Email September 3, 2018

Email September 3, 2018 – Elder Jackson Kunzler Burton

Hey Everyone!

                  This week has been so great! I said goodbye to Elder Ramsey, he's now with his family, but my new companion is so great! His name is 外村長老(Elder Tonomura) and he's from Tokyo! It's so much fun having a Japanese companion! Both the sisters in our area are also Japanese so I'm hopefully going to improve a lot in my Japanese this transfer. My companion is a really great missionary, I'm learning so much from him, not just Japanese but teaching and cooking and talking to people and all kinds of things. He's on his fourth transfer right now, and he just came from Hakodate, which is awesome because that was my last area! He came in right as I left. It was fun to hear about how everyone is doing down there, he was able to see a lot of miracles which I'm excited about. We're going to see a lot of miracles this transfer too. Before Elder Ramsey left we taught a Chinese family that we found. At first when were teaching just the dad was listening, but at the end we sang "I am a Child of God" and the mom came in and seemed even more interested than the dad, apparently she had met with missionaries before which was cool. However, when we asked if we could come back they said they'd call if they wanted to hear more, which wasn't what we were hoping for, but, the mom especially seemed really interested and they took a Book of Mormon, so hopefully they'll call. If not, there's actually a Chinese sister in the ward, we may try to visit with her sometime and see if that helps. The other fun thing this week is we had a concert/ birthday party kind of a thing at a member's house which was way fun! It was to celebrate the birthdays of three members and mine that are all within this week, so they had birthday cake too which was awesome! It was such a great way to celebrate my birthday in Japan. Speaking of which, thanks to everyone who wished me a happy birthday, I really felt so loved. For the concert, the four of us missionaries did a few performances, I played the violin, my companion played the clarinet, one of the sisters played the piano, and we sang. It went really well! A member's daughter from Tokyo also played the piano, she did really well. We're going to have another concert later this month, but hopefully a lot bigger, I'm excited. One thing I'm trying to work on this transfer is using my talents more to spread the gospel, music is one way I can do that. I'm trying to figure out other ways as well, if anyone has any ideas, email me:) I hope everyone will look for ways to use their own talents and gifts to spread the gospel on their own as well! Think of how much the gospel has blessed you, and think about how much you want others to have the same blessings. Then pray about it, and get up and do it! I know you'll see miracles and feel unbelievable joy! I love you all! Thanks for all the support and love! Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Burton