Old Things Become New

Elder Celebrado & Elder Butler

Here are some pictures of my area!

 

Hello family!

Well for those of you that don't know yet, my new companion is in fact a very new companion, actually he's fresh off the plane, which means that President has asked me to train again!

Except this time instead of training a foreigner I'm training a local missionary, Elder Celebrado, and he is actually a native Illonggo speaker! A first for this mission, or at least for the time that President Lopez has been serving.

This training has definitely a much different feeling than my first, of course being that I was still a pretty new missionary when I trained Elder Schow, but I feel like it's almost more of a treat than it is an assignment. I really miss being around new missionaries since there was a huge wave of new missionaries right behind me when I arrived, but then dropped a lot when our mission hit full capacity so I rarely ever saw new missionaries. There is just that "new fire" that you feel that you can't replicate in an older missionary, regardless of experience, and it reminds me a lot of myself when I was new and still figuring a lot of things out.

The biggest change though is adjusting from having a companion who was in his last transfer to having a companion who is in his first, thus making the old new, and once again I feel like I'm looking at my area with new eyes with a new missionary.

Elder Celebrado is from a family of 6 kids, his mom being a member but his father is not, and he is the youngest of 5 brothers and one sister, and also the first in his family to serve a mission, his brothers being less active. But he told me that he saw the choices they were making and the effects they were having when he was young and decided to take a different path. So there is definitely a lot of moral courage there.

He's also from a province so the adjustment to Colonia isn't too much of a shock for him, just the long walking and lots of going up and down hills since his place is relatively flat.
He's doing great though and I think he's going to be a great missionary.

In other news, before I met Elder Celebrado I had to wait in Bacolod for two days, and while I was there I was able to see and work with one of my former companions. To say the least we did not have the best companionship, with him having a very hard time being companions with anyone who isn't a Filipino, but I was so happy to see him again, and even more surprised to see that he was happy to see me again as well.

I actually wasn't even sure that he was still in the mission before I saw him, so seeing that he was still here and enduring filled me with a lot of joy, and I could see that he had made a lot of growth in the last 6 months since I had seen him last.

I was able to work with him in his area and stay the night with him while we were waiting for our companions (he was training as well) and I think it was just what I needed to have some closure finally after having a hard time while we were companions.
Another tender mercy, and another evidence of the power of the Atonement to change peoples lives and behaviors.

I love you all!

If it's any comfort to Dad, his few days at scout camp are pretty comparable to what I've been living in for the last month and a half. :) Minus the cold bucket showers. Maybe you could give it a try.

Halong!

~Elder Butler