Charity Never Faileth

Hello Family!

I'm not sure how to sum up this last week, but what I can say is that I came out the other end stronger than I was before, and I feel like this week I've come to understand my Savior and His love for me and for all of us here on earth than possibly any other time previously in my life.

If I have learned anything, it is that charity will never ever fail you in your time of need, and humility and meekness will always provide you with the protection and the sustaining of the spirit. I read earlier this morning in 1 Corinthians 13 about how if I speak with the tongue of angels and have not charity I am as a sounding brass (paraphrasing this mind you) and even if I have faith to move mountains if I have not charity I am nothing. And I think that this last week I became a little more of something than I was before.

Stay in the Light

Elder Butler teaching about the Word of Wisdom to his Zone

President Lopez with Elder Pingol and Elder Butler with their investigator ready for baptism.

The Zone with Sister Lopez (front right)

The Elders of the the Zone :-)

Hello Family!

This week has been a bit of a refiners fire for me to say the least, but it has also been teaching me a lot about the power of prayer and the need for Christ-like attributes if we are to make it back to our Heavenly Father and to be truly happy in this life.

I'll start by giving an update about the family of the former branch president that went less active and then had the experience of coming in contact with not so friendly influences from the other side of the veil. In good news, they've started coming back to church these last two weeks and the wife was able to resolve some of her concerns about why they had stopped in the first place. In not so good news, things hadn't gotten much better at their home. They said that they had been experiencing strange things in their home and their 18 year old son has been acting out in a very extreme way, doing things as if he were under a bad influence (throwing scriptures into a pond, talking about Satan a lot, and doing and saying very very hurtful things to his parents). I don't want to dwell on all the bad things, but I just wanted to share what I felt while visiting this family and doing our best to help them.

The main thing that I thought of was how it is so much better to have never left the light in the first place than it is to have to pay the price to come back. I know that through Christ all things are possible and forgiveness is always available, but that doesn't change all of the harm that you could have prevented by simply just continuing forward instead of letting pride pull you off the path and have to pay the price to get back on to the path and keep moving forward.

Things will now start to improve, and when you gain faith again you always have a new hope, even when the path to return may have some recompense to be had. But in the end the promise of complete forgiveness still stands for all those who submit themselves fully to the Fathers will.

That's all I have for today,

I love you all!

~Elder Butler

Giving All our Heart, Might, Mind, and Strength

Hello Family!

It's been another long short week here in the furthest area in the mission. :) But we have been seeing much success and our zone is definitely on the up swing from what I can see so far.

This last week I was able to give my first training to our Zone on the things that we were trained on in our Mission Leaders Conference in Bacolod, and despite having spent over 12 hours on the bus in the previous two days and very much lacking on a good nights rest, I've never felt more comfortable in presenting a training before and I could feel the spirit edifying me even in the moment as I relayed the training of the Assistants to our Zone.

It mostly centered on obedience and giving all of our heart, might, mind, and strength to the Lord (D&C 4:2) and it definitely helped put a little more spiritual fuel in my tank to take on the assignment that I've received.

I hope you enjoy the pictures I sent! There are some pictures of parts of my area (the rural parts) and me with a ferret type animal that we can across.

It's strange for me to think of Dad as not being a bishop anymore. It kind of makes me think of what it will be like to lose the mantle of being a full time missionary, which doesn't sound very desirable at the moment to me. I'll miss not being able to come home to the Waxhaw ward! I feel like of any of the wards that I've grown up in, the Waxhaw ward has felt the most like home, but I know that Weddington ward will be great as well, and has plenty of opportunities for us to serve.

That's all for today!

I love you all!

~Elder Butler
 

Changing A Life (Video Clip)

(Great words of wisdom from Elder Butler on the crucial importance of fellow-shipping investigators and new members of the church.  We all have a work to do, regardless of our callings. ~ Karolyn)

"Missionary work is changing somebodies life, and changing somebodies life is pretty hard. It’s hard enough when you have help, and if you don’t have help it’s almost impossible.” ~ Elder Brooks Butler (stated during our Christmas Eve video call)