Week 54 - Coincidence? I think not

Hey people,

Very active week, but things are just going normal. Drank some agua de Coco from the side of the street, took a video of it too. Not my first time drinking coconut water, but straight from the coconut from the side of the street, yes it was my first. Also me and my comp found some really dank new places to eat. Currently our favorite is this Chinese and pizza restaurant. Now to be honest, I know what y'all are thinking: "who in the heck would take the risk of going to a Chinese rice and pizza restaurant in Honduras, and somehow being exposed  to Hepatitis C-ya-L8r or something?" Well we did it, and hey, it aint too bad! I would compare it to being a little better than school pizza (Post Michelle Obama era, after she ruined good tasting school lunches). We also found this Bakery that is owned by this Amish seeming gringos, but they are Mennonites, and they make ice cream and cinnamon rolls, so we are pretty hyped about that! AMERICA! *Btw happy 4th USA guys, keep being guys, all of you.

Crazy story I would like to share that attributes to my testimony of how I don't believe in coincidences and how the work I am doing is Gods Work and he leads us in what and where he wants us:

Last Tuesday me and my comp decided we were going to go work in a part of our area that we had honestly never worked before because its on the other side of the moon from where we normally work, and we already have a few families who are on a different moon as well that we visit, but we felt like we needed something fresh so we went. We found this really cool guy named Elvin, and we went to his door because he had an american flag  hanging on his door, so we knocked, and he accepted us in his house! Really cool guy, turns out he is a cyclist, and probably one of the only few in this whole country. My mom did the MS-150 when I was growing up, so it was interesting to get to know him. We taught him about how simple and important prayer is, and even got to teach him how he can pray. Cool cool cool, so we had another appointment to meet him another day. 

Later on we went and ate lunch and afterwards we didn't know what direction we were going to walk in. The truth, we were tired and hot, and neither of us wanted to make the decision, so we decided to sit down on a park bench. This one guy walked right up to us, very enthusiastically, which was very surprising, and called us "Ancianos", which is Elders in Spanish, but Basically nobody here knows that lol. He came up to us, told us he just finished the Book of Mormon, felt it was true, and wanted to know how he could get the pearl of great price book. What?... This dude wasn't even a member, just talked with the missionaries a long time ago. I wanted to Nacho libre style baptize him and just throw his face into some water!! (*not really). Crazy how we just felt like we sat down, and God just sprinkled another blessings into our work, we literally barely did nothing. 

We liked this idea of waiting for God to send us someone, so we have trusted him a few more times in just sitting down or walking to see where the wind takes us, and its been very funny to see the blessings we have received. We are like some meat, and God is just throwing people in our way like the one meme of the dude  who sprinkles salt on meat. Blessings.

A few days later we had plans to go meet back with Elvin the bike guy, and we were excited to meet the rest of his family. We got there and found that he was sick. After walking so far away, we had our plans spoiled! We weren't upset or anything, but it did leave a big whole in our plans, which we thought we prayed for guidance when we made the plans. WE decided to just move on with our agenda. We were far away form our next appointment, so we luckily found a bus and took it. The next part is the interesting one: I don't know why, but I felt prompted, as well as my comp was prompted, to get off the bus in front of less active members who we had been visiting for a long period of time, and just had hearts of stone. We tried and tried and tried to help them come back to church, but they were all baptized at a young age and now are adults and are very much wrapped in other religious backgrounds and traditions, and over and over told us they did not believe there was any more need for anything but the bible. Well we went anyways. The rest of the experience I cannot describe in the letter, nor in words, but I hold it sacred and dear to me. I don't remember the words that came out of my mouth, and we had no plan before hand. The family was going through a very serious and heart struggling time, and told us how they had recently lost there trust in God. I don't know what I said, but the things I needed to ask and say flowed to my mind. I cant tell you what I said, because its one of the moments that you have as a missionary where the spirit is so strong, you are not the one talking. Tears were shared, and love was felt. The father in tears shared his testimony that God had sent us to him when he needed us most, and the whole family happily arrived and was welcomed to sacrament meeting the following Sunday. 

Many times I had honestly had frustration on the prior visits. Nothing we said seemed to function. One thing I have learned that I cant convince anyone. WE as missionaries, 18, 19, 20, 21 year old kids cant do very much. We are under trained, and under experienced in things worldly as well as spiritually. I know that this is Gods work, and all the things we preach are true, because if they weren't, none of this would work. It would all crumble down. But it doesn't. Every time our plans seem to fail, and there is nothing else for us, again and again God shows us what we need to do. This strengthens my testimony that this church is true, and this is Gods work and will never fail. In your darkest moments, he is right beside you.

Love you all peeps

Elder Butler