18 April, 2011

Hey Family,
Just kidding. Hahaha! I hope you thought that was funny. Anyway, this week was really great. I'll tell you all about it again. But I really learned a lot. I want to share one thing I learned in my personal study. So last week I finished the Book of Mormon! :D Anyway, I was reading in Ether 12 about Ether, the prophet. Usually I haven't really noticed this but I really liked in verse 2 about how Ether could not be restrained because of the spirit of the Lord which was in him. I thought about things that might be stopping me from working the most effectively as possible, and what I can do to be better. I thought about what might make me not want to wake up in the morning or do everything I need to do or talk to everyone I can. I was also thinking about investigators and what would stop them from coming to church or stop them from reading the Book of Mormon. Anyway, the answer is simple. We just need the spirit of the Lord, and nothing can stop us from doing what is right. So that's my main goal. I was also reading in Doctrine and Covenants, I don't remember right now, somewhere near the beginning, it was about how the spirit will bring happiness to our lives. Just if you always have the spirit with you, you'll always be happy and excited, which explains why nothing can stop you from spreading it.

Anyway, this week was really good. I want to share a really cool experience that happened on Monday night. You all know about Roxanne right? Roxanne is like a way strong catholic. She goes to activities there like every day. And she's been a way slow process. At first she kind of always fought with us. Like once Elder Jenkins and I taught the 10 commandments, and how you can't pray to idols. She didn't want to give it up. We told her we knew this was right and that she needed to do it. We committed her to live it and to pray if it was right, she said she would, but she would also talk to her preacher. So anyway, Elder Jenkins and I dedicated a companion study once to explain better why we shouldn't do that. But long story short, when we came back, before we said anything, she said, "You're right. We should pray directly to God." And that was that. Another example is the Word of Wisdom with her. She didn't want to give up coffee, she didn't understand why that was bad. She said yeah, drugs and alcohol, but why coffee? Anyway, we told her we knew this came from God, and committed her to live it and pray about it, she said she would try it, but she didn't believe us right there. Anyway, when we came back she said, "You're right, we shouldn't drink coffee. Anyway, last week she told us she was confused because she feels our message is right but she also feels good at the catholic church. She didn't understand what she should do. We taught her but the only thing I felt we should do is we should promise her if she went to conference she would understand. And it happened, but in a way different than I expected. When she went to conference she came an hour early and talked to some sister from Lapaz who was an RM and shared her conversion experience with Roxanne. About how she was the only one in her family who was baptized and then later went on a mission. Long story short, it was exactly what Roxanne needed. And when we followed up with Roxanne before we even asked her anything she told us she wanted to be baptized. And even more, she told us she wanted to go on a mission. It was way cool! It really taught me that the Lord always fulfills his promises, and also that you never know the effect your making on people. I want to meet the good sister from Lapaz one day who really made this difference in Roxanne's life, because she was doing what she was suppose to be doing, and she wasn't afraid to open her mouth and share the testimony she has. It was just a way cool lesson. Unfortunately, Roxanne is going on vacation to Roxas for 2 months so she said when she gets back. But, she committed to read the Book of Mormon and she said she's going to share it with her family there (family reunion). It's way sweet. She's going to be a way strong member.

The rest of the week was pretty good too. We worked with Dave again on Tuesday. He's way sweet. Actually, this time Elder McClellan went with him and I went with Elder Ball. But we had a prettty good day. Elder Ball and I just found. We ended talking to a lot of people, and got some return appointments for a family, so hopefully we'll be able to teach them in the future. One lady we met was working, and we talked to her and asked if we could help but she said she was shy to accept her help. Anyway, I decided to try something else and asked if we could help because I wanted to try doing that, I never had before for my experience. Then she let us help her pack up some oling. Anyway, it was cool. We just found out about her as we helped and got to know her. She said we could come back and teach her. Then we actually found a Jehovah's Witness member. He was a way nice guy and we talked to him for a while and shared with him about the gospel, but he didn't want to sit down with us and talk to him, because he didn't want to argue with us. We tried to explain that we weren't there to argue with him but share and try to learn through the spirit, but he didn't let us in but instead said he has some neighbors who might be interested and walked us to their doors and said, "Hey! You have visitors!" Haha, so he just walked us right in there. It was a whole family which was cool. We talked to them a little and they said we could come back another day. So hopefully they turn out pretty good. Then we had more time so we tracted into this one house with 3 sisters. Each sister was a different religion, so it was interesting. But they seemed pretty interested about what we had to say. We stopped the lesson before we taught Joseph Smith. They wanted to know who he was but we told them to read the pamphlet. They ended up being way excited when we came back yesterday and had read a little and had questions. So it was cool when we taught them yesterday.. They have potential. I think they'll turn out being pretty good investigators.

After that we met back up with Dave and Elder McClellan and taught the "serman on the mount" again. It's really changed. Now we just have a ton of people to teach in Taal, but we don't do them all together. I remember one time I was having trouble memorizing all of their names so I brought some post-it notes and had them all make name tags. haha. Anyway, now it's just one family there, the Po's that we focus on. The dad is always drunk, but he loves us, and we're working slowly with him. I really want to see Brother Po change his life around. I asked him the other day when he wanted to quit smoking and he said when he dies... So he's going to be a slow process, but I love that guy. He's a good man. And I believe he can change. Anyway, we just shared the 10 commandments with them. The 2 daughters, Holy Grace and QueenQueen seem way ready for baptism. They've been to church like 4 times now, and read, and pray. I'm excited for them. Hopefully when Brother Po watches them get baptized, and see's how much they've changed, because they really have, his desire will increase, and when that happens, the rest will be easy, because God will step in and take care of it.

The next day we went on splits again. Elder McClellan went with the member again, Thor, and me and Elder Ball went together. We went and taught this one Sister named Joessa Isubel, who I think I wrote a little about her before. She's way talkative, and it's been hard to take control. But we prayed that we would be able to so we could teach her what she needs to hear. We were able to do that and it was a way good lesson with her. I see her family and her standards and her desires for them, and I see exactly what the gospel will do for them. I'm excited for her and think things will turn out really good. After that we went to see Sallie Constantino again. She's been tough. It's so hard with her because she knows it's all true, we just need her to come to Church!! Anyway, it's been hard to see her week after week not go. Every time I ask her how she is, she says "Buhi pa," which means, "I'm still alive." They are way poor and way hard working, so that day we shared with her about Eternal Potential, and why we keep coming back to her. Because I want her so bad to accept this gospel, to be able to come to church. Because I know with that gift of the Holy Ghost, she'll be such a strong member and example to people here. So I really hope things work out. After that we met up again and taught 2 nieces of one of our members. They are way strong Born-again Christians. They read from the Bible like an hour a day and from 2 other books too. So we've been trying to get them to read from the Book of Mormon. We had all our members, like 5 of them, share how the Book of Mormon change their lives. But still their response when we committed them was, "if we have time." Finally things were out of hand and Elder Ball just said, "Hey! What's your favorite fruit!?!" "Lansones!" "How do you know that?" "Because we tasted it before." "Well, how do you know it's good if you never try it?" And then he said that's what they need to do with the Book of Mormon. It was cool, and helped them understand.

Thursday was tough, in the morning Elder McClellan had a temperature of 101 so I had to find someone to work with me but couldn't. Anyway, Elder Adams and Elder Dueker had someone planned with them so I just took Elder Dueker with me instead. It was a pretty good day anyway. I like Elder Dueker. He's a hard worker and taught me a lot. He shared some good experiences and he's just a way nice Elder. He was just baptized like a couple years ago too. It was good for some of our investigators because he shared with them that he was the first one baptized in his family and then some of his family members followed. He just helped them know that they need to be a good example!

Another cool experience was on Saturday. We've been working with the Vecindario family for a while now. They were the ones that started of with us teaching like 30 kids. But now we're just teaching this family. Anyway, they haven't read the past couple of times but finally they read in 3 Nephi 11!! And more to that, she had a question for us ! :D Anyway, the question was, "Does everyone who ever lived have to be baptized?" Because they thought that wasn't fair because there are people who never had the chance. Anyway, that was perfect! It related right back to the Plan of Salvation and temples and they were like intently listening the whole time. They were way interested because they really applied it to themselves and thought about their reading. It was way cool lesson. We also taught the Po's again on Saturday and went over the Baptismal Interview Questions with them. They are so ready for baptism. I am way excited for them. Tomorrow with them we told them we would do a testimony meeting with them. I am excited for that too!

Sunday was a good day all in all. The morning was kind of funny. We arrived at the church and there was this one guy there standing at the door. I recognized him. He's a little bit crazy. He said to me, "Elder Burton! Look! I got a haircut but I haven't finished it yet." He had like a shaved head with like a ton of random patches of hair on his head. It was way ridiculous. In the words of Elder Adams, the AP, "It looks like he tried to cut his hair with a weed wacker. Anyway, I thought that was weird. haha. Anyway, church was great again. And after church was good too. Elder McClellan went with bishop and found a lot of less actives. Elder McClellan told me it was weird because usually at gates of houses we call people to come out, because no doorbell, so we say, "tag balay." I'm not sure what that means but balay means house. And Elder McClellan said one time bishop called at a house and said, "Tag House!" He said that was kind of funny. Anyway, it was good because Bishop was able to visit and talk to some less-actives. So an effective day all in all. We also taught Roxanne for the last time before her vacation to Roxas. We talked a lot about baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost. She's way excited. We talked about missionary work and what a big help having the Holy Ghost will be. I gave her like all my pamphlets because she told us she wanted to talk to her entire family about the stuff she's been learning. It's sweet. She's spreading the word like fire and she hasn't even been baptized. The last 2 times she came to church she's brought like 3 friends with her. She's going to be a way strong member and missionary. I'm grateful for the opportunity I had to work with her. I'm way excited to hear about her baptism.

Anyway, I still love the work here and everything that's going on. I love you all.
Take Care!
Elder Burton