Email April 22, 2018

Email April 22, 2018 – Elder Jackson Kunzler Burton

Hey Everyone!

                  This week was great! To start it off we had zone conference, which is always awesome! The biggest thing I got out of it is how important it is to remember why we're out here. Sometimes it can get easy in the day to day life of a missionary to get into a routine and not think about why, but if we're here because we love the Savior and we always keep that in our minds, we can find a lot more joy in the work and have the Spirit more. And that applies in life too, everything you do, if you always keep in mind your love for the Savior it's impossible to go down the wrong path. That needs to be the motive for everything we do. Love for the Savior will lead us to keep His commandments, repent, and serve his children, all of which will help us to love Him even more, creating an upward spiral until eventually we become like Him.

                  In other news, I finally got a bike! I was able to buy one online through a member so it was a good price for a good bike. It's a green and black mountain bike with disk brakes and it's working fine so far so hopefully it'll stay that way haha. The other exciting thing that happened this week was our music night! We have an English student who plays the shamise, which is a traditional Japanese instrument with three strings, so we decided to have a music night where she and other people who wanted to participate or watch could come. And it was a huge success! There were around 40 people there, most were members, but quite a few English students and investigators came too so it was awesome! We had a few different performances, all the missionaries sang, my companion played the guitar, I played the violin, one of the sister missionaries played the flute, our student played the shamise, a member played the piano and a couple of friends of that member played the nico, another Japanese instrument with two strings. It was so much fun! Earlier in the week we also helped a member with her garden, it was way fun, it reminded me of working in the garden with my family in the spring. We also had dinner with some members yesterday and got them excited about doing missionary work! And we were taken to a steak restaurant by some investigators! It was awesome! It was very rare(they don't know how to cook meat in Japan haha) but still good. And last of all, we get transfer calls tomorrow! I've been in Hakodate for two transfers so I feel like I have a pretty even chance of either staying or going, so I don't know what's going to happen. I'll let you all know next week! I know whatever happens though will be what the Lord wants for me and I'll do my best to do His will where ever I am. I love you all! Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Burton