An Uninvited Guest

The Great Salt Lake.

The flowers are gorgeous

Hi everyone!

I usually write sooner but we went straight to having a district activity when P-day started. The plan was to get Cafe Rio and then eat it at the Great Salt Lake, but it didn't work out exactly as we planned. Once we got to a parking lot by the lake, we all unloaded from the van and found some rocks to sit on so we could eat. Well, pretty soon an uninvited guest arrived. A big seagull came and flew over us many times and It kept on getting lower and lower. I could just picture it diving down and attacking us to get to our food. After some screaming, we decided to go eat in the trunk of the van with the back door open. We thought it was a good plan until the seagull came flying towards the trunk. After some more screaming, we decided it would be a good idea to close all doors and lock all windows. After that, there were no more problems with the bird. It kept circling the van, but we were safe! :-)

We had Zone Conference this past week. President Risenmay shared a cool story about when he was a missionary somewhere in Europe. His mission president decided they needed to do something different in the way they approached missionary work. Knocking from door to door was taking too much time. So the mission president had an idea to put up a poster and a stand that helped them to teach the Restoration. President Risenmay said he really didn't want to do this. It was out of his comfort zone and was the last thing he wanted to do, but he did it anyway with other missionaries. After doing this for several weeks they had a lot of success with finding new investigators and seeing baptisms. But then one week came when they were out preaching and a van pulled up. A lot of police men jumped out and put 4 companionships of elders who were standing on the street in the van. Long story short, they released them from jail but they said if they see them preaching with the poster stand one more time they will put them in prison and send them back to their country. So President Risenmay called his mission president and told him what happened. He said something like, "Well, I guess this is going to have to stop." But the mission president said, "No, you are going back out there." You can imagine how scared he must have been. The night before he went out to preach with the poster stand again he couldn't sleep at all. He was on his knees all night in prayer. The next day he and his companion slowly walked to a corner where they set up the stand and began teaching. They never had an issue with the police again. I love this story because I know that the Lord will support us in the work. I don't really have serious threats like going to prison, but some days it is really hard. I know if I rely on Him, he's going to help me do His work.

Another cool story! This morning Sister Yoshida and I were walking to the Square, and as we were walking by the reflection pool I was randomly thinking about what the world must look like through an apostle's eyes. Almost as soon as that thought entered my mind I heard, "Hi sisters! Good morning!" It was an elderly man walking with his wife. I realized it was Elder Oaks! I said good morning and then we continued on in our different directions. I think it was funny though that I was thinking about apostles when I ran into one! I now know that apostles see the world through a happy and positive lens. :)  I can count on one hand the amount of times people have genuinely and enthusiastically greeted me since I've been here on the Square. Running into Elder Oaks and his wife made my day!

I heard Andrew will be getting baptized this Saturday! What a big step! Andrew, you will be getting the most precious gift Heavenly Father can give us: the Gift of the Holy Ghost! I hope you're so excited! Tell me about the baptism! I wish I could be there, but I know I'm where I'm supposed to be.

I love you all. Keep on being awesome! <3 Families are forever! <3

xoxoxoxo,

Sister Butler

With Alex Boye (General Conference weekend)!