Sunny California!

Our Zone helping at the antique sale.

Santa Cruz trip.

Santa Cruz

Hello family!

I'm on a bus with a bunch of missionaries headed toward Santa Cruz! It's about a 45 minute ride so I'll give you an update of my week.

Based off of Kristine's email and dad's email it sounds like you've had a crazier week than normal. I feel the same about my week.

Wednesday was zone conference. So in the mission there is this thing called a STEPP talk. Each month we prepare a talk on a specific topic. It needs to include a Scripture, a Testimony, an Experience, a quote from Preach My Gospel, and a Promise. STEPP. Out of about 24 missionaries at the conference guess who got to share their talk? So the topic was on the Restoration of the priesthood and I got to share my thoughts. :)

On Saturday we had a special meeting with Bishop Caussè and his wife. He was visiting one of the stakes in the mission for a stake conference and we were able to get the chance to meet with him. He did an incredible presentation. He would asked questions to us and if he felt like we didn't understand he would teach us out of the scriptures and Preach My Gospel. Something that stuck out to me was what great faith he has. It increased my faith. He asked how many people we thought were in the boundaries of the mission and someone said about 2 million. He asked how many of those people are we to invite to come Christ and be baptized. Everyone. Then he asked how many we think are prepared NOW to be baptized. He said he knew that there were at least 80 people in each of our areas who are prepared. I know that is true, so the problem is how do we make the most of our time to find them and teach? Ah, I loved it.

I love serving with the Samoans. They are a very open, loving people. Yesterday we visited a less active family who hasn't been to church for a while. There is a mother, father, a 9 month old baby, and a 13 year old son. The son goes to church quite often with his grandma. We prepared a lesson for them about the temple and the spirit was there. They understand the importance of temple blessings and they want it, but they have a lot to do before they get there. We asked what they could start working on now. The 13 year old son said almost immediately, "Church". It touched me so much because I thought it must be difficult for him to go without his family. We promised that as they make church a priority they will be blessed. I could just picture their family in the temple and the great joy that they would experience!

I love you all! Thank you so much for the prayers and the letters. I feel your prayers and I love the letters.

Love,
Sister Butler


LINE OF THE WEEK:

On Friday our zone helped set up for big a antique sale at a local museum. So we were putting out signs and one of them was missing a few letters.
Here is a little conversation between elders trying to figure out what the sign was REALLY saying:

Elder Smoot: "Anti pues (pews). They don't believe in church."

Elder Smith: "No, they're just a standing church."