Blown Away

Siblings reunited! Fun story in letter below about Brooks' Mcflurry...:-)

Companions!

Saturday afternoon session of General Conference with "photo bomber"! :-)

The amazing, beautiful Morphis Family! We LOVE this dear family and know them from our annual LDS Home Educators regional conference. They are French speaking Canadians and the parents met while serving as missionaries in NYC. :-) [Karolyn]

Three of the eight Morphis children.

Dear Friends and Family,

How have you all liked conference? I feel blown away by the privilege I have to be called as a missionary on Temple Square. I have the opportunity to attend a session of conference in person. I get the opportunity to do and say what Christ would do and say if He were here physically. (That being said, I'm not perfect and I certainly don't do everything that He would do. But I try). One of the best feelings I had yesterday is when someone said to me, "That's exactly what I needed to hear today." Or when a nonmember who attended conference, by invitation from her friend, broke down crying when she shared how she learned that God wanted the best for her and for her to be happy. I'm blown away by the great blessing I have to help others come closer to Christ. It brings me closer to Him.

Whenever I sit down to write a letter I have strong feelings of joy and excitement bubbling inside about all the wonderful experiences I've been having, but I struggle a lot in writing them down. I get frustrated because I wish I could get across how beautiful missionary work and the gospel is to me. But I will try.

SO MUCH HAPPENS IN ONE WEEK I CAN'T POSSIBLY WRITE IT ALL DOWN. I hope I can play back my experiences in heaven someday to share with you! For now, I will try to share what's been going on. Sat. and Sun. has been full-time on the square-- except for 20-30 minutes of meal time. I ran into several people I know. One of them being the Morphis family! Ah. It's kind of funny how we met. I was walking quickly across the square to retrieve my name tag which I left at the office. I have never forgotten my name tag ONCE before this, just so you know. Of course the only time I don't have my name tag, I ran into someone I know. The Morphis family!! Haha. It was so fun to see them. They caught me by surprise and we had a happy reunion in front of the temple. I kept on telling them that they felt like my family, I guess because there are so many of them. They shared a missionary experience they had while on a singing tour in Taiwan. A man attending their concert--who had never smiled before--was so touched by the Spirit that he ended up meeting with missionaries and being baptized. Their two oldest children, Laurence and Gabriel, will both be submitting their missionary papers soon. They are already well prepared for a mission!

I ran into Brooks too! He had a McDonalds Mcflurry in hand which I thought he had bought on the Sabbath, until I realized it was Saturday. Everyone is dressed up in Sunday clothes so it was easy to forget! I also saw Nathan Andersen, some of the Forte family, the Seguines, Uncle Jim, Eric and Matthew. It's crazy how we were able to meet amidst all the people there. It was so fun seeing them!

My companion and I prayerfully set some goals before conference started. One of those goals was to find people to teach. Well, if I've learned one thing on my mission I've learned he always answers prayers. We attended the Saturday afternoon session and while waiting in line to go through security, we met a man from India who is of the Muslim faith. He was here for work and made some LDS friends who invited him to conference. He is very strong in his faith and lives it, which impressed me because a lot of people say something but they don't really mean it. I know this because we talked for 30 minutes while waiting. I wasn't sure if he would want to keep in touch since he is so strong in his religion, but he wanted to if not to simply learn more about the beliefs.

To finish off, I want to share with you about our special "high-five" meeting after conference. The purpose is to encourage the sisters for working hard and to let us rest and have a little fun. Guess who came? Alex Boye! It's always a surprise who the guest will be so when Brother Alex Boye came in we all screamed and cheered! He said he felt like he was at a Justin Bieber concert and was looking around to see if anyone else was here. Haha! It was one of the best nights. He is such an inspiration. I don't know how familiar you are with his story, but check out his I'm a Mormon video. https://www.mormon.org/alex

Oh, I wish I could just send you a video of the evening last night. He is hilarious! For example, he shared that he had been in the MOTAB and that he was the other black guy there. He said he was the black licorice amidst a whole bunch of marshmallows. 

The message he shared with us was about vision. When we have a vision we can accomplish even more than we thought we could. There are so many blessings available that God is just aching to give us, but we have to be prepared and worthy to receive them. It says so in Malachi 3:10.

Here are some quotes from the meeting:

-"The most positive people on this planet are the most effective people." Satan knows that and he works hard on these people. He wants us to be mediocre and average. Don't let him stop you from living below your privileges.

-Never complain about the challenges you have. Alex Boye was abandoned at a young age by his mother. He lived in foster care for most of his growing up life. He has a wonderful conversion story. He worked at McDonald's (I think) and a worker there invited him to meet with missionaries. He was baptized shortly after and a little bit later was kicked out of the home of his uncle. He was living on the streets at 16. Alex's testimony was powerful as he shared that everything that happens in our life is for a reason. Let it shape you into being who God wants you to be.

I could go on and on. I feel so blessed to be a missionary and to be having these experiences. I never would've had these unless I came on a mission. I'm thankful to  Heavenly Father and I love him for the great mercy and love he has for each of us.

Okay, I'm sorry for the book! I'll go now! Love you!

xoxoxo,

Sister Butler