Gone to the Square: Heavy Heart

Our zone and stake president!

Hello family!!

My heart is very heavy. I get on the plane tomorrow to head back to Temple Square. I feel like I'm leaving a piece of me here. Looking back on these 3 months I've been so grateful to meet the people I did and to teach about the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm going to miss it a lot, but I know my time here has ended. I'm just grateful I will still be a missionary! :)

This week was insane. It was busy as always but I think we were trying to cram in so much since it was my last week. (Was this really 3 months already?!?!)

So I have two stories to share:

1. Diana is the mother of a recent convert and we are trying to help her gain a testimony of the Book of Mormon. We asked if she read the assigned chapter, 1 Nephi 1, and she said she read the whole book of Nephi! It had been a few weeks since we extended the invitation, so she had some time, but we were so happily surprised she read so much. Not only had she read it, but she described the things she learned and made applications to her life all by herself. Her favorite part was Lehi's vision of the Tree of Life and she understood most of the symbolism. Ahh, it was a very happy missionary moment.

2. On Saturday we were on a mission to find a potential investigator already recorded in our area book. We went to the address on record but it turned out she lived somewhere else. We went to that address, and the people there said she was in the hospital. They said she would like visitors so we decided to go! After going through a maze of hallways at the hospital, we found her. We introduced ourselves and got to know her a little. She said she was in the hospital because of fluid in her lungs and it had to be drained out. Ahh! It looked kind of painful. :/ We asked if she would like to take the missionary lessons and she said sure! We taught the Restoration and invited her to be baptized--which she accepted! Apparently she has a lot of family members who are members of the church, so she has some background with it. I will be staying in touch with Sister Staley to see how everything goes!

I report to the mission home tonight at 5:45pm. The clock is ticking very fast!! I will forever remember the time in the Great California San Jose Mission teaching the Lord's children! I've loved it, but I will continue to do it in SLC!

I love you all!!

xoxo,

Sister Butler