Alii, Alii! Chelechang ak el ngara Guam! Semeriar a renguk el muut el mo er a Belau chelcha el kebesengei!

Becherei er se el ngar bab! 

HELLO! I hope you all are all having a great week! Because I know I am having a great week! 

Mission Leadership Council (MLC) was awesome! I think this will most likely be the last one of my mission, because when I get back to Palau I am just going to run off to Babeldaob and meet up with the three Nephites and preach the Gospel for the rest of my life! I am never leaving Palau! Ha-ha 

Anyway, back to MLC… It was all about planning and it was SOOOO good! I thought I had been doing a good job planning but President Zarbock really opened my eyes. He made me realize how much more I could be doing. From now on, I am not going to have a single blank spot in my planner! It is going to be filled with people to see, people to check, finding activities and so forth… I am so excited!  

Okay, so some cool stories from this past week! 

Elder Ititaake and I were out tracking the other night on exchanges and we knocked on this one house. A 19-year-old kid proceeded to answer the door and we began to talk with him in Palauan. As we were talking the kid suddenly stopped and looked at me and said… “dude how long have you been in Palau?” I replied, “a little over a year”. Seeming very surprised with my answer he then asked me, “are you half Palauan? how do you know how to speak our language?” ha-ha the look on these people’s faces when they see a white boy speak Palauan never gets old!

I love this language so much! I feel so blessed that I have the opportunity to learn it! I know that the gift of tongues is real. I know that it was only through divine help that I was able to learn Palauan. Teaching people in the language of their hearts truly brings a power to the message of the restored gospel that you can get in no other way. I am going to continue to study it after my mission.

Another cool story!

We have been having a really hard time finding new investigators lately and have been using the area book to find people to teach. Well a miracle has come through our diligent effort! Her name is “K”! We met “K” while trying to contact a former investigator from the area book. She has just moved back to Palau from the United States. We shared a brief message about the restoration with her, and gave her a pamphlet to read. When we came back to see her again, she had read the whole pamphlet! We asked her what she thought, and she said it was very good! But, that there was one part that she read that she just could not stop thinking about. Every time she thought of about it, she felt very happy!

She then recited to us the story of Joseph Smith. SO, COOL! We gave her a Book of Mormon and committed her to read and pray about it. She attended a baptism on Friday, and came to church on Sunday! She is the coolest!

We have also begun teaching a few other people in her house, and they too are progressing well. Miracles! 

I love my mission so much! I have been thinking about my mission a lot lately. I know I have not been perfect. I have made plenty of mistakes! But I would not change one bit of it! I am so happy that my Heavenly Father allowed me to make mistakes, because it has helped me become the person I know He wants me to be.

This past MLC Sister Zarbock delivered some excellent training. In short… “Sometimes you just have to play with pain.” A quote that she shared is, “it is the hard that makes it great! Life is a test.” We have known that since the beginning.

I love the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abendnego in the old testament. The Lord was there to protect them and comfort them, but they had to go into the fire first, in order to be with him!

Sometimes that is how our lives are. If we truly want to be close to the Lord then we need to go into our personal fires and face our shortcoming(s), problem(s) and weaknesses. As we do that the Lord will be right there with us, to help us to learn and grow. I know that if we do this, then just as Shadrach, Meshach, and Abendnego came out of the fire without even a stench of smoke on them, we too can come out of our own fires, cleaner, purer, and more like our Savior.

I do not know if that makes any sense? If not I pray that the spirit will help you know what I am trying to relate to you. Ha-ha

The church is true. I have been saying that my whole life. However, before my mission I felt like I was just saying the words. Now I say it with my whole heart and soul behind it. I know this church is true. the Book of Mormon is the word of God. I add my testimony to that of the prophet Joseph Smith. I know it, and I know that God knows it. I cannot deny it. This is the Lords true church. 

I have so much I wish to say and tell you all! But, as Moroni, I am weak in writing. I pray that the Spirit will help you hear the songs my heart simply cannot sing. For no words can describe in perfection what I have felt these past years being on the Lords errand.

I love you all! Have a great week.

Elder Rupp