Saturday, December 25, 2010
Week 16
This is week 16, almost 4 months have gone by since Jacob left on his mission. Each letter brings us more and more joy as he is so excited to be doing what he is doing. We wait with anticipation for each email. This will be a sad week but also and exciting one as we will get to talk to Jacob on the phone but will celebrate our first Christmas with him being away from us. We are really looking forward to hearing from him and being able to talk with him. Jacob has had an exciting week as you will read and see in his latest email.
"This week was definitely special. Let me tell you a short story: a few weeks ago, we taught a woman named Carmen the first lesson, we found her by knocking doors. The lesson went well, although she was a Testigo de Jehova (Jehova´s Witness) for a number of years. We tried to go back to visit her twice, but she wasn´t ever there, we assumed she wasn´t interested. About a week and a half later, we forgot about her completely. That is until one day, we were walking on her street by her house and I asked, ´`what happened with that lady?´´ We decided to check if she was home. Surprisingly, she greeted us with a warm welcome. The lesson that insued was deeply spiritual and gave her much needed hope. We invited her to come to church. She agreed, and to our surprise, she had a non-member friend accompany her. After the services, we taught Carmen´s friend, who´s named Daeli, and gave her a Book of Mormon. The next day when we went to check up on her, we were again surprised to find out that Daeli had read 11 chapters of The Book of Mormon, and had already grown a testimony. We set baptismal dates for Carmen and Daeli and continued teaching them. They were golden investigators as we say. The day before Carmen´s baptismal interview, she had a doubt about her job (she gets paid to help people through therapy, although she doesn´t have a licence). We told her we would find out if it was anything to worry about and return the next day. Turns out her doubt was nothing wrong, but she still felt guilty. We offered her a blessing of comfort, the Spirit in the room was the strongest I´ve ever felt in my life. Carmen must have felt it too, because she was baptized (with Daeli) on Saturday and confirmed yesterday! So that´s my experience and confirmation as to why I´m in this area! Anyway, we have two Christmas church fiestas this week and a possibly bautizona on Christmas day. I got my package yesterday, and I'll admit... I opened it early. I can´t even thank you all for your sacrifices on my behalf. The Christmas stocking is absolutely classic and I definitely needed the ties. Well don't worry about me calling home, I'll just call sometime during Christmas day, so be close to the phone! Our transfer date was this past Tuesday, so it will be six weeks before I find out where I'm going. My companion (Elder Amador) is going to end his mission before that date, so we'll see what happens. We're working hard so that he can surpass 120 baptisms which means 17 more for him. Well I love you all. I know the Church of Jesus Christ is His kingdom on earth and I know you know too. Talk to you soon!
Merry Christmas!
-Elder Butterfield
"This week was definitely special. Let me tell you a short story: a few weeks ago, we taught a woman named Carmen the first lesson, we found her by knocking doors. The lesson went well, although she was a Testigo de Jehova (Jehova´s Witness) for a number of years. We tried to go back to visit her twice, but she wasn´t ever there, we assumed she wasn´t interested. About a week and a half later, we forgot about her completely. That is until one day, we were walking on her street by her house and I asked, ´`what happened with that lady?´´ We decided to check if she was home. Surprisingly, she greeted us with a warm welcome. The lesson that insued was deeply spiritual and gave her much needed hope. We invited her to come to church. She agreed, and to our surprise, she had a non-member friend accompany her. After the services, we taught Carmen´s friend, who´s named Daeli, and gave her a Book of Mormon. The next day when we went to check up on her, we were again surprised to find out that Daeli had read 11 chapters of The Book of Mormon, and had already grown a testimony. We set baptismal dates for Carmen and Daeli and continued teaching them. They were golden investigators as we say. The day before Carmen´s baptismal interview, she had a doubt about her job (she gets paid to help people through therapy, although she doesn´t have a licence). We told her we would find out if it was anything to worry about and return the next day. Turns out her doubt was nothing wrong, but she still felt guilty. We offered her a blessing of comfort, the Spirit in the room was the strongest I´ve ever felt in my life. Carmen must have felt it too, because she was baptized (with Daeli) on Saturday and confirmed yesterday! So that´s my experience and confirmation as to why I´m in this area! Anyway, we have two Christmas church fiestas this week and a possibly bautizona on Christmas day. I got my package yesterday, and I'll admit... I opened it early. I can´t even thank you all for your sacrifices on my behalf. The Christmas stocking is absolutely classic and I definitely needed the ties. Well don't worry about me calling home, I'll just call sometime during Christmas day, so be close to the phone! Our transfer date was this past Tuesday, so it will be six weeks before I find out where I'm going. My companion (Elder Amador) is going to end his mission before that date, so we'll see what happens. We're working hard so that he can surpass 120 baptisms which means 17 more for him. Well I love you all. I know the Church of Jesus Christ is His kingdom on earth and I know you know too. Talk to you soon!
Merry Christmas!
-Elder Butterfield
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Week 15
Okay, I am finally getting caught up. Well another week has flown by and we are getting pretty close to that important phone call that we are all looking forward to. It will be so nice to hear Jacob's voice again. It truly does seem like forever that I talked with him. He sounds so good in his emails and we received a wonderful card from his Mission President. I had a lovely letter in a card and a picture of Jacob meeting them for the first time. They are truly wonderful people. Well here is the latest from Jacob. He would love to hear from everybody so here is his email jacob.butterfield@myldsmail.net I can't guarantee he will write back.
"Well we're still meeting in the Coca Cola factory, but the chapel should be finished soon. Did you ask everyone what they thought the gnome was? I bet no one has an answer still! Well, thanks for keeping the tradition alive. I've seen some pretty crazy trees already. People here really get into the Christmas spirit. I wish you could meet President Hansen and his wife, it's tough to explain the relationship I feel with them. Truly great servants of the Lord, no other words. I'm not craving really anything, my time is limited to myself, and I wouldn't have it any other way! This week was interesting. There is a huge celebration in Mexico with the Catholic church that can only be described as pure anarchy. We had to go in 30 minutes early on Saturday because it was so cazy. Despite all that, I love it here! We baptized a 13 year old boy this week, and another of our converts received the Priesthood! We have three marriages we have to organize this week, and we are going to baptize a lifelong Jehova's witness on Saturday! I'm sorry this letter is short, but I promise next week will be a better letter! I love you all, and I love the people of Mexico!
-Elder Butterfield
"Well we're still meeting in the Coca Cola factory, but the chapel should be finished soon. Did you ask everyone what they thought the gnome was? I bet no one has an answer still! Well, thanks for keeping the tradition alive. I've seen some pretty crazy trees already. People here really get into the Christmas spirit. I wish you could meet President Hansen and his wife, it's tough to explain the relationship I feel with them. Truly great servants of the Lord, no other words. I'm not craving really anything, my time is limited to myself, and I wouldn't have it any other way! This week was interesting. There is a huge celebration in Mexico with the Catholic church that can only be described as pure anarchy. We had to go in 30 minutes early on Saturday because it was so cazy. Despite all that, I love it here! We baptized a 13 year old boy this week, and another of our converts received the Priesthood! We have three marriages we have to organize this week, and we are going to baptize a lifelong Jehova's witness on Saturday! I'm sorry this letter is short, but I promise next week will be a better letter! I love you all, and I love the people of Mexico!
-Elder Butterfield
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Week 14
Okay, I am a week or two behind. What else is new? I have been just a little busy with Christmas and work etc. I will try and do better. The weeks just seem to roll along. It is Monday and I am all excited for the newest email and before I know it Friday is here. Well enough from me. I am sure you all want to hear what is happening in the Veracruz area. Here is the latest from Jacob's email.
"What a week! You know what's funny? President gave us football scores in the weekly letter, but he stopped doing that this week, but you still sent me some. Just kinda funny. Anyway, sounds like it's truly winter in WI; everyone asks me if there's snow in Wisconsin, now I can say yes! This week was one of the best in my entire mission! We had our Christmas Conference on Thursday in Veracruz, President Hansen answered so many questions I had that I couldn't doubt the inspiration. After the Conference, we did a session in the Veracruz Temple! It was completely in Spanish, but still very spiritual. I stayed in Verzcruz overnight to sign my visa, then we bussed back to San Andres. On Saturday we had three baptisms! All were brothers ages 9, 12, and 16; the mom really wants to get baptized too, but we need to get her to church one more time. On Sunday, we got a woman named Carmen to church. She was a Jehova's witness for a number of years, but she left them when her husband was dying and they basically shunned her. We taught her the Plan of Salvation, and my companion declared, ''there were angels in that room.'' At church, she acted just like a member! Carmen has a baptismal date for the 18th, and we're really excited about that! Anyway, we went to various beautiful sights today and I plan to send home some pictures this week. I think we have a branch Christmas party coming up soon, but I'm not sure. Next week I should have the info on calling home so don't worry. We'll figure it out. Well, I love hearing from you all. I'm trying to get some letters off soon too. The Church is true and the work is exactly how it should be. I hope you're still reading The Book of Mormon regularly. Conversion comes from that book more than any other source. I don't even carry a Bible with me regularly. Let Lesley, Mikkal, Jenessa, our cousins, etc. know that they can email me. I want to know how they're doing too.
Con amor,
Elder Butterfield
>
"What a week! You know what's funny? President gave us football scores in the weekly letter, but he stopped doing that this week, but you still sent me some. Just kinda funny. Anyway, sounds like it's truly winter in WI; everyone asks me if there's snow in Wisconsin, now I can say yes! This week was one of the best in my entire mission! We had our Christmas Conference on Thursday in Veracruz, President Hansen answered so many questions I had that I couldn't doubt the inspiration. After the Conference, we did a session in the Veracruz Temple! It was completely in Spanish, but still very spiritual. I stayed in Verzcruz overnight to sign my visa, then we bussed back to San Andres. On Saturday we had three baptisms! All were brothers ages 9, 12, and 16; the mom really wants to get baptized too, but we need to get her to church one more time. On Sunday, we got a woman named Carmen to church. She was a Jehova's witness for a number of years, but she left them when her husband was dying and they basically shunned her. We taught her the Plan of Salvation, and my companion declared, ''there were angels in that room.'' At church, she acted just like a member! Carmen has a baptismal date for the 18th, and we're really excited about that! Anyway, we went to various beautiful sights today and I plan to send home some pictures this week. I think we have a branch Christmas party coming up soon, but I'm not sure. Next week I should have the info on calling home so don't worry. We'll figure it out. Well, I love hearing from you all. I'm trying to get some letters off soon too. The Church is true and the work is exactly how it should be. I hope you're still reading The Book of Mormon regularly. Conversion comes from that book more than any other source. I don't even carry a Bible with me regularly. Let Lesley, Mikkal, Jenessa, our cousins, etc. know that they can email me. I want to know how they're doing too.
Con amor,
Elder Butterfield
>
Saturday, December 4, 2010
Week 13
Blake and I had a very touching experience at the temple on Tuesday, November 22nd. We have made it a goal to try and get to the temple each month during the time that Jacob is gone. The temple is a little more than 2 hours away so it is a time commitment. When we got to the temple I went in and changed and was waiting in the waiting area before our session was to begin. I picked up the Book of Mormon to read and opened it up and to my surprise it was the Spanish version. I didn't think too much about it but when we got into the session the tape was started and it was in Spanish which should have happened. When we finished the session I told Blake about how I picked up the Book of Mormon and it was the Spanish version to my surprise he told me the very same thing had happened to him. Heavenly Father was just reminding us that he was aware of us and he is taking good care of our son. It is the small things that give us joy. Anyway, here is the latest letter for Elder Butterfield.
"Let me start off by thanking you for sharing that spiritual experience with me. It's great to know that Heavenly Father recognizes our committment. I'm glad to hear that you went to the temple too (I get to go this week)! The area is certainly beautiful, we went and took pictures today on the coast and in the jungle. How beautiful! Seeing these wonderous sights inspired me to commit to working harder in thanks to Heavenly Father. The heat has been pretty tolerable so far, and I'm not missing the snow too much. I'm loving it here, and Heavenly Father is blessing you all for our service. Anyway, you can send me a letter through the address on my Facebook that I left. Check it out! Our living conditions are pretty reasonable, we have a working shower, toilet, sink, fridge and beds. I'll send some pictures of them. Our week was tougher, we got a lot of rejections and one baptism fell through. The problem down here is that a lot of people have families, but they're not married. It's tougher to get married sometimes, so we have office missionaries who can get the required records for them. We taught a woman who was a Jehovah's Witness for a number of years, she wants to know the truth but she's worried about her not-so-good children. We left her Mosiah 27 and we will visit her later today. On Sunday, we had church in the old Coca-Cola factory because our chapel is being renovated. It was the first time I had ever had a sacrament meeting outside. We got 10 people to church this Sunday, and half of them are ready for baptism! Our mission president said that the area we're in right now, certainly had some Book of Mormon history in it. Maybe even a prophet walked here! The Olemech heads (we saw an original) match up with the Jaredites, so this land goes back farther than I realized. The Spirit here is very strong, but so is the opposition. It's an amazing place to be and I know this is where we're supposed to serve! I'm going to upload some pictures! Love you all and I will hear from you in a week!
"Let me start off by thanking you for sharing that spiritual experience with me. It's great to know that Heavenly Father recognizes our committment. I'm glad to hear that you went to the temple too (I get to go this week)! The area is certainly beautiful, we went and took pictures today on the coast and in the jungle. How beautiful! Seeing these wonderous sights inspired me to commit to working harder in thanks to Heavenly Father. The heat has been pretty tolerable so far, and I'm not missing the snow too much. I'm loving it here, and Heavenly Father is blessing you all for our service. Anyway, you can send me a letter through the address on my Facebook that I left. Check it out! Our living conditions are pretty reasonable, we have a working shower, toilet, sink, fridge and beds. I'll send some pictures of them. Our week was tougher, we got a lot of rejections and one baptism fell through. The problem down here is that a lot of people have families, but they're not married. It's tougher to get married sometimes, so we have office missionaries who can get the required records for them. We taught a woman who was a Jehovah's Witness for a number of years, she wants to know the truth but she's worried about her not-so-good children. We left her Mosiah 27 and we will visit her later today. On Sunday, we had church in the old Coca-Cola factory because our chapel is being renovated. It was the first time I had ever had a sacrament meeting outside. We got 10 people to church this Sunday, and half of them are ready for baptism! Our mission president said that the area we're in right now, certainly had some Book of Mormon history in it. Maybe even a prophet walked here! The Olemech heads (we saw an original) match up with the Jaredites, so this land goes back farther than I realized. The Spirit here is very strong, but so is the opposition. It's an amazing place to be and I know this is where we're supposed to serve! I'm going to upload some pictures! Love you all and I will hear from you in a week!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)