Email December 3, 2018

Email December 3, 2018 – Elder Jackson Kunzler Burton

Hey Everyone!

                  This week was full of miracles! It was amazing! On Monday night we went to family home evening at the McClure's and my companion and I performed a small musical number. He played the guitar and I sang. On Tuesday Elder Anderson, who was my zone leader last transfer and an incredible missionary, came and worked with my companion and I for a few days and I learned a ton! He's way good at talking to people and making friends quickly, and he's really good at making missionary work fun. We also had a video chat meeting with the entire mission, and President McClure emphasized finding more natural ways to introduce people to the gospel, which I think is going to be really good. Between that and working with Elder Anderson, I think my approach to dendo is going to be a lot different from now on, and it's already made a difference this week! We found four new people to teach this week! And a few other people with interest! It's probably the most success I've had in one week on my mission. We also ended up dropping a couple people, including one of the people we found this week, and also Yukari San, the person we brought to FHE, but it's ok, they may not ready yet but they will be sometime in the future. And now we have more time and attention to devote to people who are progressing. 

                  We also met with a recent convert who hasn't been coming to church much and it was really good, Elder Anderson knows her pretty well so having him there helped a lot. Also, on Sunday Matsuhashi Kyoudai came to church for the first time in a really long time which was awesome. Also on Sunday, a new missionary couple came to our ward, they're going to be serving in the temple and so are in this ward for the next year. I thought that was pretty cool that this ward just sent out a missionary couple and now gets one to replace them haha. It'll be fun having them in our ward. It reminds of my grandparents when they served a mission at temple square. Couple missionaries are so great!

                  Also, I hope everyone is participating in Light the World! It started on Saturday with a day of service! We tried to find something to do for that, but it's so hard to find service in Japan! Everyone wants to help people but no one wants to be helped! But in the evening it started snowing so we grabbed some snow shovels and put on our Helping Hands vests and went around near the church knocking on doors and asking if people wanted help with snow, English, or anything else haha. Nobody accepted our offer, because it was supposed to warm up again in a couple days and the snow would melt, but there was one mom who said she was having a baby soon and would probably call us to help shovel when that time comes. As we walked away her kids opened the curtain and so we smiled and waved and they waved back and the mom came and waved too. I really hope she calls, they look like an awesome family and I would love so much to teach a family!

                  There's some other cool stories too, but this email is already pretty long. Hopefully in next week's email there'll be stories of great lessons with the people we found this week, as well as more new people. Have a great week everyone! I love you all! Merry Christmas!

Love,

Elder Burton