October 26, 2010

Cano's Castle

Elder Guymon

Steve's Missionary Tag

Hey the Fam!

Everything is doing pretty well here at 7000+ feet elevation. Its getting colder and colder everyday but thanks to you guys I'm all set with coat and gloves and ear muffs. Thanks for the package. the sweater is sweet. I Cant wait to wear it. Guess who else i got packages from? Rachel Gibson's family and Mark and Margo. I totally wasn't expecting either of them. It was way awesome.

So this past week a lot and not a lot has happened. On Tuesday we got dropped by Judy which really really really sucked (sorry mom). We did like two days of full service and then tracted a lot. We found a few potential investigators and one new investigator that's gunna miss his date because he'll be out of town till Sunday. Yesterday we had zone conference and it was way good. We talked about how everything we teach should relate back to baptism so that when we invite them to be baptized they wont be surprised. They also talked about personal conversion and follow up lessons and just things that we need to work on so that we can be better teachers, missionaries, and representatives of Christ. But besides that not much else happened. In Antonito dogs just roam around. The whole town is their backyard. Theres this one dog, moon, that will just follow us everywhere. When we tract it comes and sit in front of the door and stuff. its just super annoying. We have tried so many times to lose it or run away but it always seems so catch back up to us and find us. We have even tried going to visit members and then leave out the back door but she still finds us. But yeah that's it for me this past week. During zone conference it snowed but by the time it was over and we went outside it was all melted.

Its really good to hear about everybody and to know that they re all doing well. As for Andrea, that guys name is Alan Snow and I know of him. he's not a trouble maker or anything. he was always pretty quiet when I saw him but yeah he's in orchestra.

Its good to hear that Max is doing good. How is he adjusting? I haven't heard from Sean yet and i got one or two letters from Josh. I'll prolly write a bunch of letter today. And that memory card i sent home, leave the pictures on there and send it back. I do have another one till you send the one you have to me. Funny story. OK so our microwave has been broken, where the plate doesn't spin but it still cooks, since elder guymon has been here, so for at least 6 months. The other day he wanted to pop some popcorn but couldn't cuz it doesn't spin. So we took a look at it and figured out that the motor worked fine but the plastic that made the plate spin was broken. So i was like, That will be easy to fix, we just have to melt it back together. So we heated up some butter knives on our electric stove and i melted the plastic back together and... Now it works!! i fixed the microwave. We took picture and stuff of it so ill send those soon prolly.

As for they guys in the ward, someone needs to crack down on them. Tell Neal to get his butt in gear and finish his dang papers already. I'm pretty sure Steve will cut his hair and go on a mission. In our branch and most of the other wards around we teach a Preach My Gospel Classes once a week. Its really awesome. You guys should start something like that and get those guys to go. The Elders or whoever should teach it. Really its a class for anyone. I think it would be really good.

Anyways I'm out of time. I Love you all. Send me letters!!! (to the mission office)

Elder Steven Butler

P.S. on the 7th Elder Russel M Nelson is speaking to our mission in the Springs

October 18, 2010

Your lucky that I didn't get transferred. or else I wouldn't get that package for a few more weeks. Tell everyone just to send things to the mission office so nothing gets lost or sent to the wrong place. So tell jeff, kristin, amy, the aunts and uncles, and Spencer and Neal, and Sean, Josh and Max. By the way how is Max? have you guys seen him yet? he should have gotten home like 2 weeks ago. I got a letter from Jeff and Tahlia with a picture from Lily. its was really funny. Ive been getting letters every once in a while. I got one from Rachel Gibson a little while ago. Feel free to write letters too. Packages are the best, then letters, then emails. But any contact is way good.

So I'm still in the fox creek area with Elder Guymon. We figure he will leave after this new transfer. so i might be here for a few more transfers but who know what will actually happen. This week went by fast and not much happened. I went on exchanges with another elder cuz my companion is the district leader. So i was in Manassa, CO which is like 15 min/10 miles north of Antonio. Its actually the birthplace of Jack Dempsey the boxer. So in Manassa we mostly tracted and stuff. Pretty boring. Then on Thursday we helped put metal roofing on this lady's house. That was pretty cool. Then Friday and Saturday we did a lot of tracting because all the people we wanted to see either weren't there or were busy. We kinda realized this week during weekly planning that our investigators kinda stink. None of them are progressing and the one golden investigator we have is being hindered by her fellowshipper. Her fellowshipper is a less active who apparently has a history with recent converts. Anyways we think he has a thing for her and he cancelled our appointment with her so that made us pretty mad. I gave a talk on Sunday and that went well and everything. But yeah not a whole lot to report on. Ill be sending you pictures prolly pretty soon. Oh and in Antonio there's this really cool place called Cumbers and Toltec Scenic Railroad. Its like a train museum and the have old steam trains and stuff and they take people on rides and stuff all the time. I hear its really expensive though. But anyways that's all I can think of right now. I'll be looking for that package. I love you all!

Elder Butler

October 12, 2010

Hello everybody!

Im doing just great. Everything is going pretty good out here. Transfers are a week from today so please tell everyone to send to the mission office. Are you sure it was uncle Dave? and not uncle mark? cuz i wrote mark and margo but not dave and karrie yet. But i definatly want mail.

Thats way awesome that the roof got done and stuff and that everyone came and helped out. Its starting to get way cold everyday here. I got my coat so thank you so much for that. I think the weather was waiting for me to get it before it started getting really cold. If you want to creep me more fully our appartment complex place is on state street across from this place called Cono's Castle. Its this guys house that he build out of recycled metal and it has these two tall towers that he says is where christ is gunna come.

I forgot about the reading the book of mormon in a month thing. I wish i had more time so i could start that and catch up. maybe ill do it another month. Oh and by the way we have Pday today because yesterday was columbus day. Did you guys do anything fun for it? Did andrea have a good time at homecomming?

So since last time i wrote we have a new investigator. We were driving by a less active/recent convert's apartment and saw that she wasnt there so we decided to go see another less active that lives in the same complex. So we go in and he had his friend who is the landlord of the apartments over. So we ended up teaching her a first lesson and she accpeted baptism on the 24. She didnt go to church this week but if she shows up the next two she can still hit her date. She was really solid. She asked all the perfect questions and everyting. She is really busy though cuz she manages the apartments and she is going to school but tomorrow is the last day of one of her classes so we are gunna meet with her again on thursday and hopefully pretty often after that.

besides that the week was pretty slow. I went on exchanges with a bunch of different missionaries cuz my companion hit his year mark like a few weeks ago so he went up to the denver temple with all the missionaries that came out with him. So yep that was interesting.

I cant wait to hear back from you all. I love all you guys.

Elder Butler

10-4-10

Hey Fam,

This week was pretty good. most of our appointments fell through so we really didn't get much done this week. We did a lot of service though so that's good. Conference was way awesome. my favorite were both morning sessions and priesthood. Funny story. Our branch is way unaccountable. We assumed that conference would all be set up this weekend and we could go over and just watch it cuz we had invited some investigators to come (which none did). So we get over there and there are no cars in the parking lot. The doors are all locked. So we go unlock the doors get in and nothing is set up. So we go across the road to a member who has all the keys to the church. and we ask him what we have to do to get it ready cuz it was like already started. So he tells us what to do so we go over to the building and get the tv out, hook it up in the chapel, and turn it on and it was there thankfully. We watched all the sessions at our building by ourselves. like 2 other people came for priesthood and a few from out of town came for Sunday morning. It was pathetic.

Other then that we taught Judy and Toby again and i don't remember if i told you this but they almost dropped us. So we went back the other day and talked about temple work, mostly baptism for the dead. just explaining to her that like she can do that work for her dad and that everyone needs that proper baptism. We committed her to make a priority to read and pray about the book of Mormon. We have a very large print one for her cuz she has medical problems and has trouble reading. Between sessions on Saturday we went tracting for a little bit and met this kid named Dane. he told us to come back so we went back over between sessions yesterday and taught a 1st. He accepted baptism for the 23rd. He has long black hair, a lip piercing, and like those creepy metal bands. So we'll see how it goes. We had an investigator drop us. We went over to teach him the stop smoking program and he didn't like anything we were saying and was disagreeing with us and then was like im not interested in learning about the Mormon church anymore. It really sucked (sorry mom). But yeah that was this week.

That"s such great new from Kristin and Dan! Tell them both congrats from me. Thais just weird with the web-cam thing. Was sterling not there? That's really strange but then again it is our family. Ok so the memory card you sent me was 2GB. I thought the one we bought was 8. maybe that's just me. it doesn't really matter but whatever. I don't take that many pictures anyways. Its starting to get colder. The trees are starting to turn and it dropped from the 80's to the 70's. So winter is on its way. I haven't gotten the coat as of today but it should be here soon. I don't really need a scarf but defiantly the ear cuffs and gloves.

Since this is my first transfer and I'm being trained we have a guide kinda of the things that we do during study time. Right now I'm reading a little in the book of Mormon but mostly just going through the lessons in preach my gospel and learning them and finding scripture to help teach with. Transfers are in two weeks? its the 19th so the week before that send stuff to the mission office just in case. and let everyone else know that too. i don't want anything getting lost. But yeah me and Elder Guymon (my companion) are doing pretty well. We have mostly the same interests so its really easy. Hes been out for a little over a year. and hes been in this area for 6 months at the end of this transfer. We had interviews yesterday and that went well. I got the name of the doctor that sister Pfile said to go to for the shot. Its Doctor Sowards in Alamosa. So I'm gunna get the number for him from the zone leaders and set up an appointment sometime. Sister Pfile said the shot is gunna be like a hundred and something I'm not really sure. But yeah that's pretty much it. I love you all and I'd like to hear from everyone.

Love, Elder Butler