Email February 27, 2021

Email February 27, 2021 - Elder Brigham Craig Burton

はっしゅうかん！！ (Week 8)

Brigham arranged his study desk so that he could practice sitting on the floor in preparation for serving in Sapporo Japan.

こんにちは！

Well. It's official. I now have a week left in the MTC! 

As everyone says here, days feel like weeks but weeks feel like days! It's honestly crazy. But this week has been another awesome one! We were able to teach Eri and Collin again and both went really well! I could understand about 50% of what Eri said during the lesson, compared to like 20% two weeks ago, so there has been lots of improvement haha. We had originally planned to talk to her about how God is our Heavenly Father again because we didn't feel like she understood it very well from the first time but she really wanted to know about Jesus Christ's teachings and his Gospel so we just went with it! She seemed very engaged and excited to learn more. But sadly that will be our last time teaching her. Collin on the other hand was in English and it was super great! We talked with him about prayer, faith, and repentance and he seemed very moved by it. I hope this week he can apply what we taught and see how God feels about him. We'll see next week with our last lesson with him.

A thought I'd like to share:

The Atonement of Jesus Christ is one of the most powerful things that we can know about and have in our lives. It is the ultimate gift from our Heavenly Father and the ultimate sacrifice from our Brother. Nothing else compares. Without the Atonement we would all become increasingly more broken and battered. Not able to overcome physical or spiritual death. Not able to overcome simple mistakes. But the Atonement covers EVERYTHING! Through Jesus Christ we can feel whole and full of joy. We can have hope that we will be able return to our Heavenly Father after this life. But we have to be willing to repent. I know repentance can be scary. But I encourage you to repent. Daily. It'll really change your life. Turn your heart and your mind to the Savior and become more like him. That's what I am called to do on this mission. To bring people unto repentance through Jesus Christ and his Gospel. This knowledge has brought me so much joy and comfort. I have felt God's love surround me as I've tried to become better everyday. I testify that the Atonement is real. It's redeeming AND enabling power are real. This Gospel is true. Find it out for yourself! I hope you all have amazing weeks! :)

Love,

Burton 長老

 

Email February 20, 2021

Email February 20, 2021 - Elder Brigham Craig Burton

ななしゅうかん！！

こんにちは！

This one is gonna be short!

What a great week! We had some really awesome lessons and lots of guiding from the Spirit. Kenna prayed for us and it was incredible! Way better than anyone in our district haha. I really hope she continues to pray throughout this week. The power of prayer and revelation are real! This week I have been able to feel that tremendously. The Lord cares about what we care about and he wants to hear from us! Don't be afraid to tell him anything. He wants to draw close to us so we must draw close to him.

Thank you for all of the love and support you all give me! I love you so much!

Love,

Burton 長老

Email February 13, 2021

Email February 13, 2021 - Elder Brigham Craig Burton

ろくしゅうかん！！（Week 6)

こんにちは！

It's been a great week! Lots of learning, growing, and humbling experiences haha. We taught two real Japanese people this week and boy was it a slap in the face!! Haha. They talk so fast and you can't understand what they say at all. After the second lesson about the Plan of Salvation, we got feedback in English and apparently he had been saying that he didn't really want to be like God and he just wanted to be reincarnated as a rock or a tree. What a guy. I definitely have a long way ahead of me. But I'm still excited for the challenge.

Besides that fiasco lol, I feel like my Japanese has been improving a lot lately! All the grammar is coming together a lot easier now even though it's still a struggle. The gift of tongues is real! I think I've gotten a taste of what it's like this week. The Lord is good and helps those who seek him. 

Also this talk was suggested by a friend to read and I could not recommend it enough!! 

Our Identity and Our Destiny - Tad R. Callister

https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/tad-r-callister/our-identity-and-our-destiny/#byu-header

Hope everyone has a great Valentine's Day and a great week! Don't forget how much your Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ love you! Their love is never ending and is all we need to keep going. If you are having a hard time feeling that love, I would encourage you to think of all of the things you're grateful for. Then, pray to them with faith and a sincere heart. You will feel their love surround you.

Love,

Burton ちょうろう 

Email February 6, 2021

Email February 6, 2021 - Elder Brigham Craig Burton

ごしゅうかん！！（Week 5)

こんにちは！

Well, this week has gone by just as crazy fast as all the other ones! And I think today is officially the halfway mark of my MTC experience! It's been a great one.

We taught our first (kind of real) lesson in Japanese on Wednesday! The girl we met with is named Kenna and she is super nice! She was definitely very understanding of our sketchy Japanese haha. I think that it went way better than I imagined it going though so that's good! Also shout out to Jones ちょうろう for being a master at Japanese. It would've been a lot more rough without him haha. We taught her about how God is our loving Heavenly Father and how we can pray to him for guidance. We asked her to talk to her family about what we taught and to pray about our message. We'll see what happens next week!

Other than that we've really just been grinding out our Japanese learning and our study of the Gospel. It's really really awesome! Our discussions can get very deep and it's just cool to talk about that stuff that no one exactly knows all the answers to. Mind bending kinda things haha.

A scripture with a thought I'd like to share:

I came across Mosiah 5:13 in my personal scripture study and I really liked it, it says, 

13 For how ^aknoweth a man the master whom he has not served, and who is a stranger unto him, and is far from the thoughts and intents of his heart?

How can we know Jesus Christ if we have not served him? Or kept him in our hearts? The simple answer is that we can't. In order to REALLY know Jesus Christ, as a brother and a friend, we must try to give our whole selves to him. We must choose him everyday. Choose to pray. Choose to repent. Choose to serve. And when we falter and inevitably lose our way, we can turn to him again and he will be waiting to help us with open arms. And if you don't know him that well? He is eagerly waiting for you to talk to him. I am so grateful for the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I know He is my Savior and I know He is yours too. Choose Christ!

I hope you all have an amazing week! :)

Love,

Burton ちょうろう