Wisconsin Makes Me Sneeze 6/9/2014

Summer in Wisco is BEAUTIFUL!

There are so many flowers.
And trees.
And grass.

And they all make me sneeze and make my eyes itch and water and get red.
Like crazy.

Quote of the week:
 "Mommy, I think Sister Butler has a cold. She's sneezing a lot. And her face...it looks...weird." 

Thanks, Ari(:

But I love it here anyway.

My favorite flowers are blooming! Everyone has peonies and I am obsessed. I need to live in Wisconsin just so I can have my own peonies. Fields of peonies, actually. :P

Speaking of peonies, Bishop Nielson has a garden FULL of 'em. And I kind of died when we had lunch at his house with the Elders and a new couple, the Stonehockers, that moved into the ward and our friend Sarah. It was the greatest fun. Bishop always makes a TON of food. Somehow we digressed and ended up with a can of whipped cream outside and Sister Stonehocker taught the elders this game where you throw whipped cream into the air and try to catch it in your mouth. Yeah...that was exciting... haha.

Oh! Speaking of exciting, I forgot to mention that I almost got beat up by a drunk chick last week!

But literally.

hahaha

Our friend Rhonda was very intoxicated when we went to visit her last week. She told me that my outfit was ugly and to never come to her house in it again. She was just being...drunk and funny and we were having a pretty fun time trying to teach her husband a little bit more about the Book of Mormon. She asked us why God lets bad things happen and Sister Elkington pulls out her BOM to talk about the story of Alma and Amulek and the women and children being burnt. She says, "No. I want Sister Butler to tell me!" So I grab the BOM and start explaining the story and she says, "NO! Don't use the book. Tell me in your own words." So, I do. And I'm talking and she gets RIGHT up in my face, and says, "If you make me cry, I will punch you in the face. ...No seriously. I WILL punch you." .....as there are tears forming in her eyes...! :O I figured I was just going to have to get punched in the face and be okay with it. lol I was seriously expecting to just have to take it like a missionary and go down testifying.
Thankfully, she didn't cry. hahaha.

Pday was really fun last week. It was Elder Inabnit's last pday in Janesville, so we let him pick the days activities. After emails we went to a Japanese Hibachi place and had lunch with all of us and Deidre and our friend in the ward James. I forgot how much I LOVE sushi. I want to eat it all day every day, please. So good. Then we went to the church and played Snake Oil one last time and then went to TJ Maxx and the mall and played with puppies at the pet store. It was a party and a half.

Tuesday was really busy, even though no one seemed to answer their door. We spent most of the day on bikes and it was HOT and we kept praying that the next person would be home and would let us in and offer us water, but door after door, no answer. It was fun. We got a lot of exercise..? But we did have awesome lessons with Sharon and with Aja and the Little family, so it was a great day too.

Wednesday was awesome because we had a SUPER powerful lesson with Mikayla. Her faith is growing SO much. She has felt the Spirit and has developed a desire to continue feeling it and has had the natural result of wanting to be baptized and wanting to read the Book of Mormon and wanting to be committed to something. Her friend Rachel is a member and they are 13 and 14 and they are precious. Rachel bore powerful testimony and it was so precious that my heart cried like a baby. We set a baptism date with Mikayla and we are reaaaallllly excited about her. The light in her eyes in a literally tangible, recognizable light that is growing!
Thats my favorite part of missionary work<3

All three of us spoke in church this Sunday. That was fun. I spoke on covenants using the talks by President Eyring and Rosmary Wixom from the Woman's Broadcast of General Conference. I combined the two to talk about HOW keeping our covenants protects us, prepares us, and empowers us. And then twisted it a bit to talk about how helping OTHERS make and keep covenants protects us, prepares us, and empowers us and put a nice plug in for missionary work. It was really cool. Every example of a miracle I could think of in the scriptures has to do with someone keeping their covenant with God. That was cool. I learned a lot and feel like it went pretty well. I definitely need to learn how to talk slower though. Everyone who has to interpret while I'm speaking hates me. hahaha. Poor Elder Jordan. Good thing he's good at spanish.

This week felt like it was forever and 72 days long, so I can't even remember everything. It was kind of a slow week compared to last week, but it was good. Good things happened. Everything is green and beautiful. Set a new baptism date. Had lots of laughs. Taught lots of people about the gospel.

What can be better?!? (:

Nothing!