10 June 2012

Hey Family, Thanks for getting that apartment set up for me mom! I'm excited. And for looking into work for me. I hope everything works out! Seriously, thanks for everything! I'm lucky to have such a great family!! This week was probably one of our best weeks here in Dao. I've actually been worrying all week about our area. It's really hard to get it progressing, since there is not to many job opportunities here. This summer, 2 of our 3 young men are going to work in Manila to save up for their missions. Edgar and Tueni's families might move to Mindanao because they have land there. It's good. They'll all be active in the church, but it's hard to establish the church here in Dao! We actually tried to find a ton of less-actives on the branch list but found out most of them are in Manila working. So we're trying to hold everything together. But, like always, God shows us that this is his gospel, and everything will work out. I'm not sure what happened, but suddenly all the less-actives we've been working with came to church. We actually had 2 families of less-actives come! It was such a great sight! We had had really good lessons with them this week. With one family we had been having a particularly hard time. We went to their house and what we had planned to share with them didn't quite feel like. Instead, we decided to have a testimony meeting with them. It turned out to be perfect. At first the father said, I've run out of testimony, but after that, after we shared and then his wife. He opened up. I think they'll be okay. This family has already been to the temple I think they've just lost some hope. But they'll get it back! I'm way happy. They are such a great family and will be a powerful example to others. When I was on exchanges on Thursday with Elder Petersen (he's my batch to go home) we also had a great lesson with a less-active. Other members had told us not to bother going to him because tons of missionaries had and he still hasn't come back. But we went and started sharing with him the restoration, what we planned. We hoped by reviewing that it would help him remember the joy he once felt in the gospel. After sharing a little, we realized nothing was happening. We started whispering to each other, and Elder Peterson said, "We just got to be crazy bold with this guy, like what Elder Nielson did when he was stake president." We agreed and then the brother asked, "What are you two whispering about?!" Then we said, "Brad, we're talking about what we got to do to help you come back to church!" He then told us some lame excuses why he doesn't come (tired, has to feed his cow) so we asked him, "Brad, when you get to the judgement bar of God, and he asks you, why aren't you coming to church, what are you going to say?" He said, "I'll ask for forgiveness." We told him he's not going to get it! (That's one other thing Elder Nielson taught us, that few people really understand what repentance really is) We talked some more and he was shaken a little, and he told us, "Fine, I'll go to sacrament, but I'm going to go home before the speakers speak!" We told them thats a fine start and accepted it. Hopefully we can keep helping this guy get active in the church. During a lesson this week some kids we're being annoying so Elder Solis told them if they didn't stop an aswang (like a monster) would come eat them. That didn't work so Elder Solis told the kids that he was going to cut off their eggs and fry them later that night for his dinner. They ran away. I was quite surprised but everyone said that's a normal thing to say. Anyway, church was sweet! I've never seen it so full. We actually had 3x as many investigators come as ever. Everyone just showed up. It was unbelievable. We actually have a new family we're working with, the Ocario Family, who came to church, except the Dad didn't come because he had work. We've committed them to baptism in July and hopefully we can get the Dad to church next week! Elder Solis and I had to speak in Sacrament meeting. They told us to speak 5 to 10 minutes. Elder Solis spoke first and ended up speaking for 40 minutes!! So after that I stood up and just spoke for like 2 minutes about faith! It was crazy. That guy can talk forever. The concluding speaker said, "Thanks for your messages. Even though Elder Solis' message was way stinkin long, I'm sure we all felt the spirit! It was good though. The other good news is in sunday school they always use our investigators as example. Last week with Lorenz always working with us (baptism next week btw) and then this week they used it as no excuse to not go to church. The members talked about how dedicated they are. They said it's so great, they walk 5km every week from the mountain, even though its way muddy and slippery and a hard path, just to be able to go to church. They said it depends on your dedication. If you have decided to do something, you're going to do it, because its right! I'm grateful to be here in Dao. There's so much work to be done, and so little time. But I'll do everything I can! I love you! Elder Burton