Hey Family,
Things have been going pretty well here in Roxas. This week was really hard. If I had to name is I'd name it the 'S' week. S meaning splits, service, storms, and sickness. (Oh, we had interviews with president the other week, and he made me promise to write and say he's happy to have me in the mission, or something.)
I'll start with the splits, or exchanges. Since Elder Tiamzon is District Leader now we got to go on splits with the Zone Leaders. So Elder Tiamzon worked with Elder George in Roxas and I got to go to President Roxas with Elder Garcia, our new zone leader. It was my first time leaving Roxas since I've been here so it was kind of a cool experience. We took an L300 to get there and when we arrived Elder Garcia forgot the key in Roxas, so Elder George and Elder Tiamzon just sent it up in another L300. Elder Garcia is a really cool guy. Before he was our zone leader, last transfer he was the recorder in the office. I asked him about his area and he said this area is a lot harder than the city. He said when he was in the office he only like tracted for half the amount of time we do but he said they were able to have a lot more success. He said he thought it was because, being an office elder, they are really exactly obedient. He said because he felt he was they had success. It made me happy because I've been feeling the same thing lately. If we were more obedient we would have more success too. But right now we are doing a lot better than we were when we started off here. Elder Garcia is from Manila, he's a really cool guy and makes delicious foods. Like Elder Tiamzon is a good cook too, but he really really likes BEANS, which I don't enjoy as much as he does, because of later effects. The area was really cool. To tell you the truth, Elder Garcia reminds pretty much exactly of Mitchell Shields, the way he looks and acts. (I didn't really want to give mitchell a shout out in my letter because he and Derrick said they would write me every day but nothing). But thats who he is like. Like what he talked about and who he was. Like for example. On wednesday morning we were in the apartment waiting for Elder Tiamzon and George to arrive to pick me up and take me home, and we looked out the window and there was an Old Person parade- like 300 President Roxas Senior Citizens just walking down the street. It was kind of funny to watch. So Elder Garcia then said to me, whoa, when I'm old I don't want to be like that, I want to stay cool, and ripped. It was just kind of funny. The area was really cool. Elder Garcia called it Jurassic Park. Plus the people we taught told me I was really sagad at Ilonggo. Or like good or talented. So that was nice, even though I'm really not that good, and it's still really hard to understand, but I get some things.
On Thursday, Elder Tiamzon got sick in the afternoon. We arrived at Brother Bermi's house because he was going to work with us and Elder Tiamzon was just like shaking and had like hives on his skin. He's not really the healthiest guy and like I keep asking him if he should go to the hospital, but he's scared I think. But anyway he said he was fine and we went and taught 1 lesson, to Nori, which was sweet, because he is usually busy! But after that Elder Tiamzon said he needed to call Sister Pagaduan about his hives, so he got some medicine and we were suppose to let him go home and rest, but he wanted to work so we worked for 3 more hours and just got panted over and over, so it was hard and I think Elder Tiamzon was tired because the medicine would make him tired. Then we went home and he slept, I think he's okay now.
Then on Friday (and Saturday) we did service. Like 12 hours total this week. On Friday we went to Cagay Graveyard. Brother Bermi told me to be sure to bring my camera because we would take pictures with skulls, which we did, I felt kind of bad. It was cool because for the first part of service we just got machete's and like hacked away at trees and vines growing on the graves. After that, which we finished fast, we just scraped goop off of the graves so it was pretty good. Then Saturday we cleaned up like campaign posters around town. Those people really glued those posters on there good. I thought it was funny how people running to take care of the Baranggay kind of destroyed it with their posters. So that was a fun activity. Plus like since that one was a stake one they always give us food at it, and it's good bread and juice.
The coolest teaching this week was on Friday where we went to this house while we were finding and just taught this lady. I thought she was like 50 years old but it turned out she was really 71 and the grandmother, not the mother. She was healthy. We taught her just about Prophets and Eternal Families and Jesus Christ and she seemed really touched by it all. Then we found out she lived in Aklan so she happily gave us her address so we'll have missionaries visit her there. I'm excited for her.
Saturday afternoon after lunch we tried going to some appointments but nobody was there, like at 5 different places. Then it started raining and we took cover at Bishop's house. Then Bishop called his wife and was asking for help to get hymn books and an electric piano to a funeral service, so we ran out in the rain and I got soaked, because my umbrella had broke. The rain really gets your shirt dirty. Even if you like only step outside in the rain for like 4 seconds, you are completely drenched, it was crazy. So we helped him get the stuff to the funeral then we ran back across town to try to get one last appointment with a less active family that has an investigator living there. We were able to teach them and it was good because the next day, they came to church! Then we ran back across town to get to the funeral. We had to hurry there and be there, because, well, I was a speaker. I'll tell you something, it's a lot harder to speak at a funeral than at sacrament meeting. I just spoke about the spirit world and resurrection though, so it wasn't too bad. There wasn't a microphone which was hard because since I'm still not too confident with my Ilonggo, I usually still talk a little quietly, but I had to talk loud at the funeral. And I felt weird because some relatives only knew Tagalog so I spoke a little english too. Afterwards, the sister of the woman who died came up to Elder Tiamzon and I and told us how grateful she was for us, which was pretty sweet of her, even though I didn't feel we even did anything. I was wondering why they had me speak because I didn't really know the lady who died, but it was the mother of a really really nice lady in our ward. She's the one who we did the sledgehammer service for and she also made me some homemade peanut butter.
It was also funny at the funeral because I was sitting next to Bro. Bermi, and I looked at his phone and on the background picture or whatever it said Aswang, which is a word I just learned, that means witch. I asked him why and he told me it was his nickname. Like on his mission he said everyone, members and investigators, all called him Aswang. I guess it's because Roxas is kind of known for being haunted around all of the Philippines. Another funny fact is I was talking to this guy from the Cauayan mission (he actually lives in the mission home there) and he found out E. Tiamzon is from Manduluyong City, like near Manila. He told me that that city is known for it's crazy people, but I thought he was just joking until after when we went home we were getting on a tricycle and Elder Tiamzon introduced himself and said Ako si Elder Tiamzon! Taga Manduluyong City ako! Then the trike drive said, oh buang ka? or oh, you're crazy? So I just thought it was funny they have those stereotypes for like cities and stuff.
Dad sent me a letter talking about trabaho and obre. I thought that was pretty cool, I really like how things work in different languages. I kind of miss Tagalog because it had more of set rules, and cool little tricks. Like in Tagalog, there is a word Ipaliwanag, which is to explain. The root is liwanag, which means light, and when you congugate it that way it means to like shed light on something, or explain. I also thought that was funny because Trabaho is Tagalog and obra is Ilonggo, so they mean the same thing, just too work if its a verb or like your occupation as a noun.
He also said something about trying to finish the New Testament by the end of the year. Which would be sweet. I might be able to do that too. I love just reading from the scriptures, but it's hard because some days, I try to figure out how to help a person, or I study from Preach My Gospel, so I don't get to just straight read too often. But I'll just do it when I can. Also Jared's band show sounds sweet this year so be sure to video it or something so I can see it in a couple years or whatever. Right now it seems I'm having a lot more like cultural experiences than super spiritual experiences, I know you said you liked to hear those more. It's kind of hard to explain everything to people and it seems there confused a lot of why we are at there house as missionaries. Sometimes they don't keep commitments or they just say they believe stuff or will do stuff just to please us, as missionaries, and not because they have a desire to follow Christ. It makes it hard because they need that sincere desire in order to know these things are true. I talked a little about the rule last time of going to church 4 weeks in a row. This one person was suppose to be baptized on Saturday, and the zone leader told her during splits on Tuesday that if she went to church this week, she could be baptized, even though it wasn't 4 weeks in a row. So on church Saturday, she came to church like 25 minutes late then left right after sacrament meeting. Elder Tiamzon said that was good and she could be baptized but I didn't really feel good about it. I mean it would be really nice to see her baptized and see the fruit of our labors, but I don't want another less active to join the ward. Because if she's baptized and doesn't go to church, it really won't help her too much in the long run. I think that's why we have the rule, because I'd like to have a sure knowledge that if I got transferred or something, or when I go home, that the people that were baptized know the commitment they are making and are now active members of the church. Baptisms aren't really about the members. And even though it's good to be baptized, it's better if the do it knowing they are going to be active members or the church. Anyway, we talked to Elder George again and I told her she only came for half of sacrament meeting and he made the decision that she should go to 3 more weeks of church first. I was really happy about that, even if we don't get a baptism this week. Because it's not about us, it's about her. So things should work out pretty good.
Thanks for the letters and package, I'll open the package later today :D.
Well, I love you all and I better go aquire food for this week.
love,
Elder Burton
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