March 3, 2014

Email March 3, 2014 – Elder Kenneth Wm. Burton

D&C 135:6 They lived for glory; they died for glory; and glory is their eternal reward.

Bunch of Burtons

Lets see how to begin. I guess first of all Michelle has postponed her baptisimal date. She was recieving a lot of negative pressure from her family telling her not to do it, and a lot of positive presure from the church, so she decided to postpone so that she has time to make sure it really is her decision. Last sunday she didnt come to church because she was showing her dad she's not forced to come. She came yesterday though and at our lesson with her on Thursday she was saying that she hadnt been feeling ready before, but once she decided to postpone she feels ready and still wants to be baptised. We dont have another date yet, but it'll come. At the end of the lesson she gave me and Elder Hinrichs each a bag of chocolate with a note saying thanks for all we've done, and saying that she wanted us to be the witnesses at her baptism, so she definatly is planning on being baptised. 

 This last week and a half ish I've started keeping a study journal for my personal scripture study. I've really liked it. As I go through the scriptures I right down thoughts and meanings to chapters and verses. I keep the journal on me throughout the day as well and I right any thoughts in it that I need to organize out on paper to help me understand a topic or feeling. One thought that I keep comming back to is on preperation. I've come to this... All of the worst feelings we recieve, come because of a lack of preperation. In any sense of the word. When we feel guilty its because we havnt properly prepared ourselves for a situation or consequence. When we feel fear its the same way. We fear before a test or a competition becouse we know we have not prepared ourselves the way we should have. A few other feelings... uncertanty, anger, a lot of the time even pain; spiritually, mentally, and physically come from our unpreparedness. All through the scriptures we see examples of God and Christ preparing. In Ether 3:14 it says that Christ was prepared from the foundation of the world. 1 Nephi 3:7 God prepares a way for us to acomplish the comandments that he has given us. 2 Nephi 9:10 God prepared a way for us to escape death. The scriptures are also full of commandments for us to be prepared and to prepare for what is to come, D&C 1:12.  In Alma 12:24 we see that the whole reason we are on earth in this probationary state is to prepare to meet God. 

Last Monday night we whent over to a members house to eat. While she was finnishing cooking she asked if we could build her new shoe rack that she had just bought, then realized she didnt have a screw driver. It would have been no problem except that it was the first day my entire mission that I had forgoten my pocket knife at the apartment. And if I had it on me I would have been able to have used the screw driver on it. I was unprepared, it wasnt a big deal, but it did remind me how much I hate being unprepared. Plus we ended up tearing up newspaper for hampster bedding instead which isnt nearly as much fun. 

Of course we cant prepare for everything. We dont know what life is going to through at us. But if we prepare everyway we can spiritually, mentaly, and physically for life we can put our faith in God and he will take care of what we cant.

On friday a member brought a bunch of recording equipment and recorded a few songs with Elder Hinrichs singing and Nico and inactive playing the guitar. They did a great job, Elder Hinrichs got a CD of the songs at church yesterday and he's going to get them to me so I can have a copy. Ill try and send some home for everyone to hear. 

I finnished the Doctrine and Covenants today. It is as true of a book as the Book of Mormon. Each revelation came from a prophet of God, specificaly to help us to learn, grow, and come closer to Christ. 

Saturday I was on splits with Elder Christensen, not my companion from the MTC there are three Elder Christensens right now in the mission. We stopped by someone in the potential investigator list and got in! Rahman is from Persia and is a profesional artist. He gave us a pamphlet from an art show he did in Persia. His apartment was crammed with piles of paintings, kind of interesting. The lesson whent really well and we got his number and he said to call him to set up the next apointment. He seemed really interested in the Book of Mormon when we told him it had the answers to why we are here and where we're going, yep just like in the Best Two Years. Hopefully he starts reading.

That morning on splits we got a phone call from a non member saying he new Mass Held a member on a mission in Sweden right now. He said Mass had told him the missionaries liked playing football (soccer) and to invite them if he ever needed more people for a game. So that afternoon we got to jog over to a park and play soccer! Its really hard by the way to talk to people about the church durring a soccer game. But it is always good for people to have some type of positive interaction with missionaries or members because then they have positive feelings toward the church and one day they may be interested more in what we believe. Its to bad I never spent much time playing soccer before my mission, everyone there seemed to be really good except for me and Elder Christensen.

Next week is transfers, I probably wont move but there is a 95% chance Elder Hinrichs will. Its going to be really weird when he leaves. It will be so quiet without all the singing. And Im not going to be a trainee any more. I wont be able to use that as an excuse for my rough danish. 

Thanks for everything! Ill talk to you next week!

Meget Kærlighed,

Ældste Kenneth Burton