The Future is as Bright as Your Faith!

Well done thou good and faithful servants...

Sunset

Reflections

God does wonderful things in the skies of Colonia.

Before we teach a lesson...

...and after the lesson

Oct. 27, 2014

Hello Family!

This email may not be super long this time again since I ended up talking to/teaching the cafe owner and his wife again. You're never off duty as a missionary. :)

All I can say is wow. It’s almost hard to comprehend how close I am to being home right now. I don't really know how to handle it to be honest. I feel like it's just proselyting as usual, just another P day, another week of missionary work, but really this is my last week I have as a missionary to proselyte full time. And I plan on making the most of it.

This week was a great week with having I think the best attendance at church of both investigators and general church attendance that I've had yet in Colonia. We had 120 people attend sacrament meeting in Colonia Divina, and that without having the Alimatok and Siwahon groups attending (including them our total attendance for Colonia Divina branch was 184), out of which 35 of those attending Colonia were investigators (all non member ages 8 and above, not counting all of the kids of the investigator families younger than 8 that attended).

To say that church was crowded would be an understatement. I spent most of sacrament meeting out on the porch trying to keep all of the little kids under control and not too loud while the meeting was going on inside.

Most of the reason for the great turn out was that investigators from the three further areas that we've recently starting visiting more, since we haven't been going to Siwahon, all decided to come to church for the first time yesterday! And they are almost all on the path of being baptized within the next month or so. Needless to say Elder Celebrado and his new companion are going to have plenty of work to keep them busy for a while.

I am just so excited for the future of this branch! I know that it will still see it's challenges, but I know that the Lord has a special plan for these mountains and there are many more people prepared to receive His gospel here. The future is as bright as your faith! And I see a bright future for the wonderful people here in Colonia Divina because of their faith that they show.

Also there was the baptism of Sister A. this week! And to me it's a big step for the progress of this branch since her family is one of the more affluent families here in Colonia and part of the founders here. All lot of our investigators have received a lot more courage to come to church after they heard that she was being baptized since her family has a high reputation here.

Of course Sister A. has been receiving a lot of opposition from other people in the town for joining the church, but she knows what is right and she thinks for herself and she has been a shining example of standing for what is true no matter what the popular beliefs may be. Her baptism I think will be a big step in opening the door for many more people to gain the courage to join the church, including her husband, mother, sister, and those that she employs. And Christian is already making his plans about serving a mission, as well as his cousin B.J. who is being baptized this week.

There are just so many good things to say about what is happening in my area that I can't even begin to list them all.

This is all the time I have for today, and my next email is going to be my last before I go home.

I love this work, and my heart is resisting the idea of not being a full time missionary anymore. But change is the name of the game in this life, and this week I plan on giving every last drop I have to give to the Lord and this work.

I love you all so much and look forward to our happy reunion! 

We'll see how the next email turns out.

Halong kamo!

~Elder Butler