Mother's Day Phone Call

Elder Guinto called home for his annual Mother's Day call yesterday.  It was great to get to talk to him for an hour.  Some of the highlights were his release date, which is November 9th.  Which means he will be coming home in exactly 6 months from now!  He plans on getting a job right away and working through the holidays before heading off to BYU in January.  He hopes to get a job at the MTC and go to school through Winter, Spring/Summer, Fall and Winter before coming home again to hopefully work the summer.  He is leaning towards physical therapy or something related, but still unsure what he wants to do.  Hopefully everything works out like he has planned.

Most of the rest of the conversation was just catching up with everyone.  He would love to get letters, so if you get a chance write him at the address on this blog.

E-mail received 05/02/2011

I guess I should have made a list. I really feel there were only a few things that I can remember wanting to discuss but I'll definitely remember those ones.

 

I met Derek yesterday actually. I got up to bear my testimony and he recognized my name right away. He talked to me after the meeting and asked me if I was Filipino and if I knew a Katelyn Guinto. It was one of those crazy moments that you get on the mission. Similar to when I met Aunt Kelly's aunt!

 

I'm really glad that Maleah's testimony keeps growing and growing and she's seeing what a great blessing the Gospel can be to her lives. She has so much glowing potential that can be realized with the teachings of Christ as her foundation. She seems to be growing up into a noble young woman. Keep it up!!

 

I'll probably be calling about 9:00 PM East Coast time. I can't remember how that converts over on the West Coast but that's probably when I'll be calling. Elder Archibald is doing his at 8 so hopefully he'll be off by then. We only have one phone now. Have as many people there as possible!! It's my last call home so we better make it count!

 

I did get the package. Thank you so much! Elder Archibald and I will enjoy the treats for some time. I was a little sad that there was no video but I didn't send you one either. I'll be sending you a card today but there aren't many pictures on them. There's not much time to take pictures when you're biking everywhere. I need to get better at it though.

 

We had a great week this week! We found a lot of new people to teach! One is a family of seven who are actually our neighbors! They're Catholic but haven't gone to church for many years. The father really doesn't like it because of what he calls "the racket." He doesn't like the passing of the plate while he's just trying to worship God and all the corruption and things that go on in his church. He likes what we teach and he really wants to see how it's going to bless his family!

 

We also met with another Catholic lady when a member decided that he wanted to take us to go see her. She's been so prepared by seeing the righteous examples of the members of the church. She's already attended church before and seen how nice and friendly the members are. We're finding more and more how important it is that members reach out to the nonmembers who come to activities and sacrament meeting, even just to people that they don't know, every expression of kindness can mean a great deal to someone who doesn't get any. Her heart has been truly touched by the Spirit she feels around the Saints of God.

 

I learned a lot about prayer this week. I've seen my prayers of late have been becoming a little mundane and just "going through the motion-ey" and I was trying to see how I could get out of that rut. We visited one of our investigators who's pretty sinful individual and we decided to talk to him about prayer. We put some church music on while we talked to him and you could feel the Spirit enter in as we heard the beautiful praises to God. We taught him how sacred it is that we as mere mortals are given the opportunity to communicate with the supreme being of our universe and gain answers and direction from Him. Just as I bore testimony about the power of prayer and it's effect it can have on our lives I felt the Holy Ghost testify to him about what we were teaching and I felt it testify to me about the things that I could change to make my prayers more meaningful. It has made a big difference to me this week to make that prayer, whenever I do, so much more that just saying words to get things. I've been praying for others and praying for the Lord's will and it's brought me great comfort and peace.

 

I'm excited for the upcoming week because we're going to be solidifying all the baptismal dates that we've set for May and the zone is beginning a new Book of Mormon challenge. Read the whole Book of Mormon in the month of May and highlight any referrences to covenants and baptism! I'm so excited to have this great new focus on the Book of Mormon which will help me understand it's role to me as a child of God and as a teacher to the hearts of His people. Any one whole feels impressed should join me and the zone in this challenge and they will gain a greater understanding of how the Book of Mormon helps us to make and keep covenants with our Heavenly Father.

 

I hope everyone has a great week and talk to you on Sunday!

 

-Elder Guinto

E-mail received 04/25/2011

Katelyn and Caleb seem to be going on a lot of dates...what is this nonsense! Katelyn can't grow up and go on dating guys like that! It'll still be weird when I go home but I guess change is for the better. We'll see how I feel about it.

 

We actually had a great Easter dinner as well. We ate with a half Filipino family so I was happy to be able to eat rice! The members of the Princeton 2nd ward are really good to us and really supportive towards missionary work.

 

I am actually very close to Princeton University, in fact I'm actually in the Princeton University Library emailing you right now so it would be safe to say I'm within a moderate distance. We don't go to the University very often though because of the temptuous demograph here...

 

We had a really fun and interesting week this week. My bike blew up on Saturday. We started out for the day and the right tire totally just gave way as we were biking down the street so we walked that day. Fortunately the zone leaders were able to get us a bike to use until we get it fixed, a much nicer bike I might add. Bikings definitely a big adventure. My thighs are huge! It's definitely a different way of doing missionary work but it means that you really have to take a lot of things in to account when you plan.

 

We experienced a lot of finding miracles this week. We had a zone conference and they really focused on faith and about seeking for the Lord's will. Elder Archibald and I went out that day and found a ton more people to teach and set a new baptismal date with one of the people that we'd just found! It's incredible what a little faith in the Savior can do and really it's great to have a mission president who's so amazing at instilling it within us.

 

We found out the name of the new mission president who'll be coming in July. His name is President John Jepson. He's from the Salt Lake City area. It'll be very interesting because with a new mission president comes a new feel and new director. It'll be interesting to see what changes and what stays the same. Change can be exciting though.

 

Elder Archibald is a brand new missionary. This is his second transfer in the mission so he's still got a lot to learn but he definitely has his heart into the work and he's an incredibly bright person. I'm confident that he'll do many miracles out here on his mission.

 

Sorry there isn't much excitement to report on but I pray that the Lord will bless each of us to find joy this week through our prayers and our study of the scriptures.

 

-Elder Guinto

E-mail received 04/18/2011 - Trenton, New Jersey

Katelyn might remember that I'm usually a brunette person but that is a very odd dream. I don't know how long I'll probably avoid the television entirely when I get home but it might be a while. Television is so dirty. That's so weird that Katelyn's going to prom. I feel like my prom was forever ago though so I guess it's getting around that time. Who would this special someone happen to be?!

 

I have actually thought about all the opportunities I missed by never going to mutual. I really wish now that I'd been able to get my eagle and duty to God award. The programs for the church, especially the newly redesigned duty to God award, are incredible at establishing great foundations for the young men of the rising generation and I think it really would've helped me so much to have stayed active in those programs. I earnestly hope to instill in my children the serious importance of those wonderful church activities.

 

That's really good that Mike seems to be moving. He's got a good head on his shoulders and really has a lot of great potential. Hopefully him and Mckay can be good influences on each other and grow where they're planted.

 

The food science thing sounds interesting. I'm excited to get the package. I'm really just worrying about it because I don't want to waste any time. I'm probably worrying about it more than I should but I guess I'll just wait.

 

I love my new area and my new companion! I've been transferred to Trenton, New Jersey; the only biking area in the mission! I'm sooooo happy to be a biking missionary! I'm sore, filthy, and exhausted every single day and I couldn't be happier. I think I've always had it in me that I wanted to be the typical biking missionary and now my dream has come true!

 

My new companion thinks I'm crazy for liking biking so much. His name is Elder Archibald, from Idaho Falls, Idaho. Him and I have the exact same birthday and we have so much in common. He's basically a big goofball like me and we have tons of fun but we also do work here and there's going to be some amazing miracles for the rest of this transfer.

 

We're in the Princeton 2nd ward which is an amazingly large ward. I've never served in a ward this size which has fully operating auxilaries and priesthood quorums. Our bishop is super amazing and everyone is amazing at doing member missionary work! I'm so excited to work here!

 

It's going to take a lot to get used to everything but thankfully, since we're in a biking area, I'm definitely not going to need a gps so don't worry about it. I like the map better anyway because it forces us to work on getting to know the area better.

 

I love it here and I hope you guys try and see the wonderful things about the world around you!

 

-Elder Guinto

E-mail received 04/11/2011 - Finally leaving Jersey City

Weather's supposed to be improving but we're really not seeing much of it. It's rained a lot this week but we've been able to work through the storms and see a lot of miracles.

 

That's awesome that Cameron got his mission call! He's going to serve in Elder Calderoni's home town! He says that he's serving in a really rich nice area in Brazil. I'm excited to speak some portugues with him. Although he'll probably speak a lot better than I can because my portuguese is really mostly Spanish with portuguese conjugations. Whatever works though. That's a really long time to wait to go on a mission but I guess they probably have to get everything together for a visa since he's going straight down there.

 

I'm glad Sister Mulks got the letter. I sent out a bunch because I finally had a little time on a P-day to get stuff written. Time is just such a rare commodity out here. I'm also glad to hear that Bro. Hayes is doing well. He was a great young men's president. I think it was after he left that I pretty much stopped going to young mens. I kind of regret that. I think I really missed out on a lot of great opportunities with the young men and the scouts. I hope to help my children do better in those programs.

 

That's very worrying to hear that Aunt Marlyn's in the Hospital. I will definitely fast and pray so that she can make it out.  I will definitely pray a lot for her. If I could get her address I'd really like to send a letter to her.

 

You don't need to print out and send me pictures anymore. I was putting pictures in a book but it's expensive and pretty much unnecessary now that we have cool storage places like computers and the internet which are free so don't worry about printing out anything. Saying that I hope you haven't already printed them out...

 

I would love to live with Grandma. It would be so much easier that way. But I guess we still have time to think about it. We'll have a lot to still plan and see what's going to work out. If anything else we know how low on fundage I am so that'll probably be a major factor in whatever we do.

 

On that subject, I've really been thinking a lot about my career and as much as I think going for the accounting thing would be a stable and beneficial job for me, I really can't see it being particularly good for the family life and I can't see myself enjoying it. I've talked with a few of the investment bankers in the ward and also one who's a CPA and I just don't fit the mold of someone who would be happy as an accountant. It's definitely not something I'm interested or invested in. I was wondering if you could do some research for me on the fields of physical therapy and nutrition. Things like availability, average pay, hours, schooling necessary, classes I need to take. Any information you could get would be helpful. I've really seen that that's something that I'm very interested, could be good at, and I could really be helping people. My main thing is I really want to help people. As an accountant I'd be helping people but I'd be just feeding their selfish pocketbook. There's still a lot of time but it'd be awesome if you could do that research for me.

 

This amazing last week with Elder Summerhays has been great. One of our greatest experiences has been working with the wonderful youth of the Jersey City 2nd ward. We've been using them to fellowship these two great investigators who are preparing to get baptized in the 2nd week in May. They're smart kids who really know how to back up their testimonies and they will be great missionaries when their time comes.

 

We've also really felt joy as one of our recent converts has seriously been talking with us and the bishop about serving a mission. He's really been totally changed by the Gospel of Jesus Christ and seeks, in all things to become a disciple of Him. He's going to be a great missionary!

 

One great moment this week actually happened at church. We were roaming the halls, trying to corner members so that we could meet with them during the week. One sister came out of one of the classes and I approached her to see if there was a time during the week that we could visit her. As we talked I felt prompted to ask her if there was anything that we could do for her. It came as a surprise to me but, she asked us if we could give her a blessing. We soon learned that there were some struggling situations going on between her and her nonmember husband and she really needed help from the Lord. We invited one of the other brothers of the ward to give her a blessing and he did so, so lovingly and beautifully. She felt a great comfort and peace and renewed desire to share the Gospel. After she'd received the blessing she talked with us about coming over and sharing the Gospel with her husband. It was really one of those moments where I felt that we were doing our job in helping others feel the love of their Savior and help them come unto Christ.

 

I'm finally getting transferred out of Jersey City! It's very bitter sweet though. I really wish I could've served one more transfer with Elder Summerhays in this wonderful area. I've learned and changed so much from the missionaries and experiences I've had in this wonderful and dynamic area. I'll always treasure the memories that I've made here. I'm really worried because I know this area like the back of my hand and it'll be weird going to an area where I don't know anything and don't have a gps. But it'll all work out as it should.

 

I know that the Lord has great adventures in store for each of us as long as we put all of our trust in Him. The old phrase, "Don't put all your eggs in one basket" didn't consider the basket that the Lord gives as a safe haven for the weary. In Him is everlasting strength.

 

-Elder Guinto

New Pictures at last!!

Kyle finally sent us his sd cards.  You can check out his latest photos at Mission Pics Winter 2010-11

Enjoy!

E-mail received 4/4/2011

We get mail now at the beginning of every month usually. We get it when the zone leaders go in for zone leader council which is held on a month to month basis. It's exact date varies but it's usually held the last Friday of the month or the first Friday of the month. If you planned it to be there the last week of the month you'd probably be pretty safe.

 

Huh, don't remember doing any of that stuff for the scholarship but most of my teenage years are pretty much a blurr of poor choices anyway which I'd rather forget anyway but I hope to learn from them. It's really funny to see teenagers now a days (Boy, saying that phrase makes me feel really old ) seem so foolish and immature. Although I'm convinced that it's not really their fault. Their environment is far less forgiving than the one that we grew up in and the pressure they face is far greater than we tend to realize. Still it's funny to look back and say, "What was I doing?!"

 

Speaking of which, what's Katelyn doing going on all these dates?! She's not supposed to be doing that! I guess there's just got to be a time where I've got to let my little sisters go and live their own lives. It'll always be weird though. Tell her she still can't kiss a guy until she gets married!

 

What an amazing week that Elder Summerhays and I were able to enjoy! It definitely wasn't our best week as far as the world might measure but we were both able to gain great and far lasting blessings from the experiences that it brought to us.

 

At the beginning of the week an investigator taught us how to do yoga! Yoga is awesome! It relieves so much stress and tension from your body and really helps you become one with yourself, as cliche as that might sound. It's interesting how much the philosophy behind yoga is very similar and in similitude of the principle of prayer. It's all about self reflection in the direction of a given and set purpose so that you can accomplish worthy goals. Whether that goal is to bring health to your body or to become more Christ-like, I definitely recommend yoga to anyone wanting to do something fun and good for their body!

 

We did have our fair amount of trials this week when a lot of people in our areas and wards decided to take different paths and go their own contrary way. It makes us sad but it gives us greater determination to do things the Lord's way. His way is the only way that leads to happiness in this life and leads us and others into eternal life. It took a toll on us for a little bit but after a lot of self-evaluation and some great new goals we were able to come out stronger than we've ever been.

 

What a better way to end the week than with the inspired words from our beloved prophets and apostles. Several of our investigators and recent converts truly captured the spirit of the conference. One we had asked to come up with a question that he wanted answered by one of the general authorities during the general conference. The question that he came up with on his own was, "Is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints the only true church on the earth and should I join it?" He came to us after the priesthood session and told us that he knew that the church was true and that he would be getting baptized on May 8! We were so excited when we heard that!

 

I know that the Lord answers the cries of His children so powerfully through the mouth of His living representatives. I was awed by the great talks given by them, especially the talk by Quentin L. Cook, Richard G. Scott, and Lynn M. Robbins. I definitely think that the over arching theme that I felt from the Conference was the divine example of the women of the church and how selflessness will be the key to happiness in this life.

 

It definitely comes at a good time and gave me a lot of things to think about as I move into the last phase of my mission. I've always been told that the last six months are the best time for the missionary and yet I feel that I still have much learning, growing and changing to do before I'll ever be ready to be a profitable servant. One thing I got out of this conference was the goal to strive to focus on the success and the good of others. Often I feel myself withhold my all because it may not be the best thing for me, or I find fault in others because they aren't where I think that they should be. More and more I see that becoming charitable really includes and requires seeking not my own but for that of others. I've really seen just in the day past of general conference that the more I strive to help my companion be successful the greater we are as a companionship.

 

We pretty much got yelled at in the face to start preparing now for an eternal marriage and I earnestly feel that the more I focus on incorporating those Christ-like qualities of selflessness and charity the more I qualify myself towards making one of God's precious daughters happy in this life. Up till now I've always thought of an eternal companion as someone filling certain requirements I think will bring me joy and fulfillment. As the apostles spoke so much on the subject and especially from the serene sentiments of Elder Scott about his wife, I saw that the peace and beauty we all seek in our marriage relationships isn't in the glory we receive from our companion but the praise and the diligence that we give to them. They will return the love we give, but if they don't we must accept the peace that will come from the Spirit as we do what is right and just.

 

I hope you all take time this week to look up the talks again and again on lds.org and see how you can apply everything that was said. I even found something that I could apply in the Primary President's talk, for all you doubting elders out there! There's always a lesson to be learned from every servant the Lord has called to His holy ministry.

 

-Elder Guinto