First off, congratulations to BYU for upsetting Texas on
Saturday. (Thanks for the detailed game
report, Dad.) I cannot tell you how
happy/shocked I was with that news!
(After last week’s loss on the road to Virginia, it seemed likt it would
be a long season.) Earlier today, before
receiving Dad’s letter, I sarcastically told Elder Armatage that I was, "excited
to see how badly BYU got destroyed by Texas." I could not have been more pleasantly
surprised. I’m glad to hear that BYU
shocked the world. I guess Taysom Hill
is the new Vince Young. (Wow, 259 yards
rushing and three TD’s. Amazing.) It sounds likt the BYU receivers need to
learn how to catch in the near future as teams are going to be all over BYU's
running game in the future. Anyway, we'll
talk about BYU football again some other time (next week?). I just couldn’t help myself today. It is a good day to be a Cougar - even as a
full time missionary.
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| Last District Meeting Before Thursday Transfers |
So about my "legacy." It relates to our quest to find a meeting
house for our ward. We went to the exact
spot where the bishop told us to investigate for a possible temporary chapel,
and there happened to be a nice building that we could use on that exact
spot. We were taken through the building
and were shown all of the rooms, and it looked perfect for sacrament
meeting. We told the bishop about it and
he came right away to look at it. After
some discussion, the stake president was involved and wanted to know the
price. There is an apartment right next
to the meeting house, too, so that would've been a perfect place for us to
live. We left that day very excited for
what could happen, but then the bishop texted us a couple of days later telling
us to find another meeting house, because the price of the rent was too
expensive. Dang! That was so
disappointing, but we think we found another possible meeting house that we
located while teaching a new investigator.
The Quest for Legacy is not over yet!
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| Jordan & Elder Biggs say their mission goodbyes |
The first part of the Legacy is finding a lot more people
to teach. So that's what we did all week
in the Lord’s vineyard: prepared the soil and planted seeds. We found a new family this week, so hopefully
they have some potential. I was reading
Jesus the Christ this week about the Savior’s Sermon on the Mount and His
parables, and there is one parable that Christ taught about planting. It wasn't the Sower or the Wheat and Tares,
but it was another one like it. I forgot
what it's called, but it's only the Book of Mark. The parable is about a man who plants a seed,
nourishes it, and then goes away to plant some other seeds. Meanwhile, the seeds that he left began to
grow. Then the man returned and
harvested the fruit from the tree. This
parable means that when we plant a seed and nourish it, we usually don't know
if the seed will grow or not, but if it does grow, someone will come and
harvest the fruit. When we plant seeds
of the Gospel in people's hearts, we sometime's leave with sadness or other
mixed feelings, because we don't know whether or not they believed or accepted
what we shared. But then somewhere down
the road, they'll have more experiences from people sharing the Gospel to them,
and then they will accept the Gospel, grow and bare massive fruit. The first person that plants the seed often
leaves a profound impact on the person.
I have experienced that already in my mission. The people that we baptize always seem to
remember the first missionaries that taught them and never forget their names. Just a cool thought to think about as we're
planting seeds of the Gospel in people.
The power and reward in missionary work comes in the teaching and
testifying by the Spirit. We cannot
control how agency is exercised by others who hear the gospel. However, we can control whether we cultivate
gifts of the spirit and testify with power of the Holy Ghost. When we are led by the Spirit, we are serving
the Lord with great success and have every reason to rejoice.
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| The zone rocks its jerseys in Cabiao |
So we got zone jerseys this week. We went to Cabiao on Saturday to play
basketball with our new jerseys, because the elders there had a baptism that
day, so we went as a zone to play there. Saturday was Elders Revillo and
Agrabio's last full day in the mission field before going home, so it was also
the last time that I would likely see them in this life. We took a lot of pictures and then waited at
the chapel for Elder Biggs coming from Arayat for their investigator to be
baptized in Cabiao. It was also the last
time that I would see Elder Biggs, because it was his last day, too. Elder Biggs is the first Elder from our batch
to be going home. It was really cool to
see him, too. We had our final lunch and
then said our last goodbyes to Elders Revillo and Agrabio. I'll miss Elder Revillo. He was definitely one of my favorite
missionary companions. With Elder
Revillo and his batch gone, we are now the oldest batch in the mission as of
this coming Thursday with our last transfer starting. (Yes, you read that right. Last transfer. This transfer's already over, so I'll expect
my last transfer to go by even faster.)
Later that night, we went to the chapel for Sister Javate's (member in
the ward) farewell party. It was a
really fun day.
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| Jordan & Elder Revillo say their mission goodbyes |
Well, I guess this is it.
Transfer Day's on Thursday, and I'm 90% sure that I won't be
transferring. I don't want to transfer, anyway.
I just want to finish my mission here as we complete our Quest for
Legacy (haha). We are engaged in a great
work. I love it. I can hardly believe my mission is so close
to being over. I have loved serving here
in the Philippines as Elder Royal and I am grateful to still have a little more
time to do some good. I hope everyone is
doing well. (Also, I hope BYU can beat
Utah. I’m sorry, but that just had to be
said.) Have a great week family! Mahal Kayo!
Elder Jordan "Working For a Righteous Legacy” Royal
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