here is absolutely gorgeous. Hope I get to stay here a good long while.

Mission Conference

We had a really cool experience yesterday- we were teaching a new family, and I wasn't sure what I was going to teach- we didn't really have a lesson plan as we had just met them, but they had some questions and basically I just was able to witness the promise in D&C 84:85 that "[the words] shall be given to you in the very hour that portion that shall be meted unto every man". We began teaching about light- an analogy about artificial, man-made light bulbs as opposed to the sun. A light bulb can illuminate a space in the dark, but its light only extends so far before darkness overcomes again. The sun, on the other hand, a creation of God, overcomes all darkness and brings what we call 'day' ("sun" and "day" are the same word in Tagalog, interestingly enough). If we seek for the light of a bulb, or in other words, if we are satisfied with a lesser portion of light or knowledge, that is what we shall gain. But if we desire to have the glory of the sun, we must seek it out piece by piece, through the grace of Christ's sacrifice. That's how His Gospel works- we start out small, with desire or faith alone on Christ and His power to give us His light. Then we act- we repent- in order to receive a greater portion of the light. Then, if we so desire, we can add to it by covenanting with God to receive His Spirit, more of His light- all in the spirit of eternal progression- it is such an awesome and true concept. We gain what we seek- if we seek good and seek from divine sources. So let us all seek knowledge, by learning and also by faith, that we might reach that state of life that the Father and the Son seek to share with us. I love you all, have a great week!

Love,
Elder Griffitts

Mission Conference