Email August 24, 2015

Email August 24, 2015 – Elder Kenneth Wm. Burton

Bunch of Burtons

Okay, quick report on my wrist. Turns out the reason they called me back in was because the photos were kind of fuzzy and it looked as if one of the bones was jotting out in a way that it shouldn't. They took a new picture and it all looks fine. It feels a bit better as well.... I tried wringing out a cloth this morning though and there's just no strength in the wrist. I still where the brace whenever I know I'll be using my wrist a lot, but two doctors have told me now not to have it on too much or else it will begin to get stiff.

Speaking of wrists... Sister Perkins in our district just broke her wrist a few days ago, well more her thumb near the wrist falling off her bike... I'm glad I don't need an actual cast, her's is so bulky she can barley use her hand for anything. 

We maybe need to have a bike safety training in our next district meeting with two of us now having crashed..... I guess she turned around to tell her companion something and her bike turned into the curb and threw her off balance, more epic than my story.

So the reason I was wringing out a cloth this morning is because we recently got a new washing machine in our building and it turns out to be faulty. Something wrong with the wiring because it turned off in the middle of a cycle and you'd go to turn it back on and the lights on the dial would turn on for a few seconds then switch back off, then on again... So our cloths didn't get drained. Hopefully we can get it fixed soon before we run out of cloths to wear.

We were over in Copenhagen earlier this week for a mission conference. Our new area president, President Dyches came to visit and talk to the mission. I've lucked out with this being my third full mission conference sense I've been here. Before that it had been quite a while sense there had been a mission conference.

It was kind of surprising. One would expect that for such a big meeting there would be something big planned or taught, but it turned out to be a training on just a few points that we could apply or change. One of which he specifically said "try this a few times the next week, if it doesn't work forget about it". Kind of interesting. Nothing big. No "go and do's", but friendly suggestions for how we could add to what we are doing. For me this shows two things. one that we are doing what the Lord wants for us to do, and that we should continue with that. Two that He does expect us to be evolving, maybe not dramatically, but adding to and changing the smallest details. Its interesting and exciting that God wants us to be creative. One of the things taught was how to make origami missionary shirts that we can give out as thank you card, "good job" cards, "sorry we missed you" cards. Random, but fun. I can see the small impact it has the potential to make. "Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in Him". (Moroni 10:32) When God says perfect... He means perfect. Not just really good, but perfect. It may take eternity to become so but He will help us in the process. Even if it takes just changing the smallest of things.

Isn't it incredible that we have the potential for perfection? And we have eternity to reach it. We may make mistakes, we may hit bumps, but that's why there's repentance! We change! Just like with learning the piano, when we make a mistake it doesn't mean its over. It means we keep going. I've been learning that repentance can be and is instantaneous. We have essentially two options when we do something wrong. We can get down about it. Get angry with ourselves, be negative, and turn away from God because of fear and shame. Or we can follow the scriptures where its taught that God gives us weakness that we can be made humble. We can immediately recognize what we did that was wrong, lift up our heads to God in humility, and accept that we need his help, we need his strength. We turn to him and we change. We do something good, a good thought, a good act... it doesn't matter because anything good comes from God. Then we trust in God and go on, showing him that we are willing to remember him and keep his commandments, and then it is promised that we will always have his spirit to be with us. (Moroni 4:3) The small things matter.

A quote or thought that just came to mind, "to heal the body one must look inwards, but to heal the soul one must look outwards." I don't know why I thought of that, but I've seen the truth of it. If you ever feel trapped, or spiritually lost, or you just need a confidence booster, do something good for someone else, even if you only have the strength for thinking a kind thought. That then builds. I can testify that turning outward heals. It is and act of faith, and and act of repentance.

We got to help out on Saturday with the stake "super Saturday" which is kind of a youth conference type thing. They didn't have enough adult leaders going so we lead a few of the activities, set up the speakers and things for the dance in the evening. Which was good because Elder Porter knows a lot about music equipment, and if he wasn't there I don't think they would have been able to get the equipment set up correctly. No one else seemed to know anything about it. And then we washed all the dishes after the dinner. A good service project for the members. And I learned how to juggle from one of the activities we helped with.

Oh ya, last Monday for our Preparation Day we went to the havn were all the boats are docked and went crab catching. Basically you sit on a dock and hang a cloths pin in the water on a string with a bit of hot dog attached. A crab comes by, grabs on and starts nibbling at the hot dog, then their to preoccupied to let go as you pull them up. It was fun. Relaxing, because your sitting on a dock watching the ocean, but then thrown in with excitement when you get a crab onto the dock and you have to try and grab it without getting pinched. Afterwards we took some home and boiled them for dinner. Not much meat on a little crab, they tasted decent though.

Thanks for all the emails this week! I love you all! Take care of yourselves... be safe while biking.

Meget Kærlighed,

Ældste Burton