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