Email October 24, 2018

Email October 24, 2018 – Elder Jackson Kunzler Burton

Hey Everyone!

                  This week has flown by! Today was temple P-day which is why I'm emailing late, I love the temple so much! It's such a blessing having it in my mission. It really helps me keep an eternal perspective and reminds me why I'm doing what I'm doing. It's also fun seeing missionaries from other areas, including my previous companion Elder Tonomura, he's doing great.

                  This week was busy! We met with a few of the people who were being taught before this area closed, and they have a lot of potential. A couple of them have been to church quite a few times, have taken all the lessons, and there's just a few problems keeping them from being baptized, but we're gonna try and help them through those so they can really come unto Christ. We've also been doing a lot of finding and found some people with potential if they'll just make time to meet. We also went to a member's English class's Halloween party to help out which was awesome, I love spending time with kids! I'll send pictures. I was a samurai and my companion was a pirate, it was a blast!

                  So this Sunday was the bishop's last Sunday, he's moving this week, and so at church there were about twice as many people there as usual! He's been in this ward for about 40 years and has been bishop twice, this last time for about 8 years, so he's helped a lot of people and it was easy to see he was very loved. They had a 食事会(potluck kind of) after church and it was so much fun! It was a good chance to talk with and get to know the members. The new bishopric is really great, I'm excited to work with them. We also started Eikaiwa on Tuesday and it went really well. The best part was the short spiritual message my companion gave at the end, it was so good! He gave just a short message about using nice words, but he did it so well! It reminded me a little of John Bytheway but in Japanese, he made everyone laugh but also brought the Spirit and helped everyone want to be better. I think people will want to come back to Eikaiwa just to hear him give the message at the end haha, it definitely won't be my English teaching skills :) But overall it was a great week, I've felt more guided by the Spirit lately which I know will bring miracles. I'm excited to see how the next week goes! Also, a quick thought my companion shared in companionship study. As you show love to those around you, you become more loved. People that love and serve those around them inevitably end up being loved by those around them. I saw that with this ward's previous bishop, you can see it with the president of the church, and it happens in the scriptures a lot. Love is reciprocal, when you give it out you get it back. Just thought that was a cool thought. I want to do better at showing love to all those around me. Have a great week everyone! I love you all so much!

Love,

Elder Burton