Countdown? Oh pish posh!

now now, none of this trunky bizz.... let´s keep a level head now. (i guess if you really want to you can make a little paper chain and do your countdown, just don´t tell me about it har har har ;D).
wow, this has been a BOMB week. ya know how i told you about our breakthrough last week concerning our goals? we totally ripped it up this week! jus shreddin the gnar as al would say ha ha. we almost achieved all of the goals!!!! it was so amazing. it has been a test of faith and diligence for us. hermana butler is so rock solid. she is jsut a rock. ever since we started really working hard it seems that a huge pressure has fallen on us to push us down harder and harder. Satan knows what we are up to. and he is pushing back. but with hermana butler we have not slowed down. we had a rockstar week and it has been amazing. we made big plans and followed through with them. even when it seemed our plans would fall through somedays to have members come out with us or teaching appointments would fall through, we kept at it and it somehow all worked out. we got the 15 lessons with a member, 15 news, 28!!!! other lessons, 10 with menos activos, and 3 in sacrament meeting and an investigator attended a baptismal service we had and and and ... it was soo great!!!!! it is such a test of faith. i am realizing that i need more faith. i always find that i lack a lot of understanding. i am out here, preaching the gospel everyday, but then i sit back and find that i really don´t know that much myself! it is so true that the Spirit is the driving force of all of this. we are just like children that need a hand to hold to guide us. but we do our best and The Lord makes us His instruments to bring about great things. It has been a such a privilege to experience the things we have experienced lately.
not sure that i am getting this across really well. i so wish you could all know personally what it has been like. i just wish all the chilluns at home knew what this felt like. when i get home i will talk more about it and hopefully share the magic with you more effectively. if only you knew! it would make you so much more excited than ever before to serve the Lord in a mission! it´s just indescribable. I have the talk on dvd by elder holland and i would love to have a special family home evening with all the family and grandpa within the week that i return home to show it to you and share a little bit of what i have experienced with you all. i want to help you capture the excitement and vision of it.
ok, so, that´s all i can really say about that. i wish i was more adequate in typing this message to you.
today is the first day of the change, and we are so stoked. it is still really cold and we are still getting rain, but it is fun and exciting to me. lots of rain! but they say the climate is changing. they said just two years ago the norm was to have rain like in washington for the months of late june to early september. but these past few years it has been more dry and much more cold. and in utah you are getting dumped on! and we heard about the crazy sandstorm in arizona and the tornadoes on the east coast in the states. this world really is changing rapidly. it makes me excited because it means the Messiah is really coming back soon! it also makes me so sad because there are so many people who are filled with fear because they notice that the earth is changing and don´t know why. they have no idea that Christ is coming. i want them to know so badly! but there are still many unwilling to let us into their homes, regardless of the questions that fill their hearts about their divine origin and their purpose in life and the life to come. but i have received such faith that i know there are so many anxiously waiting for an answer that are just waiting for us to arrive at their doorstep. and for that we are fighting with all we´ve got.
Well, i don´t have much else to say. keep studying up boys! this will be the ride of your life. but enjoy the moment, like alex says. just live life to the fullest in whatever position you are in!
i love you!!!
samsam