13 September, 2010

Maayong Udto!

Wow, that is exciting about Justin's mission call! Arkansas would be a great mission. You know when I first turned in my papers I didn't really want to go state side, but now I think it would be great. Just because there really are a lot of people prepared to come unto Christ and it's frustrating not being able to speak a language and it is also hard without support from members of the ward. Plus you don't have to do laundry by hand, which took me 3 hours last P-day. So I'm excited for him. Have him write me a letter!

First off though, I want to talk about things called Tuko. They are like these giant Geckos and they make the most annoying sound ever. I don't know how to describe it, you should try to look up the sound they make. I hear it like 10 times throughout the night. The sound is funny, but it's so weird. I also woke up this week to the sound of Christmas music. That was weird. Someone in the ward told me that in the Philippines they celebrate Christmas for the longest amount of time, so that's cool. A weird thing about the Philippines is the music. A few people have steroes here and the people that do like to blast their music really loud for the whole town to hear. So it's strange I thought there was like a huge fiesta going on or something but nope, people just blast their music every day.

It sounds like you guys have a pretty busy schedule. I understand what you said, Mom, about the scripture reading. That was a hard thing at the MTC because we didn't have PS and CS at the same time every day. I really like it now doing it first off in the morning because I'm the most awake after showering- which I do like 5-6 minute showers because it's cold and weird- and working out and eating.

That's crazy dad lost 10 pounds already. I probably won't recognize any of you after I get home! That is crazy dad that you almost finished the old testament too. I've almost finished reading the Book of Mormon and after that I want to read the New Testament like you. Because since mostly everyone is Catholic here, I feel like I should know the New Testament a lot better. I want to try to find an Ilonggo new testament too. It's kind of funny because we hand out Hiligaynon Books of Mormon. But the pamphlets we give to people are in Tagalog. Then sometimes I think Elder Tiamzon teaches in Ilonggo or Tagalog and sometimes Aklanon, so it confuses me a lot. I also remember what Dad said about the living conditions, a lot of times people come up to me and want money. This week a lady actually grabbed me and I felt so bad. I looked into her eyes and it was so hard. Even when I said I was sorry, I can't, they kept staring at me. One of my zone leaders told me not to look at them, it makes it harder. That's also a problem with some of our investigators. We have a lot that know that the church is true but they won't get baptized because they don't know if they can keep up with the covenants they make. For some of them it is really hard to get to church. We committed a lot of people to go to church this week but no one came again. It was so frustrating, because they told us they would. Elder Ocay, our district leader, told me a lot of times people just tell you they will do things to please us, so we really got to make sure they have the desire to go to church and do these things that God wants them to do. I know I don't understand everything about their conditions, we need to show them that sometimes they have to give up some stuff for the Lord and sometimes it is a sacrifice to put their duties to God first. That's why I'm so frustrated with the language barrier, because I can't do it yet.

So at Church I also had to speak in sacrament. It's awkward because I have to bend over a lot to reach the pulpit because I'm tall, for here at least. I spoke on faith in Tagalog because my Ilonggo is not too good, well, my tagalog isn't that good either, but I'll get it in time.

So today is Sep 13 in the Philippines, but I think is Sep 12 in America, so Happy Birthday Jared! Maybe in a while I'll try to send a package to all of you because there are these sweet belts here. I'm not sure what Mom and Becca would want though. Jared, I want you to know you don't need to write in the future to me. Time is messed up, so just write what is happening, although I did enjoy your letter. That's sweet you're going to/you did bowl a 300. I actually went bowling my last P-day, it was the most ridiculous thing I ever saw in my life. First off, it wasn't electronic. The balls were like the size of a grapefruit, and you got 3 bowls instead of 2. The balls weren't perfectly round so it was hard to not get gutter balls. Then the pins were so far apart even if you hit it right in the center sometimes you only got like 3 pins knocked down. So you would bowl 3 times and in between each one and bamboo stick would come down from the sky and swipe the excess pins out of the way. Then after you did your 3 bowls a man would pop down from the sky, without a shirt or shoes on, and set up all the pins and then like jump up somewhere out of site and pop down in the next lane over. It is hard to describe it. It was cool. I got like a 67 as my final score. Plus it was only like 20 pesos, which is less than 50 cents. So are you still playing rugby jared? You said you were playing frisby a lot. That's sweet, a lot of people in my zone tell me they like frisby, but there aren't like any fields here to play.

Since Becca asked, the closest temple is in Cebu, I don't know if I'll ever go there. The language is really hard, but I'm getting there. Once we were teaching with our ward mission leader to these 2 girls who knew english pretty well. Elder Tiamzon said to them, "and now elder burton will tell you about Joseph Smith." They told me I could do it in English and it felt so good to teach it in English and I felt really good about it. Then Elder Tiamzon bore his testimony about what I said and I felt the spirit. But then the ward mission leader asked them if they understood me and they said no. So he retold it and that was kind of frustrating for me. Just because right now I feel like I'm a burden and not helping too much, that's why it's so important I get this language down. Rob told me that he thought I was smart and could learn 3 dialects, but right now it doesn't feel that way, I'll just focus on one at a time, amat-amat, line upon line. Eventually I'll get it. I think if I got to speak what I learned at the MTC I'd be enjoying this a lot more, but for now I'll just do what I can. Rob, I think that would be sweet if you did business. You're really good at it and really enjoy it. And about eating a banana for you, that's one of the disappointing things right now, I haven't really eaten any fruit. I've had a little, and it's pretty good, even though some of the fruit we've eaten is weird. I think most of the fruit is ripe January through April, especially the mangoes, which I am excited for. But right now I eat a lot of fish and chicken and vegetables. Some of the vegetables we have are really weird and have a weird taste. But I just eat them anyway. We had this one pickled thing and it was weird. We also had the shrimp paste that someone told me about, all you do is put a little bit on your rice and it's not too bad. My favorite thing to eat is probably just fried fish, which we have a lot. But because it has a lot of flavor naturally and I like it with my rice. There are 4 wards in Roxas, so it's pretty good sized. There is actually 4 elders in my apartment, my companion and I, Elder Ocay-DL, and Elder Bosotros. My apartment is actually kind of big because a lot of time passing by Elders stop here and we have like stake conference and zone meetings and we had our Iloilo Mission tour here. So it's pretty cool. Our ward has like probably 30 or 40 active members, and they seem willing to help us a lot, especially at our correlation meetings.

About the dogs, they are EVERYWHERE! They scare me a lot and when you look at them they bark and growl and look at you and follow you, so you aren't suppose to look at them as you pass them. It's hard not too because I don't want them to attack me from behind. So I do hold my umbrella between me and the dog.


Well, I better go! I love you all so much and love getting your letters!
Love,
Elder Burton