No Success Easily Won Is Worth It

25.08.15 

Interesting day. We finally found a translator for the Serbians. Well, he speaks Bosnian. Miroslav, he lives in Lankwitz ward in Berlin, and we sky per him in to translate for us. Turns out Stanoje doesn't understand baptism at all...but they have a testimony of the Book of Mormon, of the word of wisdom, and of the prophet Joseph smith!! Yay!!  Also talked to our Eritreans about baptism because there was one this Saturday...they probably didn't understand a word we said...they are just always like: "ok. Yeah. Ok." Whatever. 

26.08.15 

Had my first interview with President Fingerle today. It was really cool getting to know him a little better. Turns out he went to school for "Wirtschaftler Pedigoger" or someone who trains cooperate businessmen. Yeah, so he is the ultimate German cooperate executive. Sounds like a pretty good mission president, right?  He was then later asked to work for CES, first as director for southern Germany, then for all of Europe...which means my first mission president was the CES director for Russia...and my second was the CES director for Europe...hmm. Interesting.  When I asked how one prepares for such callings and jobs, he said the usual things; "testimony, scriptural knowledge, good finances, physical and temporal and spiritual preparedness."  Then it got very pointed. "Das wichtigste aber, ist dass man glücklich verheiratet ist." "The most important thing, is that you are happily married." He then talked for a couple minutes about how important a spiritually strong wife and gospel-centered marriage are. I was not sure how to react to that...thanks?  Message received in any case. 

27.08.15 

Had district meeting today...super super spiritual. I might finally be figuring out how to be district leader. Like, 7 transfers later. Oh good, great elder burton...  It does kind of feel like we are beating our heads against a wall sometimes though. We make very little progress in this area, in this district, as far as missionary work goes. We all try very hard, there are a lot of very good missionaries in my district. But...the work is just a little slower here. We still can't get Stanoje and his family to church, they won't do their part now. And talk to a former investigator lady who said she'd drive them. The Spanish elders are struggling...cause they are trying to find a needle in a haystack, a Spanish speaker who is prepared to learn about the gospel, IN GERMANY. yeah. Lots of hard work for us. But no success easily won is worth it...or something like that. 

28.08.15 

Went to a City-Festival in Schwarzenbek. There were like 200 people there...which is about 175 more then usual for Schwarzenbek. Joy of joys...  That's probably the hardest thing about this area, is the lack of people everywhere but Lüneburg. No, the hardest thing is getting people to church. Cause honestly, it is usually the poorer people, the people looking for improve,net in life, who accept the Gospel. That is how it has always been. And unfortunately, poor people in German don't own cars. 

29.08.15 

Went finding for 6 hours today in Lüneburg. No success. But lots of walking. :)  Had an asthma attack again...first one in like 6 months...ran up some stairs too quickly. Smooth elder. Smooth. I had an inhaler with me, but the headache I got afterwards was monstrous,..  Also visited 2 flea-markets today. One during lunch break, then one during dinner break. Bought a pair of dress pants for 2 euro. They fit too!! American style. So, very square. But they fit. Not the most attractive...but they work for P-day and maybe a day when I don't care what I look like. Not bad. 

30.08.15 

So. Church today. A Family Visited, the woman's parents live in the ward, they are newly weds who live in America. She is from Germany, obviously, and he is from Bolivia. Yeah, Bolivia. Next time I say lets go to Bolivia...No, they were cool though. His accent was awesome, he only spoke English and Spanish, so I translated one talk for him while his wife fed their 2 month old child.  Then, during sacrament meeting, these 2 ladies walked in. Very plainly Arabic. They sad down, and I and the ward mission leader went and sat on their sides. Turns out they both spoke Arabic, and 1 spoke English, so I then proceeded to translate for them, the speaker speaking German, I speaking English, and one lady speaking Arabic for the other lady. What never seen these two ladies before. 1 from Syria, actually, and 1 from the Gaza Strip, Palestine.  Turns out they are 2 mothers from the refugee camp about 10 kilometers away. It would be absolutely awesome that they just walked into sacrament meeting by themselves, but...unfortunately, they came for the wrong reasons.  Someone--not us--gave a different family in the refugee camp our card, and told some of the refugees that if they came tithe church there would be money and food and clothing for their children. When these women heads this, women without husbands, with 3 and 5 children respectively, they made the decision to walk alone, in the rain, Sunday morning, from the camp to church, to look for help.  Definitely one of the worst, prat least least favorite, experiences of my mission so far, is having to tell these 2 mothers that we don't have money to give them. That we don't have any ability to help them get a better apartment, or clothing for their children, who are already cold, even though it will get much, much colder. We offered all the spiritual and emotional help we could, we gave them a bible and a Book of Mormon, we invited them to bring their children to church next week and to help them feel comfortable in the ward during their time here...but we were very honest about not having the power to change their temporal situation.  I hated that. I hated it.  

Viele Grüße, Elder Burton

Shortbread and Investigators

18.08.15

Had to spend a large part of the day in Hamburg. Learned a little bit about family history from a sister in the mission who is good with that. It was annoying, she showed up 1 hour 15 minutes late for our 2 hour appointment, so we didn't really get to have a good appointment, but as soon as the Zone Leaders and other missionaries showed up for there appointment--missionaries with whom she was obviously very good friends--we got kicked out and yeah. Annoying.  But we did meet with Stanoje and his family again. They are still really struggling to come to church and everything,,,still working on that...but focusing more on spiritual growth now. Making sure that when the day comes when they CAN get baptized, that they will be ready for it. 

19.08.15

All day in Hamburg again, Zone conference with Elder Paul V Johnson, 1st quorum of the 70, who is in the area presidency in Europe as well. Learned a bunch, really excited to try and put it into practice,,,sad we have to spend so much time in meetings and traveling and taking care of paperwork and everything. But that is life.  Also met with a less-active member named Andreas. Ate some of moms shortbread with him. He thought it was great, especially with Nutella on it. He is really cool, he knows what he is supposed to do...the problem a lot is just that they are too lazy to do it. Less actives in general. Too willing to let other things take priority in their lives. 

20.08.15

Met with Stanoje and his family again. Talked about the temple a lot. About how our goal is, that the 3 boys serve their own missions, and that the whole family is sealed in the temple one day. It is still hard to tell, how much they really understand. Still haven't managed to find a translator. But that lesson felt super super spiritual at least. 

23.08.15

So I missed a couple days cause there was a big fight between a new convert and a member in the ward that we had to deal with and we got home late 2 nights in a row and stuff...I was too tired to write.  But today we had church. It was pretty good. No investigators, but maybe next week...then we went to go by on some former investigators in the dorfs around Lauenburg, and our Navi totally took us on this crappy little road that just ended in a bush,,,I'll send the pictures. Really weird. We need to update the navi sometime.  Loving the mission. Really tired. Back hurts a bit today. That's ok. It's normal..,I'm trying to do like 100 sit-ups a day...strengthen my core and,,,Eghm...maybe loose another 5 pounds or so--I'm at 180 now--but only make about 70 a day before I give up for the pain...but oh well. Then it does pretty well. My shoulders are actually worse then my back most of the time...why am I saying this? I'm doing good. :) can't do push-ups, but doing good.  

  

Viele Grüße, Elder Burton

Hot and Humid in Lauenberg

11.08.15 

Well, we had a cool conference call/ Skype meeting with all the district leaders in the mission today. We used the iPads, sat at the church's and listen to teaching from the assistants--who were in Berlin--while elders in Hamburg, Hannover, Dresden, Kassel, Rostock, Kiel, Flensburg, Erfurt, Leipzig--all over northern Germany--contributed and asked questions. Pretty cool experience.  We also met with Stanoje and his family again, the awesome ones. We talked a lot to the boys, taught them the gospel of Christ, and they really seemed to understand it. Really exciting.  

12.08.15

Had a meeting in Hamburg today with all the leaders from my zone. Really fun, learned a lot. A new convert who is actually from New York came and bore his testimony, an awesome black guy named brother Stevens. He talked about how the temple is so amazing, and how it is our bodies, that we are the original temple. Really made me rethink all the stuff I've learned about the temple since I got to Germany, made it apply it all to myself. Really cool actually.  But because that meeting started an hour late--due to construction in the tram and train system in Hamburg--and went half an hour long, that was pretty much all we had time for. We also got stuck in rush hour traffic leaving Hamburg. We then went to a members appointment in Scharnebeck, near Lüneburg, and stopped on the way to see the giant boat elevator on the Elbe-Hannover canal. Short video will be sent...hopefully. :) 

15.08.15

So a lot has happened, but nothing has happened. I'm writing this from inside a church as we take a small break from finding in Lüneburg. I'm actually in exchange with Elder Despain, who was in my MTC group. It is only my second time doing that with a member of my MTC group. It is pretty fun. It is interesting. To see how much he has changed. And continues to change. Have I changed as much?  I've gotten really bad at writing in my journal, only 4 or 5 times the last 2 weeks, but I have switched to doing it in the morning again because I just can't find the time to do it at night. Too many calls and papers to take care of, in my area as well as for district stuff. I am also finding that we are running out of time to eat fairly offen, so I am always starving at night.  However, other than Stanoje and his family, we have very little to work with right now. Contacts are either all on vacation, or read anti-Mormon stuff and don't want to meet anymore. Or in one case, I call them, the ringing stops so I know she answered but didn't say anything, I say "hello?" And hear suddenly a quick inward gasp of surprise and the phone slams down on the box. Ha. Oops. This after I call her, 10 minutes after an appointment with he is supposed to start and she doesn't show up. Germany.    

16.08.15

Dejvid, one of the boys in the family we are teaching, is sick again. :(. He's had 8 operations already, 7 in Serbia and 1 in Germany, and something is up again, they aren't sure what. So they have an appointment in October in Lübeck to find out. Elder Peacock and I gave him a priesthood blessing, had a really really spiritual time with them and everything...but we still can't get them to church. They may just have to take the bus. We really can't find another way. Frustrating.  The weather has been pretty tropical here lately too. Super super humid, and hovering between 25 and 30 degrees Celsius everyday. That doesn't sound too bad, but when you have 85 percent humidity or more, it gets pretty sweaty.    

Viele Grüße, Elder Burton

New Weekly Letter

Weekly Letter 5.08.15

So, I'm starting something new. Sam (my sister in law) recommended that I write just a paragraph or two each night, and send them all as a block on Mondays, to find energy and time to actually write a good email. That, combined with a friend of mine telling me that she'd "love to receive (my) weekly email," despite the fact that there hasn't been one for the past few months...guilted me sufficiently into starting this process and habit, in order to satisfy the masses dying for word of their beloved Elder Burton. 😜  So. Starting today. We had district meeting, In our district of 4. Elder Burton, Elder Peacock, Elder Barrios, and Elder Despain. Elder Despain was in my MTC group actually, the first member of my group I've been in the same district with. He and Elder Barrios (middle and back) are the Spanish elders of Hamburg now. Really cool, first Spanish-oriented mission program ever in Hamburg. Well, in the last 20 years at least. And it started with them, last week. Elder Barrios is a total Hipster, Elder Despain is what one can only describe as Twitchy--remember Twitch from the movie "Holes?" Totally him--and Elder Peacock is...sweet. Just a little sweet-heart. From a family of 10 children, so who can blame him?  

06.08.15 So. We met with Stanoje and his family today. And invited them to baptism. And they accepted. They accepted!! They set a goal to be baptized on the 13 of September. What!?!? They are so cool. Stanoje, Gabrijela, Stole, Gabrijel, and Dejvid. Oh I love them. I will send you a picture too. It will be a long process, and will take a lot of work. But I believe they can do it. They can't ride the bus because Gabrijela is pregnant and throws up on the bus, so they must get rides from members to make it the half and hour to church, but...they can do it!! It would truly be a miracle of the first degree. And it will be. Any prayers on from you for them and their goal would be much appreciated.  Elder Peacock and I also started a major renovation of our area book today. It will take significant time and energy, collating all Contacts, potential investigators, former investigators, less actives, members and current investigators onto a single list of addresses and phone numbers, in order to use time more effectively and really have a view of where people are, how to contact them the best, and why the may need help, or may have stopped meeting with the missionaries. It is especially useful in an area like this, with several different towns to deal with. My old mission president told us over and over again: "there is a baptism in every area book." We are going to find it!! 

07.08.15 Did garden work with a new-ish convert today. Well, he was baptized 5 years ago. But yeah. He is a strange man, very German, and very easily upset if we do garden work any way besides his way. It means that in 3 hours the 3 of us only got about 4-5 man hours of labor done. But whatever. 

08.08.15 What does it mean when your top left eyelid twitches over and over again during daily planning?   

09.08.15 Had church today, and met with the Family again. We cleared it up, yes they are from Serbia, and Stanoje and Gabrjiela speak Croatian, Macedonian, Bosnian, and Serbian, but their mother language is Cigorny, or Zigorni, or however you spell it. And they are Gypsies! You know, the weird Eastern European people from Hunchback of Notre Dame, who don't have their own country or city, just gather all over Europe? Yep. We are totally gunna baptize a Gypsie family.  Yeah, and I gave a talk on repentance to the ward in Lauenburg today. I think it went well. The ward mission, Hilke, was really grateful, her family is going through some rough times...but they are still awesome. Yup. 

10.08.15 Yeah...so that was my week. Now it's Monday. I'll send a bunch of pictures I already took today too, from all over Lauenburg, an old fortress in the forest--hard to tell--from the tower, from the church...a couple cool things. And a giant mushroom that Elder Peacock tried to attack me with my rolling it down a hill at me.   

   

Viele Grüße, Elder Burton