had that mission conference. It was awesome! The two general
authorities that spake were Elder David Evans and Elder Stephen Allen.
They did a fantastic job of presenting something that could've been
quite boring. They covered all the boring stuff about how new iPad
training is going to go and all the technical information, but it was
interwoven with what was more or less a fantastic seminar on the
Doctrine of Christ. It was probably the most beautiful call to
repentance I've ever heard. It wasn't really a "you really need to fix
this" call to repentance, it was an "onward and upward, change for the
better" call to repentance. Isn't the Doctrine of Christ amazing? We
can just keep changing--keep repenting--and reach higher and higher,
get pulled out of every slump, be made stronger through trials, be
made better than our imperfections. It's quite a process--a lifelong
and then some one--but it is SO worth it.
Moving on though, the next day we had those two baptisms and
interviews with President Morgan more or less all at once. The
baptisms were great. Basically everyone was crying during he first
one. Sweet T*, who attended G*'s baptism before her own, was
going around the room handing out tissues. G* spoke afterwards and
gave a brief rundown of the crazy things she's been through as God
prepared her to accept the gospel. Five different sister missionaries
that have worked with her over the last two years Skyped in to the
baptism. At T*'s baptism, T* also spoke after the ordinance. I
don't know if I ever mentioned this, but T* is originally from
Texas and has a pretty distinct accent. We learned at the baptism that
when she get's emotional, her accent thickens to it's full glory.
Haha! It was great. She said some memorable things: "I just wanna yell
it out to y'all: I'm a Mormon!" "I asked all the missionaries to
come, so if you feel likes your surrounded, so do I and I love it!" "
During the week, we tracted a trailer park! Found some interesting
people there. There was a man who looked like Santa Claus who we gave
a Book of Mormon. He set up a return appointment with us, but didn't
want us to come back until next month. So we will be back in one
month, without fail! We also met an old lady who told us she was a
witch. According to her, Jesus is a witch too, but the bible is false.
I've realized that I am becoming way to comfortable around crazy weird
people. They're all over the place here, so it's become normal, but at
the beginning of my mission things were so different. I once marveled
every time I saw a crazy guy in the street, I was once fascinated by
people's weird unique lifestyles. Now I meet a witch and I don't even
realize it's an unusual occurrence until I'm trying to think of things
to write in my weekly email! New York is changing my entire psyche!
The winter weather continues. It just keeps coming! I'm ready for some
spring now.
We've now given most of our investigators to the sisters. The
K* can only meet once a week on Sunday evening and the snow
kept us from being able to make it this week, so no news there. We've
been out tracting and looking up former investigators. So far, other
than Santa Clause and a semi-interested agnostic couple we met in the
same trailer park, we haven't had any luck. Next week we have Zone
Conference. We're getting our new iPads then. Exciting!
Until next week...
-Elder Samuel Burton
Pictures:
Me chillin at the laundromat. Our new home.
A
picture of G* with a Elder Allred and Elder Wagner (who are our roommates by the way). I'll get some pictures from T*'s baptism from the other elders and send them next week.
(Elder Allred is the one in white)
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