Stepping up my Game! ;)

Kia Ora fam!

I'm so glad you got all my little gifts.. I was worried that they were too big to send, so I'm very glad that they made it! :) 

I'll start off telling you some good news.. This week had heaps of bad news.. but we'll just ditch that today! 

But Elder Butler's stepping up his game!! I'm now a Zone Leader in the heart of Hamilton! I'm serving in Glenview in the highest baptizing ward in the whole mission, Hamilton East. It averages 250 people every sacrament.. that's going to be way different than 30-40 people in Hawera. I have truly loved it here in Taranaki though!! I made some amazing memories here. But everything I've heard about Glenview is way sick! Back with the Islanders!! :) And Hamilton has HEAPS of members.. that means that there are heaps of mean as feeds!! My new companion is either Tongan or Samoan.. I don't remember.. but he's from Utah (dang!!!) His name is Elder Hopoate. If you go on LDS.org there is an "I'm a Mormon" video about a rugby player from New Zealand. Elder Hopoate is his cousin!! So I'm way pumped! And Zone Leader.. I'll be busy as!! :) Love it!! 

I went on 3 exchanges this week. So me and my companion were all over the place! We went to New Plymouth, Eltham, and Manaia! So it was nice to get a break from each other for a bit and serve in different areas! 

Flippin' Sister Thalman!! My Bud!! I'll miss her heaps! We took her to the bus stop today.. sad morning!! Hawera will definitely miss her.. and so will Elder Butler and Sister Chudleigh!! ;) But I'm way pumped because she served in Hamilton. So I will hopefully still be able to meet Mama Thalman!! 

So everyone.. that's all I want to say today!! But I will leave you with a little spiritual somethin'. 

I love the gospel of Jesus Christ!! I can see the happiness that it brings to my life and to others. I love the Book of Mormon.. which is a miracle in itself because I Hate reading!! It truly is the Word of God.. I know it!! I know that my Savior is real, and that He loves me, and so does my Father in Heaven! I know that missionary work is the most important thing that I could be doing right now.  I may not be baptizing 204 people like Alma did straight away.  But because of my mission, MY testimony has grown... and because of that, My family and future family will hear and hopefully be thankful for that testimony that I will share with them!  I've seen miracles. Nothing too big, but I know that they are miracles! I've felt the power of the Holy Ghost, which is something that I've been longing to experience! I love my family, including my New Zealand family!! Here are some scriptures that I want you to look up. These have been some of my favorites recently! I have had powerful experiences with all of them! I hope they are the right references.. so check them out! 

3 Nephi 11:3-14 (of course.. because it's amazing!! But think about what is REALLY happening here... consider how you would feel falling at the Savior's feet and having the chance to feel the wounds that caused him pain.. because of his love for all of us!  Beautiful!)

Alma 5:16 (I pray that I will receive this welcome when that blessed day comes!) 

1 Corinthians 2:9 (I love him!)

D&C 45:3-5 + D&C 6:37 (first.. The Savior pleading with the Father! Second.. I felt as I read this scripture that the Savior was pleading to me, "Look at what I have done for you.. Please.. Be faithful.. Keep my commandments!!") another Beautiful scripture!

D&C 19:23 (I don't know why I put this scripture.. I just found it yesterday I think. But hopefully it will touch someones life as they read it!! It's very good!!)

I love you... and miss you too many! :) 

Arohanui,

Elder Butler 

Last selfie with the crew! 

Me and Elder Van Thiel. 

Fixin' the drawers for a pic with my matchin' sis!! 

there we go.. nailed it!

This is a family that we were working with.. they will be baptized! They are so cool! This is Deanne and Steve! They left to America for 3 weeks so I didn't get to teach them in time!! But I have high hopes for them!

The sisters came over one night because they were celebrating New Years!! (They celebrated all the holidays before Sister Thalman left.. I don't know if I told you that.)  They brought us Maori Girl tattoos. So they had fun putting them on us and we did the girl pukana. Well...I did! 

The sister's Pukana is horrendous!! haha! ;) 

This week... 

Forgive me right now for having a short letter.. but this week came from Satan's hood... also known as Hell! 

We were having church yesterday.. and one of our investigators ex-girlfriends came in all of the sudden and started yelling and swearing at him. So me and Van Thiel had to kindly tell her to shut up and leave.  (It was much kinder than that I promise!)

Matiu and Wiki... holy heck! I swear, If I ever meet Satan, I'm going to give him a nice sock in the eyeballs. This week has been full of drama!! They are preparing for their wedding.. Their parents still hate each other. The extended families have been nothing but horrible! My gosh! I'm sorry for this letter.. You want to know what's happening?.. Well I'm being honest! 

Alright.. there was a little good! We went to Dawson Falls this week.. The sisters weren't able to come, so it wasn't as fun as usual! But it was cool because there was a light rain. So the whole time, we were playing in the clouds! 

That's all!! Sorry everyone.. read next week!! 

Elder Butler 

p.s. Karla Thalman.. here's your shout out!! (I'm terribly sorry I gave a shout out to Sister Moore's mom and not you!!) ;) So I'm way pumped that you're coming to NZ! You have to find me if I'm out of Hawera by then!  Your daughter and her companion are my buds!! Thanks for keeping my dear mother in line while I've been gone!! ;) 

:)

Dawson Falls in the clouds! 

Hiking Mt. Taranaki.. if you look to the left.. that's the massive view of the city! But we're in the clouds.. so it's not there!! ;) 

A statue I found on the mountain. It kind of looked like my sister Jaycee.. So I took a picture of it!! ;) 

I have a new desk mate... I call him Kevin! It was a gift from the Brownings!!  I thought I'd send a pic of him to my sisters!! ;) 

Shaking an Apostle's Hand...

Well...

I have some bad news for you today.. just 1 though. And heaps of good news! So here you go! 

Starting off with the bad! Keanu!! Dang him! I talked to Elder Fellingham who's in Manurewa right now. He said that Monday, Keanu was great.  He went to the Scanlan's for FHE. Tuesday he came out with them for Member Present lessons. Wednesday, he didn't want them to come over anymore! WHY??? Because he was exposed to Anti-Mormon material!! I'm literally heart broken!! I can't even do anything!! I'm on the opposite side of New Zealand!! :( So that's the first news.. Now on to the good stuff!! 

Elder Taylor is the flippin' man! Matiu didn't have money for a ring. So Elder Taylor took us to the ring shop and bought one for him! The proposal went AWESOME!! They are very excited and just full of joy!! BTW... I don't know if I told you last week, but Matiu was way sick from not smoking. It was making him want to smoke again, so I gave him a priesthood blessing! We came back the next day... "Hey Brotha's!!" He was all better!! :) Miracles!! 

The night of the proposal, we went over to their house and made them dinner! It was a nice little party! But dang Wiki was off showing her ring to all of NZ so we didn't get to see her until we got home from the vacation! 

THE VACATION!! Wow!! It was unreal! Let me just tell you what Elder Cook told us! He was talking about becoming an apostle and being a special witness! He said, "I don't ever tell this much, and hardly ever talk about this!" "And I can't go into much detail because of how spiritual it really is!" "But I want you to know that I know His (the Lord's) voice, I know His image!!" WOW!! When he said that, All my prayers were answered! I received the strongest feeling of the Holy Ghost that I've ever experienced! He TRULY is an apostle of the Lord! Oh...by the way, I was able to shake his hand also! And when I looked into his eyes... I knew!! When I prayed that night, I felt different! I knew that there is a God. That He is my Father in Heaven, and that He does answer my prayers. He loves me! Amazing experience.. One that I will never forget! 

So we stayed at a hotel for 3 days. The first night when we all arrived, a drunk guy came out of his flat and started yelling at all the missionaries. He came into our room and said a lot of nice things with a lot of nice words. So we had to kindly escort him out of our room and quickly shut the door before he made his way back in! The owner called the cops... hilarious! 

Over all though, it was an amazing week! My love for this work has increased greatly! My knowledge and my testimony have grown! I absolutely love New Zealand... I love the people... and I love Jesus Christ! 

Last but not least, Sister Moore's mom,(this paragraph is for you!!) I heard you read my blog!! Thank you so much!! I saw your daughter the other day and talked to her for a good while!! She is my mission mom (sister training leader when I was being trained.) She is a wonderful missionary, and I'm so sad to see her go soon! She said she's planning on going to Hawaii?? Keep her away from all those poly boys!! ;) 

love you all!! Keep it real in 'merica aye?? 

Arohanui,

Elder Butler 

This is my man Matiu!! Flippin' awesome!! 

This is Wiki.. She's crack up as!! I promise we were best buds in the pre-existence. :)

This is our district elders walking to the 3 sisters!! :) 

The 3 sisters. (One of them is behind.) and elephant rock. 

Tunnel! (With Elder Van Thiel) 

The crew. :)

The BIG DAY! (and a little BBall!) ;)

Heck of a week bros,

This week has been so solid!! Lemme give you the run down!

Matthew and Wiki are so sick!! They are absolutely amazing!! We started the "Stop smoking program" and they destroyed it!! Matthew said he doesn't even get tempted any more, and you can see the huge change in their countenances! 

This week we secretly stole Matthew from his family and took him out to lunch to discuss the BIG DAY!!! The proposal!! Stay tuned everyone because stuff is going down in Hawera!! Proposal on Thursday!! WOOO!!! We took him ring shopping, found the right one and got it all planned out!! (now...we just need some cha-ching.. but all goods.) They are the coolest family on earth (besides mine of course.) I can't wait for my fam to meet them! 

This week there was this basketball tournament thing at the HUB. Matthew and Wiki played in it. It was just for fun, so I went and shot around at the beginning. They told me to play, so I did. But when the game started, the ref said I couldn't play unless I took my tie and my badge off. So i was like, "Ya nah man... I can't do that! All good though.. I'll just watch!" But the other team said it's all good!! So the refs changed their minds and allowed me to play. Long story short... I had 20 in the first half... missed 1 shot the whole time! After the first half I had to leave. I thanked everyone for letting me play. They all said, "You have to stay!" and the ref said, "Man... If you want to play again next week, just come on over!" I got a good laugh out of it!! Every time I would do something cool I would hear, "Oh my goodness," or "What the heck!?" It was hilarious!! ;) 

So back to Matthew and Wiki. Me and Van Thiel were walking home with Matthew from ring shopping.. and he asks, "How do you go on a mission?" We were thinking he was asking for himself, so we told him all about couples missions. But then he said, "I want Hemi to go on a mission someday!" I was so flippin pumped!! (If i haven't told you already, Matthew and Wiki have two little kids. Hemi their little 2 year old boy, and Manuanui Rose, their little 10 month baby!) We have found the family I've been praying for!! MIRACLES I'm telling ya... MIRACLES!! 

Last but definitely not least.. We're going to have a vacation this week!! We have a Zone Conference in Hammy town, and we're having a mission conference with Elder Quinton L. Cook on Saturday in Auckland!! So pumped!! :) 

That's all fam!! Love you all heaps!! Have a great week.. Don't enjoy the good weather too much!! Send some of it to me please!! The weather here has been straight up awful!! 

Arohanui,

Elder Butler 

Balut Anyone?!

Kia ora, Kia ora!! 

That was a wonderful week.. let me tell ya! 

To start it off, we went to the lake, Lake Rotokare and that was a blast. (even though it rained the whole flippin time!) We took an awesome hike that I have pictures of, so don't get your panties in a bundle! ;) 

On Tuesday we set 3 people for baptism. So I'm going to talk about all of them. We reset Matthew and Wiki. We're planning with Matthew some sick proposal ideas (which I am a professional at,) so they can get married!! SO pumped!! I absolutely love them.. they will be my friends throughout the eternities.. no doubt!! The next one is Selwyn! He's the man! He's part of the Blackpowers gang, which is a massive gang here in NZ. We had an awesome lesson with him last night. I received the prompting to give him a priesthood blessing, and I kid you not...There in front of me was a solid gang member from the Blackpowers wiping away his tears!! I couldn't believe what I was seeing!!  It's amazing to see how the Spirit works with people, and how anyone can change!! Wonderful experience! 

Alright!! The moment you've all been waiting for... I ate Balut this last week!! Man.. it is something else!! The taste is not too bad! But the looks...wow!! I can't wait to send you the video!! For those of you who don't know what Balut is.. it's the Embryo of a duck or chicken!! Feathers, beak, bones and all!! :) I'll send you some pictures.. but they are pretty graphic... so forgive me. (Robin: don't worry, I am not posting all of these pics.)

There's not much to say this week! It was very successful, let me tell ya!! We achieved the Standards of Excellence this week.. which is very hard to do!! And we're just doing great! People are coming to church, having lessons with us, feeding us.. soon they'll all be flocking to the font!! :) 

That's all for now!! I love you Whanau!! :) 

Elder Butler  

            Lake Rotokare in the rain!! 

                     The lake/hike

                          Balut??

"It was definitely the coolest thing I've eaten so far!!"

Elder Van Thiel Berghuijs...Sent Straight From Heaven!

Whanau, Whanau, Whanau....

What's up, what's up!!! ;) Elder B here reportin' on the week while rollin' in the N to the Z. 

Great week.. Great week!! 

This week was transfers! I finally gave my friendly Filipino a paddle on the skidaddle, and kicked him out of Naki town. I picked myself up a solid as companion straight from the terrifying country of South Africa! Don't try to say his name because I wouldn't want there to be any fatalities back home from trying too hard! It's dutch... Elder Van Thiel Berghuijs! He's the flippin' man! He cooks nice as food, plays sports, and is obedient as!! I'm trying to figure out still if President sent him to me.. or if he came to me straight from heaven. 

It was so awesome talking to the whanau yesterday! I miss your beautiful faces!! 

This week we had a cool little miracle!! So get spiritual for a moment while I lay this on the table!! Brother Michael Tutauha (Dalmon's step dad) was giving the lesson in Elders Quorum about the blessings of Temples. During the story he was telling, he said, "I wish Dalmon was here to listen to this!" And in my mind I was like, "No kidding.. I wish he was also!" All of the sudden, in walks Dalmon in his street clothes. He listened for about the last 15 minutes. At the end of the meeting Dalmon came up to me and said, "Elder Butler, remember the lesson we had about the Plan of Salvation? It all makes sense to me now!!"  It was perfect for him to be there at church at that very time!! It was a miracle!! 

That's about it for now... I told you all the goods yesterday!! But it was wonderful seeing you all! I miss you heaps!! 

Oh.. and a shout out for the best mom ever... "Tia.. happy Mothers Day!!"  (Tia is our dog.)

Just kidding mother dear.. I hope you had the happiest Mother's Day!! Pops... I hope you made it Flippin sweet as for that wonderful woman!! ;) 

Oh.. last thing. We were at an investigators house last night, and on his bookshelf was the book "Guess How Much I Love You!" I had completely forgotten about those cute little rabbits!! And it quickly reminded me of those good ol' days with my sweet mama!! 

Ka Kite ano,

Elder Butler

Me and my new son, Elder Van Thiel Berghuijs!

Playin' a little volley!

Is it working?? Oh...I think it worked.

The Flipping Tutauha family!! LOVE THEM

We went to a culture performance...WAY cool.  But this guy is teaching our members how to do the Haka!  He wanted them to look like "real Maori's," so he threw wigs on them! 

ANZAC Day

Missionary Work is Sweet As!!

KIA ORA!!!!!!!! :) 

Another wonderful week!! Nothing too crazy happened.  Just a typical missionary week...but it was wonderful!! 

Starting off, I went on an exchange with my best buddy Elder Waldron! We had a great time! I pray that I'm a Zone Leader with him as my companion someday, because we would flippin' do work!! I love that kid!! 

On Thursday I had my first Hangi (Hong-ee). It was amazing!! So much meat and pumpkin, Kumara and potatoes!! Oh Man!! And the cool part was an investigator was the one who fed us!! But the bad part.. I ate SO much... and just a few hours later we had a dinner appointment at the Hana's!!  They always feed you heaps of food!! I felt like I gained 5kg that day! 

On Saturday we were invited to play basketball at the big sports center in town. A group of about 15 Filipinos from all over the place were getting ready to play in a league. So we played with them! It was awesome to get out my shoes again and play!! (We weren't allowed to wear shorts, just our proselyting clothes, but we got permission to wear our ball shoes!) It was dang fun! There were some crazy good Filipinos!! They asked if we could join their league team, and we said we weren't allowed. They were pretty bummed about that because they said if they had us on their team, they'd win the championship for sure! ;) Elder Canoy threw me an Alley-oop dunk and it made everyone go crazy (I have the beauty mark on my wrist to prove it!!)  It felt so good to be back on the court.  I haven't played like that in ages!! (But I still felt like I was in pretty decent shape!!) 

All of our investigators are doing well. I'll give you an update on Deanne and Steve (the "to be continued" story.) They are an amazing couple.. and so nice and interested! But they are SO busy! They will be in America for the next 5 weeks! I have a feeling that I'm just here to prepare them to receive the Gospel at a later date, because at this rate, they haven't progressed much! They have to battle with sports, all their kids, work, and it's just insane! But I am positive that they will accept it someday!  

We went to visit the Tutauhas this week. They are so hilarious! I can't wait to introduce you to Sister Tutauha. Her prayers will have you cracking up!! SHE BLESSES AND IS THANKFUL FOR EVERYTHING!! I kid you not.. I have to stop myself from laughing every time!! ;) They are beautiful though!! We love "accidentally" visiting them during dinner hours because they ALWAYS have a meal prepared for us...and they're nice as! 

Over all though.. this week has been pretty good! The Spirit was wonderful! I've learned a lot! Grown a lot (still not in height) :/ Missionary work is sweet as!! :) 

love you all!! :)

laterz,

Elder Butler