Ice Burton

Hallo Familie, und Alle!

So this was another busy week. Unfortunately, most of that time spend busy was not teaching investigators, but trying to find some...without much success...still, it is good to be a missionary. We spend so much time Feeling the Spirit, and so much time with so much to do, that sometimes it is hard to appreciate just how blessed we are.

I did meet Familie Habermann this week, and they were totally awesome. Bruder Habermann remids me a lot of CJ actually...really fun and really excitable. They gave us Ice, which is what Germans call Ice Cream, when we got to their house, and because he was teasing me and making jokes, I thought I would joke back. When he asked me how much Ice I'd like, I replied ''Alles.'' Oops.

He did indeed give me the entire tub of Ice cream, which was about half a Liter, and would not let me leave the kitchen until I ate all of it. He took several Pictures with his phone, and it was pretty funny, and it was. I didnt have my camera, but in the end, suffice it to say I ate a lot of ice cream. And so, now Bruder Habermann calls me ''Ice-Burton.'' I cant decide if it is good or bad yet.

I also accidently almost sorta flooded the Whonung, the residence, this week. I put the wrong Soap in the dishwasher, and when we got home, there was a lot of water on the floor...luckily, we have all tile floors, so it was really easy to clean up, but I have definitely made some classic new missionary blunders this week.

I said I'd send Pictures this week, but I totally forgot my camera cord...so I can't...but I will soon. I promise.

Also this week, we met and began the reactivation of a Young man from Japan. Well, he is actually 34, but he is really really cool. His Name is Reyoske, said like Kioske, and he hasnt been to church since he was 18 and living with his mother in Japan. He came to church yesterday, and I sat with him and talked to him somemore. He is really cool, and if we can help him back into full activity, it will really help Zweig Kassel. It was funny though, sitting in a German sacrament Meeting next to a Japanese Man, me being from America. Strange world. Amazing what the church can do.

So the Apostle David A Bednar will be coming to our Mission on September 13...and the whole Mission will be together to hear him. All 260 of us. It will be sooo coooool!! Techniquelly Mission presidents arent even aloud to have that many missionaries together at the same time, they usually have ''Half Mission'' Conferences. This is not even a Mission conference techniquelly, they are calling it a Mission Meeting. Very sucpicious.

It appears though that when he Comes, he will bring with him our new iPads!!! If you hadnt heard, all European missions are now recieving iPads to assist in the work, and we suspect Elder Bednar is coming to teach us abuout their use. We are all totally excited about that.

Something we are asked to do in preperation for his visit is read a set of talks he has given at various Points. I have only read 1 so far, but it was really good, called ''Learning by Faith.'' It also lead me to read a talk entitled ''Candle of the Lord'' by Boyd K Packer. I would definitely reccomend them to everyone if you feel like a spiritual thought.

Other then that, thanks a bunch for all the emails and prayers. I will try to remember to send pictures next week...sorry about that...

Love you all, stay safe!! --Elder Burton

August 18 -- Life in Kassel and a Story to Share

Hey there Familie!

So I had a long week. Whoop-de-doo. So did the rest of the world. Something that I thought of this week while I was studying, however, was 'The Tale of Three Trees.' I don't now know the exact tale, but if mom could put it on the blog after this paragraph that would be great!!

(Mom put a link to the story under "Missionary Links" on the left)

Anyways. Thinking of this poem, folktale, whatever, made me wonder who I am, what I am becoming, and what on earth I'll be used for. I spent a lot of time reading my Patriarchal blessing, and the section on foreordination was very very helpful. I must always remember that I am here because I was called here by the Lord. Don't ever forget that.

Now, on to real life stuff.

Now, German stuff. They have what they call, Book Exchanges, here. They are awesome. It is just a little stand full of books on the street, and you bring your books and switch them out for different books you haven't read yet. Genius.

But why I am talking about it now is that we took some Book of Mormons to our book exchange, and in exchange, I got a German Math Book that was printed in 1890, and 2 little physics book, entitled 'The History of Physics' Part 1 and 2, that were printed in 1911. Pretty awesome, huh?

Also, inside the Math book, was a piece of paper, that was written by a member of the Nazi party, reminding another German citizen to do their duty and vote for Hitler. At the bottom, typed in big bold font, is the phrase, 'Heil Hitler!'

I will send some pictures next week, but it was pretty dang cool.

K, anyways, one thing about that root beer extract thing I mentioned, if it isn't tooooo expensive to ship it over, the members in our ward would be perfectly willing to pay me a little for every bottle to help with the shipping costs, so we might be able to work it out so that it ends up being a free care package for me. Who knows?

Its hard for me to really tell you much about the people we are teaching, cause I have only been to 1 appointment with any of them so far...but here is a few people I've met and taught:

John: He is only 11, and actually left for Hamburg yesterday, but he was really cool. His parents just finished going through a divorce, and he was staying with his cousins--the Albrecht family, my favorite family in the branch--while that was worked out. He decided to hear some of the lessons from the missionaries while he was here. Hopefully he decides to meet with the Elder in Hamburg, but I don't know. He was really cool though.

Aung: He is about 25, and is a professional piano player and musician for weddings and stuff. His family is from Burma, or Myanmar, and his father is Buddhist, but his mom is a convert. He is really cool, and really really intelligent. His English is better then my German actually, and it is his 4th language...anyways. He reads a lot in the Book of Mormon, but doesn't know if there is even a God yet, so is refusing to get baptized till he knows...silly silly Aung.

Eden: We actually just met and talked to her on a bus, but we are going to meet with her this week, and bring her a Book of Mormon in her mother tongue, Amharic. She is from Ethiopia, a born-again christian, but she seemed really interested. She actually approached us and asked us about what church we were from and stuff. It was really cool.

Some of the members I really love are Familie Albrecht, Familie Egly, and Familie Steffel. Sister Steffel is actually pregnant right now, about 1 month, so that made me think of Sam and stuff, which was fun to talk to her about...

There have been lots of other people, and we have lots of appointments this week...I am actually going to Hanover tonight, till Wednesday morning, for an exchange, so I get to see the big city! I'm pretty excited.

Thanks a bunch for the Sports update Sam, I really enjoyed it. I'M gunna miss football.

And hi Jeff. Glad to hear that you are doing good. If you think 'Padowan' is a weird thing to get called a lot, try remember getting called 'Greenie' all the time. Oh dear.

Mom, if you could actually send me an email version of the tale of three trees I'd love that as well too...I not sure why I thought of it, but it was cool.

Love you all, be safe! Don't let the busy busy schedules take fun out of life!

Oh yeah, I want to do this:
Scripture of the week: Job 37:14
Quote of the Week: 'There is always room for fun, even in missionary work.' -Pres. Kosak


Love, Thomas

11 August 2014 -- Malt Beer?

Familie

So, the reason for the subject. This week I really learned the difference between High German, Hoch Deutsche, and otherwise. Luckily, the people of Kassel speak Hoch Deutsche. We had a visitor in Church from München. He spoke Bavarian. Impossible to understand.

Seriously though.

Anyways. This, my first full true missionary week, was awesome. We traveled to Stadthagen for our zone training meeting, and I had another interview with Präsident Kosak. I lso learned that September 13th, David A Bednar will be coming to our mission, and every missionary in the mission will be together in Germany to hear him speak. This will be the first time under Präsident Kosak that the whole mission is together, so I expect it to be a pretty cool experience.

After that, we worked worked worked. My Deutsche is improving, slowly, and I am understanding people better. It really just takes time. 4 to 6 months to be exact.

Oh dear.

I hear that Luke is going back to school. Weird that he is the only one left in the family. Well, actually, Sarah and Jason are still in school. Which is awesome. I wish I was that devoted. I'm not. Probably just gunna be a bachelors and done for me. I don't think you can ever have to much school though, particularly if the field requires it.

Now, more about me. I'm really really enjoying Germany. Everywhere is so beautiful, and even when it smells like tobacco, its great to be walking around seeing the city. I have discovered that I am short on a few rather essential items, so if there are charges on the card today...please don't be too angry...

So something I had to eat this week was Quark. I also had Taziki, which is similar, but absolutely terrible. Quark good, Taziki, bad.

Since I've been here, I have also had weiß wurst, mexican food, several meat and potato dishes, and malt beer. Yes, I had Malt beer. No alcohol, but still. It was seriously, the strongest drink I've ever had. Not terrible, but I won't exactly go buy it for myself anytime soon...

I also have had these little chocolates a few times called Kinder's. Oh. My. Gosh.
Unbelievable. Unglaublich.

Something that Germany does lack is Root Beer. Weird huh?
Actually, some of the members in our Zweig, or Branch, love love love love love Root Beer, but they can't get it, it is too expensive. So question...could you include 3 or 4 small things of root beer extract in my first care package? Our ward mission leader would die of happiness.

Speaking of which, I guess the rule with the mission home is really a guideline. They don't care if you ship me stuff at my Whonung, or residence. We receive mail once a month or so from the office, at zone meetings. Packages should probably go to the Mission Büro, but letters and stuff are more than welcome in Kassel.

The exact address is

Kirchweg 31
34121 Kassel
Deutschland

and the Mission office is

Zerbsterstraße 42
12209 Berlin
Deutschland

Please google how to mail letters to Germany. I'm not really sure. It is weird though.

But yes, root beer extract, if it isn't too expensive, would be amazing!
If it isn't too expensive.

And In exchange, I'll ship back a couple things of Kinders. Deal?


Now, In response to your letters:

It is really cool that Luke is starting French. The Germans make fun of the French and Italians a lot, but still a cool place. Stick with it. You never know what might happen.

I have taught some people, Andrej, Valerie, John, Familie Renkewitz. We also met with Awala, Udo, Familie Richter, Familie Jäger, and a few others. Quite awesome actually. I have placed, personally, or as a companionship....4...Books of Mormon now? We call them Bücher Mormon, but same thing.

 I don't know about in Italy, but with so many missionaries in our mission, it sounds like the standard is 2 companionships per Ward or branch. A lot of the times too, its a pair of elders and a pair of sisters. Even when 2 companionships aren't technically in the same area, they see each fairly often because they are in the same city. We, however, have a huge huge area all to ourselves. The closest Elders are in Göttingen, and they are by themselves too. if you look at the mission map on the mission blog, We have everything from around our city all the way to the border. By ourselves. It takes something like 4 hours by bus or straße-bahn to reach the edges of our area. Lonely.
Oh well.

That's all I got today. Rootbeer, money, chocolate. Good. Everyone be safe, stay in drugs, don't do school. Stay away from girls, but close to your wives. What am I saying.

Tschüs!
Elder Burton

August 4, 2014 -- 1st PDay in Kassel

Willkommen zu Kassel!

So, as you have heard, I am stationed in the beautiful German university town of Kassel (pronounced 'Castle') with Elder Poch. He is a really, really, really cool guy, a semi-pro dancer who went to BYU already, and will again. He is not native German, but all the members say his German is amazing, so that is good.

I sent some pictures to Mom and a couple of you, of my first Dönner and stuff. A dönner is like a Greek 'Hero' thing, but way way better. I guess it is tradition to take a picture of your first one.

My new favorite breakfast is German bread with cheese and meat, and a glass of banana nectar. Wow. Amazing. One of the pictures is of just that, and our whonung, or residence, which is basically a castle by missionary standards. On the next clear day I’ll get a good picture of the view out of our window, which is amazing. We can see Herkules, Hercules, from where we live, and the steps where they do the 'wasser spiele.' You should look both of those up.

I’ve already ridden on trains and stuff a lot. From Berlin to here was 4 hours, and then the next day we had to travel an hour to Göttigen for district meeting. There are only 4 Elders in our district, Poch is DL, but we went to their city because it is much cheaper then them coming here.

All of Germany really is beautiful, and Elder Poch says that Kassel gets even more beautiful once it cools off a little and the college is back in session. Have I mentioned that German girls are very nice?

Church on Sunday was great! The members here are super nice and very encouraging--I think. They were speaking German. They all say my German is great for this early, as does Elder Poch, so I hope that they are right. It is very hard.

Still, I don't know how, But I understand people a lot of the time. It is really cool. Gift of Tongues much?

We have our first dinner appointment with a member today actually. I’m way excited.  The Alters.

Hmm.

Anyways. First P-day today. Elder Poch is going to show me the city a little, though we also have a lot of actual preparation to do, so we only have a couple hours of free time. We will probably go to a fest that is going on by the river in town.

The 200 euro I withdrew was for the bike fund, and we do have bikes, but we never use them. The public transportation system in Kassel is marvelous, because of the arts festivals and university that are here. Göttigen, the other city in our district, uses their bikes every day. So we are lucky.

So I'm in Germany now, typing on a weird keyboard, while it is pouring down rain outside. Like, say a prayer, I might get washed away.

Oh, and a quote from Sister Kosak Sam and Sarah may enjoy:

"There is enough Chocolate in Germany that no one has to be depressed."

Oh, and if you wanted to go on Google, our residence is on Kirchweg. Not sure, what number, 50 or something....

so,

Kirchweg 50(ish), Kassel

thats all I know.

If there are any other questions, let me know. Love you all!! Be safe!

(We live at the intersection of Kirchweg and Wilhelmshöher Allee)

Letter from the Mission President to Mom and Dad

1 August 2014

Dear Brother and Sister Burton ,

We are pleased to announce that your son, Elder Thomas James Burton, is safely with us in the Berlin Mission. We have had the opportunity to get to know him, and he is ready and excited to be here. Sister Kosak and I look forward to working with him and will do all that we can to help him serve a happy and successful mission. Elder Burton’s first companion will be Elder Poch, and they will work together in Kassel for the next several weeks.

We have all discussed the mission goals and agreed that we will start right, work hard, and finish strong in order to fulfill our purpose to invite others to come unto Christ.

We, along with your son, appreciate the support which you give through your weekly letters and daily prayers in his behalf. Thank you for raising your son so that he can be part of this amazing work.