Email June 23, 2019

Email June 23, 2019 – Elder Jackson Kunzler Burton

Hey Everyone!

                  We had transfers this week and I transferred! I'm sad to be leaving Kushiro, two transfers did not feel like long enough but I'm excited to get to work in Iwamizawa! I've actually done exchanges in Iwamizawa about a year ago when I was in Ebetsu, and I really liked the feel of the town, so I'm excited to be back. It's a branch with about 20 members, they're awesome and they give us a lot of food! My new companion is Elder Sherwood from Arizona, he's 19 and he's on his second transfer so I'll be finishing his training. He's really good at drawing, we had English class the other night and he drew an awesome picture for every vocabulary word, it was pretty impressive. We're also teaching a 24 year old man from Vietnam, he speaks only a tiny bit of English and Japanese so it interesting trying to communicate with him, but he's way nice and he's good a ping-pong! The way he's actually learning the gospel is by video chat with a missionary in Vietnam, so we're just there to kinda help out but it's fun. Also, President and Sister McClure and all the senior missionaries working in Honbu showed up at our sacrament meeting on Sunday, which is when I was giving my self introduction and testimony so there was a bit more pressure than I was expecting haha but it went well. There's a lot of potential in this area, the people are amazing, and I'm excited to see lots of miracles here!

                  I was reading Alma 13 this week and I read verses 7 and 8 which talk about the priesthood and the callings and ordinances therein and how they are eternal, without beginning or end, and it really struck me that when we receive the priesthood or any calling, that's not the first time we've done so. That's not the beginning of our priesthood service because it has no beginning and no end. We're just accepting again what we've already accepted eternities before, we're foreordained to fulfill each calling we're given. Realizing that made me want to find and fulfill the purpose for which I've been called to Iwamizawa for these next few weeks. I know that God has a plan for me and for all of his children and if we don't harden our hearts and follow Him, we can see that plan fulfilled. I love you all, have an amazing week!

Love,

Elder Burton

Photos

The sisters in our area had a baptism!

Email June 17, 2019

Email June 17, 2019 – Elder Jackson Kunzler Burton

Hey Everyone!

                  I have hardly any time left but this week was awesome! The sisters in our area had a baptism! It was the mom of the person who got baptized a couple of months ago which was really exciting. The baptismal service went really well. Her son was the one to perform the baptism which was really cool. My companion and I sang "Come Thou Fount" in sacrament meeting the next day, it turned out really well. We also this week went to a high school to help with English and it was crazy because high school girls in Japan treat gaijin (foreigners) like they're celebrities, so they were all lining up to take pictures with us haha. We also had exchanges with the Abashiri elders this week which was fun. And we had a ton of people come to our English class so that was good. That's about all for this week, sorry it's so short. Love you all, have a great week!

Love,

Elder Burton

Photos

Koi in a cool Japanese lake with a bridge. We met a 12 year old there who asked us to teach him English! 

Email June 10, 2019

Email June 10, 2019 – Elder Jackson Kunzler Burton

Hey Everyone!

                  This week has been great! Last week we met a young man who was interested in English, and we were able to meet with him earlier this week and he brought a friend! We did an FFEP(free family English program) lesson with both of them which is half an hour English and half an hour about the gospel, and for the gospel part we talked simply about God and prayer and invited them to pray and they said they would. After the lesson they both participated in karate night, which a member runs, and they had a great time interacting with members, missionaries, and other nonmembers. We're hoping they'll continue to progress!

                  We also had a branch family home evening on Saturday night that went really well. It wasn't planned very far in advance because the member who was in charge of it was out of town, but it all came together and ended up really fun. I taught everyone a game I learned at Camp Loll that you play with a coin called Slammers and Sliders, they really enjoyed it.

Pictures

Kushiro Marsh and visitor's center

Email June 3, 2019

Email June 3, 2019 – Elder Jackson Kunzler Burton

Hey Everyone!

                  This week was great! We spent some time visiting people who used to meet with the missionaries, for a lot of them their houses no longer exist or they don't live there any more but on the way we were able to meet some cool people. We traded contact info with some college students we met, and we also found a few people who said we could send the sisters to visit them.

                  We've also been trying to think of different ways to find people using our talents but we've been kind of stuck so if anyone has any ideas I'd love to hear them. We had karate night and sports night this week as well which was fun, a lot of non members come to sports night, it's a great chance for people to get introduced to the church.

                  For P-day today we went to the Kushiro Marsh National Park, it was beautiful! There were some professional photographers there, they were dressed all in camo and had really nice binoculars and a spotting scope that they let us look through and see an eagle sitting in a tree. I got some good pictures. Then we got pork belly ramen as a district, it was awesome! That's about all for this week, I don't have too much time. I love you all! Have a great week! Read the Book of Mormon, it's amazing! I'm trying to finish it one more time before I finish my mission and I've been learning so much from it! It can change your life!

Love,

Elder Burton