Our investigator's leaving and so am I.

We had another awesome week in the middle of nowhere! This week we
actually got to leave the small town of New Paltz to visit a less
active member who lives in an even smaller town called Accord. Our
ward mission leader asked us to go visit him. He doesn't actually live
in Accord either. He lived a good several miles out of town in the
forest. We knew we were getting to the boonies when the asphalt
highway just ended and we were on dirt for a few miles. We found the
tiny little cabin in the woods and were greeted warmly by an extremely
tall, extremely skinny old man with hands big enough to juice a
watermelon (or a human head...). He was a super funny guy. We had a
great conversation with him, but couldn't convince him to come to
church. He says it's just to hard now that he's old and it's such a
far drive. Oh well. I think we left a good impression on him at least.

I have more exciting news though! L* has committed to be baptized on
June 11th! ...and tomorrow he goes back to North Carolina. Dang. The
Elders down there better take good care of him! Yesterday, when we
were visiting him, Sister M*, his grandmother, recounted for us
just how miraculous this all was. She had only met L* once before
over a decade ago, and only got to see him for a half hour. Then with
an unplanned trip to the South and the hand of God orchestrating all
things, she meets him again and everything falls into place for him to
leave work to spend a few weeks getting to know his a grandma and to
be introduced to the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.  It's just
another testament that we can do nothing of ourselves. God is making
this work happen! Getting to be a part of it is a privilege.

Transfers are next Tuesday!!! We get shock calls this Saturday.
Yesterday, President Smith was talking with a Elder Hansen and I.
Before we left, he said a prayer. In his prayer, he said, "please
bless Elder Burton with this upcoming transfer, as he will be moved to
a new area." So I guess I'm being transferred! I have no idea where
though. Also, that means that, unless they whitewash our area, poor
Elder Hansen is facing a total of nine and a half months in New Paltz!
I've only been here for one cycle, though it was a seven week cycle
instead of the usual six. I wish I could have more time to really make
a difference in this branch, but at the same time, the trees are just
starting to bloom and allergies are on the brink of becoming
unmanageable. Once the maples bloom I'd be done for! So I'm kind of
hoping I end up in the city. That would be a nice end to my mission
too. But if I'm somewhere else, I just hope it's near the coast so the
sea breeze might help a little with the hayfever.

-Elder Samuel Burton

Pictures
1. A really big, really old house owned by the Precour Family in our
branch. It was built in the 1800s.
2. Me painting a bedroom inside the really big, really old house.
(Thanks for teaching me how to do it right, Mom)
3. Quaid Olsen, Elder Hansen (who fell down in the dirt a few moments
earlier), me, and Blake Olsen. The Olsens are members in our branch.

Snowstorm?

We had a great week!

Unfortunately it was a thrown off quite a bit when Elder Hansen got
sick. He pretty much just stayed in bed for two days feeling
miserable. He's still kind of recovering, but he's well enough that we
can go out to work for several hours every day. We managed to get
quite a bit done in spite of his illness.

We also got a surprise snowstorm that threw us off a bit. It was
snowing for about a day and a half. We got a good few inches. Now it's
mostly gone though. I guess winter is trying to make up for the
pitiful exhibition it made during its allotted months. Apparently most
places in the mission just got some rain instead.

Conference, of course, was fantastic. A lot of particularly great
talks this time. I didn't realize it at the time, but Elder Arnold of
the seventy gave us a sneaks preview of his when he visited our
mission several months ago. One particular moment that I just loved
though was immediately after Elder Kearon gave his beautiful talk on
Christlike love and service, specifically speaking of helping the
millions of refugees around the world. When President Uchtdorf got up
to conduct and announce he next segment and he was so plainly holding
back tears as he spoke. It took me a half a second of wondering before
the realization hit me that he was once a refugee like those spoken of
in Elder Kearon's talk. That just made the whole preceding talk that
even more powerful! There were so many great ones though! I have a lot
I'm planning to read through later.

We got K* back on track again. He was kind of disappearing for a
while. Now he's back though. We're going to be setting anew baptismal
date with him in Thursday.
We also had a great lesson with L*. He's so awesome! He's so
prepared to hear the gospel. It's going to be great! If things go as I
envision them to, by the time he goes back to North Carolina we'll
have him practically ready to be baptized. I bet he'll serve a mission
some day too!

-Elder Samuel Burton

Pictures:
Snow!

a young man and an old man

This week I got to meet a Texan with a crazy backstory. Our plans fell
through on Easter, so we decided to stop by the M*, a semi-active
family in our branch.

When we got their we met L*, Sister M*'s nineteen-year-old
grandson. He's from Texas, but he's been traveling around the U.S. For
the last nine months or so. Sister M*'s daughter (L*'s aunt) was
in North Carolina, and happened to bump into him, so she stole him
away so he could spend a few weeks with his grandmother who he's only
met once over a decade ago. Crazy how things happened to work out just
right so we could meet him there, but crazier is why exactly he only
has met his grandmother once. His father, Sister M*'s son, went
and joined a cult down in Texas called the House of Yahweh. He had
three wives and over twenty children. L*, who falls somewhere in the
middle of that twenty, grew up doing subsistence farming, hunting, and
fishing to survive. He wasn't allowed to go to school or interact with
the outside world until his dad was arrested and sentenced to thirty
years in prison (apparently one of his wives was a minor). So L*
first went to school in the sixth grade, bounced around in foster
homes until he was eighteen, and has been on his own since. He is
currently working for a friend's contracting company in North
Carolina. We got to have a good conversation with him. He's so
surprisingly normal considering what he's been through. He seems like
just a good, down-to-earth kid. We're going to teach him for the next
few weeks until he goes back to North Carolina, then we're going to
get him in touch with the Elders down there.

Also, I got to meet J* K*. He's an old local here who's been
investigating the church for years. He loves it. He tells us all a
bout how much he loves the people and the story of Joseph Smith. He
believes it all too, but he feels like he needs some kind of
miraculous manifestation from God telling him he's supposed to be
baptized into the church before he'll commit to it. He owns a mechanic
shop and is still working though he's well past retirement age.  He
specializes in antique cars, particularly Volvos. Elders haven't met
with him in a while, so we're going to give it another go now.

We got a less active ten year old to come back to church for the first
time in forever. His mother and sister go most weeks, but he hasn't
been in over eight months. Apparently he doesn't feel like he has any
friends in the church and he's also had some negative influences about
the church from his father.  When we were at their house in Saturday I
told him he ought to come to church the next day. He just kinda
shrugged his shoulders, but then he came!

So that covers the most exciting activities this week. It's been a
good one. I'm looking forward to conference this weekend. Until next
time...

-Elder Samuel Burton


Photos:
1-2. The Walkway over the Hudson (last week's p-day activity)
3-4. Me in Jack's antique Volvo as he tells me about it.

Backwoods

This week we got to do some service for someone the Sisters contacted
after they referred themselves online. We had to drive almost an hour
to get there. It was a little mobile home out in the backwoods--no
neighbors for miles, in the middle of thick forest, and it was
trashed! I thought for sure it was abandoned when I first saw it, but
the sisters assured me it was the right place. An ancient woman lived
inside with her son who looked just as old. They spoke with a really
weird accent, but they said they said they are born and raised New
Yorkers, so maybe it's just a backwoods people dialect. With the
setting, the characters, and the strong stench of urine in the air, I
felt like we were surely about to be murdered, cut into pieces, and
buried in various locations around the county. We survived the
experience, but even though the strange backwoods people didn't get
us, the cancer surely will several years from now. We tore up their
destroyed linoleum flooring and the air was quickly filled with dust
and mold. We were coughing and sneezing as we tried in vain to clean
up the bare floor and lay down the new carpet. My snot was black! So
that's the story of how allergy season officially began for Elder
Burton and possibly the story of how I got cancer. Time will tell.
(Just kidding, I'm sure I'm fine!) It was rather unpleasant, but at
the same time it makes for a half-decent story and a funny memory.

We've had a great week. We have officially started teaching a less
active member named M*. He seems like a really cool guy. He just
seems to never have quite had a solid foundation in the gospel. We
invited him to take the missionary lessons over again and he was
pretty excited to do so. We'll be seeing him again tonight. K* is
starting to grow lazy on us. We're going to have to have a good, bold
lesson with him soon to see if we can get him moving again.

I got to have dinner with a lovely couple in our branch named the
Coopers. It was one of the most pleasant dinner appointments I've had
in a while. I feel like Brother Cooper is someone I could talk to for
hours on end! Their kids are all grown up and unfortunately most of
them are not in the church because the whole family was completely
inactive for twenty years or so. Now they are some of the strongest
members we have. Brother Cooper is in the Branch Presidency. I'm just
adding to the list of people I want to keep in contact with after my
mission. The list is getting really long though... Maybe I'll just
stay in New York instead of coming back to Utah. (Just kidding, Mom.
See you in July.)

We also got to give a blessing to C*, the man I mentioned last
week. He's been having some health troubles, but he's still so eager
to learn about the gospel. He was very grateful for the blessing and
kept thanking us. He told us to keep coming over even if he's not
feeling well. We have baptismal date set with him for next month, but
if his health doesn't improve, I don't think we'll be able to get him
to church.

That's all for this week. Thanks for the love and support! (Also,
shout out and congratulations to Sarah Boucher for the upcoming
wedding!)

-Elder Samuel Burton

Photos:
creepy backwoods house
Our chapel
Elder Hansen & me near our chapel

Flashbacks of my second area

We've had another good week of work.  I got to go on a split on
Monday. I was with Elder Brasilero, our Zone Leader, back in the
Poughkeepsie 2nd Ward for a day! It was awesome! I got to see so many
people again! The Ashworths, the Skrilloffs, some random kid who we
tried teaching when I was there but it never really worked out, and
most significantly, R* and D*! If you remember from last
year, R* and D* are converts (mother and daughter) who I
prepared for baptism. D* just about had a heart-attack when she
saw me step out of the car. We caught up briefly, and then cut
straight to my main concerns: they haven't been coming to church.
R* has let her job get in the way and has only been to church a
few times since I left the area. Her son Z* turns eight next
month and we talked about what things she needs to do if he is going
to be baptized (primarily coming to church of course). It was such a
privilege to be back in their home, see them again, and frankly call
them to repentance. It was bold, but not harsh. The spirit was there,
and I know R* felt it. She should have her work schedule arranged
to return to church activity soon.  Z* said he wants me to come
back and baptize him. I'm going to be following up with R* over
Facebook to make sure she goes to church, reads the scriptures with
her family, and has family prayer and FHE. After all, the missionary's
"white handbook" says we share responsibility for our converts even
after we leave our area. It is such an interesting experience to go
back to a convert's house with an extra year's experience in
missionary work and testify to them with a power I feel I lacked when
I was assigned to the Poughkeepsie area. I am confident R* is back
on track. We closed our meeting with a testimony of eternal families,
saying that one day, if she and her family remain faithful in the the
church and it's teaching, they will go to the temple and be sealed for
eternity. As we were leaving, R* took me aside and told me how
grateful she was for coming back and saying what I said. She said she
needs the push.

That experience alone made my week completely fulfilling, but besides
that we have been doing more good work in our own area. I met a quiet
old man named C* on Sunday who we will be teaching now. He loves
with a family of recent converts and just seems like the humblest man
on the planet. He's had some family issues and most of his kids kind
of shun him now, but he interestingly has very strong feelings on the
importance of good family relationships. I'm excited to work with him.
We also had a good lesson with a struggling member, which I think may
have been a help to keeping her active in the church. We've been doing
a lot of yard work type service reminiscent of my days in Burton
Landscaping & Maintenance, but so far hayfever  has not been too big
an issue. Just the usual eye-itching, sneezing, and coughing, but only
in mild forms.

Thanks for your love and support! Until next week...

-Elder Samuel Burton

Pictures!
Our excursion last week up Mohonk Mountain.
1. Mohonk Mountain House
2&3. The ladder portion of the hike.
4. Sister Perkins taking a break halfway up.
5. The tower at the top (you can see this tower from our chapel!)

New Paltz is the cluster of buildings barely visible in the middle.