2nd to Last Email 2/2

Oh gosh.

Hi (:

Is it annoying if I comment on how fast time is flying or how I feel like this week was one big blur again?

Probably.

Oh well.

Time is flying and this week is one big blur.

I legit am sooo out of time so I will just paste what I wrote for my "final paragraph" that will go in the book of missionaries at the mission home.

" Everyone says that time flies when you serve the Lord. It isn't until you live it do you realize how true that is. This past year and half has truly been a blessing, a refiners fire, a miracle, a challenge, and a privilege. I'm not sure how anyone puts their mission into words. It has been the hardest, most rewarding thing I've done so far. My mission has taught me about God's infinite wisdom. He knows me. He knows me so much better than I know myself. I have learned to trust in Him. He knew I needed to serve a mission eons before I ever did. He made it possible. He knew that I needed the people of Wisconsin. He knew that I could do it. I have come to know my Savior, Jesus Christ. I have come to better understand His Atoning sacrifice for me. I learned how to do hard things with His help. I learned what it means to have weaknesses become strengths, and how that is possible. I learned the importance of covenants. I have seen the power that comes from righteous living. I have been humbled. I have been broken. I have felt strength when I needed it. I have seen and witnessed the literal, tangible light that glows in peoples' eyes as they come closer to Christ. My mission has become sacred to me because it has taught so much that I didn't even know I didn't know! I have a long way to go and I many more things to do in my life, but my mission has taught me that I can have hope and confidence in my future. I have learned how to help others, but most importantly, I have learned how CHRIST is the only one who can heal and change hearts. I am thankful for the opportunity to serve the people in Appleton, Prairie du Chien, Janesville, Lake Mills, and Racine for Him. In turn, He has changed my heart. And I am eternally grateful. "

Rollercoaster'ing 1/26

Is today REALLY the 26th of January????? Oh my good golly gee whittickers, I just might just freak out.

So like, HI!

Time is ticking and it's stressing me out.

This week was so good.

And that stresses me out.

My good friend JayQ once said that at the end of your mission is when you FINALLY start to feel like you are getting the hang of things, and thats when they send you home.

JayQ is right.

Like, I am having so much fun. haha. And everytime I'm like, "WOW, this is so fun! I'm so glad I just got here!" I remember that I have ACTUALLY been a legit set-apart missionary for 18 months and 2 days now and I DIDNT just start. And then it becomes a sad day.

But at the same time, I am so tired.

Evidence:
 Pday last week consisted of a 3 hour nap by the fireplace. And that didnt even cut it.

But then I remember that I love this place and I love being a missionary and I love teaching people the gospel.

Evidence:

District Meeting the other week when we set our yearly goals for the mission. Oh wait, what do you mean I wont be here for 90% of 2015? Sister Cutler (the mission presidents wife) happened to be sitting next to me and I said, "Sister Cutler, I dont ever want to leave!" To which she very happily reminded me that I can sign up again in 6 months!

I started to get sick on Tuesday this week.

Which is hilarious.

Because I went on exchanges on Tuesday.

Translation: I am ALWAYS sick on exchanges. I'm pretty sure every exchange I go on, I look like the worst missionary in the world because I'm always just coming down with something. 

#ithappens

But the good news is that is was just a cold and I am feeling much better and it didnt prevent me from working.

We've done some super great things. We've been tracting a lot. And its been pretty hilarious.

Last night we went out with a goal to get four other lessons in a short amount of time. So we were just doing everything we could to get people to talk to us. At one door, a man answers and opens the screen door. I smile real big (but not cheesily) and reach out my hand and say, "Hi! My name is Sister Butler. What is your name?" ............ AND THERE IS SILENCE. Just this big dude staring at me. In silence. With my hand, nice and warm and toasty in my big pink mitten, just hanging there, juuuuuuuust chillin'. For like what was probably 5 minutes. When I realize that he was NOT going reciprocate my handshake, I awkwardly said, "ooookay, I wont shake your hand.... Well, Sir. We are missionaries...." And he says, "we're eating dinner" and closes the door. Then Escobar and I proceeded to laugh our faces off. 

We kinda laid down the law with Tessa. She is not progressing and she is lying to us about a bunch of things and its really awkward because we KNOW she is lying, but she refuses to tell the truth, even when we ask her about it and teach the principle and everything. So we have been praying really hard to know how to help her. We made the sweetest baptismal calendar eveeerrrr. We used sticky notes and wrote all the lessons we need to teach and scheduled lessons for them. This way she knows what we'll be teaching and that if she cancels or doesnt show up, its going to push her date back again. Its been suuuuuppppper helpful so far.


Oh. I should probably explain my picture and the comment about almost being shot...(: I like to joke and say that I almost got shot this week. But its kinda not funny cause it could have happened. We went to visit our friend Tessa this week. We pull up next to her house (I always feel awkward in her neighborhood and other parts of the "hood" cause we drive a new white 2013 Ford Fusion and we always wear skirts or dresses, and I'm just a total white girl and it just looks bad..haha) So. We pull up and there are like 20 shady looking characters pointing and yelling and pretended to shoot a gun toward her house. I'm like, "Sister Escobar, we are about to get shot!" (and she laughs cause she aint scared of nothing here {excuse my grammar...it's just what happens when you live in the hood} and thinks it would be fun to get shot. She's crazy and wants to be a cop or something.) But, we have an appointment and important things to talk about, so we get out of the car and walk through the crazy and knock on her front door. She opens it like an inch and tells us, "you dont wanna be here right now. LEAVE. People here gots guns. You two pretty white girls gotta leave. It aint safe for you. Dont stay in the part of town." So...we walk back and get in the car and laugh and drive away. The end.

Fred is still awesome. We asked him to sing for us this week when we were at his house with Sister Dalley and it was crazy good. Like.... he opened his mouth and we all like....jumped, it was so good.

OH! I gave a talk in spanish! It was the proudest day of my life. I have been working on it for a little bit now. I decided to write as much of it in spanish as I could and then have Hermana Calderwood help me edit it. I was soooo surprised at how little corrections she made. I spoke on, "sacrificios de uno por Cristo" (sacrifices we make for Christ, essentially). It was so fun. Everyone told me it was so good and that I can't get away with saying that I dont speak it anymore. So...now I guess I have to actually talk to people in spanish now. I also volunteered to translate for Bro Warner when he goes home teaching this week. So.....I'm terrified about that. I'm not THAT good.

This is what I just told my mission president about this week, "This week was good! We have been focusing on finding. We havent had a bunch of success yet, but we will! Its been fun to see how much I have grown in my ability to talk to people and to testify. Testifying makes me happy. It reminds me of what I know and why I came here. Its been a fun week to be a missionary."

oh! My homecoming talk will be of Feb 15th! Uhm, I dont know what time or where...but I'm sure you can ask my dad or you already know because you are in my ward anyway. But if not, ask el Padre gue see llama Shane. Hope to see you all there!

Jan 20, 2015 (where did January go?) 1/20

Hey!

This week was a really good week! This email wont be very long because we couldn't email yesterday since the libraries were closed for MKLJ day and we have to be at District Meeting in an few.

Monday was a fun Pday. The elders had a nerf war. It was pretty epic. We had a lesson with Cheryl Johnson and her family and that was legit. He husband recently returned to activity, and he was on fire. She is less active too and is struggling with a lot of t hings, and he ended up being a big help to her. It was cool because he like literally had JUST started coming back. Like..the past two weeks. But he knows its true and good and he knows how much living the gospel blesses him. 

We saw Fred twice this week. . He is SO cool. We taught him a bit of the Plan of Salvation, but he had questions about so many things that we didnt get very far. They were super good questions though and I'm glad we had time to help him. He struggles with things and keeping the faith, and so I asked him to read 2 Nephi 4 when he had time. He opened up to it and says, "Hey! That the page I'm on!" Which means in 1 week he had read 63 pages. Thats legit. This guy is so prepared. We taught the rest of the Plan of Salvation on Saturday and it went really well. Then he went to a get-together at a members house and apparently had a super fun time and even sang for everyone. We didnt know he sang. 

We werent able to go to said party because we went to a baptism in the spanish branch. That was really cool. Little Yudiria got baptized! Her father is really against the church and swore she would never be allowed to get baptized while she was under 18. She had been praying since she was 6 years old for her dads heart to softened so she could get baptized. Isnt that the tenderest thing ever? She was precious. She came to the church without any baptismal clothes and without any idea how the actual ordinance worked. I helped her pick a dress and braid her hair back and she asked me to stand by the steps in the font while the ordinance was performed. It was so precious. And of course, anything said or done in spanish is 100% prettier and more spiritual than in english. 

I also made a little friend named Chase who is 3 years old and only speaks spanish. We get along great because I can speak 3-year-old spanish pretty fluently, actually...its probably all I speak. 

We had interviews with President this week too. It was a little crazy that it was my last one before like the... "go home, stay active, and get married in the temple" interview I will have in three weeks. But it was good. I usually bawl my face off for who-knows-why, but I didnt! I've had a lot of experiences this week where I was able to see how much I have grown. Some of them are silly things and some of them are awesome spiritual things. 

One of said silly experiences was when we got TOTALLY stuck in some snow in a ditch. Sister Escobar tried to turn and we ended up in like 3 feet of snow. We were STUCK. BUT! This Arizona girl knew what to do. I got the floor mats from the back seats and got them under the wheels after digging out the front half of the car. We had to call the elders to help me push, because I am weak. But I totally didnt freak out. Usually, I would. But I was calm and collected and it was kinda funny, actually. 

This week is going to be awesome too. We will try to stay out of snow banks though (;