24 October 2011

HEy maa Family!

This is Elder Burton and I have a question. What in the world are halloween songs? I don't think I've ever heard such a phrase. That's exciting about the dog too. And weird. Is their still birds in our home? What's the dog's name? Also, I hope Dad can succeed in his goal. That's crazy what's happening. Did you get video of J-dawg's marching show? I want to see next year.

Anyway, I'm writing this area not from Banga. I got transferred now. We're on what has been called, "The Island," or Guimaras, and I'm in Jordan. My new companion is way sweet. His name is Elder Reeves and I'm already learning so much from him. From Elder Lebran's mission it sounds different, but here zls are companions with each other. So it's going to be a way good transfer for both of us. There's only 12 people in our zone. But I'm way excited. We're already making a ton of goals for our zone and it's going to keep being on fire (in a good way.)

My last couple of days in Banga were really good. The new family we found last sunday Elder Penaia saw the Brother every day randomly on the street last week. It was way cool. Even when we left at 5 in the morning to go to Kalibo and then Iloilo on Friday for transfers. We just saw Bro. Diosado walking around. Hopefully he went to church last week with his family. But I'm way excited for how things are going to go in Banga. Elder Adams, who was the AP before, is now over there with Elder Penaia. And he really knows how to get things done. I wish we could have left him with a bigger teaching pool, but I think he's left with a ton of potential. Elder Penaia and I really focused on getting members to help us though and strengthening their faith.

My last day in Banga on Thursday we had a really cool lesson. We were teaching a Sister outside of her Chungee and she's like super religious. And we taught her and invited her to be baptized when she came to know it was true. She told us it's really hard to commit to do something like that because she had her own church and own way of life. But before I could think the words came out, "naw sister. It's not hard. If it's true and you know what it's what God wants you to do then you got to do it." And she changed. She said we're right. Then she committed herself without us asking to go to church, which was amazing because last time she said she'd never do that because she just wants to add to her knowledge but not really change.

Anyway, Jordan is a sweet area. Guimaras is famous for it's mangoes but I still haven't had one yet. :/ But maybe later. We're going to have a lot of fun here. There's 4 people in our apartment again and one is Elder Chandler. I knew that guy at the mtc, he's one batch behind me. He's way hilarious and it's way fun with him and his companion, Elder Vennard. Anyway, we had a couple good days here. It was funny because my first day here we taught two people. One was a man who is planning on starting his own church because that's how you get rich here I suppose and the other was some guy going to school in order to be a preacher. They were pretty intense lessons but I feel we kept the spirit and it was way good. I'm excited for what will happen in this area. I guess our ward mission leader is an rm and was AP on his mission so he's way good. Our branch actually has a ward mission plan. And we're working really hard to make it happen.

Anyway, this week it was Stake Conference so it was hard for investigators to go since we were really far away. But it was really cool going there because I saw a 2 of our converts from Molo. I actually had heard they were less active but they were there and they we're like wearing church clothes. It was really cool and I was excited to see them.

This morning I had a really good personal study. Elder Reeves and I are trying to become a lot more effective in finding and knowing what to say and be able to discern needs as we go into finding situations. I was reading through PMG and wasn't really getting what I wanted out of it and tried to look in the Book of Mormon. I couldn't really think of a finding situation but I looked and read in Alma when King Lamoni and Ammon were walking down the road and saw King Lamoni's father. As I read I was really surprised how many principles of finding and "oym"ing there was in there. One example is after Ammon decapitates King Lamoni's Father, Ammon just bears a little testimony and really shows his love for KLF. He says, if you were to die at this time you could not be saved. Like in the little things Ammon did and said he really showed his love for this man, even though he chopped of his arm. And in the end KLF greatly desired that Ammon come back to him because of his WORDS. It just really helped me a lot and it's amazing how the Book of Mormon can apply to your life in different ways each time to read it.

One of the Branch's goals is to get 5 solid referrals each month from members. It's really rare in our whole mission we get referrals from people and Elder Reeves and I have been planning how we can make that happen. Usually when we visit and talk to members the usual response is, well, all my neighbors are a different religion. So they can't listen to you. But we're trying to develop everyone's faith to find and in the converting power of the gospel. I also found an example in the BoM of that when Abish ran from house to house inviting people because she believed that if people beholded the scene of a bunch of dead people lying on the ground they would be convinced of the power of God. Well, i guess we don't have a place we can take investigators like that but there is a ton of scene's our friends can look and and truly be convinced through the Holy Ghost of truth. For example, church. Do we believe if our friends go to church with us they will feel the spirit? Another, the Book of Mormon. Do we believe if our friends read and pray to know if it's true that they will receive and answer? It's way simple. But if we as members have that faith we need in the converting power of the gospel, maybe we would be running house to house, screaming from the rooftops, this amazing message that the Lord has called us to share. It's something we always have to work on, and something we have to trust in the Lord to accomplish, but imagine if that was the way it was. It would be amazing.

I'm really excited for this area. We're going to see a ton of miracles because we're committed to be obedient.

One of my favorite things is when we leave the apartment Elder Reeves always says, "Let's boogie." The person he probably reminds me the most of is Michael Shields.

Well, FAmily. I wish you the best. Till next week.
Love ya like a fat kid loves cake.
Elder Burton