Members Work Miracles

Hello Family!

My emailing schedule is getting so mixed up now that I have a hard time remembering what I have written to you all and what has happened since the last time I emailed.

For some reason typing in English feels weird for me today. Perhaps that's a sign that I've been using too much Ilonggo and not enough English this last week with Elder Celebrado (I try to speak to him as much as I can in English so he can practice understanding and speaking fluently).

I'll tell you one thing though, I am going to miss speaking Ilonggo a lot. It has really become a sacred language to me now, and I've felt the spirit teach me so many things during lessons while I've taught in Ilonggo, and it can be such a friendly and care free language which sometimes almost feels like you're singing it part of the time and the other part is just soft and easy going.

I’m so excited for this upcoming Sunday which will be the combined baptisms of Christian's mother and Dalia, along with Sister Mary Joy and her daughter and her nephew George (the eldest son of the Riblora family that wasn't baptized with them because of illness)! All of these people and their families have such bright futures and I wish I could stay to see it all, but I know they are in the Lord's hands and He will take care of them.

We had a fun experience yesterday with teaching half of our lessons on the porch of our apartment.

A youth and her friend who is being baptized the week after next like to come by sometimes during their lunch break during school and be taught or just read with us from the Book of Mormon, but yesterday they came back four times! Each time bringing a different batch of their friends to be taught by us, until the final batch where our entire porch was full of teenage girls being taught about the restoration. What a great example of members doing the finding and missionaries doing the teaching! We literally just sat on our porch and the members brought the investigators to us to be taught.

We also had two of the members work with us two days in a row going with us on both days to our farthest areas in Balabag and a new progressing area that we found called Pinamungahan (say that 10x fast), both of which take more or less an hour to get to and require walking over hills and across rivers and streams, and we didn't hear one complaint from them. They are both preparing to serve missions and they are really helping out with fellowshipping our investigators and making them feel more comfortable coming to church. Another great example of members working with the missionaries to get things hastening!

In all, I am just thankful for the support we've been receiving from the members in the time I've been serving in Colonia Divina. They show with their works where their hearts are and it makes all the difference in the growth of the church and the spreading of the good news here in the mountains. I know a lot of it comes with their great trust in the missionaries and I hope and pray that it will continue to be such for many more missionaries that have the privilege to come and serve here.

No pictures today, but I'll hopefully have some more baptism photos for you all next week. :)

I love you all so much!

Halong kamo perme!

~Elder Butler