Smile Because it's Bright

Sister Lopez posted these photos to facebook. (It was zone conference earlier in the week.) Brooks sent the three photos I placed below his letter.~K

 

Performing in a duet at Zone Conference

He has always had the great gift to sing with his heart. I think this picture even gives you a little sense of that...

Hello Family!

I hope that this letter finds you well and smiling. I've been making a conscious effort to always have a happy face whenever I see people that I pass on the streets/paths, and especially make sure that I always smile when I see them because I am happy to see them.  I often find that people ending up smiling back and looking a little happier themselves. I do think that I'll never regret having smiled too much or at too many people. Why not give it a try?

On that note I want to share a story from our work today (we work in the mornings on preparation day instead of the evenings since we have to stay over night in Sagay).

We've been teaching a lot today, mostly just quick lessons where we sing two or three verses of a hymn in Ilonggo and then share a 5 minute or less message. Near the end of our proselyting time we came up to the house of a young wife that we had taught a few weeks ago at a different house and found her at home with her husband that we had not met yet.

The wife was happy to see us, but the husband was completely indifferent and quite frankly looked like he'd rather be facing down an angry carabao than sit in the same room with us. Of course always inviting others to come unto Christ, we asked if we could share a short message and sing. The husband agreed, somewhat reluctantly but said yes out of general Filipino culture of not wanting to appear too rude, and after getting to know him a little we asked if we could pray.

After the prayer I could see that Brother was starting to immediately zone out, so I gave my best three sentence lesson about Jesus Christ being the light in our lives (the song we were going to be singing was "Teach Me to Walk in the Light"), and as I started to speak I saw something amazing happen.

As I talked about Christ I felt I could literally see Brother A's stone cold features soften little by little, like watching ice melt on a hot day, and as my companion spoke his part I could see he was starting to think about what we were saying and it was almost as if I could see light starting to grow in his countenance. And all this in less than 2 minutes.

We then asked if we could sing. We sang the first and last verse of "Teach Me to Walk in the Light”, and then thanked them for their time and said the closing prayer. By the end Alex had turned from stone cold indifference to smiling and laughing. I knew that he felt the spirit and it showed in his eyes, going from dullness to a brightness that was in such stark contrast that it was like I was seeing a different person by the end.

I don't know the future of that family (as we only just taught them for the first time and very quickly), but I love the effect the spirit has on people, and I love being able to see it in the eyes of those we teach.

I do have hopes of a return appointment and hope to teach Alex and his wife Ilene again.
Being a missionary is wonderful.

I also got an unexpected package that contained a mini quad with snap close a few weeks ago (slipped my mind to mention it last week). I guess that was the one you ordered 8 plus months ago? The shipping must be backed up here.

I hope to attach two pictures, but I'll do it in other emails.

I love you all! I think of you every night and pray for your well being.

Halong!

~Elder Butler

A Challenge and a Promise

This week was Stake Conference and the church rented a bus to take the members and missionaries from up in the mountains. (Photos this week are courtesy of the mission president's wife, Sister Lopez.)

Hello Family!

The week flew by and the mission keeps flying faster and faster with each week it seems.

In better news, it didn't rain quite so much this week, or at least it was timed well enough to where when it did we were at teaching appointments and didn't take to full soaking.

We also spent some time with the senior couples looking at a few potential new missionary apartments, since our current house is going to be remodeled into a meeting house here and we need to find another place to stay, and also since the branch president is wanting to add another set of missionaries so our mission president is complying.

The house that we are looking at staying in temporarily before moving into another in the proper is pretty cool. Because the other house we want to move into is still under construction, we are going to stay in the owners other house temporarily which is basically a nice bamboo hut which you have cross a small river and climb up a hill to get to, but I've always wanted to live in a bamboo hut so I'm totally excited! :) It has mosquito netting around the outside and it even has running water from the irrigation running by, it's also quiet and peaceful with no loud music being played by neighbors (which is extremely common in the Philippines no matter where you go), so in my opinion it's a total upgrade to our current house. I'm not sure if I have pictures, but I'll send some when I do.

Also I've been starting to try and "prepare" myself mentally and spiritually a little for when I have to come home. Being with another missionary who is about to go home (at the end of this transfer in two weeks) has definitely made me a lot more aware of the fact that missions do have to come to an end. I still want to keep my heart and mind on the work, and I plan on spending every last second here as well as I can, but I still have to face the music that this can't last forever. But that makes my time left all the sweeter as I know I still have time, albeit not as much as I would hope.

We were also able to teach a former investigator, the older sister of the twins that will be baptized this coming Saturday (the picture of me with the boy on the bus [above] is one of the twins). She is 16 and was taught by the missionaries a few years ago and would have been baptized (she was even interviewed) but her parents wouldn't allow it, as the church was receiving a lot of persecution at the time and they didn't want their family involved, so now after a few years later and being off at school she joined a baptist church, but when we started teaching her she still remembered a lot and we could see that her interest was renewed and she remembered the testimony she had before.

One really cool moment was where she was back in town for a holiday and was planning on returning the next day before school started so she would have to be tired and take the 3 am jeep on the day class started again. But we were able to teach her briefly that night and really felt the spirit, and when we asked when she would be in town again so we could share more she thought for a little bit and then said "ok, I'm not going to leave tomorrow for Sagay, can you come back this time tomorrow?"

It was a simple moment, but I knew that Spirit was working with her and it put in her that desire to change her plans just so she could listen to us one more time before she went home.

We taught her the next day about the Book of Mormon and challenged her to read it every day, and I felt prompted to promise her that if she did she would see her grades improve, she seemed a little disbelieving at first but she took the challenge. I have no doubt that if she does the Lord will fulfill that promise and I feel like I should extend that promise to anyone who may be struggling with school. Read the Book of Mormon intently every day for at least 10 minutes, and I know the spirit will help you will any problem you might face in any academic field.

That's all my time for today.

I love you all! And I thank you for your constant prayers and support.

Halong!

~Elder Butler

It's a Mud Mud Mud MUD World

(The Super Missionaries--Elder Peralta and Elder Butler! ~K)

(His face is just glowing with joy! Makes me so happy! ~K)

The oncoming rain.

On the path to get to Alimatok. This is what a lot of what I walk up, over, down, and through looks like.

Same path. This my friends is Colonia Divina.

Hello Family!

First off, I'd like to wish Grandpa Butler a happy birthday! I hope it was wonderful and I send my love. You always make me smile whenever I see or think about you, keep being wonderful!

This week, as the title suggests, was a very rainy and muddy week, making our daily ventures on the mountains paths very slippery and adventurous. I've given up on taking an umbrella now since every part of me gets soaked whether I use it or not, but at least I get a shower every now and then as opposed to only the bucket showers. :) I figure that this is probably the only time that I am going to have in my life to work the way I am working in the kind of place that I am working in so I'm trying to look at the brighter side of things and be more consciously grateful for everything I get.

Another plus is that all of this mountain work is finally getting me into the physical condition that I've always wanted but was never able to push myself hard enough to get before in my mission, so another blessing from the Lord.

In other news, because of all of the rain and such it has put some restraints on our work in more than a few ways, on top of having school start up again here for all of the youth and college students this week, which after having a week like last week made this week feel all that more "less successful", but I know that success is measured in a lot of ways, and we definitely did a lot of learning a growing this week so I would consider that a success.

Another note that I think I should make about this area that I eluded to in the email before last is why this place is called Colonia Divina (or Divine Colony in English).

In the proper that we live in (kind of like a town except smaller) there are literally only two churches. Our church and the church of Alaph. This whole community exist actually because sometime back in the 1950s their founder gathered a lot of people from all over the Philippines and took them up here in the mountains to this place where he believed (or prophesied, since the people here consider him to be a kind of a prophet/some even think he might be Jesus Christ) that the second coming would take place. Also the name of the church, Alaph, is suppose to be the new name of Jesus (they reference the part in revelation about the name written on the white stone and that the name is actually Alaph).

To make things more brief, basically everyone in this town is only one of three religions, Alaph, LDS, or Baptist (they preach up here too but there church is far away in Sagay). And the hard core Alaph people can be pretty interesting when it comes to the things they spread around about us (there was a pretty big rumor going around that the missionaries were treasure hunters but that has been mostly dissipated since Elder Peralta has been here), but considering we've taught what feels like half of the people in the town, the general opinion of the people has shifted much more in our favor.

Anyways, there is a lot more to the situation, but it makes the work interesting and it makes this one of the most unique areas I've worked in. So I love it.

That's all for now! There are a lot of pictures that I want to send so there might be a few emails with pictures after this one.

I love you all!

~Elder Butler

A Divine Colony

Carabaos at the baptism!

The water well and "shower" buckets.

Our house.

A Divine Colony
Hello Family!

It has been another very tiring but very rewarding day of work for us here in Colonia Divina. Elder Peralta and I have been stretching ourselves and have been setting and achieving some pretty high goals for this last week and for the weeks to come. Our focus has been on finding, and especially on finding families, and this last week I did something that I haven't done for my entire mission, that is tracting (or just going house to house and teaching anyone who will accept you), which has actually brought a lot more success than I originally thought it would.

In the Philippines the culture here is that if someone comes by, even if you don't know them, you entertain them as your guest, regardless of weather you are rich or poor, so when you have missionaries come by asking if they can offer a prayer for you and your family and share a 5 minute message and a song, and being in a very Christian society where atheism is almost completely unheard of and also being in a society that loves to entertain Americans, most of the time you will get a yes and they will give a few minutes for you to pray for them and set a return appointment. Or at least that is how it seems to work in the mountains.
We have been turned away quite a bit as well though, but not nearly as much as we have been accepted, and to make a long story short Elder Peralta and I were able to find a total of 135 new investigators this week, with the very large majority of those coming from complete, or mostly complete, families. The work is hastening and I love it! Now these next few weeks we need to filter and prioritize all of these families so we can decide who to give priority to and plan for how we can help them come unto Christ through baptism.

This week I have also been lengthening my stride a little since we live in the mountains and there are sometimes 2 to 3 kilometers between areas where there are houses, and to save on time we often walk at a very "hastening the work" pace over hills, through fields, and across streams. We often come up to our first lessons/appointments in an area a little short of breath and covered in sweat, but I wouldn't have it any other way right now.

We also had a baptism this week of a girl named Reyna. She is 11 years old and is the little sister of the recent convert family in our branch that walks for over two hours to get to church. I got to baptize in a river for the first time in my mission! Albeit there were a few carabaos who were taking there daily bath as well, but it was still a good experience.

I love you all!

Keep keeping the Faith.

~Elder Butler

High on a Mountain Top

The first two photos are the meeting house, next is one of the other towns about an hour walk from Colonia Divina, and basically looks like all the rest of my area (minus the houses... people are pretty spread out here), and last is how you grow rice in the mountains, pretty cool right?    

Hello Family!

Well first I'll start by saying that I was transferred this week, and as all transfers are here this one was announced with very short notice, but transfer day was coming and I was partially expecting it since I've been in the area for some time and I know that President doesn't usually keep zone leaders for very long.

I did have enough time though to let some of the members and recent converts know before I left. I will miss many of the members in that branch and I know that there are many more good things to come for them and much growth that will take place in the coming years.

[Here Brooks is responding to my letter asking about how the sister was doing that he mentioned last week...]
It was bitter sweet saying goodbye, but that's how the mission goes and how this church operates and I know that she will be strong until the very end with the faith that she has.
It is such a blessing that she was able to leave her awful situation. She looked the happiest I had ever seen her and so free of a burden she had been bearing for years. It was the gospel that gave her the faith and courage to be strong enough to finally do what she needed to do and free herself. She and her children will always have a place in my heart and I look forward to the day where we can meet again at Jesus feet.

But the mission moves on and now I need to explain why I am writing this at night and not earlier this morning.

There is a lot to say, but I'll have to summarize so bare with me.

My new area is in the Sagay Zone (the exact opposite side of our mission) and is called Colonia Davina (or Divine Colony in English) and is hands down the furthest and most isolated/rural area in the mission. To my understanding if you zoom in on Google maps all you see are clouds. And as the title of my email suggests it is quite literally high on a mountain top.

My companion is Elder Peralta and he is one of the mission’s former assistants to the president and is a very impressive and dedicated missionary. He goes home this transfer and is determined to work as hard as possible before he goes home. I know a lot about Elder Peralta and could go on, but it sufficeth me to say that I am very honored to be his companion and I am going to learn a lot and hopefully do a lot of good while I have this chance to be his companion.

OK. I’m going to try and describe my area as bullet points.
To get there from Sagay (the closest city) you need to take either a 2 hour ride in a Jeepnee or a 1 and a half hour ride on the back of a motorcycle (they call it habal-habal here). There is only one Jeepnee that goes up the mountain, and it leaves Conlinia Divina at 3 am and then leaves Sagay at 11 am, and that's all. I took the Jeepnee up with my luggage and I can officially say that I know how clothes feel after they have been through the washing machine (the path is mostly just a narrow dirt road with lots of rocks).

Also, I am fairly certain that this area is the poorest area I have seen yet in my mission, and I don't think I'll ever see poorer. Granted people are poorer than other poor people here in the Philippines, but as a community as a whole this place is completely devoid of any worldly wealth that I can see.
There is also no running water anywhere in my area to my knowledge. We get all of our water from a well behind our house and have to draw water every morning to take our bucket showers and do our laundry. But we do have electricity! :) Which a lot of our area tends to go without, using mostly kerosene lamps once you leave the town center.

My area also recently progressed from an independent group to becoming a branch, thanks to Elder Peralta, and the members here are super great. Before they didn't have such a great view of the missionaries, due to missionaries being so isolated that they felt like they could get away with not acting like a missionary, but Elder Peralta has changed that around and they love the missionaries now. We have several members/recent converts that walk for over 2 hours up and over the mountain(s) just to go to church.
Our church by the way is a nipa with lots of holes in the roof (which made sacrament meeting interesting when it rained) hut next to the branch president’s house which is a 30 minute walk up the mountain from our house in the town center.

I wish I could tell you more about the history of the area, how the people ended up there and why it is called Divine Colony, but I'm out of time. Maybe you can google it.
Basically, in short, I love my new area (isolation and all) and I love my new companion and we're going to get work done this transfer.

Also, the reason why I'm emailing now is because we are working in the morning and come down the mountain in the afternoon to do our shopping and email. From now on while I'm in this area I'll be emailing around 5 pm my time.

I'll attach some pictures. Sorry no pictures of the house! My camera died and I forgot.

I love you all!

~Elder Butler

It's Always Up Hill in Zion

Hello Family!

Well it has been quite a week for us here in Hinobaan, a lot of great things and a lot of not so great things. The work is definitely hastening here, but as sure as I know that Christ will hasten His work in His time, Satan is hastening his at the same pace.

I'm reminded of the scripture in 2 Nephi 28, "Wo unto him that is at ease in Zion!" The surest sign to me that you are doing some good is that you feel an increased volume of opposition, and the surest sign that you are being bound by the adversary is that you start getting lulled into a sense of contentment and security. 

This Saturday was the baptism of M! The younger sister of SJ. We are starting to see the gospel take effect on SJ's family and we are hoping that eventually the rest of the family will be following soon enough.

Also the C family, who are the recently reactivated family that live near SJ and B our recent converts, have been doing great missionary work and have been working with us to teach their family and friends in their barangay (like a small town) and we are always very busy teaching because of them. Also another recent convert family, the M family, have been awesome in helping us find people to teach! Although we have had a few experiences with finding those who are not quite ready yet, but it has been a good growing experience for them and their testimonies and their desire to share haven't diminished in the least bit.

The not so good news is about a recent turn of events in the family of a sister, our recent convert of about a month now. Her two older children have taken an interest in the church and both have a desire to come to church, but this sister's husband, who allowed her to be baptized at first, has taken an extreme turn for the worst.
Starting last week he has been drinking very heavily, and he has taken to threatening the life of his wife and kids if they keep going to church, which eventually lead to physical violence against his wife and children which had him put in jail, but still telling this wife to "watch out" when he gets out, forcing her and her family to leave their home and go stay temporarily with her sister, who is a strong member, until they can figure out where they can go next. This sister has been persecuted by her husband and her husbands family for years now, and she and her children can no longer stay where they are now which is surrounded by her husbands family.

I don't feel I need to say more, but in short I feel like the adversary has been gripping the hearts of as many people as he can to do as much damage as he can to counter act all of the good that is happening.

In a bright spot thought, I have not seen a single iota of fear coming from this Sister through all of this. When we found out from her that their lives were being threatened for going to church, she was at the church, and not ashamed or afraid. Her faith has been shining through it all and her only concern has been to keep her children safe. We can use all the prayers we can get here for her and her family, but I know that she knows that it will all work out in the end, and her faith in Christ has been sustaining her through this very difficult time.

And moving on from that, I just wanted to let you all know how grateful I was to be able to speak with you last week! I felt so much love from you and from my Father in Heaven for having given me so many blessings that I can't even begin to count.

I love you all so much! Thank you for your prayers and your love.

Halong kamo!

Elder Butler

Feeling Thankful

Hello Family!

I just wanted to say first of all that I love you so much and always feel so overwhelmingly grateful to Heavenly Father for  how great a blessing He has given me to be apart of our wonderfully blessed family. You're all the best.

I'm also very excited for the opportunity I get to talk with you, especially Mom, one last time before I go home. Where did the time go?? I sometimes get pangs of panic when ever I think about how short my time is. Nevertheless I'm really looking forward to seeing everyone hopefully via video chat. Although I'm not 100% positive if there is a place in my area that is video chat capable, being really far out means that internet options are a little more limited than usual. But I am planning on video chat for now. Between 10 AM and 1 PM my time is when I'm supposed to do it. My time limit is 30-45 minutes.

Please come ready with questions! I have such a hard time thinking of what to say in the moment. I'll do my best to prepare my thought beforehand, but if there is anything that you want to hear from me personally just try and write it down before the call starts. If I am unable to video chat I'll just call Dad's phone.

This last Thursday we were able to meet with Elder Ardern of the Seventy in the latter part of our Mission Leadership Council. Our mission has been preforming quite well in a lot of areas and Elder Ardern, who is going to be the new area president, came to observe and ask us questions to see what might be applicable to the other Philippines missions. It was a wonderful revelation filled meeting and I took down over 10 pages of notes and impressions from all of the trainings that our were given by our President and by the APs and all of the former APs (in our mission president rarely sends missionaries home as Assistants or Zone Leaders, so we had 6 former assistants in attendance as well that gave short messages)

I feel so blessed to have been assigned where I have been assigned and I am very grateful for all of the growth I have been able to make while under the leadership of President Lopez. Missions are basically the best.

Also in other news about our area, we finally found a house in our area that we are hoping to start a branch in, granted it's not the most luxurious house (it doesn't have any running water so we'd have to get our bucket shower water from the hand pump out side), but it works for what we need, and we're going to move there as soon as we can get it approved and start up the Asia branch here in Hinobaan. I'm really excited for the progress that can happen here and I really am hoping that I can stay assigned in this new and starting up branch for a while more.

It sounds like things are running well back home, and that quote that you used Mom from PMG (Preach My Gospel) was actually one of the things that Elder Ardern brought up in his training on Thursday. I think that I need to reset my goals a little higher since I feel like I've almost been getting in a routine lately. It's time for me to take another leap and see if I can stretch my self a little farther while I still have the opportunity.

I love you all so much! Thank you for your prayers and support!

Your Elder,

~Elder Butler