Gettin down with the sickness!!

Name that band!! lets see who catches on to that... haha

Hey!! Its so good to be able to e-mail you guys again, it seems that it comes and goes so fast! Well I just get straight to things because there really isn't much to tell...

I was SICK this whole last week!!!! I got slammed with dual Ear Infections! at the same time! ahh man it was a pain in the butt! so long story short, I got two ear infections, I couldn't leave the apartment for entire week! ahh it was terrible, the pain was so consistent haha I couldn't eat, sleep, or read! and most return missionaries especially from the Philippines can testify that when you that getting sick in the mission is the WORST because it is so boring! I mean you can only study effectively for so long before you get bored, and you have no tv or anything like that, so you literally end up just staring at a wall for hours everyday! so it was a interesting few days, Elder Pepa and I did a lot of talking, lot of laughing, and a lot of sleeping (when I could). 

The good news is that on Sunday I was good enough to get back to work, so we taught a few investigators, and we FINALLY got to visit with the Branch President and his family, we had a Family Home Evening because they were to busy on Monday. It was really fun, we had a good time, and I think we really built the trust with him so I think things are really progressing there and hopefully we can meet with him personally to know his visions for his branch.

so because we were not able to get out and work this last week, I will just share about the things I have studied. well, I really just want to share one thing, and I actually gave a talk on this last Sunday and it turned out to be a very spiritual talk. 

I was reading in 1 Nephi 16 and most of us are familiar with this scripture where nephi's family and others are complaining because of the loss of Nephi's bow. I read in verse 22, and the word Complaining caught my attention pretty strongly. I probably talked about this before, but I am going to talk about it again! because its so true! I started to think how often I complain and why I complain, turns out I tend to complain a lot! I think its only natural for all of us to complain because of challenges, and things not happening according to our desires or wants. Then I thought why didn't Nephi complain? The Spirit taught me that it was because for one Nephi trusted in the lord, and two that Nephi understand the will of god, or was submitted to the will of God. He knew if he was to keep doing what God has told him (keep the commandments) God will provide for all things, and fulfill his promise that he gave to his Father.  

I started to think about myself, and the reasons why I complain and how I can submit myself more to the will of God that I may be humble and follow his commandments, and then I started thinking about the members, and the Less actives we visit all the time and how they complain all the time about so many different things, and all the excuses the give us for not being able to do different things, and thats when I started to think that this should be my topic for my talk last Sunday. I came to know that if we can really understand the will of God, or submit ourselves to His will, we will never lose hope, we will never complain, we will always have a purpose, and we will always know where to go, and what to do. Because we know the Promise in D&C is true, which says "... I the Lord am bound when ye do what I say..." When God makes a promise he plans to keep the promise, all we have to do is our part. Thats it, sometimes its a hard thing to do, but if we will just start to exercise more faith we will see the miracles of God, but we have to act now, and not tomorrow and the next day, and the next day, and the day after that, we have to act now, and we will see God's hand in our lives and recognize that he does now our problems, or challenges, and our weaknesses, because sometimes He is the one who actually gave us those, to help us, to strengthen us, and to prepare us for greater things. 

This really helped me to be stronger, especially these last weeks of my mission come to a close to keep working, and to keep a smile on my face no matter how hard it gets. Sounds like the Kikel style to me;) 

Well hope the encourage someone to start complaining less, and start trusting more and act on that faith that you have! I ready to get back to work this next week, and hopefully we will have something good to report!

love you all!

--

Elder Kikel

-on the Lord's errand-

San Pablo Philippines Mission