25 April, 2011

Hey!
Sorry Mom, now I feel really bad. Palihog pasayloan mo ako sa akon nga pagkadungol. Anyway, we had an interesting week this week, because it was Holy Week! I'll tell you about it though.

That's funny about the weather too. You can never really guess about the weather in Colorado. A couple weeks ago at General Conference, we had some investigators there. But whoever was in charge decided to blast the aircon the entire time, so our investigators were freezing. I told them that is what Colorado was like anyway. I was a little worried about them. But there alive with no crazy injuries.

So we actually decided to postpone the baptism another two weeks. It's really important to me that whoever is baptized really stays active for the rest of their lives. Even though they technically made the requirements to be baptized on the 30th. They have a testimony, they just need to really show that they are willing to sacrifice to do every thing they need to do. It was kind of a hard decision because transfers in next week, so I was worried I might not get to be their for their baptism, but it's not really about me. We prayed and I feel like that's what we should do. So whatever happens is cool, as long as they stay and become strong active members. Retention is one of the hardest things here in the Philippines. That was actually for Holy Grace Po. She has a way strong testimony, we actually did a testimony meeting with them. She's way good and way ready, so I'm excited. We just want them to come to all of church, and not have to worry about them waking up. So they understand the commitment. I'm excited for them. Holy Grace's family is really cool too. We're trying to work with all of them, but they are progressing a little slower than she is. Her mom is no longer alive but her Dad is. He's a way tiny pinoy. Like everyone in that family is under 5 foot. Anyway, the Dad is always drinking and smoking. He really likes me and I talk to him a lot. But he said he has no desire to quit smoking and drinking. I asked him when he wanted to stop and he told me when he dies. I try to testify to him here and there but it's hard to find a time with him when he's not drunk. :( Keep him in your prayers though. I'm hoping he'll at least attend Holy Grace's baptism and feel something there and desire to change. So after that Holy Grace has 5 siblings. She's the fourth. First is Harold, who I've met, he's listened a couple times, and we're trying right now to put more focus on him. After that is Hirad, he lives somewhere else, not in our area, then Honey Rose, whose babies name is... Baby Josh.. :D, she's listened, but we're trying to meet her with her husband, and then after that is Holy Grace, then QueenQueen, who has actually come to church 2 times and knows the Book of Mormon is true, but she is sponsored right now at a different church, so she wants to be baptized but not till she is 21. We committed her to pray about it so keep her in your prayers too. Actually all of them. I feel they all have really good potential and Holy Grace is going to be a great example in that area, because there actually is no members in that baranggay yet.

Holy Grace also invites her friends to listen too. This is kind of where the serman on the mount started. I remember at first when there was like 30 people there I brought sticky notes one week and made them all wear nametags like us. It kind of worked I guess. Anyway, on of Holy Grace's friends, Darleen, wants to be baptized too. Her life has really changed. We're really striving right now to teach them separate so we can teach Darleen's family. The problem is that Darleen's dad also is always drunk and his only day off is Sunday. We were suppose to teach them yesterday but he left somewhere, so we committed Darleen yesterday to gather her family for us to teach them!! So they should be good, but I'm excited for them, because in the future I see them all going to church together.

Anyway, Holy Week this week. It's interesting here. I guess in Guimaras a bunch of people always climb up this mountain and like beats himself in the back and crucify themselves. So it's kind of tough. One of our investigators we found out, had gone to guimaras, so we were pretty worried about that, hopefully nothing happened. Luckily for us as members of the church know that Christ suffered so that we might not suffer, if we would repent. And we know the way to do that through our living prophets.

All right. All right. All right. Hey. Here's what I'm thinking. Some cool things happened this week. Recently we got an unbaptized members sheet to help us find more Less Active and Part Member families in our area. Anyway, I went to one on Wednesday with Joezel, one of our gwapo ward missionaries. He used to be way shy, and only would work with missionaries before is Misha (a different ward missionary) came too. But now he's doing way good. Anyway, we found this part member family, with a less active mother and started teaching them. I asked one of the daughters if she believes Jesus loves her and she said no. I was way surprised, most people say like, "YES! of course!" But she didn't. We talked a little about the atonement and I taught her how to pray and that daughter said the closing prayer and said she'd do it every night. We'll see them again next tuesday so hopefully we can help them understand these things. I hope so anyway, and I hope we can get the mother to come back to church because this family really needs this in their lives.

Then we taught a different family. They've been really long investigators and I've been pretty frustrated with them lately. They know like every single story in the Book of Mormon, they know every thing they need to do, they just won't do it!! It's way frustrating. But we talked about church and they talked about how they knew they needed to go to church. I shared with them about Nephi and told them about hard things Nephi had to do, like leave all his stuff behind and go into the wilderness, or build a boat, stuff like that. Then I asked the sister, "If God asked you to build a boat, would that be hard for you?" She said, "no, if God showed me how." Touche. Anyway, I asked her "If God told you to leave your house and all your stuff and never come back, would that be hard?" She finally said yes. I then told her God isn't telling us to do those things. He's not asking us to build a boat, or to leave all our things behind, he's just asking us to go to church every week! Then she said that would be too hard. So I told her, "You just said God can help you build a ship, so don't you believe he can help you go to church with your family?" Anyway, then I had Joezel share an experience about how God helped him keep the commandments, even when it seemed hard. It was really cool. I was proud of Joezel, he'll be a fly missionary in the future.

After that I had to go work with Elder Gowey because Elder Adams (AP) was doing interviews in Roxas. So we worked. I really liked talking to his recent converts of 1 week. We taught them with their relatives there as new investigators and just talked about scripture study. It was really cool because the recent convert, Brother Gabales, shared about how he smoked 40 cigarettes a day for 40 years but when he read from the Book of Mormon, all his desires to do so stopped completely. He testified of the power the gospel has to change lives and you could really see how excited they all were. It was really cool.

The cool experience on Thursday was with the Delacruz family. We talked to them and I guess Jean had stayed up like 3 hours just reading from the Book of Mormon and really trying to understand it. It was way cool, she had some really good questions. We are still trying to get the parents in every time and listen to us. The mom listens most of the time, but the Dad always disappears somewhere after we start. It's hard, I really want him to accept this gospel. Anyway, Jean wants to be baptized and she has a date in May. But we really are trying to figure out the rest of them. Last Saturday Sister Delacruz was dehydrated and she fell and had to go to the hospital, which wasn't good at all. But it looks like she'll be all right, just keep them in your prayers though.

Friday was a big finding day. No one really made appointments with us because it was Good Friday. We did get to teach this new family named the Perez family. (^^ congratz to Elder Perez, I'm excited for him, taking off) Anyway, they were pretty nice and interested. They had a lot of questions and I think they really understood our purpose. After that we went and started finding in this different area. It was pretty cool. We ended up finding this one man named Joel who was a former investigator like 5 years ago. He seemed pretty interested so we'll keep working with him. Then we taught at this rich guys house named Jason. His religion seemed kind of strange, he is a jew, but he believes in Jesus Christ. So I was confused, but he was interested in knowing what we believe, so we went with it, and it was a pretty good lesson. He lives in a different area though, so we'll have to refer him to someone else.

Later that night we tried to find a less active family we heard about. It was way frustrating talking to them. I guess they never really ever had a testimony of the Book of Mormon or of the church. It was interesting. I guess like in the 80s they were pretty poor and then the Elders came and bought them food and helped them out with money and crud, (which were not suppose to do, like Peter said, paraphrasing, Gold and Silver I have none, but in the name of Jesus Christ, be thou whole! We are suppose to help by showing these people the way to get the blessings from God, and receive his help and the joy from that). ANyway, continuing, naturally, they said, they started coming to church. And then... naturally, they said again, they were baptized. But it was weird because she came to church like for 10 years, until they moved and then they started going back to their old church. It was frustrating. Because they weren't baptized for the right reasons. We'll try to just teach them, I think, as if they are investigators, and hopefully they remember feeling something from their church going days. That's why I really want to make sure all my baptisms are ready in all ways. Even though these people came to church, they never received a spiritual witness that it was true. I want to be 100% sure everyone is ready. So we'll do that.

Anyway, the rest of the week was good. I found some froot loops the other week at the supermart and decided to eat them with some powdered milk. So I poured my froot loops and powdered milk and then some water in them from my water bottle, then I realized I had already flavored my water with that grape stuff you sent me. So my fruit loops tasted real weird. But I ate them because they are froot loops, and they are way expensive! Then for easter we went all out too and made spagetti and garlic bread. Man, that was delicious. I still need to find more good foods I can cook though. So I'll keep exploring there. I hope my next companion is pinoy again. :D I like mine now, but I'm ready for a pinoy. Anyway, I love you all, I better get going.

Take care.
Hey wait. A member just showed us something cool with our companionship. Burton Ball McClellan. B ( ) M. Book of Mormon. Because a ball looks like an O right? Anyway, it was kind of cool.

Love you,
Elder Burton