Dear Friends and Family,
This has been a bit of a slow week but we have still had some fun
experiences. We went to the cromptons house earlier in the week and
had a lesson. It was a little strange at first because the daughters
didn't want to even listen or talk to us which was a little odd. We
taught the mother about Jesus Christ and Prophets but she kept telling
us that she didn't believe it and wouldn't pray. They told us not to
come back and teach them anymore which was a little bit of a blow. We
found out the next day that a few other investigators had only been
"just friends" with the previous missionaries and one of them(who we
met only once for about 5 minutes) called our mission president and
told him nasty things about us.
After some thought, my companion and I decided that the reason we both
were sent to this area was because past missionaries weren't teaching
the way they should so we got the entire area book(aside from a few
less active members and formers) and we threw out all the records of
those that had been dealt with in the past and we started over. It
felt so good!
We have already been seeing the success from it. We have been doing
much more finding and talked to many more people. On Tuesday we did
the art class which went super great! The first class had nobody show
up so I went out on the front lawn with the eisel and painted for that
time in hopes that some people would come talk to us. We had a few
people but we determined that it wasn't the right spot. Later in the
night, we did the second class which was heaps successful. We had 4
nonmembers show up and they loved the lesson I taught. The one
tomorrow is expecting a very decent turn out! I am very excited for
it.
On saturday, we went to bro Gericatanos house because he was in need
of some help with his house that he has been remodeling. Our job was
to paint the bricks outside. It was pretty fun and I didn't get any
paint on my nice white shirt!

We went later saturday night to the park to do some more painting on
the canvas and it went really well. I started out painting for about
15 or 20 mins but some teenagers walked over and started asking some
questions. They asked what I was painting and I told them it was a
temple for our church. They mentioned that they think it would be cool
but they would never be able to afford it. After telling them it was
free they became more interested! It was really fun to talk to them
because they were so open. It ended up leading to another group of
kids all between the ages of 14 to 17 and they were all asking
questions about life and we had answers! I didn't get much painted
which was great because I spent all the time teaching these kids the
plan of salvation and gaining their interest. Before they left I told
them briefly about Joseph Smith and told them to pray. We won't be
able to teach them again until they ask their parents permission so
hopefully they do. We will be doing much more contacting this way
though.

Thanks for all your support and prayers. Feel free to sent me paper letters too!
Elder Joshua Butts