Sista B signing out

okay this is too crazy! this is my last email to you guys as a missionary. i am almost a return missionary.....what. okay okay lets just go over what went down this week. day by dayyyyy!

monday: we went bowling for pday! my last pday ever!!! i think ima go to the stake center on mondays though and play with the elders and sisters hahah...is that weird? guys i was tearing it up at bowling. like so good! i got 129 my first game. i beat EVERYBODY!!! then i sucked my last time. but it was still soo fun. the bowling alley was connected to hooters so we had to shield the elders eyes as we walked by. i got a letter from sis ballard and it made me so trunky/wanna puke with nervousness. lol im so dummmmmmmmmmmmmb! 

tuesday: we went to asl class in the morning and learned how to say my purpose. i will definitely be showing that to you guys on wednesday. then we went and saw sister lundby and admired her collection of nut crackers. then we had an appointment with a man named paul. he told us that he had been taking the lessons for years but just got off track and now he is ready to get back to church! such a miracle. then we had dinner with my favorite family (probably one of my fave in the whole mission) the rubens! omg i just love them and their kids are so cute and they are so funny and they met on their mission. cute! after we saw aaron and dean squeezed our head!! i love aaron and his family.

wednesday: i had my last zone meeting ever. a lot of "lasts" this week :( the trainings were super good though. one on the atonement....ugh you guys ILOVEJESUS!!!! he is the best thing that has ever happened....EVER! i could not have made it without the knowledge of his grace and forgiveness. because i am so imperfect its nuts. then they talked about being consecrated missionaries. its about sacrifice. the mission is sacrifice and what a great sacrifice it is! then i had to give my "dying testimony". it came so natural...even though bearing my testimony in public freaks me out i was just able to TESTIFY!!! afterwards the district went out to lunch at dennys and elder merrell bought my lunch...ugh so nice! that night we went to say goodbye to the lavalle family. i love those kids so much and hope they will remember me and the things we tried to teach them. then we had to go on exchanges with the sister training leaders...i went with sis whitmore to her area.

thursday: i was on exchanges. in the morning we went and helped some recent converts clean their house. then we tracted and tracted. exactly what i wanted to do!!! tracting is actually really fun. maybe ill go for kicks and giggles when i get home! we had dinner with the cutest family and the wife decorated her house sooo cute. i shoulda took pictures. last exchange on the mission. 

friday: we saw marissa and her puppies! shes great and came to the ward party this weekend. i really hope she gets baptized soon. that would be awesome. then we went tracting again!!! yeeee. that day i was planning on packing up most of my things...which i was doing. then AP elder hales called. so since there are 19 sisters going home this week and only 3 coming in...there are alot of changes that have to be made in the mission. so he called and told us that the sisters from the neighboring ward would be covering avra valley as well. QUE STRESSSS!!! you know what that means. in addition to freaking out about coming home we have to: both pack now and say goodbye to people, talk to the other sisters and give them our area book/talk about every person that we are working with, clean the whole house perfectly--- 7 years of missionaries crap in that house and it all has to be gone. yeah i was trippin. then we had dinner with the gibsons haha.

saturday:we had the ward christmas party in the morning. it was really good and a great turn out. me and mags bought matching pajamas so obvi we were the hit of the party. we told everyone that we were both leaving the area and a lot of people were real sad about it...that makes me feel good because that means i am so fun! when we got home we just cleaned and cleaned. then we went to say bye to all the people. ugh i hate goodbyes because i love people just so darn much! that night after dinner we went caroling as a district! it was so fun and everybody loved it...people just dont go caroling anymore. then we got calls from president about transfers. mags is going back to her birth area to be in a trio! she was soooo pumped because that means she will know a lot of people for christmas. then president to me "sister butcherite, you are going home and i see in your future a tall, dark, handsome, smart, wealthy man in a car." there you have it ladies and gentle men....he cannot tell a lie!!! soooo fun!!!

sunday: church was really good and i said bye to a lot of people and they expressed their love and wishes to me returning home. then we went and spent the day saying goodbye to all my avra valley lovelies. at 6 our ward went tunnel caroling! it was really fun and we all sang loud and proud! bishop patten had me say the closing prayer....ugh its so sad! 

okay now for the mush and gush of the email. 18 months. this has been the best 18 months of my life! going on a mission has been the best thing of my entire life. the best decision i have ever made was choosing to serve the lord and his children. i have learned and grown more in these 18 months that i have at any other period of time. i have learned to love more that i can imagine. every person i have come in contact with on my mission, i have genuine christlike love for them! its a hard thing to love so much. i now know just a fraction of the love that heavenly father has for his children. it is sooo much. the members, less actives, investigators and fellow missionaries. i love them all and they all have a piece of my heart for real though. arizona you got me forever. i will never regret being on the lords errand and helping him in his work....to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of all men. he lives to bring us home to him and its a honor to help him. my testimony of the gospel and mission of jesus christ is the biggest difference ive seen in myself. this church is truly christ church on the earth, with the fullness and joy and power! it makes sense in every way. i know the book of mormon is true. i have read it everyday of my mission and love that i have been able to testify of it the last 570 days. read it plz! prayer is a mighty thing and i dont think i would have been able to make it if i didnt know i had a loving heavenly father listening and comforting me. the atonement and love of our savior jesus christ is what will bring us home to god. the atonement can enable us to do things we dont think we can. it can rid us of the stains and pains of mistakes we have made. we are not perfect and i can call myself out as a prime example of imperfection...if it wasnt for the atonement i would be nothing. these last 18 months have been the hardest, funnest, and most rewarding times of my life. i love my mission, i love arizona, i love this gospel. i want to thank everyone that i have met out here and for allowing me to be apart of your lives. i want to thank all my family and friends back home that have continued to give me your love and support. i love you all. i especially want to thank my mom and dad. if it wasnt for them i wouldnt even be on a mission! you are my rocks!!! i love you guys so much and cant wait to hug you in 2 day!!! welllllp. this is it. 18 months over and done with. i love you allllllll and cant wait to see you. sista b signing out! duces!

love,

sister jennifer butcherite

winner

pepperoni for lunch

be carfl going down the hill

lavalles...theyre crazy

hey sannnntttttaaa

aaron and dean

doug!!!! the legend

frost kids....can you tell it was self timer. nahhh

the rubens. my faves!

the gibsons

i will live by this quote

heather!!! i love this girl so much!!! shes in the middle obvi

we found glow sticks cleaning out the house!!! butch and mags!

                                    

                                                for real doe how cute is the ruben family?

we are soooo fun!

                                        

ill be home for christmas

lol literally all i wanna do i hold you all in my arms right now. but soon enough!!!! ugh this week was hard! probs that hardest on my mission...just because of me and my thoughts and ahhhhh i want to turn my brain off and just hit cruise control for these next 9 days. too much thinking...i wish i was a boy or something. LOLOLOLOL! so on monday we went to the zoo! it was so fun and i love animals bc theyre cute and they dont judge. right?! then we went to sports but no one was doing anything. seee yaaa!!! after dinner we went to see the burns. they are returning to church! its so great to see less actives come back....its just like baptism! conversion all over again. on tuesday we went to asl class where i learned how to say funeral potatoes and Porto rico in sign language. it would be so fun to contact a deaf person though! we met with sandy that afternoon and read the book of mormon. she is finally out of the Isaiah chapters so we can actually help her understand hahha. we talked more about baptism and she said she is ready to talk to her kids about it! but then she said she is still drinking that coffee. -__________- yeah that has definitely got to get cleared up stat! we walked around and contacted people for a bit but no takers. dang! that night our relief society had a christmas activity. it was really good! talked a lot about baby jesus and him being our gift this christmas. seriously guys, he is the greatest gift that anyone of us can receive. EVER! we wouldnt be able to accomplish much with out him and it all started with his mortal birth...which is why we celebrate this time of year! After wards we saw What a great guy! His autistic son was eating banana peals all night hahahah so funny. Aaron said some really nice things to me that night. Just how I have been able to touch him and his family and that every new missionary that comes into his house gets him one step closer to coming back to church! Just come to church aaron!!! Wednesday we had district meeting and elder merrell gave a good training on “don’t drop the beans”. We have so much potential in this life to do great things and heavenly father knows our eternal possibilities! Don’t drop the beans and discover it! Lol so good! We went to see sami later but she wasn’t home. Lemme tell you this though. The little black girls in that neighborhood love us!!! We gave them a couple book of Mormons and told them to spread the word!! Hahahah theyre cute. After dinner we saw the lavalles. We taught them that contention is of the devil so everytime that they fought we were like “CONTENTION”….el Diablo!!! I think they caught on! Then we went to see heather. Omg I was so emotional that night. Idk why. But we were talking about love and the love that heavenly father has for her and she told us all her feelings and doubt and I just broke down because I love her and I KNOW heavenly father loves her! I just wish everyone could feel his love because if they did then the world wouldn’t be that bad! On Thursday we saw marissa and we talked about her getting baptism! She said she is so down to get baptized but that she wants her son to do it…he lives in Utah! so maybe we can get something to happen soon! that would be a christmas miracle. we also saw doug that day and he showed us all the characters in the power ranger show. friday we went and gave service to the old couple in my ward that remind me of my mom and dad. lol they are so funny and me and mags just laugh all the time at how they talk to each other. then we weekly planned (last one EVER) and saw the frosts that night. they are going on a cruise for christmas! fun. okay now saturday was the funnest day ever. in the morning we went to help dougs mom at a thing where they give out 60lbs of food for 10 bucks. it was a great deal a lot of people got to see us....famous! then we went to a cowboy ranch for the "round up". i wanted to be a real cowboy and castrate a cow.....so i bucked up and did it!!!! omg it was the grossest most empowering thing of my life. taking man hood from a cow. lol jk. it wasnt that bad. but im a real cow girl now! the video shows it all. after that we had interviews with president passey. it was my final exit interview!!!! crazy. we talked for a long time. i told him about my issues and my freak outs and he was just soooo good as i sat there crying and being dumb. he told me everything i needed to hear and reassured me that nerves are just fine! hes a good guy and i feel privileged to serve with him. on sunday church was real good. at the beginning of sacrament meeting the microphone wasnt working...lol wut? but then it turned on right before the sacrament! blessed day. then we helped out in young womens, talking about how the girls can help new members and less actives! be friends!!! we watched the chirstmas devotional....lol trunky for utah. then we went to ward choir because tis the season to sing all the christmas songs! now its all down hill from here you guys! 1 more week to find and teach people the message of the restored gospel. 1 more week to grow spiritually and learn more about my savior and redeemer. 1 more week to explore arizona hahah! 1 more week to miss me! eeeeek i cant believe im coming home! i will write you guys next week. then im outtie for real! have a great week! i love you all.

saguaro national park! fun

prettttty

ohhhhhh pooor cow

mags branding

after the dirty deed

lol frozen came to arizona i guess. 

sister missionary castrate cow

He knows your heart

okay this week had to be the fastest ever! like ever in the mission. it just went by way to fast! it was a good, hard week though! so monday was pday and we just had sports. our zone isnt too keen on sports so its kinda boring but i get everyone pumped/yell at them till they get up and join! hahah im like hitler and i think some of the elders are legit scared of me. oh well. we had dinner with the best family. the mom is a recent convert and her love and enthusiasm for the gospel is out of this world! i want to grow up and be like her! they were so pumped on missionary work and were like "we are going to invite all of our neighbors to meet with you guys"...ummm yeah okay i LOVE YOU!! i cant wait to be a member missionary when i get home! tuesday we had ASL class in the morning hahah i can teach people the gospel in almost 2 languages. jk i dont even know what im doing half the time, but its fun. that afternoon mags was feeling sick so we came home and she slept and i made soup. cute! im like a mom. then we went to see doug before dinner. omg so there we are and we are lookin though his dragon ball z books, pickin out who were would be if we were on the show, and i just got a promptin like "get to know this kid, who is the man we call doug". no biggie, so i just start asking him question about himself. then BOOM. silence. and he just unloads the biggest stuff about him. it was so special for me. here we are teaching this man about the gospel and heavenly fathers love and we didnt even know his needs. im thankful for the spirit and listening to those promptings because now we will be able to really help him through his struggles. ugh it was awesome! i love this job! we had dinner at one of our ward missionaries house and then after we took their 18 year old son, who is preparing to serve a mission, out with us to see aaron. it was fun because he got to see real life missionary work!! he did really good though and will be a great missionary. i think every future missionary should have to go out with the missionaries to get a real taste! ya feel or wut? on wednesday we had district meeting...elder merrell, ladies and gents, is the best district leader EVER! so we talked about using good language, especially when we teach. so we came up with a list of filler words like "umm, ya know, like, ect" and had to teach a 1 minute principle not using them. omg it was sooo funny! i was being so obnoxious hhahah like everytime some one said one of the words i would be like "STOP!!! START OVER! YOU SAID UM" hhahah i didnt even mess up when it came to my turn though. that night we had dinner with the funnest old couple. omg mom and dad i swear it was you in like 10 years. so im like "can we play a video for you guys?" then the husband is like "of course", then starts the struggle to get the dvd player to work. hahah hes yelling at his wife asking how to work it. she starts complaining that she doesn know then proceeds to dust the tv and dvd player. he like "NANCY, youre in the way. cmon, it doesnt need to be cleaned. i just was like...epiphany....this is my parents. sooo funny! then we saw the lavalle kids, who were just outt control and their hispanic dad yells at them in spanish. so fun!!! on thusday it was thanksgiving!!!! in the morning we joined some elders in playin football. naturally, they passed us the ball in every play and let us be QB. -_________- i touch the ball twice. i suck but like my spiral is pretty decent. we had dinner at the gibsons. i love that family! we helped peel potatoes, then caught marshmallows in our mouths for a solid 30 minutes. dinner was way decent. i missed cookin with you mom! next year, for sure!! then we had dinner number 2 at heathers. it was good, but i was soooo full. we helped cleaned up while listening to christmas music! ugh its christmas time now!! it just keeps me thinking that im gonna be home for christmas!! friday was sooo freakin hot!! like so hot! i think 87 or something. simply stupid and no one was home so thats cool! i needed eggnog that night for sure! fun!  okay so here comes the freak out now. everything is going fast and i dont know if i like it anymore. its legit freak out mode now. i hear everyone talk about it before they go home and im just like "psshhhh CMON GUYS YOURE GOING HOME!!! get pumped. you get to watch tv and see your family and do normal things!" but im the one just like trippin now! its wierd. all i can think about is how im not READY, like prepared to come home. i will def need all your support and will probs just cry a lot so get used to it k? its actually kinda fun....im stressin so much i cant eat so like ima be lookin fly. 2 people said i look thinner and im just like "thanks, i havent eaten anything in 52 hours." so ive been feeling this for like a couple of days now and of course been talking it over with the big man upstairs. all about my worries, imperfections and craziness. of course i know hes listening and he can help me with anything, but its hard. then comes saturday, we went to a baptism on the east side for someone that sis mags taught. after wards i was just like "i need a soda stat" so we drive around for a while and mags is like "how about this circle k" yeah okay. so we go in and im getting me some mtdew lol and this guy comes up to me and is like "sister butcherite?" umm yeah "do you remember me" i definitely recognized the voice....it was kevin!! who remembers kevin? he goes on "i though it was you!" how are you, kevin?! "im doing really good! ive gone to the temple and have done a ton of baptism and now im preparing to take out my endowments" guys, heavenly father knows you! he hears your prayers and love you more than you can even imagine! he knew that i needed to see kevin and hear how good he is doing. its like i could literally hear heavenly father saying "see sista b, dont be dumb, youve done good things these last 18 months....look at my son. you helped him so much."ugh it was perfect! just sooo good. just for kevin. it was all worth it. on sunday we had to sing in choir and me and mags were so nervous because lemme tell you, practices sounded rough! but it turned out sooo good! the spirit was way strong. then we sang christmas songs all day! eeek i love christmas. okay this was a freakin long email. i love you guys and cant wait to see you all so soon!!! pray i finish strong and faithful!! yeah? thanks. i will email probs the 8 and last on the 15th for my final over and out! 

sista b

lol then we went to the zoo this morning as you can tell from the pictures! it was so fun!

how fun is the library at night!!

16 days my little ryder hahahah

soon seattle...soon

hello mini pony

just chillin wit some jaguars nbd

okay hey tiger

dats a giraffe 

BABY ELEPHANT!!! ARE YOU KIDDING MEEEEE?!?!? i was dying!

us and elephant lol