Nagulat Ako - The End of the Island (14)

Nagulat ako means I was shocked, like surprised.

Well ladies, gentlemen, friends, and family. I have left my paradise island , leaving behind a home. A place that became my home. I fell in love with everything about that place. My beach-side house, the jungle mountains, the quiet oceans, the white sands, my sweet Ford truck who I named Liway-way (Lee-wai-wai) the small cities, the kind people, the simple living, the chill attitudes of everyone, my incredible zone mates, who just made life easy by not failing and rather just being way cool and hard working. I became so close with them, we are tight friends, I'll party with some of them post mission for sure. I love my investigators, especially the Evanglista family, I love my old companion Ambes who made life a breeze. I love the work, the area, everything. But God has plans, and the one for me is to leave. Sucks, but, at the same time I'm excited. I know for sure that there is something bigger, a greater lesson to learn, we won't ever grow if we don't ever change. and sometimes that change has to be our circumstances or environment. Well... let me just say...this is definitely a huge change in circumstance.

Transfer day, I seriously had just about no idea. the day before I slept over in San Pablo at my bro's house, Elder Vandermyde, (cause it takes 2 days travel to get from the island to the mission home if you need to be there in the morning). And he and Elder Hanson told me I was probably going to Lopez, as in pretty sure. Now Lopez, from what I've heard, was the tail end of the mission. Super super far away, dirty, muddy, crappy water, lame apartments, hard areas... just the way I like it. I had heard good and bad things from Matt Park, mostly good, they said it is a lot like island life on the mainland. Which would be sweet considering a transfer into a major city would be really really hard for me. So sounded pretty good all in all.

So transfer day came, and guess what. I was the very very first one called. "Elder Mace from Gasan Marinduque is transferred. your new companion will be ELDER TREBAS in Lopez!"

Man, I wish you guys new how much I love Trebas. He is one of my tightest friends in the field. Like best friend tight. We got so many post mission plans and sweet adventures we've had in the mission. It's freaking ridiculous. He's only the 2nd American comp I've had, and we will probably spend Christmas together in Lopez. Oh my heck I am soooooo excited! Getting paired up with a great friend is going to fire me up, and give me some of that inferno back. In our first weekly planning we talked about working mega hard, cause obviously if your with your bro, like, you might goof off or whatev...nah. We set some legit goals to get out and kill it with everything we got and take advantage of comp studies and teaching with someone you can relate to and understand.  Oh man, minds are gonna be blown!



General Conference was amazing. I heard that what President Packer said caused a whole bunch of controversy. You ask me, our Apostle wasn't being opinionated, he just stated the facts. God made man and woman. Everything testifies of the natural way existence is meant to be. If the human anatomy isn't enough, just look at patterns in nature. I dunno, I'm glad I'm removed and not involved in all that mess. He just quoted scripture and doctrine. I wish people would also listen to the whole talk instead of targeting something without getting the full context. He was addressing other evils and temptations as well. If you are offended by his stance on homosexuals then you stand offended at his explanations of agency, and Satan's desire to destroy it, you stand offended at the idea of eternal families through lawful and legal means, you stand offended at his oppositions to pornography's plague, moral conduct, the idea "that [we] cannot overcome what [we] feel are inborn temptations toward the impure and unnatural", "there are those today who not only tolerate but advocate voting to change laws that would legalize immorality, as if a vote would somehow alter the designs of God's laws and nature. A law against nature would be impossible to enforce. For instance, what good would a vote against the law of gravity do?"

 "History demonstrates over and over again that moral standards cannot be changed by battle and cannot be changed by ballot." You cannot debate him when he is not the one saying it. Yea, what he says is truth, because it doesn't come from him, it comes from the laws of God. He is inspired as is all of the apostles and our prophet. He has my support as does all the apostles and our prophet. (Cleansing the Inner Vessel - Oct. '10 B.K.P.)

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I could similarly rant all day about the talk President Monson gave about gratitude. It is true, and anyone...Mormon or not, who applies the principles in that talk will have an amazing life full of happiness, appreciation, a sense of accomplishment, and empowerment. Gratitude is the noblest of virtues, and it is not hard to see why once it is applied.  One thing I find very interesting, was before he gave his closing remarks he said something, he quoted a Robert Frost poem. I wonder how many people caught that. Go read that poem, and try to see or feel what the prophet was trying to say he felt or realized. The bold is what he quoted at the end of conference below. I love our prophet. He is inspired and a chosen vessel of our God. I know he is heaven sent, just listen to his precepts, they would lead anyone closer to God. I have a rock solid testimony of him, the church, the book of Mormon, not because of man, not because of where I grew up, who was around me, not because of my family or friends. No, but because God showed me. Told me Himself through prayer and revelation. Anyone who condemns this church because of the faults of men do not understand the doctrines therein, because they are perfect. Zion, is the only functional utopia that can possibly exist, because it is not founded upon the principles of man, but because they are founded on the principles of Jesus Christ, our God who is One with the Father. Those were not the Prophet's words, nor the Apostles' words, rather they were the very words of God given to them to expound to us to those who have ears to hear.

Try them

Try any principle they have taught and I promise, I promise that they will better your life. I know because I have! I used to be the skeptic, the uncertain, the untrusting, I had doubt and figured these things to be general and vague but no. They are specific, precise, and target exactly what we need to hear and overcome in these days of chaos in a world that is falling apart and who's end is not far off. I know that this world is in it's final chapter, and I love what two of our area 70s quoted from President Benson, that the living prophet is more vital in these latter days then the standard works. That is the bible, the book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price. Why? think about it! think about the RLDS and you have your answer. Think about how if there was no one to guide us the church would divide in apostasy just like the church of old, and the churches in the book of Mormon. Some of those churches even had living prophets and they still split and apostosized. I have a conviction of our prophet and our apostles, they will keep our eyes open, our pathway lit amidst the darkness that is thickening around us as we press forward everyday deeper and deeper into the gloom, the blight of evil upon the earth in the last days, the thickening fog and mist that would otherwise blind us and rob us of our agency.

I testify to what another of the 70's said, that obedience is a fence not to keep us caged in, but to protect us from the danger, that the grass is never greener on the other side, and God will provide the greenest grass, the tastiest fruit, the happiest hour, the most peaceful state as we stay within the wide boundaries he has set. We have a way to stay protected, to avoid the lures of addiction, that in and of itself robs us of our agency. Robs us of our ability to mental and physical capability, a dependency upon costly and fruitless objects to abuse, from drugs to even video games. I've been released from my chains, from the things that put blinders on my eyes, that handicapped my potential, my motivation, my understanding of life and family, love, happiness; not pleasure. There is only temporary satisfaction behind being the best in a game, or finding a temporary escape to a drug or a night not worth remembering. God has provided a way, that is, Jesus Christ. If only, if only I could explain to you, if only I could tell you how simple this is, that even the smallest act of faith on my words, the prophet's words, the words of Christ Himself, would bring forth fruit that you could feel, see, and notice. Faith is not wishing to believe, it is feeling the truth and acting upon it cause you hope it is from God. And God will indeed prove it to you, if you have the faith to continue to try His word. My journey started with a prayer, that prayer led to the reading of the Holy Scriptures, in fact, it was almost 4 months before I talked to anyone about my personal conquest to discovering God, in fact it was nigh 6 months since that first prayer that I even attended a sacrament meeting. Because it starts with one prayer, then the 2nd one, and then the 3rd. It starts with 1 Nephi chapter 1 and then chapter 2. It starts with faith in Christ, repentance, then baptism. It is simple. and true. If only the world had ears to hear, and no pride to rob them of their agency and faith. Pride, will destroy all that is good inside.

I have gone off a lot just now, but at the same time this feels right. Think about what I have written. I will as well.

Thank you all for your support, your love, your prayers, your letters, your friendship.

God loves you, He loved you first, he created this world for you, he created your body for you, don't take for granted or advantage of the kindness he offers.

much love,

-Elder Mace



(Robert Frost's Poem)
Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village, though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there's some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.


The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.


(bold is what President Monson said he felt at the beginning of his closing  remarks)