FHE with the Makilans

This is Family Home Evening with the Makilans! Brother Makilan is the older gentleman on the left. He is also the Ward Mission Leader. It looks like a lot of fun!

Elder Booth with the Makilans...

This picture is taken by Elder Booth:

This is a plant that Elder Booth found interesting, and I can see why:

This is the church Elder Booth lives next to. It is actually right next to the
LDS Church there. The name says it all... (True Jesus Church)

Here's another email update from Elder Booth:
Date: June 7, 2009 11:54:10 PM PDT
Subject: Email's Back

Hey! I have some very good news. As of last week I am able to email again. I just found out a little late last week so I did not have any time to actually email. Actually, when I found out I was writing my weekly letter to you all. So of course, being the good missionary I am, I concluded that it would take longer for the letter that I was writing to get to you than it would take the email I am writing now. So of course I decided not to send it. So you will be only getting one letter from me from that little span of not being able to email. So ya, I am very sorry about that and I will try not and let it happen again if email is ever not allowed again.

These last couple of weeks have been very good for me, though. I think I wrote in the last letter about the other baptism, so I will just assume you already know what went on there. I did have one just last Saturday though, so I can talk about that one. It was with Rea Mae Segunla. She is sixteen and one of my easiest investigators. I think I have told you about the times that she actually worked a little bit with us before as an investigator. I think she was there with some of our New Member Lessons. There is something amusing about teaching members with a nonmember as your companion. I guess that is just kind of backwards. It was great though to baptize her. Unlike last time, there were not a whole lot of people there. There was supposed to be an activity, so I thought a lot of people would come. It happened to be raining, though. I have actually come to find a new definition for rain here. When it rains hard here, it is pretty nuts. I am pretty sure pore little Vegas would be swimming within seconds. When it rains back home I will just always think "Oh, this is nothing." The Baptism went very well, though. Even though not a bunch of people were there it was still good because her friends from the ward were all there giving all of their support. She has a lot, which made things very nice for us. She actually even fasted the next day for fast Sunday. I think she will be very active in the church for a very long time. It was a good experience, which is great since this will probably be my last Baptism here in Paglaum.

Ya, I will probably having new experience somewhere else. I am not going to say for sure though because I really don't know. You know what happened last time I thought I knew. Last I heard, I would still be close to Bacolod and follow up training. I have no idea if that is true, though. I guess I will know for sure tomorrow morning. I will have to tell you next week if I am emailing you from a different place or not.

The rest of my investigators are making good progress. That lady that I am always excited if she comes to church just got a baptismal date. She and one other are the only two left from my first transfer, and I was the one to talk to both of them. I will be really happy to hear if they get baptized or not. I would actually be willing to spend another transfer here if it meant that I could see them get baptized. Oh, and yesterday was also cool because the investigator that needs to get married just had her child get blessed. It really is a cute baby. Now the next step is marriage. I am sad that I never got to see her get baptized. She was my fist appointment in the field. Well, I guess as long as it happens some day I am alright with it.

My most interesting lesson though, with some investigators, was with a British guy. He lives in a big house kind of by the golf course here. I decided that white people are just to hard to teach. I thought it would be easy for me since it was in English. That really did not help though since it is almost impossible for me to teach in English now. He just was not interested. He was a nice guy, though. I think he just wanted to talk to someone that was white. It was just him and his Filipino wife living there. Well, I think that was his wife. She looked about twenty and he is about fifty. I guess as long as they have money... Ya, all he really wanted to do was talk about random things. Actually a lot about politics. This was kind of hard for me since I kind of like talking about politics. I did get him to watch the restoration though. All he said was I guess it would have been nice if all of us could have seen that as well so we could all know it was true. I just told him that it would make faith completely useless and gave him a Book of Mormon. We will just have to see how that goes. The problem is, if I get replaced by a Filipino, then he will probably be forgotten. I guess it just is not his time.

I can't really think of too many funny experiences. I guess I will just try and make a good one for next week. I am excited to here from all of you. I love you all and am very grateful for the support that each and every one of you gives me. Thanks.

Elder Booth

Time with invesigators...

This shot is a picture of the route Elder Booth has to take to get to one of their investigator's house. Elder Booth loved going to her house. Here's what he said about it: "She has a way cool place and I always like going there. We had to cross a bridge to do it."

Here's a picture of her house on the hill:

Obviously they caught her on "laundry day" when they went to visit.
Hopefully they helped out!




This last picture is of a ward missionary and a kid that really wants to go on a
mission. He's getting a head-start by going out with the missionaries now!

These pictures are from a Zone Activity that Elder Booth had with his zone. They were able to play some games and catch up with each other. Elder Booth had a great time.

This first shot is of Elder Sheers. Throwing the frisbee around was one of the fun activities:

Some of the other activities included "parrot games," as Elder Booth called them. These were games like capture the flag and some sack racing games. Here's a sister trying one of them:

Waiting for their turn in the sack race:

They were also able to play a game of Volleyball.
What a change from those Basketball games!

Nice set!

Service!

Go Elder Sheers! You're way over the net!

This last shot is of Elder Claven :)

Elder Booth changed zones and I'm sure he was glad to have this time with his old zone before he left!

Some more baptisms!

Elder Booth had the amazing privilege of participating in another 3 baptisms. It was for three children, and this is what he had to say about them in one of his letters: "They are really good kids that have the desire." What an exciting day!

Here's a couple of shots of almost all who participated in the baptisms:

Here are a few shots of Elder Booth and his companion
with the three children who were baptized:

I'm not exactly sure who this picture is with. I'm assuming that they are

either a family from the ward, or people who are investigating the church...

This letter was one of the only hand-written letters Elder Booth sent to us. E-mail was taken away from the missionaries for a few weeks and this was the letter Elder Booth sent home to everyone:

Dear Fam,

Hey Michele, here is the family letter. Sorry it won’t be the longest one. It is kind of late. I did not have much time today to write. It was a busy day. I didn’t get to write mom’s and Tosha’s letters either. Please tell them I am very sorry and they will be my first priority next week.

I am still doing very well. The very good news of the week is the baptism went very well. It did get a late start because people took a while to show up, but it was a very strong program. We even had this guy names Bro. Tommy sing for us. He is very, very good at singing. I guess his brother lives in Utah and is singing from some big event in Utah. I really don’t know much about it. All I know is that he is really good at singing. He worked with us to and even sang to us while we were walking. That was a very spiritual environment. It was a very good day for us.

The next day (Sunday) was kind of a crazy day at church. At first, not a single investigator showed up for church. I would have to say we were pretty sad, to say the least. Especially when the kids we had just baptized didn’t come either. My comp said he thought I was going to cry I looked so depressed. Oh, and I forgot to say the investigators we were supposed to baptize next Saturday also did not show up. So we won’t be able to keep going with that baptism. It will be another month of church before they can be baptized. So yea, I was not happy. I did cheer up after Sacrament though when the kids we baptized came. Not only did they come, but so did Sis. Amy. She is the lady that I was really excited because she came about 4 weeks ago. Well, she finally came again. This time, though, she brought all of her kids. It was awesome. Her grandma is a member and she met her for the first time at church. So all the kids got to see their great grandma. It was a special experience. Sis. Plaza (the grandma) was really excited. She is one of my first oym’ s in the mission. I think I would stay here for another transfer if it meant I would see her get baptized. I hope I will at least hear that good news from the person who replaces me, if I end up moving. The thing that was still kind of a bummer was our investigators still did not get confirmed because they were kind of late so they did not do it. That is the second time that has happened to me. It’s all right though, as long as they are confirmed next week. I will let you know how that works out.

We did have one call teaching. I think I told you about this one guy we taught that considers himself called of god. Well, we went back there last week on Thursday. It turned out to be the longest lesson I have ever had on my mission. I don’t know if that is really a good thing, but it was a goods experience. We had to listen to him a lot because he had a lot to say. He says he is on a mission to teach and has talked to God. He actually said he believes Joseph Smith. He just thinks that happens to a lot of people. He has been to many places to learn any teaching. Well, I sat there and listened to him talk for a while and then decided it was time to finally say something. I don’t remember exactly what I said, but I remember how I felt. I felt the spirit truly speaking through me. It did not matter that I was speaking in another language. I was not struggling for words or having to think of what this or that means. I just came. I though for sure he could not deny the words. To my surprise, it did not make a difference. All he did was say I am not looking for authority because everyone can say they have authority. He said he is looking for authenticity. That is when it was hard not to get discouraged. I guess things have not changed. It does not matter if the Son of God is teaching. Some will still not believe. I feel I did my part. If my message did not help him, it helped me in many ways. I now know I can truly speak with power. Not only that, I can do it in Ilango as well. That was a very special experience to me.

For my kind of funny experience, it involves a flood. This actually happened to me a while ago. I am pretty sure that I forgot to tell you this, so I will say it now. If I didn’t forget and have already told you, I am sorry. It all started at night. At night around 10:30 the water to the apartment ceases to come out of the tap. So I was going to the bathroom around 11:00 and tried to use the faucet in the bathroom. When no water came out I just forgot about it and left it on. Then about five in the morning I wake up to use the restroom again. I sleepily walked to the bathroom and was confused when I looked on the ground and saw about two inches of water. What was worse was I could hear the water flooding the people living under us. It was like a small waterfall. I then found myself running everywhere in just my garments. It was a mess. What happened was I left it on and happened to put the bucket right over the drain. So the water was strong and could not drain. I think I will always be remembered to those people as the Elder who flooded their house. It kind of ruined my morning, but I guess it is a good story, though.

Well, that is about all the stories I can think of right now. I am still alive and doing well. Sorry again I cannot email you. It does make things a little more difficult for me. I don’t know if this is a lot less than what I usually write or about the same. You can tell me if you feel you are getting gypped. Well, I love you all and really appreciate everything. I hope this letter finds everyone well. I am excited to hear from everyone.



Elder Booth