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.

After the morning training we had a great Christmas dinner, even though it was lunch, of roast beef and potatoes. Then we went back upstairs to watch the traditional Christmas film, this year we were told we could watch Ephraim's Rescue or 17 miracles, 17 Miracles was chosen, but as we sat down to watch it one of the assistants got up and said we were behind on time so we would have to watch "Joseph Smith; A Prophet of the Restoration" which would be quite a bit shorter. He pulled it up on LDS.org and pushed play, you could tell everyone was pretty disappointed. All of a sudden though the mouse moved and exited out, behind it was another film ready to play. There were a few chuckles and sighs of relief as we realized he had been joking, then we realized the clip on the screen was a black and white mickey mouse short.... the fast forward button was pushed and out of nowhere we were looking at the start menu of Frozen! I've never heard such loud cheering in a chapel. One of the best Disney Movies hands down! Hopefully not because its the first one I've seen in a year, but I thought it was very well done. And maybe its my missionary mind again, but it relates very well into the gospel. Hopefully I don't spoil it for anyone. I find at times my own heart to be frozen. At times in life we act without thinking, we don't think we will be harmed, but when we're not careful we are, a shard of ice is lodged into our hearts, its cold, its weakening. We get trapped and held down. On our own we would freeze. But someone comes and lights a fire, giving us hope and warmth. "Some people are worth melting for" - Olaf, Did Christ not also give His life for us? He has given us an opportunity to survive. But we still have to do something ourselves, the ice in our hearts only melts with an act of true love, and charity is the pure love of Christ. We are saved when we accept Christs atonement and do as He did, as we follow His example. The first great commandment is to love God, and the second is like unto it, to love thy neighbor as thyself. And if we love God we keep his commandments.

Everyone is doing well here, by next week we should have more people we're teaching as well, we're going to be spending a lot of time finding then next week. This Christmas Initiative should help quite a bit. It defiantly does a good job depicting the true meaning of Christmas.

Jeg håbe at i har det godt!

Meget Kærlighed og God Jul!

-Ældste Ken Burton