A letter sent to Mom- February 18,2013

The following letter was sent to my mom about my brother. The letter is from a sister in their ward:

Your son is amazing! We have him come over for dinner. He is  so sweet. We are so blessed to have gotten to know him.  He gave my husband a blessing and my husband was so touched by it. My husband was just baptized in October. He brought over his Valentine's food you sent him so we could fix it for him and his companion. What a sweetheart. We love him so much!  Please let me know if we can do anything for him. We have them over for dinner a lot. Do you have a favorite dinner recipe I could make him and surprise him with? Thank you for your wonderful son. Take care.

Hello from Tacoma!

Letter Home- February 4, 2013

This week definitely has been a busy week – but, like you say, busy is good! Tuesday was transfer day. Elder Larson and I had the great opportunity of driving down to the airport and picking up the brand new missionaries. We are projected to raise our number of missionaries from 180 to 250 in the next few months. Isn't that so exciting! I couldn't believe that just 4 months ago I was in their shoes meeting President Weaver for the first time and feeling completely overwhelmed. We drove them all to the 12th and Pearl building here in Tacoma (our building) and proceeded to prepare for transfer meeting. Man, that was such a crazy day. I saw a lot of good friends go home and it was amazing to see how the past two years had impacted their lives. So many of them noted how they wished they were in the new missionaries' shoes: starting this whole journey all over again... I'm not sure if I'm at that point in my mission yet, but I hope one day I will get there. 

We spent a lot of time working in the office this week and getting everything situated from transfers. We had to update the transfer board, work on a few excel files, update imos..... just a lof of time consuming projects that have to get done right away. Also, every Sunday night we record the key indicators for the mission from all the districts and send out the facts. FUN STUFF! Really, I actually enjoy doing all that work :)

Wow, so Japanese grandma and uncle are coming down to visit this week. Ha, I didn't realize that this was the week that they were planning on visiting! WHERE HAS THE TIME GONE? Well, have fun without me.... Lol, JK. I really wish that I could be there to see them. I really wish that I could just hop on a plane and visit for the weekend, but it's just not possible. So, be sure to take a lot of pics and maybe even some videos! Eat enough Salt Lick and Hula-Hut for me. Mmmm, that's one thing I haven't had in so long... BBQ. People up here hear that I'm from Texas and make pulled pork sandwich’s for me thinking that it reminds me of home, but that just doesn't compare to some good ribs and brisket. I sure did not realize that BBQ meant something different depending on where you live.

I bought a gym membership this week! Don't worry, the Y gives discounts to missionaries ($20 a month). So I'll be going there a few times a week trying to get back in shape. Everyone keeps feeding us junk food and sweets, which I really appreciate, but sometimes all I really crave is for someone to give me a carrot.... mmmm.

Alright, well Elder Larson and I have another busy week ahead of us knocking on doors and spreading the only true and perfect gospel of Jesus Christ in Tacoma. This past week we found a few people that are interested in learning more about the gospel and hopefully we will be able to put them on date soon. I love you and I'll talk to you soon :)

-Elder Burton

Letter Home- January 7, 2013

This past week has been insane. The weather has been absolutely amazing the past few days and we have been working our butts off. As a mission, we made a goal to find more new than ever before this week (somewhere around 350) and as we did numbers last night we found that we just missed our goal (345 or so). However, so many places were seeing incredible miracles and finding more new than the previous weeks. Between the four of us, we found 18 new (10 of which Elder Larson and I found) so that was way exciting!

Just this past Saturday we had a cool experience that I want to share with you. The day hadn't been going to plan at all.... Nobody was answering their doors, people just weren't home, and nobody would answer the phones. It was pretty tough so I decided that we should go to Subway and eat a quick lunch. Well, we walked in and before I could even pay for my sandwhich the two girls working the counter started asking questions about what we do as missionaries. As I was talking to them Elder Larson had a customer come up to him and start asking questions about the church. Later on it dawned on me that I had been keeping a prayer in my heart the entire day asking for guidance and direction as we tried getting ahold of investigators. PRAYER WORKS.

Today we are planning on going to the mall :) Elder Watts and Elder Gray got permission to come down from Gig Harbor today so we are going to hang out with them! I wish you could be here to meet all the great missionaries. I know these guys are gonna be friends for life. Man, going on a mission was definitely the best decision I've made so far :)

Love you and I'll talk to you soon! 

-Elder Burton

Pictures from Bremerton, Washington

Elder Burton with a very large snake.

Scary!

A beautiful view.

The Bremerton Apartment

Missionaries on down time

The closest thing Elder Burton can find to Chipotle!

Naval Base

Halloween Cookies

Called to Transfer- December 17th, 2012

We got transfer calls this past Saturday! So, I'm no longer serving in Port Orchard. I'm now an Office Elder in Tacoma and I'm training! How crazy is that?! I'm pretty nervous about this transfer, but I'm sure some amazing miracles are going to happen within the next few weeks. It was really hard leaving the Orchard Heights area though. I've really grown attached to the missionaries I was serving with. We definitely had the best district in the whole mission! Our last night together was extremely bitter-sweet for all of us. Speaking of bitter-sweet, transfer day was incredibly emotional. A lot of really good friends gave their final testimonies and the Spirit was incredibly strong. Everyone was crying by the end and singing "God Be With You Till We Meet Again" was impossible. I hope I never have to go through a transfer meeting like that again!

So, my new companion's name is Elder Larson. He's from Arizona and really seems like a good missionary already! I think he came pre-trained :) Anyway, I can already tell he's going to be a great companion and I'm definitely going to learn a lot from him.

I love you so much and I'll talk to you really soon :)

-Elder Burton

Elder Burton with the other trainers at a Christmas party.

Letter Home- December 10, 2012

This week was absolutely incredible. This past Saturday was especially good because I had 4 people that I've been working with get baptized! In the morning A___ and R___ D_____ (9 year old twins) got baptized. I was able to baptize A___ which was really cool. I was talking to R___ right after his baptism and he said something that really stuck with me. He said "I didn't know I would feel this happy after being baptized." How awesome is that?! It's so amazing to see how little children can even tell how the gospel can change lives and really help improve the lives of anyone willing to come unto Christ. Their less active mother and brother were able to make it and really loved the service. Their non-member dad even made it! Then, on Sunday, they were confirmed members at church (the first time they had been to church in quite a while). They all had a great time at church and I'm sure we'll be seeing them much more. That night Elder Bell and I traveled over to Bremerton so I could see C____ and S_______'s baptism. They were two investigators I worked with last transfer. They have each had to overcome so many challenges in their lives, but since hearing the sweet message of the gospel they have made so much progress. I have never seen them as happy as they were on the day of their baptism. I love the influence I am able to be a part of as we teach people about our Savior!

Other than that, the week was pretty slow. We are still giving it our all, but with the winter drawing in everyone seems to be shutting us out. I think the lack of sun really affects people in Washington.

Oh, so you wanted to know some of my favorite scriptures: D&C 35:13-14 is definitely my favorite

Anyway, I love you and hope you have a great week.

Love you and I'll talk to you soon :)

-Elder Burton