December 4, 2011

Howdy ma Family,


It seems like it's cold over there. I can't even imagine like that would be like. I also can't imagine walking around a house without flipflops on. Or... the taste of water. (what movie?)


Anyway, things are going really good here. We had a really exciting week. It was transfers first off. I'm still here in Guimaras :D, but Elder Reeves had to boogie. I'm now with a 6'2'', hairy, huge, deep-voiced, gwapo from California, Elder Collins. He's actually 1 batch behind me in the mission and he's just bringing a ton of ideas into the zone. I've really enjoyed working with him the past couple of days.


Last monday after we emailed we got together a couple of us and went to a field and played Ultimate frisby. It was way fun, but kind of intense because after like 20 minutes there was like a huge crowd of pinoys watching and cheering us on. I guess it's not everyday you see a bunch of big-nosed amerikano's playing frisby. Or in Tagalog, mag-frisby.


Anyway, a couple sweet things happened before Elder Reeves made like an airplane and took off. One was when we were teaching Bona and Diannah (Joan's kids, they'll be baptized next week), is we were teaching the plan of Salvation. You'll never guess what Elder Reeves did to teach death and the spirit world. After we talked to them about the atonement Elder Reeves looked at me, smiled, and whispered, "I'm going to do it." Then he whipped off his shoe and sock to explain about the spirit and body. hehe. I guess I shouldn't have told him that story. But they enjoyed the lesson and are reading and praying and have testimonies for themselves. So.. good stuff.


Elder Reeves and I also gave Nelson and shirt and a tie. We taught him how to bear his testimony and how to tie a tie on Thursday. He did pretty good but it was funny because on Sunday he came in to sacrament meeting wearing his white shirt but he left the top 3 buttons down so he was showing a lot of chest and then his tie was tied fairly well but he just tied it around his neck and didn't put it through his collar. It was really funny looking. He came and sat next to me and was like, "Der, I think I did something wrong. Help me out. Anyway, we fixed it up for him. Afterwards he bore his testimony and it was just way powerful the way he spoke. He was so happy he finally accepted the gospel. It took him his whole life, but he's ready to go.


Anyway, the best news this week is with this family we've been working with it. They are a cool family. The Dad's name is Jim. The mom's name is Jane. And their daughter's name is Jimjane. And then their apo went to (he doesn't have parents), but his name is DaBoy. They're a sweet family. They had a way good experience at church. In Gospel Principles I taught about family responsibilities and they really enjoyed the lesson and seem really excited about the church. I'm super excited for them. That's been like my greatest goal on my mission is just 1 whole family. I hope it's them.


That kind of reminds me. At transfer meeting I saw Elder Penaia and Elder Adams (from my last area) I was kind of nervous to see Elder Adams because he's a little intense and I didn't get to leave them with the biggest teaching pool. But I still felt I left them with some good investigators and it turned out, we did. I guess the Diosado's Family Elder Penaia and I found will be baptized on Christmas along with Sister Villanueve, who we also found. I didn't know if she would progress but it turns out my last day there we left her 3 Nephi 27 and then Elder Adams and Penaia went there and she had read about the Church's name and then came to church that Sunday. So they are all progressing a lot. It's way cool. Elder Adam's made me feel really good and he talked about how much he loved Banga. I am way excited. He also said everyone there is still active. So good stuff...


The other cool happening in our area was with Sister Villanueve. She's been an investigator we've been struggling with and also on helping her husband join in with us. He hasn't been interested at all and we're still trying to help him. Anyway, Elder Collins and I got punted so we decided to stop by her. We didn't have a set plan but we felt impressed to follow up if she prays with her husband. We found out she didn't and taught her the doctrine and invited her to do so. We made promises to her that if she continued to invite her husband to pray with her eventually he would and it was a way powerful lesson. Anyway, she committed to try and I felt really good and I felt the spirit guiding us. Anyway, on Sunday she just showed up at church. I didn't even notice till I saw her sitting in class, because we were busy with the family. But it was sweet. So many people are progressing and our area has caught on fire.


Well, I love you all.
The couples get here on Saturday. I'm way excited. We get to "test out" there house for a night. So we're going to bake stuff and sleep in aircon. :D


Tell we met again.
Elder Burton