Something's changed...

Does anyone remember me mentioning my buddy from the Bronx, Elder
Parker Nelson? He started his mission the transfer before I did in
Manhattan. He was sent up to Yonkers, which was in my same district
when I was in Scarsdale. It was there that I first met him and also
where it was first prophesied that we would be companions. Then
eventually he ended up in Inwood (northern tip of Manhattan), where he
was held hostage by a drug-crazed less active member for five hours
and then emergency transferred to the Bronx, where we were put in the
same district again. Again it was prophesied that we would be
companions, and firmly established that we would be friends for life.
Now the prophecy is fulfilled!!!

Last Thursday, President Smith told both Elder Zeng and I to both pack
our bags. He said one of us was going to be transferred but he wasn't
sure who. That Saturday, he told me to spend a few hours with the Zone
Leaders and Elder Zeng took off with the Assistants. Both of us were
still unsure what our situation would be like by that afternoon. The
Zone Leaders, myself, and a few other missionaries were doing some
caroling and talking to people on the street. Then my phone rang. It
was Elder Zeng! He told me that he was presently driving up to
Poughkeepsie with Elder Rivera, his new companion. This made me SOOOO
excited!!! To understand why, you'll have to reminisce back to a
detail of an email I sent from the Bronx months ago, when I mentioned
that my buddy Elder Nelson was sent up to Poughkeepsie. I was well
aware he was still in Poughkeepsie and that his companion there had
most recently bee Elder Rivera. So less than an hour later Elder
Nelson showed up in Manhattan to be my new companion!!! We always said
this would happen one day and no one believed us, but now it has!!!

Elder Zeng will be very happy in Poughkeepsie I'm sure. He's going to
an awesome ward there and Elder Rivera is a great guy.

So I'll give you a little bio of my new companion. He was born and
raised around Phoenix, Arizona, most recently in Peoria, Arizona. He
has two brothers, one of which just came home from his mission last
Friday due to some terrible sickness he contracted in Honduras. He's a
big soccer player and reader. He's also one of my favorite people on
the planet!

So that craziness occupied much of my time and attention over the last
week. Luckily, I was still able to go to E*'s baptism on Saturday
and it was awesome. His whole family came and one of his best friends.
The YSA missionaries will now be teaching his friend, and the sisters
I'll be teaching his family, except one sister who is deaf, so the ASL
missionaries will teach her. So it was a successful baptism AND
finding activity.

All else is going well. Thanks for the prayers and support.

Elder Samuel Burton

Pictures:
1. E* and myself right before his baptism. The classy man wore a white suit!
2. Elder Zeng and I right before he left with the APs
3. Elder Nelson and I on the subway.