Email September 28, 2015

Email September 28, 2015 – Elder Isaac Kenneth Burton

Intercambios, meetings in Banfeild

This has been a pretty good week, kinda slow though cause it was the first week in the new transfer so we had lots of meetings. On thursday my companion had a district leader meeting in Banfeild so I went on a intercambio (exchange) with two other elders for the day which was super fun. I think it helped me improve my spanish a lot because one of the elders is from Peru and didn´t speak any english. Plus he really liked to talk so  was able to talk a lot in spanish that day which was good. It was fun to see how other elders do things in their areas. The area we were in was super pretty, tons of big open fields and tall trees. Way different than my area which is mainly just suburbs. Every apointment that we had for the day fell through though wich was too bad. It was still a pretty productive day though. 

September 28, 2015

Email September 28, 2015 – Elder Kenneth William Burton

Bunch of Burtons

This weeks been crazy for some reason. We've just been all over the place. Having a solid weekly planning certainly makes a difference.

We traveled down to Copenhagen Thursday evening for Elder Curnow's One Month Meeting. And we had the opportunity of going through the temple. Something I haven't been able to do in almost a year. It was a great experience, its amazing the spirit that is in that holy place.

On the long train ride back we started a conversation with a woman sitting across from us who is an actor in Odense. I've had a lot of rejections, but it had been a while sense someone had really tried to challenge my faith. It caught me off guard at first, I would try and answer a question only to realize she had no knowledge or belief in God. Zero. And because of it I could not explain to her in a way she would understand why I felt the way I did. All I could do in the end was testify what I believed. She was friendly enough, and the conversation stayed on a good course, I was just taken aback by how bold she was. I believe in the end we did cause her to think, to ponder, I love inspired questions that bring about a searching heart. She promised us she would look up General Conference this next weekend. I hope she does, it may open her heart a little more. 

Photos from Buenos Aires

Email September 21, 2015

Email September 21, 2015 – Elder Isaac Kenneth Burton

New transfer, Temple visit, neighbors at the temple

So we had transfers this week and found out that my companion is staying in this area after all. We are calling him the eternal missionary now because after this transfer he´ll have been here for 8 and a half months. We also found out that he is our new district leader so that should be cool. That was kinda a shock to both of us and it made me laugh cause he´s been telling me the last few weeks that he hates responsiblilty and was hoping that next transfer he could just be a junior companion again. I thought that was pretty funny that now he´s a district leader. He´ll do a good job though.

On saturday we got to go to the temple with an investigator named Gregorio and his friend Cristian! It was super cool, the temple here is amazing. We took lots of pictures, bought some stuff at the districution center, and then taught them a lesson in the waiting room of the temple. The lesson was awesome, we tuaght about our purpose on earth and the purpose of the temple. I love how strong the spirit is at the temple, it definitly had a big effect on how the lesson went and I know that they could feel it. At the beginning of the day Cristian told us that he didnt beleive in God but by the time we left he said he did. That was pretty amazing, just shows what kind of impact the temple can have on people. It´s such a huge blessing to have a temple in our mission that we can use to help our investigators progress. 

Photos from Horsens

Email September 21, 2015

Email September 21, 2015 – Elder Kenneth William Burton

Bunch of Burtons

I love the feeling that is present when one is on the right path. A feeling of excitement and peace, a feeling of urgency and assurance. A feeling of nervousness and hope. God is great and God is good. He is guiding this work. The smallest of hints are all around us, and when their seen a pure love is felt. It requires patience though. I love one description Elder Bednar gave of walking on a foggy day. Its bright, but the fog limits how far you can see. You need to move carefully as to not run into anything, but you have somewhere to be, so you cant go to slowly. One step at a time. Lesson upon lesson. Event upon event. I don't understand all the promptings received and I cant see past the next step, but I feel an assurance that the direction is correct.

I've been asked a question that I haven't been able to answer yet... "If you could change the world, what would you change?" Its been on my mind off and on recently. The following question adds to it... "How can you apply this to your current circumstances?" The world obviously wont be changed over night. That change will only come through changing our smaller, more specific circumstances. My purpose is to help others come unto Christ. I may not change the world, but the world can be changed by my purpose.

Email September 14, 2015

Email September 14, 2015 – Elder Isaac Kenneth Burton

New investigator y service project

It´s been a good week, it rained for a few days and was pretty cold but it´s warming up now which is nice. Yesterday we found a new investigator named Eduardo. His wife in an inactive member who was a referal to us from a member of our ward. We taught them a little bit of the plan of salvation yesterday and we set up an appointment to teach the rest on thursday. They have 4 kids that I think are all under the age of 8. Two of them are twins. Hopefully things go well for them as we teach and they really come to know that this gospel is true. It would bless their family so much.

On saturday we spent most of the day doing a service project for one of our investigators named Gregorio. He´s probably our best investigator right now. He comes to church most of the time and keeps most of the reading asignments that we give him which is awesome. We´re gonna try to set up a baptisimal date with him this week. He runs his own little auto repair shop so for our service project we helped him clean it up a bit and then we helped him with one of his cars which I really liked. We chipped all the paint off of this big old truck, sanded it down, and took the windows out to prep it for painting. I hope I get to see it when it´s all finished, it´ll probably look way cool. It was a fun project.

This upcoming week is the last week of this transfer which is crazy. It´s gone super fast, it still feels like I just barely got here. My companion has been in this area for 7 months now though so theres a pretty good chance that he´ll be transfered next week. We´ll find out for sure on saturday. If that does happen though then I´ll pretty much have to lead out in this area and teach my new companion everything about it. That would be kinda cool I think, we´ll see what happens.

I hope everyone is doing well at home, thanks for everything. I love you all.

Love, Elder Burton

Photos from Denmark

Presiden O'Bryant, Ken, Elder Curnow, Sister O'Bryant

 

September 14, 2015

Email September 14, 2015 - Elder Kenneth William Burton

Bunch of Burtons

Well, we found a family this last week. For a bit. The Elders in Sønderborg gave us a referral for a man from Syria who they contacted on a train. We met with him on Tuesday and one of his first questions was if there was a church here he could bring his family to. We gave him the church address and time and he excitedly told us he would see us on Sunday. Ten minutes before church we got a text from him telling us that he had moved and wouldn't be able to come or meet anymore. I guess its difficult for refugees to get settled down in a specific area.

We've finally gotten back with Mitch! We had an appointment with him Saturday morning. And he's going to try to get to church this next Sunday. At the moment though he is focusing a lot on both his health witch is still down, and his kids. So he doesn't have a lot of time to meet. Baptism is still something he plans to work for in the future, but right now he has other priorities. We're going to start doing a bit of family history with him this next week.

Oh, and Rafael is back! He's been in Poland for the last month.  

Email September 7, 2015

Email September 7, 2015 – Elder Isaac Kenneth Burton

Noche de Hogar

On thursday night we had the fun opportunity to have a noche de hogar (family night) with some members of our ward here in Rafael Castillo. It was super fun and I think it turned out great. We showed a few videos, one of which I really like called The Will of God. Its about how God has a plan for us and how sometimes what he knows is best for us is different from what we think is best for ourslves. Gods ways are higher than our ways. Sometimes he lets hard things happen to us or he directs us to a path thats different from what we want. But he always does whats best for us because he loves us and thats why he sent us to this earth. To learn and prepare to meet him again. He knows the best way to do that. I think its important that we always remember that and as it says in Mosiah 3:19 that we alwasy submitt to his will. The video brought the spirit into the family night really well and we had a good lesson out of it. Afterwards we played a game and ate food. I´ve decided that cake here in Argentina is way better than cake in America. It´s delicious here, I don´t really know what the difference is though. 

Photos from Horsens

Email September 7, 2015

Email September 7, 2015 – Elder Kenneth William Burton

Bunch of Burtons

Well.. crazy week! We've only been in our area sense Wednesday evening and then have been way busy with getting Elder Curnow settled in... buying a bike took forever. We went to a store where Elder Curnow picked out his new bike and all the other things needed for it such as lights and locks. And then his card didn't work. We walked out to two different ATM's with no luck. The next morning after checking him into the commune we tried one more ATM, just hoping it would work... and it did! He was able to pull some money out and we walked all the way back out to the bike shop place.. its actually slightly more like a Homedepot, where we were able to get the bike. Then within 48 hours he ran over a small rock, puncturing the tire. The problem is we didn't know the rock was still in the tire so we just pumped it up to get to an appointment on time, it went flat again... so we pumped it up again, and I believe there was one more round of pumping. Turned out every time the tire went flat it moved slightly inside the tire and so when we pumped it up we would puncture a new hole. We were then sitting there fixing the tire and couldn't figure out why we could still feel air coming out after patching the whole. Well, we had four different holes! They were all just too far apart from each other to be able to cover them with the same patch so we ended up not having enough time to fix it and were back to walking to our eating appointment that night. The next morning though we found a brand new tire in the apartment that was the exact size as Elder Curnow's tire, so we were able to just replace the tube.

Now we're up and running though... or should I say biking, so that's good. We'll be able to make it to appointments on time now.

Elder Curnow is great! He comes from Colorado, and is the oldest of seven. He's great at Danish for only having been through the MTC. He has a much broader vocabulary than I did when I came out.