Monday, February 14, 2011

Spiritual Guidance vs. Our Own Understanding

Things are going really great here. I can't believe its almost the end of another transfer. We find out this weekend if one of us is getting transferred. I have a good idea that I'm staying here and Elder Petersen is getting transferred. I talked to President at Training and I had to ask him to see if I need to get someone else to sing in the musical fireside that we are putting on so he told me that I will most likely be staying but we will see where the Lord wants me.

Well this week has been a really great week for me. I am always so grateful for the opportunity that I have to learn more about the gospel in our training meetings. I am so grateful for the spirit who teaches us all something that we personally need. I learned a lot from the spirit this past training and my testimony of the Book of Mormon really increased this past week. I am so grateful for The Book of Mormon, Another Testament of Jesus Christ. This is the only way that our investigators will gain a testimony of Joseph Smith. I am so grateful to have the restored Gospel in my life.

Well things have been going great here. Things can always go better but we have had some very challenging lessons. The O'Brian family is a wonderful family. I really love them very much and am so grateful for the opportunity that I get to know them. They have some really interesting concerns. The are very smart and know the Bible like the back of their hands. So they have a lot of questions out of the Bible which we try and answer with the Book of Mormon. It has really tested me doctrinally but more than that spiritually. We have had some really great conversations with them where the Spirit has guided our conversation. Other times in the lesson it was me just using my own understanding. I am starting to see the difference on how the Spirit wants the lesson to go and how I want it. Let me just say it always works when the Spirit guides it but never when I do it. They have problems reading out of the Book of Mormon because they don't believe Joseph Smith is a prophet so they don't even trust the Book of Mormon so they say "why would we read it?" it would be like reading a fiction book." We have to get them reading and praying about the Book of Mormon. That is the only way that they will find out all of this is true!

We met with another family this week as well, the Fritz family. I love them so much. They are so wonderful. They are a family of six that 2 members of the ward have referred to us. They are really great. We had a great lesson with 2 members that are really good friends with them. Brother Fritz works with a lot of members of the Church. He really has a lot of respect for what our church teaches and wants to learn more about it. We had a really great lesson with him. He doesn't believe in the divinity of the Savior. So we are going to be really focusing on faith and prayer in this next lesson. He is very intelligent and knows the Bible very well. He has a lot of questions that are lead by the Spirit. The spirit was very strong in the lesson and I know that he could feel it. His daughter also listened in on the lesson as well. We invited her to join but she said that was alright and just sat on the couch behind the table. At the end of the lesson she thanked us for coming and was really interested in the conversation that we had. I know that she felt something and said that she would sit in on our lesson next time. His wife will also be sitting in on the lesson this next week. They are such a wonderful family.

I didn't realize how hard it is to cover both wards but its a great challenge. We are going to try this week to be more involved in the second ward. The second ward has some really golden investigators (The Brooke's family and two youth). They won't answer our phone calls though. So it is really hard to get appointments with them when we can't get ahold of them and neither can the members. I know there are dozens prepared in both of these wards we just have to find them. I am so grateful to be in these area's. I love it so much and I love the members and the people that we have the opportunity to serve.

I am also very excited for this musical fireside that is happening in a couple of weeks. The wards are very excited for this as well. They are inviting a bunch of their friends which is great. We hope there will be a big group. It is a wonderful opportunity for people to feel the spirit.
Well I am sorry this is so short but I hope y'all know that I love you! Y'all are great. Keep up the great work and know that the Lord is always there for ya!
Love Elder Butler
P.S- I am finally caught up in my journal so I will be sending home them this week along with an SD Card. It will have what I sang in Sacrament this past week! It went pretty well.

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