Hi,
Well, it looks like I'm gonna be in Den Bosch for a long while. No transfers for either of us.
But anyway, on a better note, I finished the Book of Mormon for the first time on my mission! I think that's my seventh time overall. I' m going to try to read it once a transfer and so by the end of my mission I will have read it sixteen times.
Pictures (photos) mean the world to me. Send more!
Friday, March 28, 2008
March 5, 2008 Letter
Hey! How's everything going?
Last week I got to go on exchanges with the zone leaders, so I went and stayed two nights and one day in Northern Rotterdam with Elder Thomas, who is one of our zone leaders. It was so nice to get away from my companion. And we actually ate something besides sandwiches for every meal. It was so much better. I liked it alot and I talked to some really cool people on the street. It was fun.
The other day we tracted into a lady that had investigated the Church in 2001 but then stopped, but has been paying her tithing to our Church ever since. She has been paying money to a church she doesn't attend or belong to for seven years! And she let us in and we talked for a while and she fed us and it was really cool.
Then we also had zone conference last week. It was really good and I got to see some other the other guys from my MTC group. It was fun and we had good food and had training from the Mission President, the APs, and both of the zone leader companionships (we combined with Apeldorn zone.) It was good.
I have sucessfully cleaned most of our apartment. I cleaned the refrigerators, stove top, sink, dishes, table, and bathroom. It was so disgusting. It took me 2 hours just to clean the stove top!
(Sean's mom is loving this!!!) And there was food in the refrigerators that had been here longer than my companion (at least 4 months). There were apples and pears that wre already completely fermented. I could smell the alcohol in them. It was disgusting. But now it's alot cleaner.
Our ward has about 80 members that are active. They are all really nice and we eat at members houses alot. They are a great ward and have alot of RMs. ANd one even served in our Sandy ward, Elder Dave Stomps. It's cool to talk about my home area with him and look at his mission picture to see my home area.
I've realy learned alot. I've learned how to keep up with cleaning and to just DO it. I've learn how to be patient and tolerant. And I've learned how to be cooperative. That's the biggest thing. I've learned how to work with someone effectively that is difficult. I've learned to seek the good and try to look past the bad. I still don't like my companion and we are just very different people, but I've learned how to make the work easy even if I'm about to explode at him. It's difficult, but I'm getting really good at it. I've learned how much my family really means to me. Before I really didn't know how much I loved my family and how much they mean to me. I've realized how blessed I am to have grown up when I did and especially where I did. America is truly the 'promised land' and Ut is definitely 'the place'. I appreciate all that I have so much more now that I see what it's like in other places. I'm truly blessed.
So far we have biked just over 300 miles according to my bike computer! Everyone here bikes. It is the main mode of transportation. It's very expensive to get a driver's license and gas is about $10.00 a gallon. Is it safe? Not really, but no one get hurt badly if they get hit by a car because the cars aren't going very fast in the places where people could get hit. The problem is that cars are supposed to yield to bikes, but sometimes they don't. But missionaries don't get hit very often and it's never resulted in anything more than a bruise or scrape.
The summer Olympics are coming up...will you record the water polo matches and save it for me? And keep me updated on it too.
It's really cold and rainy here. I'm alway soaking wet and then the wind blows and makes it really cold and gives up a brain freeze and we can't wear hats while contacting. It's Cold!!!
Hey, will you pray for my investigators? I have five that are close to baptism. They can really use as much help as possible.
Bibi--from Algeria, he used to be Muslim/Amanuel--from Erithrea, he has been in alot of African wars, very humble/Yousif--from Iraq/Clark--from the Netherlands/Kenneth--from Nigeria. We are also teaching Henk--from the Netherlands/Mano--from Indonesia/Steven--from Guana/Stella--from Kurisou/Cliff--from Aruba/Antillies/Eddie--from Romania/Chental--from somewhere in Africa/Florence--from Nigeria.
Anyway, that's all for now.
Last week I got to go on exchanges with the zone leaders, so I went and stayed two nights and one day in Northern Rotterdam with Elder Thomas, who is one of our zone leaders. It was so nice to get away from my companion. And we actually ate something besides sandwiches for every meal. It was so much better. I liked it alot and I talked to some really cool people on the street. It was fun.
The other day we tracted into a lady that had investigated the Church in 2001 but then stopped, but has been paying her tithing to our Church ever since. She has been paying money to a church she doesn't attend or belong to for seven years! And she let us in and we talked for a while and she fed us and it was really cool.
Then we also had zone conference last week. It was really good and I got to see some other the other guys from my MTC group. It was fun and we had good food and had training from the Mission President, the APs, and both of the zone leader companionships (we combined with Apeldorn zone.) It was good.
I have sucessfully cleaned most of our apartment. I cleaned the refrigerators, stove top, sink, dishes, table, and bathroom. It was so disgusting. It took me 2 hours just to clean the stove top!
(Sean's mom is loving this!!!) And there was food in the refrigerators that had been here longer than my companion (at least 4 months). There were apples and pears that wre already completely fermented. I could smell the alcohol in them. It was disgusting. But now it's alot cleaner.
Our ward has about 80 members that are active. They are all really nice and we eat at members houses alot. They are a great ward and have alot of RMs. ANd one even served in our Sandy ward, Elder Dave Stomps. It's cool to talk about my home area with him and look at his mission picture to see my home area.
I've realy learned alot. I've learned how to keep up with cleaning and to just DO it. I've learn how to be patient and tolerant. And I've learned how to be cooperative. That's the biggest thing. I've learned how to work with someone effectively that is difficult. I've learned to seek the good and try to look past the bad. I still don't like my companion and we are just very different people, but I've learned how to make the work easy even if I'm about to explode at him. It's difficult, but I'm getting really good at it. I've learned how much my family really means to me. Before I really didn't know how much I loved my family and how much they mean to me. I've realized how blessed I am to have grown up when I did and especially where I did. America is truly the 'promised land' and Ut is definitely 'the place'. I appreciate all that I have so much more now that I see what it's like in other places. I'm truly blessed.
So far we have biked just over 300 miles according to my bike computer! Everyone here bikes. It is the main mode of transportation. It's very expensive to get a driver's license and gas is about $10.00 a gallon. Is it safe? Not really, but no one get hurt badly if they get hit by a car because the cars aren't going very fast in the places where people could get hit. The problem is that cars are supposed to yield to bikes, but sometimes they don't. But missionaries don't get hit very often and it's never resulted in anything more than a bruise or scrape.
The summer Olympics are coming up...will you record the water polo matches and save it for me? And keep me updated on it too.
It's really cold and rainy here. I'm alway soaking wet and then the wind blows and makes it really cold and gives up a brain freeze and we can't wear hats while contacting. It's Cold!!!
Hey, will you pray for my investigators? I have five that are close to baptism. They can really use as much help as possible.
Bibi--from Algeria, he used to be Muslim/Amanuel--from Erithrea, he has been in alot of African wars, very humble/Yousif--from Iraq/Clark--from the Netherlands/Kenneth--from Nigeria. We are also teaching Henk--from the Netherlands/Mano--from Indonesia/Steven--from Guana/Stella--from Kurisou/Cliff--from Aruba/Antillies/Eddie--from Romania/Chental--from somewhere in Africa/Florence--from Nigeria.
Anyway, that's all for now.
Sunday, March 9, 2008
Sean's Letter of February 27, 2008
I'm doing alright. The 17-year old investigator we had told us to never come back. So much for that awesome experience.
It's been raining alot here. Sometimes we gotta stop and dump the water out of our shoes and then continue on. It sucks. I am definitely not going to live in Europe after my mission. I sure love and miss America.
We had Niel L. Anderson from the Presidency of the 70 come and speak to us. Just to our zone and the Den Haad zone. So in total 40 missionaries and I sat on the front row. He was literally one foot away from me the whole time. I shook his hand, he even used me in his talk thingy. It was so cool. He looked me in the eye like twenty times. It was so cool.
But last week we ate dinner at an investigator's house and they fed us raw chicken. It was cooked on one side, but 75% of it was RAW! I was so scared that I was going to get sick from it but I didn't.
But ya. Nothing else really this week. Oh, I gave a talk in church. In Dutch. That was fun!
By-the-way, my friends CAN email me (sean.burton@myldsmail.com) I just have to write them back, I can't email them. But anyway...I haven't received anything yet. No letters or anything.
I went to Sint Jans (Saint John's) church today. It's the oldest and biggest church in the Netherlands. It was pretty cool.
I have traveled to Rotterdam three times, Amsterdam, Goude, Utrecht, three time sto hiel, oss, and den Haag.
So far I've talked to people from the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Denmark, Poland, Ukraine, Romania, Hungary, Iraq, Turkey, Pakistan, Afganistan, India, China, Indonesia, South America and tons of African nations.
It's been raining alot here. Sometimes we gotta stop and dump the water out of our shoes and then continue on. It sucks. I am definitely not going to live in Europe after my mission. I sure love and miss America.
We had Niel L. Anderson from the Presidency of the 70 come and speak to us. Just to our zone and the Den Haad zone. So in total 40 missionaries and I sat on the front row. He was literally one foot away from me the whole time. I shook his hand, he even used me in his talk thingy. It was so cool. He looked me in the eye like twenty times. It was so cool.
But last week we ate dinner at an investigator's house and they fed us raw chicken. It was cooked on one side, but 75% of it was RAW! I was so scared that I was going to get sick from it but I didn't.
But ya. Nothing else really this week. Oh, I gave a talk in church. In Dutch. That was fun!
By-the-way, my friends CAN email me (sean.burton@myldsmail.com) I just have to write them back, I can't email them. But anyway...I haven't received anything yet. No letters or anything.
I went to Sint Jans (Saint John's) church today. It's the oldest and biggest church in the Netherlands. It was pretty cool.
I have traveled to Rotterdam three times, Amsterdam, Goude, Utrecht, three time sto hiel, oss, and den Haag.
So far I've talked to people from the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Denmark, Poland, Ukraine, Romania, Hungary, Iraq, Turkey, Pakistan, Afganistan, India, China, Indonesia, South America and tons of African nations.
Sunday, March 2, 2008
February 22, 2008 letter
Here is what Sean said in his email this week:
"Hey so here is the deal. You guys can all email me but i have to write you a letter back. But you guys CAN email me. So do it. But keep in mind that i cannot receive attachments.But tell everybody else that they can email me. So forward this email. And text people. And tell people. Ok? Good. I wanna hear everything that is goin on back at home. So email me.
But if you want to send me pictures or anything you have to send them to this address:
Elder Sean Burton
Belgium Brussels/Netherlands Mission
Boulevard Brand Whitlock, 87
1200-Brussels
Belgium
And that's all for now. Hope to hear from all of you soon.
Love,
Sean"
And in his letter he said:
"My area has 600,000+ people in it. I live in s'Hertogenbosch right next to the train station. You can look on GoogleEarth.com and see it.
My companion, Elder Jensen, is from Castledale, Utah which is by Price. He has been out for a year.
We don't really cook that much. Mostly we just eat easy stuff (sandwiches). We have two dinner appointments that are every week and then we usually have one to two sometimes three additional appointments. Sometime it's good food. Sometimes it's really disgusting like sourkraut, spek (a type of fatty bacon) and mashed potatoes mixed together. BLAH! I almost died it wa so bad. I was sick the rest of the night. B ut we had African food today and it was amazingly good. I liked it. And I've had Spanish, Dutch, Belgium, French, German, African, and South American food. All sorts. Some good, some not so good. But ya.
The weather is sometimes sunny, but not very often. Mostly it's so humid that it's really foggy and always cloudy. And it's cold. And always windy.
We ride our bikes alot. All over the place. We have already ridden 125+ miles. And it's not too bad. My upper legs were already in shape. And we always lock them up. Everybody rides kies here and they get stolen alot. But it's crazy. Bikes have the right-of-way. I've almost been hit by cars and buses all the time. Yesterday we saw a kid on a bike get hit by a car. It's nuts!! But it's pretty fun.
I don't have a branch (when there are not enough Church members to make a ward), it's a ward. There are about 60 members taht are active. They're all pretty nice. Sundays are regular days except for three hours of church.
We tract/contact for 15 or more hours a week. We have a few good investigators. But not really. We tracted into a couple of good ones that seem promising. One that is my favorite:
We were tracting in a place about a 30 minute bike ride from our house. We made an appointment with them for the next week. Then we went to the appointment and started to tech the lady, her son came in and sat down and then he really started to get into the lesson and was way interested and wash asking questions and we hade to make our next appointment so that he would be home because he he wanted to be there. It was awesome! Oh, and he's only 17!! It was way awesome!
I've beento Rotterdam and Den Haag already and I'm going to Amsterdam on Saturday. I haven't been to/seen the temple yet (in The Hague). But I saw a floating red light district. Pretty much the complete opposite. This place has so much sin. It's ridiculous. They have these places called "coffee shops" that are really just hooka lounges whre people go to smoke weed. People start smoking at age 10 here and pretty much everyone smokes. And alot of them smoke weed.
People are so rude to us. I get yelled at all the time. People avoid us, ignore us. People just hate us. And alot of them hate "butenlanders" which means foreigners.
Oh, and I've got another story for you. We contacted this kid on the street and then went to his house a few days later and we were talking to him and he was the only one home. And he started talking about Muslim beliefs and terrorism and shooting people in the back and all sorts of crazy stuff and his TV was on some Turkish terrorist news station that was showing dead bodies. It was nuts, and then his mom came home and we found out that his family was hardcore Muslim with the headwraps and everything. And we aren't supposed to talk to them at all, and the mom freaked out and was yelling at hime in Turkish and then she swore at us in Turkish. I was just waiting for her to pull an AK-47 out of her turban headdress thing. We left a Book of Mormon and got out of there. It was nuts.
Oh, and I don't know if I told you about our street preacher in Den Bosch. He's just a regular guy but goes in the Centrum at night and preaches and yells repentance. It's awesome. And he gives up referrals too. He's not a member, but he believes the Book of Mormon. He stands in the Centrum and yells and his voice booms and echoes throughout the Centrum. It's cool."
"Hey so here is the deal. You guys can all email me but i have to write you a letter back. But you guys CAN email me. So do it. But keep in mind that i cannot receive attachments.But tell everybody else that they can email me. So forward this email. And text people. And tell people. Ok? Good. I wanna hear everything that is goin on back at home. So email me.
But if you want to send me pictures or anything you have to send them to this address:
Elder Sean Burton
Belgium Brussels/Netherlands Mission
Boulevard Brand Whitlock, 87
1200-Brussels
Belgium
And that's all for now. Hope to hear from all of you soon.
Love,
Sean"
And in his letter he said:
"My area has 600,000+ people in it. I live in s'Hertogenbosch right next to the train station. You can look on GoogleEarth.com and see it.
My companion, Elder Jensen, is from Castledale, Utah which is by Price. He has been out for a year.
We don't really cook that much. Mostly we just eat easy stuff (sandwiches). We have two dinner appointments that are every week and then we usually have one to two sometimes three additional appointments. Sometime it's good food. Sometimes it's really disgusting like sourkraut, spek (a type of fatty bacon) and mashed potatoes mixed together. BLAH! I almost died it wa so bad. I was sick the rest of the night. B ut we had African food today and it was amazingly good. I liked it. And I've had Spanish, Dutch, Belgium, French, German, African, and South American food. All sorts. Some good, some not so good. But ya.
The weather is sometimes sunny, but not very often. Mostly it's so humid that it's really foggy and always cloudy. And it's cold. And always windy.
We ride our bikes alot. All over the place. We have already ridden 125+ miles. And it's not too bad. My upper legs were already in shape. And we always lock them up. Everybody rides kies here and they get stolen alot. But it's crazy. Bikes have the right-of-way. I've almost been hit by cars and buses all the time. Yesterday we saw a kid on a bike get hit by a car. It's nuts!! But it's pretty fun.
I don't have a branch (when there are not enough Church members to make a ward), it's a ward. There are about 60 members taht are active. They're all pretty nice. Sundays are regular days except for three hours of church.
We tract/contact for 15 or more hours a week. We have a few good investigators. But not really. We tracted into a couple of good ones that seem promising. One that is my favorite:
We were tracting in a place about a 30 minute bike ride from our house. We made an appointment with them for the next week. Then we went to the appointment and started to tech the lady, her son came in and sat down and then he really started to get into the lesson and was way interested and wash asking questions and we hade to make our next appointment so that he would be home because he he wanted to be there. It was awesome! Oh, and he's only 17!! It was way awesome!
I've beento Rotterdam and Den Haag already and I'm going to Amsterdam on Saturday. I haven't been to/seen the temple yet (in The Hague). But I saw a floating red light district. Pretty much the complete opposite. This place has so much sin. It's ridiculous. They have these places called "coffee shops" that are really just hooka lounges whre people go to smoke weed. People start smoking at age 10 here and pretty much everyone smokes. And alot of them smoke weed.
People are so rude to us. I get yelled at all the time. People avoid us, ignore us. People just hate us. And alot of them hate "butenlanders" which means foreigners.
Oh, and I've got another story for you. We contacted this kid on the street and then went to his house a few days later and we were talking to him and he was the only one home. And he started talking about Muslim beliefs and terrorism and shooting people in the back and all sorts of crazy stuff and his TV was on some Turkish terrorist news station that was showing dead bodies. It was nuts, and then his mom came home and we found out that his family was hardcore Muslim with the headwraps and everything. And we aren't supposed to talk to them at all, and the mom freaked out and was yelling at hime in Turkish and then she swore at us in Turkish. I was just waiting for her to pull an AK-47 out of her turban headdress thing. We left a Book of Mormon and got out of there. It was nuts.
Oh, and I don't know if I told you about our street preacher in Den Bosch. He's just a regular guy but goes in the Centrum at night and preaches and yells repentance. It's awesome. And he gives up referrals too. He's not a member, but he believes the Book of Mormon. He stands in the Centrum and yells and his voice booms and echoes throughout the Centrum. It's cool."
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