Letter Home- December 16th, 2013

Sorry to hear that you aren't feeling well. Hopefully you get over it in the next few days!

Elder Lonas is going home on Wednesday. It's so sad! He and I have become really good friends. It's been hard preparing for his farewell. I think this is gonna be a sad transfer meeting. 

So, Lonas and I had an incredible miracle this past week. We have been working with this investigator named ***** since I came into the area. She has been reading the Book of Mormon and is in 2 Nephi now and has gone to church every week I've been here. She's even gone to 2 or 3 baptisms, but she just wouldn't commit to being baptized herself. Well, we stopped by Wednesday morning to read some of the Book of Mormon with her and we asked her if she had been praying about the Book of Mormon and about baptism. She really shocked us with her answer: "No. I guess I forgot all about that!" After a bit of chastising on our part we committed her to pray about baptism for that weekend. She said that she had some other issues on to deal with (family problems), but that she would try, but not commit. We left a little disappointed, but came back the next day to check up on her. She invited us inside and said "I've cleared up my schedule so I can be baptized. Is this Saturday ok with you?" DUH. We were so freaking excited! Well, of course Satan got to working right then. We found out that the water heater at the church had broke a few days prior so the water was FREEZING. We spent all day Saturday boiling water and filling the font pot by pot. In the end the water was still cold, but not nearly as bad as it could have been. Oh man, I just love miracles :)

Oh, and last night we got a call from a PMF saying that their 9 year old son wants to be baptized in a few weeks. Ha! We'll start teaching him tomorrow.

Can't wait to talk to you next week. Love you!

Love,

Elder Burton

Letter Home- December 2nd, 2013

Whoa, it is not 3 weeks until Christmas. That's just not possible! 

Do you mind sending me the addresses of all of your Sisters? I need to send them Christmas cards. Don't worry, yours in on the way :)

So we had a really weird experience this past week. Last Tuesday the Sisters gave us a call letting us know that a family was at the hospital and was requesting a priesthood blessing. It was a life or death situation so we drove over as fast as we could, but it was too late. We walked into the room and met two grieving parents over the loss of their 8 year old son. He went into cardiac arrest and had passed 30 minutes before we arrived. I've never felt so helpless or questioned why bad things happen to good people so much in my life. The worst part was the boy was just laying there on the table and we didn't know what to say. After a little while we were able to give the father a blessing and assist him in giving a blessing to his wife. That was the most powerful experience I have ever been a part of. I've never truly felt how much our Father in Heaven loves his children until that moment. The Spirit was so strong. I'll never be able to forget that experience. 

Other than that, this week was pretty typical. Oh wait, I just lied. We actually had a baptism on Saturday! ***** (from Yugoslavia) was baptized Saturday morning and confirmed Sunday morning. Missionaries have been working with her on and off for about 12 years, but Elder Lonas and I were here when she was ready to be baptized. It was great! She even got up and bore her testimony yesterday. Gotta love the way the gospel changes lives.

I guess I'll be talking to you in 3 weeks! Love ya and I'll talk to you soon :)

Love,

Elder Burton