I am a Survivor

I am a survivor. I survived the MTC. I survived being a Sister Training Leader. I survived the all-night traveling to Wisconsin. I survived the night at the mission home. I survived my first transfer training. I survived my first week in the "real" mission field. And I survived three tornados.

What?! Did I say tornado? Why, yes. I did. Let me explain.

On Wednesday, I woke up in Milwaukee in the mission home. (WHICH IS SO CUTE, BT DUBS). I got my assignment to Appleton 2nd! I'm opening a new area for sisters! Say whaaaaaa? #winning. My trainer, Sister Proffit, and I get in our BRAND NEW 2013 RED Toyota Corolla and make the drive to Appleton. Wisconsin is beautiful! As we start approaching the town, we realize that all of the streetlights aren't working. Some roads are closed. As we get closer and closer to Appleton, it looks like a giant ran through and just plucked all the tops of trees off. Some HUGE trees were just completely uprooted. We pulled over and asked someone what had happened. They said they had had a really bad storm that night. (We later found out from members that they ended up classifying it as 2 tornadoes in Appleton with winds of 116-130mph and 1 tornado in Hortonsville) WHAT?! We got to our apartment and we were locked out. Turns out we had got the wrong keys. We call the landlady and she gets us the right keys and is like, "oh. and the power will be out for 3-4 days". Awesome. Then we realize our phone is dead. We're driving around in the craziest traffic because trees are laying in the street and power lines are everywhere and guess what? We get in a car accident. Some lady backed up right into us even though Sister Proffit honked TWICE. But, no damage was done. So it's all good. We were all discouraged and stressed. I was like, 'hey. lets pray." So we did and I felt like we should go to the church to charge our phone. Turns out the church is out of power too. I'm like, "okaaaaayyy God. Why did you send us here?" when a lady pulls up and asks if we know where scouts is. We're like..."No....do you know who has power?" So we followed her home and she fed us dinner and let us charge our phone so that we could call the Office and the Zone Leaders and such. Super crazy day, but I was never like in a bad mood. I was super blessed with patience and laughter. I just kept laughing. Like, "this WOULD happen on my first day in the field!" So funny. 

[And. Who knew there were tornadoes in Wisconsin?! Not I!]

So. Thursday we spent the day cleaning up a members back yard. Oh my goodness, talk about tornado. I'm really thankful for it though, because it gave us a reason to be outside working in normal clothes and talking to neighbors. We shared a couple messages with neighbors. It gave people something to talk about God easily. I'm surprised at how not afraid I am to talk to strangers. God has provided in that area, that is FOR SURE. Everyone we talk to, we ask to pray with. President Cutler said that people in Wisconsin have no trouble praying in public, and he was right! So we have potentials to go visit from serving all day. Kitty is a lady who I was super impressed to work on. Pray for her! She has such faith in God and His protection and so I'm not going to give up on her. I also got a super awesome Mormon sunburn/tan. Oh joy. And bug bites. Even more fun!

Friday we visited a referral from the Appleton 1 sisters (AKA SISTER PEARSON-my MTC companion <3). She is a cute Phillipino lady named Zorina and her daughter Christina. So precious. As we knocked on her door, she was really hesitant, but she finally let us in. (Oh. And everyone has screen doors so it's like impossible to actually get in unless they really want you to. They just stand and talk until they close the door on your face.) We went in and she was listening to preaching like, "REPENT NOW. GOD DAMNS THE SINNERS!" I almost laughed out loud. BUT. The lesson went so well. We taught her the Restoration and she seemed to understand it. There is a little bit of a language barrier because her first language is Tagalog, but the Spirit was SO strong and thats all that matters. We taught her daughter too, and that was fun. We invited them to a ward breakfast on Sat but she was running a marathon with her other church. Darn. her husband came home and he was not very happy to see us. He is gonna be our struggle. But. High hopes. Pray for them. Oh! We also taught a recent convert named Kira. Shes cute. She is getting married on the 24th which is SO exciting cause then her bf can get baptized! #joy! I'm going to do her hair for the wedding, so thats super fun.

Saturday was the ward breakfast and we went early to help out. And yeah, Rachel Moss's parents are in my ward! They are super nice and super cute. We got to talk. The ward is wonderful! Most members are recent converts, so they are SUPER STOKED about missionary work. And there are a TON  of single sisters who are so excited that they can have missionaries over now. So. I'm looking forward to working with them. Bishop Weed is awesome and reminds me of our friends in the ward back home. He's like a mix of Brandon Moss, President Rolfe, and Bishop Jensen. They just left for AFRICA. We also had to set up our whole apartment. Its new and the Elders that moved us in didnt bother setting anything up. We still have dressers and drawers to put together. Blah.

Sunday was fun. It was ward conference. Like I said, love the ward. But. I'm sick. I've been fighting it since the MTC but it finally hit me. Blaaaaahhhhhh. So not fun. I got a blessing and got permission to take the day off to rest. So thats what I did. I slept ALL day.

I feel pretty good today. More energy. Thankful that it is P-day.

We have SIX missionaries in my ward! 4 Elders and us. Thats crazy. The ward recognizes that means theres a lot of work to be done on their part, so thats great. Elder Beech is from London and I love listening to him talk. So funny. Our ward mission leader is AWESOME.

We have a Hmong neighbor who is SO CUTE but doesnt speak a lick of English. We had the Hmong elders come over yesterday to translate for us and that was fun. Her name is MiYang and shes old and cute and our hallway always smells like delicious Hmong food. Hmong is a crazy language. But its really pretty. And I'm working on getting a Hmong name. Pray for that too. lol

Speaking of language, I'm ALREADY picking up an accent! #yes! I say "oh yaah" a lot. Its funny to talk to natives because they are so stereotypical. They really do talk like how we say they do. Its great. I love it.

Being a missionary is awesome! I LOVE IT. It's hard but it's fun. And I already had to deal with a tornado. Two tornadoes! 

PS    I have my address. It is:

Sister Ciarra Butler

1224 E Northland Ave #3

Appleton, WI 54911

You can send letters and packages there. Idk if I'll be here for 6 weeks or 12. So if you are sending me something close to those dates, just send it to the mission office and they will forward it to where I am transferred. Just make sure that they know that I have no idea how long I'll live in one place.