4 September 2011

Hey Family,

That's crazy too how tall Jared is. How tall is he now anyway? I'm trying to become a big boy too, as Elder Penaia says. So this Friday is transfers. We don't get the announcement till Wednesday night. But I have a feeling I'll stay here, which would make this my longest area. Yaaa boy! Chaaa hooo! <- As Elder Penaia would say too.

This week was really good too. We have one investigator who is just doing way good. Her name is Sister Myla. She's been kind of a miracle. Every time we visit her we just have the best lessons ever. On Tuesday we followed up with her reading in the Book of Mormon. She shared with us that she read once and didn't really understand at all. (The Aklat ni Mormon uses way deep tagalog) Anyway, she said the next time she prayed first before she read and then she understood everything. And later we taught her the Plan of Salvation and she was just way excited. She said she's been wondering about those questions like her whole life and she believes she finally found the answers. And her prayers you can tell just really come from her heart, and it's like she is actually talking to her Father in Heaven. It's just so rare you find an investigator like that. That will actually do things, take the necessary steps, and strive with the purpose of becoming closer to our Father in Heaven. That's why I'm so excited.

Anyway, Carlito Nabor- he had a crazy story. He almost died this last week. I guess one day Carlito's entire body was just like way swollen. His daughter-in-law said she thought he was going to die. He was lying there, and then I guess our Bishop (He is the MAN) decided to stop by his house on the way home that night, and Carlito asked him to give him a blessing. The next day, Carlito was healed. Then we visited him later that day and he told us that story. Carlito has such strong faith. And he's a strong man. We did this CSP at his house on Friday, we had to hike up this mountain, and I guess the purpose of it was to move a house from the top of the mountain to the bottom. So we just carried the pieces of the house down. It was way hard. But Carlito, he looks tiny, but he's strong. Anyway, as I was saying, about Carlito's miracle. On Sunday, Carlito went up on the stand and bore his testimony about God's power and how He helped him. It was way powerful. He talked about before, when he was catholic, he had all sorts of problems, all sorts of addictions and whatnot, but the gospel really had helped him change. He also expressed gratitude for the support of the ward. He said he feels people visit him because they really do care about him and it felt like with other churches they had a different reason for visiting him. As he spoke, the guy sitting next to me leaned over and said something like, "Wow.. He's a true gospel convert. It's really rare that you find somebody like that." I was just filled with gratitude for what the Lord had done for him, and how prepared Carlito was when we met him. Later Bishop bore his testimony and he talked about how it was Carlito's faith that healed him; his faith in the atonement. Carlito, I can't describe him. I love that guy. All I can say is that he's the man.

Right now in our area for some of our investigators we're working on the technical problems I guess. I don't really like doing it but I'll do whatever we need to help them make that covenant with our Father in Heaven. Besides that we were able to start finding some new investigators. The main problem we are having is we're able to teach someone once, the first time we meet them and then the next time.. they just don't want us to come back. It's because as soon as we visit them once, the persecution starts. I asked one of our investigators who we've been visiting for a while and he said like all their friends say, "Hey. Why you listening to them? Are you mormon now? You're not suppose to change your church." They just make fun of them because their hearts are hard. And that makes most people want to stop visiting with us or even give it a chance. They just close the door before even tasting of the sweetness of the gospel in their lives.

But, I have to have faith that God is preparing people to accept the gospel. And we'll find them.. I know we will. This week we found a convert who had been baptized about 2 years ago. It was kind of crazy, because you know that one week when we searched for all these members and found out they had died or no one in the ward new them? Well we found one of them. I kind of recognized her name and it was her. So we started visiting her and her kids (She has had 3 husbands that she married and then they died, that's why no one knew her name on the ward list) Anyway, yesterday we got a referral from them and I think they'll start getting good. I guess they moved to Manila for a couple years and then moved back here just recently. During weekly planning Elder Penaia really thought of plans to find new investigators. I'm excited to try some of our new ideas. We're having a lot of trouble motivating members to give us referrals though. Every single member we've taught and asked for say the same thing, "Well Elders, everyone around here is pretty religious.. they are catholic, or they are pentecostal...." And we say, "But Brother, Sister, our church is the true church. It's Christ's church. And whoever they are, the spirit will witness that to them, if they are willing." So we try to help them. We just need to get the whole ward excited. Up the faith of everyone, and that's when the work will go so much faster. It's the members that are the key. The members cancel out the persecution our investigators receive because they support them. And then the spirit, God, takes care of the rest. I'm excited to see what happens next week. If you all have any ideas how we can excited the ward, let me know.

Well, that's basically it ga.
I love you all,
Elder Burton
P.S. Hey. How are you?