3 October 2015

Already October!

President and Sister Reeder have been moving all week.  A new Mission Home has been built next to the Canaman Chapel (Stake Center) and they are finally in it as of today.  Things were being moved from the old Home on Monday through Wednesday.   They spent Thursday and Friday nights in a hotel in Naga and have finally moved into the new Home today.  We had them over to our humble apartment last night for leftovers and then we were at their place today with dinner provided by Sister Hoopes again.  It was an effort to help them out with all they have going on.  The new Mission Home is very nice but we all miss the old one already.  The old home is actually bigger but it also has an outside annex which is used to sleep missionaries who come in for meetings and to also hold meetings.  That is no longer available and all meetings will have to be held in the church next door to the new Mission Home.  Missionaries coming in for meetings or going home will have to stay in hotels or with other missionaries as space permits.  It is a lot of change for everyone but more especially for the Reeders.

The other change that is happening is that the church next to where we live is going to be torn down and replaced.  That will start sometime in December or January so we are told.  It has been decided that the annex at the old Mission Home will be converted into the meeting house for Sunday meetings and the Mission Home will be used for offices and classrooms.  We will stay where we are but there will be construction all around us.  We just hope they leave us some room for parking the mission vehicles.

Two Elders from the office came home on Wednesday night
after being out all day moving things from the old Mission
Home.  Sister Hoopes invited them in for left overs.  They
seemed quite grateful.

In reading from the Book of Mormon last week in 2 Nephi 33: I was touched again by his words.  This is one of the last things that Nephi writes to his children and to us "as one crying from the dust".  In verse 2, he writes that "there are many that harden their hearts against the Holy Spirit that it hath no place in them...and cast away many things..." It is so clear to see that it is always us who pulls away. It is not that the Spirit leaves us as much as it is that we push it out and won't allow it a place inside of us.  It comes down to what we really want. Let's strive to push out our defiant attitudes rather than the Spirit of God.  We do that by humbling ourselves and praying that the Lord will help us to open and change our hearts that there may be place inside us for the Spirit to dwell.

We went to Iriga Zone Training on Friday.  This is a picture of the entire zone and some of the pizzas that were ordered for lunch.  We enjoyed being with them and seeing so many of the new missionaries who just arrived the week before. They all seem to be doing well.


We started English testing again on Monday and will be busy for the next 4 Mondays with these tests.  Some days will be very large.

That is all for this week.  If you want to see a review of our lives in the Philippines, read the Letter to the Perry 6th Ward which will be posted here later this week.