Hey Fam,
Okay, I'll buy some shoes, haha. I'm glad your week went well, and I'm excited that you got to go to the temple. I got your Dear Elders from the past two weeks today, I'll read them later today, so I'm excited to see what happens, happened, to you.
Oh, Elder McClellan and I finally found out where the bald prophet is during lunch. 2 Kings 2:23. It's a crazy story.
We had a way good interesting week, from seeing a kid run into a wall, to almost getting robbed, to getting punched in the crotch, to my companion saying some weird things while he testified, weird excuses for church, and also, seeing people come unto Christ and make steps to accept His gospel in their lives.
I guess I'll start from the beginning though. We had a long p-day just because we had trouble finding an open internet shop for some reason. But after that we went and to try to teach John and Mercy Patria. They weren't home, they went to visit Mercy's parents in Oton, so instead we tried talking to John's brother, Joenil, and his wife, Irene, who is pregnant with a baby coming in May. It was really cool teaching them. They were way good, they were quiet at first, but as we got to know them they seemed pretty interested in the gospel. It was funny at first, before we started, I was trying to learn about Joenil and tried to ask him what he likes to do, and he kept saying his hobbie was to listen to the words of God. :D Anyway, we talked and he became more comfortable, and it was way good and they seem really interested. We saw them one other time that week, on Sunday, but it has a story behind it... so later.
Tuesday was way good. I may have told you about a new family, the Delacruz family. They do barbecue as their work and sell like chicken blood, intestine, and whatnot. But we're working with the family. The dad always leaves the room, well, it's a 1-room-house, so I guess he steps in this back area and says he has work always, but we're still working on talking to him. He'll find interest eventually. Their 17-year-old kid, Jean, is way interested in the message though, and they have a 9-year-old girl, Marie May, she's way cute, and always excited to see us. Those two came to church last week. They are a great family. Just keep them in your prayers that we can get the dad in there. Anyway, Marie May and Jean said they had a way good time at church and wanted to come next week. I also looked at Jean's Book of Mormon and it was all marked up, so I was just thinking, wow. That's way cool. And really happy that she took the steps to try to know for herself.
Later, we taught the Heyres family. Who haven't been to church for a couple of months. I guess they are discouraged about money and trying to get to the temple since they don't really have a job, anyway, it was really sad. Brother had moved back to some of his old habits before he was baptized and we had found him a couple weeks ago and he really regretted what he did. But this week we went and shared with them, and then asked him about his reading in the Book of Mormon. He had been waiting for this and shared with us about him reading about the Brother of Jared and how great his faith was. He was impressed by that and said it really hit him hard, and helped him remember things. And this Sunday, he and his whole family came to church again. I was so happy to see that. It's amazing to see what God and what the power of the scriptures through the holy ghost can do it the lives of people.
Wednesday was intense again. Because it was leadership for the other half of the mission, we had to go on exchanges again. On Wednesday I went with Elder Runia, he's huge. He is a Zone Leader in Antique and has been there a long time, so he was Karay'a speaking, but he was still way good, I learned a lot from him. That night the leaders went to Arevalo for dinner but me and Elder McClellan had 1 more appointment we had to go to. It was this Iglesia ni Cristo member and he was just going crazy on me. He kept reading like 1 scripture to me over and over in the bible in like Acts 20:28 that means their church is true. We just testified that the way we know our message is true is through prayer. I was grateful that the testimony I have of the truthfulness of this church was gained through a spiritual confirmation. It makes me so comforted that God doesn't want us to be this confused, and that's why he gave us more of his word. Anyway, after we testified we committed him to at least read and pray about our message. He also said next time we came, (in 2 days :/ ) He is going to bring his preacher with us, so I'm a little nervous, but we'll just tell them what we know to be true. To do that I don't need to be a preacher, I don't have to be the smartest cookie, I just need God's help and strength. And they can't argue with that.
Thursday was good too. I worked with Elder Misbach. He's probably the most hilarious Elder I've ever met. He taught me a lot about having fun and being way happy as we work. He's a Zone Leader too in Iloilo North Zone. So the teachings were way good. He kept telling me stuff, and I was wondering if I should write that down. But he said before I write down anything that he says to me I should ask him permission if I can write that down. So I asked him if I could and he told me to write that down. He's just a cool guy and a way good teacher.
I guess Friday is when one weird thing happened, actually 2 weird things. Elder McClellan always has a flashlight in his pocket. Anyway, we went to go share with this one less-active family, the Sanz, who have like 18 kids. Anyway, the youngest 2 are twins, they are way cute, I've probably sent you a picture of them. Kapid and Negro. Anyway, so these kids always play with his flashlight and steal it and have fun with it because it's like the coolest thing ever. Anyway, as we were talking to the parents, one of the kids was shining his light on the wall, on the dingding, and the other kid just ran up to go get the light and he just like ran into the wall, me and Elder McClellan just busted up. It was just hilarious. Then later we decided to share with them the story of Nephi when his brother are angry and tie him up and Nephi prays, and busts the bands, and then he forgives his brothers. Anyway, we worked on that then had Elder McClellen share that story with them. When he shared it, he made a little mistake. There is a word uba (naked), and a word guba (destroy), there is a conjugation, mag and also a conjugation ma. So when Elder McClellan shared the story, instead of saying that ma-GUBA the bands, he said that Nephi mag-uba, which means instead of Nephi breaking the bands, Nephi got naked in the bands. :O. Anyway, I don't think anyone really noticed too much.
Then the weird thing on Saturday, is we were sharing with some less-actives, and Elder McClellan started testifying about the Book of Mormon. He then suddenly started speaking english. And he said, with power, "I know that the Book of Mormon, is blue." I looked at him and he just grinned and stuck his tongue out. Oh my, I am so proud of my son. So later that night we also taught John Tipon, he's doing good. Keep him in your prayers, he is so close to baptism, he wants to and understands why it's important. He knows it's true. He's just scared about his families reaction. So keep up with him. Then we taught what I call the Serman on the Mount, just because it's at a waiting shed, every time we go there someone is there, then they text everyone, and there's like 20 people there. Anyway, last week a lot of them went to church, so it's working, even though we're working on spreading it out and teaching more individual families. It's working on that. Everyone in that area loves the missionaries, and want to hear from us.
So Sunday was the interesting day. In the morning we tried to stop by some LA's and Investigators before church and invite them. Down this one street in South San Jose there are always little kids running past us, so as we walked down this thin street I didn't pay to much attention to look down, because I always look up so 1. I don't hit my head all the time like I did my 1st transfer. and 2. Well, I guess that's the only reason, there is no 2. But as it turns out, I made a bad decision. Because one of the twins ran past me and just punched me in a bad place. I had to sit down a couple of minutes. I also picked up Kapid after he did that and threw him in the fish pond. Well, actually, just kidding, I didn't. But I did think about it. After that we had church, which was awesome, then we went home, I made delicious fried rice. And then we went to Taal to meet with some investigators. As we were walking down this one street I suddenly heard a "Ziipp!" behind me. I turned around and there was a guy right there. My bag was open. I put one hand in my bag to make sure everything was there. (Acutally, all that was in there was my scriptures, so I don't know what he would have took.) Then I just walked at him and asked him, "What are you doing?!" In Ilonggo. Anyway, it was crazy. But he just ran away. But I wish I could have given him a pamphlet first. :D Anyway, you remember Joenil, well he saw that and came running up and asked if everything was okay. He and his friend. We said yeah, it's cool. Then we went to their house and shared with him. Joenil had read and prayed and also shared his pamphlet with his friend and read and prayed, so it was way cool. We have a FHE with them tonight, members are coming with us, it's going to be way cool. It was scary the robbing because that was the first time that kind of thing ever happened to me here. I guess I got to be more careful.
After that we just followed up on this one girl. So everyone in Taal has a real name but no one knows each others real name except us really, but they all have a nickname or a hayo. (like John's family, John, Joenil, and they have a sister, but their nicknames are Dodoy, Doday, and Dadoy. hehe.) Anyway, this girls name is Jussie (like Juicy) and her hayo is Sweet. I thought that was funny. Anyway, so we walked but her house to talk and see why she didn't go to church. We were talking to her while she did her laundry and she was telling us good methods of washing clothes. Anyway, suddenly she just said, Sorry indi ako nagsimba, naglupot ako kagina. I didn't laugh too much because it's common excuse. But Elder McClellan didn't understand so she said it in English, Yeah, I had LBM this morning, or like diarahaahahaeh (sp?) Anyway, Elder McClellan thought that was funny. I told her because in America, people are more shy to tell you that they had LBM. So it was just kind of funny how blunt they are. Yeah, I had LBM. So it's cool. Anyway, she's good and I think she'll be baptized in the future. Anyway, that's really cool.
I have one more testimony to you all. That is that it IS a good idea to learn a bunch of useless talents. Like, example, solving a Rubik's cube. Yeah, I learned that in college one day from my roommate Terry right? Anyway, we had some people who had one and were working on it and then we talked, and it led to me solving it before their very eyes, and then we just got talking and eventually it moved into the gospel and we shared with them :D. So if you want to learn a useless talent, just know, the Lord will use us for what we know, so just keep learning new things every day, you'll never know how'll they will help you in the future. Anyway, that's all I have to share. We're getting filled up here with appointments. I guess my testimony to you all is Nephi's advice in being diligent in keeping the commandments of God. I don't know if you know, but we had 6 weeks in this area in a row with like 0 investigators coming to church. It was a real hard thing for me seeing some missionaries not working to hard but having investigators, having success, but not seeing growth in our area. But I know the Lord fulfills his promises. That work we did planted seeds and our area is taking of right now. It's going great, I love it. I love this work. It's not just good, it's fun too. I think it's good to have fun. And I am. Thanks for all you do. Love you!
Elder Burton
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