Faith in Jesus Christ

President and Sister Lopez (Brooks' mission president and wife) paid a special visit to the mountains for Elder Peralta's last Sunday! What a tender time it must have been! (And the reason we have these great pictures!~K)

Teaching the youth during Sunday school. So beautiful!

President and Sister Lopez are on the left.

Hello Family!

This last week has been another very packed and exhausting week, but I think that I can quite easily say that it has been one of the most successful weeks of my entire mission when it comes to finding and teaching people about the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

It was the last week before transfer day, and also the last week before Elder Peralta goes home, so we decided to have him go out with a bang and set our goals higher then we would have thought possible. We then knelt in prayer and acknowledged to Heavenly Father and to the Lord that we could only accomplish the things that we had planned through Him and His power, and we asked in faith, believing and knowing that we would receive, that we would be supported in our righteous desires.

We then went to work.

The days that followed were somewhat of a whirlwind...We saw little miracles everyday and I feel like to document it all would take far too long and perhaps defeat the point that I am trying to get across from all of this, but after putting all of our trust in Jesus Christ and working as hard as we could, and after teaching or trying to teach what feels like the entire population of our area, we finished out this week having taught 150 lessons to investigators and having found 168 new investigators, coupled with the baptism of Sister T, the first in her family to be baptized.

I think it is sufficient to say that Elder Peralta and I know and have talked with and taught/sang for so many people this week that I feel like I've lived in Colonia for  half my life.

Now I have the monumental task of following up and beginning the harvesting process for many of the prepared people that we found.

I just want to share this as a testament that I KNOW that my power as a missionary does not come from my talents and abilities, but it comes from my faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. I would compare this week to the experience of the brother of Jared, where after he saw the finger of the Lord his faith became unshakable, and after I have seen this week I know that all things are possible to those that believe.

Granted I am very far from claiming perfect knowledge.

We were also rejected quite a bit more than we were the last time we found a large amount of new investigators, but I feel like every time someone said no it only made me more excited and happy for the next person that said yes.

We even started to see the fruits of our work in the area as we feel like the whole attitude of our area has changed and there are now many people that call out to us and say hi, and all of the false rumors about the church no longer stand since so many people have talked with us and had a spiritual experience with us.

In response to Mom and Dad, the "jungle" where Elder Peralta and I taught about the Atonement is actually where we teach the youth class during Sunday school hour.  And the reason why Elder Peralta and I have our heads above the beams is because we are just on our toes, those beams are actually only about 5 and a half feet high and I bump my head on them all  the time. I'll meet my new companion probably tomorrow or on Wednesday, so next week I let you know.

Saying goodbye to Elder Peralta was as Mom said, bitter sweet. I have some big shoes to fill and I will miss his dedication. He will have a hard time taking of the tag, but it will have to come, and I don't feel too far behind him. The day I go to Bacolod for the last time will be an extremely bitter sweet day for me.

I love you all!

No pictures since my camera is acting up and I don't have another to borrow for the moment.

Halong!

Elder Butler

Smile Because it's Bright

Sister Lopez posted these photos to facebook. (It was zone conference earlier in the week.) Brooks sent the three photos I placed below his letter.~K

 

Performing in a duet at Zone Conference

He has always had the great gift to sing with his heart. I think this picture even gives you a little sense of that...

Hello Family!

I hope that this letter finds you well and smiling. I've been making a conscious effort to always have a happy face whenever I see people that I pass on the streets/paths, and especially make sure that I always smile when I see them because I am happy to see them.  I often find that people ending up smiling back and looking a little happier themselves. I do think that I'll never regret having smiled too much or at too many people. Why not give it a try?

On that note I want to share a story from our work today (we work in the mornings on preparation day instead of the evenings since we have to stay over night in Sagay).

We've been teaching a lot today, mostly just quick lessons where we sing two or three verses of a hymn in Ilonggo and then share a 5 minute or less message. Near the end of our proselyting time we came up to the house of a young wife that we had taught a few weeks ago at a different house and found her at home with her husband that we had not met yet.

The wife was happy to see us, but the husband was completely indifferent and quite frankly looked like he'd rather be facing down an angry carabao than sit in the same room with us. Of course always inviting others to come unto Christ, we asked if we could share a short message and sing. The husband agreed, somewhat reluctantly but said yes out of general Filipino culture of not wanting to appear too rude, and after getting to know him a little we asked if we could pray.

After the prayer I could see that Brother was starting to immediately zone out, so I gave my best three sentence lesson about Jesus Christ being the light in our lives (the song we were going to be singing was "Teach Me to Walk in the Light"), and as I started to speak I saw something amazing happen.

As I talked about Christ I felt I could literally see Brother A's stone cold features soften little by little, like watching ice melt on a hot day, and as my companion spoke his part I could see he was starting to think about what we were saying and it was almost as if I could see light starting to grow in his countenance. And all this in less than 2 minutes.

We then asked if we could sing. We sang the first and last verse of "Teach Me to Walk in the Light”, and then thanked them for their time and said the closing prayer. By the end Alex had turned from stone cold indifference to smiling and laughing. I knew that he felt the spirit and it showed in his eyes, going from dullness to a brightness that was in such stark contrast that it was like I was seeing a different person by the end.

I don't know the future of that family (as we only just taught them for the first time and very quickly), but I love the effect the spirit has on people, and I love being able to see it in the eyes of those we teach.

I do have hopes of a return appointment and hope to teach Alex and his wife Ilene again.
Being a missionary is wonderful.

I also got an unexpected package that contained a mini quad with snap close a few weeks ago (slipped my mind to mention it last week). I guess that was the one you ordered 8 plus months ago? The shipping must be backed up here.

I hope to attach two pictures, but I'll do it in other emails.

I love you all! I think of you every night and pray for your well being.

Halong!

~Elder Butler

A Challenge and a Promise

This week was Stake Conference and the church rented a bus to take the members and missionaries from up in the mountains. (Photos this week are courtesy of the mission president's wife, Sister Lopez.)

Hello Family!

The week flew by and the mission keeps flying faster and faster with each week it seems.

In better news, it didn't rain quite so much this week, or at least it was timed well enough to where when it did we were at teaching appointments and didn't take to full soaking.

We also spent some time with the senior couples looking at a few potential new missionary apartments, since our current house is going to be remodeled into a meeting house here and we need to find another place to stay, and also since the branch president is wanting to add another set of missionaries so our mission president is complying.

The house that we are looking at staying in temporarily before moving into another in the proper is pretty cool. Because the other house we want to move into is still under construction, we are going to stay in the owners other house temporarily which is basically a nice bamboo hut which you have cross a small river and climb up a hill to get to, but I've always wanted to live in a bamboo hut so I'm totally excited! :) It has mosquito netting around the outside and it even has running water from the irrigation running by, it's also quiet and peaceful with no loud music being played by neighbors (which is extremely common in the Philippines no matter where you go), so in my opinion it's a total upgrade to our current house. I'm not sure if I have pictures, but I'll send some when I do.

Also I've been starting to try and "prepare" myself mentally and spiritually a little for when I have to come home. Being with another missionary who is about to go home (at the end of this transfer in two weeks) has definitely made me a lot more aware of the fact that missions do have to come to an end. I still want to keep my heart and mind on the work, and I plan on spending every last second here as well as I can, but I still have to face the music that this can't last forever. But that makes my time left all the sweeter as I know I still have time, albeit not as much as I would hope.

We were also able to teach a former investigator, the older sister of the twins that will be baptized this coming Saturday (the picture of me with the boy on the bus [above] is one of the twins). She is 16 and was taught by the missionaries a few years ago and would have been baptized (she was even interviewed) but her parents wouldn't allow it, as the church was receiving a lot of persecution at the time and they didn't want their family involved, so now after a few years later and being off at school she joined a baptist church, but when we started teaching her she still remembered a lot and we could see that her interest was renewed and she remembered the testimony she had before.

One really cool moment was where she was back in town for a holiday and was planning on returning the next day before school started so she would have to be tired and take the 3 am jeep on the day class started again. But we were able to teach her briefly that night and really felt the spirit, and when we asked when she would be in town again so we could share more she thought for a little bit and then said "ok, I'm not going to leave tomorrow for Sagay, can you come back this time tomorrow?"

It was a simple moment, but I knew that Spirit was working with her and it put in her that desire to change her plans just so she could listen to us one more time before she went home.

We taught her the next day about the Book of Mormon and challenged her to read it every day, and I felt prompted to promise her that if she did she would see her grades improve, she seemed a little disbelieving at first but she took the challenge. I have no doubt that if she does the Lord will fulfill that promise and I feel like I should extend that promise to anyone who may be struggling with school. Read the Book of Mormon intently every day for at least 10 minutes, and I know the spirit will help you will any problem you might face in any academic field.

That's all my time for today.

I love you all! And I thank you for your constant prayers and support.

Halong!

~Elder Butler

It's a Mud Mud Mud MUD World

(The Super Missionaries--Elder Peralta and Elder Butler! ~K)

(His face is just glowing with joy! Makes me so happy! ~K)

The oncoming rain.

On the path to get to Alimatok. This is what a lot of what I walk up, over, down, and through looks like.

Same path. This my friends is Colonia Divina.

Hello Family!

First off, I'd like to wish Grandpa Butler a happy birthday! I hope it was wonderful and I send my love. You always make me smile whenever I see or think about you, keep being wonderful!

This week, as the title suggests, was a very rainy and muddy week, making our daily ventures on the mountains paths very slippery and adventurous. I've given up on taking an umbrella now since every part of me gets soaked whether I use it or not, but at least I get a shower every now and then as opposed to only the bucket showers. :) I figure that this is probably the only time that I am going to have in my life to work the way I am working in the kind of place that I am working in so I'm trying to look at the brighter side of things and be more consciously grateful for everything I get.

Another plus is that all of this mountain work is finally getting me into the physical condition that I've always wanted but was never able to push myself hard enough to get before in my mission, so another blessing from the Lord.

In other news, because of all of the rain and such it has put some restraints on our work in more than a few ways, on top of having school start up again here for all of the youth and college students this week, which after having a week like last week made this week feel all that more "less successful", but I know that success is measured in a lot of ways, and we definitely did a lot of learning a growing this week so I would consider that a success.

Another note that I think I should make about this area that I eluded to in the email before last is why this place is called Colonia Divina (or Divine Colony in English).

In the proper that we live in (kind of like a town except smaller) there are literally only two churches. Our church and the church of Alaph. This whole community exist actually because sometime back in the 1950s their founder gathered a lot of people from all over the Philippines and took them up here in the mountains to this place where he believed (or prophesied, since the people here consider him to be a kind of a prophet/some even think he might be Jesus Christ) that the second coming would take place. Also the name of the church, Alaph, is suppose to be the new name of Jesus (they reference the part in revelation about the name written on the white stone and that the name is actually Alaph).

To make things more brief, basically everyone in this town is only one of three religions, Alaph, LDS, or Baptist (they preach up here too but there church is far away in Sagay). And the hard core Alaph people can be pretty interesting when it comes to the things they spread around about us (there was a pretty big rumor going around that the missionaries were treasure hunters but that has been mostly dissipated since Elder Peralta has been here), but considering we've taught what feels like half of the people in the town, the general opinion of the people has shifted much more in our favor.

Anyways, there is a lot more to the situation, but it makes the work interesting and it makes this one of the most unique areas I've worked in. So I love it.

That's all for now! There are a lot of pictures that I want to send so there might be a few emails with pictures after this one.

I love you all!

~Elder Butler

A Divine Colony

Carabaos at the baptism!

The water well and "shower" buckets.

Our house.

A Divine Colony
Hello Family!

It has been another very tiring but very rewarding day of work for us here in Colonia Divina. Elder Peralta and I have been stretching ourselves and have been setting and achieving some pretty high goals for this last week and for the weeks to come. Our focus has been on finding, and especially on finding families, and this last week I did something that I haven't done for my entire mission, that is tracting (or just going house to house and teaching anyone who will accept you), which has actually brought a lot more success than I originally thought it would.

In the Philippines the culture here is that if someone comes by, even if you don't know them, you entertain them as your guest, regardless of weather you are rich or poor, so when you have missionaries come by asking if they can offer a prayer for you and your family and share a 5 minute message and a song, and being in a very Christian society where atheism is almost completely unheard of and also being in a society that loves to entertain Americans, most of the time you will get a yes and they will give a few minutes for you to pray for them and set a return appointment. Or at least that is how it seems to work in the mountains.
We have been turned away quite a bit as well though, but not nearly as much as we have been accepted, and to make a long story short Elder Peralta and I were able to find a total of 135 new investigators this week, with the very large majority of those coming from complete, or mostly complete, families. The work is hastening and I love it! Now these next few weeks we need to filter and prioritize all of these families so we can decide who to give priority to and plan for how we can help them come unto Christ through baptism.

This week I have also been lengthening my stride a little since we live in the mountains and there are sometimes 2 to 3 kilometers between areas where there are houses, and to save on time we often walk at a very "hastening the work" pace over hills, through fields, and across streams. We often come up to our first lessons/appointments in an area a little short of breath and covered in sweat, but I wouldn't have it any other way right now.

We also had a baptism this week of a girl named Reyna. She is 11 years old and is the little sister of the recent convert family in our branch that walks for over two hours to get to church. I got to baptize in a river for the first time in my mission! Albeit there were a few carabaos who were taking there daily bath as well, but it was still a good experience.

I love you all!

Keep keeping the Faith.

~Elder Butler