October 9, 2011

Hey Family,

This week was really great for Elder P and I. We've struggled a little finding some new investigators, but we're looking in all the rich houses right now. It's an adventure. But we have had a couple sweet miracles happen this past week.

The greatest one would be with Sister Myla. She's been one of my favorite investigators to teach. She reads and prays and really has been receiving revelation for herself. Especially at church. At church last week our sunday school teacher Sister Jean taught about us being the Lord's covenant people, and then she talked about temples and also about being prepared for Christ's coming again. Sister Myla said she felt the spirit stronger than she ever did before during that lesson, and Myla knew she couldn't wait. Anyway, last Friday she went to Quezon City and she's going to get married to a man there and then get baptized! It's great, the guy, John, had talked to her on the phone and he told her he would take care of her and he told her that she could come live with him. She told him they have to get married because it's a commandment and then told him about the church. She asked him some questions and just bore a really strong testimony that the church is true. So now John should be listening to the missionaries too. It's exactly what we had been praying and fasting for and it happened. I miss being able to teach them though. But our last meeting with her she bore one of the most powerful testimonies I've ever heard. We told her to send us pictures of her baptism. I'm super happy for her and John!

Another cool thing that happened was in this one lesson with this pregnant sister named Freda. But background first, every month for District Meeting, once a month, we get to choose a topic of our own to teach based on the needs of the district. So a couple weeks ago after pondering and prayer I choose to talk about teaching more for understanding. That's one really hard thing here. Sometimes people here have the hardest time understanding. It's one of the most frustrating things when you share the message of the Restoration and feel the spirit real strong and after they say something like, Yeah, there's prophets on the earth, you two are prophets!' or maybe they just don't get it. Because if people don't get it, it won't mean anything to them. But at the same time it depends on our desire, if we have no desire to know, we probably won't understand. Anyway, we've been really focusing on this the past couple of weeks; doing better at that. Anyway, this lesson with Freda just went great. We really felt guided in everything we said, and all these examples and ideas and questions just came into our mind at the perfect time. Afterward she really got it, and I could tell she was touched by the message. She told us that she did feel it, and the message was very clear. It was great. Some other Elders in the district told me a story that they really liked too. They felt they taught really clearly understood. After their lesson their investigator said, "I don't know if that's true. Maybe Joseph Smith made it all up." They said it was the perfect thing for an investigator to say. Because they could testify that really, you don't have to believe what we say. We're just kids, but there's a way you can know. That's how we know, we prayed and God will answer your prayers. That's all it takes. I wish more investigators here would say stuff like that. That means they realize what it means if the message is true. And it's something they need to realize to experience the truthfulness of the message. It's harder for the spirit to witness something is true to us if we don't understand it.

The other good thing is we got to set some baptismal dates at last with some of our investigators. And they went to general conference yesterday. It was really good for them. WE just need to get our youth more involved in fellowshipping them. But they are way good kids. They are really hard working and nice. They'll be great missionaries one day. We were talking to one of the Sisters in our ward, Sister Barrera, and she got super excited when we told her. They'll be a teacher and priest and she knows we need more priesthood in our ward. She's a really good member. She really trusts us and said she'll take us to a referral on Saturday, so we're excited. We're really goaling and striving to get more trust with the members and visit them and get them to do work with us. They are the key.

Anyway, I really loved conference. I learned a lot there and received a lot of comfort that I need. One thing I liked that was said was about how God knows everything. He placed us, as missionaries, in our certain wards, for a reason. But I also like how he said everyone is placed places for a reason. Like maybe a missionary will be placed in your ward for a reason. Maybe so you can help him. We are all just here as members to help those in need, comfort those who need it, lift where we stand, and help others lift where they stand. We can't just judge the bad things we see others do but try to see them as God does, and then help them become that. That's a big lesson I've learned on my mission. You hear a lot of stories about other missionaries sometimes or just other people sometimes and then you start looking at them based on what you've heard. But we can't do that. Even if someone seems like a punk or no good we can not let ourselves see them like that. Because God doesn't. He loves them. He'll do anything not to lose them. And we got to love them to. Help them become the best they can be. And I know that's possible. Anyway, I learned a lot at conference. You could really see the connections in the talks and they were what we needed to hear. I also learned to always try to do that better with our members, in order to get more help from them. In our ward our ward mission leader is only 17 years old. We've been having a real hard time with him even wanting to correlate or even go out and work with us. He's just not really interested in it. At first I think just to go ano.. like scold him and tell him to do his stuff. But that really wouldn't help to much. It won't help his desire at all and it's probably not the way Christ would do it. I thought a long time about everything and things we could do and I just tried to notice some good things they do. One thing I noticed is they had been playing basketball with some less-actives. It was really good. And as I thought about it they are doing good, and so maybe we just need to compliment them on those things and then show him how we need them. "Wow. You're doing a great job being a friend to him and hleping him come back to church. I can tell people really trust you. Actually right now we have an investigator your age who needs a friend and example like you to help him progress and find the courage to accept the gospel in his life." I've found this a lot better than what I used to do. Just running around after church to all the priests, "hey! you work with us?" So I know there's revelation and it won't ever help to judge.

Anyway, I guess that's about it. Things are going really well here, and I feel things are progressing. There's still a lot of work to do. Sorry if my english is weird in these letters. Elder S kind of makes fun of me sometimes because I don't really conjugate sentences anymore. Because Elder P is still kind of rough in english. So I say things like, "We buy food for tomorrow. or We run to mountain. I don't know, I don't really notice anymore. I feel like I can't speak a language right now. Like it's really hard to speak plain Tagalog or plain Aklanon or even Ilonggo or even english. You just halo-halo it up, mix it. And whatever come out is good. That's the way the people speak here anyway, they mix things up all the time. THey just say whatever they hear.

Love you,
Elder Burton