Hello from the currently stormy SLC!
I have some wonderful things to share today! I am so excited I can hardly contain myself! Ahh!! But it will have to wait until the end. You won't be interested in anything else I have to say otherwise!
Today I went inside the Salt Lake Temple and did a session for the first time! I have felt a little ridiculous because I've been here for five weeks, talking to guests all about this temple, and I haven't even been inside! The temple is breathtaking! You’ve got to love the live sessions. A worker had to remind another worker of his line many times, but that's okay. The covenants we make there are all that really matter!
It's so hard to remember all that has happened! Last P-day my zone had an activity in a place called the International Peace Garden. This place had little gardens that represented about ten different countries. It's really fun because we had sisters from about each of those countries. The activity was like a 'missionary adventure'. We went all around to different countries in the Peace Garden doing crazy things. For example, three legged race, walking with balloons under each arm and in between your legs (I wish I had a picture for you!), and filling a cup full of water with a spoon. Maybe I will be able to steel some pics from my DL.
Interesting fact, most of the baptisms here on Temple Square come from Mormon.org chat. I should have mentioned this sooner, but we have several investigators we are teaching. It's really awesome, because every so often someone will get on wanting to learn more about the church, and they will be willing to meet with missionaries. On Monday and today we have had this happen! I will let you know how it goes.
Meeting people on the Square who are willing to meet with missionaries is more rare, because most of the time they are just touring and they're not interested. BUT, yesterday we met a couple visiting from Zimbabwe who gave us their info and are willing to meet with the missionaries back at home! Yay! So we will see how it goes.
Really, really interesting fact that my mom is going to love. Hold on to your horses mom. So President Poulsen, my mission president, served his mission in Taiwan way back when. He baptized a man who is now the founder of a nutritional company that my mom just loves and has been a customer of their product for about 20 years. Yes, that's right, Mom! He baptized the founder of Sunrider! But it doesn't end there. There are several Mandarin speaking sisters serving here that were introduced to the church through Sunrider, and they were later baptized because it! So you can imagine how dear the mission president is to these sisters! So incredible to me.
One more cool fact before I get to the highlight of the email. So Brooks' mission president, President Lopez, is living here in Salt Lake City in one of the assigned housing apartment buildings for the temple square missionaries. I could be assigned to live in the same apartment building as Brooks' mission president at some point! What?! The more i'm here on Temple Square, the more I realize how truly small the world is.
Are you ready? So it all began on September 11, 2015--God bless the USA--my companion and I had just finished our morning studies and were about to go to our Square assignment when we heard that all the sisters were called to meet in theater 1 (basement of the south visitor's center). This rarely happens because all the sisters have things they need to be doing on Temple Square. The last time something like this happened was when there was a breach in security. So we were all pretty curious as to what was going on.
The majority of all of us sisters were in the theater when President P. made the announcement..........drum roll!!!!!!!
He said that a very special guest would be visiting us today--President Russell M. Nelson, president of the Quorum of the 12 apostles. He said something about how President Nelson wanted to visit the Temple Square sisters. Just so you know, this sort of thing doesn't happen a lot. I heard Elder Jeffrey R. Holland visited, but that was a while ago.
Gasps went around the room and excited whispering. President P. went over some a few things to help us know how to behave when he was here and what to expect. Then he said it would be about 30 minutes before he would arrive, so advised us to prepare our hearts and minds by reading the scriptures. So we read our scriptures and listened to the piano accompanist to prepare to hear from an apostle!
When President Nelson arrived we all stood. One of the first things he said was he wished to shake everyone's hand. So he did. He shook 170+ hands and said good morning sincerely to each sister. Which included me! Later that day a sister said that she never wants to wash her hand! Haha!
Then we got to hear from him! He taught directly from his scriptures the whole time. He seriously made history and the gospel come to life!
Here are a couple of things he shared:
1. The Lord loves to be in a minority position
He shared a story from Judges 7 (read for more background) about how the Lord said his army had too many soldiers. He told the people to send soldiers back, until there were only 300 soldiers. So the ratio of the Lord's army to the other army was about 1 to 500. With this in mind, Pres. Nelson then asked how many members of the church do we have, and how many people are there in the world. He said that ratio is about 1 to 500. Then he said that Jesus was in a minority position, but he still prevailed! As missionaries and members of the church it may feel like the odds are against us. But that is okay! It is all a part of God's plan. It is a greater opportunity for God to show that he has power over all things and everything will be according to his will. Elder Nelson made this story from the bible so real to me!
I wish I could share more, but I'm running out of time. So I will make one more point
2. The Christ-like Attribute of Love
Elder Nelson was asked which Christ-like attribute was his favorite. He said that is like asking which one of my children are my favorite! Haha! So he listed several attributes, but the first was love. It's so interesting, because I have always felt so much love from Elder Nelson. He visited The Charlotte South Stake Several years ago and he visited the MTC when I was there, and I have always felt of how much love he has for the members of the church.
His main point was that we can say we love someone how ever many times we want, but it doesn't mean anything unless we SHOW it. He shared a story of how he was traveling with President Hunter and a church businesses trip. One morning President Nelson woke up to find his shoes polished by president Hunter. That is an example of showing true love. It reminds me a lot of how the Savior of the world washed the feet of his apostles. Love in action is so powerful.
I felt so privileged and honored to hear directly from an apostle of the Lord. I know how much he cares about us since he was willing to take an hour out of his day to meet with us. He is such a Christ-like example!
i love you alll!
oxoxox
Sister Butler
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