September 30

Dear Friends and Family, It was such a great week! We had two investigator as Sacrament meeting. We still have Preston coming and his mother (His brother Jamella who is 9 has decided that the world is more important that church right now but I believe that he will follow his mother and brother eventually). We are VERY excited for Preston because he finally decided that he wants to be baptized. He said originally that he wanted to wait a few months but yesterday at church, he decided that he is ready and wants to be baptized in a few weeks. He is going to talk to his mother about it and they will tell us the date he would like to be baptized on Thursday. I am SO excited. It has been amazing to see Toni(his mother) and her family go from complete estrangement to the church to coming every week and striving to be worthy for every blessing the lord has for them. It is incredible. Hopefully their influence will affect everyone in the family. We had another cool tracting experience this week. We chose a street to knock a street and had no success during the first 10-15 minutes. We suddenly came to a large house to which we had no thought of the resident being even remotely interested in Heavenly Father when they must have had such vast wealth. We had a particularly surprising experience upon actually knocking though. An unusually inviting catholic man opened the door and excitedly invites us in for some dessert and a drink. How is that for a surprise? He took us out back where we saw his wife and the puzzle was put together. We knew her because we do service at St. Vincents thrift shop once a week. He sat with is and started talking about the history of the catholic church. He is a historian of some kind. We mentioned that he should become acquainted with the history of Our church. He was surprisingly interested, especially when we told him about the third book that would come forth before Christ comes again, but He still spent pretty much the rest of the time talking about more of the history of the catholic church. Before leaving we asked if he would like to read the Book of Mormon. We got the expected response that if he was inclined to read any religious book, we would likely only choose the Bible which he specified to be the King James version. Now this I can testify is how I know that the Holy Ghost Can guide conversations because we told him that we read that same bible. It was ONLY after that comment that he chose (of his own free will) to ask us for a Book of Mormon. I don't know why he suddenly changed his mind but I am sure it's because of the spirit. Karratha is a great place! Hopefully you are all enjoying the new temple! Love Elder Butts

September 23

Dear Friends and Family, It has been a pretty busy week as usual, although it just wasn't as packed with teaching people. We have been doing extra knocking on doors. I gave a talk in sacrament meeting yesterday too. I'm pretty sure it's the longest talk i've ever given. I talked for almost 20 minutes. I'm so glad I prepared during the week and prayed that the spirit would guide me. I think it was amazing to see how much the spirit does for people who pray for it. We had another cool tracting experience this past week. We went to an area that probably hadn't been tracted for about a year (because I'm pretty sure all of karratha has been tracted 10times over) and we prayed to be able to meet someone who needed us. We met some teenagers because a lot of parents work all the time in karratha. We were able to give away 2 book of Mormons, a finding faith in Christ DVD and a CD with Mormon messages on it. We were getting close to the end of the street and we tracted into a house with an aboriginal family. It was the mothers birthday so we told her happy birthday and that we had a present for her. Her name is Joanne. We told her we were going to give her the gospel and she agreed that she needed to come back to church. "WHAT?, come back?" she told us she used to go quite regularly 2 or 3 years ago but her family was going through some financial struggles and stopped going (That happens to people a lot here is seems). Well her family is actually all non-members and they told us we could come teach them. That was a bit of a miracle. Nothing is set in stone yet, but we have lots of faith so hopefully we can help this family come back to the church and get some baptisms out of it! It is good because since she has been to church before, she already knows some of the members. On Saturday we went to an art competition at the visitors center. So the story is that about a month ago, we stopped in just to check out the visitors center and saw a flyier for a recycled art competition. I figured it would be the perfect opportunity to get into the public and share some of our beliefs. I got some pizza and cereal boxes and glued them together to make a board. To make the image, I got newspapers and magazines we found (Don't worry, I didn't cut up a single church magazine) and used the clippings of color to make an image of the Pilbarra and I placed Jesus Christ in it. When I was finished I felt that it looked like a 12year old did it but at least it will get the message across. On Saturday we went to the opening night and were able to meet some of the other people who had done artwork. It was a great way to talk about Jesus Christ and hopefully we will be able to get some people to ask some questions in the future. I love being out here serving! I hope you are all finding opportunities to serve those around you! Love Elder Butts

September 16

Dear Friends and Family, It has been a crazy week because it's getting so HOT! Just a few days ago it got up to 102 degrees. We have been drinking Tons of water but sometimes I still get headaches from either dehydration or heat exhaustion, so we have had to be pretty careful. We went tracting one day this week and had another cool experience. We have ben telling Alberto that we were gonna tract his street one of these days but never got around to it but one morning we just decided to do it. We didn't have any one who was super interested but when we got to the last house, we met Caitlin, his neighbor. She said she had talked to Alberto a lot and seen us go over there pretty often. We asked her what kinda questions she had about god and stuff and she told us that she liked finding out new things about him because she just wasn't sure. We told her about the Book of Mormon and she was interested in obtaining one so we offered to have a lesson with her and Alberto. We are going to set it up this week so it is pretty exciting! Not much else has happened. Hopefully we can get heaps of stuff going on this week though! Have a wonderful week everyone! Love, Elder Joshua Butts

September 9

Dear Friends and Family, It has been such an incredible week! We have been finding so many new investigators and helping people so much. One of the best pieces of news is that Kelvin came back up here from Perth. He came to church yesterday and he had an incredible Gospel Principals lesson on Charity. We had a really cool experience tracting yesterday after church. We went to a street we had tracted earlier in the week but nobody was home at the time so we decided to retract it. As we were knocking a few doors, it seemed that most people were just drinking and partying so it wasn't the best situation to be in for tracting but we still knew that no effort is ever wasted. We went to the next house only to find a very nice christian lady named Belinda, who opened the door and listened to us share for a minute about how god has called a prophet and how we can be with our families forever by being sealed in the temple. She didn't seem too convinced at first so I decided to just tell it to her straight that "Our church is the only true church on the earth". She replied saying that she felt the same way about her church to which we told her that she was only going to be able to find out which of us was right if she read the book of Mormon and prayed to know whether or not we were telling the truth. She seemed quite hesitant to accept the book of Mormon but the second she took it she said "You know. I'm gonna pray about this OK. And I'm gonna ask if what you're telling me is true". She said we could come back next week and find out how everything went. It was a really cool experience. We also sometimes spend some time at the library for a drink/bathroom break when we are biking out in the farther part of our area. Well this time while we were sitting, the woman at the desk at the library was talking to us about books. We asked her if she had ever heard of the book of Mormon. She told us that she hadn't but we could donate one to her if we had an extra one. That would be a really good way to get people exposed to it (but we mostly wanted the librarian chaz to read it). We gave her the book and she started reading right away. She even asked some questions about the Gold Plates and Joseph smith. A few days later we went back for another short break and showed her some pictures of the temples which she showed great interest in. She was especially interested in the Rome temple which is under construction and also told us we could bring the Book of Mormon Ensign to donate it to the library as well. It is so incredible how much missionary work has been going on in Karratha and we will be expecting some great miracles in the near future. Thanks for all the support again. Keep doing your best everyone! Love ya Elder Joshua Butts

September 2

Dear Friends and Family, It has been such an incredible week. We baptized Priscilla on Saturday! It went so great and she even bore her testimony during fast and testimony meeting at church yesterday. Elder Case baptized her on saturday and I confirmed her on Sunday. I hope you all had fun at the Brigham City Temple open house. I will be getting my new companion in a few hours. His name is Elder Pasina. He is from Tonga. I am pretty excited to keep the missionary work rolling with him. We have also still been meeting with Toni this week. Her and Preston(her son) came to the baptism of Priscilla and they seemed to really like it and they also came to church. Jamella is the one who wants to be baptised but he decided to stay at his friends house instead of going to church so we will have to keep working on his keeping the sabbath day holy so he and Preston can be baptised soon. I had a kinda cool experience with a member yesterday. We were talking with him at the chapel and he was telling us about a YSA activity they were doing that night. He said they were all going to get fast food for the activity because he didn't have that much food and he had done other things that were much worse anyway so it wouldn't matter this once. It reminded me of when we were teaching Preston and Jamella about keeping the sabbath day holy and we read a story from the friend to them called "Drive-Through Decision". I really felt like sharing the same story with the member we were talking to so I had him pull it up on his phone and I read it to him. Before I finished the story he said "OKAY I wont go anymore ok!" but a minute later he said it reminded him of when he was going to go to the store on a sunday but he stubbed his foot on the way in so he decided to leave. Later in the day he called us and told us thanks for helping him keep the sabbath day holy. I am so glad that we were able to help him with that and I felt like it was much inspired to read the story. I hope you all have a wonderful week!! Love, Elder Joshua Butts

Priscilla Baptism

August 26

Dear Friends and Family, It has been such a spirit filled week! We got 13 lessons which is pretty much a record for this area. We also have some amazing and exciting news. We will be having a baptism this Saturday! It is for Pracilla. We have been teaching her and she finally got an interview with the branch president at church yesterday and she passed it with flying colours so he suggested that we get in contact with the mission president and set up a time for the next interview. We called up President Lindsay and he said it was so great that she is going so well and that after he Skype's her on Tuesday that she is ready for baptism. Since Elder Case is going home next week, president suggested that we set up the baptism for this Saturday. there are many members of the branch who are leaving town but he said that if we felt good about it, that we should set it up for this Saturday. We both felt pretty good about it and after making some calls, we decided to go with it. I am super excited. We also are teaching Pracillas uncle as of this week too. We got a random call from Noretta (Pracillas sister who was baptised last November) and she said she had been talking to her Uncle Victor and he had some great questions about how our body is a temple and about other Mormon temples. It was an incredible lesson that we got to teach. He apparently went to a YSA activity the other day with one of the other YSA. The next step is to just get him to church and keep teaching him. On Saturdays we usually help out with some community gardens. While we were helping, we met Kurt. He is from Queensland and has been traveling through Australia. He is really big into Tai Chi so he likes meditating a lot. Sometimes he just stops whatever he is doing and stars doing hand and leg movements like he's dancing, or he'll sit on the ground with his legs crossed and his eyes closed. I didn't really mind, but sometimes it was a little strange to be mixing cement for a flower bed container and he would randomly disappear. He told us he liked reading the bible a bit and we shared with him about the book of Mormon. He seemed a little interested so we offered to give him one. The next day, bro Otto had talked him to church. That was a bit surprising. We found out that as bro Otto was driving to church, he saw Kurt at the side of the road. He asked what Kurt was doing and Kurt told him that he wasn't really doing much. Bro Otto just decided to bring him to church. He really seemed to enjoy it and I was glad that he came. Hopefully he will contact other missionaries on his travels. I am so thankful to be out here witnessing all these miracles and I really hope you are all finding people to share the gospel with also. Thanks so much for all your love and support. I love you all, Elder Joshua Butts

August 19

Dear Family, We got to do some pretty awesome activities this week. Jamella who does BMX got in a bad bike crash on thursday. He actually ended up in crutches but they decided because so many people are crashing their bikes they need to pave the BMX course. We offered to help so the majority of the morning on saturday they trucked in about 20 tons of hot blacktop and since you cant use a steam roller on the BMX tract, we had these poles with a roller on the end of them which we would roll back and forth on top of the pavement to set it. We would have to spray the roller with diesel fuel every now and then so it didn't stick to the rocks and tar. It was probably the most fun service project I have done since being in Karratha. We also got to meet a few new people there and Toni and her family were there. On one day this week we were getting back to our apartment for lunch and saw our neighbors relative outside putting together a trampoline. Colleen lives out on the other side of our area and we had never met her before but we started helping her put it together anyway. She told us that she knew Noretta, one of our Torres Strait recent converts. Colleen said she goes to the JW church sometimes because they tracted into her but she actually was baptised as a mormon ages ago. We told her about the church while we were helping and she became interested in the book of mormon again. We ran in and got one for her so hopefully she is reading it now and will come to church sometime. Those were the fun stories for this week. I hope you are all having a wonderful time! Love Elder Joshua Butts

PICTURE: Norettas kids. We baptised Keddie-Bunna a month ago.

August 12

Dear friends and family, It has been a pretty eventful week! I got in a pretty bad bike crash on Wednesday. My hands got pretty messed up but nothing else too serious happened. I am healing up pretty good by now. We have been teaching heaps of people. On Thursday, we went over to Dilia(Less active member) and Clint's house. They are both aboriginals and he took us out Kangaroo hunting. He had never been very receptive but they both allowed us to teach Dilia's children. We planned to teach them the plan of salvation by having elder case teach while I drew it out on a piece of paper like a pathway through life. They loved being able to picture it and Clint was very attentive. During part of it he said that what we taught is how it should be and he agrees with it. We told them to read Alma 40 about the spirit would and that we would ask them questions about it next time to make sure they read. The whole family seemed to like the idea and we really felt the spirit. We are going to see them again this week, so hopefully they kept their commitments. We also have great news about Toni and her kids. We finally got Toni's records in the branch yesterday so she officially was sustained as a member of the branch. Preston and Jamella were pretty excited about going to church yesterday. They even got new suits just to wear at church and it is pretty cool watching them participate so much. The primary teachers have even told us that they participate more than some of the other kids who are members. I am so glad they fit in so well. We were able to teach their family about temples this past week and we retaught "Gospel of Jesus Christ" to them on Saturday after helping them move a giant trailer from their backyard to the street. It was quite a task, especially because it was too big to fit through the car port so they had to drain most of the air out of the tires. I bet it was at less than 15psi because the rims were almost touching the ground. Their friend DJ also came to church the first time yesterday. He is so cool. He always was alright for a quick chat when we went around to see Toni and her kids but yesterday he actually came to church. I think it's because he finally has a week off work due to having had a BMX bike handlebar put through his stomach. While in priesthood meeting he really expressed interest in learning more and excited accepted a book of Mormon when we gave him one. I hope we can start teaching him soon. We haven't seen Rawand lately. He is still following Ramadan so it is pretty much useless until it's over because he can't read any other books aside from the Qua'ran. We will be teaching him next Sunday though because I think he finishes Ramadan this week sometime. Kelvin has been doing well in Perth I think. We haven't been able to get a hold of him this past week and he still hasn't gone to church since he's been down there but the First Counselor in our branch took him to see the temple grounds while he was down in perth for work this past weekend. It was such a relief to hear that yesterday. I am excited for all the blessing that the lord is giving us here in Karratha. It is a place full of great people who have great potential. I love you all so much! Elder Joshua Butts

August 5

Dear Friends and Family, The week has been pretty good even though we have gotten fewer lessons that usual. Kelvin(who is currently down in Perth) decided that he wasn't super excited about visiting with the missionaries there. He said he just likes us better. I am glad that he likes us so much but at the same time, I am disappointed because we are trying to get him to know and trust in the savior, not us. We have been working with the missionaries by phone to try to help him out but we feel that it might just end up waiting till he comes back up here to Karratha and we will likely have to push his baptismal date back. We aren't too worried about it though. I know kelvin still has a super strong testimony and it will not likely be pushed back very much. Preston and Jamella and also progressing still. We weren't able to talk to them the past week because Jamella was in Perth getting an operation. We gave him a blessing before he left and we called them over the weekend and he was fine. They didn't come to church though because Toni, their mom, was sick. We will be seeing them this week to continue teaching them. There is also Great news about Pracilla, our investigator who is half aboriginal and half Torres Strait. Since her baptismal date had to be dropped because of various reasons, we got a call from President Lindsay and he said he can interview her on skype after we have taught her everything. We have been having a lesson a week with her and everything is going awesome. I am so excited for these people. We are still on schedule to have these 4 baptisms before the end of the year(and likely even within the next month or two) I am so thankful for all of you and your prayers for me and the people in this area. Please keep doing whats right and you will never go wrong. Love you all! Elder Joshua Butts

July 29

Dear Friends and Family, It has been an alright week. We had lost contact with Kelvin after he left for Perth last week, but we finally were able to call him on saturday which was a major blessing. He didn't make it to church though which worries us a bit. I hope we will be able to get him to start meeting with the missionaries down there because we don't want to have to push him baptismal date back. The rest of the people we are working with are doing quite well. We were able to get Toni's kids to church on sunday. Toni is the less active member and she has the sons Jordan(18), and Preston and Jamella who are both about 10. The two younger boys and Toni came to church last week and yesterday we were actually able to get Jordan to come which we were quite excited about. Teancum(one of the prospective missionaries in the branch) even knew Jordan from school so they made a bit of a connection there. Preston and Jamella want to be baptised so we are working with them and hopefully we will be able to get the date for them within the next week or two. At least they are enjoying church. Preston even came to the baptism we had on friday for Keddibanna(The son of a recent convert) and Preston really seemed to like it. Toni said he couldn't stop talking about it the rest of the night. I am so thankful that the lord is blessing us with people here to be teaching and I hope you are all still seeing the lords hand in you daily lives. I love you all. Elder Joshua Butts

July 22

Dear Friends and Family, It has been amazing seeing the progression in the work here in Karratha. We have recently gotten ANOTHER baptismal date with Ella, Torres Strait woman who has been taught for a while. Also there is a less active Aussie woman named Tony who we saw recently and she said her 10 and 11 year old boys will be super excited to get to start coming to church. When we saw them at church yesterday the two boys expressed interest in being baptised. We are hopefully going to be able to set two more baptismal dates this week with them which would give us 4 total(not to mention we are baptising a recent converts son this Friday because he just turned 8). Here are potentially the baptismal dates that we could have next week. Bunna(He will be baptised this Friday July 27) Ella(August 10th) Kelvin(August 25th) Preston and Jamelan (the two young Aussie boys), Hopefully sometime in august. maybe the 25th. This is very exciting for Elder Case and myself, especially since Karratha is not an area well known for having much missionary work happening. It has completely changed since we have both been put together. We are not sure how everything has been going with Kelvin. He has gone down to Perth(but is in Busselton for the weekends where he said he would be attending church). We called the missionaries and they told us that he was not at church on sunday which was a bit of a disappointment because he told us so surely that he would be there. We are hoping that it was just a case of unusual circumstances. We are praying for him that he will meet with the missionaries down there and prepare himself for his baptismal date. We also had a pretty interesting experience with Rowand(Row- Wand). He is Muslim but very open. He showed us this HUGE manuscript he wrote comparing the Qua'ran and the Bible. He wants to find out the differences and similarities between the two and pick the one that is the best. He said he is seeking the truth and we believe he is, but I think this is gonna be a while. We gave him the book "Jesus the Christ" because many of his questions would be answered if he read that. Well that is a little bit about what is going on here in Australia. Hope you are all having a wonderful week!! Love Elder Joshua Butts

July 15

Dear Friends and Family, What an amazing week it has been. There were probably two big highlights to the week. The first one was about Kelvin, our recent investigator. We only met him on Friday, the week before last. He is the friend to Toesso(a kiwi member) and they met at work. He has Black hair and has some piercings but he doesn't drink much or smoke. He came to church that first Sunday with encouragement from Toesso though, and we had a great lesson on the sacrament. This past Wednesday we had a lesson with him at Toesso's home and it went so well(although that is a bit of an understatement). He said he was looking for answers and has been praying that if there is anything that he needs to sacrifice that he isn't already he wants to know so he can make those extra sacrifices. We taught him a bit of the restoration and asked him if he would be baptised. He gladly accepted and we set a date for the 25th of August. That is the fastest I have ever set a baptismal date with someone before and you can bet that we had a pretty crazy night. On friday he came to volleyball again with Toesso and he even brought some food for the BBQ. Another member brought a non-member which Kelvin saw and immediately started fellow shipping. It was like they became instant best friends. We were just so excited, so we invited Kelvin to the Branch Presidents home saturday evening for dinner and to meet the mission president. This time, he came by himself which really showed initiative. Sunday, we taught about the Sabbath and how to keep it holy. He shared the experience about how he made breakfast and his roommates told him that he had to clean up the house and he wasn't going anywhere. He told them he had to go to church though which they really weren't planning on accepting as an answer. He then realized that this was Satan trying to get into the way and he was going to keep his commitment to Heavenly Father. He said again that he would clean later and that church was the most important thing to be doing on Sunday. He did this by himself and didn't have anyone to encourage him when the time came. It was such an incredible expression of his commitment and we are SOO excited to get to baptise him next month. The other highlight to the day was meeting the mission president. He told us a little bit about what it was like working for the news and how he was so glad that we are working hard in karratha. We also talked a lot with Robby, His son. He plays the saxophone just like me so it was pretty sweet to be able to relate to him in that way. So it has been a week full of blessing from the lord and I am so grateful to be apart of it. Hopefully you are all seeing miracles like this often too. Have a wonderful week! I love you all! Elder Joshua Butts

July 9

Dear Friends and Family, It has been a good week. We have been working hard. We got a new investigator at the sports night we have on friday evenings that a member brought along. His name is Kelvin. He works at the mines with the member. He also came to church on sunday and we taught the gospel principals class on the Sacrament. He seemed to understand quite a bit and we are excited to go and teach him again this wednesday. We also volunteer at a Vinnies thrift shop on friday mornings. Yesderday we were tracting and felt prompted to tract a particular street because we felt that there would be a certain woman on the street who would listen to us. When we got near the end of the street, we knocked on a house that the manager of vinnies lived in. It was a miracle and I believe that the spirit led us there. They invited us in and we had a good long chat with them. We are going to be having our new mission president visit us in karratha this next weekend to do interviews and meet the people in the branch. I think it will be fun and I hope you are all having heaps of fun.Love you all Elder Joshua Butts

July 1

Dear Friends and Family, There was not too much that happened this week because I had a sinus infection, but I am all better now. I spent pretty much every day in bed so that was a little inconvenient. At least my companion and I got to do a lot of bonding and reading of ensigns, new era's and the scriptures. On Saturday we helped the branch do a car wash. It was a lot of fun and we got lots of people who wanted their cars washed. The coolest part was that one guy who pulled up was a less active member. He was with his partner and she is from Macedonia. They ended up staying at the branch presidents house in the front yard that night and they both came to church. I am sure they felt the spirit, especially in our lesson that we taught in "Gospel Principals" on Gifts of the Spirit. We also have some other referrals that we are going to be given by some members soon so we are SOO excited to start teaching some people. Keep doing you best and finding opportunities to serve others. I love you all! Elder Butts

June 24

Dear Friends and Family, It has been a good week although not much has happened. I am excited to start getting some people baptised soon hopefully. We have still been delivering bread from the bakery at the mall twice a week to people in need. It has been a good experience! We met one potential investigator who said he might take us out to see some animals next week so we are pretty excited about that. He even said he might shoot some stuff and give us the skull and skin of the kangaroo. I am pretty excited for that. Have a great week! Love Elder Butts

June 17

Dear Friends and Family, I am loving my new area. It is hard being so far away from pretty much everything and I now understand what it is like to be out in Aussie BUSH but it is pretty fun. There are HEAPS of aboriginals here and that is what most of our investigators consist of. We did our branch conference this past sunday and it went very well. We had an activity on saturday and we got 3 or 4 investigators to come which was pretty exciting. Our main investigators are SAM and SARA (he is from the Torres strait). We read the book of mormon with him the other day and he was excited to apply it to himself and he said he would read it during the week. I didn't meet Sara yet. She is his partner. Out other main investigator is Sharlene. She is an aboriginal. She was found by missionaries doing the bread run. The bread run is where we pick up the leftover bread twice a week from the bakery("Bakers Delight") and deliver it to people in need. The other day we taught her an incredible lesson about the restoration and the importance of the book of mormon. We weren't able to get any Investigators to church yesterday but I am excited for this next Sunday because we are going to be getting a bunch of non-members there! There is also a potential investigator (clint) who is an aboriginal and he said that next week he would take us around to some of the sacred aboriginal sites and see some of the old artifacts. He also is going to show us about the plants that can be eaten and used as remedies for stuff. In 2 weeks our new mission president will be coming. I am pretty excited although I will miss President Smibert. Bruce Lindsay will be coming at the start of July so it will be interesting to meet him. He will be coming up to Karratha next month! I hope you are all having a wonderful week and working hard! I love you all! Elder Joshua Butts

June 10

Dear Friends and Family, This has been a great week! We did the quit smoking program the other day with a new investigator we met while visiting formers. His name is Steven, and he is chinese. We were able to do it at a members house and the lesson went SO great! He committed to all the steps and was so willing to work hard to make the effort to follow each step precisely. We will be calling him each day this week and the member will be calling him too. We even committed him to come to church next sunday. Yesterday we got Sebastian to come to a cottage evening. It went so well and we held it at the chapel next to the temple. Sebastian loved it and we also got shaun (a Taiwanese investigator who's been coming to church) to come too!) After the meeting, president Smibert pulled me aside and told me that I will be moving to Karratha. That means it will be the NINTH area I will have served in! I think i'm going for a record. I am very excited to be moving there and that means tomorrow I will take a 3-4 hour plane flight up north. I am hoping that it will give me a chance to see Dominique, because he is up in Port Hedland, which is not too far.At least now, I don't have to suffer with the rest of winter because it is Much warmer up north! Sebastian will be getting baptised on Saturday which is very exciting. We have worked very hard to make sure he has learned everything and now he is ready to be baptised! I will not get to go to the baptism but I am so grateful that I was able to be apart of it anyway. Have a wonderful week everyone!! Love, Elder Joshua Butts

June 4

Dear Friends and Family, It hasn't been as productive a week but we are still VERY excited for the baptism of Sebastian. It will be on JUNE 16 as of right now and we have been seeing him as often as we can to keep him excited. He didn't come to sacrament meeting which worried us a bit, but we are still very prayerful for him and I believe that everything will still go well. We have been meeting many new people and trying to get new investigators but the work has been a little slow so we are trying to come up with new finding ideas. One way we are trying to make "morning exercises more meaningful is with a finding activity. There is a big foreshore we live by across from the city that tons of people run past every day. There is one part where there's a big stretch of sand next to the sidewalk and it remains undisturbed most of the time. We are going to come up with a list of quotes and small phrases to write in the sand each morning. It will be freezing cold (it gets down to the 20's-30's and night here) but it will sure wake us up. We are also going to write Mormon.org at the bottom and hopefully we can get some referrals from it! I am pretty excited but for various reasons, we are not able to start it till next week. WA day was yesterday so we got to go work and try to contact people but it is absurd how many people are so quick to judge us and have no time to talk even when they are doing nothing. I know that the lord is blessing us though and we will have great success in the coming weeks. Have a wonderful summer everyone! Love Joshua

May 27

Dear Friends and Family Thanks for remembering my birthday everyone! I had such a wonderful time. Some members planned a surprise appointment for me so when we got there, it was at a pizza place. It was sister Guillens idea. They are from Los Angeles but he is here for work. I love their family. Everything is going pretty well with sebastian. He didn't come to church yesterday but when we called him to find out why he said he had actually tried to call to get a ride but wasn't able so we were relieved to find out that he at least put in the effort. We have been a bit worried that he may not have the level of commitment needed to be a member of the church. He finally started obeying the word of wisdom though so we are very optimistic. His baptism is scheduled for June 2nd and we are crossing our fingers that it stays solid. We had one of the most amazing experiences yesterday. After church there was an 8yr old girl being baptised. We decided to stay for the baptism and help out. There were many people from other wards and just other family members there so we were getting to know some of them. We talked to a man named Peyman who was standing around. We originally thought he was there for the baptism but it turned out that he just lives down the street from the Chapel and said he felt prompted to show up. He is from Iran and I think he is having some family issues which is why he said he felt he needed to start coming to church. We gave him a book of Mormon and answered many of his questions. We also were able to help him start making some friends of members in the ward to get some fellowship starting already. It was incredible how receptive he was. During the confirmation he said, "maybe next time, it will be my turn". I am so excited to start teaching him and I hope we will be able to make this a 4 week baptism if that's what the lord see's fit to allow us to be apart of. Thank you all for your love and support. I am so happy to be here serving Heavenly Father. Love, Elder Joshua Butts

May 20

Dear Friends and Family, It has been such a wonderful week! We had an awesome day yesterday! Well, on Saturday, we finally got to meet our investigator named Sebastian. He had a baptismal date but it fell through because he is more on the scale of social conversion and his commitment is a little low. We had a great lesson with him about how much of a commitment it requires to become a part of gods true church. He realized that he believes this is the true church but he is doing nothing with that belief. We were able to help him have a desire to grow his faith by coming to church and he recommitted to baptism. He will be getting baptised on June 2nd. I am so excited. Now yesterday, through much communication with different people, we were able to get him to come to church. Not only did got bless us with his attendance, but another Asian couple just randomly showed up(Lia and Shawn). Lia is a member and her boyfriend(Shawn) is not and they speak very little English. They moved recently from Taiwan. The first counselor came up to us and asked if we could come help with his communication problem. Joel, a YSA in the ward who has been studying Chinese at university, came to try to help translate but wasn't very fluent. Then we remembered that Sebastian was still in the Sunday school class. Of course he could speak Chinese because that is where he is originally from. We brought him in and it was incredibly to watch the spirit work to get all the information we needed to help this couple and we are going to try to start teaching Shawn. It was incredibly to have gotten so many people at sacrament. We also were able to get Alistair, one of the converts who was baptised a month ago, to bless the sacrament. On top of all these blessings, we had a wonderful missionary fireside where we had a recent convert, less active member, and investigator attend. I know that we could not have gained these blessings if the church was not true. I hope you all have an incredible week and do your best to follow the spirit and find those who need help and help them. I love you all! Love Elder Joshua Butts