A Fun Week in Dresden

So, we had a fun week in Dresden, even if it included a trip to the physical therapist and lots of cold rain...but that is Germany. But I wanted to tell you about 2 experiences that we had, with 2 investigators that we have, who both want to get baptized, which alone in itself is awesome!

So, the first was with Yadong. As you might guess, he is from China, some province in the mountains that I can't pronounce or spell. But he is totally awesome. He takes everything we say and eats it like mother's homemade peanut butter cookies, and really really is eager to learn--reads everything we give him like 5 times. Awesome. We actually spend the whole first lesson talking about his questions--what are angels, what is God, who is our redeemer--awesome stuff.

But, in our 3rd lesson, at the end, I showed him a picture of Isaac, my new nephew. This sweet chinese man looked at that photo and said, in very heavily accented German:
"Ich glaube, dass es bestimmt ein Engel ist, der in diese Körper kam."

For those of you who DON'T speak German:
''I believe that is was surely an angel who came into this body.''

Bam. Spirit!! Testify!! Hallelujah!! Talk about the high points of the mission.

The other experience was more sad, but probably just as amazing spiritual.

We have an investigator named Marcelo, an amazing man who is from Mozambique. He works a lot, and lives far away, but he always makes it to his weekly appointment and to church on Sunday. Anyways, last week, we asked him what we could do to help him, to show him how much we care. He answered, in even worse German, but the translation would be something like:
''Pray for me. Pray for my life, that is stays good. Pray that I can stay so happy.''
This coming from the man who works 10 hours a day 5 days a week, and then goes to 8 hours of German class a week to try and improve his work as a carpenter. Then, what he said next was even more amazing:

"Pray for Mozambique. We have a lot of trouble right now, people fight and people are hungry. But I believe that the problem is that they don't know God. They don't know about how good Church is, how it helps us. Sometimes there are battles or fights in the villages. People kill other people. Pray for them, so that they can find God, and that Mozambique can get better.
"And Pray for Africa. There is a lot of trouble in Africa. We Africans, we love our land, we love our people, but we have lost God. We need God. I want to go back one day, and help people find God. Pray that we can do that together.''

The Spirit when Marcelo said this was just amazing. The faith that he had that God would hear our prayers and do something, anything for Africa, for Mozambique, for him, was amazing. It really makes you stop and ask yourself, do I have that faith?? Can I even hope to have such faith one day?

That, in short, summarizes 2 of the amazing investigators we have in Dresden right now. Sure, we only have 4, but...yeah. They are all awesome.

I love you all, I am praying for you, and for Africa, and for Mozambique. I hope you have something to pray for as well.

(Elder Burton is in the back, right in the middle in front of a tree trunk.)

Just a couple pictures

Elder Burton just wanted to share some pictures this week --

Being a district leader is interesting. Particularly since I live in the same apartment with the majority of my district. I do call the sisters every night to make sure everything is ok, ask about their progress, help them learn, and tell jokes. That last part is just me. Then at the end of every week I collect the numbers from the whole district for lessons taught and new investigators and baptismal dates and everything, and forward them to the zone leaders, who are also in my district. That, along with district meetings and conduction companionship exchanges are my main responsibilities. I give a 30-40 lesson every week at district meeting to my district, helping them learn and grow, then a missionary I select does the same. I don't know...I deal with problems in the district. Tell the sisters how awesome they are to keep them motivated. Typical leader stuff.

And yes, I have to interview all the candidates for baptism in my district, unless I taught them, then the zone leaders do. I have only done that once so far, but we now have 2 people on baptismal date in the district, so I am hoping that changes...



We also had a big concert last night from someone named Rachel Willis-Sorenson, feel free to google, a professional opera singer who is a member here in Dresden. She was absolutely fabulous despite being 5 months pregnant with twins. She gave a free, last show before baby break concert in the ward building, and like 300 people came, the majority of which were nonmembers. Not bad Dresden, not bad.

Congratulations Isaac John Burton. Your first use of agency in this world was to make your uncle trunky by being so darn cute.

Update from Dresden

Hey, I am not gunna write TOOOO much this week, I am gunna send some pictures instead, and answer all your questions. If any ward members or anyone has questions for me, just let me know too. I'd love to answer them!!

Sam's Baby Day:
hmm....I say...March 13th, just cause God has a sense of humor and will want to make Sam wait longer then she has planned.

Zone Change:
I was not effected at all by the zone change, no, but I think it is pretty cool. Berlin Zone is now HUGE, I'd love to serve there someday. Well, first I wanna serve in Hamburg, but we will see.

New Companion:
The new comp is cool, he is an Army dude, already did boot camp and stuff. He says that Air Force guys are wimps, which I assume dad would agree with. Elder Hall is pretty cool, and like all my other companions, way way way more athletic then I am.

Um...I dont got much actually. This week is Zone Training Meeting Again, so there should be a picture of my current zone on the blog at some point...oh, and next week I get to go to Berlin for my first Leadership Training Meeting as a district leader!! I am way way excited. I will probably see a lot of old friends there as well, which is awesome.

Love you all!!

Oh, just so you know, these are pictures of our district before transfers. Elder Gerhartz is now Home, Elder Hall is now my comp. He isn't here...in the pictures...sorry!!

Other then that, I am obviously doing something right, cause it is not hard at all to get up in the mornings anymore--in fact, I wake up 10 minutes before the alarm most days now.

That...is all that I got. Ha. Yeah. Sorry. More questions?? Love you!