Back to 2...

I've got very unfortunate news to share... we're no longer the three amigo's, the power three... now it's just 2 of us again. Elder Apable is flying home to the Philippines on Tuesday, and is in the mission home at the moment! So he was supposed to go Monday morning, but we got a call during Church that he'd be getting picked up at 6. Church is from 1-4 by the way, and he wasn't packed yet. Then at 3, we get another call saying the Office Elders are on the way now to pick him up... so we left, got him packed, and said our quick goodbyes. It was pretty sad to see him go so suddenly, and now our tiny apartment feels so empty, but that's ok. Now it's just me and Elder Ahn, and we're still having a great time!

So this past week we've just been doing a lot of door knocking and visiting less active members. We're having trouble getting new investigators, I think it's the biggest struggle we have in our area. So I don't have too many things to talk about, so this email is going to be pretty short.

I'll end it with a true story that I heard at a dinner from one of our members, brother Triffitt. Now I'll re-write it as accurately as I can, but not all of it may be correct because It's been a while since I heard the story. So his father, I'll call his father Soldier Triffitt, was fighting in World War II. He wasn't a very religious person I guess, and one day he was wounded in battle, I think it was like a gunshot wound to his stomach. He was lying in a trench waiting for help, and night came. He had put a cloth on the wound to try to stop the bleeding. Rescue boats were going around that night, picking people up and taking them to safety, but a storm had hit and was getting worse every minute, and that combined with gunfire was making it very unsafe for the rescue teams. Soldier Triffitt said a prayer though, asking Heavenly Father to help him make it home safely so he could have a family and continue his life. The final rescue boat got a call saying that there was one soldier left waiting to be rescued, but to do so would be very dangerous and probably not worth it. Yet for some reason, they all felt that they should go and they went, and through the storm and gunfire were able to rescue that one last wounded soldier. Eventually he was sent back to Australia and hospitalised, and after he got better he was able to start his family and continue life. Many many years later, when he was around 70 I think, they were having a get together reunion thing for all the veterans. And so Soldier Triffitt decided to go. He sat all the way in the back when he got there and was listening to all the speakers and stuff. One speaker got up, and he had been the rescue team leader. He told this story about how, against all odds, his team went back and rescued one soldier, and he said, "I always wondered what happened to that soldier we rescued that night". In the back, Soldier Triffitt stood up and said, "that soldier was me". And because of him, many children, grandchildren, and even great grandchildren were rescued. So, how does this story relate to the gospel? Well, I think this story was actually shared in an ensign or general conference a while back, but it's about rescuing the lost. We never know how many lives we'll affect just by rescuing one person, by bringing one less active back or a nonmember into the gospel. We may never see the results of our rescuing efforts, but maybe in the next life many people will come up to us and say, "thanks for saving me that day".

Thanks everyone for your love and support!

Elder Ho