Week 33 - Via Oriente

Hey everyone! Another great week here in Honduras! Super busy and stressful, but successful!

Went to a dope Chinese restaurant slash Money laundering business for the cartel haha, biggest restaurant I've ever been too lol, without a single person inside. A member told me that a friend from work knows the owner, and confirmed my theory about the money laundering. It was pretty dope though, there were pools, playground, paddle boats, and a huge lake behind that you could pay and fish, and if you catch it you can pay to keep it! Pretty sweet, we are going to try and bring our Zone to go there on P-day one day!

We had a meeting on Thursday with the stake president, the president of the mission, and the assistants over a bunch of stats and materials, and my comp and I had to put together a ton of excel spreadsheets and gather all of the raw info in zone  like 2 days, and transfer it all into the presentation in the span of 2 hours before it started. My comp was stressed, but last second project in high school was my specialty, so I let him know not to worry, we got this. We got it done, thanks to God, and my Excel class I took freshman year in college. We had all the data present, and everyone was happy, but my comp and I were mentally exhausted haha!

Well we had a multi-zone on Wednesday, and the meeting on Thursday in the night,  so we had to sleep overnight in the city with the assistants. One of them is named Elder Madsen from Cali, and is one of the coolest people I've met in the mission.

Ill be seeing him at the Y hopefully.

We only had 2 days to work during the week, but we still had success! Ended Sunday with a baptism of an 18 year old named Brian. Hes a kid we have been teaching for a while, and weren't exactly sure if he was going to be baptized until Friday evening! He is very hard to find a lot, because hes never home and doesn't have a phone, so being able to talk to him was a miracle in and of itself. I found him a few months back, and he continued to have doubts about a lot of stuff, but I don't know, I saw a lot of characteristics that I had myself about 3 years ago. He got baptized on Sunday, and it was awesome. Being able to see the happiness and joy that the gospel brings to peoples lives is invaluable.

Its crazy to look at who I was at 18 and who I am now (almost 21 ;) ). I am very much the same Steven that you all know, with a little pinch of Spanish, but I have also developed a complete different aspect on life. Some can say its because I'm in a third world country, which is partly true, but the truth is that I've grown a lot. Through experiences of losing my most beloved friends, to seeing the hand of God in my life. I am out here serving in the Lords work because when I was in a dark abyss, when I felt like I was bitterly and hopelessly alone, I felt the Holy Spirit comfort me. I never understood why I went to BYU for College, a school I never wanted to go to, over all the schools that gave me 80 percent and higher scholarships to assist their school. I didn't find out until almost the end of the year, that God never left me alone, but put people in my life that were meant to help me. God is real. Just know that when you feel defeated, and can barely stand because the pain and sorrow you feel is unbearable, just know that there is one person who knows all about your pains and afflictions that you are going through, and maybe for a moment  in your life, just a moment, you can understand just a little of what Christ went through for you. I am in his debt, and without Christ and this gospel, I don't know where I would be.


I love each and every one of you on this list, I hope you all know that. My friends and Family are the most important people in my life! Love y'all!


Elder Butler