27 September 2010

Hello!
As for sleeping well, I do have a fan, it's awesome. The fan at night makes elder Tiamzon too cold, so I just keep it on myself, which is nice. But I told you what keeps me up is those geckos I talked about. Also last night there was a huge thunderstorm and the thunder is like twice as loud here. I've also noticed that Elder Tiamzon talks in his sleep in Tagalog. This week I have a funny story about that. So I was in bed and I heard Elder Tiamzon talking in Tagalog. I don't know but I think I was really confused. I heard him talking and I thought we were like teaching a lesson and then next thing I know I'm like praying in Ilonggo and asking God to bless our investigators and then I realized that I was in bed not teaching a record. I was so confused.

Anyway, I got Mom's letter about touching the floor with her fingers. That made me laugh and remember talking to this 80-year-old man who could still climb up coconut trees. Anyways, I also had a question about Rebekah's letter. She said you went to balloons on memorial day but it wasn't them same "not just because you weren't there but because there weren't any balloons." So... I don't get it. You went to balloons and there were none? And I didn't understand what she meant about her friends who were sad because they didn't have any ducks. So Rebekah, I'm afraid you need to explain things a little more clearly.

So I'll talk about language first. Things are making more sense. But I learned this week I'm actually speaking a language called Bisaya. I think it's pretty much Ilonggo but a couple more words change for each area you are in. And they speak Bisaya in Roxas. So language books like you said. They are okay but I'm not sure they are 100% accurate. It was written by some missionary I think and it has a lot of gramatical errors. It also doesn't have a lot of words I want to know. Like the other day I looked in it for the word 'unite'. But I couldn't find it. Then I randomly turned to a page and read these exact words. "Gunk in your eye in the morning.........................muta" So the language books really help me learn Ilonggo fast. Also I usually just use english numbers. Because I figured out the Ilonggo word for 1820 is 'isa ka libo kag walo ka gutus kag kaluhaan.' Which isn't that convenient to say. Also another language adventure for me was I was teaching once and I tried to say we need to follow the commandments. So I said, "Kinahanglan naton nga sundon ang mga suga." Then when I said that people started pointing up and I was like, "yes, follow God." But then I learned they were actually pointing at the light. Because suga is light and sugo is commandments. So I tried to fix it by saying, "exacto, Suga si Jesucristo, kag kinahanglan naton nga sundon siya." So it wasn't a big deal.

So this week besides that was pretty good. On tuesday I got to go on exchanges with Elder Bosotros. He's been here 1 transfer longer than me. He still doesn't speak any Ilonggo. Since mostly everyone knows Tagalog he just speaks that. So anyway it was me and him, the two new people, in my area and then Elder Tiamzon went with our district leader, Elder Ocay, in his area. So once again, I had to lead the area. It was pretty tough day. I was able to find everyones house we had planned to go to even though I got a little lost. But anyways, we were only able to teach 1 of them. The other 12 houses I went to panted us. So I had to try to remember where other people were and had to try to find people and I couldn't figure out what to do. Every time I asked Elder Bosotros what he thinks we should do, he said, "magkaon kita." Which means, we should eat. So it was a tough day. But we ended up going to an investigator we hadn't visited in like 3 weeks, it was just a house I remembered, and we taught them, so that was good. A cool thing I learned from Elder Bosotros though was when a dog is chasing you and barking at you and scaring you with its teeth, all you have to do is bend over and pretend to pick up a rock and throw it at them, then the dogs run away.

So the rest of the week I worked with Elder Tiamzon of course. Just one thing, today I read what Jared wrote about scaring people with my eyebrows. Let me tell you something, people here scare ME with their eyebrows. Like here in the Philippines, when people raise their eyebrows it means yes. So when I talk to Elder Tiamzon and he agrees with me, his eyebrows go crazy, it's so weird. I don't know how they move up and down that fast. Like they go up and down like 27 times in 3 seconds. He could be in like a professional olympic race or something. Also for food this week. Elder Tiamzon told me now we are going to do themed weeks for food. This week was pasta week, which was really good. We had a lot of pasta with tuna on it, which I actually enjoyed. In a couple weeks he told me he wants to do bean week. I'm not too excited about that. Haha, but the transfer is during that so maybe I can get out of bean week.

So another thing about him is sometimes we are just walking or sitting and he randomly he shouts out a random word, either from what he sees or from the scriptures. So he's just always randomly like dog! or "the virtue of the word of God!" or something. It's weird. But anyway the other day he just shouted out "Why?" So I said, "why what?" And he said, whyyyyyy! (pause) equals mx+b. That just reminded me a lot of Carter. Seems like something he would say. Did I tell you Elder Tiamzon is like 25 years old? He's already graduated college as like an engineer. Anyway, just shows your never too old to go on a mission.

Let me tell you about a teaching experience. I'll tell you about a funny one first, then a more spiritual one. So the funny one. We were teaching these 3 little girls ages 10, 9, and 7 about the Plan of Salvation and when we talked about death, we talked about how our spirits get seperated from our bodies. Next thing I know, Elder Tiamzon took off his shoe and threw it too the side and then took off his sock too. The smell immediately got to me and I was holding my breath. I think Elder Tiamzon could tell because he then took his sock, put it up to his nose, and sniffed it, IN THE MIDDLE OF A LESSON! He was like, "eww." And the little girls were cracking up. They lost it and were saying, "mabaho! mabaho!" I was laughing too. It was so embarassing. Anyway he said like his sock was the spirit and the foot was the body. It was just weird experience. I don't know what he was thinking exactly. He could have used anything and he chose his sock!

So for the more spiritual side we were teaching this lady and she shared a concern to us about not being able to get enough food for her family and nobody is helping them right now even though she said last year a lot of people would help them. It was hard because I wanted to do something for them but all we could do was teach her about prayer and that if she trusted God he would provide a way. I realized how much faith that takes, not only for the investigator, but also for me as a missionary. To tell someone that God will help them. To ask someone to give up 1 day of work a week to go to church, or to give up 10% of their income and pay their tithing. It's a hard thing. But I know that God will help them get through it. After that lesson I got on my knees and prayed that God would bless her for doing the right things. The next time we saw her, she told us she prayed, and she felt comforted. Even though she still hadn't seen the temporal help from the prayer, Heavenly Father had helped her, and I was so grateful for that. Then on Saturday we taught this other guy named Joe. He was actually the person I shared my scripture thought to my first day I was here if you remember. But anyway, the missionaries have been seeing him for like 3 years and he accepted all the lessons as true but he still drank and still had never been to church. We talked to him and he told us he let his family go to church (they are members, he isn't. but they haven't been to church the entire time i've been here) and he worked because they needed the money and the food. We were able to share a message to him about trusting in the Lord. I shared a testimony that I knew it was hard but God has promised that we'll be blessed for putting him first, so if we trust in God, he'll provide a way. He then told us that he would go to church tomorrow, and he told us that he's seen a lot of missionaries but none of them influenced him to come to church. He spoke a little english and he told me he thought I was sent from God and that he was grateful I was here and he would come tomorrow. This confused me a lot because I felt like I hadn't really done anything. In all honesty, I thought he was joking or messing with me when he said it, because really I don't understand a whole lot and I don't know what was going on. And I wouldn't have been at all surprised if he didn't come to church. When we got to church the next day we saw his family sitting in the church like 5 minutes before, but no Joe. So like 2 minutes before church started, his wife got excited and pulled me over to the window. (the chapel is on the second floor) We looked down and there he was, coming to church. I was so surprised. I said before I was confused because I felt like I hadn't done anything. I realized then that I really hadn't done too much. All I've done is tried to do what God has asked me to do and and it was God who worked with Brother Joe. It was a good experience for me and also really humbling. I hope that God does bless him for coming to Church and that all his financial problems will work out. I think on Friday the job he is working right now is ending, so he has to find a new one. I hope he can, and hopes he stops drinking. We are working on that though!

So one last thing. We were working with our ward missionary on Sunday night. Okay we went to this one house and this lady saw us and said, "oh no!" Then I said "Oh! Yeah." A lot of the houses have little stores connected to their house and I was reading the names of some of the things they said, and right after I said, "Oh yeah!", I read the word, "Swak!" Which turns out to mean, "the best!" so everyone thought it was really funny. I didn't know what it meant and brother Toto kept saying, say it again! say it again! So I had to keep saying Oh yeah! Swak! It was weird. I told him that I was confused and asked him to explain it to me. He said, "You're confused? You have a question? James 1:5." So that was funny. Then later I went to his house for dinner and we ate this food. I had no clue how to eat it so I asked and then the sister (Mary Anne) said, "James 1:5." Then I told her Brother Toto just told me that like 2 hours before. Then they switched off, Hey Elder Burton, you know how to pray? Matthew.... and on and on and on. So I said, yeah you are definately return missionaries. Which they thought was funny.

Anyway, things are going pretty good now. I can't believe transfer announcement is in 1 week. We actually watch General Conference a week late. So that's okay. Everyone has to come down to Roxas in our zone to watch it, because they only show it at the Stake Center, so I get to see Elder Pettit and Andrews. Pretty exciting.

Well, that's everything. I love you and things are improving.
Hey I want to tell you I miss cookies and roast beef and mashed potatoes and brownies and baked goods, so you better stop eating all those too! Joke lang! You can end the hiatus, everything is good here! Eat some waffles, and I'll eat some Oyster Flakes.

Love you,
Elder Burton

P.S. I would love getting some recipes, just send them in a dear elder so I can have them written down. Also kids always come up to me asking for magic tricks, so if you have any ideas of cool ones I can do, tell me. And I can't put my card directly in the computer. So I'll just show you all my pictures in 2 years. :D You probably won't recognize me.