Errand Boy

Hey Everyone!

To add some more craziness to the flurry of transfers over the last
little while, yet another transfer is happening! This time I'm leaving
Manhattan. I've been released as a district leader and I am now
assigned to be an Office Elder! So basically I get to spend Christmas
running everyone's Christmas packages around the mission instead of
proselyting. I'll be spending a lot of time back in Scarsdale again,
where the mission office is, but I will actually be living in the
adjacent city of New Rochelle. My official proselyting area will
include New Rochelle, Pelham, Mount Vernon, Mamaroneck, Portchester,
and Rye. So basically all along the Long Island Sound between NYC and
Connecticut, but I'm not sure how much time I'll actually be spending
there. From what I understand, office missionaries here only get about
half the amount of proselyting time as normal missionaries. I'm get to
familiarize myself with the entire mission though because I'll be
driving a big old twelve-passenger van all over New York and
Connecticut multiple times a week. Basically, I get to be an errand
boy for the mission for the next little while. Another plus side to
this new area: if anyone sends any letters or packages, I'll get them
as soon as they arrive at the mission office. I won't have to wait for
someone to bring it down to our zone.

I'm sooooo sad to be leaving Elder Nelson! We've talked about being
companions since we were in the same district back in Scarsdale, and
now that it actually happened, it didn't even last three weeks. Plus
I'm leaving three investigators preparing for baptism! AH! Oh well.
I'm now in a trio Elder Casper (I don't know anything about him) and
Elder Beardall (one of my companions in the Bronx).

I got to see A* again on Tuesday to say goodbye. She's awesome!
The same evening, Ray Smith, from Poughkeepsie, came down and took
Elder Nelson and I out to dinner. It was great to see him again. He
knew both of us from our separate time spent in that zone. He has a
super nice apartment on the upper east side. It was good just sit and
chat over dinner with him and Elder Nelson. He's a great guy!

I didn't get to email yesterday because transfer day is our busiest as
office elders. So we have p-day on Thursday on transfer week. We spent
all day driving people between transfer meetings, hauling luggage,
taking the returning missionaries to different places to spend the
night (there were too many to fit in the mission home). We didn't get
home last night until 10:30! This will be very different from normal
missionary work. We only got about 5 hours of sleep and then had to
wake up to take the returning missionaries to the airport.

I've only been doing this for a day and it feels so strange! It's so
different from normal missionary work. It will be quite an adjustment.
Suddenly Elder Thomas Hafen's emails make so much more sense to me!
Haha. Not quite as much stress, I'm sure. But what I've been doing for
the last 24 hours sounds pretty similar.

I love you all so much! Thanks for the prayers and support!

-Elder Samuel Burton

Pictures:
1. Kevin and me (I may have already sent this one...)
2. Alexandra and me