Hilariousness

Wisconsin is hilarious. Being a missionary is hilarious. This week has been a tough one, but God has given me plenty of reasons to laugh. 

First off. I knew Ben Shurts was in my mission. Little did I know he was going to be in the same zone. And more specifically, I had no idea he would be in my DISTRICT. #crazycoincidence So. I see Ben - Elder Shurts - every Tuesday. Talk about weird. Everyone was like, "oh, you know each other? Thats cool!" and then they were like, "OH! You were like actually friends and hung out and have inside jokes? Thats crazy!" So. Yeah. Even weirder, we go home on the same transfer and are both transferring to BYU Hawaii. What is going on here?

Tuesday we met a cute old lady. She's catholic (like everyone else in WI) and asked us questions about infant baptism and such. When we told her what we believed she was like, "Aw, thats wonderful. I wish I could believe that. I hope that's true. That makes sense." AHHHHH. We were like "BUT YOU CAAAAAN BELIEVE!" People are funny. We're meeting with her again this week so pray that she can realize she can change.

We also met a Hmong lady and we asked if we can pray with her (we pray with everyone). She was SO confused! She was like, "Pray for me?" "Why?" She was bewildered. But when she agreed and we asked if there was anything specific she'd like us to pray for, friends/family/ect, she goes, "no! Only ME!" hahahaha Okaaaaaaay,

Wednesday we taught Kira again with Sister Cummings. She is wonderful. She always tells us how blessed she is to know us. SO cute. Kira is doing well. Her wedding is this weekend! So exciting. I'm excited. Hopefully John will get baptized now.

We taught Zorina and Christina again. So confused about them. I asked Zorina if she knew that Joseph Smith saw God and Jesus and she said yes. I asked her if she knew Joseph Smith was a prophet and she goes, "No! I don't know who Joseph Smith is!" Say whhhhhaaaa honey child? We just taught you twice! haha. So we explain the Restoration even more. Her daughter seems to understand. Zorina has a desire to learn. She relates to Joseph Smith in regards in knowing which church to join. She asked me, "WAIT. When are you coming back to teach me more?!" so. Good sign?

I also established my favorite way of contacting strangers. People in Wisconsin take really good care of their yards in the summer. Almost every yard has beautiful flowers and grass and it's so beautiful and not possible in Arizona. So. There was this one house that was just ADORABLE. So cute. SO I went right up, rang the doorbell and told the lady, "Hi, we're missionaries for our church, and we were just walking by and I could not let myself walk by without telling you how adorable your house is!" People love it. You can ask them about their flowers and if they take care of them theirselves and then talk about God and how he created the world because he loves us and wants us to have a place to live in beauty. #sneaky. People are really receptive though. I also got sick of people telling me they are Catholic and expecting me to be like, "oh, okay. Bye'" So now I say, "How that's great! How has your faith in Christ blessed your life?" or something about Jesus. Because thats one thing we can talk about. #evensneakier

Thursday I had my first dinner appointment in Wisconsin. Can you guess what we had? Brats and burgers! So typical. It was good. Lots of people there. Lots of food. And gross peach cake. i hate cooked peaches, but I braved it and just ate it. So GROSS. Slimey and gooey and warm. But. I did it because I'm nice.

Friday was kinda where the weird things started to happen. Hahaha. I'm laughing right now just thinking about it.

We went to the Habitat for Humanity Restore to apply to volunteer. The guy asked us our names and then said, "Oh, you have nametags..." and proceeded to be awkwarded out and read out loud, ".....Jesus Christ?!...........?" And then awkwardly slipped away as to pretend he was never there. SO FUNNY. So delightfully awkward.

Some people, man. SO hilarious. Some of my favorite is when you knock on a door and you can hear dogs barking or children playing, and then you hear someone hush them while they proceed to pretend they aren't home. #icanhearyou Or people will cross the street to avoid us. Or they will close their blinds as we walk by. Hello, I can SEE you.

We stopped by a less active members home and got like...confronted by her boyfriend-who was Wicken. He told us hes a warlock. It was actually hilarious. He even chased us down, like literally followed us and asked us, "Do you really believe the bible to be true?!" To which we replied yes, we did, followed by: "How can it be true if it is so violent, not proven, and written by man? Huh? Huh?! Think about that" We drove away and lauuuuggghhhed. What did he expect us to do-give up and wave a white flag, go "Oh my gosh, I have to go home!" So funny. But also so sad that people lack the peace that the gospel brings.

Saturday was a beautiful day. I saw crows, robins, red cardinals, bunnies, cats, dogs, frogs, and even a Bald Eagle swoop down over the Fox River. My oh my, was that beautiful! He was HUGE! And so graceful.

Wisconsin summers are pretty much heaven on earth. It legit smells like camping every night. People sit in their yards with a big fire and the crickets are so loud and it just is perfect quintessential summer. There isn't a day that goes by that I don't say out loud how beautiful it is here.

We stopped at a former investigators house and her aunt answered the door and was PISSED that we were there. They were in the process of moving and blah blah blah. So we offered to help. That instantly softened her heart.

Sunday. Oh Sunday. hahahahaha. Last night was the funniest thing ever. Sister Proffit and are walking down the street and come across a house with four guys sitting outside drinking (typical wisconsin) and playing hackysack. One guy named David made it to 8 and it was pretty impressive. They stopped us and wanted to talk. I felt totally comfortable and safe, so we had no objection. Share the word with everyone, right? So right as we are talking, the Catholic church bells start playing a song. One of them named Jason goes, "Whoa, and church bells. It's like we should get married or something." hahaha. We were like, "yeah, or something..." The old guy, Tinker, asked my name. I said I was Sister Butler. David goes, "will you be my butler?" to which I quickly replied, "No". haha He says, "come on, you've got to have a first name!" I said, "My name is Sister Butler" and he goes "My name is Reverend Sawyer!" ahahahhahaha, yeah okay. The old guy seemed sincerely interested, so we stayed to talk to him. Oh my, were those men intoxicated. So hilarious. Jason tells Sister Proffit, "actually. We're on TV! Thats our fake musician and those over there are cameras! HAHAHA. .....Actually. I'm sorry that was stupid. Im sorry that was stupid. I'm so sorry, that was stupid". He said sorry like 56734138 times. We thought Tinker was really interested, and then we realized that he was waaaaaayyy out of it. He sat down and goes, "Oh. Sister Butler. THATS who you are." and starts to like pass out. We were like...okay time to go. And he was eating a brat and was like, "this is a funny brat". Hilarious. We had called the Elders because he had asked us to. They didnt answer so we left a message. When we got home, Elder Kimzey called us and was like "HOW HIGH WAS TINKER WHEN YOU MET HIM?!" Apparently they went right over. Hahahahhaahha. Those poor elders, last referal we gave them was an address to a Catholic church. #sadstory.

So funny. Wisconsin is weird.Oh! I forgot that we prayed with a vampire! Oh my. ahahhahahah. We walk up to the library and a guy waiting for the bus is like, "Hey! Missionaries!" And starts telling us about how his mother in law is mormon and it seems all normal. Then it got weird. He started talking about how the only way he could get nutrients was through blood. That he had to eat raw meat with a little bit of blood and get blood transfusions. Thats why he was so pale. He couldn't nutrients from food. That's why it looked like he shot up. And then he told us the doctors can't figure out why, but that he is from Romania and his great grandpa was Dracula and thats why he is the way he is. Oh, and that he has the IQ of a supercomputer and that when he reads different languages, his third eye opens and he can translate. He found a thing that has the 10 commandments of how to survive an apocalypse and each one is in a different language and he translated them all. Then we prayed.

Real life. No exaggerations