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