Week 79 - Snitches get Stitches

Hey Fam, Merry Festimas for the rest of us!!!!(only true ones will understand) This week was my last Christmas in Honduras probably for the rest of my life, and we lived it up. We Had some pretty funny experiences not gonna lie this week, and here are a few of them.

The other night we were walking down the street, and a drunk dude came up to us and started talking gibberish. Its funny, there are different types of Drunk people in Honduras, some of them are really fun to talk to, some actually come to us for help wanting to change there life around, but some people are in a whole other dimension. You know that saying, "Crackheads are invincible"? Its real. This guy was walking towards us, and I swerved him and wished him a good night, but my comp wasn't so lucky. He got caught hold of the drunk guy, and started talking to to us but we didn't understand a thing. We see this huge bus come towards us and I barely grabbed him in time and pulled him out of the way of the bus. He lived to see another day, but we were laughing so hard about how crazy this dude was.

This week my compañion and I learned some things: First things first, we figured out where Jesus is. We knocked on a door looking for a guy we have been teaching, and his 80 year old mother lives with him. My comp had advised me that she does not like the missionaries whatsoever because she is super baptist or whatever. WELP, asked her if anyone else was there in the house with her or if she was home alone, and she responded "No, Its just me and Jesus here, goodbye." and gently closed the cracked open door. So good news, he came down for a quick visit.

Another thing we learned is that, if you a snitch, you get killed. We were teaching and getting to know am Elderly married couple that sell oranges on the side of the street. When we started to talk about the plan of salvation, they began to tell us about how they have lived so long. Although they have witnessed many armed robberies and a few people get shot at their little stand, they have never snitch on anyone. There reasoning: "If we tell the cops that it was our neighbor who did the robbery, he probably wont buy oranges from us and we lose a customer. We are trying to make a living here!" LOL gotta love it. Another older guy told is its good not to die because these days dying is like a luxury that costs way too much. Its better not to die so you can save a few bucks. LOLOL

I just want to share my testimony to all of you guys about how Christ has changed my life, not just my mission. I think all the mission has helped me do is realized in all the moments in my life, good, bad, happy, sad, God had always blessed me and put the people in my life to help me grow, and help me when I was down. He has guided my decisions, and blessed me in so many ways. I have not been perfect in any form, and im still learning. But I know that God lives, he loves me, and through Christ we can find happiness through any deepness of pain in our lives. He lives.

Love y'all,
Elder Butler

Week 78 - Merry Christmas, Ya Filthy Animals

Hey guys, TODAY WAS CRAZY FULL and I barely had any time to write, even though most of y'all don't read these emails, I still write them for the few faithful fans out there! Love you always!

We had another Baptism, and im in a NEW AREA! Its a little stressful, I've got a lot on my plate, but we are moving. No one tell me what happens in star wars PLEASE! Love y'all,

Elder Butler

Some Christmas Party Pics!

Week 77 - We Are Gettin' Jolly

Hey peeps, TIRING week, but the Christmas spirits got me moving along! At this time of Christmas, the stores have started selling cartons of eggnog, (nonalcoholic kinda :) ) instead of Chocolate milk. If you know me, I pretty much always drink Chocolate milk, and this was a disappointment. Most of the gringo missionaries love this eggnog stuff, and the thought came to me that even though I remember having tried it before, I don't remember why I never loved it like everyone else. WELP, I have come to the conclusion its because it tastes like throw-up milk, so if anyone is curious, just trust me on this one before you get yourself hurt.

Here's a quote from Napoleon dynamite when the time machine does work:
"Tell uncle Rico that this things a piece of Garbage, it doesn't work"
*Walks in uncle Rico with an ice pack on his crotch

Hope y'all got a kick out of this one, I sure did

There is a Sister in our ward that gives us Lunch every Sunday after Church, and we just love her. One of the funniest little old ladies I've known in my mission, and loves to talk to us about whats she is studying in the scriptures. One of the first times going to visit her at her house about 4 months ago, I saw a picture of her Photoshopped with another Elder in front of the Temple and a small little frame, and out of jealousy and wanting to be "that" missionary that everyone would remember, I told her, " Sister Mesa, One day I'm going to take a picture with you and print it out even BIGGER so that I can be in your house forever." She told me that every Elder that comes says the same thing but they never come through. WELL, me and my comp actually did it and it was so exciting!! Low quality Photoshop, but her whole family who we love and her loved it so much!

We celebrated Christmas yesterday eating pancakes at the same families house, and we gifted them some really cool glass cups to replace the ones that her son broke a month ago during a dinner that we were at, that's another funny story for another time, and they got us stockings with little candies. Thought it would be a puppy, but candy was a good 2nd choice! ;)

President Russell M. Nelson and Counselors Dallin H. Oaks & Henry B. Eyring of
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

During this time of year we have been really focusing on Light the World, one by one, trying to share the light of Christ with everyone. Christmas time is a great time to be with family and celebrate, but it's a perfect opportunity to remember how lucky we are to have a Heavenly Father who loves us, and a Savior who was given to us by the Father, so that through all the pain, suffering, and regret that we pass through in life can be redeemed. I want to share with each and every one of you guys my testimony and faith in Jesus Christ. I know he lives. He is the light in the darkness, the hand extended to help us back up, and the key to happiness in this life, and I am honored and privileged to be a representative of Christ, and a follower of his Restored Gospel. I wanna invite everyone to find a way to share the light of Christ by helping someone else in need. Serving others is the pure love of Christ, and a perfect way to bring happiness into the lives of others, and to bring our lives more in line with Christs life. Its the key to our happiness in this life, and the next.

Love you guys so much!!

Elder Butler

Week 76 - Our Christmas Tree!

Our Christmas Tree!

Heylo everybody, sorry the last two weeks I've sucked at writing, but I'm gonna try and get things together right now.

So to start off this letter, there's a family in the ward here that we are in that my comp and I love named the Valledares, and they are just a hoot. We eat with them on Sunday nights every week, and its always the highlight of the week for sure. WELL the youngest kid of this family is named Yohan, and hes a wild little 11 year old but makes us laugh so much. A few months ago his mom had planned and bought decorations for a soccer themed birthday party for this kis. Well one day I noticed she was putting the decorations for sale in her store and I asked what was up. She told me that the Party for her kid was CANCELED because he did not behave himself. I was taken back to when I was a kid and my parents would threaten that if we fought in the long car rides to Florida to go to Disney World, they would "turn this car around", empty type of threat, but turns out she was serious. Maybe the kid talked back or didn't clean his room? nope. Turns out he spent $240 US Dollars on a game on his moms phone to get clothes for his character. I don't know how many young adults with young kids are reading this, but this is about the funniest thing I have ever witnessed in my life, and had to share.

This last weekend we had two of our young investigators that we have been teaching for the last 4 months took the decision to be baptized! The large majority of their family are members, but they are both orphans and live with there grandma who has been inactive in visiting the church for the last few years. Well we have been working really hard with this family to activate them, and we got the permission to baptized her grand kids, and she started coming to church again! Pretty Dope

This week we started our program for Light the World, and have been doing a bunch of Family home evenings and have found a ton of people. I just wanna share my testimony that I love being a missionary and representative of Jesus Christ. I'm a happier person because of this gospel, and I know that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is the church of Christ himself in these our days. I'm a happy person.

Love you all!!

Elder Butler

Week 75 - Ilumina El Mundo

Mission President Meija and Family!

Hey guys,

Today we didn't get to write more than 10 Minutes!!! I love you all though, here's a Christmas video for you all!!

#Iighttheworld #IluminaElMundo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5x4JoDobJYY

Week 74 - Estamos Jugando Doctor!

Hey everyone, this week was a crazy one. A lot of ups and a lot of downs, but I've just decided to pull out the "Jesus take the wheel card" on this one and just trust God that everything will work out.

I love all you people, and God loves you too, no matter what. I believe in Christ, and have witnessed it change my life. Got some funny stories, but I'm going to leave them for next week ! love you guys!

I'll write on Thanksgiving,

Elder Butler

Week 73 - I'm Already Feeling Jolly ;)

This week was a funny one, ROUGH one, and overall happy ending one.

Me and my comps Christmas card picture, we found a Christmas tree :)

On Saturday while at an investigators house who we know really well, I started to get a massive headache and my body began to ache and be really sensitive (Its gotten just a LIL chilly here, not like Utah though, no worries Grandma Sharon ;) )

This week we were on our way to an appointment, and like many times as a Honduras missionary, we were approached by a drunk guy. Hondurans have a super power that when they drink 99% alcohol, it doesn't matter if they've been a drunk on the street for 30 years without any formal education, they can speak English out of nowhere. Its a real thing, trust me. And when they see a gringo, they find it as a PERFECT opportunity to show off their powers. Needless to say, I am accustomed to drunk people, and they sometimes are struggling, but sometimes they give us a show. Well we wanted to here the guy out. He was crying, and asking me if I'm gringo, and repeatedly, I responded yes. He then went on to tell us that he was crying because his "girl" was leaving to go work in Spain, at 2 pm. (I looked at my watch, it was 1:45, and time was running down) After explaining repeatedly that she was leaving at 2, and almost falling down stairs in the process, we began to explain to him that his Heavenly Father loved him, and has a plan for him, and that we would love to meet with him when he was better. Well he asked us when we had our church reunion, 10:20 Sunday, he told us he would be there.

The next day we found him again, sober this time and a little embarrassed, he confirmed that he would be there, we shared a short scripture with him from the Book of Mormon, to which he responded that the words were "talking to him" in his life situation. I had no clue what to share, flipped open my book, and the exact page I opened was meant to help him. On Sunday, he showed up to church with an elderly member that's his neighbor that came to church for the first time in almost a year, and we knew that this guy was put into our lives. Instead of judging the poor guy for being drunk and ignoring him, we felt the spirit prompt us to listen. Just listen. I know that this work is more that TRUE.

Another Miracle this week was that I got super sick on Saturday night, and Sunday morning, I was wearing 3 sweaters, a blanket, and still shivering with a head feeling like a balloon and my whole body aching. I asked for all my strength, and God allowed me to go to church. Right before the meeting I took a Tylenol for my fever, and hoped I could just survive. I was about halfway through the meeting, and honestly felt like Indian Jones when hes at the moment where hes about to lose to a huge Nazi guy. This was me at this moment. Like Indiana Jones normally does, is that the moment he sees his girl, he gets this sudden urge of energy to fight off the bad guy. I had used this tactic my whole life against my older brother, and it almost always turned out as a failure. Well During the Sacrament meeting, when almost all hope was lost, I saw Diana and her two daughters (the one who read the entire BoM before talking to us and we had been trying to get her to church for weeks, and had no hope of her arriving because she never answered her phone for 2 days and told us she couldn't before that.) In that moment of despair, I shot my gaze in direction of that family, and Joy filled my whole body, and God blessed me with another breath of air, and like Indy himself, I conquered my sickness, went and greeted them and sat down with them, and continued to sweat in my long sleeve shirt- sweater-windbreaker combination that I was wearing. I sweated out all the despair and came out happy. IF you guys wanna know why I'm here in Honduras, its for this. The joy it brings to me to help others to come unto Christ and his restored Gospel!

I'm outta time but i love you guys!!

Elder Butler

Week 72 - Revelations 12

Whats up people. Great week, full of meetings to be completely honest nothing HUGE happened.

WELL, one big thing happened, Emily got baptized! Shes only 8 years old though, but we have been teaching her entire family and her parents are getting married and baptized in December! The plan was to wait for her to be baptized with her parents, but she told her parents and her Aunt and Uncle (Who are members) that she did NOT want to wait. It was pretty sweet, reminded me of my baptism at 8 years of age with my cousin Ashlyn. I didn't know much, and remember even less, but I know that that decision has blessed my life in so many ways!

I want to shout out to my cousin Tanner for getting married this week, so happy and proud of you Tanner guy!!  Also wanna say how much I love my extended family that always keeps me updated on their busy lives!! You guys are the best. Truth is, even though I'm not the best at responding, I love and appreciate every letter that is sent to me! This day I am gonna try and make some responses so for that reason this letter is short and sweet :)

Just a quick thought of something we learned this week: In the great revelation given to the apostle John, in chapter 12, it talks about how before this life in this world, or pre-mortal life, there was a war in heaven. In this war , it says
"And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels,
8 And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven."

In this war, we were the angels, and we defeated the dragon, which was Lucifer. This means that we Won Satan once. We beat him. Nowadays in a world full of confusion and and bad things happening, fighting, and hatred, sometimes it feels like we are at war with Satan in these times. The great thing is that we can learn how we beat him before, and how we can beat him now.
11 And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.

We learn that by our exceeding faith in the Blood of the Lamb, who is Christ Jesus, and his infinite atonement, who had yet come to the world and died, we defeated Satan, alongside with sharing our testimony with EVERYONE, Without any fear! I testify to everyone in this short list that God has a plan for all of his children. He is our heavenly father and he loves each of you. No matter how far you fall off the path, it is never too far or too late to come back. Because of Jesus the Christ, Savior and redeemer of the world, we can be washed clean, overcome our difficulties, and find joy in this life. These thing sI know to be true with all of my heart.

Love you all
Elder Butler

Week 71 - Tom and Jerry

Whats up peeps, this week was a good one and a fast one. Astros lost, but dont talk to me about that one..

Honduras is a beautiful place.

Spooky season is officially over.  Halloween is seen as satanic by most here, because the culture is very different and basically all of the little gospel churches (there's about 2 million different ones), say that it invites little kids to be demonized and yada yada, just there point of view was different.

On the night of Halloween I sent a message to all the missionaries saying " Hey do you guys wanna go trick or treating, my mom said I could be out until 11:45 tonight" It was a good one, trust me.

So we have a situation going on right now. Its the kind of situation you would call, "we have a rat that lives in our house". That kind. Every now and then my comp jumps and screams as it passes buy. The little sucker is hard to catch, and to be completely honest I'm not sure what I could even do if I had it cornered, because truth is im not exactly mentally prepared to squash a mouse with my foot. That being said, I also don't want a rat in the house. Me and my comp have recently been trying to capture the cat that always goes through our garbage and keep him in our house until the rat is dead. Pets aren't allowed in the mission, but the logic is that we are not keeping the cat, we are just using it for its rat killing skills. Pray and hope that we catch a cat and this whole thing turns out.

We married and baptized a family. Edgar and Nimfa, we got to go out of the mission to the court to see the wedding. There wasn't any room, so me and my comp didn't see anything, but still way happy all the same! There Baptism was great, and both cried after bearing their testimonies. A month back, Edgar had some doubts about his decision, and had felt like he had not received a clear answer. In that moment i promised him that the moment he puts his foot in the water, God would give his answer loud and clear, and he could be certain it was the right decision. In his testimony, he said "Well, there aren't words to describe the feelings I felt when I took that first step. I know this to be true." Little acts of faith go a long way.

Elder Butler

Week 70 - Two more in the Books and a Miracle in Honduras

Hey everyone, great week here in the Dirty Hon. Just a quick shout out to my H-town people, for the Texans and Rockets on a good run, but mainly to the A-STROS baby!! Been a fan since I was born, through the horrible 100 loss seasons, and I am just proud to be a Houstonian for sure.

We had 2 more baptisms this week. (Junior 24, and Rosalba 45, Son and Mother, the two I talked about the other week. ) Hermana Rosalba is a success story. Only 2 short years ago she was living in the streets as a crack addict, no job, no money, her kids were taken from her because she couldn't provide, and her life had no purpose. Almost exactly 3 years ago, two elders were able to find her door, and help her be able to fix her life little by little. Shes been sober for more than 2 years, and for a matter of different circumstances, she never could be baptized. That is until this last weekend, Her with her son, whipped completely clean of all the mistakes in their lives. "Born again of water and spirit" as the scriptures say. The testimony she bore after was full of joy and true tears of happiness of how through the Gospel she has changed her life. Its a story of how no matter how far off the path we have gone, we can always return back with the help of our loving Heavenly Father, and the Atonement of his Son, Jesus Christ.

Another Miracle happened in our area. We received a reference from a guy in the United States for a lady and her 3 kids that live in our area. We decided, okay, let go check it out, and maybe we can share the Boom of Mormon with her. Turns out we didn't have to introduce anything, because SHE HAD ALREADY READ THE ENTIRE THING, along with Doctrine and Covenants, and wrote in a huge journal all of her impressions that came to her as she read. Never has talked to missionaries before, but just downloaded the app. She explained to us about all the negative comments she had heard about the church, and was curious. She didn't want to "judge" or "condemn" without investigating. She decided to read the entire Book of Mormon in 2 months. My comp and I just sat there amazed. Tonight we have another visit with her, so pray for them that everything goes right! The Book of Mormon is TRUE, if you have a question about it, read it.


Love you all

Elder Butler

Week 69 - LOL Right

Hola people, hope its been a good  week for y'all, its been a great one for me! Lots of blessings and lots of work being done, but im definitely happy!  This week a lot of miracles happened:

We have been working with a family, who have been investigating the church and coming to church for more than 10 years. WELL, when I got to my area a few months back, I made the goal with them to for real for real get married and then baptized. The Wife was all about baptism, but the husband really had a hard time accepting that Joseph Smith was a Prophet. He believed that Gordon B. Hinkley was a prophet of God (I know, it doesn't make sense), but it all came down to reading the book of Mormon with him and now long story short, They are gonna get married and baptized this week. Ten long years of many missionary efforts, and its finally all coming together. The credit goes to The Book of Mormon, another testament of Christ and the power and peace it brings to the human heart.

Through focusing on purely reading the book of Mormon with people and sharing about it has brought us many miracles and progressing people. When People tell me they are from other religions, I ask them "That's awesome, you believe in Christ then! Have you ever heard the story about the time when Christ ministered in the American Continent?" Some of them tell me for sure, from the "bible", which they obviously haven't read the bible so I politely explain that the bible was written in the middle east, and The Book of Mormon in the American Continents. Some people respond no, and are very interested to hear. One guy was very confused because he thought Christopher Columbus was the first human being to come to the Americas, and that off the Mayas,Incas, Aztecs, came after him. (That one was pretty funny tbh).

Through sharing the book of Mormon, we are gonna end with 4 baptisms (hopefully, pray for us!) this week, 1 the next week, 1 after that, and 3 more in December for right now. I don't say this in a way to say im a great missionary, or a great teacher, because I am neither of these things. I actually fault a lot of things, but what I am is a representative of Christ, and a messenger of the truth. The Truth is simply the truth. For that reason I am here serving in Honduras, to help,  but also to bring the people of the world its truth, and we can find that through the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon.

Love you all, you tha bestttttt

Elder Butler

Week 68 - Rainbows and a model pic

Whats up people!! Its been nice and rainy in Honduras recently, and its great! Unlike the rains of may that come, these rains are cold\cooler rains, so its pretty awesome. Even though I'm usually pretty soaked because I don't pack a jacket or umbrella with me because when I leave the house its perfectly sunny, I try to never complain because for a few months there was no rain and all of the aquifers were empty and there were people without water for weeks, some months, which normally comes once a week so they can fill up a big tub to use to bathe and wash clothes by hand during the week. Its definitely a blessing for sure.

This week A couple of cool things happened, saw a rainbow, tricked a couple of hooligans that asked me if i wanted coffee and I responded "Yes please give it to me, where is it, quit asking me and then lying because I don't see any coffee anywhere". They asked if I was for real, and I said yes (It was like 9:30 at night). They got surprised at my response, and they said "hold up wait right here" and I was like yep hurry go get it, and they ran off. Normally I could have contacted them, but I trolled them and walked up the huge hill to our house. Pretty funny stuff.

Saw this guy wearing McCullough Highlanders Football shirt from my junior high school in The Woodlands, TX! Crazy! Loved it!

We did some pretty hard core service this week, carrying up bags full of wet sand up the stairway to heaven literally, 169 steps. All uneven, some taller, mostly made of rocks and super wet. It was honestly Awesome! I felt like it was a hard push me to the limits workouts that I did in high school, but so much endurance to the legs. You get tired of walking up without anything, let alone 100 lbs bags of dirt.

Today I'm going to talk about the parable of Anton. Elder Anton is a new Elder in the Mish, from a tiny little village in the middle of nowhere in Guatemala, and grew up working poor poor farms, and spoke a tribal language that's not even Spanish. Crazy. Well this kid is smaller than me, shorter and stouter (I know right, shorter than me???) Well all though he was smaller, he was the one taking a little more of dirt in his bag. We were doing a system of carrying the bags up 3\4 the way to the smaller elders who couldn't do as much, and normally we were about dead by that point. Little by little the smaller elders that were helping up were having their legs give out on them. Well Elder Anton saw this, and decided that he wasn't gonna stop, but was gonna push his way up to the top. Me and another Elder saw his courage and strength, and it hit us in our pride a little after we just had set our bags down. When got a burst of motivation when we saw someone smaller than us push that hard, and we picked up our bags and continued behind him. In sports that's the person I always have striven to be, and is the person I want to be in my life. Thanks to a new missionary, that came from a humble background, he gave me the example to continue on. What do we learn from the parable of Anton?? BE AN EXAMPLE, and others will follow. Instead of focusing on the difficulties in your life right now, look for people that are suffering more than you are, and help them!

This is surely a Christ like example that we may all follow, and it will help our capacity to love and be happy grow as well! Christ is the center to all happiness people, This is just an eternal truth! Love you all!

Week 67 - The Son of Man passed under them all, are we greater than he?

Whats up guys, dudes, and everyone else,

This week was another dope one, full of crazy people, weird experiences, ups and downs, but especially more ups! And like every week, full of lots of beans and tortillas.

I got a new comp, named Elder Ramirez from Guatemala, who is 24 and has 9 months in the Mish. Hes a pretty cool guy, and we get along great. Only being 24, he was orphaned as a teenager, losing both of his parents, and the guy basically raised his little sister with no support from anyone. He got baptized at 20, and now is my comp, so we are hittin' the road running!

Conference was great, I think personally Saturday Morning session was my fav, but it was all good. (For those who don't know, we believe in a living God who continues to reveal his Gospel through Prophets and Apostles, and that in today's time we have living prophets and revelation from our Heavenly Father!) Pretty cool how there was a huge emphasis on what our Focus should be: Christ, and Joy. They are two things intertwined. Its something that I've been able to witness personally in my time here in Honduras. Through learning how to love as Christ loved, and putting him in the center of our lives can help up find real and true joy in our lives, even through trial, tribulation, and suffering.

This week was a little stressful. I had someone in my Zone who was mad at me or offended in some way, and threw many efforts of buying him food, and apologizing, still felt like I failed to gain his pardon. Another opportunity came where I got the chance and opportunity to exercise my patience and listen to someone rant for an hour an a half about how every person in her life had offended her in some way, and how the world owed her so much. I just sat and listened, and apologized, but it wasn't sufficient for her. That same day while teaching a recently married couples, 2 young missionaries with zero marriage experience, we were put in the situation to try and counsel their problems that have happened in their relationship. Our answer was Christ, but half of the party didn't want to accept. All of this negative commotion really had me down on a rainy day. I decided to pray. Heavenly Father, I know the happiness this gospel brings, but why do I feel like my efforts are wasted, why wont anyone listen. Then I prayed for strength to carry on. I have come to realize that in life, and through studying and listening to conference, that in life we all pass for difficulties, tragedies, most of the time being no fault of our own. Why does God allow bad things to happen to his children if he loves us? The answer is that we do not see ourselves through Gods eyes, and how he is shaping up and forming us to be the people he wants us to be. Experience is required for us to progress and grow. Our body does not grow without much pain, exercise, falling down. Its a process, we dont see what our potential is looking in the mirror BEFORE we do all the exercise and soreness. The same is with our Spirit. We pass for these things to grow, and the perfect thing is that if we trust in Christ, he can lift the weights and cargo with us every step, "making our burdens light and easy".

I know these things are true personally. God has shown me. In my hard moments in the mission, we were blessed with a guy named Junior who prayed, and has decided with surety that he would like to be baptized this month. Pretty dope.

Love you all, sorry for the short letters, Ill try and share more experiences next week!

Elder Butler

Week 66 - Stuck in a river without a paddle

Whats up guys, short email this week because I was limited on time in zone p-day!! My comp goes home on Wednesday, and I will be receiving a new comp tomorrow! WE had a good change, but stressful being a leader. Our zone ended with the most in the Mish this month, which is great because we were one of the worsts the month before. The hope now it to keep a constant high every month! I don't love being a leader, but I know God has me here to prepare me to have more patience and know how to work with people better. I have had to deal with many ridiculous little things with missionaries, and it has me all over the place but God is for sure supporting me through it all!!

So I just wanted to acknowledge that my area has a poopy river that runs through it. I wish i could say i was joking, but in fact it is a small little river where all the plumbing from all the houses runs straight out of a tube into it. You can literally know when someone uses the bathroom, and the smell is great!!!

Update on the Mish: We had another baptism this week, named Marvin! Very cool dude, we actually found him because his best buddy brought him to seminary and well 5 weeks later he was baptized.

Recently I have had many experiences with reading the Book of Mormon. For those of you that do not know, WE BELIEVE IN THE BIBLE! The Bible testifies of Christ, and was written by the prophets and apostles who were witnesses of him. The Book of Mormon is Another Testament of Christ, but it was written from the ancient inhabitants of the Americas (Native Americans), and all of the ancient tribes and civilizations that lived here before  the Europeans cruzed over. The Book of Mormon is a Testament that Christ came to the Americas, and is the savior and redeemer of the world. The More and more I have come to read, learn, and share the book of Mormon with people, I have found the peace and joy in the questions of my soul. Recently I took the invitation to start focusing on just the Book of Mormon with people that weren't progressing, and the difference I have seen in people just testifies of its truthfulness. I every person that reads this email to download the Book of Mormon app, and read 3 Nephi 11, which is the story of when Christ came to the Americas. Member of our church, Baptist, Catholic, doesn't matter, I invite EVERYONE!

This mission is awesome, and I am so excited for conference!!

Week 65 - Let the Children Come Unto Me

Whats up people, this week was a really chill one. Lots of cool things have happened, but nothing super juicy. I don't have a ton of time to write this week, so this is my shortest email yet!! Here's some pics of little chickies who I love. Me and my comp were walking the street, and something that happens a lot being a mission, is that little kids just out of nowhere run up and hug you. Sometimes the parents run over embarrassed, but i always take the time to hug and talk to them.

One time I saw a little boy utterly upset about something, just seemed like all the problems of his life were bringing him down, as happens to many 3 year old little kids does sometimes. I had some chips in my hand, and a chocolate milk i bought because i hadn't eaten dinner, and we were going home. I knelt down and asked him what was wrong,a nd he started to explain his big world problems, and I just gave him a small little hug and asked him if he wanted my chocolate milk and chips, and he nodded with tears on his face. Being really funny, and really cute, I walked away satisfied. I tell you this story so that one day I can remember how perfect little kids are. They recognize goodness, and are honest and true. We are gods children, an
d when we are down, he will always be there to hand us a hand. Love you all thuggers, keep on being groovy.

Elder Butler

Week 64 - *Rocky Training Theme Song*

The Thinker

Whats up thuggers, ahhhhh another week. Honestly today the power went out and I didn't get a ton of time to write today cause I was talkin to my puppers Reggie (My Mother), and I always think about stuff I wanna write for Monday but always end up forgetting. Well this week I find myself procrastinating on what I wanted to write, but I know I cant let the fans down ;) Love you guys.

I don't know if anyone has noticed, but my last few emails have been named with Subject titles of , "Stiarway to Heaven", "It's The Climb - Miley Cyrus" and This one is Rocky Theme song. Its because low key, ya boy is dying out here on the stairs. SO MANY STAIRS. We live at the top of a cliff, and every night after a long day of climbing stairs, we climb more stairs. To motivate myself, I always seem one of this songs going up. There's always people sitting outside of their house steps and they all give me weird looks seeing this gringo singing going up stairs, but I enjoy it.

This week I got to go to Siguatepeque again to see a family I taught get married and baptized!!! My first family I helped get married, and it was awesome, They were both so happy! Also I took a classic proposal pic at the temple with my guy Elder Hernandez for kicks n giggles, shout out to every typical Provo  person ever lol.

This week was a good one. Being a Zone Leader is always a little bit stressful, but Gods always helping me grow more and more. I would undoubtedly be just fine with being a normal missionary, it would be a lot less stressful, and |I love just focusing on my area, but I know that even though its tough now, one day it'll help me be able to serve in callings and in my future job, family, etc. So I'm grateful, one of my goals I've made in the past few weeks is to avoid complaining about anything, and focus on having a good attitude. Part of it has to do with improving my patience, although I am far from perfect at this goal, im getting better. I feel like I just wanna be happy in life. I don't know, but that's my goal. Adventures, memories, and just enjoying the good AND the bad moments. The mission is one of those times, and I'm enjoying every minute.

We taught an investigator this week, who is a young 27 year old, with a 7 year old autistic son, that lives with her father who is diabetic and has other organ dysfunctions, but makes it by trying to support his daughter by walking around selling fish on the street. Their situation is very tough, but has helped them to open up to God more in their life. The many problems and difficulties that this family has and is struggling with are beyond imagination for most comfortable middle class people. I talked with the Woman, Paola, and just felt like we were teaching her, and she was learning, but there was something more underneath that held her back. After some time asking inspired questions, she revealed her struggle. She felt like God let her down, how her life will never have purpose and will never get to live her dream like others do. It was a moment that you only can get serving a mission, helping someone lost find their purpose, and helping them understand that they have a heavenly Father who loves them, cares for them, and is always watching over them, and has a perfect plan for every one of us. Of course this plan involves learning, falling, failing, and scarping your knees a little before you get it right. It involves a little bit of pain, a few tears, and some heartache, but because of Jesus Christ, we can get up, continue forward, and experience joy, and be healed. Because of this plan, a broken heart may be healed. I testify that finding God in our life and knowing the plan that he has brings peace to the human soul. I only know these things because I have personally experienced in my own life, and now im trying to help others experience it for themselves. In saying this, I know these things to be true with all of my heart and soul, and I love each and every one of yall.

Elder Butler

Week 63 - "Its the Climb"- Miley Cyrus

Whats up people, another week passed by and the work is going great. Got to meet a few more drunks on the streets, had to break into our house by doing some parkour because we locked our keys inside, saw a few miracles, and got to know some new areas!

Big Shout out to BYU Cougs beating Tennessee this last weekend, we aren't great but hey we are better than a team in the SEC. Also hope you all love Monday Night football with the Texans., Football season is back, and I'm excited even though I don't really get to watch.

This last week we found ourselves in a situation as leaders with the pressure to help the 10 other areas in our zone to have success, and it was pretty tough, but time after time, The lord helped us out :) We put 2 baptismal dates more for the end of this month, one with Marvin (16 years old) and one with Scarlet (13 years old ) Marvin is best friends with a recent convert, and started going to seminary before we started teaching him, so he was set before he started. Scarlet is the niece of an Ex missionary, and about half the family are members but all are inactive. We have been working so they can be reactivated by teaching all of them.

The way we started to teach Scarlet was unorthodox. We went to a house looking to teach a guy named Fernando, who had many questions about where we came from and where we go after this life. Seeing this as an opportunity as gold, and a blessing from God for sending us people who are ready for this gospel, we began to teach. We had a very spiritual lesson, and my Comp and I verified because we felt the same thing. In the middle of the lesson, entered scarlet into the lesson, and just sat and listened. The truth is, we were so focused, we didn't put much interest into her, but I noticed she just sat listening very intentfully. The lesson went very well.

We had another visit scheduled for the next day and it was pouring rain. We knocked on the door, after a long day of rejection. No one answered. with a little bit of frustration, but determined to get into this house, I knocked again and yelled, "HOLA BUENAS TARDES". No Answer. I looked through the window, saw some come to the door, but run away and hid back in the other room. The awkwardness was there, and it was clear that we were not wanted. At the point of giving up, and just accepting it wasn't going to happen, and standing for 15 minutes in the pouring rain, my comp gave me the look like "lets go man". I wanted to, but deep inside, I felt like I needed to try one more time. Finally the door was opened and we were let inside.

Awkwardly we entered and sat down and got the kid we were looking for come into the room. Feeling happily stubborn, the return missionary began to explain how Fernando had said "he was born a Catholic, and would die a Catholic" He didn't want to accept the message we gave him, and refused to pray and ask. A sharp change in progression, I felt like all our effort was in vain. But its funny how God works. As Fernando left, Scarlet came and sat down and told us she had listened and prayed to know if it were true, and felt very peaceful. A few lessons later, a little hesitation, she has accepted to be baptized the 28th of September.

God has a plan. This is undoubtedly his work. I cant really explain the joy it brings me to be in this work or the peace that it brings to the human soul. I know that God lives and hears us. We are never alone. I received a letter from a friend from college, who wrote this except of why she is serving a mission, and I would like to give her credit and share why I too, am in Honduras serving a mission:

"Why have I left my family and communication with them for a year and a half? Why have I given up sleep, "me time" and everything that the world considers "fun and happy"? Well to give others what has made me truly happy, and that is the teachings of Jesus Christ.
What do I teach when I finally find someone humble enough to learn more? I teach what I know to be the truth. That Jesus Christ's teachings were lost for hundreds of years, but because God loves us, he has restored them on the earth again today. Those teachings contain God's infinite love for us, and that He has created a plan for each of us. That we were with Him before and that we will be with Him and our families again after. That the purpose of this life is to find joy, true joy because God loves us. Where does that joy come from? Helping and loving others. Becoming better, changing, and refining ourselves, so that we can treat others better and with more love. This is ONLY possible in and through Jesus Christ. Because He died for us, He is a living being with a physical body that understands what we're going through. He knows exactly how it is to be you and suffer with the addiction you specifically are suffering with. Or to be you and know the loneliness you specifically feel." -Isabel Black I testify of the truthfulness of these words, and share the same beliefs. God is there and he loves you.

Love each and every one of y'all, stay chill always, and update me on life when you feel like it, and send pics!

Elder Butler

Week 62 - Stairway to Heaven

Hey everyone, We back in action here in San Rafael. What have i been doing? Stairs. Stairs. More stairs. Its a love-hate relationship because I hate climbing the stairs and sweat a ton, the good part is that I'm gonna come out of it with a good but, so I guess the sacrifice will pay off.

This week was my second week at church, and as y/all can see, there's a picture of me and a pupper. (I took it for Reggie). This Dog just sits in the church every Sunday, so im assuming now its totally legal to bring your dogs to church now. Kinda confused, but also kinda pumped because Reggie doesn't like being alone. ( Throwback to when I got a referral in HS for sneaking in my puppy to a HS volleyball game LOL )

This week was a good one. We got a lot of work done and have seen a lot of miracles. I have heard 3 people look me in the eyes this week and tell me they received an answer about the authenticity of the Book of Mormon, Another Testament of Jesus Christ. Very moving to see how changes happen in people.

I'm 14 months into my mission, and I still am amazed with how powerful the truth can be when the Spirit testifies. The truth, if this work, including sending 18-21 year old boys to other countries, speaking a different language, and teaching about the restoration of Chirst's Church here on the Earth WASN'T true, then I don't think it would work. I am a living and vivent witness that this is the truth, because I have seen it change the life of many. Jesus is the Christ, I know that with all of my heart. I have felt his love, and his presence, and I know he is always with me and listens to my prayers. I know the Book of Mormon, if we read it diligently, can help us become closer to Jesus Christ than any other book in the world can. "No evil man could ever write a book such as it, and no good man ever would unless it were the truth." I Love being a missionary, its truly awesome and I love every one of you that receives this letter, so I thought I'd share my testimony. Love y'all