"All Stars Aligned"

If you haven't seen the video of Elder Butler throwing it down, check it out!  Below is the youtube link.  Thank you to my brother, Shawn Connolly for spending countless hours filming, editing and getting it all just right!  It truly took all the stars aligning for this video to take place.  It is a fun tribute to McKay from his Uncle Shawn.

"All Stars Aligned" Final Cut 

Big Ol' 19!!

Kia ora!!! :) 

Well to all of you ignorant people (kidding) ...it's my birthday tomorrow!! :) haha big ol' 19!! I'm not a little boy anymore!! ;) 

So last week was sick as!! We went to Dawson Falls on Mt. Taranaki!! Beautiful!! ;) We went with our district!! The hike was unreal... I'll send you some pics!! But this computer is frustrating!! The pics take ages to upload... so I'll try my hardest. 

Mother... Remember how i said a while back how you would be so proud of me because I do the dishes all the time? Well now we actually have a dishwasher! And you probably would have disowned me as your child if you would have seen what happened the other day. I put all the dishes in the washer like a good little missionary. Turned it on, and left the flat to go out and work. We get back home a few hours later... and the whole kitchen was covered in bubbles and water!! I put the wrong dang soap in the dishwasher!! ;) Man... pretty bad.

We had a cool experience the other day with a man named Mark. He was literally the most EVIL man i have ever met in my life!! He had more antimormon material to throw at us than i knew was even possible!! When i left that house... I was thinking to myself... man.. if that would have happened to me at the beginning of my mission... my faith would have been thrown around, and I would have been depressed and even lost!! But now... with the huge growth of my testimony, It couldn't even shake my faith!! :) and I'm so grateful for that!! My mission has definitely changed my life in that way!! I can't wait to see how much it's grown after 2 years!! I left Mark's house that day with a big smile... and felt great!! 

I gave a talk in Sacrament meeting yesterday!! Loved it... I love bearing my testimony about the Savior!! The wairua (spirit) hits me so hard!! :) 

Uncle Shawn.. you better be reading this.. Some members in my ward came up to me and said.. "Elder Butler... you were a mean as basketball player!!" I was like.. how do you know that!? Then they showed me a video made by my Uncle Shawn... the one that I didn't get the chance to see yet!! SO SICK!!! Thank you so much!! I absolutely loved it!! 

Thank you mama and dad for the package!! I look pretty mean in my AZ apparel! :) 

Sorry I don't have much to say today!! But I need to have time to send some pics still!! I love you all!! OFA ATU!!! :) Talk to you next week!! :) Cheers!!

Ka Kite,

Elder Butler 

The Drive

The top of the hike near Dawson Falls

Me and my Boys!

Me and Canoy

Mt. Taranaki from our flat!

Anyone want to go on a hike?!

When you are serving in a branch, this is what the program looks like...

KIA ORA TARANAKI!!!

KIA ORA TARANAKI!!!

Up to's my favorite Whanau!!? I miss you all heaps!! :) Before i get to the goods.. let me give you the run down of last week!! I got sick as!! Like 10 people in our ward, and 3 missionaries just got hammered with this crazy sickness. I lost 10 pounds!! :/  I think sister Scanlan and I got it the worst though.. I couldn't even function!! We had a solid baptism last week though... My man Keanu Tataurangi!! He's the man!! I'll send some pics in a minute. 

Other than that.. we went on exchanges with the AP's, had a ward activity where i spanked some fellas in Ball, and got way sick... that's all!! Terrible week. 

BUT.. Tuesday i got the good news!! I'm in Taranaki now, just south of New Plymouth. So i went from the very top of the mission... to the very bottom!! My new companion is Elder Canoy (CON-oy) He's from the Philippines. He's the man.. loves basketball and cooks for me every day!! We've had a solid couple days together so far! We are in a branch with about 5-6 families covering like 3 cities!! There's only 1 problem though!! We are the only companionship in the zone that doesn't have a car!! The other day we calculated how far we biked. We went 20 K's in 1 day.. in the strong wind!! I swear I will never ride a bike again after my mission!! ;) I collapsed in my bed at like 9:35 that night!! But it is absolutely beautiful!! We went around this mountain on the ride here and there's the beautiful beach!! We stopped at a black sand bay on the way here and it was sweet!! I would love to get in this beautiful water!! Me and Elder Canoy tracted the beach houses the other day... You look to the left.. and there's the beach.. you look to the right... and there's miles and miles of rolling green hills with cows and sheep!! So SICK!! 

We are double covering the area with sisters. They are both very nice!! One of them though is a baller from Arizona and loves ASU. So i told her about my mama.. she said she's seen mama's name on banners or something.. so i was like.. "ya.. she's pretty dang good.. so that sounds about right!!" Pretty sick

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MYSELF.... Holy cow i just got great news!! Elder Bednar and Lynn G. Robbins are coming to New Zealand on my birthday and we get to meet them and shake their hands after a fireside!! So pumped!! :) 

That's about it for the week!! :) It was pretty solid!! Lots of packing and unpacking though.. so not too much time to do anything else!! We're going to Dawson Falls after i email though.. So that should be a good time!! ;) I love you guys!! Sorry for not emailing last week!! I was just completely dead!! I actually fell asleep at the email shop waiting for Elder Lingwall to hurry up!! I thought i was going to puke right there so i sat by the trash can!! :) Man.. i'm glad that's over!! But now i feel wonderful!! 

Oh.. side note.. because i'm in such a small branch now.. i talk in Sacrament meeting ALL the time now!! And teach class Every week!! :) too fun!! :) So i'll be giving a 20 minute talk next week!! :)  Love you guys!! 

Ka kite!! :) 

Elder Butler 

Hello Taranaki!! ;)

This is the little bay area we stopped at on the trip here.

Best ice cream in the world!!

Like I said...Half boysenberry, half passion fruit.

Look at this guy...slack as!! ;)

Me and Elder Koi eating a fresh coconut from Tonga...one of the members got a coconut and brought it home.

Tell me how hilarious my new cologne is!! ;) Just kiddin'

Before I got sick...pretty bad.

The Big Fella Keanu

Me and Sister Parks...The best cook in New Zealand!! :)

Dogs... :/

Hey there everyone!! :) 

It's me.. Elder Butler.. You've probably forgotten who i am because i've been gone for so long!! ;) But i'm writing you this email anyways!! :) 

Not much to talk about.. again.. for this week. Tons of meetings and not a lot of missionary work because of it. 

We did go back over to Clinton's last Monday to work on our Cook Island war clubs again.. They're way sick. I can't wait til he carves on them though.. because they'll be much nicer. He also made us shirts, and they're hilarious.. I'll send some pictures in a minute. 

Man.. Manurewa... Home of the most vicious dogs on this earth!! I absolutely hate them!! No wonder the islanders eat them here (i'm praying that they'll feed me some sometime because i heard they're nice as.) So me and Lingwall were walking down this long driveway where it splits off into two driveways. One of them is our investigator Isi (Tongan) and the other is a house we can't get into because of a massive gate. This time though.. there were three dogs behind the gate going crazy as we walked by. While we were walking by, watching them bark, one of them jumps and gets on the middle of the gate and starts climbing over!! I wish we could have recorded Me and Lingwall!! We were like.. "oh crap.. run!!" The dog jumps over the fence and starts chasing us!! So i found a fence.. and leaped over it!! But i couldn't jump as high with my 200lb bag on my back.. so i hit my shin on the top of the fence and went down (luckily on the other side) !! ;) Meanwhile.. Lingwall is fast.. and he just bolted down the road!! ;) I seriously wish someone was recording it because, now that i look back, it was absolutely hilarious!! But it was terrifying at the time!! ;) 

My last story for the day happened a couple days ago!! We were tracting when we found this man washing his car!! I don't remember his name because it was crazy!! But we asked him where he was from and he said Kyrgyzstan. He told us his whole story of how he escaped his country by foot and traveled to Pakistan, then found a way to China so he could fly to New Zealand! I guess in his country.. they just kill people!! All the time!! He said.. "you could pay someone 5 bucks.. and they kill!!" and "If they find me.. or if i go back to my country... They execute me!!" I was like.... DANG!! Good on ya brotha!! He's the man!! 

That's all the crazy stories for the week!! On the spiritual side though... Keanu is getting baptized on Saturday!! He is so excited!! :) He's loving church.. and loves us coming over because he feels the spirit really strong!! And the members have done a great job fellowshipping.. so it's been really great!!

I just finished Alma for the 3rd time... I'll probably finish the Book of Mormon pretty soon!! It's so wonderful!! 

That's all... I love you all!! :) Have a wonderful week!! :) 

Moce, (mow-they) (goodbye in Fiji)

Elder Butler 

Making our clubs at Clinton's 

The shirts that Clinton made us!! Solid As!! :)

I read over the scripture my dear mama gave me during Junior High basketball season!! It still applies to me today.. just in a different way!! :) Love you mama!! (Alma 26:27)

White handbook... "do not keep pets of any kind!!" Well sorry... this little puppy is too cute to keep that rule!! ;) 

So... do you want some grass!!?

The country side of our area.