Feeling Thankful

Hello Family!

I just wanted to say first of all that I love you so much and always feel so overwhelmingly grateful to Heavenly Father for  how great a blessing He has given me to be apart of our wonderfully blessed family. You're all the best.

I'm also very excited for the opportunity I get to talk with you, especially Mom, one last time before I go home. Where did the time go?? I sometimes get pangs of panic when ever I think about how short my time is. Nevertheless I'm really looking forward to seeing everyone hopefully via video chat. Although I'm not 100% positive if there is a place in my area that is video chat capable, being really far out means that internet options are a little more limited than usual. But I am planning on video chat for now. Between 10 AM and 1 PM my time is when I'm supposed to do it. My time limit is 30-45 minutes.

Please come ready with questions! I have such a hard time thinking of what to say in the moment. I'll do my best to prepare my thought beforehand, but if there is anything that you want to hear from me personally just try and write it down before the call starts. If I am unable to video chat I'll just call Dad's phone.

This last Thursday we were able to meet with Elder Ardern of the Seventy in the latter part of our Mission Leadership Council. Our mission has been preforming quite well in a lot of areas and Elder Ardern, who is going to be the new area president, came to observe and ask us questions to see what might be applicable to the other Philippines missions. It was a wonderful revelation filled meeting and I took down over 10 pages of notes and impressions from all of the trainings that our were given by our President and by the APs and all of the former APs (in our mission president rarely sends missionaries home as Assistants or Zone Leaders, so we had 6 former assistants in attendance as well that gave short messages)

I feel so blessed to have been assigned where I have been assigned and I am very grateful for all of the growth I have been able to make while under the leadership of President Lopez. Missions are basically the best.

Also in other news about our area, we finally found a house in our area that we are hoping to start a branch in, granted it's not the most luxurious house (it doesn't have any running water so we'd have to get our bucket shower water from the hand pump out side), but it works for what we need, and we're going to move there as soon as we can get it approved and start up the Asia branch here in Hinobaan. I'm really excited for the progress that can happen here and I really am hoping that I can stay assigned in this new and starting up branch for a while more.

It sounds like things are running well back home, and that quote that you used Mom from PMG (Preach My Gospel) was actually one of the things that Elder Ardern brought up in his training on Thursday. I think that I need to reset my goals a little higher since I feel like I've almost been getting in a routine lately. It's time for me to take another leap and see if I can stretch my self a little farther while I still have the opportunity.

I love you all so much! Thank you for your prayers and support!

Your Elder,

~Elder Butler