August 26, 2013

6 months tomorrow! Can you believe it? It´s quite shocking to me as well. I´m not sure if it´s just me and the time in the mission field, or does it seem quick to you all as well?

This week....Gonzalo was baptized! Wahoo! It was definitely a happy day. I don´t know what it is, but I like teaching men more than women. I think part of it is that they are not only baptized and confirmed, but with time they have another potential to recieve the Priesthood as well. To see this grand potential is something I never really thought of as deeply as I have now. Gonzalo truly was a golden investigator. The moment he started acting to learn for himself the Spirit worked within him and he progressed so quickly. So after 2 months he has been baptized and confirmed a member of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. You can just see the happiness radiating from his eyes.

This week we enncountered various new investigators and many seem to have such great potential. The Lord works in mysterious ways. It´s after our times of trials and difficulties, our times of preparation and anticipation that He begins to reveal miracles. It´s so true in our everyday lives. We all have difficult times and times where it seems like things just won´t happen, or just won´t work out, but these are times of preparation that the Lord gives us so that we can recognize the complete and true happiness and joy that comes from His tender mercies.

Sorry it´s short this week, but know I love you all very much. You are my strength and I am so forever grateful for the love and support you give me. Thank you for being the rocks that keep me strong.

Love Hermana Butterfield

Thank you for the birthday wishes! I will try not to be too homesick on Thursday :) I have a lot of love here as well though so know I am well taken care of. I love you!

August 19, 2013

Hola Familia!

Well, it`s been another week -- New experiences and new miracles

My companion Hermana Villanueva has a new daughter, Hermana Manwill. If you want to know what she`s like, think of my sister-in-law Chrissy. I`m not even kidding. They are identical. If I didn`t know any better I would think they were members of the same family. Being a big sister is a cool experience and I get the opportunity to help train her which is good practice. It`s a really humbling experience to see how far I have come in the language and in my knowledge of the gospel. I am humbled at the fact that the Lord has blessed us at this time an opportunity for me to torture my brain a little more. Translating constantly is hard. I can`t remember certain words or the order in how to say things in English sometimes but it`s stretching me and it`s really helpful for both of my companions that I am able to do it. Give me two more months in the field and I`m hoping to be basically fluent. Learning a new language is a love hate relationship and I`m learning to love it.

This last week I completed 4 months in the field and in the next week I will complete 6 months in my mission. I can hardly believe it. At times the time seems so slow but for the most part it is flying. I am so grateful for this grand opportunity and blessing that the Lord has given me and so many others to learn and teach His gospel. I learn so much every day about the conversion that we have to have to stay faithful.

We were talking to a less active member on Sunday and we started talking about our activity in the church. I almost started crying when he told us that after their conversion, his wife and children, after time became inactive. For 15 years he stayed active in the church. He held respective callings and fulfilled his role as a worthy priesthood holder, but one Sunday after 15 years of going alone, he stayed home with his wife to be with her and he never went back. He wanted to stay active and faithful, but without the support of his wife, with time it just got too difficult. Even now he yearns to go back, but he lacks the determination to take that first step. We are going to visit with them this week and talk about the importance of church attendance. That is something I challenge you all to study and ponder this week -- the Sabbath day and how we can better honor it. There are promised blessings that come from sanctifying this day. I promise you that if you can strive to find ways to better remember the Lord on this day -- the one day of seven that He asks for -- you will feel His spirit more profoundly in your lives. He will bless you with a peace and rest that comes only from Him. Please. Please. Please. Remember the importance of the gospel in your lives. We have no idea how blessed we are.

As to our investigators, my testimony of the law of the fast has once again been renewed. Gonzalo will be baptized this week! Please keep him in your prayers. He truly is an investigator of gold. We are so excited for him and this next step that he is taking to become closer to our Father in Heaven. With Santiago, we taught him this week about the Sabbath day (it`s been on my mind a lot as of late) and he came to church! He is progressing but he lacks a testimony of the Book of Mormon so we just need to work with him a bit more. Please pray for him as well. 

Well, family, I love you -- with all of my heart, 3 bags full. Thank you for your love, your support and your prayers. Always remember what you believe, but more importantly why you believe it. The Lord has blessed our family so much and he will continue to bless us as we live in accordance to His laws.

Love, Hermana Butterfield

August 12, 2013

Nice

Making Chocolate Chip Cookies

August 12, 2013

I know I say this all the time, but I really can`t believe the date! I hit my four month mark in Peru yesterday and it just seems so strange.

This week was filled with new and good opportunities for growth. My companion is the Sister in charge of all of the sisters in my zone so she has to attend a leadership training meeting once a month. Normally, before I would have gone to another area in our zone with other sisters, but this time since there`s a trio in another area, Hermana Grow came to my area and we spent the day together here. It was definitely a good experience. We didn´t really have much success in lessons, however, with two gringas walking around, contacting was a bit easier...we had people come up to us. How lucky!

Pres. y Sister Marler

On Thursday, the Marler`s had put together a meeting for just the sisters in the mission home. It was really fun and it was a good opportunity to learn from the other sisters. We did practices and talked about extending commitments and following up. We talked about wardrobe and looking professional. President Marler and Sister Marler both gave short discourses. There is always a sweet spirit there with them.

On Saturday again Hermana Grow came to my area and Hermana Villanueva went to Huanchaco to help the sisters there. We got to teach a couple of lessons which was fun. It`s cool to be able to teach a lesson in Spanish to the needs of the person and to know that I couldn`t do that before. It was far from perfect and the family still didn`t come to church, but I am so grateful that Heavenly Father is always there to guide us when we are doing His work.

This week we have changes. I was almost positive that I would be changing areas, but nope! I will have at least one more change here in Los Jardines. We will however be getting a new companion and Hermana Villanueva will be training again. I have a feeling since she will be busy as usual with her other assignments I will be helping quite a bit, so it will be a good help for the future changes. We don`t know anything about her, other than that she`s a gringa. I can feel my Spanish retreating already...shoot. No, I`m still going to continue to speak in Spanish. I can lose what I have...haha

Well family, it sounds like everything is going well. I love to hear from you and what is going on in your lives. Thank you for your love and support and always sharing your fun experiences. They are precious to me.

Hermana Villanueva

Calle Larco

Keep being good, don`t do drugs.

Studying Doctrine in Spanish

I can split an apple with my hands
Thank you Hermana Grow

Love Hermana Butterfield

August 5, 2013

The 5th of August...I can`t believe it truthfully...time is certainly flying. 

This week...this week was a week of miracles. My testimony of the fast has definitely grown. Here`s a nice little story for you. Let`s be honest, our numbers have been terrible and we really haven`t been very successful in having lessons as of late. We are working and doing what we can, but no one is ever home. Really quite frustrating to be completely honest. We have one investigator, Gonzalo, who we have been teaching for quite some time. We saw success with him in the last week, but he failed to come to church. We have been praying and hoping that he could feel something that would lead him to progress. On Wednesday we met with him and we talked about faith. He told us that he wants to have more faith, the kind of faith that we have. And he expressed again his desire to be baptized! We invited him to have a tour of the church on Saturday, hoping that maybe it would help him feel more comfortable and settle any type of fear that he had. He came and it went well. To conclude we went to the chapel and talked about the Sacrament and read the Sacrament prayer with him. He seemed pleased and said he was emotional and excited to come.

Divergence .. other investigator, Santiago. He`s an older gentleman that we have taught and we feel that he is sincere it`s just hard to encounter him at his house. We had invited him to church a few times, Hermana Diaz and I, but he never came. So when Hermana Villanueva invited him and he said yes, I will admit, my faith was weak.

We started our fast on Saturday after lunch and we had decided that we were going to fast especially for these to men that they could progress.

On Sunday when we arrived we entered the chapel and to my amazement, Santiago was there! He had come and was sitting quietly in the pew. I was so happy. I looked around and to my dismay there was no sign of Gonzalo. His friend was there, but not Gonzalo. BAH! So much time and more effort with him and he didn`t even come. Our progressing investigator once again fell. I was shifting between feelings of happiness for Santiago and frustration for Gonzalo.

Well, I went up towards the end of the meeting to share my testimony (which has definitely gotten easier for sure). As I look over our ward there was Gonzalo! He had come and I was so happy!

Heavenly Father answers our prayers. He hears us and He knows exactly what we need. I know that because we exercised faith the Lord helped two of His children to exercise their faith as well.

This week we have a meeting in the mission home with just the Sisters. I`m pretty excited to see what they have planned for us. I think it will be a really neat opportunity. 

We have changes on Sunday and we will see what happens. The time before changes there is always a lot of anticipation, but we also know that with every change we are able to grow a little bit more.

Another thing that I have been thinking a lot about is our conversion to the Gospel. In the church there are two types of members. Members who are converted to the church and members who are converted to the Gospel. When we are converted to the Gospel, we have a desire to share what we know and believe to be true. Let`s be converted to the Gospel. Through the Gospel we recognize who we are and who`s we are.

Well family, I love you! Keep doing good, keep doing the simple things, remember who you are, don`t do drugs.

Love Hermana Butterfield

¨Being blessed with hope, let us, as disciples, reach out to all who, for whatever reason, have moved away from the hope of the gospel. Let us reach to lift hands which hang hopelessly down.¨ Elder Neal A. Maxwell.

July 29, 2013

Hola familia! I'm just going to say it now -- I'm grateful I have you forever! You are my life and I am so truly grateful for your influence. You give me determination and hope in everything. I completed 5 months in my mission on Saturday...Crazy right? also I ate ceviche de octopus today....

Well this week there are a few things that I am so grateful for -- The law of chastity. I can not express how many times I have thought to myself in the last two weeks of the importance of this law and this great blessing. The family is so important and Satan is doing all he can to destroy this beautiful gift we have. The world sees it as a restriction, but my testimony of this divine guidance has grown to an extreme over the past little bit. As families and individuals we are able to have peace and true love one for another as we follow the guidance given to us. When we don't protect our minds from harmful things actions follow and always always always there is regret and pain. Thanks to the amazing examples in my life I can see the blessings from following the plan of the Lord. The word of wisdom -- another thing I am so grateful for. Really for the same reasons.

We had the opportunity to teach a man this week named Santiago. It was a great lesson, and I felt really good about it, but as I thought about it I was quite saddened. What we talked about, we have talked about with others before, but it really hit me this time. He was really quite sad and the topic was that he felt that he couldn't change. So often we feel this way. The natural man really is so strong and many times it seems completely impossible to overcome this state. Many times we may feel hopeless that we can never become better, however, as we put our trust in the Lord, we know that we can. We can change our nature and become God-like. We can become better. It takes time and it takes A LOT of patience, but we can change. I definitely am learning this for myself.

The thing that the Lord is teaching me the most at this time of my life is patience. I'm certainly a slow learner, but He's working reeeaaally hard to teach me this Christlike attribute. Gonsolo ni Gustavo didn't come to church this week which was really frustrating. They are the two that can really progress, that have such potential, that refuse to come to church. It's really hard, but we just have to keep trying.

This change is over at the end of this week. I can't believe it really. It was longer than others -- 8 weeks verses 6 and it feels like 4. Elder Cook my first zone leader and Elder Felt my current district leader will finish their missions this Sunday... it will definitely be a sad day. I have such great respect for worthy Priesthood holders who actively strive tolift and help those around them. I have great respect for these two young men. 

Well I love you all so much. Keep being good, keep working hard, don't do drugs :X

Love Bug

July 22, 2013

Happy birthday, Bubby! I loved seeing your pictures. What a beautiful nephew I have. Keep growing and having lots of fun and adventures. Be good for mommy and daddy and grandpa and grandma. We all love you so much. I`m sad that I`m not there to celebrate with you, but I trust that you`ll be well taken care of. Loves!

Well, this week was good. Sunday I gave my first talk in church! Woof! I talked about the Book of Mormon and the importance of it in our lives and how we have to have a testimony of the Book of Mormon in order to have a firm testimony in any other aspect of our religion. With the Book of Mormon we know that Joseph Smith was a prophet, we know we have the Priesthood keys on the earth today, and that we have a prophet who recieves revelation for us today. As members of the church, we have to follow the invitation that is in the introduction repeatedly. Read, meditate, and pray to know that the things in the Book of Mormon are real and true. A testimony is somthing very fragile, and if we don`t nourish it often, it fades away. A testimony of the Book of Mormon is key in our conversion to Christ and to His gospel.

Something cool that happened this week: We have an investigator named Gonsalo. I visited him twice with Hermana Diaz and we really didn`t have a ton of success. With Hermana Villanueva we have visited him 3 times. The second time we went to teach him was completely different. He had read the pamphlet and had questions and was eager to learn more. We assigned him a passage to read in the Book of Mormon and when we went to teach him again he had read it. Many times the main problem with investigators is they don`t want to act. They want an answer, but they don`t do what they need to do to recieve an answer. We ask them to read the pamphlet for our next visit, or read a passage in the Book of Mormon, or pray, but they won`t do it and then they don`t understand why they don`t understand what we`re trying to teach. It`s really difficult. But there is a change when they act for themselves, not soley are acted upon. It`s just like in our own lives. Many times we want change, we expect change, but we don`t do what we have to do to experience it. He has accepted the invitation to be baptised and has accepted a date in August. We are hoping that he can continue to progress...if only he would go to church! 

quick thing, the new blog for our new mission presidents is kurtandkathymarler.blogspot.com

Another thing: for my birthday I would love to recieve handwritten letters from my family members and friends of testimonies and (appropriate) spiritual experiences or experiences that have helped shape who you are and or helped to grow your testimony. I`m asking now because I know it takes a while for the mail to get here. Mom if you could give people the mission home address so they could send them I would be grateful.

Well I love you all. Keep being strong and diligent. Seek for the good through the clouds.

Love Hermana Butterfield