Hey Family!
This week has been really good. I got your letter about the mission experience of the elder planning and telling the Lord where we were going to be. Usually for us we are always able to plan who we are going to visit at certain times a day, but we do get "punted" a lot! So what we tried to do after reading that was work on praying for more 'unplanned' opportunities to share the gospel.
On Tuesday was the first time I really tried it. We, like always, have who we are going to visit mapped out and usually we have back-ups to. But we tried the praying and asking for help. So at our first appointment it turned out that the person wasn't there. But we planned to talk to everyone anyway and the kid who was there was telling us she wasn't there so next time. We then just started talking to him just about regular stuff and finally we got into his house and taught him a little bit, which was sweet. So then we finished and were able to go to our next appointment, which we got "punted" from again! So we talked to these two other people who were like just hanging out in front of the house and were able to teach them a little bit too. Then our third appointment was there, and we asked him for another opportunity, or a referral, and he gave us one, and we went and talked to that guy and we gave him a pamphlet and talked to him and he said we could come back. Then we went to our fourth appointment and were "punted" again! But we taught the cousin of the person who we were able to teach 3 lessons this week and she always reads and already accepted a baptismal commitment. Then we taught the rest of the day and were able to get the same amount of lessons that we would of if we didn't get "punted!" So, things do work out pretty good.
I'm actually excited right now because we are teaching this family that we found in a really cool way. Actually the wife is a member but she hadn't been to church since she has come to Roxas. But Elder Tiamzon and I were walking down the street and she talked to us and asked where our church was and after talking to her for a while, we found out she was a member. That was about 8 weeks ago. I had wrote down her name in my planner and number and we texted her and invited her to church, but she works every Sunday at the market selling whatnot. So then right before Elder Tiamzon's transfer we went to their house and found out that Sister would only be here at night because she sold at the market. So then like a couple days after Elder Eror arrived, we went to their house and met her husband and kids, who aren't members yet. We taught them a couple times and did a FHE with them where we shared the temple edition from the Liahona with them. Before Sunday, we committed them to go to church. The father seemed really willing to go to church but the sister was a little hesitant because she had work and she would just text them. Oh, I forgot to mention, they live at a "boarding house" because the father is a janitor at the college so there are like a bunch of college aged kids in there too. One of them seems really really interested in our message. So on Sunday we went to their house before church and they all came, except sister :(, and then one of the boardmates came too. Then we had other investigators at church too. Some came with members and then one came on her own! It was exciting. Like three times more at church then we've ever had before! I don't know what's happened. But things are going so good. It was especially good because it was fast and testimony meeting!
After church we had our meeting with the Ward Mission Leader, Brother Bermi, again. He was really happy with church today and the work moving along. Bishop was mentioning in priesthood how we really need to strengthen our priesthood and we need more leadership. It really hit me how important what I'm doing in, like just later effects too, and the strength of our ward too. How important it is to find potential priesthood holders and help strengthen the leadership in our ward. But we have really strong members. Like Brother Bermi is a councelor in the Elders quorum, like the ward clerk, the Ward Mission Leader, and he teaches gospel doctrine, and he works with us every thursday. Anyway, he gave some great advice to us during the meeting and afterwards he offered the prayer. He said "bless the missionaries to remain hard working and very handsome." Which cracked me up. I love it when people here pray in English. We had one LA named Hamil (okay he's really hilarious, I love his english) Like he prayed that we could be protected from vicious people. And he showed me a picture of his half-sister and said, look Elder Burton, this is the fruit of their love. Awkward! But it kind of funny. I love their english haha. I asked Brother Bermi about his prayer and he told me in district meetings I should do that kind of thing. He told me to pray "that the sisters can bring delicious food to the district meetings, to feed to the elders." I think I wanted to try in, I think Elder Eror knew I wanted to too, probably why I didn't pray at the district meeting this morning.
So one more funny story. I went to this LA/PM family with Elder Eror last night and we started talking with them. I knew their last name and I knew one of the brother's first name was Rolando, but I wasn't sure who was who. So we asked again and it turned out these 2 brothers, both their names were Rolando, and their fathers name was Rolando too. The father was Rolando Gabriel senior. Then the oldest son who is in manila (who wasn't there) is Rolando Gabriel Jr. Then the 21 year old is Rolando Gabriel the 3rd. And then the 18 year old is Rolando Gabriel the 2nd. Yeah, I didn't do that wrong. The older one is the 3rd and the younger one is the 2nd. I asked them how that worked but I didn't understand what they were saying. I also asked them what happens when they Dad calls the name Rolando! and if they all just run to him. They just laughed. They didn't seem to think it was as weird as I did.
I feel like I'm improving like crazy lately, like a lot faster than before. My voice is like dead at the end of the day from talking so much. It's cool because a lot of the people I talk to are people I knew my first day in the Philippines, when I didn't know a single word in Ilonggo. It's really sweet being able to listen and speak and just like actually be a help in the hands of the Lord, instead of, like it says in Preach my Gospel, another Elder's quiet companion. I know I still need to rely on God a lot still, because there is so much I don't know, like still a lot of words I don't know. Plus, when I do know all the words, I still need to rely on him because I don't know all these investigators completely and what they need, but God does, and hopefully through my companion and I, these people are hearing what they need to hear, and understand what they need to do. And feel the spirit testify to them through us.
One investigator we have I've been thinking about. This investigator has been one for a really long time. Just like 7-8 weeks before I arrived in the Philippines. So I've seen her learning. She confuses me a little bit still, not her Ilonggo or anything, but with her thinking. She says she kind of half believes its true. But not completely. And she says she still hasn't receive an answer to her prayers. From questions we've asked her about her understanding and her feelings I believe she has received an answer, but right now she's scared to act and scared to change. We keep teaching her because she always prays and always reads, she just needs a little push and she'll be a great, active member. Anyway, we were talking to her about baptism because last time she had questions and we had left her Moroni 8 to read. After she read she asked us some questions and asked for some scriptures in the bible. We remembered Acts 2:38 about needing to repent of our sins before we are baptized and kind of related that. But then things started to get into debate mode. But we stayed calm and just testified to her thats why a living prophet is so important and that's why we need one so bad. We all agree baptism is necessary to return and live with God, but we need to know how to do it. And God has showed us the right way through a living prophet. That's why every single time we come here we commit you to pray, go to church, and read, so you can know for yourself that it is true. She said she would again and the next day she came to church because we talked about at church there are tons of others who went through the same journey your going through, and if you want to know how they know this is the true church, you can just ask them. Plus we had a recent convert named Ianjay teaching with us. So it was sweet.
Then the next day during personal study I went to the bible and got a ton of references from it about baptism and just wrote it all down on a note card and gave it to her. She can research it herself. I'll just show her how. I'm not a bible scholar! I just know that it's true!
The work is moving along! Thanks for all your prayers and know I pray for you too!
I'm excited to talk to you this Christmas. The zone leaders were saying today for foreigners like myself, we will probably just use skype to call since phones are so expensive. Oh, and I got your package, and grandma's too. On the outside of the boxes, you know, it says what is inside the boxes. Like I saw Elder Andrews box, it said he got "Packaged Food", "Underwear", and "Toys." So that's pretty cool huh?
Anyway, I love you all and have some nice times!
-Elder Burton
Hey I just remembered one other funny story I really wanted to tell you. My companion is still emailing so I'll tell you it.
So we were teaching this former investigator for the first time. Elder Bautista told us about him and told us to try him. So we did and we went to his house. He's really educated and really wants to follow Christ, but he doesn't really want to change. He's like 75 years old. He really likes talking to us and tells us how grateful he is for us because he thinks were like bible masters or something. Or he thinks our spiritual level is like super high, I don't know to much about that, but it was interesting to talk to him. When we left I said to him "Halong ka, no? Which means like, you take care, okay? or whatever. And then he stopped me and said to me that when I leave a place, I shouldn't say halong because it was like pessimistic or like that dangers were ahead or something. He told me instead when I leave a place I should say, "God bless" or "Praise the Lord!" So then when I left I said to him "Praise the Lord!" and it was more fun than saying just Halong! Now I keep saying Praise the Lord when I leave places on accident. I said it after our meeting with Brother Bermi and he just put his hands in the air and like sang "hallelujah" . I guess there's nothing wrong with saying that right?
All right! Praise the Lord!
Elder Burton
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