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

Pictures from Denmark

Email September 1, 2014

Email September 1, 2014 – Elder Kenneth W. Burton

Happy Birthday Jackson!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 16!!!!!!

Bunch of Burtons

Alma 16:16, "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 came across this scripture in studies this last week and realized it goes perfectly with what I mentioned in my last letter. Christ prepared the minds of the children of men before his coming. He helped them to learn His truths before he came. the same thing is what Elder Bednar is doing, he has asked us to study specific material before his training so that we can learn in faith. So that we can put in the effort ourselves and teach ourselves the principles he wants us to learn before he arrives, we then will be able to review it with him this upcoming Saturday. Elder Bednar said in a talk in 2007, "experience has enabled me to understand that an answer given by another person usually is not remembered for very long, if remembered at all. But an answer we discover or obtain through the exercise of faith, typically, is retained for a lifetime. The most important learning's of life are caught—not taught." I can testify because of my own experiences and tests that you will learn much more by this method, by teaching yourself what you can in preparation for your review as a class or group.

For a quick example, this last Saturday in our zone training I had forgotten to ask the zone leaders what we were learning in zone training before Saturday, so I wasn't able to study before, and because of that I wasn't able to be as involved in the training as I would have liked. I still learned, and now I can do my "homework" but it wasn't as much as I would have learned if I had prepared before hand.

Email September 1, 2014

Email September 1, 2014 – Sister Alexandra Burton

You Won't Belive It But...MISSIONARY MAILBOX

Dear Family!

Never thought that it would come down to it, but I sent my last handwritten letters last week (dated the 25th).  Well, I might send some more, but today was a pretty busy P-day and anything going out after today is pretty much guarranteed to get home (gulp) after I do. But let's not talk about that!  It kind of hurts my heart to break down and email my last three weeks, but I've decided that letting you all know about the miracles around here is more important to me that anything else!  Also, hate to admit it, but letters take time, and I'm going to give everything in the next couple weeks to living here, in Korea.

Yesterday, for the second week in a row, our new investigator family (yes, FAMILY!!!) came to church!  We called the mom Saturday night to make sure they were coming and she said, sorry, they wouldn't  be able to make it because they were busy.    The feeling I got, though, was that she's just a little overwhelmed by everything right now.  They met us (and our church) for the first time last last Saturday at English class, came to church Sunday, came to the Mon. night English class,  chatted with us by phone Tuesday, had their first lesson Wednesday, English class again Saturday...that's how we like it, actually!  Contact with investigators that often is what we strive for, but I think she was a little overwhelmed.  They were pretty surprised last week too, when church was a whopping three hours long!  And such a different style from the churches they are used to.