March 31, 2014

Are we really almost in April already? I can´t believe that very well. 

I´m sorry to hear about Grandma Beth, but so grateful to know what we know. I know that we will see her, and all those we love again. Although we will miss these people, we can feel peace knowing that the Lord has a marvelous plan for all of us. 

View from our pension

This week was a little strange. Monday and Tuesday I stayed in for most of the day. I´ve been a bit under the weather and our leaders decided it be best for me to rest. Monday p-day my comp and I just rested in our room and Tuesday one of the sister training leaders, hermana Mathis, came after our meetings and we did splits. She went out with my companion and I stayed in the house of our pensionista. How lame. It was boring, but it was good that I rested I suppose.

I don´t know if I´ve told you, but we´ve been teaching English classes on Tuesday nights. Hermana Mathis, Hermana Taylor (she´s the newest missionary), and I. It´s for investigators, members, missionaries. It´s been pretty fun. I can´t say we´re the best teachers, but it´s good because they can here how to pronounce things better. I know I have been so blessed to serve somewhere where I only hear the language I have to speak. It´s hard to learn a language if you can´t hear how to pronounce well.My companion has been having some stomach trouble and so we spent Friday in the clinic for most of the day with the zone leaders. They´re so funny. People here are so dramatic. But my companion is all right and feeling a bit better. 

Then on Saturday the zone leaders have started to go around and do checks in all of the pensionistas houses. So they came and ate lunch at our pension. We felt a little weird. You get used to eating just the two of us and then you throw more people in there and suddenly you feel crowded haha. 

We had a training meeting with all of the wards in our stake last night. It was really good. We are really trying to get them to see the importance of the work of salvation. I think it went really well.

Jose is progressing really well and we are excited to have his baptism on the 12th. He literally is a golden investigator and we are loving working with him. He just progresses all the time.

I know the Book of Mormon is true. There is no doubt. It is such a wonderful tool that we have to help guide and direct us in these days. I can´t wait, however, to be able to listen to a living prophet this weekend. I hope that we can all prepare well to listen to his words and be humble and willing to put in practice his council.

I love you all so much! Keep being good.! Smile.

Love Hermana Butterfield

March 24, 2014

Hello!

I´m so glad you got my small package of pictures! My zone leader just finished and I decided it would be easier to send it with him to send from Texas -- hence the return address from Texas. I`m glad it got there.

Well it`s Monday again. Last Monday we emailed our families, went and made some purchases and then we went to the area of my district leader to watch a Disney movie, eat lunch, and play ping-pong. Our zone leaders came as well. It`s always fun to do stuff with more missionaries. It`s a little strange now though because there used to be another gringo in my district and another gringo as zone leader, but they got changed in transfers and were replaced by Latinos. I am the only gringo in my district haha. My spanish is gonna rock by the time I get home haha.

Tuesday was a little weird because normally we have zone and district meetings, but because we were going to have a multi zone conference we didn`t have meetings, however, we did have the opportunity to clean the church on Wednesday to get prepped for the conferences that they were going to have there later in the week.

I always really like having the conferences. Sometimes they`re long, but it`s always fun to see the President and his wife and hear what they have been thinking about. They talked a lot about obedience and how important it is and also about keeping our minds clean. Hermana Marler shared a story about her grandson and how he had gotten a sliver in his hand and only two years old didn`t think to pull it out. Within a few days his hand was swollen and was hurting him really badly. When his mom realized what was wrong she pulled it out and with it came blood and pus, but with proper care within a short time his hand was healed. It`s the same with our minds. We have to take care of them and treat them properly. We can`t let little things grow into big things. We have to take them out right away before they can grow and become a bigger issue. Whether it be issues with pornography or thoughts of uselessness, we have to be careful and if necessary, get help. I liked it a lot. 

Isaac, an investigator that had a baptismal date told us he wanted to wait longer. I know his family is discouraging it a bit. He still wants to get baptized, he just wants to wait a bit longer. bah...the work continues.

On the other hand, Camila is progressing. We were able to teach her the WOW and the law of chastity. The WOW is hard for her because she likes coffee, but she is willing to live it. awesome! She came to church as well and stayed for all of the classes this time! yes.

One of the recent converts, Luis, introduced us to one of his friends, Jose, that he has been preparing. He`s already assisted the church and loves it. He`s downloaded things from the church website onto his iphone and has come to church in his white shirt and tie. He loves the Book of Mormon and we have been so blessed to teach him consistently throughout the week. He truly is a golden investigator. We set a baptisimal date and I know he`ll be ready.

Well that`s my life right now. The work keeps going. Please pray for missionary experiences and then when you recieve them, because you will, don`t discount them.

Love you all lots! be good! 

Love Hermana Butterfield 

March 17, 2014

Happy St. Patrick`s Day! Yes, I remembered. I am often reminded at how silly of a person I am when I remember obscure holidays in a country that doesn`t know they exist haha.  Congrats to Becky. She looks really happy.

Sorry I didn`t make clearer what cui is. It`s not fish. It`s guinea pig. It was fresh too. As in the elders killed it, she gutted and skinned the poor creatures, cooked it and served it. I love Peru.

 

Things continue to progress here in Gedeon. We really are so blessed. We had a great experience the other day with Camila. She has been reading the Book of Mormon and seems to like it. She expressed that she was able to find peace there and when there were conflicts in her home, she turned to ¨the book¨. The Spirit was so strong and I was so happy to be a part of that experience. At times we forget the power of the Book of Mormon in conversion and the importance of it. I`ve been able to experience that same peace as I have been reading it myself. We learn so much and I am so happy that our investigators are able to feel that same comfort and love. I am interested to return tomorrow to see how she is doing.

I have been reading in Alma and I love the stories and the lessons we can learn there. I read this morning the story of Ammon and how he went to teach the Lamanites. They were a hard people and they captured him and took him to the king to kill him. Instead he served them. He went and helped them with their flocks. I was thinking about it and it`s very possible that the very people with whom he was working were just as hard and horrible as those that had taken him to be killed, but when they were in their moment of desperation he was happy with the chance to serve, help, and defend those whom he called his brethren. What an interesting concept that through everything he could see an opportunity to be an example and he remembered the importance of these people -- children of God -- even after all they had done. I`ve been thinking a lot about forgiveness lately. At times it`s hard to humble ourselved. Sometimes we become frustrated and even bitter with people, but really humility and the ability to love and serve is so important. I hope that that made any sense...

I feel really boring this week. I feel like I don`t have any crazy stories. No new food nor gutting of animals. Sorry. Hopefully soon ;)  I love you all so much! Have a great week and be good!

Love Hermana Butterfield

March 10, 2014

Hello!

Well, we`ve finished another change. 6 weeks already. I will stay here in my area with Hermana Ascencio. I am excited because we have a few people we are working with that I`m excited to see what happens and it`s no fun to have changes when you have people progressing.

We had the baptism of Brisa this Friday. It was such a neat experience. Her brother Luis, who is also a convert of 3 months, was able to baptize her and seeing as how he was also conferred the Melchizedek priesthood a couple of weeks ago, he was also able to confirm her. It was so cool to see them so happy together as siblings. It made me think a lot about my baptism and that experience I got to share with both my brother and my dad. They were so happy and the ward is excited because Brisa has basically been a member for the last 3 months, she just couldn`t get permission.

We have started teaching a young lady, Camila. We started looking for her mom and she listened to us once but has been busy since. Camila is 18 and really likes what we teach her. I am excited to see her progress.

Changes are starting to get more and more sad, however. Pretty much all of my friends are finishing and going home. What a bummer. Elder Dennis and Hermana Pocco both finished this week. Elder Dennis` family came to pick him up and his mom and sister came while we were playing soccer on Saturday morning. It was a little embarrassing because I`m miserable at the sport, but whatever. It was humorous, however, because there`s an elder who always wants attention and since there was a camera he got really dramatic and was taking every fall very dramatically. How obnoxious. He got changed this transfer. But Sister Dennis was talking about a few different articles that she encountered before she came as she was researching Peru. One is called something like ¨Nephi, the first Incan king¨and the other is ¨The Nephi Code¨? Something like that. MOM DAD LOOK THEM UP. The first one at least sounded really interesting to me.

I ate Cui for the first time on Monday. It was really pretty good. My comp wasn`t impressed because where shes from they apparently prepare it better. It didn`t have a lot to it, but it wasn`t bad. I also got to gut and clean a fish and hold a sting ray, so that was cool. I`m ready to go fishing when I get home, dad.  I hope all is going well and everyone is well in health and everyone is happy. I love you all very much. Keep being good! 

Love Hermana Butterfield

Alma 8:15

March 3, 2014

This week was an adventure. Let`s see, where to start?

At about 2:30 in the morning Wednesday there was apparently a small temblor. I didn`t feel it, but a few people made comments about it that day. I remember waking up at about that time and looking at the phone and thinking it was strange...I never wake up at that time, but I didn`t think much of it. So then at about 4:30 Thursday morning I woke up to my companion telling me to wake up and she was shaking the bed. (we have a bunk bed and I`m on top.). What it the world? Op! She wasn`t shaking the bed. I was able to feel for the first time a temblor -- let`s be honest I can`t for the life of me remember the word in English haha. So that was fun. I honestly am nervous of what would happen if something really horrible happened because my companion was very concerned and I just vaguely remember telling her to calm down and go back to sleep. That everything was alright and she shouldn`t worry. It apparently worked because she went back to bed. Luckily nothing else happened. It didn`t really hit me until the next day at how inconsiderate I had been. Poor girl. Then, that night as we were leaving dinner the sky was a strange red color. Like when there`s an eclipse or something. Then when we were in the church for a meeting the power went out and our entire area was without lights. How fun. I won`t lie. I slept on edge that night because our cell phone battery was low and everything just seemed strange. Luckily nothing happened except that at about 5:40 in the morning I apparently answered our cell phone without thinking and talked to one of the hermanas who had called from the cell phone of our zone leaders to see if we were going to go play soccer. Oops...I didn`t realize until I woke up at about 6:30 to get ready...haha oh my life. But don`t worry. All is well and we continue living haha

We saw a lot of miracles this week. We`ve recieved a lot of blessings and I have seen the Lord`s hand a lot in this last week. We have been blessed with references and we have been able to work a lot with less active members which is an awesome experience.

One of the miracles that we have had is that a girl that the hermanas have taught for a while finally received permission to be baptized. Her brother was baptized a few months ago and is a crazy strong member. She will be baptized on Friday afternoon. I am so happy and excited for her. She has wanted to be baptized the whole time and now finally has the chance to do so. 

I am so happy and grateful to be here and I am loving it so much. I am grateful for the miracles and the people I get to see everyday.  I love you all so much! Keep working hard and being good

Love hermana Butterfield