The Lord is blessing us so much

Well this week was pretty amazing. The Lord is blessing us so much out here its crazy. Its really nothing we are doing but its because the members are so diligent in their missionary work. I am very grateful to be in this wonderful ward. I love GOLDSBORO!!! This week has definately been tiring. I haven't been so tired in my whole mission. I just crash when I get home. I have been really slacking on my journal but I have recommitted myself to it and will try better to write in it. Monday was our Preparation Day and it was alot of fun. We wrote alot of letters and played some pool. The other Elders live in a mansion and it has a pool table. So we have alot of fun there. We had a lesson with Collette and Jessica. They truly love what we are saying. The spirit is so strong in the lessons even though there are alot of distractions. We set a baptismal date with Jessica that night for the same day her mother is going to be baptized. They are really excited about it. I am so excited for them both. Their lives and countenances are truly changing. The gospel is amazing. Brother Bo Waters is absolutely wonderful. He has been friendshipping them wonderfully! They had a broken chair and he got it from them and fixed it and got it back to them the next day. Things have just been going great with them.

Tuesday I went on exchanges with Elder Tibbits again. I love him so much. He is such a great missionary. We definately have alot of fun together. We had an appointment with the Armstrong family this week which is always a hard and taxing time. We really can't do anything for them because they need councilling. Their problems are out of our league. We taught them about the Atonement and the importance of scriptures study. I just hope pray that the Lord will help them out. We stopped by this family tha Elder Casper and Elder Tibbitts tracted out when they were on exchanges. They are originally from Utah and are wonderful. Katlyn's family was members but they had a problem with the Church so they stopped going. Katlyn is really open to hearing more about our message. Her husband Chris has alot of great friends that are LDS and is very open minded. Hopefully we will get to meet with them. They are so nice to us. I also go to sit in his VIPER!!! Ya it was sweet!! We did alot of stop by's that night and have some potential part member families that want us to come back.

Wednesday we had District Meeting and it was great as usual. I always learn alot from the lessons. I try to apply as much of it into my missionary work but it takes time I have noticed. We went for lunch with Brother Hull. He comes out with us once a month for a whole afternoon. Its really intense and it seems like all of our appointments always cancel on us. Thanks goodness for back up plans. Well we stopped by Brother Sewells house to just see what we were going to do on Saturday for the service project. We shared a spiritual thought with him and are going to try and meet with him regularly. He is really wonderful. He is a member but his wife is not. He got turned off from the Church because he had a terrible divorce. Hopefully we can re-kindle his testimony. We stopped by a few other people but no one was home. We stopped by a referral we had and they seem really interested in hearing about our message. Hopefully we will be able to get up with them. They wanted us to meet with their whole family. We did alot of tracting that night with no sucess. Thats ok though. We just have to always be doing our part.

Thursday is good old weekly planning day. I am trying to have a better attitude towards it. Its a long planning session but we got alot done. I am so grateful to be entrusted with these wonderful people here in our area. They are truly a blessing in my life. We we biked a long way to go tracting and to our dinner appointment. It was probably about 5 miles. I am grateful for Elder Scott and his eagerness to do whatever. We had a wonderful dinner at the Mauldins. Jimmy is a great cook. We had steak and Potatoes. After dinner Brother Aycock came and sat in on the lesson. Jimmy told us right after the prayer that he didn't want to be baptized into our church. Well that totally took us aback. He said that he has been praying about it and it just doesn't feel right. There is something else that is wrong and we are going to have to find that concern. I hope and pray that the Lord will help us find his concern. We think it has to do with his family all being Pentecostal and them rejecting him if he changes religions. So we will continue to be delicate with that situation but he still wants us to come by and keep teaching him. We saw Darline Gisbon as well tonight. We were only there for a little bit because we were late. They are doing wonderful. We directed the focus on her husband but he told us that he didn't mind us coming by but her doesn't want any part of it and he has his own beliefs. Well that is what we wanted him to tell us. Hopefully he doesn't hinder his family in being in the Church again. We are going to start teaching the lessons again with them. They are so wonderful.

Friday was great. We started out the day by revising our Faith to Invite Plan. We are making it about a 20 minute lesson. Its going to be great. I am so excited to kick it off with Bishop. We had a lesson with Shiela today and it was wonderful. The spirit was so strong their. She was smoking when we got there but we asked if she could put it out and she did. We taught her about the Restoration very simply and easy for her understanding. We then watched the Restoration video and it helped her out alot. She loved it and said she knows that it is true. We set a Baptismal date with her for October 16th. We are really excited for her. We then went over to Collette and Jessica and had a very distracting lesson. They didn't really read the Chapter we gave then and their daughter had to feed their snake and invited the whole neighborhood over. It was really awesome. They said that they both are going to be at Church on Sunday so were really excited about that. We had dinner at the Howards and it was wonderful to hear them pray for their son who is on a mission. I thought alot about my home and all the prayers that are sent my way. I am so grateful for all the prayers on my behalf. They truly help me.

Saturday was the Huge service project at Brother Sewells. It was alot of fun. We just pressure washed the house the whole time while the rest were sheet rocking. We had some great lunch provided by Brother Peele. He is an amazing cook. He made whats called Jumbalia and home made bread. SO GOOD!!! I love food though. We then went back to the apartment and studied and then tracted for a couple of hours. We met some really nice people.On the way to the place we were going to tract we saw Shiela and her grandson Greg fishing. It was so random but wonderful. We were met to see her. She was excited to be going to Church tomorrow. I think Shiela will get her family involved which will be great. I am so excited for her. We then had a crazy lesson with a guy we contacted. His name is Ugiene. He has had alot of trouble in his life and wants to turn it around. He is currently on house arrest and has served 2 years in jail. Well we had a lesson outside with him and it was great. We had to repeat things like 3 times because his family kept coming outside wanting to hear what we were talking about. We have another appointment with them on Wednesday which we are excited for.

Sunday was wonderful. I love Church so much. COLLETTE CAME TO CHURCH AND SO DID DARLINE AND SARIAH!!! Elder Scott and I were exstatic. We had smiles on our faces the whole day. We were actually really spazzy and crazy. It was wonderful. Collette really loved Church. When she thought of three hours she wasn't to excited but she loved it so much that it went by really fast. The ward loves her. They all introduced themselves to her and hugged her and the whole 9 yards. Darline was talking to alot of people she new as well which was great. It was just a wonderful day. The Waters were sure great to her. We had another great lesson that evening. We were supposed to have a lesson with Kelly but she has been blowing us off. We will continue to pray and help her realize the importance of our message. We had a dinner with the Lunna's. THEY ARE WONDERFUL. We spent a long time there but it was worth it. Sister Lunna isn't a member and she usually doesn't invite people over to their place but she felt like she needed to. They laboured for us all day preparing the food. IT WAS AMAZING. It was some tacos and some Mexican stuff. It was so good and they made my favorite pineapple cake. So great. We then talked to them about their music and family. It was great. We then shared a message out of the bible with them. They really enjoyed the message. We are going to try visiting with them more often to try and hopefully teach them. We are doing service for them on Friday. I love them so much and want them to be reactivated in the Church and for Sister Lunna to become a member! The Lord truly has been blessing us this past while. I love Elder Scott. We have alot of fun but work really hard. I have never been so tired on my mission. I am spiritually and physically exhausted each night. The Lord is really blessing this area. That was pretty much my week. I hope that yall have a great week. Know that I love yall and appreciate all the prayers that have been coming my way!!!

Love Elder Butler