Two Letters From the Philippines!

I'm behind with posting Elder Rubow's letters!  So, you get two today.  One from a week ago, and one from this past Sunday. It's a lot of reading but if you can make it all the way through to the end you will see why I love my boy so much.  He had a difficult experience and then what he does with it, this kid cracks me up!!!   Reminds me that he is still just 19 years old.  Both a man and a boy still.  Here is his letter from November 23rd 2014: 

If there is one big thing that I am learning from this mission, it is patience.  A lot of patience, humbleness and love.  My companion has really been having a hard time this past week.  I don't blame him really.  One very interesting thing I have been learning this past week though is how important it is to be positive and desire to be successful.  Just saying 'I Can Do It' has a lot of power.  If you don't think you can do something, you are right.  On the other hand, if you think you cant then you won't.  A positive outlook even when things are looking impossible can push you through things you did not think possible. Especially when you have the Lord with you.  Nothing is impossible with Him.  Yes, sometimes we have to do hard things but when we overcome hardships we will become truly successful and so much more prepared in the future.  Which brings me to my next thing. Preparation. 

A very big thing we do as missionaries is set goals and make plans.  Constantly we are planning to achieve our goals.  When we prepare correctly and make plans we can usually achieve such plans.  One thing I realize is I was incredibly good at setting goals before my mission.  But I was downright horrible at planning so I never reached many of the goals I had set.  Like the Prophet Joseph Smith said,

"When you climb up a ladder, you must begin at the bottom, and ascend step by step, until you arrive at the top; and so it is with the principles of the gospel..."

Thats pretty well true with life!  There is now way we can reach our goals or wishes in life without setting a plan to accomplish that goal.  

We did have some sad things happen this week though.  Many of our investigators dropped us this week and did not want anything to do with us anymore.  Its always a sad day when that happens.  We have a lot of finding we are doing now.  We have found a few new investigators that we will be teaching this week.

Last Saturday we had splits with the Assistant to the President.  I must say that was the best day I have had teaching.  I never realized how important it is to have a good companion where we can both testify and teach in unity.  He taught me a lot of things in the short time we had and how I can improve which is always awesome!  I hope to be able to really focus on teaching the members, part member families, and less actives for the next two months.  We have a lot of work to do with Less actives.

Thats been my week in a nutshell.  I hope your are doing amazing as well and things are going great!  Remember to always be living the gospel to your best, and God will take care of the rest.  Seek ye first the kingdom of God and everything will be added unto you.  God knows you and loves you so very much and wants you to be happy.  He also knows what will make you happier and stronger.  Every trial we go through is essential for our eternal salvation.  Keep you face toward Zion and turn not astray.  I know Jesus is the Christ and that He lives.  That through His Atonement, all mankind may be saved.  All.  I love declaring His Word and serving others.  Thank you for your prayers in behalf of this work and I am praying for you as well.  Stay positive and look for good.  Those who search will find.  Whether it be good or bad, so search for good!  I leave these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Elder Rubow

A representative of Jesus Christ.

Elder Rubow's Thanksgiving dinner that he and his fellow American missionaries made.  

 Letter from November 30, 2014:

I cannot believe how fast November went and now it is December already.  Christmas is already on the horizon and will be here very quickly.  To start off, we have been spending a lot of our time trying to find new investigators to teach and to preach to.  We have actually found a fair number and this next week we will be following up on them.  We did have Thanksgiving!  There is three Americans here in Lapaz so of course we whipped up the patatoes, got the gravy,  got the chicken (turkey is expensive), got the chips and all sat around the table and gave thanks and all that good stuff.  My companion (mommy note:  his companion is Filipino) was a little confused for that part but he seemed to enjoy it.  Made us very happy and thankful indeed for chicken!  Haha, we tried pie but nobody could figure out what we were looking for.  Americans and their pies...

So last Sunday I had a really cool experiance.  Lately our bishop has had some health problems and he texted me to give him a blessing.  So after church we hurried over there and Elder ---------- helped in giving his first blessing.  He annointed and I sealed.  The blessing was so simple but so powerful and afterward Bishop looked twice as better. I love being a missionary!

We also had another two baptisms! So awesome and happy!  Baptism day is the most stressfull and relaxing day.  Stressful before and awesome after!  One boy and one girl.  The boy is 17 and the girl is 15!  Elder ------- and Elder ------- baptized them.  They are two other elders in our area.  It was way awesome.

The big story of the week happend yesterday actually.  I went to jail!!  Whoo! So...long story short due to drinking and arguing.  (Mommy note:  Not Elder Rubow!  Mr. T was not drinking.  The less active members of the church were.  Just thought I'd clarify as drinking alcohol is against our religion).  One of our less active members killed their land owner and they called me and so forth so I was there for a while.  So now we wait to see what happens to her and the family and so forth.  But good news!  While at the jail I talked to a few of the people in jail and we ended up getting 6 more investigators whoo!  

Sorry gid.  I have little time today so it will have to be short.  One big thing I have learned though from all this is simply following the commandments.  We all sometimes see the rules and just that rules.  But what we dont see is why they are there till afterward.  God knows all things and loves us all so much!  Instead of saying we can't do these things lets say we won't do those things because if we know that following the commandments always brings better blessings. Thanks again and I miss ya tons!  Till next week!

Elder Rubow  

(Mommy note:  I told Elder Rubow that when the Savior was on the earth, He spent His time in the prisons and slums and that is where He would be today if He were here on the earth.  Trevor is doing that which he is representing!  As a representative of our Savior, teaching those in prison about the light and goodness of the gospel and the joy that it can bring to them, he is doing exactly that.  So proud of this kid!!!)

Another baptism!!

Elder Rubow is standing to the left of the missionary in all white pointing his finger at the girl being baptized.  (He's standing between the two men dressed in all white).  He looks so good to me!!!  I'm laughing at the basketball in this photo.  What?  They had a baptism and then played basketball?  That would be very typical of my son.  All work and no play makes life very dull indeed.  Mr. T has always been good at bringing in the 'play' while we work.