June 21, 2014
Meine Eltern (parents):
First, a couple house cleaning items:
·
Our MTC P-day is Wednesday.
·
I do not have a watch. If you could send me one,
that would be seht gut.
·
I can’t find my foot powder. Did I forget it?
·
I would love if you’d put this letter on the
blog.
Other than that, the first few days of my mission are going
very well. The first evening may have been the longest day of my life. After a
short orientation tour and receiving my official nametag, we immediately began
German class. Our teacher will only speak German to us, so we often do not
understand him, but I feel that we are improving rapidly.
After 2 hours of Deustche Klasse, we moved on to a group
role-play session, where we learned the basics of beginning a lesson with an
investigator. After a few hours of that our zone/branch, which is all the
German missionaries, met together with our Branch President. There are about 50
German-speaking missionaries here, and they are all brand-new. Our zone is
different, because all the other languages rotate, with missionaries coming and
leaving every two weeks. The whole German zone leaves and is replaced every six
weeks, making district leadership hard to organize.
My companion is Elder J. Tyler Peterson, from Provo. He
played football (American Football) at Timpview, and started as a Tight End at
Southern Virginia University for one season. He is planning on playing for BYU
when he gets back, so he is not too bad at football. At 6’3” and 215 lbs, he is
a little intimidating, but really a nice guy at heart. He is super homesick
already, though, and struggling to focus, but I have faith that he will get
better.
Our district is the only one in the zone with no sisters, so
we spend all our study and class time together. Elder Greaves is our DL, and
his companion is Elder Lehmitz. Elder Asay and Elder Peiffer round out our
district, though they are actually Zone Leaders as well. It is funny, we have
all the stereotypical missionaries here. They are all great, faithful men, and
I love them. Peterson is big, athletic, and (trunkie, maybe?). Elder Greaves is
obsessed with nice clothes and hair. Lehmitz is super quiet, but smart. Asay is
tall, awkward, and loving. Peiffer is short, has a beautiful singing voice, and
is one of the most spiritual people I’ve ever met. Not sure who I am yet, but
we all get along extremely well, which is a blessing.
Last night we all sang “How Great Thou Art” together as a
zone, in German. It was an amazing experience, several of us – including me –
were close to tears. We are really coming together as a whole zone. We all love
each other, and I am looking forward to continuing to learn from and with them.
I love you all, and miss you, but I’m not homesick yet. That
will probably happen next week sometime, but nicht jetzt. If I had any 1 piece
of advice to offer, it would be to keep a hymn in your heart, for that is what
helps the time roll by, and the tears to dry.
I love you, Mom. Thank you for teaching me everything from
tying mein shoes, to writing this letter. Don’t worry about me. My companion is
big enough that no one will hurt me.
Gott sei mit euch,
Elder TJ Burton
P.S. I will try to write 1 “snail mail” letter a week, and 1
email as well. Veilen Danke!
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