Grind Week

Happy New Year Everyone!

The last two weeks have been the craziest weeks of my life! I don't even know where to start! I guess I'll start by saying that Sister Timmerman and I are basically Hermione Granger and Cho Chang. We made that connection while we were eating very large burritos with our friend Ashley at a farmers market! 

We've been so busy that we forgot to get water, toilet paper, and quarters to fo laundry! Just the basic necessities of life, but we survived and our district leader gave us some water bottles so we never had to drink the Flint water! Sister Timmerman and I were talking about how ridiculous our week was, and I came to the realization that our conversion must be deepening because we're forgetting about our temporal needs! Yay!

We had exchanges this week and it was the second time I've had to lead my area! The first time was when I had only been out for two weeks, and that was terrifying. This time I did a lot better! Sister Browm is our STL and she stayed in Flint with me. As the day went on we kept finding more and more things that we have in common! We both think that it's a little creepy how similar we are. For example, we both wanted to go to Australia on our missions (no offense to Michigan cause its great), we both think we would be Buddhist if we never knew about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, we both love hiking and being in nature, and we both want to be nutritionists! Pretty cool cause we would have never met outside of the mission. While we were on exchanges I finally figured out what the awful smell is in our apartment building hallway! I recognized the smell when we were talking to a guy while tracting. Its pot! Pot smells so bad like skunks! The senior companion couple hold their breath every time they come to our appartment cause they hate it so bad. I think it's kind of funny. Now I'm used to our stinky smelling apartment hall.

After exchanges Sister Timmerman and I set goals so that by the end of this transfer I'll be able to lead my area like a champ! I'm calling the next week and a half Grind Week or Missionary Self Reliance Week! From now on I'm driving everywhere, making all the calls and texts, leading planning, and leading lessons! It's been so fun and I'm a lot more confident.

Of course, as soon as we made this week Grind week, we got a pounding! Our district had to send an Elder home for health reasons and that was very sad for all of us. They officially closed the biking Elders area down. Now our struggling ward has just two sets of missionaries instead of three. They set the new boundaries for our area so that we cover part of the old Flint South area. For a hot second we heard rumors that they were talking about taking Sisters out of Flint and we were freaking out about that. Thankfully I don't think we have to worry about that for a little while longer. We got a new Bishopric this Sunday. That's good though because the old bishop said that he's going to be a missionary now, come to correlation still, and visit tons of members he never got the chance to while he was serving as bishop. He's a really cool guy. Our stake President wants to downsize the Flint ward to one set of missionaries so that the members are forced to be more self reliant. Bishop told us that we need to fight to stay here because we are literally everyone's ministering sisters. Member work is going to explode this next month!

We've been teaching a lady named Shelby ever since I got here. She was the very first person I invited to be baptized and then she disappeared for a couple of weeks. Then we found her and she still wanted to get baptized. Then she dropped us, then she came back, then she dropped us again. What a rollercoaster! We were so stressed out with her.

Now for the best news! Eboney and Cierra are getting baptized this Saturday! All day on Friday and Saturday we were trying to find a ride for them to come to church. Cierra needed to come one more time in order to be baptized! We tried everyone we could think of, but had zero luck! I was so close to just paying an uber to take them to church. I thought it was pretty brilliant. We actually started sobbing one night after some of our inactive recent converts called us to tell us that they got a ride with the person who normally gives Cierra and Eboney a ride. It was like our people were trying to sabotage us! A miracle happened because we were able to get them a ride with an inactive couple who hasn't been to church in months! Eboney had her baptismal interview on Sunday and Cierra's is this Wednesday! We are so pumped! They are like our family now! Eboney's daughter came up to me and hugged me while I was talking to another lady at church and she said, "did you know this is like my sister? She comes to my house basically everyday!" I love them! I have loved seeing their family change because of the gospel of Jesus Christ! 

Okay, the come follow me program for 2020 is amazing! I am so excited to help Eboney's family start implementing it! It really made me think of how I introduce the Book of Mormon to people. From now on, I'm going to introduce it with some more gusto! The book of mormon is the coolest book you will ever read! This book will literally change your life! Its not only about God's dealings with the people in the ancient America's, it's about an ancient record that was hid up in a hillside for centuries and brought forth by a farm boy who translated it by the power of god! Ahhhhhh that's so cool! Not to mention the epic wars and appearances from Angel's also recorded in the book of mormon, and the crowning event when Jesus Christ comes to visit the people in America after he's crucified and resurrected! I can testify of the divine power that will flow into your life as soon as you start studying the Book of Mormon! It's real and it's absolutely necessary for true conversion! 

I love you all!

Sister Butler

Gangster with our matching CTR rings

Farmers market with Ashley

Face masks and exchanges