God is in the Details of Our Lives

What an incredible week! One of the most amazing weeks of my mission, also one of the busiest!

The beginning of the week was spent planning for the coming transfer. Then on Thursday and Friday we had a Mission Tour with Elder Kim B. Clark of the seventy and his wife, Sue Clark. They are amazing people, and they have blessed the mission more than they know. I can't possibly relay all the wisdom they shared with us. I was amazed by how down to earth they are. Elder Clark was the dean of the Harvard Business school years ago and later he was asked to be the president of BYU-Idaho, and later a seventy and the commissioner of Church Education. Very prestigious! He is an amazing person and outstanding teacher.

A few things that stuck out to me that he and his wife shared:

1. We don't have to let fear control our actions

Sometimes we can't help it if we are feeling nervous or afraid, but we don't let those feelings rule us. We can still get up and go to work and carry out what the Lord wants us to do. A big challenge with missionaries is overcoming the fear of talking with people and having faith that the Lord will give them what to say. These principles are powerful and apply to each one of us no matter what stage of life we are in.

2. The Holy Ghost is the greatest gift

We have the promise to have a member of the Godhead with us 24/7. He brings peace, joy, direction, love, purification, and knowledge. Why wouldn't we try everything in our power to have his presence at all times when we get these blessings? There are many things that offend the spirit. For example, anger, crude words, jealousy, hate, lies and so forth. As we identify what drives the spirit in our life, we can better know how to have His presence with us at all times!

3. We can become new creatures in Christ

Each one of us make mistakes and have human weakness, but the good news is we don't have to dwell in our sins and imperfections. We have the hope to constantly be changing as we rely on the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Isn't that the greatest hope we have? We don't have to be overcome by feelings of guilt, anger, hopelessness, sorrow, heartache etc., because of the gift of the atonement. I love 2 Cor 5:17 which speaks of this message beautifully: "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature:  old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new."

4. What the Lord asks of us is simple and he will bless us for keeping His commandments

The gospel is simple. We all know that weekly church attendance, daily prayer and scripture study, and temple attendance is what will continue to deepen our relationship with God. Doing these things are simple, but because Satan knows that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass he will do all he can to subtly tempt us from doing what's right. That's where the hard part is. The Lord promises to make us prosper as we do the simple things. Don't let the enemy of your soul win!

Well, as you can tell, I could go on and on about the mission tour. But I will stop here for now.

Sunday was especially busy. From sun up to sun down we had something that was going on. It started with church at 7:30am where my companion gave a beautiful talk about overcoming trials. My MTC class sang "We'll Bring the World his Truth" for the intermediate musical number. I will try to get a recording of it! After that we attended Music and The Spoken Word where they sang all of our wonderful patriotic American songs. Then we had a speaking assignment in a sacrament meeting in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. But this wasn't just any ward. Elder Oaks and Elder Ballard are assigned to attend church there and we heard they attended pretty often. We were so nervous! We got there a half an hour early. We were shown exactly where to sit by someone who seemed to have that assignment. It made us more nervous because the ward leaders were so careful to make sure everything was perfect. 10 minutes before the meeting began Elder Ballard came to sit on the stand. Ah!! Sister Zafarana and I had the assignment to teach a 5 minute lesson of the Restoration. President Risenmay said that Elder Ballard is really big on emphasizing the missionaries to always teach the Restoration, so the pressure was on us! Well, we survived since I am sitting here typing this letter. We feel that it went well. Then I played on the piano while another sister sang Joseph Smith's First Prayer for our intermediate musical number. There were a lot of wet faces and people wiping their eyes. The Spirit was wonderful. At the end of the meeting Elder Ballard came by to shake our hands and told us to go and baptize! Something that was interesting too was that Grandma Joneses sister, Joyce, and her husband were in this ward. They are so sweet and I loved talking with them for a few minutes. I also met a man visiting that ward who is actually in the same ward as Kristine in VA. Small world in the church. 

The rest of the day was filled with meetings, but it was a wonderful day!! One I'll never forget.

I know Christ lives. I know that because of love for us, he took upon himself the sins and pains of the world. He suffered in Gethsemane, died on the cross, and rose on the third day that we might live again too. I love him with my whole heart. I am thankful for the good and the bad times on my mission because they have helped me come to know Christ more, and though difficult that price was sometimes, it was well worth it. I know he is in the details of each of our lives. A couple days ago we had a few minutes to go out on the square and we were out for five seconds when we met several gentleman. We asked if they were members and one of them said, "Not yet." They ended up referring, but because of a language barrier we gave them to Spanish-speaking sisters. Shortly after this contact, we had one of the most beautiful contacts I have ever had. It was with a gentleman who didn't believe in a God, but he was fully focused on the message we shared of the Restoration. He took a Book of Mormon, didn't refer, but later that night he referred to other missionaries because his heart was prepared then. Incredible! This is the hand of the Lord and he blesses us to be able to see these miracles.

Well, I am signing off. God bless each one of you. I love you all!

xoxoxo,

Sister Butler

This Week Was Filled with the Spirit!

I announced a tour this Sunday! We took some fun pics!

Companions!

We set a goal to hand out all of these Books of Mormon! JK, we were putting them away.

Hello Everyone!

This week has been wonderful! We have been preparing for the coming transfer and it is so special to meet in President's office and feel the very strong spirit that comes to us to help guide our thoughts. It's difficult to describe the sweet, powerful spirit! It makes me think about how every companion I have had has been inspired by God and has been someone I needed to learn something from. 

We were able to go to the temple this past Friday and something I realized was how much the Salt Lake City Temple feels like home to me. I have been able to go every 6 weeks of my mission (except for when I was outbound) and I just love the murals and "olden days" feel. There have been recorded accounts of the Savior making an appearance in this temple, and he probably appears more often than we realize. I am so grateful to serve in the shadow of this holy house of God.

Even though this week was really busy we were able to manage our time to go to the square. Sometimes we will only have 15 minutes before an assignment or task and we try to use it wisely. On Saturday we had a few spare minutes, so we went out to the square. In the 15 minutes we had, I talked with an atheist couple who wanted nothing to do with me, Sister Zafarana had friends from Italy run into her, and Sister Bonnie L. Oscarson passed by. This all happened simultaneously. It was great! There are always special experiences just waiting to happen when we go to the square. I seriously do love it. It brings the spirit so much!

This week we experienced a lot of rejection. We suppose that they just weren't ready yet, but we have faith that something we shared will prepare them to receive the gospel later on. This past week was the family history conference called Roots Tech and we spoke briefly with a guest attending the conference. We started to teach about the Restoration but then she abruptly interrupted and said, "I know what you're trying to do and you're not going to convert me." Then she walked away with a brief goodbye. It's times like these that I feel a sadness because of what people are missing, and not necessarily because they were rude. Rude words seem to slide off so easily when you have the spirit with you.

I just want to throw in a few words for President and Sister Risenmay. They truly watch over the mission and the sisters like shepherds. They have been here for a year now and they have been serving with such an eagerness to help each one of us. They know what it means to serve with all of your heart, might, mind and strength and it is a beautiful example to me. 

Thank you for your prayers! I really appreciate them and feel uplifted by them. Love you all!

xoxoxo, 

Sister Butler

Miracles are All Around

Our surprise baptism this past week!

Today while we are emailing!

Sister Risenmay, Sister Zafarana, Sister Eging, Sister Butler, President Risenmay
Sister Eging is going home and Sister Zafarana is our new assistant [from Temple Square web-site].

I just finished drinking from a spiritual fire hose because today was Missionary Leadership Council. It was incredible. We have set a very high and stretching goal of baptisms this year, and president shared with us towards the end of the meeting that the spirit has revealed to him that everything that was taught in the meeting is what we need to know to achieve our goal. The tricky part is putting it all into ACTION. 

We had wonderful trainings on inspired planning and goal setting, the role of the Holy Ghost in conversion, inviting others to make and keep commitments, teaching repentance and baptizing converts (Sister Zafarana and I), the law of opposition (Sister Risenmay), the law of the harvest (President Risenmay). I wish you all could've been here. One of the counselors in the mission presidency, President Mulford, pulled Sister Zafarana and I aside after the meeting and said this was the BEST mission leadership council he has ever been to, and he has been to a lot. It was just a testimony to us of what an important time we are at in the mission and how the Lord is really directing the work through the Spirit.

Last Monday Sister Zafarana and I were at Walmart and we met a man who seemed like he wanted to talk to us. He had a connection with Italy and so that's what prompted the conversation, but he later accepted an invitation to come take a tour on Temple Square with us. I had the deep impression that he was searching for something in his life and that he was lost. He's been out of town so we haven't been able to meet, but we will this week and I'll let you know about it.

The work has been moving forward! Even though we have a little more limited time to be online in our teaching center and to be on the square, the Lord has blessed us when we do get to get out. I have an investigator from San Jose, CA (my outbound mission) who is on date for Feb. 18th. He is the husband of a recent convert that I have talked about several months ago. She was the lady that is really into her family history and doing temple work for them. She is just ecstatic about this! She will now be able to be married in the temple with him! This is what it is all about: bringing families together to partake of eternal life.

On another note, we had an interesting experience with the fire alarms going off in our apartment complex as we were doing our nightly planning Friday night. We heard some noise from the hallway but just ignored it. Our roommates let us know it was the fire alarm and then I frantically started gathering my valuables. My new boots, my ipad etc. Exactly what your NOT supposed to do, right? it only took a second though. :) It turned out to be a false alarm, but it was a good drill.

Have a wonderful week!

xoxoxo,

Sister Butler

Have a Desire to Believe

Sister Zafarana and I!

We found our two invalid sisters trying to help each other to the bathroom, haha. They were spending the day in the teaching center and needed a short break. You can tell the are happy even when they aren't healthy. :)

Hello dear family and friends!

This week was one of those weeks where everything blends together! I'm having a hard time differentiating the days. Sister Zafarana and I were able to see so many miracles last week. During weekly planning of the previous week we felt prompted to set a goal of 2 to be baptized. Sister Zafarana said she had some people who she lost touch with who were supposed to be baptized. Later, we found out that two other investigators were on date to be baptized this past Saturday and they were! We felt so blessed to be a part of their baptism, even though it was a seemingly small way.

We were able to find prepared people on the square this week. As soon as we walked onto the square one morning I felt drawn to talk to this girl. We found out she wasn't a member but she was close friends with a member family. I could just see in her face that she will be baptized. We are in touch with her and we are starting to teach her. She recognizes the peace the Spirit brings. Yay!

I had the most saddening conversation with two young adults yesterday night. One was atheist and the other was Muslim. The Muslim was basically saying that there is no way to prove there is or is not a God, but he chooses to believe in one. I taught about faith and how God can answer our prayers through the Spirit, but it takes a small particle of belief. The one with atheistic views just couldn't consider trying out reading the scriptures and praying. It made me think of the story of Moses and how all the people had to do to be healed was look at his staff with a snake, but some people wouldn't look because it was too simple. I know that everyone believes something based off of certain experiences they have had in their life, so I'm not judging him because of what he believes, but my heart hurt when he didn't want to accept an invitation to experiment and learn more about what God has to offer them!

I'm sorry it's a short letter this week! I love you all!

xoxoxo, 

Sister Butler

Another Great Week

Birthday dinner together!

A big snow storm on my bday!!

On the day of the inauguration there were some protests going on; that night a senior missionary helped us all get home safely. We just travelled in a large group so we would be safe.

Speaking at a Ward!

Baptism Day via Skype!

Hello!

First of all, I just have to say what an amazing birthday I had! Heavenly Father gave me the greatest gift of all. I was able to skype my investigator's baptism (now recent convert!) who is actually from North Carolina. It was amazing. She is only 17 years old and was giving lessons in Young Women's and attending seminary before she was baptized. Having LDS friends had a big influence on her being baptized, so you never know what difference you are making to your nonmember friends!

I was able to go out to eat with my companion and two other sisters, Sister Carrus from Italy and Sister Romero from Mexico. I bought a white chocolate raspberry cheesecake to celebrate too! Thank you to everyone for the birthday wishes. I couldn't have wished for a better day. 

All of the week was spent on exchanges with the Zone Leaders. I love this time because we get to spend all of our time on the square, in assignments, or in the teaching center. I also love getting to learn from the amazing sisters. Each sister has such unique gifts and talents to contribute to the work.

Yesterday was quite a busy day with meetings, but I really enjoyed them! We got to speak at a local ward again. Sister Mark from the UK sang the lyrics to Joseph's Smith First Prayer to the tune of If You Could Hie to Kolob, and I was on the piano. It was beautiful. Later that day we had a Zone Leader Meeting to council about the current issues in the mission. We discussed plans to achieve our baptismal goal this year and how we could individually come closer to Christ. During the meeting I was looking at our eight zone leaders and noticed how international the group was. There was only one American among them, the rest were from Brazil, Taiwan, Argentina, Japan, the UK, Italy, Mexico, Austria, Korea, Singapore, the Philippines, and Germany. How incredible! It is a testimony that the gospel will go forth to all nations, kindreds, and tongues. 

That's it for this week! I hope you all will see the hand of God in your life this week! Keep a journal and write down things you notice daily.

xoxoxo,

Sister Butler

Time is a Spinning Wheel

The future visitor center director's of the priesthood restoration site!

We were matching! Unplanned too! This is Sister Carrus from Italy!

Saying goodbye :(

 Oh, what a week. I feel like time is like a spinning wheel getting faster and faster. 

Where do I start? Monday was Sister Eging's last p-day and I was so sad to say goodbye to her. She has been an amazing companion and an amazing leader and missionary. She headed back to Virginia on Wednesday. On Tuesday was the departing Temple trip for all of the departing sisters which I attended along with Sister Eging. After we had pictures and then a fancy meal in the JSMB [Joseph Smith Memorial Building]. The departing sisters bore beautiful testimonies at the end and the spirit was so sweet. It was almost like we all were partaking of the sweet fruit from the vision of the tree of life. There is nothing like a mission, giving all of your heart, might, mind and strength to the Lord.

On Wednesday the craziness began. We welcomed the new sisters from the MTC at 8am (another story is describing what they go through to get here. They travel on foot with three pieces of luggage after they get off the Trax. And it was raining this time.). We had an orientation, then interviewed the 11 new sisters, and then president had some time alone to pray and assign them to trainers. There are so many details that go into all of this. We had a lot of office work and questions and concerns to attend to brought up by sisters. It is always an exciting day though!

On Thursday we had future Visitor Center Directors and wives come to Temple Square to get an experience of what it is like taking a tour and being a missionary with us. Sister Zafarana and I had the opportunity to take the couple who will be presiding over the Priesthood Restoration site in New York. They were so sweet. We had a wonderful tour with them, and it made it even more special sharing the First Vision with them since they will be going to the place where it happened. They actually gave us a referral of a man who tends to the Sacred Grove. He isn't a member but he's meet a lot of general authorities, including President Hinckley, and from what we understand he has a great understanding of the First Vision in relation to the Restoration. The second part of the training experience was to have this couple do missionary work with us. We had some missionary contacts on the square and then we went to the teaching center and took a chat. The young lady on the chat had som major concerns about knowing that God loved her. She was able to give her info to stay in touch with this couple. It was a wonderful experience for us and this couple. 

On Friday we had an inspiring meeting with all of the first transfer sisters and their trainers. We got in some time in the teaching center and on the square as well as attending to office details. 

Saturday we had a meeting with all of the second transfer sisters and their trainers, which was wonderful. 

On Sunday I had a talk to give in sacrament meeting (each sister in the mission has an opportunity to give a talk during her time here) and I had no time to prepare except for an hour and a half on Saturday. I had received the topic two weeks previously, so I was able to think about it a little and jot down some notes, but that was it along with the time I had to prepare on Saturday. I felt more unprepared then I would have liked, but a principle I know to be true is that when you do your best the Lord makes up the rest. Yesterday when I walked in the chapel I was feeling a little nervous, but when I saw who was sitting on the stand my heart dropped to the floor. Elder Quentin L. Cook decided to attend our sacrament meeting that morning. I think we hold the earliest session of church in the valley (7:30am) so sometimes when he has a lot of meetings he comes to our meeting to get the sacrament. But this is rare. He has only been one other time, which I think was about a year ago. I went to sit on the stand with the three other sisters (I was 10 minutes early btw) and they had a look of fear in their eyes. Haha. I was the final speaker of the meeting but I was able to endure to the end. I shared the story of the currant bush as told by Elder Hugh B. Brown and related it to my own experience and testified how trials in our lives are to build us. Sister Risenmay told me she offered up prayers for me individually because she new I didn't have much time to prepare and I definitely felt them. It turned out pretty well I think.

At the end of my talk we had 15 minutes left (which NEVER HAPPENS. We always go over). There was enough time for Elder Cook to share a few thoughts. He shared how touched he was by the talks given and by the Spirit that was present. He shared a personal experience he had and then closed with his testimony of the Savior. It was so sacred and the spirit just filled the room. At the end of the meeting he shook my hand and patted my shoulder and made a comment about Elder Brown to him was a combination of President Uchtdorf and President Eyring. I was just in awe he was touching my shoulder. Haha. It was an amazing day!

Well, I hope you got a kick out of my experiences. I know that the Lord's Church has been restored to the earth and that it is the way back to God. He blesses in so many ways and is willing to bless us even more as we do everything He asks. I love the Savior and my life is forever changed and will continue to change because of Him.

Have a wonderful week! 

Love,

Sister Butler

Goodbyes are so sad. :( SIster Exposito was in the MTC with me.

Sent from my iPad

Stranger in the Night

Only two pictures today. This was at music and the spoken word yesterday. :0

Me, Sister Eging, SIster Carrus from Italy, and Sister Romero from Mexico!

Last night at 11:40pm while we were sleeping, I heard a very loud knocking on our door. I tip toed to the door and looked out the peep hole to see a rather large man wearing a dark black t-shirt. If you remember my last story about how we had to have the latch on our door pried off due to locking ourselves out, we didn't have the comfort of that extra security. I ran back to the room and turned on the light and woke up Sister Eging. I said there was a man at our door and he's trying to get in. Of course she freaked out and jumped out of bed. We immediately called Elder Spencer, a senior missionary who lives in the same apartment complex, and asked him to come to our apartment. We locked our bedroom door and hid in our bathroom. Sister Eging picked up a curling iron and I grabbed a shoe as we stood silently in the bathroom. We heard a knock on our bedroom door and the door knob jiggle. We knew for sure that he made it into the apartment. We called Elder Spencer and told him to HURRY. Once we knew Elder Spencer was at the apartment door we found the courage to open our bedroom door. We found our roommate in the hallway wondering what was going on. It turns out she was the one to knock on our door and we were too afraid to ask who it was. So we talked with Elder Spencer and concluded that the man probably just had the wrong apartment and left. 

After Elder Spencer left the three of us and we laughed a bit at how ridiculous the situation was, but then we heard another loud banging on our door. I looked out the peep hole and it was the same man again. I called Elder Spencer to come back while the other sisters talked to the man through the door. He said that he was the night guard and that we had left the keys in the door so we should open up so he could give it to us. 

Yeah right, that is a great story to get us to open the door. 

Elder Spencer met him outside the door and then we realized that we actually didn't have our keys. Sister Eging had left them in the door knob when we came in that night. Whoops. We thought it was all a big lie to kidnap us or something, but it turns out he was telling the truth. So we had it all sorted out and no one was really trying to break in. Phew. We are actually really secure where we live. It's difficult to get inside the apartment building itself, so not to worry!

We have an extremely busy week coming up. Transfers are on Wednesday and we will be welcoming the incoming sisters and having interviews with them. Thursday we will be giving future visitor center directors a Temple Square experience as a guest and as a missionary. Friday and Saturday will be meetings for 1st and 2nd transfer sisters, to help orient them in the stage of the mission they're in. Sunday I will be giving a talk in our sacrament meeting and hopefully I'll find time to prepare for that. :)

This past week was busy too. We have been planning for the coming transfer and It's been so amazing to have the opportunity to help president as he assigns companionships. Each one is truly inspired by God. We pray about who should be trainers, district leaders, and zone leaders and there is no doubt in our minds of who should be called because of the power of the Spirit. It's strengthened my testimony of how the Lord is at the head of this and we are but his hands.

Sister Eging will be going back to VA this Wednesday and is so sad to go. There is nothing that can describe the type of experience you have on a mission. She will be missed. My new companion will be Sister Zafarana from Italy. She is a powerful missionary and is very loving and personable. I'm looking forward to serving with her!

Have a great week! I love you all!
xoxo,

Sister Butler