The Stone Cut Out of the Mountain

Being counseled on where to go (the river bed was very stony and since it hadn't rained recently it was a little shallow)

Helping her in

The Difference the Gospel Makes

[Brooks didn't have time to upload photos this week as he had to finish up his college application essays. Not a fun thing to do while serving your mission!! But we're done! :-) ~K]

Hello family!

This week has been so rewarding in a lot of ways. First off, in explanation as to why I'm emailing on Wednesday this week instead of Monday, we have a follow up training for the July arrivals tomorrow and since coming down the mountain twice is too much of a burden on our proselyting hours we moved our P day [preparation day] to today in Bacolod to make more use of our schedule.

I just want to talk about the three baptisms that we had this last Sunday, being the baptism of *L and the two elderly sisters in Siwahon.

L has been an investigator of ours since I was with Elder Peralta, and the way we found her was through her friend which is a recent convert. She told us that she wanted to try to come to church because she wanted to change the way she's been living her life.

She is a young single mom with a young boy that was the result of a teenage pregnancy, and when we met her she had been pregnant for 3 months with another child that was the result of someone taking advantage of her unwillingly. One of the first things she asked us was how big of a sin it was to abort a baby, as she was considering it at the time. But she changed her mind after the first few lessons we had with her and the difference I've seen in her from the time I met her to now is incredible.

In her testimony after her baptism she talked about how she was having so many bad things happen in her life and so many dark thoughts enter her mind before she found the true church, and now she has completely changed around and has a direction in her life.

There is much more I could say about L and a lot more to her conversion story, but time presses.

Also, directly after the baptism and confirmation of L, we went to Siwahon and held the baptismal service for Sister Jamera and Sister Lapid. It was such a sweet experience. A lot of the branch was there to support, and the two elderly sisters walked down to the river (which was quite a feat for them) with the help of the members and then got into the water (which was an even greater feat) with the sweet help of Frederick's mother, who actually got all the way into the river, skirt and Sunday dress and all, to help position the two women so they could be baptized. (Pictures will be attached next week.)

Afterwards at the special sacrament they were both confirmed into the church and they couldn't have looked happier.

They both told us later how they just felt so light and good afterwards and how they want all of their family to be able to know what they do now. Sister Jamera said that "in all my years and to this old age I've never really understood or lived the gospel until now, and from now on I am never going to have my chungee (little store she runs from her house) open on Sunday ever again."

I love you all!

Halong kamo pirme!

~Elder Butler

*Not her full name for privacy reasons

A River of Blessings

Frederick

Those observing (his sister is the one standing in the pink)

This is the bridge going across the river to Siwahon from the highway going to Colonia. It's pretty high up.

Hello Family!

It's been another week of blessings from the Lord and I am so excited for the future of my area, and especially the future of those we are preparing to baptize in Siwahon.

I think I'll just start by talking about this Sunday where we had such a wonderful experience with the baptism of Frederick.

Frederick is a 15 year old young man that Elder Peralta and I found in a fairly interesting way. After one of the first few lessons we had with Sister Hemera we were about to leave to go to another area when we saw in an open doorway (of the house directly across from Sister Hemera's house), a young man reading the Bible by himself. Of course, seeing someone that young taking initiative to read the Bible in a culture that has a hard enough time reading the pamphlets, we felt prompted to go over and start talking with him, which then resulted in a 5 minute lesson about the restoration. That was the start of the conversion for Frederick which would involve him making the hour plus walk to come to Colonia to come to church with the rest of the group that comes from Siwahon and sharing everything we share with him with his other younger siblings (he being the eldest) and his parents.

Clean Swimming

Views of Colonia

This is where we get water and have to carry up our stairs. More exercise..:)

We moved into a new house by the way. It's on the second floor and significantly better than our previous. Here are some views from our porch.

More views of Colonia

Add caption

 Hello Family!

This Sunday was the first Sunday that we had sacrament meeting in our old apartment in the proper of Colonia Divina so our members in Colonia didn't have to climb up the mountain to get to church and our attendance was significantly higher than it usually was.

One of the moments that I enjoyed was seeing standing room only left during the sacrament, and we also had some good testimonies from the members of the branch making it a good spiritual experience for our investigators that attended.

I also enjoy getting to teach the youth class like we usually do, except Elder Celebrado was helping in primary so I was flying solo. I've found that I get some of the greatest satisfaction in teaching youth, although sometimes it can be the most challenging or frustrating, but when I can have those moments where I can see that they are really "getting it" and they are feeling the spirit it makes it all worth it. Especially when teaching a group where participation is sometimes a challenge.

Siwahon is being as progressive as ever. Both of the parents of one of our recent converts there came to church in Colonia, making the hour walk there and back, for fast and testimony meeting (our Branch President is going to do a special sacrament every week in Siwahon except for the first Sunday where he wants everyone to gather in Colonia) and I think they had a good experience. The father has been to church twice now, attending the special sacrament last week, and his wife came for the first time this week, and the father is looking like he might be the first Melchizedek priesthood that we will be able to baptize in that area which makes me really excited.

Sister L and Sister H are both very excited for their baptism, and Sister L expressed that she wanted someplace "solemn" for her baptism, which I think is wonderful because I know they both value this experience that they're about to have so much. So we've been scouting out an area by the river running next to Siwahon so that we can find a "Waters of Mormon" worthy place.

Of course as with anyone who is making progress they have both been experiencing opposition with regards to their joining the church, having people telling all kinds of false rumors about the church and saying bad things about them and so on and so forth, but these women are unshakable, and they just laugh off all of the silly things people are saying and are sticking to what they know is true. Sister L told us about how one person expressed shock to her that they are switching religions at their age and she told them, "Well, if the pool that you're swimming in is dirty, and you see one that is clean, why would you keep swimming in the same old dirty pool? Why not get out and go to the one that is clean?" (English translation, the Ilonggo analogy was a little different, but you get the picture…)

I just couldn't stop smiling the rest of the day after that. :)

Alright, that’s about all I think I can do for today.

I love you all!

~Elder Butler