A Very PDC Thanksgiving 12/2/2013

(Cleaning out emails and I found this one from Ciarra that I didn't post!!!!  Better late than never right? :)

 - Ruth, Ciarra's mom)

Aloooooohaa!

This week was kind of a crazy week. No.

 It was most definitely a crazy week.

Monday was super chill. We pretty much just sat at home a chilled during Pday. It was awesome. We had a hard time emailing because the snow storm messed up the internet connection. So that was obnoxious. But I wrote 5 letters! I think that is my record. 

It was cold and we didnt feel the greatest, so we made brownies! I attempted to eat the whole pan by myself, but I figured I'd let Sister Asper eat some. But I did eat like literally half of the pan. #oops #andiwonderwhyimgainingweight

District meetings are so...weird. We all drive like an hour and half to get to them, spend two hours there, and then drive home. It's like an all day event. BUT. They are awesome. Elder Rudarmal is a kick-butt district leader. He is super serious about the work, but in a super pumped, excited way - not in an annoying missionary robot way. Everything he said I was like,"AMEN! HALLELUJAH!" hahaha. He taught us how to use the Book of Mormon more efficiently in our teaching and then LAID DOWN THE LAW on working with members more/better. #okayokay! 

The senior couple, Elder and Sister Parkinson took us out to lunch for a Thanksgiving treat. They are angels sent from heaven. 

Jonathan accepted a baptism date! We had great lessons with him about the Plan of Salvation and The Gospel of Jesus Christ. He committed to live the Word of Wisdom. It was great! Except...yesterday we ran into his mom and she told us he was going back to the Methodist church. So...whats up with that? Sad face. *Note: He literally JUST came up to us in the library and told us he doesn't want to study with us anymore. NOOOOOO. ;(  *

I woke up one morning with my right eye stuck close. A really bad case of pink eye has been going around and I freaked out a little. We decided to stay in because I didnt want to affect everyone in Prairie du Chien with disgustingness. 

So. That was boring. haha

And the next day was Thanksgiving! 

Thanksgiving was weird. I'm not gonna lie, being away from home was a lot harder than I had anticipated. It wasn't like hardcore homesickness, but it was really hard to stay motivated. We couldnt really proselyte. Who wants missionaries knocking on their door during Thanksgiving dinner or the Packer game. NOT Wisconsin people, thats fersure. And it was cold and I was sick and I just wanted to sit and watch a football game on my comfy couch while snuggling my dog. Who thought I would miss her? haha

BUT. Thanksgiving was awesome too. We ran a 5k with Sister Koether and her friend Terri. It was 17 degrees. That's right...I Ciarra Butler ran a 5k. In the cold. With snow on the ground. 

It was fun. And terrible. We had zero training and I hate running. And it was cold. hahahaha. But. It was fun. I felt good afterward. And then it made me more sick over the weekend. Oh well(:

We had dinner with Brother Wentz and his daughters and granddaughter. It was fun to be in a home with a family. The food was so good and they gave us most of the leftovers! Such nice people! 

And the Packer game was on in the background and it secretly made me happy because you can't have Thanksgiving without football. Its just a fact.

Other than that, we weekly planned and wrote Thank You notes to our friends in PDC (Prairie du Chien). It was great. 

Friday was hard cause I was sick, but it was great because we saw Derald and Anita again! We read the Book of Mormon and talked about baptism and sharing our testimonies and all sorts of stuff. Its really cool to see how the Book of Mormon touches people in different ways according to their needs. I love it!

Saturday was CRAYCRAY and involved an accidental 3 hour nap, calling 911, and eating pizza in the dark. 

I didnt mean to take a nap, but I laid down during lunch because I felt super yucky and then didnt wake up until 3. Sister Asper let me sleep because she knew how sick I've been feeling. How nice. It really helped me a lot too. 

Then we tried to contact a bunch of people and no one was home because everyone and their mom and their moms dog leaved PDC for the holidays. Then we met with Jonathan. Then we went to check on Dana. We had stopped by earlier and things felt really really off. I just had a suuuuuper bad feeling. She has had it pretty rough since then with being lonely and the holidays and such. We decided to go back again later and maybe get a pizza and watch Jesus the Christ with her. We got to her apartment and we miraculously had someone let us in. Something was still REALLY off. We called the Branch President and told him what was going on (I'm sparing details on here for privacy) and he was out of town, so he told me to call 911. So I did. (almost to my surprise, it worked! I always dream that my 911 calls never go through haha). Long story short, the ambulance came and we were told to go home and it would be handled. It was crazy. Poor Sister Asper was really shaken up. We went to the Parkinson's and asked Elder Parkinson for blessings. Like I said before, they are angels. 

The night was weirdly ruined and we were just sad and shaken up, so we indulged with cheese stuffed crust pepperoni pizza and snuggled up in the dark and watched The Testaments. Pretty much as close to real life chillin' as it gets out here. 

But. Church yesterday was great! We had 4 investigators at church! The Lafaves are so prepared! I taught Relief Society to 3 sisters. #awkward. We had dinner with the Oates family and got to help them decorate their Christmas tree. Complete with Christmas music, a warm fireplace, warm chocolate chip cookies and eggnog. It was great!

We have a lot of appointments this coming week, so it should be great! 

Next Tuesday we are going to House On The Rock for a district Pday activity. I am excited! I have no idea what it is other than a house on top of a rock...but it's gonna be fun! hahaha.

Until next time! 

Six months.......?!?! 2/3/2014

Whoa, whoa, whoa. Today I realized that it is February. 

HOLD DA PHONE. 

Calendar say whaaaaaaaaaaaaa?

Can we all just take a moment and back up to the year 2013 when I got on a plane in JULY? Or JU-ly if we are saying it like my friend Wade hur in Prairie Du Chien.

This Thursday marks 6 months in the actual mission field in Wisconsin. 6 months down, 12 to go. And trust me, I am NOT counting down. 

This week was great! 

Monday and Tuesday were kinda weird cause Sister Asper had  to pack. The worst thing about a mission = packing up and moving. It's crazy how fast a place becomes your home. And then you have to somehow put it all in two suitcases and leave all of the people you have grown behind with some stranger and you eat your feelings and cry. And Prairie was Sister Aspers first and only area, so we ate a lot of oreos and chocolate. ....and donuts.

Monday night we went to dinner with Brother Wentz and his daughter and her two kids. That was fun.

We had a lesson with the Lafaves on Tuesday and they threw away all of their coffee and cigarettes!!!<3 #tearsofjoy Then Doris took us out to get pizza and we talked about the Book of Mormon because she just read the whole thing in two days. #what? We saw Jonathon and Matt and it was good. I was really sad about Sister Asper leaving. Transfers are stressful for everyone involved. 

Wednesday we drove 2 hours to get to Madison. Sister Asper met her new comp and off she went. I was the only sister at transfer point and there were like 20 elders, but they apparently can't keep it together if theres only ONE sister around, so they shipped me off to Cottage Grove for 4 hours with the Sister Training Leaders. That was awkward. I hope I am never in a trio. haha. I just sat there awkwardly and the people they were teaching were like, "who are you?" and they were like, "this is sister butler. shes just spending a couple hours with us. Will you read verse 17?" I felt realllllllly weird. But they are nice and they fed me lunch and then took me back to transfer point and then I still was the only sister there for like 30 minutes until the FunBus from Oshkosh came carrying my new comp, Sister Lybbert. 

Sister Lybbert is hilarious. She is one months older than me....to the day. She is from Queen Creek, Arizona! PARTAAAAAAY! She was going into law enforcement, so shes legit and serious. But shes funny and chill. And we are already finishing each others sentences. And I just really like her. 

I got to drive back from Madison- that was fun. 

Oh. I also saw my very bestest friend from Neenah Spanish in Appleton Zone named Elder Museus at transfer point and we legit almost hugged each other and had to correct it and go in for the handshake as he was very excitedly telling me that the husband of a less-active lady in Appleton 2nd ward (who I love because she only speaks spanish and made us delicious spicy legit mexican food and always cried because she felt the spirit) is getting baptized into the Neenah Spanish Branch and I just about died because that is so exciting and I wish I could go to that baptism. #newslikethatshouldwarrantahug #thegospelblessesfamilies !!!!

Thursday was great! We had a super awesome lesson with our new investigator Dennis. (Let's all just take a moment to be thankful that we got a legit investigator from tracting, please) Sister Fitzner came with us and we taught the Restoration and Dennis was tearing up a few times and then we bore down in solid testimony and then invited him to say the closing it prayer and it was awkward for a good 3 solid minutes and then he said the most touching and heartfult prayer and when we all opened our eyes, we saw that his had actual tears. #tearsofjoyagain #spiritisessentialtoconversion

Friday was great too. We volunteered at the nursing home and it was so much fun. 

I'm being lame because I worked so hard that instead of writing in my journal on Thursday and Friday, I went to bed. hahaha. So now I cant remember. BUT. It was awesome and we walked a TON and got some new investigators and had some really good laughs. 

We spent Saturday in Boscobel visiting our peeps. Got a new investigator named Alan. Shoveled some drive-ways/side-walks.Talked to our friends. got a lot of return appointments. We talked to our legit farmer friend named Wes, who is married to a less active sister. He is a hoot. So Wisconsiny! So typical Wisconsin farm boy. He was telling us all about his dairy cows and hes so funny in a dry, serious way that I almost died laughing. 

QOTW: "My cows LIKE the cold. They'll go up on the ridges with the wind and thats not good. That's when you get yourself some frozen tits. And thats a death sentence." 

Okay. That's not that funny. But just imagine it in a thick Wisconsin accent said in a super monotone voice from a guy covered in mud. Hilarious. 

Sundays in PDC are always good because I love the branch. Favorite humans ever. I am DEFINITELY coming back here. I'm waaaaaaaaaaaaaay closer to the members here than in Appleton. I think that just comes from being in a branch...

Robert came to church. He's so great. He leans over to me and said, "This truly IS the church of Jesus Christ". To which I smiled and replied, "Yes. Yes, it is."

And I will end on that<3

OH WAIT! I lied. You've got to watch the skeleton runs in the winter olympics on Feb 13th-15th. Marc Antione is a likely medalistand is FROM PRAIRIE DU CHIEN and the whole town is freaking out. #letsputpdconthemap

Another Week! 1/27/2014

We just got the transfer board. Sister Asper is moving up in the world to be Senior Comp in Mad3. I'm staying here in PDC and Sister Lybbert is coming. So obviously its going to be a party. hahaha. Maybe. I don't even know her. But obviously I still have some learning to do and shes the one to teach me. So obvi a party is about to go down in PDC and we are going to baptize all the families!

This week was a hard week for us. Practically all of our appointments fell through and so our numbers were really low. But. We tried. And sometimes thats all you can do. 

We had some exciting things happen though. We got into a home of a less active sister who no one in the branch has ever gotten in to talk to. Thats like 13 years of trying and we FINALLY got in. That is a miracle in and of itself. We had a great meeting with her and got to know her and shared Ether 12:4 (which is my favorite and now hers too because she loves lighthouses and anchors go right along with it) and got a return appointment AND permission to bring sisters from the branch with us! SCORE! So that is really exciting. 

We have been teaching a 13 year old boy who is a member, but has autism and hasn't got the Priesthood because of his level of understanding. We have been teaching him one on one just to give him the chance to possibly advance. And it's been going so well! We have to come up with really unique hands-on ways to teach principles, but so far he is blowing us away! He has a hard time getting things from his brain to his mouth and into words, but we cut out words that have to do with the Restoration and played a game where he would point to the answer and he got them all right! So that has been tons of fun! I just love him and love teaching him in ways that will help him understand. 

Also. They have the CUTEST dog ever and I love him and I am going to steal him and sneak him around Wisconsin for a year. 

We had another great lesson with Derald and Anita and they are so close. Derald is working on becoming temple worthy so he can do work for his dad and Anita is waiting for him to act so she can get baptized. Trying to help turn faith in action and they are progressing so well. 

We had interviews with President Cutler. He told me we are getting internet proselyting this year, so that's exciting. 

It's really cold here again. Like 45 below zero. And the weather is crazy. We had a blizzard warning all day yesterday. We couldnt see anything because the wind was blowing the snow around so much. It was exciting. I like the cold but I do not like the wind. But at the same time, I love it because its Wisconsin and I love everything about this place.

We saw lots of eagles and Amish this week. Thats always fun too. 

I'm running out of things to say. haha. 

Time flies way too fast. I've been out just about 6 months and that means I'm 1/3 of the way through and thats just ridiculous. Like. No, stop.

Short story even shorter, it was a hard week but things are looking up. Next week I'll have a different comp and I will love her and miracles will happen and it will be a missionary appropriate party all day every day! Obvi!

Stay warm! :P

Consider the Canaans 1/20/2014

Hey ya’ll! It is currently snowing and I love it. Have I mentioned that I love Wisconsin? Oh, cause I do.

Last Monday was a normal pday. We did laundry and bought some groceries and water (the tap water here tastes like the straight Mississippi River, so we buy water), and emailed. Except the internet at the library crashed. So we waited for forever and it was still broken. So we went and did other stuff and it was still broken, so we went home and wrote letters.

Then! We went to Boscobel to go to Ayla’s 6^th birthday party.  It was legit. Haha. The Johnston’s invited us over because they had invited nonmember friends to said party and wanted to give us a chance to meet them and share a message and work our missionary magic. Nothing miraculous happened, but it sure was a good time. I wrote Ayla the  CUTEST birthday card ever with a story about a princess/daughter of God. Totes presh. #sistermissionarywork

Tuesday was District Training Meeting. DTM’s always end up with me in an anxiety attack and everyone else like “?!?” because no one understands Elder Rudarmel. Hahaha It was a really good meeting though. We talked about how to work with members more effectively. It has been a goal of mine to work with members more and have more member-present lessons, so I took some good ideas away. Elder Quintrequeo gave a great training on knowledge and always seeking for more by asking questions. He used “Consider the ravens” from the NT and I was so happy. I love ravens!<3  He read that verse and went on a hunt about the significance of the raven in the bible and learned some cool stuff. He challenged us to have our own “consider the ravens” moment.  

After that we saw Jonathan and had a great meeting. I loved seeing how reading the Book of Mormon brought the Spirit into his life more. Which brings the sad news ): On Friday we met with him again and he told us that he didn’t want to talk about God anymore, that he didn’t want to read anymore, that he wasn’t happy and that he wasn’t a rule follower and that he isn’t capable of being Mormon. I think you could have heard our hearts literally break if you were on the moon at that very moment. We tried to get him to see that he was JUST SO HAPPY, but he wouldn’t see it. He said he just wanted us to visit him as friends and I finally just bore down in straight testimony and Spirit that my calling to Wisconsin is to bring people closer to Christ and that that was the MOST important thing to me because I KNOW that the gospel of Jesus Christ brings true and lasting happiness and that he CAN be a part of it. He told us that we were not welcome back. So. There’s that.  We think his mom had a lot to do with that decision. Darn :/

We met with Tiffany a couple times this week and her family is doing so well! They are totally on track for their baptism date! The Spirit that they gain from reading the Book of Mormon has seriously helped them to cut back on smoking. They’re gonna kick it any day now.

I LOVE the Bible. I love the genealogy of the bible. I’ve been keeping tabs on everyone who has begotten who. Haha. And. Idk, but I just love studying the history and geography and genealogy of the Bible. So. I was reading in Genesis the other day reading about Noah and I found my “consider the raven” question. I call it “consider the Canaans”. Why the heck was Canaan cursed in Genesis 9:20-27?! I have read almost all of Genesis and Moses and Abraham and I can’t figure out WHY. What did he do that caused him and his descendants to be cursed and unable to hold the Priesthood until this dispensation? And THEN, if they were so cursed, why was the land of the Canaanites promised to Abraham and his posterity. I don’t know what I am missing, but it makes no sense to me.

Also. I studied the genealogy of Noah’s sons and where they spread out and what nations/people they became. I literally drew a map and color coded it by son. Hahaha. Ham’s descendants became the Canaanites and the Egyptians and Africans, basically. Shem’s descendants were the ancestors of Christ and Israel and Jerusalem. And Japeth ‘s family became the Gentiles. #seriouslythisismyfavoritethingtodo #sisterproffitwouldbesoproud

Anyway.

We got a new family that is investigating the church. They are looking for a more family friendly church. They know a few families that are former investigators and are actually bringing them back, so that’s SWEET. They are also referring us to other families that have mentioned that they are looking for a better fit for their family. Thats really exciting. We feel that that shows that they feel that the gospel will bless their family and are willing to tell their friends to join with them. They accepted a soft baptismal invitation and then asked, "So if we do decided this is what we want to pursue, what would the process be?" Hopefully more families will be coming out of the woodwork because of their example. We are all seriously excited. We taught them the Plan of Salvation at the Oates home and it went great. Sister Oates called us afterward and was so happy and we literally all cried together with joy and the Spirit. We’re gonna make PDC branch become PDC ward.

Church was great yesterday. Kevin came again and Crystal brought her family again. The High Council guy from Janesville came with his family and it reminded me of when we used to go out to Wenden with my dad and I thought braches were the weirdest things ever. haha. SO that was cool and funny and weird. And we had a linger-longer and I ate my weight in baked potatoes and it was great and I am in love with Prairie Du Chien forever. 

Basically. Things are happening in good ol’ little Prairie Du Chien. I’m excited.

We have interviews with President this week and on Saturday we find out who’s being transferred. So. Lots of exciting things happening.