This week was good!! I love Decatur sooo much and I cannot believe that I have to leave soo soon!!! Also I miss all of you and wish that I could transport all of you to Decatur so I could introduce you to all of the awesome people here!! OK ALSO HUGE NEWS WE HAVE SOMEONE ON DATE FOR BAPTISM WAHOOOOOOOO HIS NAME IS ZACH AND HE WANTS TO BE BAPTIZED AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. I AM SOOOO HAPPY AND GRATEFUL!!!!!!!!
pday last week was wayy cool because we got to spend time on brother smiths dock and sat in the sun!! It was awesome!! I painted and listened to music so that was a happy time
we met the funniest little dog I have ever seen it was so small and scared of us and its name was Popsicle and she was so old so she didn't have teeth and he tongue would always be to the side and she was sooo cute.
-after pday we had a lesson with Zach and it was the best!!! He decided that he wants to get baptized as soon as possible!!! We are soooo happy for him!!! Its so cool to see his understanding of the gospel grow in such a short amount of time!! Ahhh it literally feels like a dream that someone we are teaching has committed to baptism!! I am so proud of him!! ALSO he read 15 chapters of the Book of Mormon!!! Nothing could make me happier!!
Tuesday
-we were on our way to zone conference
-in Champaign-Urbana!! Where I was born!!! It was soo cool to see my old house and the park I used to play at!! So surreal wow. We went and took a picture with the condo and played at the park a little bit and it was such a good memory :)
-zone conference was good we listened to lots of messages about baptism and tiwis
-we got a new tiwi!!!! I already got an agressive driving whoops but the new tiwi voice is so much nicer and doesn't hurt our ears. I am so happy!!! Love new tiwi <3 (What's a tiwi you might ask? That's what I was wondering when I read this tidbit in Hannah's email. It will give you (audible voice) feedback as you drive and will record information about your driving. The Tiwi identifies your location using a GPS system and gathers driving information from your vehicle’s computer. Your Tiwi will mentor you as you drive by giving you immediate feedback if you: Drive without fastening your seat belt, Drive too fast for the posted speed limit, Drive aggressively such as stopping or turning too hard, driving over bumps too fast, or accelerating too fast.
-after zone conference we went to dinner with all of the sisters in the zone and that was wonderful!! Ahhh talking with missionaries is so much fun!! and we had the best lava cake it was soooo good!
Wednesday
-we showed up at the same service at the SAME TIME as the elders whoops so we ended up going to wash windows at the y instead of going to the thrift
-we met the cutest little adorable Egyptian lady!!! I literally love her so much and I have her a hug and she kissed my cheek. Made my whole entire day!!
-i got my wonderful amazing easter package!!!!!! Wahoooo could not be more thrilled!!! Thanks family love you <3
-we were going to visit sister askins and there was a lady sitting on the porch across the street and she looked like someone I knew and so I started telling her that and she was sooo awesome!! The spirit was helping us so much and we talked to her and told her about Christs love for her and she started crying opened up to us a ton and it was super cool and we gave her a hug and I love her!! Experiences like that are soooo cool and I feel so blessed to be able to share that simple BUT AMAZING truth with people. Also I think it taught me a ton about doing my best to share the gospel with every person we come into contact with because we know it will bless their lives!!! And you never know who really needs it until you invite them. So a new goal of mine is to be less scared when sharing the gospel with people because its awesome and its true and people need it!!
-visited sister askins and it was a nice time we love her sooo much!! She is such a unique person and I love hearing her insights about the gospel and life and I saw a white mouse and a gray mouse scamper across the floor. Spooked me a little bit and i screamed during the lesson haha
-we visited some potentials and worked the area around them and seriously ever single person said the same exact phrase they all said they already had a church. Except one person who lived at a house who was a former person being taught and she asked if we were church people and we said yes and she slammed the door in our face as I was asking her if they were the family that we were looking for haha. It was good though no effort is wasted!! Just kinda funny.
-we got to teach Jerry and I brought him my favorite treat ever!! Chocolate cinnamon bears <3 we talked about temples. I love the temple so much!!
-can i just say that I LOVE NEW TIWI SO MUCH!!! New tiwi is so much nicer!! Less aggressive more agreeable
Thursday
-started off the day doing service in my fav place!! The thrift store!! We got to see rita!! Ahhh love her so much the people who volunteer there are so awesome and they are such good friends to us.
-today I realized how I need to help push member missionary work more because its sooo effective!!!! I have been stubborn about member missionary work but the Lord has definitely helped me to see the bigger picture today and why member missionary work is so important!!
-after lunch we got to see brother Novak and the elders when we stopped by the church and I LOVE BROTHER NOVAK SO MUCH!! I am gonna miss him so much when I leave here because he is so funny and nice.
-we ended up having lots of finding time this day so we walked around and got to talk to A BUNCH OF PEOPLE!!!! We found so many people who were willing to let us share a message with them!! Wow I am still so thankful for the warmth and how it improves peoples moods sooo much!! <3
-good news! Zach has still been reading the Book of Mormon. Literally teared up because I was so happy about that. Being a missionary is so much fun when we have someone who will keep commitments and is progressing so much!! Ahhh such a blessing that we are able to know zach.
-met a puppy and it was pretty cute and it definitely smelled like pee and then I smelled like pee from it climbing all over my legs haha but worth it bc it was a cute puppy
-the Book if Mormon study this week was great as always AND I got surprise from Jerry because I didn't know I was going to get them so soon but JERRY GOT ME OVERALLLLSSSS!!!! IT WAS THE BEST GIFT EVER!! and now jerry and i can match in overalls and they seriously fit perfectly. Wowow so blessed to know Jerry!!
-i had ramen for dinner at 9 oclock at night haha gotta love mission life!!
Friday !!
-we went to good samaritan for service but they didn't need us!! So we started our weekly planning instead but then a million random things happened and we ended up not doing it until the very end of the day!!!
-a man from our ward named brother tucker took us to krekles for lunch, home of the krekleburger. It originated in Decatur and they are straight up the greasiest burgers ever but we love them!!
-we got to see sister breeze and fill her in about what she missed at the book of Mormon study.
-we met with zach and planned out everything we are going to do leading up to his baptism. We are going to be meeting with him A TON! And he is so excited to get baptized!! We always teach zach at the park by his house and he wanted to show us a tree in the park and we thought it would be a three minute walk BUT IT WAS SO FAR OOPS!! We did not know haha but it was a crazy tree that had a bikini painted onto it (don't worry picture included on the drive)
-we saw a curious squirrel the had a bushy tail and then no hair on its body wackkkk
Saturday
-we did THE BEST SERVICE PROJECT ever!!!!! We got to help clean up the sangamon river!!!! We picked up trash along the shore of the river and we found so many treasures. Rib cages, so much styrofoam, bottles, legos,
A COYOTE SKULL,
crispy dead fish, large humongous pieces of plastic, and so much more!!
It was so much fun we basically got to hike with our volunteer group through a super wooded thorny area and pick up so much trash and help clean up the conservation area!!
It was awesome and it was raining so we got way soaked!!
-after the river clean up we were soooo cold so we went home and changed and ate some lunch which was amazing!! So thankful for warm clothes!!
-we went tracting and met some wonderful amazing people <3 wow probably my favorite part of being a missionary is meeting random people!! Especially when they start opening up to you so much even if you don't know them and you can pray with them and help them to understand how much the lord loves them!! Literally nothing beats that.
-i am loving the spring weather soooo much it is gorgeous and the surroundings here are so green!!
-it was a wonderful day because we got to visit with Zach at his house and meet his mom!! SHE IS SO SWEET!!! Zach has been showing her the things we have taught him and she supports him in his decisions!! She sat in on our lesson and it was so good to talk to her and get to know her!! She is seriously amazing!! Also we got to meet his cats and they were so cute and kept hopping on the table when we were teaching him!!
Sunday
-barry called me butterball again
-this sunday was wonderful!! Jerry drove zach to church for us and it was sooo good to see them there!! Zach loved church soooo much !! We are so glad!! After church we had a lesson with jerry and zach came too and we talked about the restoration and jerry pulled out his preach my gospel and gave it to zach!!
-we had dinner with my favorite people!!! The stoddards!! Ahhh they are the coolest family I love them so much so cute and so kind and so inspiring.
-so the other day (like two weeks ago) we met these cool football guys and they WERE SO NICE!! And they wanted us to come to their game but we just scheduled it so we could go to the very end like last two minutes of the game so we could talk to then and we were walking to the field and the coach spotted us and he goes "sister Butterfield your late!!" Like soooo loud haha it was awesome. But they are all so nice to us and we are going to visit them again because some of them want boooKs of mormon and we got to share a message with some of them and they called us family. I literally love them SO MUCH!!!!! And the coach had us meet all of the players we hadn't met yet!! Best thing ever haha.
-we had a phone called with barry for 30 minutes!!! Our phone call consisted of talkk about ufos, family history, horses, the creation, white people food, the restoration, the priesthood, and butterballs. WE LOVEE HIM SOOO MUCH!! We invited him to baptism and he said that he was already baptized. But we will keep trying!! Barry is such a good friend love him.
-got asked if I was amish again!! Wahooo
Thats all for this week!! Love you all soooooo much and hope you have a gret week!!! <3
Sister Buttercup !!
