June 17, 2013

Happy Father´s Day to all the Dads in my life! I love you all so much! Well, it´s been a week already! Time just seems to be flying! Let´s see, what´s been going on...

I have been studying faith a lot recently, it just seems to be the focus of my thoughts. Faith is truly the basis of everything we do. If we don´t have faith it´s impossible to do much of anything. I was reading in Hebrews Chapter 11 and I loved it. I invite you all to read it as well.

We have cambios this week. We found out last night that Hermana Diaz will be changing and leaving to a different area. It´s rather sad and I´ll be honest, I´m quite scared. She has been in our area for 8 months and knows it and the people like the back of her hand. I have 2 months here and...well yeah I couldn´t tell you much.  It´s so hard because everyone has 3 plus names and they say it so fast I can never really catch it. And the addresses are even worse to learn haha...oh dear. Elder Cook said that my new companion is awesome and probably one of the very best sister missionaries in our mission...no pressure.

Elder Espinal, our District Leader finished his mission today. So sad. He was an awesome missionary for sure.

So some good news, we finally got permission from Melani´s parents for her to be baptized! We´re planning on it for this Saturday! Hermana Diaz is really struggling because she has worked with Melani from the beginning for 7 months and now that we finally have permission she is being changed. It´s really sad, but I´m trying to stay optimistic...I can´t even imagine how she must feel. 

We also have started teaching a young man named Gustavo. We´ve met with him twice and he came to church on Sunday. Progressing investigator finally! He doesn´t have a strong belief in God, however, he wants to learn more. He also said he´d be baptized if he feels it´s true. Lot´s of prayers, please?

Also, happy moment yesterday, Santiago, the young man that was baptized when I first got here passed the Sacrament yesterday! It was such a cool feeling to see him practice his Priesthood. He is awesome and always enthusiastic to learn more about the Gospel and help.

This week we did intercambios and I went to the Zone Primavera with Hermana Bedoya and Hermana Arancibia (they are both in my district). We were talking with a woman that they know at her tienda when the woman reached into her shirt and pulled out a baby duck. What the heck?! Yes a baby duck, living, wrapped in what looked like a stretched out cotton ball. My guess is she was trying to just keep it warm since it´s been so cold. I laughed a lot after we left. Just so bizarre and I wasn´t expecting it at all.

Also, while in Primavera we helped Elders Cook and Hales set up for a mass wedding. It´s cheaper for the people to do mass weddings so their were 4 couples married on Saturday. Way cool.

We are trying to work hard always and trying to do what we can to strengthen our area. It will definitely be a change with a new companion so please pray that we can work well together and that I know enough about my area that I don´t ruin everything...haha...but really.

I love you all so much. Keep being good, keep being strong, and remember your covenants.

Love,

Hermana Butterfield

Faith without works is dead and works without faith is pointless!

June 10, 2013

For our last P-day we were able to go to Huanchaco. It´s an area in our zone that has a beach. It was beautiful.  We really can´t spend time on the beach, but it was beautiful to look at. We ate lunch in the house of their pensionista and then went to the beachfront church and watched Cars 2.

We are hoping to get permission this week from the parents of one of our investigators that we´ve been working with for quite a while. Lots of prayers, please! We are constantly contacting and searching for new investigators. I know the Lord is and will continue to bless us as we work hard and have faith in His works.

The Book of Mormon is so true. When we know this it´s easy to have a testimony of Joseph Smith as a prophet of the Lord. We are so blessed to have this truth that was written for us in our times. I feel the love of the Lord through it´s words and as we strive to live how the Lord wants us to, we receive blessings that we don´t realize.

 Continue to be amazing!  Love Hermana Bug

June 3, 2013

So some funny stories for you...mainly to do with my inability to pronounce certain words at times. These stories can go in my book of embarrassing moments like the rest of my life (:

So when you´re hungry you say yo tengo hambre -- I have hunger, right? the word for man is hombre. One day I accidentally said, yo tengo hombre...yeah, I have a man...obviously. Then, I was telling the family we pension with when my birthday was. August 29. But instead of Augosto, I said Augusto. The husband, Freddy, asked, who is Augusto? Hermana Jessica yelled, He´s her Hombre! They tease me about him a lot. But he came in handy the other day after one of our lessons when one of our new investigators (who is 63) asked if I had a boyfriend or was engaged because, well, he wants a wife (yeah no thanks). My companion said yes she is engaged to Augusto, he´s 29 and lives in the United States and is waiting for me. So if you all meet an Augusto who is 29...let me know, because I´m engaged to him and he hasn´t written yet (; haha oh my life.

Anyway, things are going well here. From enjoying all of the dogs in the streets and their little flea friends, to helping a lady pick avocados from her tree, Peru is always an adventure!

It´s been really cool to see Santiago (the first youth that was baptised while I was here) grow and get involved in his quorum. It´s really great to see how when you have people receive and magnify their callings how they bless lives. His Quorum leader has really taken an interest in their quorum and there is such a great unity now with the young men and they are embracing Santiago so well. He wants to start joining us in lessons which is awesome!

I am definitely learning that faith is a choice and not something that simply comes. It takes work, but it is worth it. Well my time is short today, but I love you all so much and for your examples to me. Thank you for everything you do and for who you are. You have made me who I am (the good parts at least)

Con amor,  Hermana Butterfield

May 27, 2013

Hola! I just love receiving your emails. They make my days so much brighter! Just so you know, I ate cow heart. It was delicious. Mom and Dad, you´d be proud of me. (:

Well, this last week we had cambios. We lost Hna Maza, my big sister. She was transferred to Chimbote. It was a sad day, but we continue to work. It´s just me and Hna Diaz now. She´s a really good missionary and I am learning a lot from her. She really doesn´t know any English, so we both get to practice the very important Christlike attribute of patience...it´s up there in being important. She has been in our area (Los Jardines) para 7 months. This next change will be interesting to see what happens and this cambio is only 4 weeks. Not sure why, but yeah, weird. 

This week in my training I needed to learn to extend the invitation for baptism. I did it in two of our lessons and they accepted and we planned a date. We will see what happens there. In order to be baptized, investigators have to receive all of the lessons and come to church at least twice. Getting people to go to church is so hard. Even the smallest thing will deter them from going. It´s a hard change for many people.

We really don´t have any progressing investigators at this point. But we continue to try to find people to teach. Please continue to pray for the missionaries and that they can find those who are prepared to hear the Gospel. Better yet, give referrals! Referrals are really helpful. Also, if the missionaries have someone at church, please do all you can to befriend them right away. If people can have a good experience at church, they are much more receptive because they can better feel the love of Christ through the members of His church.

On Saturday night, we went to Esperanza to give Elder Cook and Elder Hales the baptism clothes. They had two baptisms and we were able to stay for them because the entire ward was in Lima to attend the temple. Sad for them, but it was cool to be there for it. They were two young men -- about ages 8 and 11.

A really good chapter in the Book of Mormon that my District Leader, Elder Espinal, had us read is in Ether chapter 12. It talks a lot about faith. I always wanted to have faith like the Brother of Jared...I´m working on it (:

Well, I love you all. I hope you´re doing well. You´re in my prayers and I think of you often. What a blessing to know we have each other forever, yeah?   

Love Hermana Butterfield

May 20, 2013

Well, this week was a week!  Monday night I flew to Lima again. It was a smaller group this time, three Elders and myself.  Everyones favorite joke was that I was with the 3 Nephites...too bad they were all Gringos.  
I don´t think the 3 Nephites are white, let´s be honest. It was fun. It wasn´t too weird to be without Hermanas until we went to go to bed and I had a room all to myself...I never thought I´d struggle with that.

Tuesday we spent the day in an office basically just waiting. Everything we had to do only took maybe 30 minutes in total, but the lines were awful. We were able to go to the temple though, not to do a session, but we were able to buy a few things and see the grounds. It´s really beautiful, and the Lima temple looks a lot like the Boise temple.

In the airport we bought a lot of donuts...they aren´t anywhere else so it´s kind of a thing. I bought 4 to share with my companions...ants got into them though so that was a waste of 10 soles.  And when I say ants got into them I mean ants...if it were only a few it wouldn´t be that big of a deal, but you really couldn´t see the donuts underneath them...so...yeah.

Wednesday we had a meeting with everyone finishing their training because Hermana Maza finished her training this week. President Turk said something I really liked. That our goals are to be like the stars, there to guide us, not to be the sticks that beat us. It´s so important to remember and not to get down on ourselves when we don´t reach what we think we should have.

We had our second baptism! Woohoo! Her name is Diana and she is 10 years old. It was really a cool experience because she was one of the first people I encountered here in Trujillo. We searched for her a lot and finally made contact. Come to find out her mom and brother are members less active. She was baptized on Saturday.

It was an adventure getting the baptism ready. Hermano Alexis the assistant to the President always prepared the font and other arrangements but he had classes. So we got to do it. Long story short the side yard of the church was flooded, the font wouldn´t drain and then it wouldn´t drain fast enough, we used buckets to make it go faster, all in skirts...45 minutes before the baptism...we were a little wet but it all worked out and it was pretty fun I will admit (:

A woman that we are teaching named Roxana continues to come to Sacrament meeting. She came this week with her 3 year old! She has to work so she always comes in her uniform and it´s a real challenge, but she desires to be there. It´s cool to see how it is changing her family, because her family life is pretty rough. I hope that it can continue to change for the better because it truly makes her happy.

Well I love you all. I hope you´re doing great! You

are my stars that help guide me in my life (ok, my brothers are kind of like sticks that beat me on occasion (; but I love you all the same).                           Con todo mi amor,  Hermana Butterfield

May 13, 2013

Hey everyone! 

So yesterday was pretty awesome! I loved seeing my family so much. You are all just so beautiful to me and I love your spirits. You have each helped me so much in so many ways and I am truly blessed to call you my family. I wasn´t expecting James and Anna or Grandma to be there so that was such a fun surprise. The babies are getting so big and I loved to hear Brisbane´s laugh and see Logan´s smile. What gems.

So this week was pretty fun. Monday was p-day and we had it with our zone. We watched 'How to Train Your Dragon' (in Spanish). And then we played volleyball. That was fun.

On Tuesday night we were finishing up proselyting. We decided to go to one more house before we returned to our room. As we were approaching the door we got a phone call. It was the office asking where we were...um proselyting? Elder Cook forgot to call and tell me that I was supposed to fly to Lima with a group of missionaries. Oops. We had to be to the office in 20 minutes...it´s 20 minutes away at least and I had to pack still. So we booked it back to our room, I shoved some stuff in a bag, we grabbed a taxi and left. We got there in 25 minutes...I´m not sure how that happened, but hey, I´ll take it. It may have something to do with the fact that there are no traffic laws (to my knowledge). haha

Lima was cool. We got to the hotel at about 2 in the morning. I´m a fan of hotels here. They have hot water and lack little bug friends haha. I felt a bit weird being there but it was nice.  We woke up and went to the place where they do paperwork for ID´s or something, not really sure what it is, but I´ll figure it out eventually. We stood outside for 2 hours and some of the missionaries were able to go in a do their stuff, but a group of us didn´t have some sort of papers so we went somewhere else so they could do fingerprints, check our teeth, etc. Basically it´s so if they find our bodies they can identify us. So don´t worry or anything.... haha I thought it was hilarious.  I fly back to Lima tonight and will return tomorrow night. It´s hard because I feel like I miss out on a lot that happens, but it´s necessary. 

We finally contacted a little girl that we contacted on the street in my first week here. We´ve gone to her house a few times, but she´s never there. She came to church with us and she wants to be baptized! Diana is ten and she reminds me of a Latina version of Shannon. She´s sweet and really smart.

I ate pollo ceviche yesterday...it was actually really good. I never thought I´d say that, but it was good.  The weather varies day to day. It has actually been rather cold here. Yesterday and today the sun has been really strong though. It´s hard to know what to expect because it´s never consistent, but it´s good.

I am so grateful for great families in our ward. They are so wonderful and such a comfort. They always are willing to give a hug or a smile and it helps so much. I really have been so blessed with a great ward. Changes are coming up! Can you believe I hit my month mark here in Peru on Thursday.  I can´t believe it. It´s crazy how time goes when you don´t think about it that much.

Hermana Bond, an Hermana in the mission shared a great scripture passage with me. DyC 50:40-46. Read it. It´s awesome.

Well, I love you all. You´re amazing and I am so blessed to have you in my life. Keep being strong, and keep being good. When we are obedient to the Lord´s plan, He blesses us so much. I know this, and I see it in my life everyday. He doesn´t take away our challenges, but He gives us the strength to overcome everything if we ask Him.

Love Hermana Butterfield

May 6, 2013

Hola all!

Wow! What a week! A lot has happened so I will try to remember everything.  We moved to a new room! It has it´s pluses. It´s definitely bigger. Our room before was about the size of my bedroom at home if not a bit smaller (this included our bathroom as well). For two people that is probably sufficient, however, with three beds and three desks its a bit rough to move around. There were also some problems with the people we were renting from, but it all worked out. It was hard to not be able to understand what was going on, but I think it was for the better that I didn´t.

Our new room has three rooms. Definitely bigger. It´s nice too because it has a ¨kitchen¨as well (basically just another room with a big sink haha). So the space is nice. It has it´s adventures though. We have lots of little insect friends that like to play on our desks. Luckily I can´t see them in my bed...so that´s nice. I´m also growing accustomed to washing in cold water...they were supposed to fix the hot water after our first day or so, but that has yet to happen. It´s...fun... 

It´s funny because there are days that we will be walking and it just hits me...I´m in Peru! How insane is that?! Dad asked if they wear really bright colors here...not really. They really are fairly similar to the states in that aspect. There are obviously differences, but not a whole lot. You definitely get a bit more variety in which patterns are worn together that´s for sure haha

For two days Hermana Maza and I were without Hermana Diaz (she was at a training meeting). That was pretty rough. Hermana Diaz has been in this area for 6 months so she knows a lot! We managed though and everything worked out. 

Our ward is fabulous! They really are great people. I bore my testimony yesterday and that was rough. A sweet sister came up to me after church and hugged me and told me that the Spirit was very strong when I spoke and that´s what is important. I may not be able to speak very well, but if the Spirit is  still willing to be with me, I´ll take it. I definitely felt the Spirit during the meeting and was a bit teary. We have a pensionista (she prepares all of our meals) and her little three year old Fabricio (we call him Abito) asked why I was crying. She said it was because I was sad because I couldn´t speak the language like I wanted to and he said no, it´s because she misses her mama. He´s so cute. I just love their family. They´ve adopted us and I am so grateful for their love. And yeah, I miss my mama (: And all of my family.

Last Pday we watched a Disney movie called Puss in Boots. We are allowed to watch a movie once a month. I thought that was pretty cool. It was weird to watch a movie though.

We have a couple of people that I would ask you to pray for. One is a little girl named Bana. She´s nine and we just met her yesterday. She has been attending church with her cousins for a while and wants to be baptised. We met with her last night and taught the first lesson (I taught about faith and she actually understood me so that was cool), but if I´m understanding right, her parents don´t think she´s ready to be baptised.  Also for a young woman named Mali. She´s 22 and she actually found us! We were at the church for a zone meeting and she came in and asked us about what we believed. She is searching for a church. How cool is that?! We got her phone number and called her Sunday to remind her about church. She actually came so that was awesome! I hope that things can progress for her.  Also, for my companion Hemana Diaz. Her Grandma passed away and she is struggling. I admire her determination in pressing forward in the work and I hope I can be more like her in her dedication.

I was reading in 3 nefi 11:29-30 and it talks about contention and how it is not of Christ. Feeling of contention need to be done away with. This is where the attributes of Christ of patience and charity come in. They are definitely attributes I am working on. I challenge all of us to work on these, because as we do so, we are able to feel more of the love of Christ in our lives and for others.

Well all, I love you! You are a light in my life and I am so grateful for all you do for me!

Love Hermana Bug