Mid-Winter Blues . . . A Little Early

First off, I may or may not be suffering from a combination of the mid-winter blues--even though winter is just starting--my first real pangs of homesickness, and the typical missionary bout of ''Why am I here?'' that seems to pop up at holidays. Not the greatest combination to have all at the same time.

We also received our new District Leader this week. An interesting character to say the least. He is definitely committed to the work, and definitely a hard worker. He is also very business like, gets right to the point. I do like that about him. I do not like the fact that the first thing he told me that helped the work in the Chemnitz Zone was quotas. He is a firm believer that quotas are the secret. He also takes our numbers very seriously, to the point where he has promised to ask us by name about each of the members of our teaching pool, and why we count them in our pool.  I honestly hope that his leadership will help accelerate the work Kassel.

We are doing pretty well in Kassel, Hessen, Deutschland though. With our nice warm German Jackets the cold is not a problem--which is a marvel of German Engineering--The lack of immediate success is substituted by the powerful feeling of the spirit during each and every one of our teaching appointments. After all, that is our job. If we teach clearly, powerfully, and with the spirit, and they choose not to accept it, there is nothing wrong with what we have done. No, we can not teach perfectly, and no, we cannot possible always be in the right place at the right time. But we can do our absolute best. And that is enough--for now.

We do have our Christmas party coming up this Saturday! Way excited! We took invitations to some 30 less-active members in our area, and the ward mailed invitations to some 50 others, and I hope there will be a miracle turn out. It could really really excite and help this ward.

The Church's Christmas initiative is also going to be a part of the work--we have our Christmas Zone Conference tomorrow, where they have promised to tell us more about it. A rumor is that we might get our iPads tomorrow, but I doubt it...

We did indeed teach a member of a cult last week by the way. A believer in ''Brother William Brenham.'' Crazy dude. It appears to be an offshoot of a certain famous southern racist group, combined with the doctrine of 7 prophets after Christ and stuff. Really weird. Gave him a Book of Mormon, told him to let us know if he had questions.

That is all I have for this week. I hope you all are doing good, staying warm, and enjoying a wonderful Adventzeit!

Elder Burton