Baptism is the Beginning

Hello Family!

This week was a week of somewhat mixed emotions for a few reasons. One of the emotions was that of somberness as on Wednesday we received the call that Elder Baird would be transferring the next day, which would end the two months that we had serving as Zone Leaders together. He has returned now to Tacloban, since I think they are reopening the less hit areas and I think almost all of the original missionaries have now returned to the Tacloban mission.

Although this week has been a very happy and rewarding week with being able to witness in the baptism and confirmation of the four young women, who all have been incredibly strong and faithful along this whole journey of theirs to their baptism.

Despite having gone through numerous persecutions from everyone in their neighborhood, etc., they have all stayed so strong and turned to the Lord for their strength.

They came to church yesterday before their confirmation and told us how they had been experiencing the most persecution they had yet, mostly from the ignorant boys living around their neighborhood who have nothing better to do than shout profanity at anything that isn't worldly. We had a very sober but spiritually uplifting lesson in our gospel principles class about charity and the example of Jesus Christ.

I also reflected on how Jesus Christ's mission and greatest trials came directly after he had been baptized by John the baptist. In fact straightway after His baptism he went into the wilderness to be tested and tried. Our joining of the Church of Jesus Christ or association with it is not a guaranteed protection from the sorrow and temptation of the world. In fact, the time where we are trying our very best to become closer to Christ is the time the heat is turned up and is intensified.

When we promised to follow Jesus Christ, we also agreed to follow in His footsteps, which include persecution, rejection, sorrow, and pain. But if we endure those steps well, then we have eternal life and everlasting happiness to look forward to at the end.

The future is bright for those who continue through the darkness. So it's best that we keep on moving through the darkness and not allow it to drag us down into it. Fortunately for us we don’t have to go it alone, because our Savior already charted the way for us and will never leave us in our time of need.

Right now I have a short term companion who is a local form Negros, from Cadiz (the northern part of the island) and by next week I should be able to get my new companion, but until then I'll be flying solo for a bit as the one and only zone leader for Sipalay, also while trying to keep our area running at the standards it needs to. Wish me blessings.

I love you all!

I'll post pictures of the baptism next week since  the shop we're now doesn't have USB capability.

~Elder Butler

Beauty in Diversity

Elder Butler with the four young women who will be baptized this Saturday!

Hello Family!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful week! :)

Our training for zone conference went very well and I know that the Lord had a big part in that. I gave a training about communicating with your companion, focusing on applying Preach My Gospel chapter 6, highlight patience and humility, and my companion gave a great training about working with members from Preach My Gospel chapter 9.

In preparation for training I really wanted to treasure up as much as I could about what I was training and I also wanted to base everything I could out of the scriptures, using them as a source more than just a support, and I actually used mostly the New Testament (with additional scriptures from Proverbs that Elder Baird had done studies on previously) to teach the concepts that seemed important.  All in all I feel like our training was a success and all parties came out with some new revelation on the topics we presented. I've come to appreciate the value of leadership training meetings like zone conferences and trainings and such after having had so many great spiritually feeding experiences that result in fast tracked spiritual growth after being able to apply the revelation I've received.

Update on the four girls we've been teaching: they have all been officially signed and interviewed and their baptism is this coming Saturday! I'm very excited as well as the rest of the branch, and of course the girls themselves. Being able to reap the fruits of your labors is one of the most rewarding part of this work and makes all of the other things that you may have to struggle with all worth it.

Something that I realized a little this week was about how the gospel of Jesus Christ really thrives and is beautified in diversity. The world is always talking about how we need to break out and be different, this being a counterfeit of Satan which usually ends up with all those involved having to conform to fit some mold and everyone ending up the same. But when we introduce someone to the gospel, suddenly the things that the world scorned and painted to be typical and not unique become beautified and enhanced, making weaknesses strength and each person’s spiritual identity becomes more defined and expressly "theirs", only showing the master craftsmanship of our Heavenly Father who created everyone one of us different and unique.

I saw this as I saw four teenage girls who before were caught in the lie of the world that they needed to conform and be accepted into an ever more wicked world become freed from those shackles, all the while being mocked and put down for it. They rose to their divine potential as daughters of their Heavenly Father, their differences not being looked any more at as flaws, but master strokes in a much larger painting from the hand of someone much wiser than they.

The world will continue to mock and to scorn, and call good evil and evil good, but they will never be able to separate them from the simple truths they have learned by the Spirit that cannot be counterfeited or reproduced by any effort of the adversary.

Just thoughts. I rambled a little there, hope it was worthwhile. :)

Well that's about all the time I have for today.

I  love you all!

~Elder Butler

"We Want to be Missionaries Like You..."

Elder Butler with a group of missionary leaders at Zone Conference in Bacolod.

Elder Butler giving a training session to the other mission leaders at Zone Conference.

Hello Family!

So in explanation of the few days late email, today is my P-day [preparation-day] instead of what is usually is supposed to be on Monday. Reason being that we have zone conference this week up in Bacolod and we are all staying over night in Bacolod, which is a 6 hour bus ride from our zone approximately. So for the sake of the work we've postponed our P-day a few day to use our time more effectively.

Ah! In more news about the four young women: They are all doing great, every time I go by they make me smile with how fast they are growing in their testimony. The other day we came by after they had just finished a group study they conducted themselves (which always makes me smile) and they asked almost a little shyly "Elders?.... would we be allowed to maybe go with you two to some of your other people you teach? We want to observe and learn how to teach other people better because we want to be missionaries like you are when we get older."

I was smiling about ear to ear again at hearing that wonderful question. :) 

Keep Moving Forward

At the mission home in Bacolod for training and being fed! Yum! (More photos at the end.)

Hello Family,

I'm really grateful that I have a chance to be companions with Elder Baird. He has quite the sense of humor and is always looking for reasons to have a  laugh, and we both have a pretty distinct wry sense of humor that can lead to some good laughs at the end of the day when we need to just laugh and unwind a little.

I think Satan has been throwing absolutely everything he can at J just to try and stop or slow her down from getting baptized, but thus far he has been unsuccessful due to that girl's shear testimony in what she knows is true. At the exact time we started teaching the girls about the law of chastity, all of the sudden, J and the rest of the girls in the group started feeling more pressure from their "friends" at school with regards to being exposed to filth and being made fun of for their values and the way they dress now.