Email December 29, 2014

Email December 29, 2014 – Elder Kenneth Wm. Burton

Bunch of Burtons

It was great to see and talk to you all on Christmas! Its good to see everyone doing well.

Christmas week has been so weird in comparison to a normal week of missionary work. Most of the week we were given the suggestion not to go finding, which makes sense, so we did a lot of Christmas caroling. There was one area that we biked out to and realized we had forgotten the address for the member we were visiting. Elder Amos was sure it was number 29 so we when't over to the house and we knew immediately that it was the wrong number. We didn't recognize the house and the name on the mailbox was wrong. We decided to knock it anyway and an older woman came to the door with a big smile on her face. When we asked her if we could sing a few Christmas songs to her she let us right in. We sung, talked, said a prayer, and left with a box of chocolates she had given us because we wouldn't accept money. Turned out the chocolates had alcohol in them so we couldn't eat them anyway, but it was a nice offer.

Photos from Elder Burton

Email December 22, 2014

Email December 22, 2014 – Elder Kenneth Wm. Burton

Bunch of Burtons

So the story behind Lisse Lotte, the woman I baptized a few weeks ago up in Frederikshavn. My very first Sunday in the area her and her husband Simon just showed up in church. My companion Elder Horochs when't on splits with a member into another room to teach Julia, an investigator I hadn't met yet, and I went with another member and taught Lisse Lotte and Simon. The next Sunday they didn't show up to church because she was in the hospital giving birth, but the week after that they received special permission to leave the hospital for a few hours to come to church with their new baby Anikin. And then they have  come to church almost every week sense. Lisse Lotte had been taught quite a bit back when she was a teenager but had investigated more for a specific missionary then for the church. Once she was married she wanted to raise her children in a religion and remembered how much she liked the Church of Jesus Christ, so she came back.

We just got transfer calls, I'll be staying with Elder Amos for another transfer!

Photos From Denmark

Baptism for Lise Lotte

Email December 15, 2014

Email December 15, 2014 – Elder Kenneth Wm. Burton

Bunch of Burtons

Its been a great week! We have found a tone of new people who are wanting to learn more about the gospel. Now comes trying to get back into contact with everyone so that we can actually teach them. The first contact always seems to be a miracle in itself because it seems to be the only time that person is ever home. Tuesday morning we set out to stop by an old potential investigator and decided last minute to walk instead of bike so that we would have more opportunities to give out the "He is the Gift" cards. The third person we tried to talk to made eye contact with me and walked right over before I could approach him. He shook my hand and we started talking, I mentioned who we were and what our message was, but then he cut in nodding his head and said it had been a while and he asked when we were going to come by. Confused, we asked his name and realized he is the man we were on the way to visit. If we had decided to bike after all we never would have ran into him. Now we have an appointment set up for next Wednesday.

Quote of the week....

"If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito."-Delai Lama

Email December 8, 2014

Email December 8, 2014 – Elder Kenneth Wm. Burton

Bunch of Burtons

I had a great opportunity on Saturday of going back up to Frederikshavn and baptizing Lise Lotte. I was called last week and was told she had asked me to baptize her. It was great to be able to see her and her family again along with everyone else I got to know so well while I served up there.

Last Monday we spent some time on preparation day in the indoor rain forest that's here in Randers. That was a lot of fun. Turns out its only 20 kr more for a season pass than it is for a day pass so we will be spending a few Mondays with the monkeys. 

Zone Conference on Thursday was great! It began in the morning with a training and intro to the new Christmas Initiative that the church is doing for the month of December, I'm sure everyone has seen the He is The Gift video, and if not you should (christmas.mormon.org). We're focusing on the message of Christs birth this month to find those who have been prepared for the gospel. In ever Ensign magazine you should also be receiving a small booklet with 9 cards to give out to friends and family, and yesterday the church had bought out the home page on YouTube and they were the only advertisers with the He is the Gift video. Ask those you know if they have seen it and if not invite them to. I invite you all to share the video on Facebook and in any other way that you can. This will touch the hearts of people around the world. I once talked to a man who was shocked he had not heard that there was a prophet on the earth today. Lets make sure everyone has an opportunity to hear this message, that God exists, and that He loves us so much that He sent His son Jesus Christ to earth that we may receive everlasting life.

Photos From Randers

Email December 1, 2014

Email December 1, 2014 – Elder Kenneth Wm. Burton

Bunch of Burtons

Well I would call this a successful week. We had a lot of time we used for finding those who are ready and instead of just "being out finding" we were finding. We talked to seven people who are wanting to learn more! Talking to everyone certainly is a big part of it, as well as knowing that the Lord is with you, and that with Him you will be led to those who are ready.

On Thursday evening we were out stopping by a few old investigators and no one was home. We walked out of the apartment building a little disappointed, a young man was walking by right as we came out. We stopped him and introduced ourselves, he pulled out his ear phones and said "sorry I don't understand, can you speak English?" The American accent :(, ah well, he comes from Albania though so that's part of it as well. We started talking to him and he began showing interest in what we were saying and asked if we would walk with him, he was going to meet a friend. He's had a crazy background, been shot in the knee by his father who also killed his brother. Has had a lot of anger problem and hasn't been involved with much good. When he first came to Denmark he would go out and get into fights with just about anyone, but one day his friend, the one we were going to go meet, had pulled him aside and taught him what was right. He helped him to completely turn his life around. We spent almost an hour and a half with the two of them talking about everything from the word of wisdom to the plan of salvation and over to the restoration. They were both accepting everything and understanding how it could bless their lives. Right before we had to leave Elder Amos was inspired to ask what they do. and we learned that they play on an American Football team with a friend of there's who is member and our branch presidents son. That connection will be so helpful in meeting with them again.

Photos from Denmark

Elder Burton with his new companion Elder Amos

Email November 24, 2014

Email November 24, 2014 – Elder Kenneth Wm. Burton

New area!

Well... Serving in Randers certainly has a lot of ups and downs. Literally. I have never seen so many hills! Let alone biked up so many! I have come to love the concept of everything having an equal and opposite, biking down hill is amazing! A fjord goes down the middle of the city with the city built on the two steep hills going up either side of the fjord. A lot of fun, I don't think my legs have been this strong in over a year. I've had to get back into shape fast, I guess that's the disadvantage of a car area. 

We have a lot of potential here in Randers for growth. We have great members in the Branch who are willing and wanting to help with the hastening, and there are so many out in the city who have been prepared for the gospel long before I got here. Every single lesson that had been planned this week was canceled for one reason or another yet we were invited in quite a few times and had some great unplanned lessons while out finding.

Sjælland Zones' Pictures

Zone Meeting

Turkey Bowl

Email November 17, 2014

Email November 17, 2014 – Elder Kenneth Wm. Burton

Bunch of Burtons

New area, New companion! Elder Amos is from England! My first companion from outside the States. Should be a lot of fun the next six weeks. He has just finished his training and seems determined to work hard. I would send a photo but I forgot to unpack the cord for my camera before we came to the Library.

 Thanks for the one year package! I love the tie! It goes perfect with my new suit. We were at the Copenhagen Designer Outlet last Monday and there was a 40% off sale on Bertoni suits. The pants are being mailed to me once there hemmed so I'll send photos once they come.

This last week was interesting. Monday and Tuesday we were on splits in Taastrup, and then Wednesday we were in Copenhagen for my one year meeting so we weren't in our own area until late Wednesday evening. Yet we were able to still meet most of our goals. At our year meeting President Sederholm talked with us a lot about where our desires our. What and who we want to be. Easy enough to answer with words. A lot harder to become. Lawrence E. Corbridge said to his mission when he was a mission president "Turn it all over to Him. You will create an ordinary man. He will create a god." It is so incredible what we can become because we have a loving Heavenly Father. "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things witch God hath prepared for them that love Him." The difficult thing is remembering what we want to be and what our full potential is.

Photos from Holbaek

Email November 10, 2014

Bunch of Burtons

Well its getting darker a lot sooner now that's for sure, the light is gone by 4:30, and the rest of the day is cloudy. Danes tend to be good though at turning what could be dark and depressing into warm and cozy. Hyggeligt as Danes put it (untranslatable).

We had an exciting week here as a mission, at our zone training's we had our early celebration of Thanksgiving with a turkey dinner, a talent show, and the Turkey Bowl- american football! Our district sung a song for the talent show, and I sent a video of it, although it is kind of hard to hear. We also had a mission fast for finding new investigators and found 100 total this week, probably the most found in a week since Erasnus Snow served here. The work is hastening! 

Photos From Holbaek

Superman PJ's from last Christmas 

Holbaek Missionaries at a dinner on Halloween night

Email November 3, 2014

Email November 3, 2014 – Elder Kenneth Wm. Burton

Happy Halloween!

Bunch of Burtons

Happy Halloween! Thanks for all the photos! I love all the costumes! I loved the superman outfit Jack, (take a look at sent photos). We had an eating appointment at a members house on Halloween with all the missionaries in the ward, and she asked us to "dress up" as much as we could while still looking like missionaries. One of the sisters wore a blue dress and was a smerf her companion wore darker cloths and smudged something on her face to look like a chimneysweeper. The Taastrup Elders both wore world war 2 helmets they got from an investigator. My companion carried a roller thing and said he was a massage person, and I wore a superman outfit under my suit. For dinner we had fingers and blood sausage, which tasted a lot like a spice cake, and liver. Elder Eisert and I were both feeling a little weird in the stomach after.

Email October 27, 2014

Email October 27, 2014 – Elder Kenneth Wm. Burton

Bunch of Burtons

My trainer Benny Hinrichs has published his first novel and has already sold 10 copies. If anyone is interested in a good read here's the link that he sent me....

http://www.amazon.com/Oneironauts-Schools-Thought-1/dp/1501050974.

Great day yesterday. It began with a little disappointment because Familien Pelargu wasn't going to be able to make it to church because they had some family visiting from Albania. About ten minutes though before church began we got a text from our friend Andrei from Romania saying he was on his way and would be to church a little late! We hadn't been able to meet with Andrei in about a week and a half because of his rugby practices and games, he had a big game in Odense on Saturday and didn't think he would be back in time to make it to church Sunday morning. When he got home though he told us about how he stood next to his bed thinking about how comfortable his pillow looked, He had just spent a long trip back from his game the day before and I'm sure he was exhausted, but he decided to come anyway. And he seemed to enjoy it. He was basically a member himself with how much he was involved and commented during class. The ward was great too, he was well welcomed with open arms. I was with him in the hallway at one point talking to a member when the members daughter walked passed and she leaned clear over grabbing her daughters arm and dragged her over to introduce her to Andrei, his face went bright red, not what you would expect from a huge rugby player.

Photos from Denmark

Email October 20, 2014

Email October 20, 2014 – Elder Kenneth Wm. Burton

Bunch of Burtons

Per is back from Japan! He's a less active member we were meeting with fairly often before he went to visit his son in Japan two months ago. We always have great conversations with him that make you really think. A lot because he really thinks through the questions most of us just give a basic response too. At one point bacteria came up. He told us about how bacteria is able to live in the most extreme climates, its been taken to space and back and survived, and it has even been found living in magma channels deep in the bottom of the oceans. The reason it does so well surviving is because it mutates so quickly, one life span is so short that it is able to change itself to live in new climates before it is completely killed. This ability helps it to overcome almost any situation or trial, even the harshest of environments. Are we not better than bacteria? We are Gods children, as Elder Uchdorf put it "we are the stuff of eternity". We have the ability, through the Savior Jesus Christ, to change now. To strengthen ourselves against the world that is changing around us. We are put into situations daily that "push our buttons" and try to figure out which one will shut us down. We can choose not to have that button. Through repentance we improve ourselves, and the next time faced with a trial we are stronger than before. "And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness.... then will I make weak things become strong unto them." Ether 12:27. Isn't it amazing that we have this ability to change! This week we had made it to Friday and had only had four lessons, no where near what our goal was for the week. But we were able to change what we were doing, change the way we were approaching our work and in the last two days of the week more than doubled our lessons, finding a lot more new people to teach while we were at it.

Photos from Denmark

Email October 13, 2014

Email October 13, 2014 – Elder Kenneth Wm. Burton

Bunch of Burtons

Happy Birthday Sam, Boston, and Boone! I sent letters last week, I hope they make it in the next couple days!

Ahhh.... we weren't able to get a ride this week for Familien Palargu for church. We had a ride worked out, a family that lived in their area had two cars and would drive both to church to have room for our friends, but then Saturday night we called and found out it wasn't going to work, one of their cars broke down. We're going to need to work even harder to figure out a ride for next week. It will be a little interesting because everyone has school off this week and are on vacation because of a tradition from when everyone worked on potato farms and would use the week off for the harvest. Kind of sounds like Idaho.

This week, on Friday I guess, we started something new in Holbæk. We had been in our weekly planning and had noticed again how we tend to have a lot more lessons towards the end of each week and not as many at the beginning. We figured that this was because we would get to a few days left and realize that we had a lot more lessons to teach in order to reach our weekly goal. So we've started setting goals for sections of each day. Each time before we leave the apartment we figure out how many lessons we need in the next few hours to reach our weekly goal, and then make a goal, for the evening hours for example, on however many lessons we believe we can teach in that time depending upon what we are doing. Its helped us remember each time we go out that we are going out to teach. Many times we kind of get into a rut of "finding" and don't end up actually teaching anyone. From the last few days we've found this new goal to help quite a bit.

Photo From Holbaek

Email October 6, 2014

Email October 6, 2014 – Elder Kenneth Wm. Burton

Bunch of Burtons

General Conference! We spent the weekend in Copenhagen with the assistants to see the sessions. They weren't being shown in our ward building. Because of the time differences we watched the Saturday morning session live at 6:00 in the evening and then the Priesthood session at 11:00 Sunday morning and the Saturday night session at 2:00 on Sunday and the Sunday morning session live at 6:00 that evening. So we still haven't seen the last session, but I hear there were some amazing talks, and I'm going to try to download them onto my flash-drive to listen to later.

Did you notice how almost every single talk quoted or mentioned President Thomas S. Monson? He was by far the most quoted person in Conference.'

A few of the talks that stood out to me talked a lot about decision making. For example when Jorg Klebingal said, "choosing something bad over something worse is till wrong". Isn't it interesting how often we do that? Or the fact that we choose to make decisions that we don't want to make? For an example haven't we all sat down after school with in front of the TV or layed on the couch with a good book in hand, and then the thought comes... reminding us of the homework assignment or project due the next day. Yet we put it aside and chose to ignore what we know we should do. I've also seen many a wrestler, myself included, who when put in a critical situation in a match, end up giving up rather than pushing a little further or harder. Almost subconsciously, but not quite, you make the decision to quite. You chose to lose. Why? Why do we trade what we want most for what we think we want at the moment? And usually its not even something we want at the moment. No one ever wants to lose. No one wants bad grades. Yet we give up. Later we look back and wonder why we didn't just keep going a little longer. Latter we see that we actually did have the strength, or the time to do that assignment. 

Email September 29, 2014

Email September 29^th 2014 – Elder Kenneth Wm. Burton

Bunch of Burtons

Ahhh! Alex! Your first P-Day back home! So weird to think! And just in time for General Conference!

All the missionaries on Sjaelland are going to the church building in Copenhagen for the weekend to watch Conference. I'm so excited! It feels like its been hardly any time sence the last session back in April.

 Alma16:16 And there was no inequality among them; the Lord did pour out his  Spirit on all the face of the land to prepare the minds of the children of men, or to  prepare their hearts to receive the word which should be taught among them at  the time of his coming—

I'm excited to start preparing to receive the words of the Savior that will be given to us through his Prophet and Apostles. This is a great opportunity we have to learn and to increase our faith. We have a few investigators who are interested in watching conference as well, so that's exciting.

Photos from Denmark

Email September 22, 2014

Email September 22, 2014 – Elder Kenneth Wm. Burton

Bunch of Burtons

Hey does anyone back home play Subway Surfer on their smart phone? Its kind of like Temple Run but in a more modern setting. Anyway the owner of the game is the son of one of our investigators. And she's the CFO of the company. We hadn't been in contact with Inge for about a week and a half and all of a sudden as we walked down the fjord we ran into her and she showed us the game. I've met her son too, when we were painting her basement the first week I got to Holbæk. Kind of exciting.

Anyway. Prequel to my story.... A few weeks ago that family we knocked into and the Mom invited us in telling us she had seen us earlier that day as we were walking down the street and she went off about how she felt so bad for us because we should be out here enjoying ourselves, having fun, not preaching about our church. She invited us to come back whenever but did not want to talk about religion.

Photos from Holbaek

Email September 15, 2014

Email 9-15-14 Elder Kenneth Wm. Burton

Bunch of Burtons

Isn't the spirit amazing? The way its able to touch your mind in such ways that you don't even recognize until after the prompting was or wasn't followed. It allows us to use our agency and faith by living in a way that we will recognize the prompting or at least be living in a way that you are following Gods will so you follow the prompting even when you don't realize its a prompting. We stopped by our friend Margo a few days ago, a woman from Russia, we weren't able to go in at the time because her son wasn't home, but she was so grateful for the effort. She said that it reminds her that God cares and is looking after her because we always seem to come by when she needs help and we always seen to know what to say.

Baptism!!

Baptism...Sister Kim, our lovely Grandmother Park, devout member Sister Jeong, me

Email September 14, 2014

Email 9-14-14 Sister Alexandra Sue Burton

MIRACLES

HELLO EVERYBODY!

Pictures: Baptism yesterday...Sister Kim, our lovely Grandmother Park, devout member Sister Jeong, me

Eating hae (raw fish!  Yes, I did that before, but this time IT WAS STILL MOVING WHEN I ATE IT!)

Maybe you are all wondering, does it feel real?  Last email, last week...

Surprisingly, the answer is yes.  It hit me Friday night after mission tour.  I just excused myself after planning and went and sat on the bathroom floor and cried for about 20 min.  I couldn't help myself...ha, ha, I'm crying now just thinking about it.  It doesn't matter how great of a writer I become or how much time you give me...I will never  be able to express this deep love and gratitude I feel to have been able to serve my Lord as a missionary in beloved Korea.  I am blessed to have been given a love deep, a joy incomprehensible.

I know that He lives and that He loves us.  God is our Father, and His son Jesus Christ is our Savior.

He is a God of miracles. Just one example if my fingers can fly fast enough!

August 25, 2014

Photos from Denmark

September 8, 2014

Email September 8, 2014 – Elder Kenneth Wm. Burton

"The result of every learning is repentance." - David A. Bednar

Bunch of Burtons

Wow! Amazing week! And Elder Bednar's visit was definitely the highlight. We found out President Sederholm has been friends with Elder Bednar for about 20 years. President Sederholm served as the elders quorum president in the stake that Elder Bednar was the stake president for.

It was such a neat experience! Elder Bednar lead the mission in a question and answer and I was able to talk face to face with an apostle of the Lord! I loved the way he taught us. Before he came he gave us three talks to study and learn from, and then once he arrived he simply asked "What did you learn?" and asked for volunteers to stand and explain what they learned in their own learning by faith. This allowed for us to review for ourselves what we had learned and then to see what others learned in new perspectives, and from that learn more. And then he would ask individuals what they were doing to apply the things they had learned. The hardest part of teaching is helping others to learn. The key is helping them to act and not be acted upon, he pointed out the typical pattern of teaching in the church where a teacher will play the game "what’s in my head", by all of a sudden pointing at a specific student and asking them a general question. All of a sudden that student was turned into an object, something being acted upon. Any answer that they did have immediately leaves their mind and they end up feeling dumb or just coming out with a simple primary answer rather than something that applies to them. Elder Bednar promised he wouldn't turn us into objects and he told us to stop turning others into objects in our teaching as well. Instead he would ask questions that would make us think such as "What did you learn?" and people would volunteer with answers that had personal meaning to them. This way we actually had to act in faith to learn.

September 7, 2014

Email September 7, 2014 – Sister Alexandra Sue Burton

Missionary Mailbox

Hey Family!

Arggh, this email will be really short, I'm sorry!  There is so much paperwork and such that we have to send in to the mission office...crazy stuff, going home.  Even if I were to TRY not to think about it, it would be impossible!

Happy Chuseok!  The streets are empty and silent but we are taking this P-day to have a big dinner with a less active and we are excited for all the yummy, deep fried food!

Thanks for all of your sweet notes and emails!  I got all the letters from the Young Women from girls camp!  Thank you all so much!  Love you tons!

Till next week! LOVE YOU!!!

Sister Burton

August 18, 2014