Hey Family!
First off I want to thank all of you for your support, prayers, and your diligence in writing me letters. This week I probably had my most frustrating day, which I won’t really write about, but I just want to tell you, that same day was the day I received mail from you. And even though things weren’t going good as I read I found myself laughing, and happy, and it helped me remember how good I have things, and even when times are tough I just need to remember my purpose. Even if I’m not the best at teaching, or speaking, or doing everything I need to do, as long as I try my best that is all the Lord asks of me, and I think I'm alright. I'll just keep learning amat-amat, or little by little for Jared. Since Jared asked anyway that he doesn't know any Ilonggo, here's what I have to say to him. Ibaligya ta ka!! That means that I am going to sell you. It's something a lot of people say to me when then know I don't know too much Ilonggo. But I know that word at least, so I have the response ready, thanks to Elder Unsicker, my past zone leader. You just say Indi gid nga puede siya! (And Jared, please don't mention the word Chipotle in a letter again. Especially since it's almost halloween!! haha)
Anyway, I feel my Ilonggo is improving. It's still hard, especially to understand. And even though I can say a lot of things, it's hard to always know what to say because I can't understand still. But I just go with the lesson, what I know about the person, and whatever I feel is right, and just let it slip out. You really do have to depend on the spirit a lot when you can't really speak. Like also I am also finally able to crack some jokes in Ilonggo now, which makes me so happy. Finally to hear someone laugh when I joke! Like for example, there is this phrase, "amo man gihapon", which means like the same as usual. So instead I learned you can say like "Gwapo man gihapon" instead, which means, I'm not sure. It kind of rhymes right? and gwapo means handsome. Also like when we leave houses everyone says byebye! I always tried to say Halong (take care) or something so people know I know a little Ilonggo. But the other day someone said Byebye and I just said Baboy! (which means pig) instead. Anyway, the thought it was hilarious. At last! Like also we were teaching and I used the word that I learned called pangsot (I learned from Jarin Broadbent, the Woods friends, he served in Roxas you know!). My senior companion didn't know the word neither did this missionary whose been here like 15 months. But I asked a native and they just started cracking up. I guess it means like the smell of urine or something. Anyway I was able to use it in a lesson. We were teaching about the Law of Chastity and to start I was trying to ask the people their feeling if they went to a dirty house. I wasn't sure how to say dirty so I just used pangsot again! I said at the house there was pangsot. Anyway, it made them laugh and it ended up being a good lesson and they understood the importance of the law.
Speaking of that, if you all have lots of ideas for like object lessons I can use or stories I can use to relate to gospel principles, it would help me a lot! :D
So this week was also probably my big week too, in terms of things I see and hear. This week I heard and saw the hardest rain I ever had, it was really loud. I saw the biggest pig. (baboy right? :D) Seriously, the pig was like bigger than a horse. It freaked me out. I also saw that same day someone like slow roasting an entire pig and some guy had to sit there like 8 hours turning the stick it was on. I also saw this week the biggest spider I ever saw. Actually it happened while we were talking to some lady and I reached out my hand to lean on a wall. I felt my hand touch something and it was a giant spider! It didn't mind too much I just decided to put some hand sanitizer on my hand because I just touched that thing! So as I was applying the said sanitizer to my said hand, I was still looking at the spider. Anyway, these kids noticed and ran up to the spider on the wall, took off their flip flops, and smashed the spider, then immediately started playing with the dead body. I was like, ew, that was disgusting, then reached down to put my sanitizer back in my bag. When I looked down, there was spider goop all over my shirt! My entire shirt had turned like yellow! To give you some way to imagine it, let me say it was harder to find where the spider goop wasn't than where it was. I was trying to find where my shirt was white. Anyways, the kids didn't even notice and while it happened, Elder Tiamzon had already walked inside the house. So I walked up to the doorway and Elder Tiamzon was just talking to them, completely oblivious, and like I asked if we could change. Anyway, that shirt was real fun to wash. Also, remember that story about that baby at FHE. So we were at that house again this week. I don't know, whenever that baby sees me he starts nga magihi. I mean he starts to pee, it seems. Anyway, we were teaching another lesson. And the two little girls we were teaching were up close to us, the parents to the side, and then the baby and another like 4 year old girl behind the two girls we were teaching. So in the middle of the lesson again, I just saw like a fountain coming out of the baby straight at the four year old girl. It went all over her foot for like 5 seconds. It was completely silent. The little girl was just staring at her foot the whole time, with like no reaction. Then like everyone just started laughing, it was pretty funny. Sorry if these stories make it seem like I'm immature, especially since a lot are about babies using the restroom. So i'm sorry. But they are just kind of funny, right?
The best thing this week is on Sunday morning where we gave one of our investigators a baptismal commitment. Let me tell you about him. We met him like 3 weeks ago and taught him on a Thursday. He was actually like the brother of someone we had contacted and made an appointment with. The brother wasn't there, so we just shared with him, his name is Nori. Anyway, we taught him on thursday and then again on saturday, and he seemed pretty interested. We invited him to church that sunday and asked if we could pick him up. He told us he would come but he didn't want to be picked up. Which we hear a lot and usually it means they aren't coming. But on that sunday, he came and stayed all through church! Then we had an appointment with him on tuesday but he wasn't there. We tried 3 other times too that week and he wasn't there again. I was worried maybe he didn't like his church experience and I wasn't sure what was going on. But we weren't able to see him for two weeks. Anyway, on Sunday morning, we felt we should try to visit him again. He wasn't there, so we talked to this guy doing laundry for a couple minutes, and then, he came. And we were able to teach Nori. He told us he had been reading and he said he believed Joseph Smith was a prophet. We had given him a BOM and taught him about it and asked if he would be baptized, he said yes and I'm so excited for him. We set an actual date for him too. Funny story about him too. He knows like 1/3 of the members in our ward, which we found out on sunday. I don't know why we didn't him as a referral. But anyway, we asked him if he knew anyone else who would be interested in our message, he gave us the name, and we found out the person he gave us was actually a less active we had been visiting (the one who has to walk 2 hours to get to church). Except he gave us her maiden name and we'd been calling her by her married name, so that's why we didn't know. So it's cool, he's friends with members already. Maybe as he's going to church he can go with some of these less actives, which will really help build the ward here. Things are really progressing. As a missionary, things don't happen all at once. But good things come. You don't always know how or when the Lord will bless you. But when you do the things he asks, he will bless you, and everything will work out fine. So just always press forward with steadfast faith in Christ. I would also recommend having hopes bright flame alight in your heart, and also maybe in your mind.
Thank you all so much for your prayers again. It's really comforting for me to know how many people not only care for me, but also for my companion, and for our investigators. I love you all.
Love,
Elder Burton
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