September 21, 2012

Dear Family,

I feel like it's been forever since I've gotten to write home! Those three extra days between P-days made a difference ha ha. But just fyi, that was just a one time thing. I will have another P-day on Tuesday and will continue on with Tuesdays as normal unless I get transferred, then it might change ha ha. I just had to switch this week because we had a mission tour this Tuesday.

This week has been SO AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Seriously, I can't even express how awesome it is to be a missionary. It's probably been the best week of my mission thus far (not that the others were bad, just that this one was amazing). 

We got to help the ward out with their missionary week. The YM and YW were asked to act like missionaries for the week and last Tuesday was their kick-off for it. They had the bishop speak and also had President Christianson there to talk about missionary work. They both did an awesome job at explaining that the atonement is for everyone and it's our great pleasure to get to share it with others through missionary work. It's always a treat to get to hear President speak. Afterward we as missionaries just kind of mingles with the youth and got them excited about the activity. Sister Adams and I got to go to their wrap up testimony meeting this Tuesday (it was supposed to be in the Sacred Grove but it was raining really hard so we coordinated it so they could have it in the basement of the welcome center at the Smith Farm). It was really great to hear how their experiences had been. They were asked to wear church clothes all week to school and some of them said it really did spark conversation and they were able to tell their peers at school why they were dressed up and what they believe. It was a great reminder that missionary work isn't just for the missionaries. It's for everyone!

The mission tour on Tuesday with Elder Perkins was such a spiritual feast! He got up at the beginning of the day and talked about how it wasn't a meeting-- it was a revelatory experience. He told us to write down two questions that we wanted answers to and then have the faith that they would be answered by the end of the day. You can bet your bottom dollar it worked! And he made a really good point with calling it a revelatory experience because it implies that we as listeners need to be actively engaged. I'm going to try to think of every meeting now as a revelatory experience. No more "sacrament meeting"-- try "sacrament revelatory experience" ha ha ha. Food for thought for everyone, eh? Church is way more than just something we go to. It's a chance for God to speak to us through the Spirit.

Anyway, back to mission tour. The basis of most of the day was how commitment invitations relate to conversion by the Holy Ghost. We had all been asked to prepare a three minute talk and then Elder Perkins randomly picked four missionaries to give their talk. He picked Sister Adams as one of them and she did an awesome job even though she was super nervous. I'm so proud of my companion :-) She's just the best. Elder Perkins also talked to us about having enthusiasm for the work. He taught us that the word enthusiasm comes from the Greek "en/theos" meaning "God is in us." So when we have enthusiasm for missionary work, that means God is in our work. Cool, huh?

Guess what? Sister Adams and I get to speak in church this Sunday! I'm actually really excited about it. Ironically, she and I had just been talking about how we would like to speak in church so the ward members kind of get to know us and trust us even more, then we got a call from one of the bishopric counselors and our wish was granted :-) Our topic is on not judging others and having charitable feelings. It was really cool because at site meeting on Wednesday (I don't know if I've ever told you but all of the site sisters and couples have a meeting every Wednesday night for training. Well now you know ;-)) we watched part of "The Character of Christ," by Elder Bednar. I've wrote about it before because this is the thrid time I've seen it now! Once in the MTC, once at Zone Meeting and now once at Site Meeting. I think Heavenly Father REALLY wants me to hear this talk. Ha ha well anyway, as a recap, that talk is all about learning to look outward toward others like Christ does instead of looking inward and thinking of ourselves like the natural man wants us to do. Well, as I was listening to this talk on Wednesday, the lightbulb went on! I'm going to use parts of that talk for my talk. It just really hit me that when we judge others, it really boils down to us thinking about ourselves. Judging others happens when you compare yourself to others. Even things like, "Oh their sweater is ugly" is really you thinking you could wear a cuter sweater. Anyway, I think when we learn to look outward in charity toward others that really eliminates the tendency to judge. Yeah, it's totally hard and I certainly need to work on it, but I know the Spirit made that connection in my brain for me so I can teach it to the Lyons Ward.

Just remember I love you all so much and I think about you all the time, but I'm so happy to be here where I need to be right now.

Loves loves loves times a thousand!

 

Sister Butters