Strange Times with Elder Mitchell

Email 81 - Someone Please Open A Door!

NiMen Hao!

Happy Memorial Day to you all. We celebrated with a little Zone Activity that we just returned from. I am grateful for the men in my life who were willing to give their lives for the cause of freedom, justice, and valiance. I look up to them 

Well, there is nothing much to talk about this week! Work-wise, it was pretty slow. We have been trying to find constantly...we knock, and knock, and stop on the sidewalk, and talk, and and ask for contact information, and then ring another doorbell. Oh, but not before we knock again! Its been a long week. We have run into some pretty crazy people, though... This week, Oakland offered us a young Vietnamese kid playing Pokemon on his tablet (he thanked us for his help with it, which was a mission first for me), and a man who told us all about some religious theories he come up with about the end of the world. This involved him presenting a binder full of pictures to us, folding up dollar bills to look like buildings on fire, and talking about how no one else on earth can match him when it comes to doctrine. I think Elder Mitchell and I know a guy...Russell M. Nelson! It was really awkward, but incredibly memorable.

We were involved in a lot of service, too. We filled out time by helping to move furniture in a school, setting up a canopy in a member's backyard, and more typing of Oscar's manuscript. I know this is probably sounding pretty repetitive from week to week, but we are really trying to find right now, and much not has been going on in our area. Its been kind of a bummer.

However, Sunday this week, I attended possibly one of the best Sacrament Meetings on my Mission. One of the speakers, the wife of the High Counselor assigned to our Branch, spoke on Writing the Atonement on your Heart. She shared six ways we can improve our appreciation and our application of the Atonement, and I thought I'd share them with you. 

1) Be Kind
Christ was kind to everyone, even those who may not have deserved His kindness. To people who had sinned, such as the woman caught in adultery in the New Testament, He responded simply with the commission to "Go and Sin No More." No punishment, no judgement, no unkind word. He simply loved and wanted people to love their fellow men.

2) Pay Tithing

Our monthly contribution of 10% is NOTHING compared to the infinite price that Christ paid in taking upon Himself our burdens and sins. We can handle giving something small back to Him.

3) Be Forgiving of Yourself and Others

All of us are imperfect, and making mistakes is a part of life. We need to accept that, and remember that Christ has already paid the price of those mistakes for us. That should motivate us to move on and strive to be better than we were before.

4) Be Grateful

Thank God! He has given us so much. Try imagining that you are at the Savior's feet when you pray. It might help you to show more gratitude and offer more of your heart to your Him

5) Have Joy

The purpose of our life on Earth is to have Joy, and Christ's Atonement gives us that opportunity. He died so that we can be happy, and He wants only that for each of us. I think that's a beautiful thought. 

6) Take the Sacrament

Our speaker definitely emphasized the power of the Sacrament. It is a time of remembrance, renewal, and cleansing. It allows us to have continued strength as we move on into a new week, confident that as long as we remember the Lord, He will be on our side. 

I am grateful for my Savior. His Atonement is for us all, and I hope that I can continue to experience its power. I know He feels the feelings my companion and I are going through right now, and He is here with us in this work. I am so grateful for that. 

I am also grateful for all of you. I appreciate the constant continued support. Have an amazing week! 

Wo Ai NiMen!

Elder Butters/Bao ZhangLao 

Photos from the First Week With Elder Mitchell

Elder Mitchell arrives as the new companion and is seen here getting ready for his Mother's Day phone call home.

These two are already fast friends - loving music, baking, talking about movie lines and loving the work they are doing!  We all stand amazed at the friendships Benjamin has made while living in San Francisco - never to be forgotten!

A German Pancake of sorts made by Elder Mitchell - thus far Benjamin has been the baking missionary in his companionships - now they BOTH like to cook!

Abby Road on Lincoln Way!  No doubt, Grandpa Reynolds will enjoy this shot.

80th Email: A New Companion

Hey Howdy Hey Everybody!

Things are still going strong here in Oakland. It was a busy week for all of us. Lots of exciting things are afoot for the Oakland 7th Branch.

Firstly, the news everyone wants to know. Transfers were this Tuesday and Elder Carns left me to go serve in San Francisco...I will miss him. We had a great time together. However, Elder Mitchell has now joined me! He is an great guy. He is from Lehi Utah, and came out to the mission at the same time my previous companion Elder McKean did. He is super smart and graduated High School with his Associates degree... He is into baking and quoting movies and working hard, so we get along swimmingly. We were also both trained by Elder Li, so we are "brothers." Its been fun to work with him thus far. 

This week has been a very focused one for us, just showing Elder Mitchell the ropes. This is the first time he is in a new area, and we are going to take it by storm! We did our typical service activities throughout our week (Oscar Pemantle loves Mitchell already), and we also spent practically every spare second tracting or finding in some way, shape, or form. I find that I have become bolder in my finding efforts and when answering people's questions about the church, and that makes finding more bearable, even fun! Elder Mitchell helps to keep me busy, and I appreciate that. Unfortunately, we didn't have the chance to meet with any investigators this week; Aris has been out of town, and Lisa is being a little unresponsive...That makes things tough, but we have a lot of new assignments to fill our time. Our new Branch President and Elders Quorum President (one of the Senior Missionaries assigned to work in our Branch!) have been given the special assignment from the Stake to work with and contact most every Less-Active person we can. Elder Mitchell and I are excited to see how working on this task and making it a focus will influence our work. For example, this past week we were able to meet some pretty interesting people as we walked between addresses of members. Some of them were possibly drunk or high, but that's beside the point. We feel good that we're finding ways to get the word out. We're good at motivating each other. 

Other than that, there isn't much else that happened this week. We tried to put up a gazebo canopy that was too small, cooked some really good paleo food (Elder Mitchell is allergic to living, basically, but it gives me more recipes I want to try), attended a whole bunch of meetings, spent more time in traffic, studied, and I got to perform a musical number at a special fireside. In short, we tried to be good missionaries. I'm coming to learn more about how when we are trying to do good things, even if maybe they arent necessarily the most fun or the most convinient, Heavenly Father accepts our offerings and will work with what we have. We have been able to see a few less-actives come to church this week as a result of our efforts, and I was grateful for those small miracles.

I know God lives, I know His church has been restored, and this week has helped me to solidify that. I am grateful for the small part I get to play in his plan!

All my love to you all! JiDu HuoZhe!

Elder Butters/Bao ZhangLao

Photos From Serving at the Local Elementary School and eating Fufu!!!

Service with the smile as these guys help clean branches and weeds from the neighborhood.

Benjamin's words: When the branches and weeds won't fit, you stomp them into submission!!

Moving furniture and helping teachers clean out for summer at the local elementary school.

Invited to dinner by a Nigerian woman who served the missionaries FUFU!

Benjamin can now sympathize with Edison except for the fact that Benjamin could go get a burger afterwards.......just saying.....

Mother's Day Email

你们好!!!!

Hope you all had a great Mothers Day. I certainly did. Getting to talk home to my family is such a special thing for me. I miss them (and all of you) like crazy, especially during weeks like this past one, where things don't exactly go your way. 

Aris is doing great! He is travelling in the East Coast right now, but we were able to have a lesson with him on Wednesday before his departure. We talked about the importance of scripture study in our lives, how it provides the Iron Rod that we can steadily rely on. We showed him how he can "liken the scriptures to [him]self," which I think he really appreciated. The scriptures can take on new and much more significant, personal meaning when we take the time to not only read them, but also to ponder them and put the lessons we learn from our studies into our own lives. Bringing personal questions and concerns is also a huge help to making studies more meaningful. We were able to share some of these same thoughts on Sunday in Priesthood, when we were called on last minute to teach a lesson because the real teacher never showed. Love that...

We have been up to our ears in service this week! We have moved furniture at an elementary school, assisted in writing drafts of a book for our friend Oscar Pemantle, and chopped up a tree and rose bush. We filled up four green compost cans and the bed of a truck with all of the trimmings! Crazy stuff.

And, as per usual, we went finding...A LOT!!! We knocked doors and went contacting around the campus of UC Berkeley trying to talk to all of the graduates and their families. We've called people, and even went finding with our District, going on a huge Blitz to try to find all Saturday afternoon. We have been struggling as a District with finding new investigators as of late, and so we set a goal to find six this week. Even though Elder Carns and I never found anyone for our area, our District came away with finding 10 NEW INVESTIGATORS!!! It's a total miracle. I am very grateful for some great missionaries to work with and how close we all are.

Speaking on which...we received transfer calls this week, and Elder Carns will be departing Oakland (after being here for 8 months!). I will miss working with him. He has been a great example of patience, charity, selflessness, and a good friend. I will be staying here and welcoming Elder Mitchell to the Oakland Area next week, and ive heard nothing but good things about him thus far. We were both trained by the same missionary so that will be fun to experience to share memories with him.

We've made a lot of memories this past week. I stood in garbage cans, got rejected by a ton of other religious leaders (if they could only put our message to the test... I guess some day they'll learn, but their comments still make me mad...), and eating Fufu. Who would have thought I'd be eating Ghanaian delicacies in California? An experience I won't soon forget, for sure. 

I love you all. I miss you all. The Gospel is true. The more I share it and stand boldly behind it, the more I know that it is God-given truth. I am grateful for this time I have to share it with others. 

母亲节快乐!

Elder Butters/包长老

Photos From Another Busy Week

The temple is being renovated but Temple Hill is still a favorite place for these two to "hang out" during the week and look for interested people enjoying the views and the sights there.

Taking Aris to a concert at the Visitor's Center - Vocal Point was amazing!

A less active member has taught herself to paint and shared some of her work with Benjamin while he was visiting this week.

Letter 78 - Music Make-King

大家好!

Happy May to you all. The weather in Oakland sometimes thinks it's September, but we are off to a good Spring! 

This has been a crazy week for Elder Carns and I. We've been able to do most everything a Missionary serving in Oakland can.

The majority of this week has been spent finding new investigators. Elder Carns and I spent our entire Saturday all around our massive area immersed in every kind of finding activity available to us. We tracted, went contacting on the campus of Diablo Valley College (where we met a couple Chinese people), made phone calls to former investigators, and tried to reach out to potentials. It was a long day, and not much fruit to bare from it, other than a few spiritual conversations with people. Some of those people were pretty interesting, including a man who talked a lot about the White House and a woman who told us how G2 Towers are melting everyone's minds...you can't maje this sort of thing up...only in Oakland can you make these sort of memories. Hopefully we find someone this next week.

I'd like to thank everyone for their wonderful thoughts and kind words for Aris. We met with him Wednesday afternoon, and surprisingly, he's doing GREAT! We've decided to make our primary focus with him one that would allow him to maintain his faith and belief in Christ rather than to weaken it as we wait for a time for him to be baptized. He shared an incredible testimony with Elder Carns and I, and we know that he will eventually be baptized. We had a simple lesson with him on the power of prayer as a foundation of building our relationship with God. We also had the chance to take Aris to a concert this week. He's in an A Capella group, and we all enjoyed a BYU Vocal Point concert at the Temple. It was AWESOME!

We also had Zone Conference this week, a finding blitz as a Zone, and multiple service projects for both members and non members in our community. There is never a dull moment, at least we hope.

On to more spiritual things. I've finished the Book of Mormon again in my studies this past week, and have started studying it by highlighting and learning about some of the attributes and advice given to me in my patriarchal blessing. This has already helped me to view scriptures I've read hundreds of times previously in a new light, and learn even more from them. It also has shown to me that the Book of Mormon is something that can become a personally significant and relevant treasure to each of us. I love that Book! If you haven't read it, READ IT! Two thumbs WAY UP!!

Well, that's about it from our end this week. I love you and am so grateful for all of your support. It means the world to me. Please continue to pray for my brother and I as we continue our service.

我爱你们!! 加油!!

Elder Butters/包长老