Photos from Week 98

Elder Steinke, my very dear friend, departs this week.  I will miss him.

Elder Ratliff left me this week also.  We had such a good time together, I will miss him as well.

Elder Raymundo and me out on the town.

Elder Raymundo has yet to lose to me in a chess game.....

Doing service at Loaves and Fishes.

We made a birthday cake for an Elder in our Zone - pretty impressive, I think.

#98: Administrative Work Beyond Belief

大家好!

The word of the week has been BUSY! Transfers have now come and gone, and there was a lot to be done in order to prepare for the weeks ahead.

The question on everyone's mind is, of course, the new companion. It was hard to say goodbye to Elder Ratliff, but the Lord has blessed me with another great companion. His name is Elder Raymundo. He's from Corona, California, but was born and grew up in the Philippines. He was initially called to speak Tagalog, so it's cool to have a common bond of initially being language-speaking missionaries. He's a convert to the Church, and (get this) was baptized by Jacob Dyer, someone I grew up with in China! He's really into football, cooking and baking, and is very committed to missionary work. I have never met someone who is able to feel the Spirit like he can. He's been a lot of fun!

Like I said, the majority of this week was spent doing logistical stuff. We were so busy moving Elder Raymundo in and getting situated to the new transfer that we have had little time for proselyting. We've been busy with Stake Reports, trainings, and meeting. Earlier this week I got to head up to Oakland to train a new group of District Leaders about their assignment. It made me miss preparing for trainings and studying for meetings more often. Our Zone was also able to be given a training by our Stake Presidency all about the upcoming Tabernacle of Moses event. The whole thing is hopefully going to play off like a Temple Visitor's Center, and we will be there to facilitate and guide people through it. It is probably the coolest way I can think of to end a mission experience. Elder Raymundo and I will be up to our necks in preparations for that. Already we have put together a schedule of "shifts," and will have more to work on as we get closer to October.

Unfortunately, Chad hasn't made contact with us for a while, and he didn't come to church. We are really worried about him; we have heard that he really doesn't feel comfortable at church. I am learning the importance of ministering as a result. This whole experience with Chad has taught me that loving others must always come first. I will continue to pray for him. I've challenged myself to be more charitable and loving with others.

I have had the opportunities to begin the My Plan Course for returning missionaries this week...that was SCARY!!!! This week, I had the chance to reflect on all the things that I have learned in my mission. It's hard to sum up a two year experience in a 400-word summary. I have learned that I need to do better at trusting God, I have learned that God's love is real. I have also grown in my desire to develop Christlike attributes, some of which that the Lord has helped me to develop in particular are Hope, Virtue, and Diligence. It's so interesting. I feel like I have one foot out the door and one still very much wanting to be inside. So strange. 

Lots of good things are happening, and I am definitely feeling the weight of my responsibilities. I I need to do better at getting out and about next week. We have some plans for lots of finding and reaching out people, some plans due to some miracles of calling people and then picking up and responding for our invitations to make appointments. Fingers crossed we start finding some new people. 

I love you all. I pray for each of you, and thank you for the prayers for Elder Raymundo and I. Please continue to do so, and pray specifically for Chad!

Have a great week!

Elder Butters/Bao ZhangLao

Service For Baby Puppies (Does that Even Count?)

They asked us to come help "serve" but I am not sure holding something like this counts as service. This is probably the tiniest thing I have ever held!

#97 - Enjoy As You Endure

你们好!

We are done with another week, and with that, another transfer as well. This has easily been one of my favorite transfers on my mission. This has been a week that has brought me a lot of joy. I have just been happy, and for anyone who knows me, being happy most of the time was not the common thing for me before my mission. But, more lessons of the week later.

In sad news, we unfortunalty had to drop a few of the investigators we've recently been working with. Unfortunately, Heavenly Father can't do much with someone who doesn't want to let Him into their life and help them to change, and neither can the missionaries. However, in GREAT news, we had an amazing lesson with our friend Chad. We asked Chad about how he has changed since he began meeting with missionaries, and what followed was a very open conversation about having a sense of belonging at church. The more I work with Chad, the more I realize how much we all need the Gospel. Because we are all imperfect, the church is the one place we all belong. Why? We are all reliant on our Savior' s Atonement. Though sometimes it may not feel that we are worthy of it, or that it applies to everyone but us, it is very real and personal to each of us. It was amazing to talk with Chad about justice and God's love as well. I learned that God will guide us to what is right, and warn us of dangers that come from choosing contrary to His will, but He will let us choose. He will not withhold the consequences of our actions, but He will try to warn us before we can get too far off track. Chad has been one of those people I feel so blessed to be able to work with. I will never forget the experiences I've had with him.

I've really enjoyed the companionship of the Spirit this week. I feel that I am understanding more and more what it means to have the Spirit to always be with me. I had some really good studies on trust and integrity, and how I can continually increase my trust in the Lord. That has been a theme throughout my mission, and continues to be an area where I need to grow more. I am trying to rely more on Him instead of worrying about things that are out of my control, but we'll keep working. In general, it's been a really spiritual week for me, which I feel is part of the reason I have been so happy. 

Some other reasons to be happy; we have a new music rule, and my companion and I now rock out to Disney songs most every time we are in the car! I forgot how much I LOVE MUSIC! We got to do wash a ton of dishes for service and also hold newborn puppies. We had a picnic activity with the Oakley 1st Ward, which was awesome. And, people who know my family from old college days are filling our cupboards with food. People are wonderful!

Now, the sad news...transfers happened...and my friend Elder Ratliff is leaving! He will be spending his last transfer in Union City, where I started my mission. I will remain here in Antioch to spend my final transfer. I cannot believe that I am saying that...final transfer... Anyway, a big goal that I have for this last transfer is to have joy while I work. Elder Ratliff has showed me thay life is to be enjoyed, not just endured. I think I found a new philosophy in that statement. I hope to continue feeling happy.

Love you all. I miss you all. I cannot believe that we are now at the beginning of the end. Look for more details on new companions and new adventures next week! 谢谢 for your prayers, love, and concern. Keep them coming! 

我爱你们!

Elder Butters/包长老

Wig Fun and Elder Uchtdorf!

A little bit of craziness relieves the pressure of a long day!

Elder Uchtdorf visits the mission!  Check the upper right corner to find Benjamin.

Much Ado About Nothing

早安!

A word I would use to describe this week is uneventful. Nothing spectacular really happened, but I'll share some highlights.

We started the week having a lesson with Sylvia. We are really trying to help her progress, but have come to a standstill. The next point for her is baptism, and after being taught by missionaries for almost a year, she still isn't ready to commit because of fears of what her father will do and think as a result. Granted we don't know the whole situation, but it is frustrating at times when a 50 year old woman doesn't feel confident enough to make her own decisions. We taught her a lesson on the Tree of Life and her personal journey down the Gospel path to the Tree, and how we need to constantly be taking steps forward in order for this gospel to really have effect in our lives. We won't be meeting with her as much as we have been, so we will hopefully be able to find more people who are ready to progress.
Chad came to church yesterday, but we were unable to meet with him. We planned to go to a YSA fireside on church history with him, but he didn't show up, which was a bummer... He's pretty quiet, but we've been able to get him to open up about some of his concerns as we've been talking to him about his Book of Mormon reading and his questions. He's doing well.

Now how about some positives of the week? Wednesday, Elder Ratliff and I attended Mission Leadership Council, where we got to talk a lot about policies and the general status of the mission. I love seeing missionary friends at these meetings, and knowing that they are all working so hard and caring so much makes me feel like Alma reuniting with the Sons of Mosiah. That was fun, as were the changes in policy to our mission.
I also got to go on exchanges with Elder Saungsevarng, a new missionary who is a convert from Laos. He is one of the most sincere and genuine people I've ever met, and so happy to be a missionary. We had a good day of raking leaves and knocking doors together. Loved his positivity. My favorite moment of the week was a miracle that happened on that exchange. We got a call from one of our less active members asking us to come over and give the grandmother of the family a blessing. We were able to do so, and Bro Tupou talked to us afterwards. He said that us coming over was the first time he's felt the Spirit in his home in a long time, and said that the night marked the beginning of a change for him. That experience spoke to me about the true power of the Spirit and the incredible influence it has on people. It brings things to our remembrance, whether that be knowledge and testimony, or not we previously felt. I was grateful to be apart of that evening for the Tupou family. They are now one of the families we and our awesome Ward Mission Leader, Bro. Aiello (who else can say that you have a Ward Mission Leader who invites you over to a dinner of leftovers and then out of the blue decides to grill us up some T-bone steaks!), will keep an eye on. 

Good things are happening. The Zone is doing well, but it's about time that we really try to keep positive and have faith. I learned a lot about having faith to overcome doubt while preparing for a talk that I gave in Sacrament Meeting yesterday. Even when doubts arise, we need to rely on the testimony we already have and remember the things we already know. It's like the story of the man with the son possessed with a devil; if we do indeed believe, Christ will help us overcome our "unbelief," or the areas where we lack faith. I found the whole experience really insightful.

We are doing well here, and looking forward to fall. As always, thank you for all the support and love. It never goes unnoticed.

Love to you all!

Elder Butters/包长老

#95: Crunch Time!

各位大家好!

This has been a really busy week for me. We get up to a lot of teaching, training, working, and silliness in between.

As usual, let me start with the teaching pool. We had another great lesson with Chad this week. He is very thoughtful and brings a lot of questions to our lessons. We were able to review the concept of Repentance with him, while teaching him about the Holy Ghost, Enduring to the End, and Obedience. The idea of having a completely clean slate after we repent sincerely is a really hard concept for Chad to grasp, and I've been pondering that same thing this week. It has lead me to rely much more on the promise of the Sacrament, and how it allows me to recommit myself on a weekly basis. After a lifetime of membership in the church, I feel as though I've finally learned the significance of that ordinance.
We had another lesson with Sylvia where we taught the Plan of Salvation, which I really love to teach. It's been hard trying to find a way to teach her, because she has been taught for so long and knows so much. We are really just hoping for a miracle that her Dad will allow her to be baptized soon. We had another great lesson with Enrique as well, and he's now been "passed off" to be taught by some of the sisters in our Zone. He's also a really cool guy, and seeing the Spirit enlighten him during moments of teaching is really interesting to watch.

We continued our finding efforts, which to be honest, were pretty repetitive and tiring. I've had more rude comments over the last few days said to me while tracting just over the past few days than I have in a really long time. Tracting has brought a few very interesting people to the door. We met one man who is writing a series of books about people with superheroes based on the fruits of the Spirit, and another who was very much into heavy metal bands and surprisingly accepted a copy of the Book of Mormon!

We attended a lot of meetings this week; a Zone Conference reviewing our visit with Elder Uchtdorf and giving a training, and my first Stake Coordination meeting. In between all of that, we went on exchanges with the Brentwood 2nd/Marsh Creek Elders. I spent the day with Elder Fish in his area. We got to experience a cool miracle in finding a potential person with interest, which was very welcomed for their area, one where it's really hard to find. We managed to find her after a massive day of contacting people. Cool little miracles. 

That's pretty much the brunt of it this week! 

I love you. I love what I am doing. It can be hard and frustrating, but it is pretty rewarding. I am grateful for this experience. 

Have a fantastic week! 

Elder Butters/包长老