Negative Results.

Dear Mom,
Yup, we all are getting old! Can't believe dad has finally hit the big 5-0! He shared with me some of the stuff that was on the card about how things were fifty years ago and I just couldn't stop laughing. Time really waits for no one, but rest assured, regardless of age, family stays the same and I'm glad that it will be that way for eternity.

This week has been a great week. We have worked our tails off. (I'd really like to research where that saying started.) I can't remember being this tired from working in a really long time. I love it. Every night it seems like I fall asleep before my head even hits my pillow. It's the best feeling ever, because I know we're doing missionary work right.

We started out the week with a great inspirational speaker during our zone meeting. It was a brother in our zone leaders' area that basically teaches people how to be rich. It's applicable though to anyone in any situation. His main point was that we all just need to learn how to master our minds.

He talked about something that is obvious and known by everyone, yet hardly practiced by anyone. He talked about how what we think creates what we are. And then he took us into some examples which really made it click for us. He talked about how we are missionaries. Why? Because a few years ago we thought of serving missions - and a lot of things that made sense that we just didn't realize.

I think the biggest thing that really reconfirmed a lot I've learned on the mission is how negative thoughts creative negative results. That's something my companion and I have really been focusing on - not giving way to the negative. We've been striving to nix anything negative in our lives, especially negative comments.

Assuming negative. Thinking negative. Being negative. That's the way that Satan loves it.

For example, instead of getting mad at a tricycle driver for trying to rip us off because we're American, we're trying to look at the deeper reason why - like maybe his family is really struggling to make ends meet and they have no food and need those few extra pesos to feed their family. Life looks a lot better when you don't look at it through a dirty window.

Just focusing on the good and thinking about the good has really taken a lot in changing how I live here. I thought about something yesterday in church. I thought about feeling and focusing on my imperfections - and when depression and loneliness - guilt and discourage all seemed to crown my hanging head, I thought about what the brother taught us the week before - negative beginnings create negative results. I thought that instead of focusing on my imperfections, it's better to focus on the things I do right. And if I amplify those things I do right - especially pertaining to obedience - than that will ultimately overtake whatever imperfections that seem to desire to define me.

Other than that, we've seen great things this past week, and not really had just a regular day. Yesterday we were guided in the middle of nowhere to find a less-active member in a house with a family of 10+ people who are just searching for a way to be happy. The other day, we helped a struggling kid at the age of 10, a member of the church who had been living on the streets, find a way home. So many other things that I wish I had time to mention. I think the best of all is seeing the growth in Emy that we've seen in just a week after her baptism. She has changed so much. Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, she was determined to work with us and share the happiness she has just found with everyone around her. Everything she shares, even without any previous training, is dead on. Next week, she'll be called as a ward missionary. We're so proud of her. Seeing changes in people like her and how much the gospel has helped her makes every minute of the mission worth it.

And just a fun fact - Elder Holland, probably the most talked about in the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, is flying out all the way to our mission to talk to the youth here about serving a mission. The fliers were made at church headquarters here in the Philippines and handed out to 20+ stakes here in Metro Manila. And guess who's picture is on that flyer?

Oh yeah.

Love,
Elder Corpuz