Email June 2, 2014

Email June 2, 2014 – Elder Kenneth Wm. Burton

Bunch of Burtons

Hey Fam! My last week with Elder Horrocks is done, He's on his way to Bornholm. My new companion Elder Hawkes is from South Dakota, I think probably my first companion not from Utah. There aren't too many of those. And there are only two missionaries in the mission right now from Denmark. My chances of serving with a native Dane are pretty slim.

Im in charge of an area again. Its weird not being able to ask "where do you think we should go?" And I've only been here for five weeks so I still dont know the whole area super well. Most of my time here we've spent in Frederikshavn itself, but most of the area is outside of that. We're going to have to learn it on the go, which should be a lot of fun.

           Good Timber

The tree that never had to fight

For sun and sky and air and light,

But stood out in the open plain

And always got its share of rain,

Never became a forest king

But lived and died a scrubby thing.

The man who never had to toil

To gain and farm his patch of soil,

Who never had to win his share

Of sun and sky and light and air,

Never became a manly man

But lived and died as he began.

Good timber does not grow with ease:

The stronger wind, the stronger trees;

The further sky, the greater length;

The more the storm, the more the strength.

By sun and cold, by rain and snow,

In trees and men good timbers grow.

Where thickest lies the forest growth,

We find the patriarchs of both.

And they hold counsel with the stars

Whose broken branches show the scars

Of many winds and much of strife.

This is the common law of life.

Its amazing, when God needs you to learn something "now", a way is always provided. 1Nephi 3:7. We experienced that yesterday. We started Elder Horrocks's transpher a day early by taking a bus down to Aalborg so that I could spend this morning with the Aalborg Elders while I waited for Elder Hawkes to arive. When we got off the bus I realized I had put Elder Horrocks's train tickets in my bag before we had left and then switched to a bigger bag before we walked out the door. So I no longer had the tickets. God new that I was going to forget those tickets though so he provided a way and a seccond ticket had been sent to the Aalborg Elders at the same time that we got ours. We didnt have to spend the night trying to figure out a way to get the ticket emailed to us and then find a computer to print it out from.

A member this week took us out to get ice cream on a beach to say goodbye to Elder Horrocks. Earlier that week palm trees had been planted like they are every summer. Its the one area in Denmark that has palm trees. It felt like I was back on Catalina Island. Don't try biking on sand, it doesn't work out well.

I realized earlier that if there hadn't been the age change for missionaries I would be entering the MTC today. Its weird to think about. In the last 6 months I've learned and done things that must have been important, things I must not have been able to learn or do later. I hope I was in tune with the spirit enough the last 6 months that I was able to do all the things God wanted me to do.

Thanks for all the emails!

Have a fantastic week.

Meget Kærlighed!

-Elder Burton