The Bigger Apple

So the call came, and this is the word: I'm in Manhattan again! But
this time I'm going bigger. The little city areas I was in before
can't contain me! I must take the whole island! I've been put in the
Manhattan MSA (Mid Single Adults) Branch. It's a branch created just
for the members in Manhattan who are thirty to fifty and single. The
branch's boundaries cover the whole stake, which is the entire island
of Manhattan. So I'll be working everywhere from Inwood Hill to Harlem
to Batter Park City! I'll really get to see NYC now!

My new companion is Elder Brayden Richards. He's from Pleasant Grove,
Utah. He seems like a pretty chill guy so far. I think we'll work well
together. I don't know very much about him yet though.

I only got seven weeks in New Paltz, but I still feel like I made a
difference there. We didn't baptize anyone. The only person we really
got close now lives in North Carolina. We did reactivate one
ten-year-old boy named C*. He came for his third week in a row last
Sunday, and he previously hadn't been to church in almost a year.
Besides that, I think I was able to help strengthen the active members
there significantly too. It's like 1st Corinthians chapter 3: "[some]
have planted, [others] watered; but God gave the increase. So then
neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but
God that giveth the increase ... For we are labourers together with
God: ye are God’s husbandry, ye are God’s building ... I have laid the
foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed
how he buildeth thereupon. For other foundation can no man lay than
that is laid, which is Jesus Christ." The work I did for seven weeks
was just a small part of a much grander work that lasts for eternity.
God runs this show, not me or anyone else!

So now on to other parts of the vineyard! I'm living in the same
apartment as before on 54th Street. The branch meets in the same
building too, on 66th Street--the building that is shared with the
temple. I have the same crackhead landlord but I'm hoping the mice are
gone now. I'm looking forward to hopefully finishing my mission here
in the heart of the world's greatest city!

-Elder Samuel Burton
Photos:
1. Elder Hansen, L*, and me
2. Me by a waterfall we drove by every week and that I always wanted
to stop and take a picture at. Finally did.
3. The whole Poughkeepsie Zone. It's a pretty small zone.