Dear Friends and Family,
This has been an awesome week! Ian was baptized!!! and not only that, but he truly showed his commitment to the gospel on Sunday when his fellowship and family was sick and couldn't make it to church (Most people would use this as an excuse to stay home) but he still drove himself to the ward and showed up to church alone. Fortunately we were still there and he wasn't completely alone at church. It was such an incredible experience to help him get baptized and I will not forget it ever.

After the baptism the ward did their Christmas party at the foreshore and we ate there for the lunch. It lasted quite a while so Elder Fatupaito and I decided that rather than wasting time, we would go proselyte for a while on the sidewalk along the beach. We had little success but then we offered a card that had a picture of Jesus Christ on it to a guy who was smoking and his girlfriend. He then started asking us all kinds of crazy questions about Jesus Christ and the end of the world. When we would start answering his questions he would interrupt with more questions and we felt like we were getting nowhere. We decided to ask him if we could say a prayer with him. I started praying and he interrupted during the prayer by talking as if he was continuing the prayer for me (which I figured was good because he was making an effort) but as he was talking, his words all the sudden became directed at us so we didn't get to finish right off. He talked about how his life was so bad and we asked if he believed if he had ever followed Jesus Christ. He replied with a definite NO. I told him how he had already chosen to follow Jesus Christ in the spirit world and that is why he was on this earth. He started crying heaps and we didn't know exactly how to react. He all the sudden said thanks for the chat and left. It was quite an interesting experience so Elder Fatupaito and myself said a prayer together to thank Heavenly Father for the experience and to finish the prayer we had started saying while we were talking to the young man.
Another quite spiritual experience I had with Elder Fatupaito was when we were at the same foreshore but this time we were doing some creative finding. I had gotten a large sheet of paper and some pictures of Jesus Christ and we sat in the middle of the sidewalk while I would draw pictures of Jesus while people would walk by and some of them would ask questions. Nobody was really stopping by much and the flies were getting so bad that I was afraid that if I blinked, a fly would get stuck in my eye. I asked Elder Fatupaito if we could say a prayer that I could draw with the convince of not having flies buzzing all around my face. Almost instantly after we prayed, the flied left(with the exception of 2or3 here and there. It was such a tender mercy from the lord.
We also had the mission Christmas activity by the temple last Friday and there was a really good turn out. Over 1000 people showed up to it and we even were able to receive some referrals and get some non-members interested in investigating. It was a great night full of fun and the spirit was felt greatly, Even though we did get home a little late.
I am very excited for Christmas this next Sunday! I hope you are all doing your best to gave the Christ spirit in your lives and doing everything you can to think about how you can give to others.
I love you all.
ELDER BUTTS