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

Elder Sablan (the Alimatok Elders) and Elder Cicon behind him with other observers.

Helping Sister Lapid (in green) and Sister Jamera (in white in the back) down to the Siwahon river with the rest of the branch that attended (who again walked over an hour both ways I may add to attend their baptism).

They were having a hard time standing on those rocks (hence Sister Jamera holding on to me).

I LOVE Sister Lapid's smile here. Sister Alay (left) got in up to her waist to help both of these women in and out of the water.

Fun fact: Sister Jamera had her own baptismal clothes made for this. I just thought that was wonderful. :)

August 25th, 2014

Hello Family!

Wow, what a relief to actually be able to sit down at the computer and only have to worry about writing the family email. Thank you so much Mom and Dad for helping me finish out my application! I guess we'll see what the Lord has planned for me.

This week has been an amazing week of conversion, and the coming week is going to be an amazing week of harvest with 9 investigators being scheduled for baptism this coming Sunday, 2 in Colonia and 7 in Siwahon. I am just so thankful to the Lord that I've been given such a great privilege as to be a part of this peoples conversion experience.
 
I'll share about a few of the precious people that we have scheduled for this coming week.

First being the Alay family, or the rest of Frederick's (who we baptized on the 10th) family. This family has been such a great blessing for us and they have accepted the gospel with open arms and with nothing held back. After the week that we baptized Frederick the WHOLE family, 6 children including their youngest 7 year old daughter Meya, have attended church in Colonia twice consecutively, making the hour plus walk both ways with their children, and I haven't heard a single complaint from any member of the family for it. Brother Alay told us the other night that only here in this church has he really felt like he has felt and been guided by the Holy Spirit, and he and his wife are so ready to be members of the church. 

Even their eldest daughter's best friend has been caught up in this storm of conversion, attending church and all of the lessons with the Alay family, and she told us last week that she wants to be baptized with them, getting permission from her father last night, who we hope to be teaching later on although he's hard to catch at home.

Also Sister Lapid's husband, who we had scheduled to be baptized on September 14th, asked us if he could be baptized with Brother Alay and his family this week, to which the branch president said of course, so we said of course.  He is so great, just like his wife, and he has just been absorbing the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We gave him a plan of salvation pamphlet after one of our first lessons with him and when we came back and asked him if he had read it he told us, "Oh yes! I learned a lot from it! I realized that all of my physical problems in this life really aren't all that big at all, what's more important is that I get to go to the Celestial Kingdom with my family!"

After getting back into my chair from being blown out of my seat... I told him that he was exactly right and that we would probably be better off with him teaching us  rather than us teaching him.

Also, in another lesson we had with him last night in preparation for his baptismal interview we were reviewing the commandments with him and near the end he said, while placing imaginary things on an imaginary table, "You want coffee? (speaking figuratively to God) Take it! Cigarettes, alcohol, and gambling? Take it! Ten percent? The Sabbath? Take it all! What else?"

I just love the Lapid family so much. :) And Sister Lapid said the most sincere prayer asking God to help her family and friends and everyone in their area accept the gospel that it just about melted my heart.

Also these last few weeks since church has been held in our old apartment our attendance has been steadily increasing, starting out at 60, next moving to mid 70's, then to mid 80's, then this week we broke 90! Even with extra chairs being brought down there was still only standing room during sacrament and many people had to sit out on the porch and listen through the windows. And including the attendance from our special sacraments (another set of Elders working one in Alimatok and then us in Siwahon) we well went over 100.

The Lord is truly hastening the work in our area and I feel like I'm just in for the wonderful ride. What a blessing to be able to see so much faith and love growing up here in the mountains of Sagay!

I love you all!

~Elder Butler