The Gospel Goes Forth

The picture is one I got from one of the other Elders of a really nice sunset. The things in the water are what they use to dry out the fish during the day. The Philippines is beautiful.

Hello family!

It's been another eventful week of ups and downs, progress and digression, but still another great week to be a missionary.

This week we were able to work down in Culipapa, one of our farthest areas that is a very large Barangay (kind of like a town), and had a good deal of success with finding and teaching some of the friends and family of a priesthood holder there that we found a few weeks ago. We were even able to teach a whole family who had been given a Book of Mormon in Cebuano by some friend of theirs a while ago and their 12 year old daughter had already read half of it. We think that they could make a great start for the progress there since they were very receptive and there is a lot of potential for leadership in the father and mother. We also found another priesthood holder in the next barangay over who is 84 and was baptized in another city in our zone. He wants to go to church and has a good testimony, but can't afford to come up to Hinoba-an very often, especially since his wife died a few years ago who was a strong member as well and he's had to fend for himself since. But he was very excited to see us there and said that he'll have a lot of referrals ready for us the next time we come down.

We held our special sacrament for the third time in Alim (the closer barangay, but still far enough away) at the C. family home and the attendance was 24, with only 5 attending from Hinobaan and the rest being from Alim, making 19, which has been the consistent attendance that has being growing each week with those who are from Alim. We've also started teaching brother C.'s younger brothers and their families and are hoping to start building a little more priesthood there through that. We are still trying to get things moving in Asia, our target for where the center of that branch will be, but with no members from there helping us with referrals and such there it's been a little slower moving.

The first counselor in the district presidency visited on Sunday and said that they want to come down and attend the special sacraments in Alim and in Culipapa next Sunday.

Things are continuing to progress, and if they continue at the current rate another set of missionaries in Culipapa would definitely be put to good use I think. I would actually be very happy to be assigned there since it's actually mostly Cebuano there, which I've been wanting to learn for a long time, and it's absolutely beautiful. Just me here hoping.

In other news, this week at our Mission Leadership Conference (MLC) we will be having a general authority attending to observe and ask question and such, so no pressure at all. President Lopez hasn't told us who it is yet, so I'll let you know next week.

We're making some progress and we are hoping to be able to set up a foundation for two more branches of the church in our area! There is so much to do and never enough time to do it all, but the Lord keeps hastening His work and I am happy to be apart of it.

That's all I have for today!

I love you all and thank you for your prayers and for your love!

Halong kamo!

~Elder Butler