WEEK 16: The Streak Continues...

January 19, 2015

Dear Friends and Family,

Last week I told you all that our zone was on a 6 day streak of contacting 20 people every day! Well today will be our 14th day straight! Not only are we the only zone in the mission still holding the streak, but we're also breaking the record for most days in a row ever! If we hold it for another week, we will have talked to over 5,000 people! Not only are we talking to an outrageous amount of people, but we are seeing miracles like I haven't seen before out here!

Last week I mentioned one of our new investigators named Maria, who we found and have been teaching the Gospel. I can't remember if I talked about her big pit bull or not, but he's a very angry, mean dog who has been known to bite people walking past their house, over the fence. Well the first time the other Elders went by, the dog just didn't come out! That in itself was a huge miracle! Well this week we went by and the dog was out jumping around and barking at us; and the only way to get to the door is to just open the gate and walk in. We stared at the dog for a couple of minutes, and let [it] sniff us through the fence. Then we just opened the gate and took a step in. The dog immediately ran straight for us and sniffed us as we stood completely motionless. We are all friends now :) And the lesson went awesome!!! Maria prayed with us and started crying during it because she felt the Spirit so strongly :). 

Last night as we were knocking doors, we came across another SUPER solid family! They invited us in and talked with us for an hour and a half. They are so cool! And they have family [who] are members who live in American Fork.

Just to show you how miraculous these last couple weeks have been, here are some stats:

Since we have begun the challenge to contact 20 people a day:

Investigators with a baptismal date: up 48%
Investigators who attended Sacrament meeting: up 53%
Lessons taught with member present: up 39%
Other lessons taught: up 46%

Something very important that I have noticed this last week, is that right before we are about to see a miracle, or right before we knock on a very promising door, is always when Satan tries his very hardest to discourage and mislead us. The middle of this week was probably the hardest and most draining time for me so far out here. It felt as if a weight had dropped on all of us and we just had no energy or desire to get out of bed or get out and teach and talk to people. Well, we pressed through it and where blessed with such an awesome weekend where so many new investigators were found in the zone (17!). If we will just endure the trials of life, we will all be blessed with strength, health, and determination!!

On a side note, we've decided that our apartment is going to get into shape!! We've written up a plan where every morning we will get up at 5:50, go do cardio outside for 30 minutes, then come inside and workout for another half an hour! It's going to be great ;)

I love you all! Have a good week!!

Love,

Elder Butterfield