The Gospel Goes Forth

The picture is one I got from one of the other Elders of a really nice sunset. The things in the water are what they use to dry out the fish during the day. The Philippines is beautiful.

Hello family!

It's been another eventful week of ups and downs, progress and digression, but still another great week to be a missionary.

This week we were able to work down in Culipapa, one of our farthest areas that is a very large Barangay (kind of like a town), and had a good deal of success with finding and teaching some of the friends and family of a priesthood holder there that we found a few weeks ago. We were even able to teach a whole family who had been given a Book of Mormon in Cebuano by some friend of theirs a while ago and their 12 year old daughter had already read half of it. We think that they could make a great start for the progress there since they were very receptive and there is a lot of potential for leadership in the father and mother. We also found another priesthood holder in the next barangay over who is 84 and was baptized in another city in our zone. He wants to go to church and has a good testimony, but can't afford to come up to Hinoba-an very often, especially since his wife died a few years ago who was a strong member as well and he's had to fend for himself since. But he was very excited to see us there and said that he'll have a lot of referrals ready for us the next time we come down.

We held our special sacrament for the third time in Alim (the closer barangay, but still far enough away) at the C. family home and the attendance was 24, with only 5 attending from Hinobaan and the rest being from Alim, making 19, which has been the consistent attendance that has being growing each week with those who are from Alim. We've also started teaching brother C.'s younger brothers and their families and are hoping to start building a little more priesthood there through that. We are still trying to get things moving in Asia, our target for where the center of that branch will be, but with no members from there helping us with referrals and such there it's been a little slower moving.

The first counselor in the district presidency visited on Sunday and said that they want to come down and attend the special sacraments in Alim and in Culipapa next Sunday.

Things are continuing to progress, and if they continue at the current rate another set of missionaries in Culipapa would definitely be put to good use I think. I would actually be very happy to be assigned there since it's actually mostly Cebuano there, which I've been wanting to learn for a long time, and it's absolutely beautiful. Just me here hoping.

In other news, this week at our Mission Leadership Conference (MLC) we will be having a general authority attending to observe and ask question and such, so no pressure at all. President Lopez hasn't told us who it is yet, so I'll let you know next week.

We're making some progress and we are hoping to be able to set up a foundation for two more branches of the church in our area! There is so much to do and never enough time to do it all, but the Lord keeps hastening His work and I am happy to be apart of it.

That's all I have for today!

I love you all and thank you for your prayers and for your love!

Halong kamo!

~Elder Butler

Hastening the Work

April 21st, 2014

Hello Family!

What a full week this has been for me! It feels like a lot has happened and there is so much potential coming out from our area that it's almost hard to keep track of it all!

In the main news, I would like to talk about the two baptisms we had this Saturday, in which both of the candidates have had quite the experience in their journey to the true church.

The first I'd like to talk about is Sister G, a mother of two of our recent converts who I have been working with since I first arrived in the area. I remember at first, when we were teaching her children, she would not want to be a part of the lessons and would often go some place else or find some chore to do in order to get out of talking with us, which she even mentioned in her testimony after her baptism, and it appeared as if there was little chance that we could make any progress with her.

Then one night when we came by to visit we caught the whole family at home and in one place inside the house, and of course seeing the opportunity and before they could scatter we invited them to all listen to a short message and Sister G agreed to stay and listen.

We taught what I felt was a very powerful lesson, with the Spirit really helping us along to say what she needed to hear, and from that time the mom would always stop what ever she was doing and listen to us whenever we came by and taught.

Granted after that it was not a straight road heading up to her baptism, with confusion having other preachers come and talk to her and feeling persecution from her neighborhood because she was now listening to us, and every week when Sunday came around there was always something that would get in her way to coming to church, be it fear, sick/cranky child, unexpected work load (she does laundry by hand for other people for her work), and so on.

Finally, as she related in her testimony at her baptism, she felt so confused and lost that she just wanted to know what was true, and after a lesson where we brought her sister with us who was a very strong member and bore a very powerful and sincere testimony and told her to pray to know, she prayed and told Heavenly Father that she wanted to know, and that she was going to go to church and hope that there she would feel an answer.

That following Sunday she finally came to church for the first time, after having taught her consistently for almost three months, and after church when we visited her she said that she just felt light and free, no worries and just happy, and she committed to be baptized and went to church every week since.

We are now working on teaching her older sons who have recently become more interested since their mothers conversion.

For me, it's the investigators that take more effort to help them come into the church that give me the most joy, because when they finally make it you know that they are rooted in the right place and have a bright future ahead of them after the dark night they had to endure to make it to the other side with the light.

The other investigator that was baptized was another sister. She actually was a very unexpected blessing that we were not expecting at all.

Elder Baird and I found her back in February from a member who said that her family had been taught before. Having faith in the converting power of the gospel we taught her and within a few weeks she actually came to church!
Her family was taught by missionaries before, and her mom (who we are teaching now) wanted to join the church, but their father was (and still is) a huge obstacle, so they never were able to be baptized then.

When we first starting teaching her she was very receptive, but we were never able to teach her often because she would always be out and about and switching between her family house and it was hard to catch her at the right place at the right time. But we were able to teach her a lesson at some point from Alma 32, about recognizing an answer through the Book of Mormon, which she accepted like our other lessons but we didn't feel like it was a huge break through, and after that there was a pretty large space of time where we were unable to teach her.

She had only been to church once and hadn't come since, so she kind of fell off our focus list, having a lot of people to keep up with. But we were able to come back to her about 2 and a half week later and she shared with us how she had this really personal experience, involving plants that she was trying to grow herself, and everything just clicked and she understood it and said that she feels that it all is true.

We were pretty taken aback at the sudden change, and we also noticed how she was starting to be and look a lot more feminine, but she said that she was leaving soon to Manila to work again since her family is really struggling financially, so we gave her a personal copy of the Book of Mormon and told her to find the missionaries in Manila.

The following Sunday (which was general conference) she came and attended all the sessions. Afterwards she told us that she really wanted to be baptized, which is a great thing to hear as a missionary, so we took her aside in a classroom and had a quick lesson about the Law of Chastity and told her that she would need to be interviewed by President Lopez, who miraculously was going to be coming down that following Saturday (and since our zone is so far from Bacolod it's very occasionally that he comes down), and that we couldn't make any promises, but we would visit her every day until the interview to make sure she knew all the doctrine and lessons.

She soaked up everything and on Saturday 2 PM she was interviewed, and 2:30 PM she was baptized.

In short, I believe that it is a complete miracle and such a blessing to see the gospel work such a great change in this wonderful, sincere woman and daughter of God, and I know that she has only just begun a much greater journey.

I just love being able to be a missionary at times like these.

I wish I could write more about the baptism, which was very spiritual, being combined with the other elders in the newly created branch near by, but this is getting a little too long.

The work is moving so fast and the progress is truly miraculous. I get to see a miracle happen everyday as I get to be a part of the hastening of the work here in Hinobaan. We're getting close to opening up a new branch, and starting the processes for opening up another one in the further south part of our area.

The Church is true and it's growing!

It sounds like the flu took a pot shot at everyone this week :) I couldn't help chuckling at the image of that night everyone got sick simultaneously. Memories.

I love you all!

~Elder Butler 

Rock of Revelation

Hello Family!

I hope that this week has been wonderful and full of gratitude! I loved so many of the messages I was able to hear in this general conference and I feel like I was definitely spiritually fed and came out more prepared to face the world and share the news of the restoration!

We are truly blessed in our day to have prophets that give us continual counsel and guidance from our Heavenly Father for our specific needs and concerns for our days. In a world full of so much confusion and an ever changing moral compass and shifting sandy foundation of worldly doctrine, how lucky we are to have the rock of revelation and unchanging and eternal truth that flows from heaven to keep us grounded in things that will never fail us or change. As President Monson told us in his talk in Priesthood session, "It is impossible to stand upright when one plants his roots in the shifting sands of popular opinion and approval."

I'm so grateful to have been able to put my roots a little deeper in the right place again.

In some other news about our area, it's been doing great and has been progressing. The other day we went to the area that we're trying to prepare to be an independent group, and one of our recent converts took us to a house of one of their relatives and we ended up teaching a huge group that gathered of probably 25+ that lived in that neighborhood, 10 of which we got names from and return appointments. The work is really hastening and I am so excited to keep pushing it forward here in Hinoba-an!

Elder Sanderson and I are getting along great and I can see that his confidence is growing.

I love you all so much! I can't express how much I am grateful for every one of you in my life and for the support you have given me, both seen and unseen.

Enjoy the wonderful spring in the Carolina's! I'll keep enjoying the heat here. :)

~Elder Butler

My Soul Hungered

 

Hello Family!

I can't tell you all how excited I am to be able to listen to General Conference this coming Saturday and Sunday! We get it a week later here on a tape, and I am so ready to receive more revelation and instruction from our living day prophet and apostles again!
It's incredible how fast time is flying though. It feels like the last general conference was not that long ago, and I still remember many of the talks almost as if I heard them last week.

We have two sets of elders living in our house here in Hinobaan, and this morning we said goodbye to one of my good friends in the mission and an even better missionary, Elder Saure, as he is finishing his mission and going back to his home in Manila. Every time I get to be around good missionaries going home I always can feel the reluctance they have in laying down the mantle and leaving the ministry they have come to love, and it makes me think about how fast my mission is going and how short my time really is. I love my mission so much and it will be a very bitter sweet day when I will have to take this mantle off and return back to where I came.

But the wonderful thing is that I still have time! And I'm going to do my best to make it count.

In fun news, our neighbor’s dog decided to have a litter of puppies right on the side of our house, so we've been enjoying having some little friends to play with when we get home from a long day of proselyting :)

We also were able to enjoy a semi uninterrupted week of proselyting this week which has made me feel a lot better and back into the swing of things. And we also were able to have another baptism of Sister Sara Jane, an 18 year young woman that we've been working on for the last 3 plus months. She was a good example of a very line upon line and precept upon precept investigator, who at first was incredibly shy, especially to Americans, and had a great difficulty understanding a lot of what we taught. But she had a desire and a good friend, and now she is teaching her friends, the first convert in her family, and she knows that this is the true church and has a determination to serve to the end. Just another wonderful miracle that the gospel has brought to which I was able to witness.

We also held a special sacrament in one of our farther areas this Sunday that went great! We had many of the members of the branch come to support making the the total attendance 34, and out of those 17 were from the area that would be attending regularly in the future, and out of those 17, 7 were investigators. So we're really excited to get things moving and get a group fully established!

It sounds like things are getting pretty crazy back at home! I'll be putting in a few extra prayers for Dad and his work.
And Mom's question on hearing angry words. The answer would be yes. I'm pretty sure every missionary has to go through a lot of that, especially with Jesus promising His apostles that the world would hate them because the world hated Him first. But those experiences pale in comparison with the good words we hear and the good things we feel.

That's all I have time for today!

I love you all so much!

~Elder Butler


 

Hastening the Work

The baptismal photo of the four girls.

Hello family!

This week was extremely exhausting, but not so much from actual proselyting work as from very long amounts of time traveling. I think it's interesting how doing the actual missionary work, which is very demanding physically and spiritually, doesn't leave you feeling drained, but when you go a period of time where you are unable to proselyte it's like all of the spiritual juice just starts draining out. It really does build my testimony that we are not doing this work alone and we are receiving help from both sides of the veil.

On Thursday night we got the info for when my part time companion would need to be in Bacolod, and 5 AM Friday morning we were on the bus for a 7 hour bus trip to Bacolod, after which I got my new companion, Elder Sanderson from Utah (about 15 minutes north of Logan), and then hopped back on the bus at 3 PM for another 6 hours (3 of which we had to stand because there was no sitting room) and got back to Hinoba-an just in time to move the new sisters into their apartment at 9 PM. Also just in time to coordinate the Zone on the district conference that was happening on Saturday.

Then we spent Saturday interviewing candidates for baptism, orienting the sisters to their area, and then going to Sipalay, the next city over, for district conference.

My poor companion has been assigned in Hinobaan for 4 days now and he hasn't been able to work in his area once. :)

But! I am very happy about the sisters, Sister Legaspi and Sister Mckee, that were assigned to split our branch with us, and will be continuing to teach our recent converts. The four girls were sad that we wouldn't be able to teach them anymore, but I think they are starting to adjust more to being members of the church and I see a bright future for them.

Also another great thing that happened this week was that President Lopez and his wife and our branch President were able to come to one of our further out areas to hopefully start up an independent group. Long story short, we are going to start a special sacrament there that will make our work explode in our area. I'm so excited to get back to my area and get back to work!

The Lord is hastening His work in every aspect, and something that our President asked us in his weekly letter was, "The Lord is hastening His work, are you?"

It's so exhilarating to be a part of this movement and I know the Lord needs every hand he can get, so it's good sometimes to ask yourself, "Am I hastening the work as well?"

I know that there is no more rewarding work than that of the Lord’s work, and I for one want to be on the side of the "stone that was cut out of the mountain without hands" pushing it further and faster and farther than ever before. (see Daniel 2:44-45) That's my call, and that's my joy. And anyone can be that person that makes the difference. One good missionary minded member can change a branch/ward. Imagine what several could do? Or even a whole ward? The potential is only as limited as is our faith.

That's all the time I have for today.

I love you all!  

~Elder Butler

Baptism is the Beginning

Hello Family!

This week was a week of somewhat mixed emotions for a few reasons. One of the emotions was that of somberness as on Wednesday we received the call that Elder Baird would be transferring the next day, which would end the two months that we had serving as Zone Leaders together. He has returned now to Tacloban, since I think they are reopening the less hit areas and I think almost all of the original missionaries have now returned to the Tacloban mission.

Although this week has been a very happy and rewarding week with being able to witness in the baptism and confirmation of the four young women, who all have been incredibly strong and faithful along this whole journey of theirs to their baptism.

Despite having gone through numerous persecutions from everyone in their neighborhood, etc., they have all stayed so strong and turned to the Lord for their strength.

They came to church yesterday before their confirmation and told us how they had been experiencing the most persecution they had yet, mostly from the ignorant boys living around their neighborhood who have nothing better to do than shout profanity at anything that isn't worldly. We had a very sober but spiritually uplifting lesson in our gospel principles class about charity and the example of Jesus Christ.

I also reflected on how Jesus Christ's mission and greatest trials came directly after he had been baptized by John the baptist. In fact straightway after His baptism he went into the wilderness to be tested and tried. Our joining of the Church of Jesus Christ or association with it is not a guaranteed protection from the sorrow and temptation of the world. In fact, the time where we are trying our very best to become closer to Christ is the time the heat is turned up and is intensified.

When we promised to follow Jesus Christ, we also agreed to follow in His footsteps, which include persecution, rejection, sorrow, and pain. But if we endure those steps well, then we have eternal life and everlasting happiness to look forward to at the end.

The future is bright for those who continue through the darkness. So it's best that we keep on moving through the darkness and not allow it to drag us down into it. Fortunately for us we don’t have to go it alone, because our Savior already charted the way for us and will never leave us in our time of need.

Right now I have a short term companion who is a local form Negros, from Cadiz (the northern part of the island) and by next week I should be able to get my new companion, but until then I'll be flying solo for a bit as the one and only zone leader for Sipalay, also while trying to keep our area running at the standards it needs to. Wish me blessings.

I love you all!

I'll post pictures of the baptism next week since  the shop we're now doesn't have USB capability.

~Elder Butler

Beauty in Diversity

Elder Butler with the four young women who will be baptized this Saturday!

Hello Family!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful week! :)

Our training for zone conference went very well and I know that the Lord had a big part in that. I gave a training about communicating with your companion, focusing on applying Preach My Gospel chapter 6, highlight patience and humility, and my companion gave a great training about working with members from Preach My Gospel chapter 9.

In preparation for training I really wanted to treasure up as much as I could about what I was training and I also wanted to base everything I could out of the scriptures, using them as a source more than just a support, and I actually used mostly the New Testament (with additional scriptures from Proverbs that Elder Baird had done studies on previously) to teach the concepts that seemed important.  All in all I feel like our training was a success and all parties came out with some new revelation on the topics we presented. I've come to appreciate the value of leadership training meetings like zone conferences and trainings and such after having had so many great spiritually feeding experiences that result in fast tracked spiritual growth after being able to apply the revelation I've received.

Update on the four girls we've been teaching: they have all been officially signed and interviewed and their baptism is this coming Saturday! I'm very excited as well as the rest of the branch, and of course the girls themselves. Being able to reap the fruits of your labors is one of the most rewarding part of this work and makes all of the other things that you may have to struggle with all worth it.

Something that I realized a little this week was about how the gospel of Jesus Christ really thrives and is beautified in diversity. The world is always talking about how we need to break out and be different, this being a counterfeit of Satan which usually ends up with all those involved having to conform to fit some mold and everyone ending up the same. But when we introduce someone to the gospel, suddenly the things that the world scorned and painted to be typical and not unique become beautified and enhanced, making weaknesses strength and each person’s spiritual identity becomes more defined and expressly "theirs", only showing the master craftsmanship of our Heavenly Father who created everyone one of us different and unique.

I saw this as I saw four teenage girls who before were caught in the lie of the world that they needed to conform and be accepted into an ever more wicked world become freed from those shackles, all the while being mocked and put down for it. They rose to their divine potential as daughters of their Heavenly Father, their differences not being looked any more at as flaws, but master strokes in a much larger painting from the hand of someone much wiser than they.

The world will continue to mock and to scorn, and call good evil and evil good, but they will never be able to separate them from the simple truths they have learned by the Spirit that cannot be counterfeited or reproduced by any effort of the adversary.

Just thoughts. I rambled a little there, hope it was worthwhile. :)

Well that's about all the time I have for today.

I  love you all!

~Elder Butler