Hey Family!
That's crazy! I didn't realize B was already done with his mission. I'm also way excited for Sam. And how is Steve doing? We got interviewed first today and we decided to get out fast and get going. Anyway, this last week we just had was way sweet. I'm so excited for the work right now and I really love our investigators. They are really awesome. And, like I said last week, our members are way pumped too and I had some good experiences with them. And this week was just hilarious and awesome with interviews with our mission president, President Pagaduan and general conference. I'll start with Monday though.
So I told you last week that Roxanne finally went to church, which we've been building up with her for 4 months and excited for the day she finally came. Anyway, on Monday after P-day at 6pm we went and visited with her. She had a lot of questions about church and I guess didn't have the best experience there. She had a ton of concerns like she heard people swearing in the bathroom I guess, and she thought that we shouldn't have 12 year old young men passing the sacrament, and that we should bear testimonies first then do the sacrament. Anyway, I don't remember ever sharing that many personal experiences in one lesson. I guess what we can call what we taught Roxanne that night was learning in the church. And how God made it like that so we can learn to become better, not because we're perfect, or on the same levels, but we are all united in trying to become closer to our savior and enter the celestial kingdom in the next life. Anyway, by the end of the lesson she understood everything and was excited to go to general conference next week. Anyway, I want to share what I shared with Roxanne from when I was a kid. Because she noticed maybe not all the deacon's understood what they were doing and there should be old guys doing it. I shared about when I was a deacon, and how slowly as I did it every week I began to understand how important what we were doing actually was. Passing the sacrament to the members of the church, what it really means to them. But what really stood out to me that I should share was one experience when I was a priest. If you remember Bishop would always ask us to take the sacrament to peoples houses after church who were sick. One week Bishop asked me and it was Justin LeBaron with me that time to take the sacrament to some other lady. She hadn't been to church in a while, I remember, but we said we would do it. I don't know if before we did I understood how important what we were actually doing was, but Bishop asked, and we said yes. So we went to her house and we saw her outside like in her garden. I remember thinking, "This lady isn't even sick, we don't need to come here." By I was wrong. Bishop holds keys for the ward and he sent us there for a reason. So Justin and I approached her and told her we brought her the sacrament. I won't forget her reaction. She was just so grateful and I know she felt the love of the ward and the love of God for her. As we blessed the sacrament there were tears streaming down her face. I felt blessed to be a part of this small thing I was asked to do and realized how important what I was doing was. This is something this woman really needed back in her life. And I know it was God's work for us. So I shared that with Roxanne and told her every member is given responsibilities. None of them are perfect, but it helps them grow and become better. One of her classmates, for example, has been a convert for less than a year, but right now she teach's young woman. We shared about that and she really understood. It was just a good lesson overall and she shared her confusion. Because she believes what we're teaching her is true and it's good, but she also feels good at her church, she's a strong member there. So keep Roxanne in your prayers that she can make the right decision. We committed her to come to conference though and she did, so hopefully that helped her. After that we taught John and Mercy Patria, I really love them. They are a way happy great new family and even though they don't have a lot, they are way happy. We taught them faith. We just need them to find a way to get off work on Sunday and then they can be baptized. Actually the godfather of Kate and Kyla, their kids, is name is Butch, whose hilarious and we are trying to teach him too. Anyway, he told us that John and Mercy aren't fighting anymore because they are just reading the Book of Mormon together all the time. haha. It's awesome.
On Tuesday we had a pretty excellent day. We worked with a ton of ward missionaries again. We thought it would just be Dave Ramos, but his sister Nenita came, and also Bonbon his cousin, and also Julie Anne, who just came back to church a couple months ago and is now way active and cool. I love them. The first appointment was pretty insane, because there were 7 of us, but Dave said they use to do it all the time with Elder Booth, the last AP, and the investigators loved it haha. Anyway, we taught a couple good lessons, we actually split for a while and met up for our last lesson with Holy Grace and QueenQueen Po and also Darleen Picarra. They are being baptized on the 30th. They are like my favorite investigators. They have really changed in the past month and a half. Anyway, it was finally time to teach them the Law of Chastity. I was grateful we had members with us. Anyway, they committed to live it and it was a good lesson. It was awkward during one part because we were saying to them, "Well, before your married, you not really supposed to..." and then a random lady walked past and just said it, "Yeah, you can't ..." She wasn't even a member. Anyway, it was just way bold, but... correct. So they committed to live it and they have way strong testimonies. I'm excited for them.
Later that week was good and we just continued inviting people to General Conference and had some really good lessons. But I want to talk about Friday. We were busy that day because we had interviews with President. Anyway, we had planned that we wanted to give the Delacruz Family a baptismal commitment. Anyway, I really wanted Elder McClellan to do it so that was our goal. We watched Finding Faith in Christ with them and then bore testimony a little. Then Elder Ball jumped in and made sure they understand Faith and then we tried to let Elder McClellan do it. He asked them the question, "What is the plan of salvation?" I think he might of forgot that he was going to commit them because it went way off topic and they started talking about guardian angels. So I took control and talked about the Holy Ghost and Him as a constant companion after we are baptized. Then I just stopped and stared at Elder McClellan. I did not want to be the one to commit them. Anyway, finally I just whispered to him, "JUST COMMIT THEM!!" Anyway, so Elder McClellan built up his courage and just looked at them and said in Ilonggo, "Will you...." And then the investigator cut him off and said, "be baptized? Yes.. when?" haha! Then Elder McClellan said the date and I just thought it was awesome. I was way stoked. Anyway, it was great, they went to conference too on Sunday.
Then we went to interviews and that was a sweet experience. President told me I had to write home and say he's grateful for the example we've been and for the hard work we've been doing. He says he knows dilligence makes a difference. Anyway, it's cool because President always see's me and is like, "Hey batch!" Since we were at the MTC together. :D Anyway, I loved it. After that we got out and worked. We saw this new guy we found on a Saturday night the other week who went to church the next day named Mike. We talked about the Book of Mormon with him and it was a pretty good lesson. We had some members with us and they testified to him and by the end he's was saying how excited he was to read it and he said by next time we visit he wants to be done with all of first Nephi. He's awesome man. He came to conference too on saturday and on sunday. By the way, conference was way awesome. I loved the talks. I really loved priesthood, I can't wait till we get a Liahona next month.
On Saturday we got to go on exchanges in our area since there were Elders hanging out in Iloilo so they could watch conference. I worked with this Elder named Elder Wilson, who is Elder Balls batch. He's a great elder. He's frustrated right now because he feels like he's working hard, doing all he can, but the work just isn't going to fast in his area. He was jealous of our investigators. I was able to share with him thats how it is. It's hard to see people who don't like follow the rules get a ton of success, and when you feel your doing what your suppose to, things will eventually work out. Elder Jenkins and I and then with Elder McClellan all we did was tract all day, but now after 3 months of doing that we finally have a couple good investigators. It was come, we just got to be patient. Because God's not a liar. But Elder Wilson taught me a lot. He's way dilligent and I know he won't give up. Anyway, we had good lessons that day. We taught John Tipon, who went to conference too :D, but we really focused on the Book of Mormon, that's what we feel he really needs. We planned on teaching lesson 3. But as we followed up his Book of Mormon reading, I felt we just needed to read from 3 Nephi 27. So that's what we did. We read and in verses 13-15 I think it talks about the gospel of Jesus Christ is that Christ was lifted on the cross to draw men to him. It was way powerful and we committed him to be baptized. He said he wants to but even though he's 26 he wants to make sure it's cool with his family. We're going to try to teach his family next week even though he said they don't want to listen to us really. Keep him in your prayers too.
Sunday was sweet again. We had a great day. After conference Holy Grace and them had a great experience and asked if we were going to visit them later that afternoon. That was cool I like it when investigators do that. Ask us for a return appointment. Anyway, they had a good time there. So in the afternoon we taught them about tithing, which was perfect because there was a talk on that so it was way easy. They payed good attention to conference so it was really good. We started the lesson talking about things we were grateful for and went around the circle talking about it. We said things about family, food, friends, and stuff like that and when it was Elder McClellan's turn he said "happiness." Anyway, they weren't satisfied with that and they asked him what made him happy. Elder Ball murmured on the side, "cats." Anyway, then Elder McClellan said something about how that is true and i guess he found out his parents just started a "Cat Sanctuary" in their home so they have like 30 cats/kittens there. Anyway, I just lost it when he said that and just started laughing.
Then we taught tithing and it was a good lesson. They asked us how they should pay, every week or what? It was cool, they were excited to pay their tithing. Sometime in the middle of the lesson this girl like 12 years old or something walked in and had a sea shell. Suddenly she accidently dropped it on the floor and it was way quiet. When she dropped it this HUGE cockroach crawled out of that and between all of us over the floor. When it was out of sight Elder McClellan was just like, "ugh." It was just way hilarious, everyone started laughing. Anyway, it was a good lesson and they are really going to get baptized. I wish we could get Brother Po too, Holy Grace's dad. He really likes me, but he always is drunk. So it's hard. But he's way cool and he said he just wants to drink but he'll suppport his kids in whatever they do as long as they are happy. So he's way nice. Overall, it was just a way good week. We even got a meal appointment on Sunday. I guess the work is moving so fast in our ward that the stake president wants to split it and make Molo 3rd ward. I hope they don't do it for a while because all the members live in one baranggay and they are most of our fellowshippers. Because most of our investigators live in a baranggay called Taal, but there isn't a single member there. But there will be a lot soon. Anyway, thats mostly it. I just want to tell you I really love you and thanks for all your support. I'm going to try to send some letters in a couple of weeks. I fell behind, we don't have much time, so sorry about that. But thanks for all you do.
Love,
Elder Burton
So my ward is not the mission office. We are Molo 2nd ward. The AP, Elder Adams and the Supply Manager, Elder Gowey are there with us three. Then in Molo 1st ward there are 4 missionaries. 2 office elders, Elder Arrieta and Elder Ellsworth, like financial secretary and mission secretary. Then Elder Dueker and Elder Adams are there, who are regular elders like me. Then Arevalo ward is where the office is, it's further away. But that's where the other AP is with the Mission Recorder (Elder De los Santos and Elder Eror <--- my follow up :D) And then Elder Scott, our DL and his bata, Elder Montecer. So that's how it works, there is a lot of wards here. And that's basically our district. So there are 5 missionaries in our ward right now.
Anyway, the sermon on the mount. Yeah, I guess me and Elder McClellan started that. We started off teaching like 6 people when we were tracting and got a return appointment. When we came back there was like twice as many people there so we just shared about Joseph Smith. Actually it was a little hard because we tried to really focus on who was ready, and who came to church, or who was actually interested. We let everyone and tried to get it so we could teach them at their homes with their families. A couple people let us go and teach them seperately, and it just turned out real good. Basically everyone in the Baranggay lets us teach them, because they know we are teaching the Po's, or John Tipon, or John and Mercy, or the Fondales, or the Bicarra. So it's way cool. Anyway, that's how it started, and now the Po's are getting baptised. They've been to church like 4 times total now. I guess a waiting shed is mostly like the pavilion at the church back home. People just sit there and talk and we just came and talked to them and we sat down right there and taught them. It's like a little central stop for a lot of people to hang out. And their houses all surround it. Anyway, Holy Grace and QueenQueen like invite people to come and listen with them. They actually brought John Tipon to conference with them too. When they are baptized I think the area will take of even faster than it is. It was crazy how that all started out but now things are going crazy there. I love those people. That baranggay is sweet. Taal!
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