End of September

21.09.15 

So. I may have sinned...and bought 3 new ties and a new sweater for my birthday. K, my only 2 sweaters are like a year and a half old, and stretched out and baggy and too big, and I only had like 25 ties, so...yeah... :) oh, and everything was on sale. So, the ties were €3 each, and the sweater was 15, so...calm down. Oh, and we visited this museum in Geesthacht...not worth the €2 entry fee. Tiny little thing. I'll send a picture. BUT. It may interest some of you to know that there is actually something significant that happened in my area, that changed your like!!  That's right. In Geesthacht is where the man named Alfred Nobel successfully created an explosive containing nitroglycerin in a reliable, safe container that detonated  consistently when properly used. In other words, Dynamite was invented in Geesthacht. Not bad huh?  Now there are no more dynamite factories, but, there is a nuclear power plant and research facility. Not bad for backwoods Germany. 

22.09.15 

Was on exchange with Elder Somma today. He is from Brazil actually. He was born in raised in Brazil, but moved to America when he was 14. He speaks Portuguese, Italien, and English, and is now learning Spanish. Really cool guy. He's been in Germany for about 5 months, which makes him much younger then me on the mission, which is really really really weird. He kept on bringing up how old I am, trying to make me trunky, and I'm like: "What, ya kidding? I just got here!" It didn't work. I'm not trunky...We worked in Lüneburg. Found a new investigator. Taught Stanoje and his family--with the bishop there as joint teach--and just had fun. It was kind of...relaxing. And releasing. Just...yeah. I don't know. 

23.09.15 

So, really cool experience today. We go and visit a family in the ward who were the last family that I hadn't visited. So I've visited literally everyone in the ward now. But, we visited them, taught a short lesson, then took the husband with us and went to visit a member family that moved into the ward like 3 weeks ago. The new family was from Rostock, from Africa originally, but moved from Rostock, and the husband is still there, and they probably won't be staying here long. Sad, but that's how it is.  But!! Then the cool part happened. The Brother that we were with, as we are getting in the car, is like: "Ya know, my brother--blood brother--lives on this street. He isn't a member of the church. It's time I really invited him to learn more." So we got back out of the car, walked over to where his brother lived, and rung the bell. He let us in, him and his girlfriend, and they then sat and listened as this brother introduced us to them, explained who we were, taught them about the Book of Mormon, and then as we gave our testimonies of Jesus Christ. The Member then made out a return appointment for us, and we left.  SAY WHAT? yeah it was awesome. The best part? This Member was baptized with his family just over 5 years ago. And now he is one of the coolest people. Boom. Gegospeled. (Only German speaking missionaries will get that joke.)  But yeah. He just received a prompting from the spirit, and acted upon it, and someone who never in a thousand years would have been open to hearing the message from us if we knocked on his door suddenly is meeting with us and committed to read in the Book of Mormon. That's the power of members. 

24.09.15 

So there is this soda in Germany..,it's actually Turkish...but it's called Uludag. It tastes like "Incan Cola" is what I've heard, for those of you in the Latin Americas. Well, usually it's green, and tastes kind of like liquid bubble gum. It goes really good with Döner actually.  But, like I said, usually green. We stopped at this Turkish super marked to get drinks, and they had an Uludag flavor that was orange. I, of course, had to try it, and it actually tasted better. Which was great. Still needs to be with Döner, but that's ok. Well, this was all well and good until, because I drank this, I go to the bathroom a couple hours later, and I discover a disturbing side-effect of this orange drink. It had, indeed, Made my pee orange...and when I say orange, I mean the color of ripe mandarin oranges. It was scary.  German missionary probs.  But yeah. Our appointments fell out today, so that was our highlight...orange...disturbing. Kind of like when you eat beets... 

25.09.15 

I kind of took out my frustration on a less active today. He said something along the lines of: "Yeah, we all believe the same thing anyways--us, the Catholics, the Protestants, the Lutherans...it's all the same, we all believe the same." Yeah...about that...  I spent about 15 minutes just talking about how we don't. We don't believe the same thing. He is like: "but they believe on Christ!!" And I'm like: "yeah, good job. We both believe on Christ. That he performed the atonement, that he was resurrected, and that he lives today. That he was the Son of God.  "But we believe so much more then that!! We believe that his Father, our Father, is also a glorified man, a Man of Holiness, living in Heaven, watching over us, who loves us and wants the best for us. We believe that they have bodies, that they appeared to a young man to reveal themselves to everyone!  "Not only that, we believe on all the deeps things of God too!! You're right, the very first, simplest, most important truth ever taught on the Earth is where we agree: Jesus is the Christ!! However, we believe on the second part of Peter's confession as well: The Son of the Living God!! You cannot separate those two parts!"  Yeah, then I went off on him a little bit about other doctrines I knew he just didn't believe, even though he was baptized into the church. The Holy Ghost, the Book of Mormon, Law of Chastity--as it pertains to your thoughts, and keeping your thoughts clean--yeah...mostly about the character of God though. It just frustrates me that this man, a member of the church for 5 years now, hasn't even really developed a testimony of our believe in God. When, as Joseph Smith said, the most important thing we can learn is the Attributes of God, then why don't we learn them?  Sorry. Still peeved. 

26.09.15 

So. Looking at this letter, it's really long. I'll keep it short now.  Stanoje and his family are awesome. We tried to teach them the Law of Chastity really serious and stuff, and they are like: hey, we've been married 14 years. We figured it out. So we laughed about it, and just explained our beliefs about it. No problemo.  Yeah. They are awesome. They really made my time in Lauenburg worth it. It would be worth it as well, without them, but you know what I mean. I just wish they'd come to church... 

27.09.15 

So. Really busy Sunday. Really good. Had good chili and amazing desert stuff that was like oranges and cream and chocolate and ground up cookies...loved it. Love that member family. Love lots of people. Love Germany. I'm not coming home. Sorry mom. And that's a good week. Beautiful weather, not too sick. My shoulders have been acting up again, but that happens for a week every month, no bid deal anymore.  I love you all!! 3 months till Christmas!! Haha, the Germans are already selling decorations for it,,,this country has issues,,,   

Viele Grüße, Elder Burton

A Little Sick in Germany

14.09.15 

Had  a few hours of our p-day in Lüneburg again. It was raining pretty steadily for most of it, but the last hour or so cleared up enough that we could enjoy the October Fest...fest...there. Basically an excuse for people to go and get drunk and eat tons of wurst and the women to dress up in scanty dresses...but with some pretty awesome thrill rides as well, that...we aren't allowed to ride. 😐  Then went and met with a less active, who is really fun. That...is about it. 

15.09.15  So I woke up this morning, and the first thing I said in my prayer was: "Lieber Vater, segne mir, damit ich nicht krank sein werde." "Dear Father, please bless me so I won't be sick."  He didn't bless me.  Just kidding, I am very richly blessed, but he decided to let me be sick today. So we went street contacting for 2 hours is Lauenburg ran into a couple members--which was weird, never happens--and then came home and had lunch, then I texted Sister Fingerle, and went to bed. So I've slept like an extra 5 or 6 hours already today, and bought some cough syrup--which tastes EXACTLY like it does at home. I mean, it has to be same stuff. Or I'm just nuts.  But yeah. That was...actually my first "Sick Day" on my mission. I've had to call it early a couple times for my shoulders, but never pretty much the whole day before. Really weird. It's like 10:10 now, and I'm really tired again. I'm gunna go sleep like another 8 hours....😴😁 

16.09.15  First District meeting today, with Elder Somma in the district. He is from Brazil, and also lived in Florida for a couple years, and speaks Portuguese, English, French, German, and is now learning Spanish to help out the Spanish program in Bergedorf. Pretty cool guy. Quieter then the other Brazilians I've met. And I think it's really cool that I can say that.  Also went by some contacts in Lüneburg, then came home and slept an extra while. Yeah. I'm getting better. I'm not dead. I think I'll go for a walk.. 

17.09.15  Taught Stanoje and his family about the Book of Mormon again today, we've been going through the very basic and elemental principles of the gospel, trying to help them really build a firm testimony in all of it.  It is rather frustrating though. Partially, Elder Peacock has just decided at some point is his mission that he hates finding. Or, better said, he has not yet reached the point where he has said to himself, ""ok, I like finding." It really is a conscious decision. I know several missionaries who are great finders. And I believe that they are such good finders because they have decided to enjoy finding, regardless of if it is going Door to Door, or talking to people on the street, or whatever. They made the decision that they will be happy doing anything the Lord requires. 

It's ironic, my parents will recognize a lesson they tried to teach me for years. The importance of just deciding to be happy. At some point in my mission--some point in Dresden--I made the decision that I was going to be happy. I really can't tell you exactly when, maybe it was more of a process then really a point in time...it was probably because I was called as a District Leader. The Lord wanted me to learn that lesson, that I have to be happy, and to do it he thrust me into a situation where not only I had to be happy, but I had to convince 2 Sisters and 4 Elders--later 4 Sisters, now only 4 Elders--not only that I was happy, but that they could be happy too. It has done a great deal to change my character, I believe. Perhaps one of the greatest character changes of my life. 

18.09.15  Well, met with the Bishop today to talk about The Family. He is pretty excited, wants to help them get baptized, wants to come on a joint teach next week, and really get things rolling. Hopefully that works out well.  We still have to work better with the Ward, but we are improving. Really are. Slowly.  Also did weekly planning, and went finding in Lauenburg for a while. We are not having any success at all right now in Finding. Still talking to a lot of people as often as possible, still really working at improving my finding, we just aren't having any succes. Frustrating. 

19.09.15  Finally managed to meet with Stanoje and his family with a member there!! Yay!! Brother and Sister Jäger came, he is the Ward Mission Leader and she is the Relief Society President. They were really nervous, and they made Stanoje really nervous, but it still went pretty good. Per talked about Prayer, really did our best to keep it simple. The boys like the Jägers too, so that's good. Can't come to church tomorrow because they're going to be in Hannover. The Serbians, not the Jägers. It's ok.  Also went finding in Lüneburg. Talked to a lot of people. No one was interested. Frustrating. You'd think in a city of 75.000 people you'd be able to pretty easily find someone who wanted to talk about God. Evidently not...  Also found out today that my shoes are worn out enough that they are no longer Waterproof...sad day. 😢 

20.09.15  Well. We heard a cool talk from a member in the ward, Brother Warncke, today about the Family Proclamation. Talked about how this is the 20 year anniversary. How cool it is that the prophet issued it, how we should read it often, and every family should have one framed in their homes. And sitting here thinking, "isn't today important somehow..."  Then I read my email from Mother dearest. Oh. Ha. Today is also the 20th anniversary of Elder Burton. Whew. Who knew that I'm the same age as the Proclamation?  But, Elder Peacock is now sick, with the same tiptoe of thing I still am fighting to get over, so not much partying going on right now, just lots of sleeping. It's funny, when we didn't shake hands with the members because we are sick, they are like: "You're sick!?!? Why are you here?!?" Haha Germans. Really freaked out and confused. If a German is even a little sick, they just stay home. Period. When we told them we came because Elder Peacock had a talk, they are like: and? "He could have canceled easily, just call the bishop." Oh dear.  

Viele Grüße, Elder Burton 

Just One Degree

31.08.15

We prayed that someone would talk to us today during p-day. It worked. 3 people talked to us:

The first was roaring drunk, convinced that he'd seen Christ standing in the moon, beckoning him to come to heaven, but that he told Christ, that his life wasn't over yet, that he still had stuff to do. Interesting. 

The second was only slightly drunk, and was a very lonely young man who's parents immigrated from Azerbaijan before he was born, who happened to be questioning the meaning of his existence and the very reality of God. Him we could help. No appointment, but we gave him a card and a Book of Mormon. 

The third was a very scantily dressed Turkish woman, dark hair, fire-y dark eyes, and a nose piercing, but still fairly attractive--if she'd been decently clothed, that is--who asked me where I was from, and when I said America, she says, in all seriousness, with a flirtatious tone of voice: "Do you want to take me back with you?" 

Her, I couldn't help. 

We offered her a Book of Mormon as well, which she laughed at and scorned then promptly said goodbye and walked the other direction. Lovely. Well, there goes that chance for a concubine...

Of course, if she'd taken the Book of Mormon and read Jacob 2, her mind might have changed. 

That reminds me, did I tell you about that time a guy walked up and offered to buy my clothes--which I was then wearing--for 50€? He said he was on his way to see a pretty woman, and needed to look good. Thanks for the compliment, my friend. 

1.09.15

In exchange with Elder Barrios today. He is really cool. He is leading the new Spanish speaking program in Hamburg, in a part of the city called Bergedorf ( said "Bear-ga-dorf.) there are struggling, trying to find Spanish speakers in Germany is the proverbial needle in the haystack. It's like trying to find Mexicans in Texas! Oh wait...

Just kidding. There are some Spanish speakers in Hamburg, but hard to find, so they are trying to work a lot with the Spanish members in the stake. Really hard work. But I have full confidence in them. 

Our appointment with Stanoje and his family fell out, sadly, and no one else we already knew wanted to meet with us today, so we went finding a lot, and actually found a couple people. That was refreshing. We really are quite blessed, we can just go walk around on the steel and find new investigators. Whew!! Take that Merca!!

02.09.15

Had District Meeting today. We talked about The Aggregation of Marginal Gains Concept again. Where if you had 1% improvements all over the place, the summation that from equals a greatly improved missionary. For teaching purposes, we went through 13 areas of my day--so Elder Burtons day--and figured out something I could do 1% better in every instance. We then added that together, so yeah, 13%. I could be a 13% better missionary in very simple ways. Is that not important? 

And, to prove the point, we applied it to President Uchtdorf's talk about "A matter of a few degrees." Here is a quote from that:

"In 1979 a large passenger jet with 257 people on board left New Zealand for a sightseeing flight to Antarctica and back. Unknown to the pilots, however, someone had modified the flight coordinates by a mere two degrees. This error placed the aircraft 28 miles (45 km) to the east of where the pilots assumed they were. As they approached Antarctica, the pilots descended to a lower altitude to give the passengers a better look at the landscape. Although both were experienced pilots, neither had made this particular flight before, and they had no way of knowing that the incorrect coordinates had placed them directly in the path of Mount Erebus, an active volcano that rises from the frozen landscape to a height of more than 12,000 feet (3,700 m).

As the pilots flew onward, the white of the snow and ice covering the volcano blended with the white of the clouds above, making it appear as though they were flying over flat ground. By the time the instruments sounded the warning that the ground was rising fast toward them, it was too late. The airplane crashed into the side of the volcano, killing everyone on board."

So, how much is 13% really? We calculated. 13 percent of 360 degrees is 46.8 degrees. If you take off from Los Angeles, or San Fransisco, heading west, we figured that that was about the difference between China, and New Zealand. 

Not that that would make a difference. 

3.09.15

So...nothing happened today. Except 3 fallen out appointments. So, haha, that's 6 this week. Every appointment we had scheduled. It's Thursday. Only 1 more appointment this week. A kiss for luck. 💋

04.09.15

Well the appointment worked out. But she has no further interest. Just wanted an interesting story to tell her book club. Frustrating. But the fact that we actually met in the Community Building for her church "Free-Evangelical" was kind of fun. Whatever. 

Other then that...yeah. Pretty nasty weather. 

05.09.15

Ha...aha...well, when you have no appointments, you spend a lot of time finding. In Lauenburg. And when you spend a lot of time finding in Lauenburg, you don't find a lot of people, because there are not a lot of people. But you also get way skinny and fit, because you walk a lot. 💪

Yeah. We got rained on a lot today. But!! We got some gorgeous pictures. I send you pictures. 

Because I'm bored and studying old Ensigns:

When comet fragments, meteorites, of thought,

On their way from somewhere to somewhere,

Orbit my mind, striking a denser atmosphere

Of awareness, I may either stand in awe

Or bask in the warm momentary glow.

The ever-continuing creative process

Makes me feel very small and humble,

Yet grateful for having been present,

With a mind to be orbited

By comet fragments, meteorites of thought,

On their way from somewhere to somewhere.

Paul Armstrong, May 1971 Ensign

06.09.15

Ate with Family Roggow today. He is the high councilman for self-reliance in the stake Hamburg. Really really cool guy. Then we went and had another a joint Teach with Miroslav from Berlin and Stanoje and his family. It was awesome. Super spiritual as we explained everything about baptism, knowing that they understood everything we said. yeah, they are amazing. When we asked if they wanted to begin a renewed life in Christ he is like "ja, selbstverständlich." Which translates literally as that it so easy to understand, that it doesn't even require questioning. Yeah they are amazing. 

Viele Grüße,

Elder Burton