8 August 2010

Hey Family,

This was a really good week for us. We kind of changed the way we focus a lot because we want to use members a lot more. We keep tracting and finding pretty good investigators and help them get to church. But sometimes it seems they aren't getting the fellow shipping they need to lose their shyness and still come to church. Luckily they'll still come because they are gaining testimonies for themselves and know it's true for themselves, but we also know that every investigators needs a friend, and that's who will progress fastest in the church, when they see the example and testimonies of the members and them standing up for whats right. Unfortunately, we are having trouble getting fellowshippers. Like this one guy we scheduled 3 times to work with him and the 1st time we went to meet him at the church but he was playing basketball. He told us to just wait but after 45 minutes he still wasn't coming. Finally he came up to us and we thought he was done. But he said to us, "Hey Elders can you do me a favor and turn on the lights to the basketball court for me?" Anyway, we were a little mad. We really needed his help but when he finally came it was too late to go to our investigator so we visited a less active. Then he said he'd try again with us but we told him to just meet us there and he ended up not coming again. So it was kind of hard because we just needed a fellowshipper for them.

But even without a fellowshipper the Delacruz are doing great, especially Brother Delacruz. One day we were teaching them like for the 3rd time and his wife still didn't want to pray. People are always kind of shy to pray here. But instead of us saying something, brother Delacruz said, "Come on, praying is easy, and you always have like a light feeling inside of you when you do that." So he taught her how to pray and she finally said, "OK, i'll try." So she was about to pray and then Brother Delacruz said, "Wait! We should kneel before we pray!" It was awesome! He took care of everything. That's the change that can happen in people if they just keep commitments. If they just experiment upon the word of Christ they'll know it's true, and they'll experience a mighty change of heart. We just taught them the word of wisdom, they have some problems with it, but they committed to try, so keep them in your prayers that they can keep progressing!!

So Elder Penaia and I kind of changed our focus. We need to strengthen the members a lot more first before we can strengthen investigators. So that's what we've been focusing on. We're keeping like our 3 families we're teaching but besides that we don't really have any other investigators. And at the same time, my companion doesn't really want to tract so much. So I spent like 2 hours researching members and trying to organize them by baranggay. Since people don't really have set addresses here we kind of have to go out and find all their houses. So we went and did that one. The first day we went and tried to find a bunch of members was kind of hard. I researched and we went out looking. It was raining and way hard to find since no one was outside to ask. Anyway, it was a sad day because like 5 of the members' houses that we found had died. Yeah, we're like, hey, do you know this person? They all said, "Yeah, they died like 5 years ago.. I'm not sure why they were on our ward list still but I guess I understand now why they are less active. So that was a good day. But we updated the ward list for Bishop I guess. Then some people on the ward list we couldn't even find. I talked to Bishop about them and he said he doesn't even know them. He said that sometimes names just come into the computer and they have no idea who they are. I'm not sure exactly how it works. But our ward list can use some help.

The other family I'm still way excited about is the Rufino. Their daughter was baptised like 6 months ago and now the rest of the family is finally listening. They are doing good coming to church. This week too for the first time Brother prayed for the first time. He was way shy but we had his daughter practice with him and we taught him the power of doing so. He did it at the end of the lesson and did a great job. Sister is doing way good too but she has work on Sunday so hopefully we'll be able to help them get through that too. Keep them in your prayers too. They accepted the invitation to be baptized but there is still a lot of things we have to overcome. But with the Lord's help they can do it!

On Saturday we found some more members. One was way hard to find, the Barrera family. We had to hike up this mountain to find them. But it was way cool to see them. When we got in their house there were like 30 kids in there. I guess like 3 families live there. There were a lot. One of the ladies has been going to church for the entire time I've been here. I thought she was a member, but it turns out she hasn't been baptized yet since she's not married and has kids but her husband is in Manila. But she wants us to baptize her daughter. So we'll see how that goes. He daughter, Ronalyn, is one of the cutest little girls I've seen. Like all little filipina girls are way cute. Like the kids! I stay away from the teenagers/sa! Don't worry mom! Anyway, this girl kept looking at me at church and pulling her nose out really long and then laughing. Yeah, everyone wants my nose. It makes me feel way gwapo. But I know when I get home no one will like me for my nose. I'll just be ugly.

Anyway, when we left their house I had to use the tree and as I did so Elder Penaia just started running down the mountain! I was like, "What the!!" And hurried and finished up and just started booking it after him. It was crazy because the path is way muddy and I was just sliding the whole way down. He just started laughing but I caught up to him. I had fun doing it. I almost ran into a caribou though. Anyway, it reminded me of doing the incline and then running down the back end. Being with Elder Penaia is probably one of the craziest transfers I'm going to have. I never know what to expect from him. I can't even explain the weird things that keep happening. I'm learning some Samoan. But he's a way fun companion. People really like him. He always tells me funny stories about his past. And he has fun while he works. It really is a different experience but it's a good one. On Sunday we went on splits and I went and visited more members. We have one Sister there who has been less active for 7 years but just came back to church last month. Anyway, we got to teach her and her husband and they want to be baptized and go to the temple and be sealed. So I'm way excited for them. We have some word of wisdom problems but I know we can help them progress. Just keep them in your prayers too. Keep everyone.

Well, take care family,
I love you,
Halong
Elder Burton