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