8 November 2010

Hey Family,
I have pictures uploading now. They probably aren't too good, and my hair probably looks really bad because I have so much balhas. (Hey I'm going to use Ilonggo words now a lot since you have a translator right? And it makes me seem really impressive even though I'm not so sagad yet. :D ...okay, that means sweat) Things have gone pretty well here in Roxas this week. But still hard. I'll tell you why things have been kind of hard for me lately. I really don't like to complain, but I'll tell you because I thought it ends up being a funny story.

So ever since Elder Tiamzon was made District leader, he's like listened to my advice less and less. About what I think we should teach investigators and other things too. Like we have this one family, whose son was shot and they are having financial problems because of it. (Other problems too, I reckon.) So the past 4 times we've visited them we just shared like Proverbs 3:5-6 and to trust in the Lord and everything will work out. So we haven't started teaching them anything else. I was thinking about them and asked Elder Tiamzon if we could share about the Plan of Salvation and relate it to them, I told him some ideas about that and what I had planned in my personal study. And then he said we can't start sharing the gospel with them because they still have a problem. I asked him "Why, can't the gospel help them overcome there problems?" But he decided we'd just share the same scripture we've shared the past 4 time. I think he doesn't like to share with people unless their like perfect. Like this other guy drinks, and Elder Tiamzon doesn't want to start teaching him till he stops drinking. I don't know, I think it's okay to share with him if he's not drunk. And by inviting him to come unto Christ will help him have the desire to stop. Trust me, I share this stuff with him, but he ignores me a lot. Oh well, things are coming along. I just try my best, it's still hard since I'm the junior and still am not to talented at Ilonggo.

Oh, so the funny part. So, our zone leaders asked us to do weekly service at our apartment once a month and clean it really good. So we have like 10 foam pads in our apartment that we sleep on and have extra because missionaries from other areas always stay here. So we washed all the coverings of the pads and for some reason Elder Tiamzon put the pads on the roof because he said the sun would kill the germs or something. Then we washed the coverings and hung them up and cleaned other parts of the house. Then we had lunch and got ready to work for the afternoon. It was a really hot day with like no clouds in the air (theres a picture, so you can see the view from our roof and like all the pads) but before we left I asked Elder Tiamzon if we should take the pads off the roof since it might rain. Since I'm from Colorado, I know you can't really trust the weather. He told me that he knew it wasn't going to rain! I said, "yeah it doesn't look like it, but it's better to be safe than sorry right?" He said, "Yes, it is." Then he walked out to the roof, looked outside again, and said he's positive it's not going to rain. I asked again if he was sure, we're going to be gone for 10 hours you know? and he said yes, I'm sure. I said "well, I'm going to be safe because I want to sleep on a foam matress tonight!" So I took 1 matress inside to sleep on. So we went out and worked and around 7pm in the middle of a lesson it started raining. yeah, it rained. I didn't say anything till the lesson finished and afterwards I said, "Hey, Elder Timazon, yeah your matresses are getting destroyed. Ginaguba ang imo mga matress." He was like oh no! And started just running home. It was funny. As we were running he told me this is the second time he has had to run home because he left matresses on the roof and it rained. I thought that was kind of funny. That the same thing happened in his last area too. I had a dry matress at home and I felt kind of bad sleeping on it because he slept on the hard wood, but I warned him like 3 times! So it was kind of funny. But we did miss an a teaching opportunity because of it which isn't good. Kind of annoying. But that is the fruit of not listening to eachother. But things still haven't got too much better. I just say what I say and hope things happen.

Like another thing is we are suppose to focus on males and families, because our ward needs a stronger priesthood and there is a rule that we are not suppose to visit females unless a responsible male adult is with us. So we've talked about that a lot but every time we contact he talks to like the 20 year old girls who we notice because they yell at me and tell me I'm gwapo! So it's awkward for me a lot. But anyway, one time Elder Tiamzon did that again and I was a little tired of it (because I've told him like 1732.35 times, but he always tells me he doesn't know why God gives us these 20 year old female investigators, and I shouldn't question God. can't say much to that right?) so, anyway, I talked to somebody else, a like 25 year old guy and his cousin. I talked to them just about their families and work and later found out that he had a friend in Manila who had given him a Book of Mormon. He said he had no idea what it was though. Next thing I know I was talking about Jesus Christ and how he visited the people in Ancient America and how the Book of Mormon testifies of Jesus Christ. It was really cool because it was like the first time I had really gone from just talking to someone then testifying about a part of the gospel. Because usually Elder Tiamzon doesn't let me talk too much except to say, oh, I'm Elder Burton, I'm from Colorado" Then they say, oh California?, and I say, no, Colorado, but it's close to California." So it was a really cool experience for me. And like as I was talking about the Book of Mormon they all seemed really interested. Then Elder Tiamzon noticed I was talking to like 5 people about the Book of Mormon and he just came over and started talking for 45 minutes without taking a breath! It's hard for me to get in, but I try. Then after 45 minutes we asked if we could share more with them and he tryed to get them to say and opening prayer. As soon as we said the opening prayer, everybody left to go to dinner. But hopefully we planted a seed and can talk to them again but we weren't able to schedule an appointment.

This week we had zone conference too, which was really good. I really liked it. The APs talked about teaching by the spirit it was really cool the way they did it. He compared the conversion stories of Zeezrom and Alma the Younger and how for one the whole earth like shook and an angel came down and spoke with the voice of thunder and for the other experience, missionaries just taught with the voice of the spirit. And the result was exactly the same. That's how powerful teaching by the spirit can be. President Pagaduan talked about being unified, especially being united in purpose. That's probably something I need to work on because even though I'm different than Elder Tiamzon and I have a different teaching style, we do have the same purpose, and we'll just work with what we got. He also made each of us say a one word compliment to our companion. Afterwards he told us that Sister Pagaduan whispered in his ear that he is very gwapo (handsome). He told us about that and said that "I am now confident that I is very gwapo. I'm not saying that for himself, but for Sister Pagaduan, because she is very gwapa, and gwapo and gwapa should marry, right? I'm not saying I'm gwapo for myself though, I'm saying it because I know that Sister Pagaduan has very high standards.... when it comes to physical appearance." Anyway, I just think president pagaduan is hilarious. Another story is when we were practice teaching and Elder Tiamzon was teaching me and I was pretending to be an investigator. I like practice teaching because it's my chance to help Elder Tiamzon do things without like telling him to do them, if that makes sense. Like when I'm the investigator, I kind of lead Elder Tiamzon into doing certain things with that investigator that I think is a good idea for them, so I ask him questions I notice the investigators might have. Anyway I asked Elder Tiamzon a question and as he was thinking about it and President Pagaduan paused us. I don't think he understands Ilonggo yet because what he said to us was this. "Good job! Elder Tiamzon, I can tell you are thinking really hard about the answer because you are blinking a lot more than usual." The way he said it was hilarious, then he left. I thought it was funny. Anyway, it was a fun zone conference.

When I first arrived here I got a letter from dad saying like that some of us who too had like a native companion as our trainers on our mission were smiling as we read your letter. At first that kind of annoyed me, but now I understand more. Like when I arrived, I was the only like American/Philipino elder companionship in my entire zone, everyone else was Pinoy/Pinoy or Kano/Kano, and I guess 1 Australian/Kano. So I didn't really understand, but at zone conference the Kalibo zone combined with ours and I saw some elders who were 6 weeks behind me at the MTC. 1 of them was being trained by a pinoy. As he told us stories about his companion, everyone thought it was so weird. I didn't really, because a lot of his problems sounded exactly the same as problems I had and still have. But some I have overcome so I gave him some advice. I kind of smiled a little too when I heard about his experiences, though mine are a little different. So it was funny. Plus at zone conference the food was delicious!

That's all that really happened this week. I tried to take more pictures but I don't really like taking pictures. But I'll do it for you. Since you want to see me. I understand why, because everyone here thinks I'm soooo gwapo. And that I have the biggest nose on the planet. Well, actually it is pretty big. Dang, thanksgiving, I read in your letter. I wish we had Senior couples here because there used to be senior couples before the mission split but we should get some too. Some older missionaries told me on thanksgiving the senior couples always made them delicious food. Haha, oh well. I actually did it those squid flakes, they were delicious. I've had regular squid too, it was actually one of my favorite things I've eaten here in the seafood capital. Anyway, that's really all.

I love you and I'm excited to talk to you next transfer. Everyone here has been counting down till Christmas since september. And tell me quick when G&G get their mission call. It's weird for me not to have had snow yet this year too. :P

Love you all,
Halong!
Elder Burton