25 March 2012

Hey Family,


Don't worry. I'm not too jealous about you going on a cruise... without me. I get to ride a pumpboat from Guimaras to Iloilo a couple times a month, a we get sold spicy na spicy na peanuts for only 10 pesos on the ride. And right now as I'm emailing you and some lady just brought me a chocolate banana shake. Yeah boy! I hope you have fun though. Send me some pictures. Jared speaks spanish?


This week was way sweet! We went to the Gonzaga's for FHE on Monday and Brother Jimmy smelled unbelievable good. It turns out he bought a new cologne, WILDFIRE. It cost him like 1500 pesos. That's a lot. That's like 2 weeks worth of food for me. He said he's been saving so much money since he quit smoking and drinking. I guess that's one way to spend your money, hehe. Anyway, they are doing great. Jimjin has been having presidency meetings with the relief society, and we got to their house one day and she was going over her notes. And then Brother Jimmy has the priesthood now.


Right now we're focusing on helping the Gonzaga's niece and nephew, Xavier and Daboy, prepare to be baptized. They both have been to church like 14 times each, and their way excited. Daboy told us he wants to go on a mission already, so they both have dates for next month. They are way good kids and they've like changed a lot. They don't really live with their parents they just bounce around, but they live with their grandma, Maryjane's mom, on weekends. It's funny because before their Grandma didn't really want them to go to church but now she's seen them change and actually wakes them up Sunday mornings so they go.


Anyway, the best news of this week. We had the baptism of Saling Gallano, Melania Ester, and Gian Danozo. It was a really sweet service. The relief society were having a swimming activity at a resort so we did the baptism there. It's called Valle Verde, it's part of Nueva Valencia, Guimaras. We had to walk down like 311 stairs to get there. It was way beautiful though. I'm grateful for these people. Sister Saling was way ready. She knew it was true, and nothing will stop her from living it. Her testimony was way powerful and she was so grateful she finally found the gospel in its fullest. Her kids should hopefully follow her in this next coming month. They are way sweet too, Sanebar and Jonabel. Melania, she is the funniest lady I've ever met in my life. Before the service started, I looked over at them and she was dancing and saying, oh yeah, i'm so happy. It was the funniest dance I've ever seen, and she was wearing her baptismal clothes. I recorded part of it on my camera. She's changed so much. She finished the entire book of Mormon before she was baptized. I wonder if you remember her. We found her a couple months ago when she was praying at a funeral for like an hour. She really understands the spirit and recognizes it. She knows where the truth is. She's a great lady. She laughs at anything too. As Elder Martineau baptized her she was so happy she started laughing on the way down. And then instead of grabbing her nose she was a little confused and just hit herself in the face. She was just so happy though. Then Gian is an 8-year-old boy. His parents, Harold and Cora, are recent converts to the church, and Harold was able to baptize him. It was really special to see. It's like the first time I've been able to see that my whole mission, a father baptizing his son. I wish it could happen more often. We're hoping to get that family to the temple this June, so we're really excited about that. It's really hard finding men like that. Our relief society is way strong, but it's so hard to find men and help them accept the gospel. Most men I talk to are drunk, or always smoking, or always working trying to make ends meet. It's tough. But I know only the gospel will help them, as it has so many times.


Roxanne's brother, Waren, also came here this week. He's one year older than her and he's a way good kid. We had the chance to teach him on Sunday night. Probably the coolest thing was just Roxanne being able to share everything she had come to know in the past 2 months since she had last seen him. She was way excited for him to be able to learn too. It was way cool, her saying things like, 'remember how hard it was when dad died, and we even wondered if God even loved us. Well, now, I know he does, and I know we can be with him again. Isn't that awesome!!?' It was just a way special experience.


At church like 6 people told me they saw me on TV. I guess I'm in a 'Skin White Lotion' commercial. It's because I'm so gwapo. I bet I don't really look like him, I probably just have a huge nose like him.




Okay, I love you. Good luck on your cruise. Let me know how it is.


Elder Burton