17 June 2012

Gud am pamilya ko! Sounds like you had some crazy adventures. My week went really great again. The best news, of course, was the baptism of Brother Lorenz Celorico. He's a great guy. He asked me to baptism him. So that was pretty cool. The waves we're pretty big so they wanted to do it in a place with no waves so we found a spot but it was only knee deep for me. After two tries we couldn't get him completely under so I told them we should just move over to where the waves are so it would be deeper. They told me to just try again and I told Lorenz to take a deep breath and just lie down on the bottom. So we did it again and he made it! He's a great guy and way excited about everything. In a couple years he'll serve a mission! He'll be a great young man in our branch. Last sunday he invited one of the less-active young men that we visited with Lorenz when he was still an investigator and little Leonard Delacruz came back to church for the first time in over a year! President Oyong saw him come back and basically jumped for joy. He pointed his finger at him during sacrament and said, "Look he's back!! Let's fellowship him and nourish him and help him stay!" It was great! Last monday we headed out to some resorts because we heard there were some good caves to look at. We saw some good views but it wasn't anything we don't see every day while we're working! Then Elder Solis said he wanted to go check out this 'mini zoo' we heard of. Inside of the mini zoo they had like 4 different animals. One of them was a chicken. One was a pigeon. The most interesting thing they had was a squirrel. It reminded me of that movie where they try to sell squirrels and have a lot of them in cages. I admit though it was weird seeing a squirrel. Anyway, I'm trying to make sure my shoes endure to the end. They still look gwapo but they have a hole in the bottom. Last tuesday I put a piece of electrical tape on the bottom and that worked for about 3 hours. The next day I cut out a piece of cardboard for a sole but it rained like crazy that day, so it was destroyed. The next day it was raining again so I just a plastic bag around my foot and put on my shoe. That worked okay but the next day I cut out another cardboard sole and then wrapped it in tape and plastic. That's been working great! So I think I've told you a little bit about the language here in Antique. It's karay-a. But Elder Solis just came from Aklan and he just can't stop speaking Aklanon! He was asked to speak district meeting last week and I think he spoke 5 different languages as he taught. But the hard thing for us is we have some investigators that are just Tagalog which makes it hard. It hurts my head since you have to think really hard which word you're suppose to use, and I end up speaking kind of slow. In my head I think, "okay, I gotta say why... andut.. no!..ngaa.. no!...wanhaw... no! ngaman.. no!... bakit... yeah that's it! But the other day we went to Edgar (our recent convert), who is Tagalog, and Elder Solis said something in Karay-a to him and I could see he was a little confused, so I said the word in Tagalog for him. His wife, Tueni, just looked at both of us and said, "whoa, that was mixed up." It was kind of funny. Speaking of Edgar, he finally got the job he's been looking and praying for. The problem is, it's in Manila. He and his family decided he should go, even though he won't be with his family. We know he has a testimony, but we've been a little worried about him since he won't have all the support he's had him. So please keep him in your prayers. But we heard some good news last Sunday. Tueni's mom, Sister Llena, worked with us last sunday and told us that Edgar's mom called her. (Most grown people live with their parents here) Anyway, I guess Edgar was about to eat with all of his siblings, when he said, "Hey wait. We have to pray first!' Then he added, "Just close your eyes and listen to me!" Then he prayed. I guess his mom started crying when she saw how much he's changed. He won't drink with them anymore too. She was so happy. So I hope he'll be able to be a good example to his family and they too will accept the gospel! The hard thing though, is we need priesthood here in Dao!! There's just no work and everyone's moving away!! I am grateful though, that this one less-active family we've been working with is on the right track again. They've been to church for 2 weeks now! In Sunday School the father stood up and bore his testimony in tears how happy he was and how grateful he was for the mercies of God and his chance to come back, though he's made so many mistakes. I'm grateful for that fact too. It's a promise from the savior. If we repent, he will receive us! Let us accept this great promise. It didn't really hit me till yesterday in church how close the end is! It's scary. It's weird even at this point in your mission you still have days where you are 'punted' all day. Or people don't accept you. We had one day where we went to all our plans and back ups and no one was home (or hiding). We had some youth working with us and I really wanted them to have a good experience. Finally after 5 hours of walking around in the rain we got to teach the the Ocario Family, who went to church last week. We had a fairly simple lesson with them and didn't really share what we planned since the entire family wasn't home. But after the lesson we were walking away and Sister Loribel, the member, said something like, "Whoa, you could feel the spirit so strong in that lesson. I wish every one would just follow that and become members of the church. It's true!" It touched my heart that that one lesson made the whole day great for this young woman. The mission is hard. But in the end I won't remember the hours I've spent walking around, wiping the sweat off my face, going to houses seeing people hide from us. I'll remember the simple, joyful moments I've had. I'm grateful I've been able to do the Lord's work. And I'm not going to stop when I get home. The lessons learned will forever be a part of me. I am who I am because of this mission. It's become a foundation that I hope to continue building on for the rest of my life. I love you! Elder Burton P.S. Hey could you send me a package? :p