Email July 28, 2014

Email July 28, 2014 – Elder Kenneth Wm. Burton

"The Why of tomorrow is more important than the What of today." -Elder Durrant

Bunch of Burtons

July is flying by. Witch also means summer will be gone just as quick. The other day while we were making dinner the music we were listening to switched files to a Christmas file, not to uncommon, but this time it made me really want Christmas to come. With all the excitement, the cold and the snow. The only disadvantage is that here that means no light for days, you can already see the difference. When we are heading for bed its actually dark enough to sleep.

A lot happened this week! We had a lot of very positive lessons! One was with a man named Mike who lives a little ways away so we met him at a castle instead of going all the way to his house. The castle turned out to be more of a small palace. What I think of when I picture a castle is a defensive fort with stone walls and towers, maybe with a mote. Oh well. I guess the King who lived in this castle had a pond filled with fish right bellow his window so that he could hang a line out the window and fish from his room. When he didn't catch anything he would get angry and punish anyone around him, so his servants started sitting underneath his window and would put a fish on his hook without him knowing so that he always caught a fish. Our friend Mike knows so much about history, when we first got to the castle we walked around the grounds and he told us all about everything we saw. He's offered to go down to a more famous castle with us and the rest of our District and he could give us a tour so we wouldn't have to pay for one. Mike is very positive. He's really wanting to learn for himself if God exists and if this is his true church. He told us that he's either all in or all out and from what I can tell he's more on the all in. He'll be a strong member once he's baptized.

 We had a lesson this week with a woman who believes in reincarnation, she believes that after you die you go to the spirit world for seven years where you are the guardian for someone else on earth and then after the seven years you are born again as a  different person without any memories of who you were before. And you keep doing that over and over until you live a perfect life and are able to go to heaven. Interesting, I guess she learned her beliefs from reading a bunch of books. Which at least means she's willing to read the Book of Mormon.

I've noticed in missionary work a few themes come and go that are brought up and used quite a lot in lessons and conversations over a small period of time. Lately the theme or common topic has been based around attitude. It began with a conversation Elder Durrant and I had had and then became the focus of multiple lessons with both members and investigators. We share Alma 62:41 that says...

  But behold, because of the exceedingly great length of the war between the Nephites and  the Lamanites many had become hardened, because of the exceedingly great length of the war; and many were softened because of their afflictions, insomuch that they did humble  themselves before God, even in the depth of humility.

We can let our trials give us negative attitudes that cause us to be hardened or we can choose to have an attitude that keeps us looking toward our Father and Jesus Christ. A positive attitude that keeps us going when things are tough.

With one member, Per, the lesson turned more in the direction of mind over matter, choosing to overcome the difficulty your facing. That's difficult to do though, For an example lets say your going to work out and run every morning. Some mornings you may be dead tired and not want to go run, you think about how hard it is to get out of bed, get dressed and get out the door let alone go running. That's why Per suggested another idea, that Elder Durrant made a quote for, "The Why of tomorrow is more important than the What of today." We need to remember the Why. Why we want to go run, instead of focusing on the What or the run itself. You may want to go running to get into shape, or stay in shape, you may have a goal to win state in Xcountry, you may want to go run just to wake yourself up. Whatever the Why, if you focus and remember it it will help you to regain your desires to push yourself and to have that mind over matter. And it can be applied to any goal that we have in life. Every time we want to let the What get in the way we need to remember Why we were doing the What. Reading scriptures every night is more then just the What, its more then just a story before bed, when you remember the reasons why you want to study the gospel every night it becomes something more then just a task. If you are not wanting to do your homework, remember Why you want to do it, to learn the assignment so that you can get a better score on the coming test and then from there get a better grade in school, then getting a better scholarship to collage and then a better job and then a higher income to help support your future family. All of a sudden you are wanting to do that homework assignment, but more, your wanting to do it well.

This is something I've began to try, and once a habit is made for remembering the Why it will stick and you will be much more successful in all the things you do because you will actually be wanting to do it.

Im almost out of time so Im going to have to be done. Thanks everyone for all the emails! Until next week!

Meget Kærlighed!

Elder Kenneth Burton