God is in the Details of Our Lives

What an incredible week! One of the most amazing weeks of my mission, also one of the busiest!

The beginning of the week was spent planning for the coming transfer. Then on Thursday and Friday we had a Mission Tour with Elder Kim B. Clark of the seventy and his wife, Sue Clark. They are amazing people, and they have blessed the mission more than they know. I can't possibly relay all the wisdom they shared with us. I was amazed by how down to earth they are. Elder Clark was the dean of the Harvard Business school years ago and later he was asked to be the president of BYU-Idaho, and later a seventy and the commissioner of Church Education. Very prestigious! He is an amazing person and outstanding teacher.

A few things that stuck out to me that he and his wife shared:

1. We don't have to let fear control our actions

Sometimes we can't help it if we are feeling nervous or afraid, but we don't let those feelings rule us. We can still get up and go to work and carry out what the Lord wants us to do. A big challenge with missionaries is overcoming the fear of talking with people and having faith that the Lord will give them what to say. These principles are powerful and apply to each one of us no matter what stage of life we are in.

2. The Holy Ghost is the greatest gift

We have the promise to have a member of the Godhead with us 24/7. He brings peace, joy, direction, love, purification, and knowledge. Why wouldn't we try everything in our power to have his presence at all times when we get these blessings? There are many things that offend the spirit. For example, anger, crude words, jealousy, hate, lies and so forth. As we identify what drives the spirit in our life, we can better know how to have His presence with us at all times!

3. We can become new creatures in Christ

Each one of us make mistakes and have human weakness, but the good news is we don't have to dwell in our sins and imperfections. We have the hope to constantly be changing as we rely on the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Isn't that the greatest hope we have? We don't have to be overcome by feelings of guilt, anger, hopelessness, sorrow, heartache etc., because of the gift of the atonement. I love 2 Cor 5:17 which speaks of this message beautifully: "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature:  old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new."

4. What the Lord asks of us is simple and he will bless us for keeping His commandments

The gospel is simple. We all know that weekly church attendance, daily prayer and scripture study, and temple attendance is what will continue to deepen our relationship with God. Doing these things are simple, but because Satan knows that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass he will do all he can to subtly tempt us from doing what's right. That's where the hard part is. The Lord promises to make us prosper as we do the simple things. Don't let the enemy of your soul win!

Well, as you can tell, I could go on and on about the mission tour. But I will stop here for now.

Sunday was especially busy. From sun up to sun down we had something that was going on. It started with church at 7:30am where my companion gave a beautiful talk about overcoming trials. My MTC class sang "We'll Bring the World his Truth" for the intermediate musical number. I will try to get a recording of it! After that we attended Music and The Spoken Word where they sang all of our wonderful patriotic American songs. Then we had a speaking assignment in a sacrament meeting in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. But this wasn't just any ward. Elder Oaks and Elder Ballard are assigned to attend church there and we heard they attended pretty often. We were so nervous! We got there a half an hour early. We were shown exactly where to sit by someone who seemed to have that assignment. It made us more nervous because the ward leaders were so careful to make sure everything was perfect. 10 minutes before the meeting began Elder Ballard came to sit on the stand. Ah!! Sister Zafarana and I had the assignment to teach a 5 minute lesson of the Restoration. President Risenmay said that Elder Ballard is really big on emphasizing the missionaries to always teach the Restoration, so the pressure was on us! Well, we survived since I am sitting here typing this letter. We feel that it went well. Then I played on the piano while another sister sang Joseph Smith's First Prayer for our intermediate musical number. There were a lot of wet faces and people wiping their eyes. The Spirit was wonderful. At the end of the meeting Elder Ballard came by to shake our hands and told us to go and baptize! Something that was interesting too was that Grandma Joneses sister, Joyce, and her husband were in this ward. They are so sweet and I loved talking with them for a few minutes. I also met a man visiting that ward who is actually in the same ward as Kristine in VA. Small world in the church. 

The rest of the day was filled with meetings, but it was a wonderful day!! One I'll never forget.

I know Christ lives. I know that because of love for us, he took upon himself the sins and pains of the world. He suffered in Gethsemane, died on the cross, and rose on the third day that we might live again too. I love him with my whole heart. I am thankful for the good and the bad times on my mission because they have helped me come to know Christ more, and though difficult that price was sometimes, it was well worth it. I know he is in the details of each of our lives. A couple days ago we had a few minutes to go out on the square and we were out for five seconds when we met several gentleman. We asked if they were members and one of them said, "Not yet." They ended up referring, but because of a language barrier we gave them to Spanish-speaking sisters. Shortly after this contact, we had one of the most beautiful contacts I have ever had. It was with a gentleman who didn't believe in a God, but he was fully focused on the message we shared of the Restoration. He took a Book of Mormon, didn't refer, but later that night he referred to other missionaries because his heart was prepared then. Incredible! This is the hand of the Lord and he blesses us to be able to see these miracles.

Well, I am signing off. God bless each one of you. I love you all!

xoxoxo,

Sister Butler