Eating with Bears

I made it to Albania! It is so beautiful here, oh my gosh, it is incredible. the first day we got here we went street contacting and everyone is so nice, it also helps that I don't understand what they are saying most the time so, when they are rejecting us I have no clue. Our first night we went to dinner with our mission president and they had bears there! It was a very exciting dinner.

My trainer is Sister Bringhurst, she is incredible, she is from Highland! I can't believe we are from the same city and it took us both coming to Albania to meet. Albania is incredible, the people are so amazing.

The second day we went contacting and this sweet old lady invited us into her house and gave us a bowl of jam with a spoon and I thought maybe they just eat jam in Albania, so not questioning it, I ate an entire bowl of only jam. Then like 5 minutes later she gets up and goes and gets bread, after I had finished the whole bowl of jam. It was so funny. Comforting to know though, that they don't just eat jam. Speaking of food, the food here is sooo good, grateful for that. On Friday, we helped a man in the branch with his farming, very clear I have never farmed before that.It was really fun though, to learn the ways of farming.

Sunday they had me bare my testimony in church, it was scary, but it went good. Aw the members here are amazing. They really dedicate their lives to this gospel and Jesus Christ and it is so cool to see. Many of them walk from really far just to get to church, also many of them are the only ones in their family apart of the church. It is really humbling to see how much the gospel means to them. it is unreal here. I am so grateful to be here.

Love all of you so much! thank you for all the emails! Have an amazing week.

Note from Kari: So this is Sister Mann and Elder Cerepi. We actually met Elder Cerepi the very day we dropped Madi off at the MTC. He was going to the MTC from Albania learning Bulgarian to serve in Bulgaria. It was such a coincidence. As we were taking pics at the Provo Temple a senior couple (Sister Virginia Winegar) walked by and said, "where is your missionary going?" Madi answered, the Adriatic South Mission. The senior couple explained that they had just returned from their mission over there, told Madi how awesome her mission president and his wife are, and then told us that this young man was from Albania and they were dropping him off at the MTC. It was pretty neat. Out of all the missionaries going in, all the different drop off times and all the different missions, we would meet them. We didn't meet very many others that day, so we thought of it more as a tender mercy.

Sister Butters travels to Albania!

These sister missionaries from #194 are on their way!
Sent at 5:52am from the front runner train in Salt Lake City. Thanks to Bryan Gygi!

Here are her flight plans!

Then we got a great message from her mission president's wife the next day:

Only 6 days til Albania

Hi everyone happy Wednesday!

Another week here in the MTC! Only one week left and then I leave to Albania, literally next week at this time I will be in Albania! Woah so crazy! This week was really good! So to start the prophet and apostles came for a few days, because of the mission president conference. So we would see the apostles walking around, it was incredible. For Sunday night devotional Elder holland spoke to us and it was so good, all the apostles came and sat on the stand. It was a way cool experience!

On Monday, we got to meet Elder Uhctdorf! It was amazing he came up to us and asked where we were going and gave us some advice for the mission field, he said “don’t be afraid to open your mouth” I loved that and I think it applies on a mission and off a mission. Also got to meet sister Uchtdorf and she gave us hugs, it was so unreal. She is the sweetest person ever!

Another plus about the prophet and apostles being here is the food has really upgraded! We got Chick-fil-a for lunch one day, it was so good, I missed it!

For TRC this week we taught this sweet girl in Albania and she was at a baptism, that was about to start and we got to meet the little girl who was getting baptized and she was seriously so cute. It makes me so excited that in less than a week I will be there!

Excited to leave the Mtc, I learned so much here, but excited to go to Albania to teach the people and learn so much more! Make this week the best! Love you all so much!

Love, sister Butters

Sent from my iPhone

Friends from the Highland 20th Ward

Sarah Griffin went in 3 weeks after Madi. Her mom was helping for an MTC new mission presidents conference and snapped this picture. Madi and Sarah will leave the MTC at the same time. Sarah is going to the Washington Yakima Mission Spanish Speaking.

Callie Burt came into the MTC a month after Madi and she is going to the Fort Lauderdale, Florida Mission.

I've loved taking a package down to Madi each week. I think she liked the homemade bread and chocolate chip cookies the best!

Connor Jensen teaches part-time at the MTC.

Seven Weeks

Hey everyone!
Happy Father’s Day to all the Dad’s a few days ago, especially grateful for my dad, don’t know what I would do without him, so grateful for all he does for me!

This week was really good, nothing to crazy. Something good was an Elder in our zone got to leave to go to the dentist and he brought us back in and out! It was the best! A very nice change from MTC food, I was so grateful!

On Friday we had our first Skype TRC, so we got to FaceTime an Albanian and teach her a lesson! It was really fun and interesting to talk to her. She talked so fast though, so it was hard to keep up, I didn’t understand it all, but she was really sweet, and it made me even more excited to get out there and love and teach the people.

Oh we also taught relief society on Sunday, seriously so intimidating teaching a bunch of missionaries, but it went really well and I learned a lot from teaching! Also devotional was so good, Elder Nielsen came, he talked a lot about repentance and how it is so needed so we can receive revelation.

The Germans left this week, which was so sad! Aw going to miss them, they were so fun! Today we get 26 new missionaries in our zone so I am so excited to meet all of them!

Aw love you all hope your week is the BEST!

love, sister Butters

Still living life in the MTC

hello everyone!
Everything is going really good! The language is coming, are saying here in the Mtc, is “avash, avash” (which means slowly, slowly) because that is how the language is coming along. It works with most things in life, things take time, so basically it’s a motto for life.

On my way to the field I saw a cute visitor aww, seriously was the best surprise ever! Also saw my cute friend Sam, who got here last week, so fun to see people here in the Mtc. This week my teacher from Albania brought us Burek, it’s a food that’s really popular in Albania. It’s like thin layers of flakey pie dough filled with spinach and cheese. It was pretty good, fun to try. It was funny though cause we got pulled into a room and got told we weren’t allowed to eat the food, because it’s against the rules for them to bring food, but at that point it was too late, we already finished it.

Okay something so cool, the Albanian elder in our district, his dad got baptized on Saturday. We got to FaceTime in and watch and be apart of the whole thing. Didn’t understand anything they were saying, but could feel the spirit so strong and it was so cool to see what I am going to be apart of in a few weeks. When the Elder gets home, they are going to get sealed in the Rome temple. It was so exciting and to realize that now they can be sealed and become an eternal family. Aw I love that so much! So grateful I can be with my family forever!

Love you all, hope your summer is going great!

Love, Sister Butters

ONE MONTH :))

Woah already been gone a month! Time flies when you are having fun So this week was really good! We got to host senior missionaries, which was so fun! They were all so sweet and nice, aw reminded me of my cute grandparents!

Classes have been good this week, the language is starting to come, slowly very slowly, but I feel like I can say a lot more now, so that’s nice. The Hungarians in our zone left, it was so sad on Sunday, they sang Peace in Christ and everyone was crying. Going to miss them, they were amazing!

Yesterday Elder Gong and his wife came and spoke something they said was, be kind to everyone, no matter what, cause you never know what they are going through in life! A smile can go a very long way! I loved that It’s so important to never assume anything about anyone. After we got to shake his hand and he brought pages from the original Book of Mormon and we got to touch those too! It was a really cool experience! Hope all of you had an amazing week, you are all incredible, hope your summer is going great!

Love, sister Butters