Hello from Cali!

The sister training leaders are in the front, our roommates are in the
back with us, they cover the Spanish branch. :)

Dear Family,

Wow, I feel like I'm a new missionary all over again. It's been a bit of an adjustment, but I'm starting to become more familiar with the way things work out here.

I love, love, love Livermore--or Liverpool, as mom and I have been calling it. It is a smaller city that has a small town feel. The people are great. We've had a couple of interesting conversations with people who rejected or disagreed with the Church, but I loved it because it felt familiar to me, like the kind of conversations I have on Temple Square all the time.

My companion's name is Sister Vaisa (vice-a) and she is from Riverton, UT, but her family is from Tonga. Woo-hoo for Tonga! She is very sweet, obedient, and has a desire to work hard.

I love the members here! A lot of the women know how to make g-free meals because they've had a lot of gluten free missionaries pass through. There are a lot of health nuts here which I LOVE so much. You have no idea.

Every Monday and Wednesday there are a couple of ladies who teach a zumba class. Today was my first day and it was so fun! Dancing and party music--not really the kind of thing missionaries participate in but I guess it's approved by the mission president because the sister missionaries have been doing it for years. There are a lot of nonmembers who come so I'm looking forward to getting to know them more.

By the way, my temporary mission president, President Mella, is the uncle of a sister missionary who was in visitor center training with me (she went off to Mormon Battalion Visitor's Center). She is an awesome missionary who I admire, so it's fun getting to be here with President Mella.

So my first day here we went to visit a former investigator. We ran into a lady, I'll call her Brianna, hanging out by her door smoking and we asked if she knew where the investigator lived.  She told us and then we started talking to her. We shared a short restoration message and she invited us to come back. So we went back this last Saturday for our first appointment. I know she didn't understand everything but at the end she asked where she could get a Book of Mormon, when and where church is, and about baptism. I'm trying not to get my hopes too high--with that being said I have faith that the Lord can accomplish miracles--but Brianna will need to make a lot of changes in her life. We're praying for her!

Something that I'm really enjoying is doing about 2 hours of service almost every day. There is a website called justserve.org where you can find service opportunities. (It was created by the church but anyone can get on and put in a service project they need help with. It's actually something I would suggest for people to go to when I would give tours at the Humanitarian Center. It's so cool to be involved in it!) Every Friday we play bingo at a nursing home with several older ladies. It is an interesting experience because these senior ladies take bingo very, very seriously. A lady sitting next to me with Alzheimers would talk to me or just mumble stuff sometimes and another lady would say with a stern expression, "Bella, no talking during bingo!" I heard one week they had to ban bingo because it was getting too competitive. I love it!

Well, I got to go! God bless you all! Talk to you next week!

xoxoxo,
Sister Butler