March 4, 2013

Dear Family,

Sorry this letter is coming so late in the day! Our ward mission leader, and his wife drove our district into Rochester to go to the Museum of Play. It's like the Children's Museum on steroids! It was so fun! We also went to lunch at the Dinosaur Barbecue which was also very good. They are so awesome for driving us there! We were gone most of the day, so hence why this email is coming so late. But we had tons of fun so that's good!

Planning last week's site meeting was a bit stressful, but it went really well. We were training the sisters on Connect. It's the online area book we use at the sites. Salt Lake is transitioning all of the visitors' centers into the mode of thought they taught me at the MTC, meaning that we don't just get referrals and immediately hand them off to local missionaries. They want us to get local missionaries to them as soon as possible, but our interactions don't stop there. If they aren't ready for missionaries, we can keep in contact with them and teach them over the phone. If they are ready, we can provide support. It's really exciting because like I said, that's the way they taught Sister Gillespie and I in the MTC but it's been a bit of a transition to actually get that idea into the field. It was great to be able to train the sisters on how to better use the area book so we can bridge the gap between the interaction guests have at the visitors' center and when they are ready for missionaries. 

We had Zone Leader Council on Friday, which ended up being a huge meeting because they invited all of the district leaders too to do some training on baptismal interviews. We have a lot of district leaders that have only been out a few transfers, so they needed to train them on it. It was good to learn about since I've obviously never conducted a baptismal interview. Also at Zone Leader Council President trained us on how to more fully fulfill our duties as leaders. He showed this clip of Elder Bednar speaking at something (I don't remember where it was). Elder Bednar talked about how if you look at the Proclamation on the Family, you don't know who the principle author was. (Unlike the Constitution for example, which it is widely known that James Madison was the principle author). It's an interesting thought, and Elder Bednar said it was because none of the First Presidency or the Quorum of the Twelve cared about being right or getting the credit. All they care about is getting it right and getting it in line with Heavenly Father's will. I LOVE that thought! Who cares who's right as long as the final result is what Heavenly Father wants? It was a lesson I definitely needed to learn.

Anyway, sorry it's so late and kind of lame. I love you all SO MUCH!!!!!! Thank you for all the love and support.

Love you all!

Love,

Sister Butters