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