Week 27 - And a Happy New Year!

Hey hey hey everyone, New Years eve is tonight, looking forward to listening to fireworks until like 3 in the morning! New Years and Christmas eve here is nuts in Honduras, I'm pretty sure people just spend all the money they have and use it to buy fireworks! A big tradition here is that people like to make mannequin people and dress them up in clothes, and then blow them up to smitherines. . I donated some money for some people to blow up a mannequin of the president of Honduras because the whole country hates him because he rigged the elections, so that was cool! 

So I don't have any pics today because I lent my Camera out to one of my Converts, Hermano Moreno. He was the guy who got baptized a few weeks back. Basically his mom is like 95 and is sick, and he wanted to be able to take a video of her before she passes away, but is super poor and has no camera, so I loaned him my camera and am working on getting another memory for him to store the video on. I know my Mom is probably thinking "why did you let someone have your camera, what if it gets stolen??" but I just thought what would Jesus do, and that God will probably keep it protected, so I'm not worried!

Christmas was so fun, Got to talk with the family on video call, That was awesome! Honestly it has been only 6 months, so when I talked to them, it didn't seem like it had been that long. The only person I really actually miss is basically Reggie cause hes just a little scruff. Wish I could've talked with more people, but hey maybe this May on mothers day when I get to call!

This week was a slower week. Well it started out good, but it ended kinda sucky. One thing I have noticed and have been praying for is to just Love the people. I have been in my area for 6 months, and just about everyone in this small pueblo knows me (popular right?? ;)), but I have really grown to love and care for the people I teach. That's why when I get lied to or them don't follow through with their commitments, it just chipped away at me. Its part of the mission, and its part of life. When I'm down, I turn myself to Christ's example. He was perfect. Taught his gospel with the spirit perfectly, healed the blind and sick, raised the dead, calmed storms, walked on waters. People still spit on him, rejected him, cursed him. What did he do after? Loved them unconditionally, suffered and died for all of us. WE are spirit children of our Heavenly Father, and we continually let him down everyday, but he continues to love and help us. 

My invitation this season is to go out and love everyone. Don't hold grudges, get mad, just love. If you serve others you can be a lot happier! Love you guys, that's all I got for now! Hit me up with an email if you love me

Peace, 

Elder Butler

Christmas Day Video Call - December 25, 2018

Christmas Day Video call from Elder Steven 

Video Call with Ryan too in Texas!

Enjoying his call at Grandpa & Grandma Sharon's House!

Week 26 - Merry Christmas, Ya Filthy Animals!

Well guys, the time has come and Christmas is finally here! I'm actually really excited for tonight because people here basically celebrate with getting drunk and doing fireworks all night basically... okay I'm not excited for the drunk part haha lol, but for some reason the drunk people always love to talk to us in the street, so its entertaining sometimes! Also everyone has been making all of these mannequin dummy people and apparently they load them up with fireworks and just blow them to smithereens, so that's exciting news for all of the missionaries!

This week we had a Christmas party for all the missionaries! It was pretty fun, in the morning we just played sports, futbol, volleyball, and basketball, but all the gringos were playing basketball haha! Found a couple of really good guys, im already making plans for my intramural team in 18 months haha! Then we ate, but the meal was absolutely horrible. Usually the lady that caters for us makes really good food, but something must've gone wrong with the beef, because it was sour and no one ate it.. LOL Honduras Christmas, not even surprised nor am i mad because it was fun to see everyone! I have a pic with a guy named elder Childs, and hes soo chill! The dude looks like Buzz Lightyear, I attached a pic of him! HAHA I hope one day I can have someone look at me like I did in that pic! Also took a pic with a bunch of the newbie gringos, most of them don't know a lick of Spanish, but its okay because the gringos are taking over the mission!

Hey Also found a dude wearing a 7on7 Woodlands Highlander jersey, so naturally I had to take a pic!

I am pumped to talk with the fam tomorrow on Skype! Also thank to all who sent me a little something in my package! I took a video of me opening it, but it was like 15 minutes, so I couldn't attach it lol! Oh well!

Hey, Tomorrow will be my 6 month bday in the mish, por fin! Time flys out here for real, I've really grown to love being out here with these people. Being totally honest, the mission is one of the hardest things I've ever been through. Full of all the disappointment, long sleepless days, days where you basically give all that you have and nothing comes out of it. But the mission is also full of Happiness and Joy. I get to grow my light in Christ and share it with the world. I am so grateful this Christmas season for Jesus Christ and his sacrifice. Because of him, we can be happy with our families this year. Because of him, we can live with our families together forever. That is our purpose, to bring people and families unto Christ. This year is my first Christmas without my family, but I'm more than okay with it because I have a lifetime and eternity to be with my family forever, for right now I am just helping others reach that goal as well!!

Love you all, and if you love me, send me a little somethin somethin for Christmas (an email;) ) Have a wonderful Christmas!

Week 25 - Jesus Take the Wheel

Hey everyone, well I'm here for another change, and well with another gringo. 

New Companion! ;) Hes form Georgia, a good old southern white boy. Hes pretty cool, but just barely turned 18 so there is definitely an age difference in maturity haha... but hes cool! Poor kid doesn't know a lick of Spanish either, so I've been teaching him and helping him learn how to teach because his trainer in the mission was gringo and didn't ever wanna talk in Spanish when they were together so he learned nothing. My trainer in the mission forced me to talk only Spanish my first 10 weeks, so it was a lot easier adjustment for me! Oh well!

I've decided to officially make my motto these next 5 weeks "Jesus Take the Wheel", because I'm just out here. I'm with a gringo that has 2 months less than me, but knows no Spanish, and they put me up as leader of my district as well, which is a little stressful right now because the last change our district had horrible numbers except my area. There is a lot of pressure from my leaders to get things up and running, and make a ton of phone calls and plans to get things going. The Hermanas in my district are a little bit of a handful, whenever they feel the slightest amount of discomfort they just decide to go in for the day and not work, which is not something we are supposed to do. It would be alright if it were like one day, but they do it almost everyday, sooooo yeah we are working really hard to motivate them! Doing phone calls every night for an hour is pretty stressful too, but I have felt like the Lord put me here in this position to help me learn for sure. I've learned patience, and I have felt the lord help me a bunch in guiding me on what I can do to better myself and everyone I am in charge of. 

To be honest, when I was told I was gonna be leader, I felt a little inadequate because I have such little time out here, and I didn't know if I could do well. One thing I have learned is that alone, its true, we are inadequate. This life is full of lefts, rights, 180 literal U-turns. When we feel like we dont know which direction is which, we have to put our trust in our guide. GOD! 

Hey but ill write more next  week and send tons of pics, love you all I ran out of time! peace!

Elder Butler

Week 24 - Baptism!

Hey guys, so this week was a super chill week! Also as of yesterday I only have 18 months left in the mission which is pretty dope! Time flys! I don't wanna just blab about everything because I don't have a ton of time, but ill give a brief review of what went down this week!

Moreno was baptized, POR FIN!

The baptism service was super spiritual. Moreno had the opportunity to share his testimony, which was so cool for me to see his change since my first day in the field. His testimony in Christ strengthens mine for sure!

Some other cool stuff happened this week. We had to watch a stake meeting broadcast Saturday night in our church this week, but for the first hour the audio didn't work (lol, Honduras for ya), so we were kinda just messin around with this members cowboy hat, so hope you guys get a kick outta that pic. Also the little kid on my lap is named Ian, one of the funniest little kids I have ever found. His parents are full on Latino, and his siblings look Latino, but this little guy basically has the gringo genetics lol, and everyone in the church was saying he was my son haha, too funny.

Well today we were told what the changes were going to be. This whole time I was sure that I was finally gonna leave my area that ive been in for 5 months, BUT during the week I had a dream that President Mejia told me that I'm going to stay in my area again. Was just a dream, but today they told me that my comp is leaving to become Zone Leader in a different area and I'M STAYING. Looks like dreams really do come true, you right Disney. They also told me that I'm getting moved up to District Leader which is a huge shock because I don't have a ton of time in the mish, and I've only ever been the companion of the District Leader. Honestly I feel a little inadequate, but I know that God put me in the position for some reason and I don't know why, but I why trust in God and do what he wants. I'm just gonna close my eyes and let Jesus take the Wheeeeeeel Carrie U style.

Hey well I can't think of other stuff to write about, but hope you guys liked the pics! Love ya'll!

Elder Butler

Week 23 - The Bus

Hey everyone! Crazy week, por fin some interesting stuff happened! We had a multi zone conference and listened to one of the 70, had a huge service project with the whole mission, saw someone desecrate in the street, the bus I was on got robbed, all that jazz! But Ill get to all that!


Christmas season in Honduras is one of the most Jolly and dangerous times of the year! The traditional Christmas food here is actually not very good. About every house you go to, people give you what they call "Torrejas". It's made with bread dipped in eggs, but then they decide to put the bread in boiling sugary water for about 30 minutes. Basically just REALLY soggy bread. Its sad because its so close to being french toast, and then it takes a 180 turn in the opposite direction. Just imagine eating some really soggy bread, or like when in the deacons have to defrost the frozen bread 2 minutes before sacrament. Pretty much the same thing. Not looking forward to  eating that at every persons house this month.


So they told us this month to be very careful when riding on buses early in the morning because people have been robbing buses. One reason is because it's Christmas season and people carry money with them to the city to buy things, and at night they come back with stuff, so the gangs have been targeting the buses from my area especially. Well we had to be in the city really early on Thursday morning, so we decided to go have a sleepover with some of the Missionaries in the city. We just did it precautionary, but it was cool. 


On Saturday we had to go to the city AGAIN for a big service project, but this time we decided to just sleep in our house and head out early in the morning. What are the chances that we would be on a bus that got robbed. Pretty high apparently, because it happened. I was in the back of the bus, sitting next to a member in my area who I am friends with talking. All of a sudden I saw his eyes get big and he threw his phone and wallet on the ground. I looked up and saw two guys with pistols robbing the bus. I had a Book of Mormon in one hand, and about 13 lempiras in the other hand. (My backpack was on my lap with my wallet, camera, and cards) I decided to think fast and saw that everyone was just putting money in the air, so I just put up my 13 lemps calmly (50 cents lol) and he took it and dueced. They robbed the whole bus in about 30 seconds, pretty crazy 30 seconds. I can say i got robbed at gunpoint, and i only lost 50 cents, THOSE FOOLS! Haha, pretty nuts though.



We had a huge Service Project in the mission for Ilumna el Mundo, which is Light the World for this Christmas season to share the message and love of Jesus Christ. It was really cool being with the whole mission together, really funny too. We all wore the same red shirts and dueced to the city to clean up the trash around the city, while other people handed out pamphlets! There's a guy in my mish named Elder Paramane, he's in all those pics. That guy is crazy, but so funny. He was one of the top recruits in the country for lacrosse, so that's his plan after the mish, he goes home in 2 weeks. Haha well we found a drunk lady in the street, and she started talking to some other missionaries, and stole one of the brooms and started cleaning. It was really funny, she was definitely in later town. I don't know exactly what went down, but at one point she dropped a squat in the middle of a busy road and decided to take a #2 right then and there. I guess when you gotta go, you gotta go!

All and all pretty funny week! No one worry about me, soy perro Hondureano, so ill be all good and safe! If you love me and want to do something for me this Christmas, send me a quick email! Love y'all

Elder Butler