Week 39 Chasing Chickens

March 25,2019

Hey there everyone, another week, another email I guess. I would like to dedicate this email to La Barba, The beard, James Harden, for always being there for me and for being amazing. Truly an inspiration to us all.



*Note: Also shout out to Jesus, and for all the blessings I received in this week. Always gotta recognize the big guys upstairs, God is good.

Today we had a Zone Pday and we played some interesting games. We are in Honduras, so we have to get creative sometimes haha. The first thing we did, we everyone brought a few 20 cent rolls of toilet paper (or sandpaper as I call it), and we used box tape to tape around the roll really tight, and then used these 15 rolls or so to play dodge ball with baseball sized rolls heavy enough to throw hard but not hurt anyone. We also have some Dominicans who play baseball and a softball player so everyone was good a throwing. Pretty fun.


The other crazy thing we did, was we got a hold of a LIVE CHICKEN.(Its Honduras what do you expect?) What did we do? You guessed it, we put the chicken in a room in the church, blindfolded ourselves, and saw how long it took us to catch the chicken. This chicken wasn't as hard as the one in Rocky, I caught it in about 27 seconds. This is how we know that one day this chicken will be killed, and eaten. If I were a chicken and a bunch of people were trying to chase me down, I would at least give my best effort to get away from these crazy white people that love chicken. Survival of the fittest.


This week was a good one. I am still working on patience. There is a scripture that I love in The book of Mormon that I love to use and teach to people. It says:


"27 And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them."


Lets take a minute to observe this verse and break it down. Christ says in the very beginning, that if we choose to follow him, he will show us that we are weak, that we have problems. (Sometimes I like to replace that word 'weakness' with something as a trial or difficulty, like God will send us a storm in our life, something on those lines.)


It then goes to say that " I give unto men weaknesses [or trials] that they may be humble." God is our heavenly Father. He does not want us to suffer, but just the opposite. He wants us to be happy, he wants us to have joy in our lives. But the truth is we will never find satisfaction in life if we think we can do it alone. We are humans, and we all have weaknesses and face trials. What this verse is saying is that God puts those "why me?" things in our lives that we can learn to put the control in his hands, or how the beautiful american idol winner, Carrie U would put it, let him "take the wheel".


It then goes to say that if we humble ourselves unto him, and search for his guidance and accept that we cant do it alone, that his grace will carry us. Grace is such a powerful word, and its something that most of us don't understand. You can study and work your whole life to understand completely how powerful the word grace is and I don't think I could do it. A quote by Brad Wilcox says, "“Jesus doesn’t make up the difference. Jesus makes all the difference. Grace is not about filling gaps. It is about filling us.”

He also uses an example of how Gods grace works on us, using the subject of piano lessons. When we are young and we take our piano lessons (for those of you who did, but for me my dad just practiced baseball with me and taught me to mow the lawn for free ;) ) Our parents pay for these lessons. Usually how it works, is they pay for a set of lessons in advanced so you can learn. Thanks to them, we don't need to pay for them, they are already paid for. What we can do to show gratitude to what our parents did for us is to PRACTICE. They want us to better ourselves, make a change. It is hard at first, and many mistakes are made, but after time we learn to be better.


We can use this example in the topic of grace. Wilcox described it in this way: Christ already paid for our sins. Its secure. We will all live again. What he wants for us, is that in our lives we can better ourselves, LEARN from our mistakes, and correct them. In the last line God says if we humble ourselves and have faith, his grace will carry us and our weaknesses will be made strengths, trials be made easier, and our "yokes"  be made lighter.


Right now I am in a situation against my lifes second greatest weakness, (next to Chickfila), is my patience. God KNEW that I suck in that category, so 2 months ago sent me a companion who could show me an example of patience, and then give me a new companion to "help" me put it into practice. FIRST, I had to stop and pray for help to change myself, not him. I know I need to get better I have learned that when I feel frustration because my comp takes a long time in the morning to get ready and we are always late, instead of telling him to hurry, I try and do something to serve him like iron his shirt. I am searching for ways to help him and me at the same time, and it has helped very much. Whenever he does something and I wanna same a rude comment or hang him from the fan by his tie, I have decided just to drop down and do 50 push ups. It takes all the energy out of me so the bad feelings go away. I'm doing about 250-300 push ups a day right now, so its also helping me as a person. I'm nowhere close to being perfect on my patience, BUT I am improving for sure.


I invite the few people that read to this point to try and apply this scripture to your life. If you wanna find more great scriptures like this one, you can find it in the Book of Mormon, which is another testament of Christ, but written on the american continent by its native inhabitants. The purpose of it is the same as the bible, to convince the world that Jesus is the Christ, and so if you love the bible, there's a whole other testament that teaches us how to become closer to our God and Christ. My life has truly changed because of it, and yours can too ;) Love ya all folks,


Elder Butler.


PS. if you love me write me a message sometime or send pics and or funny tweets. Stay cool ;)

Week 38 - Yeah

Ahhhh. I'm tired, but grateful too. Think week was a long one, not full of much, but had some very spiritual experiences.


First things first, I would like to send a shout out to the Grantsville 12th ward Youth, families, and my Aunt and Uncle Steve for going through the effort to send me a package of letters. They were sent for Christmas I believe, but all the same they did indeed arrive, and I AM INDEED GRATEFUL! You guys rock! I don't know the better part of you, but I want y'all to tell you guys that it made my day! Stay strong in your youth and when the temptations and storms come you will be able to withstand them. This is Christ's church, and you are his strongest warriors! Enjoy growing up, because you only get to do it once!


I have to admit, this week was rough. First thing, my comp and I don't not get along very well.  I have a ton of things I could complain about just to rant and get things off my chest, but I'm not going to. The truth is I need to better myself. If life, we are never gonna be able to change how others are, we can only better ourselves. I have had to learned to grow in my patience a lot. I'll explain why:


If you know me personally, I'm a talker, not patient, nor sensitive. I have absolutely NO problem telling somebody that is illogical that they are wrong or telling them how things are straight up. I have learned that if I wanna survive in the real world and be successful, I need to change things. God puts people in our lives to help us or to teach us something. THERE ARE NO COINCIDENCES.

Whenever I feel the urge to argue, I bite my tongue for about 10 minutes, ask for forgiveness, and ask what I could do to better myself as a comp for him. If I can serve him, I do it. Its not been easy, but I feel like its something I maybe needed in my life.


This week we had the opportunity to listen to a general authority of the area 70, and it was one of the most spiritual experiences I have ever had. I cant really describe how I felt or exactly what he said to us, but his testimony is what touched me most. I have never felt nor heard such powerful authority when someone was speaking to me in my life. His testimony strengthened mine, which I would like to share with you all right now.


Sometimes I look where I was 9 months ago, 2 years ago, and look where I am now. Its crazy how life works like that. Two years ago my outlook on life was a lot different, but I have grown in a lot of ways through many hardships in my very short life. Thanks to my parents I have always had a unconditional belief in Christ and in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and I came on a mission on the simple decision that I wanted to serve my heavenly father. In only 9 short months, its been a journey. I have faced rejection, after rejection, but yet my faith and relationship with Christ has only grown. I can say that 2 years ago I did believe in Christ, but know I can testify to each and every one of you few that read to the end of my letters that God DOES exist. WE ARE his children, and HE HAS a plan for each and every one of us. He sent his only begotten son to die for us, that we may have just the chance to choose for ourselves to follow him. No matter where you are in your life you are never too far gone. No matter what pain you are feeling, struggle you are going through, just know that there is someone who knows all about them. You are never alone. I testify that Joseph Smith saw the face of God the eternal Father and Jesus Christ and was called to be a prophet in the modern dispensation, and that through him the same church that Christ established is here on this earth today. I testify that President Russel M Nelson is a witness of God, and if we follow his revelation, we can be prepared for the last days.


I love each and every one of you, stay chill.


Elder Butler

Week 37 - Just Week 37

Hey there dudes, whats up? another week marked off the sheet, but it was a pretty good one! (there's a problem with this keyboard and the shift key doesn't work, so excuse the grammar guys )

Well first off, I love my new area. I won't lie, I was a little iffy about coming so far out  from the city, because i wanted to be in the city, but i have lucked out because this place is awesome. My area is the poorer part which is awesome because the people are more humble and willing to accept what we teach. In fact, there are parts in this area that I am in that is completely separated and the needs are soooooooo big.... its hard to see sometimes, but to see the happiness that Christ brings in their eyes and to know that I've been a vessel to help them makes me very happy.

Its a branch here, not a ward, but the branch is bigger than the last ward I was in. We split it with two Sister missionaries, and its a lot more organized, and a lot of members have good money so we get fed A LOT better haha. I've had some of the best member fed meals on my mission, but they are also healthier too. 

We have a ton of families we are teaching and its super awesome! The biggest problem is that non of them are married. marriage is a real problem here. Its a long complicated process and it costs about 2000 limps which is only 80 dollars,but for people here, they make less than 50 a day. Its hard because there are people that want to follow Christ and be baptized as families, but this country makes it about money. But no matter, we will work hard.

I don't exactly love my new comp, gets on my nerves quite a bit and is pretty prideful, but I am a lot more patient than i used to be and sometimes just have to bite my tongue. The mission is like a mini life, everything that I go through here will prepare me for what will come in the future. I have no doubt that there will be people that get on my nerves in my work but i have to get along with, so ill just be patient for 5 more weeks ;)

Well sorry that I don't have pics, I am gonna have to by an adapter to attach my SD card because these computers don't have them. Oh well, love y'all! IF you love me send me an update on life!


Elder Butler

Week 36 - Gettin the Heck 'Outta Dodge

Yooooooooooooo everyone. Well, its true, I got the heck outta dodge. Finally left my first area, Ciudad España, after being there for almost 8 months, WOW. Whew it was not even close to easy, but I feel like I left it better than I found it when I arrived, and we had 2 baptisms on Saturday so I'm super happy.

It was super sad saying goodbye to all the members and investigators that I have gotten to know from my time there. I will maybe see a few of those people again in my lifetime, but the truth is for most of them it was a final goodbye. I look at my time there as successful, not because we had a bunch of baptisms or because I am anything more than an average missionary, but because through all the rejection and trials, I loved the people. That is why I'm here, to be a representative of Jesus Christ, to love the people, and to invite others to come unto Christ to feel the same love that I have in my life through my Savior and Redeemer. Its a good feeling la verdad.

Well on Saturday we had 2 Baptisms, one a 28 year old guy named Andy. This guy cracks me up and puts a smile on my face. He is completely normal, but a few years back he had an accident and has problems with his memory, but has such a good heart. Well I've known this guy in the street since forever. Had been asking him to come to church for months, and it took like 4 months for him to come because he would literally just forget. For that reason, whenever I would see him in the street, I would always yell at him asking "What time on Sunday??" just'to make sure he remembered. We helped him stop smoking for 3 weeks by buying him gum and a coke everyday, and told us when ever he feels the urge to buy a cigarette he buys gum instead because "it tastes better" lol. Well he actually changed his ways and repented,and was baptized. So cool. The other baptism was a kid with 14 years that was friends with a bunch of members and his friend baptized him, and helped us teach all the lessons so that was cool.

Repentance is always looked at as a negative connotation, when in reality, its such a wonderful gift. When I ask people if the know what Christ did, they always say he died on the cross for us. Its true. But we miss the point of why he died for us, what the significance was. He literally suffered for every one of our sins. Every one, and he was the only one able to do it. We can be forgiven because hes already paid for it. Its like a paycheck, literally all we have to do is go act and pick it up. Its not direct deposit, we have to recognize that we are in wrong, ask for forgiveness, and change our ways, and god promises not to remember them again. Its simple. If we love Christ, and I'm sure you all do, show your appreciation by accepting his sacrifice for you. You are all Children of God my friends.

My new area is dope, Siguatepeque. Definitely a change of pace, but Its really cool here. My area is huge, so ill be walking a ton, which is good cause it will keep me from getting fat. First year of college was rough, but shout out to all the bros who never said a word and to my dad who told me that I had gotten chubby , I've lost like 27 pounds here. My suit pants are big on me lol, I haven't weighed as much as I do since I was 16 so its pretty cool. Its because they don't have Chick-fil-A or Whataburger here smh.

Well love y'all, him me up with messages now! I'm online on Mondays. Sorry that there aren't pics right now, I cant connect my camera but it will be good. Peace dudes.

Elder Butler