Quickly, Happy birthday to Stacy! I realized I didn`t put that in my last two emails. I`m losing my stinking brain. I hope it was great though!
Just another beautiful week here in Bella Mar! We worked hard this week and we have had some really good experiences. We talked in church yesterday and we sang 'Abide With Me Tis Eventide'. It was the first time I sang in church in my time here.
Tom was confirmed on Sunday!. We are so excited. He truly is such an amazing young man and we are going to work hard to get him incorporated into the ward better. He participated well in Gospel Principles and I know he is going to be a very strong member and example for his family. His family life, like so many here, has many challenges, but he has continued to be a diligent youth regardless. His mom died from cancer 6 years ago. You can tell this affected them a lot -- clearly. He and his dad are really close, though. We went to visit with Tom the other day but he had just gone to do homework so we contacted his dad and had the opportunity to sit and visit with him. He`s hilarious, but quite a scandal. I imagine him like I imagine Grandpa Royter being... haha.
We are working with a family right now -- la familia Davila. The father wants nothing to do with the Gospel, but the mother, Betty, and her two teenagers, GianFranco and Claudia, are listening and have come to church two weeks in a row. We are thrilled with their progress.
There is a woman, Juniet, that we have been working with and at first she really wasn`t interested and really only wanted for us to come to teach her son who is seven. She was fairly cold and her personality is very direct and blunt. But we`ve worked with her and now we come for her and we have a great relationship with her. She has us come now even when her son Bruno isn`t home. We taught her three times this week and as much as she had told us she couldn`t come to church and wouldn`t be able to come this week, she came for Sacrament meeting! We were thrilled. She also came to an activity with us on Saturday night with her son. We met her husband and we are hoping and praying that her heart can be opened up just a bit more.
We are planning on having a Noche Blanca this Saturday as a Zone. Basically instead of having just a ward baptism, it`s a stake baptism with all of the areas in our zone. The goal is 15 baptisms. We are so excited especially because whether or not the Noche Blanca happens, we have two investigators that will for sure be baptized and enter into this covenant this Saturday night. They are women that the missionaries before and Hermana Lasike and I have worked with a lot. Hermana Maria Esther will be baptized and she is going to be a strong member. She is wanting for us to work with her son Luis, but he`s pretty difficult. He`s 15 -- go figure. He`s a good kid, but he`s hard. He has seen a difference in his mother though and his younger brothers, Moises and Juancito who were both baptized, and so we hope that he can let this work in him. We taught him the Restoration yesterday...we hope it made an impact. Hermana Evaline also will be baptized this Saturday. She`s been investigating the church for months but she couldn`t be baptized because she wasn`t married. She will get married on Saturday morning and be baptized Saturday night.
We need lots of prayers this week. We are definitely seeing miracles and I am loving working with Hermana Lasike. We have a lot of fun doing this work.
Something I was thinking a lot of the last couple of weeks and I felt I should share, is how prayed for you all are. Everyone always say that missionaries are the people most prayed for. As true as that is, you are prayed for just as much. When people find out how far we have traveled they think first of our families. Many of them, the first prayer they offer with us is for us and our families that are so far away.
But as far away as we are, I don`t think I`ve ever felt so close. There are things I see, read, and hear, that remind me distinctly of each of you. I love you. Hermana Butterfield xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox
Two scriptures I loved this week: Alma 18:32 and Mosiah 23:10
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