There is Something Special About this Area

Well it definitely was so wonderful to be able to talk to family even though it was only for 40 minutes. I am so glad to hear that everything is going well at home. It is so weird to think that I will be home next Christmas. I am glad to hear that Chance really benefitted from the phone call. I was really hoping that it would inspire him to do everything he can to get ready for his mission. I love them so much. They sound so much older! Its pretty crazy!! It seems like everything is going great at home.

Well this week has definitely been a wonderful week. I have thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to take some time and reflect on the birth of our Savior and the perfect life He lived. It was definitely a Christmas to remember and I am so grateful for the opportunity to be serving our Master at this time. I was definitely touched by the slideshow of the Nativity that was shown at Zone Conference. I really loved it.

Well we continue to be blessed in the Wake Forest area. I am so grateful to be here. The members are starting to really trust us and we are trying our best to continue to help them do missionary work. We have been getting alot of referrals and it has been great. They are always actively involved in missionary work. It makes my heart sing. It is a bit hard to contact all of them in a week as you can see. We are trying out best to make sure that we are always following up with the members about the contacts we have made. I am so grateful for the spirit that I feel in every members home. There is something special about this area.

I have seen as we have taken President's challenge to keep the area book updated that my love for the members and the people of this area has increased. I can always do better in updating it more specifically but just from updating it daily I have seen the blessing of being exactly obedient. I am so grateful for my companion Elder Petersen. He is wonderful. If I don't remember something, he will. We are a good team. He is always making me laugh. This area has taught me patience but it also has taught me how to work effectively to try and get things started. In those stressful moments of being a missionary, Elder Petersen is always there with a smile on his face to make me laugh and take off the stress. I am so grateful to have him as my companion!

Well we have been working really hard with Brother Trubilla. We have been contacting him each day and have seen the blessings of daily contact. I really think this time he has been prepared to keep the his commitments and be baptized. We teach him twice a week and he was even invited over for Christmas dinner to one of our members. It was really great. We are still trying to find a really solid fellowshipper but it seems like he is ready. We pray for him so hard that he will be able to overcome his addiction. I know that through the list he has had that we will be able to focus his thoughts on the Savior and know that this covenant is between him and the Savior. He is doing great though.

We have quite a few families that we will start to be teaching once the new year comes. These people that we will be teaching are really prepared. There is a young girl named Maddie Brooks that has been coming to Church regularly for months. She came up to us a couple of weeks ago and asked us to teach her the lessons in January. We are going to be teaching her whole family in the Epps' home. We are really excited about that. We will be also teaching a family that is really good friends with Bishop McEwen. They called the sisters and since they are in our area the Bishop explained to them the situation and they are really excited to meet with us. We hope to contact all of these referrals that we have as well and hope to find some teaching opportunities that way.

We have also tried to visit every member in both the wards and give them our testimonies in a card form. We feel that it is the greatest gift that we can give to them. We have seen great success that way. We found a new part member family that way. They are newly weds and the husband isn't a member. He has been reading out of the Gospel Principles book and really likes the Church services. The ward has been really supportive to them as they are in a new ward. They love the ward and feel very comfortable. We are excited to work with them. We also had a less active ask us to start teaching him as well. It has been hard work to try and visit every member but we have almost all of the second ward visited and we have about half of the first ward. We feel that the members are very receptive in our effort to know them and we try and offer our help to them. The members are really wonderful and I love them very much.

Well I hope this finds you in good cheer. I am so grateful to have such a great family.

Love Elder Butler