Dear Friends and Family,
It has been great this past week. I got my new companion on Wednesday
and I am very excited for this transfer. We have been doing heaps of
biking! I love it. I barely got to bike at all last transfer. My new
companion is from Bunderburg in Queensland. It is where they make
ginger beer. It is really popular in Australia and they sell it here
and there in the states.
One experience we had the other day was pretty cool. We were biking
around and had biked probably 15 miles during the day and when we were
about to go back home, we ran into a kid who was walking home from
school. He had already met with missionaries before but he wasn’t on
the records. He said he might be a little interested so we are going
to see him sometime this week to hopefully teach him. We were
surprised that he was that willing to talk to us.
We also went to a member’s house earlier this week and on the way, we
saw a guy who had just gotten home from shopping and offered to talk
to us for a minute. We talked about his beliefs and he mentioned that
his wife had been to Utah and talked to sister missionaries at the
Salt Lake Temple. It was really cool and he offered to feed us
sometime (which doesn’t usually happen when you street contact
someone).
It has been a fun week but hopefully there will be more going on this
week. We still have people who said they would be coming to the art
class so that will be good. Unfortunately, however, we won’t get to do
painting near the beach because the mission president said that we
shouldn’t be doing it. He didn’t give a very definite reason, but I
know that he is inspired so we are going to follow his counsel.
I love you all. Keep doing your best to do what god wants us to do!
Love
Elder Joshua Butts
Sunday, February 12, 2012
Dear Friends and Family,
It was a great week. My companion(Elder Scragg) finished his mission on Friday and went home so I have been in Rockingham with a missionary who has been out for 6 weeks. He is quite well trained and we have been having fun together. Just in the last few days we have gotten 3 new investigators. One of them we contacted at the foreshore. He was from Zimbabwe and was quite open. He told us that he used to be catholic, but he felt like he was sitting and going nowhere by doing that so he changed to Pentecostal. He let us share with him about Joseph smith and said he would pray about if he was a true prophet.
Unfortunately, I will be going back to Busselton in 2 days so I wont be able to find out how the teaching goes with him. When I do go back, however, I we have an appointment with a volunteer center and they may have me teach one of their art classes, so I think that will be pretty exciting and we will get to meet heaps of new people.
That's pretty much whats been going on lately. I hope all the best for all of you!
Elder Joshua Butts
It was a great week. My companion(Elder Scragg) finished his mission on Friday and went home so I have been in Rockingham with a missionary who has been out for 6 weeks. He is quite well trained and we have been having fun together. Just in the last few days we have gotten 3 new investigators. One of them we contacted at the foreshore. He was from Zimbabwe and was quite open. He told us that he used to be catholic, but he felt like he was sitting and going nowhere by doing that so he changed to Pentecostal. He let us share with him about Joseph smith and said he would pray about if he was a true prophet.
Unfortunately, I will be going back to Busselton in 2 days so I wont be able to find out how the teaching goes with him. When I do go back, however, I we have an appointment with a volunteer center and they may have me teach one of their art classes, so I think that will be pretty exciting and we will get to meet heaps of new people.
That's pretty much whats been going on lately. I hope all the best for all of you!
Elder Joshua Butts
Dear Family,
This has been a wonderful week. We got to go to the beach on Saturday
which was really exciting. We still didn't get to go swimming but it
was fun just being there anyway. It was because they were doing a
branch activity and we had a less active family we had invited and a
family with a less active mother and a non-member son. It was such a
great activity because everyone that we invited CAME! What was even
better was that the non-member son didn't really want to swim because
he had been at the beach earlier in the day and was a little sunburnt
so he stayed on the shore and we were able to talk with him the whole
time and start growing a relationship. I love activities like this
because they are fun and rare activities for the missionaries to do
and it was a missionary activity! I guess it obviously was because if
it wasn't, we wouldn't have been there.
On Sunday it was pretty fun too because It was my week to play the
organ. The songs the chorister had picked were pretty hard and I had
never played any of them in my life. Heavenly Father has surely been
blessing me though because I played them all quite well with the help
of an hours practice earlier in the week.
We went the "Hands" house on Friday and it was quite fun. They are
less active and we went to do some weeding for them (and accidentally
pulled out one of her flowers which we thought was a weed because it
was dead as) but she didn't mind and when she saw it she was very
astonished and said it hadn't looked like that in months. We felt like
we did a good job. Afterward, she invited us inside for dinner. She
was still preparing it and while we were chatting she mentioned how
her son played the saxophone a little but hadn't for a while. I told
her that I played sax and she got it out and asked me to play for a
bit. It was fun especially since I haven't toughed a saxophone in over
2 years.
We are going to start helping out with a volunteer group soon too.
They gave us the options to help with a special needs group by riding
bikes with them, work at a nursery sorting through plants, seeds, etc.
or we also have the option that we can work at a place called LAMP
(learning about mental problems) and I may either teach an art class
there or get to do something else creative. I am kinda hoping that it
works out with LAMP but I will love doing any kind of service.
There is one last story I wanted to tell you about too. We were called
by a member in the ward who asked us if we could help someone in
Dunsborough move. We said we could and showed up with this person’s
house who we had never met before. He said it was very unexpected and
we started helping. It was a good thing I have done lots of work with
moving back home because they didn't know how to use some certain
tools like the dolly. We all were able to get the 3ton truck loaded
and told the missionaries in Perth(where he was moving to) to help him
unpack. We got a call by the same ward member later in the week
telling us that he needed help with the cleaning of his house and
packing us the rest of the stuff. We gladly came up to help. After a
couple hours of work we were pretty tired. While working, he asked us
why we did such things as showing up to a total strangers house to
help move. We told him that god has blessed us with so much and this
is our way of giving back and it is what our church believes in. He
has been non-denominational but he is Christian. We talked to him a
little more and he said, "You know... you guys really inspire me. I
wish everyone in the world was like you". It really made us feel good
inside and we found out that now the missionaries have been getting
their family into some activities in Perth and they will probably
start being taught the gospel soon! It was such a great opportunity
and it was very fun.
That is about what has been going on this week! I hope you are all
keeping the spirit with you and having a good time!
Elder Joshua Butts
This has been a wonderful week. We got to go to the beach on Saturday
which was really exciting. We still didn't get to go swimming but it
was fun just being there anyway. It was because they were doing a
branch activity and we had a less active family we had invited and a
family with a less active mother and a non-member son. It was such a
great activity because everyone that we invited CAME! What was even
better was that the non-member son didn't really want to swim because
he had been at the beach earlier in the day and was a little sunburnt
so he stayed on the shore and we were able to talk with him the whole
time and start growing a relationship. I love activities like this
because they are fun and rare activities for the missionaries to do
and it was a missionary activity! I guess it obviously was because if
it wasn't, we wouldn't have been there.
On Sunday it was pretty fun too because It was my week to play the
organ. The songs the chorister had picked were pretty hard and I had
never played any of them in my life. Heavenly Father has surely been
blessing me though because I played them all quite well with the help
of an hours practice earlier in the week.
We went the "Hands" house on Friday and it was quite fun. They are
less active and we went to do some weeding for them (and accidentally
pulled out one of her flowers which we thought was a weed because it
was dead as) but she didn't mind and when she saw it she was very
astonished and said it hadn't looked like that in months. We felt like
we did a good job. Afterward, she invited us inside for dinner. She
was still preparing it and while we were chatting she mentioned how
her son played the saxophone a little but hadn't for a while. I told
her that I played sax and she got it out and asked me to play for a
bit. It was fun especially since I haven't toughed a saxophone in over
2 years.
We are going to start helping out with a volunteer group soon too.
They gave us the options to help with a special needs group by riding
bikes with them, work at a nursery sorting through plants, seeds, etc.
or we also have the option that we can work at a place called LAMP
(learning about mental problems) and I may either teach an art class
there or get to do something else creative. I am kinda hoping that it
works out with LAMP but I will love doing any kind of service.
There is one last story I wanted to tell you about too. We were called
by a member in the ward who asked us if we could help someone in
Dunsborough move. We said we could and showed up with this person’s
house who we had never met before. He said it was very unexpected and
we started helping. It was a good thing I have done lots of work with
moving back home because they didn't know how to use some certain
tools like the dolly. We all were able to get the 3ton truck loaded
and told the missionaries in Perth(where he was moving to) to help him
unpack. We got a call by the same ward member later in the week
telling us that he needed help with the cleaning of his house and
packing us the rest of the stuff. We gladly came up to help. After a
couple hours of work we were pretty tired. While working, he asked us
why we did such things as showing up to a total strangers house to
help move. We told him that god has blessed us with so much and this
is our way of giving back and it is what our church believes in. He
has been non-denominational but he is Christian. We talked to him a
little more and he said, "You know... you guys really inspire me. I
wish everyone in the world was like you". It really made us feel good
inside and we found out that now the missionaries have been getting
their family into some activities in Perth and they will probably
start being taught the gospel soon! It was such a great opportunity
and it was very fun.
That is about what has been going on this week! I hope you are all
keeping the spirit with you and having a good time!
Elder Joshua Butts
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