Photos from Transfers - Goodbye San Fran, Hello Oakland 7th Ward

The last night for this man in San Francisco. He loves this place, will miss it desperately, has lived here for 30 weeks and heads now to Oakland and Daly City.

And off he goes -

Elder Smith made dinner for Benjamin before his departure - Elder Smith's signature dish, Curry.

Elder McKean and Elder Butters are prepared for departure - they have been a good team.

The YEGA BOYS (all four live on Noriega Street) prepare for new roads ahead. The memories they have made in this amazing city will last a lifetime.

An Orbit sprinkler found while tracting!

Oakland 7th ward knows how to celebrate Chinese New Year - lots of karaoke!

And introducing, Elder Carns!  Their first week together has been awesome - great friends already.  Benjamin remain District Leader and will hold this position over the Assistants to the President of the mission!  They live walking distance to the mission home which means easy delivery of the packages from home!

Elder Butters, Elder Mitchell, Elder Ho, and Elder Carns will be working together as Chinese speaking missionaries in Oakland, California.

Letter from Oakland, CA - District Leader, New Comp, New Area New Car

NiMen Hao! 

Well, I come to you all today writing from my new area in Oakland! I was initially very nervous for the move on Tuesday (but what else is new), but I am loving it here thus far. Its very different from my previous two areas, but some great benefits, too: We have a car, live within a 10 minute drive of the Mission Home and the Visitiors Center, etc... My new companion is Elder Carns. He's from Scottsdale, AZ, and though he's been out for six months, I am only his second companion in the field. We've already really had a good time together. He works hard and really knows our area well!

We've been involved in a lot of service this past week. Elder Carns has used the opportunities we've had to tract to ask people if they need out help, and we occasionally visit those who've taken up on his offer. We help a man named Oscar on a weekly basis run errands and help him to have some company in his life. He is doing well. We also rendered service through giving blessings to one of our members, which is always a great opportunity. 

We also got to teach a few investigators. We met with Aris Yuan, a student at UC Berkeley who we're co-teaching with the Sister Missionaries in SLC. We had a great lesson with him at the VC, where we showed him a few presentations and also talked to him about receiving an answer through the impressions he receives from the Holy Ghost. He took to it really well, and we will try to keep focusing on the aspect of receiving a personal witness with him for the next little while. We also taught a man named Li Bo, and his eight-year-old daughter, Wan Ru. We had a nice lesson with them on prayer, but Wan Ru was a little pre-occupied telling us all about Shanghai Disneyland and the annual Chinese New Year Gala they televise every year in China. It was a little tough...
I am still a District Leader in Oakland. In fact, I have the Assistants to the President in my District, which is a little intimidating...our past training went well, though...

Finally, Chinese New Year is almost done. The Oakland Branch had a massive Chinese New Year Party on Saturday to celebrate. The Branch here is VERY into Karaoke, and we rocked out to Chinese hits throughout the night. Some were a little nicer to listen to than others. 

All in all, not a bad first week in the Oakland Zone. I love you all, and can feel the love and prayers you are sending my way. Thank you for that. Have a fantastic week. The Gospel is true!

Love,

Elder Butters/Bao ZhangLao

Photos Before The Transfer

Elder McKean pays tribute to Elder Butters.

On Exchanges with Elder Corrigan and Elder Iglesias - great missionaries!  Not sure what the half-shirt on Elder McKean is all about....

This is Juan Cahua - Benjamin and the other missionaries help him serve food at his homeless kitchen and Benjamin will miss that service opportunity very much!

The gang's all here!

The Cao family on Benjamin's last day in the branch.

President and Sister Yang wish Benjamin a farewell at his last Sunday in San Francisco! So much good has come from his 30 weeks in this amazing place!

Letter 67 - A Baptism and a Transfer

DaJia Hao! Xin Nian Kuai Le!

Happy Chinese New Year to you all! This week was a great one to celebrate a New Year AND (sadly) my last week in San Francisco...

This has been a week that I fully consider to be 16 months of missionary service in the making. The greatest event of all (of course) is that KAI GOT BAPTIZED! It was a spiritual highlight of my mission for sure. I have had the opportunity to baptize someone in the past here in the field, but its never been someone I had the pleasure to find, teach, and baptize. I am so grateful for Kai and his baptism. It was a day I will never forget. I am grateful that he was able to find so much hope and a new positive attitute toward his future. It was a pleasure to share that day with him.

In other work this week, we've been doing okay here. I went on exchanges with Elder Iglesias to the other Spanish Area that missionaries cover in my District. He has a great attitude of diligence and drive, but also a great sense of humor and is a very pleasant and humble missionary to work with. I had a good day with him of doing service as well as a very good session of tracting in the hills of Daly City. He also had the chance to do a demonstration with me in District Meeting, so it made for a good day. 

We've been doing a lot of service this week, mostly through members reaching out to the non-member friends and volunteering our services. We've been cleaning out messy garages, scooping brownies for Valentine's Day lunch at a soup kitchen, and weeding the side of a hill in Golden Gate Park. I sure do love this area.

Which brings me to the bad news...after 30 glorious weeks in the city by the bay, I have been transferred. I will be honset, I am pretty sad to leave San Francisco. I have loved my time here and will miss this city terribly. Our last few rounds of street contacting in the city have brought back a lot of cherished memories. I have learned a lot from beign with Elder McKean these past few transfers as well. This week, he taught me a lot on what it means to access the "enabling power of the Atonement, which is something that I have been longing to understand a little more ever since I began my service. I am grateful for the fun times we had together and for the chance I had to train him. I will miss working with him a lot.  

I leave for Oakland tomorrow morning, to begin serving with my new companion Elder Carns. We will cover the majority of the East Bay, and we will have a car, which will be pretty different to what I'm used to... New things a comin'!

Love you all. I miss you and think of you all the time. Most espeically, thank you for your prayers and faith in Kai. Without you, he wouldn't be the newest member of the church today.

Love

Elder Butters/Bao ZhangLao

KAI'S BAPTISM!

Sixteen months.  Countless discussion.  Countless contacts.  Countless lost contacts.  Countless prayers and requests, and doorbells rung and rejections and hopes and more prayers......and this afternoon, in San Francisco, California, Elder Butters baptized Kai!!  All his concerns about tithing and a few other things, seemed to fix themselves along the way.  Benjamin could not be happier for Kai and his decision.  He and Elder McKean have enjoyed this journey with Kai who will forever be a friend to these young men now.  We were blessed to receive this photograph from Benjamin's mission president this evening just after the event.  What a perfect Sunday evening!

Letter #66; Last Visit to Oakland Temple

Hello, everyone!

It feels like I just emailed you all...oh, wait...yeah, that was Thursday! Unfortunately, the Oakland Temple will be closing down until 2019, so Thursday was likely the last experience I will have in the Temple as a set-apart missionary. It was a great day, one that I really needed. 

This was a week that helped me to see the hand of the Lord.

Thank you for your prayers for Kai Wang, our investigator! We met with him on Thursday night, as we usually do, and taught him a combination of the Gospel of Jesus Christ paired with some of the Commandments. He expressed that his family is still a little concerned about tithing, and he told us why; turns out, he gives half of his income to them! It shows respect in Chinese culture to give money to your parents and they then delegate the use of it to the rest of the family. They don't want to lose 10% if what Kai could be giving them. We promised him blessings and the continued help of the Lord.
Our next meeting was on Sunday, where we came out of a coordination meeting where our 2nd Counselor expressed his concern that Kai wouldn't be able to be baptized on the 18th, as planned. Kai attended church, and contributed in every class. After reading 2 Nephi 31 in Priesthood and attending Sacrament Meeting (I had the impromptu chance to speak this week!), he expressed to us that baptism is something he really wants to do! In response to the question of how he knows this church is true, he said that he's attended multiple christian denominations previously, and has never felt the way he does with "this church." It was a powerful moment and a total answer to prayer. I am so grateful that he will be baptized this weekend! He has great hope in the Savior and continues to hope that He will help him as he relies on His Atonement. 

I also had the chance to go on exchanges this week with Elder Bautista, the newest Spanish missionary in my District. He definitely showed me that you can teach an "old dog" like myself new tricks. He was so lively and excited, and took the call to "talk with everyone" very seriously, especially during the days finding activities. It was refreshing for me to be with such a new Elder again; it sparked energy and enthusiasm in me, which was nice. He is a funny Elder with a big personality that he brings into his work.

Amid finding and service opportunities, we've been visiting all of our members going around and helping them make specific goals and plans as part of our combined Branch Mission Plan for 2018. We met with two of our members this week, and it was nice to be able to talk with them. They truly care about the well-being of one another, especially those who are less-active. We're excited to see what miracles these goals will bring when applied.

Thank you for all of your work and encouragement, and mostly your prayers. We hope that Kai passes his interview on Thursday, and that Sunday is a day that he will remember. It definitely will be for me.

Wo Ai NiMen!

Elder Butters/Bao ZhangLao

Sixty Fifth Email!

NiHao, Everyone!

I know all of you were probably expecting an email from me on Monday, but the exciting thing about living in an area with a temple is that we have the chance to attend every once in a while. So, we had to switch P-Day for Thursday! Its been a while since last week happened, so I will try to recount all of the goings on, so that I have something to tell you on Monday.

Anyway, this has been another busy week. We met again with our investigator Kai. He is progressing well, but his family is still struggling to accept the idea of their son paying funds to the church. Its been pretty hard for him to accept. We visited with him after church yesterday and taught him all about the divinity of tithing in detail. That lesson was the purpose behind my fast yesterday as well. He is willing to pay tithing and fast offerings, but it will be hard for his family to accept. We are praying specifically that his family will have soft hearts so that he can be baptized on the 17th of February as planned. 

Please pray for Kai. He loves the gospel and is so prepared. I have faith that a miracle will happen to help him in his current struggle.

I also had a unique experience teaching a referral our member gave us this past week. She is a teacher for students with special needs, and she introduced us to one of them this Thursday. We were able to teach Nicholas, who has autism, a little bit about Heavenly Father's love for him, and invited him to pray. It was a challenging lesson for me, and it took a lot of my patience and understanding to teach according to his needs. It was a challenge, but an opportunity I'm grateful to have had the chance to work with him a little bit.

My studies have been great lately. I love asking the question "why?" to every line of Preach My Gospel. It has strengthened by testimony and anchored my faith. I love the time I get to have in the scriptures every day. It anchors me, and is probably the time I feel most at peace throughout my day. The words of the prophets both ancient and modern are powerful. 

We received a lot of great insight and guidance at Zone Conference. While there, the rumors were confirmed that we are one of the 162 missions worldwide that are receiving smartphones and incorporating them into the use of our missionary work. We learned all about the online resources now available to missionaries. Hopefully this new addition will make our work a lot more organized and focused, but it'll be a BIG adjustment to those of us who have done missionary work (more like living life) without devices for so long. We will see what happens.

Love you all, my wonderful family and friends. Thank you all for your support. Have another fantastic week, and I will talk to you soon! 

Elder Butters

Great Times with Elder McKean

Elder McKean successfully created a Spanish Mask (Nacho Libre style) from a soccer ball!  Impressive creative expression, Elder McKean.

In Lincoln Park, during "finding", we found the Palace of the Legion of Honor!  It is gorgeous.

This is the final marker for the Lincoln Highway - Benjamin photographed this landmark for Greg as a special treat.  It is the same highway that the Transcontinental Railway followed.

The gorgeous Legion of Honor Palace at twilight.

This is what happens when Elder McKean does not stay away from Elder Butters' stash of soda as he has been instructed to do......oh, Elder McKean.....obedience is so important!