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