Sunday, October 19, 2008

October 19, 2008

Friends and family of Elder Burton

Sean has also sent us audio tapes which I am listening to and transcribing and will get on the blog.
Please remember to write Sean often, it really helps him knowing that people care about him.
We have finally finished building our new house and have moved into it. We'd love to have you drop by and see us. Drop us an email if you need directions (or talk to Erica!).
Time is flying by, we'll be celebrating Sean's one year mark on December 5th.

October 13, 2008

How's my Book of Mormon challenge going? Have you read the article and bought a box of Books of Mormon? Better get on it, only 13-1/2 months left till I get home. You'll have to really pray hard for the opportunities to give all 20 away. But it is possible, I give 20 away every month.

October 6, 2008

I'm doing pretty good except I'm sick...oh, and I broke a tooth, not just chipped, but broke a huge chunk off, so I'll have to get that fixed. Oh, and I'm STILL getting bloody noses, even with 50 gallons of snot coming out of my nose every 5 minutes and tons of rain/humidity. Anyway, enough of my medical problems.
Here's a challenge for you all. Get a box of Books of Mormon (20 books) and give them away before I come home. That's 20 Books of Mormons for each of you. In the September Ensign, Elder Cook has a great article of this on page 44. Read it and DO IT. It'll be hard, but you can all give 20 BofMs away in 14 months!
For General Conference we go to the Stake Center and all the sessions are playing there in Dutch and English. We had the Saturday morning session at 6:00 pm on Saturday night. Sunday consists of: 11:00 am Priesthood/Relief Society, then the Saturday afternoon session of Conference, then at 6:00 pm we watch the Sunday morning session. Next week at church we get the Sunday afternoon session. We had to got the Groningen for Conference.

September 29, 2008

I'm doing pretty good. It's starting to get colder here. If you happen to see some changing leaves and have a camera with you, could you take lots of pictures and send them to me. That would be awesome.
Jean Jacques was confirmed in sacrament meeting yesterday, that was cool. Other than that the week was just lots and lots of angry Dutch people on the doors.

September 22, 2008

I got to baptize Jean Jacques on Saturday. And I got all 7 feet of him under the water! It was pretty cool.
We have member in our branch that is from Hondurus so I've been speaking Spanish with her and I'm getting pretty good at it.

September 15, 2008

Thank you so much for the birthday packages, I think that half the food items are already gone. I was hungry this morning, what can I say. But thanks so much fo everything. Unfortunately I don't have an oven to bake the cake in, but I was reading the side of the box, and it's actually healthier to eat the mix without baking it first, so I think that I'l do that.

September 8, 2008

In answer to your question, NO I HAVE NOT GAINED WEIGHT I've lost a ton though.
Has anyone ever seen a case of someone dying because of cabin fever? 'Cause I think that I'm getting to the point that I'm going to die because of my cabin fever....it's soooooooooooooooooo bad!
Anyway, my new companion is very quite which isn't all that bad, so that's a plus. He has been out two transfers longer than me. He's from Springville.
The past week was long...we did tons of findind (contacting/tracting). But it wasn't all that bad. I'm going to Amsterdam tomorrow.

September 1, 2008

So it is transfer time, I'm staying in Assen and I'm getting a new companion, Elder Patrick. I went on an exchange with him once before, he's very quite and hardly ever talks. But, anyway, it will be fun, I'm sure it will be.
Dina's baptism went really well, she was so happy and glowing afterwards. She is such a funny little girl. It was awesome!
Elder Monson is getting transferred out of the zone.

August 27, 2008

I'm riding my bike down the street and some lady came running to us and yelled, in English, "Hey missionaries!" Turns out she's a member and she lived in New York for six years and jsut moved back to the Nederlands and wants to come back to church. She's from South America somewhere. But that was cool.
I picked up my bike tire and it only ended up costing 63 euros ($95.00) so that was way cool.
Oh, by the way, I have a baptism on Saturday, Dina is getting baptized. Oh, and my incredible investigator, Jean Jacques is getting baptized on Sept. 17. Oh, and Bibi in Den Bosch finally read the Book of Mormon and knows it's true.

August 20, 2008

So my back tire on my bike decided that it's had enough and now I've got to drop 80 euros ($120.00) to get it fixed!

August 13, 2008

I was in Amsterdam yesterday..that city is so crazy. I hate it, it's too busy for me, too many people, too much weed, drugs and sex too. Anyway the Zone Conference was amazing and the spirit was so strong...it was great.
We have a baptism on August 30 with Dina and Jean Jacques. Dina is a 9-year old girl whose mom is inactive and hopefully her daughter getting baptized can help to reactivate her. Jean Jacques is a 7-foot tall African fron the Congo.. He's awesome and he's almost quit smoking to. He loves the Book of Mormon and coming to church.

August 6, 2008

Hey, so yesterday I installed wood flooring in our kitchen and bathroom. Then we went to the only concentration camp in the Nederlands, that was really cool. And we went houseboat contacting the other day.
My new companion, Elder Walker, is from Idaho Falls. My companion kind of has a different style of missionary work than me, but our lessons are still good. It's interesting. But we've seen alot of success since I've been in Assen. People are lettingus in their doors like crazy and we're setting baptismal dates like crazy too. It's awesome. The work is starting to take off here in Assen.
On Monday we went to Leeuwarden for District meeting and we went to the place where the first convert baptism in the Nederlands took place. It was pretty cool. In my new District there are 8 elders and a senior couple. And Elder Monson from my MTC group is in my district too.
A few days ago there was a crazy lightening storm that was literally constant, non-stop lightening for two hours. It was crazy! Just flash after flash and a constant rumble of thunder. Then yesterday we got soaked in a rainstorm that was like being in the shower on full blast. Everything was completely soaked through.
I had to get my bike fixed because I broke 9 spokes on my back tire. Really not sure how that happened, but it cost me 30 euros!

July 29, 2008

Hey, how's it going? I'm doing pretty good. We have found alot of people in the last week. The new apartment is pretty good. We are on the sixth floor and it is the first of three buildings. The branch here is pretty small, only 20 people. The past week has been pretty good, but today I'm incredibly homesick. But I'll just take a nap and get back to work.

July 22, 2008

Hey, so I got transferred. I'm going to Assen and my new companion is Elder Walker. Assen is an incredible city and we will be having a baptismal interview tomorrow night and a baptism either this Saturday or next. We have four baptismal dates and will be setting a few more in the next few weeks. It's gonna be an awesome new city, I don't know whole lot about my new companion, but I'm sure it will be good. I'll surely miss Den Bosch and the ward here and Elder Laursen. My new address is:

Maria in Campislaan 239
9406-JG
Assen, Nederlands

July 16, 2008

So I probably have only one week left in Den Bosch. My P-day is on Tuesday and transfer are on Wednesday. I'm doing good. Bibi was supposed to be baptized this coming Monday, but I don't think it is going to happen. Oh, well, it'll happend next transfer. As for other investigators, we have Sabrina who didn't come to church and that's our only investigator. Yep, its not very fun. But it's alright.
Yesterday and Monday, I was in Utrecht for exchanges with Elder Carter...he's been out six months longer thatn me, but he lives in Draper and went to Alta. It was way fun, we know alot of the same people, places and everything.

July 8, 2008

Email to Elder Burton from his mother:

Elder SEAN ROSS Burton,

We HAVE NOT received a letter from you (other than the package and the letter to Dad, which was wonderful) in FIVE weeks.
If there is not a letter arriving this Friday or Saturday--and it better be really long--I am going to email or call your Misson President.
Love you forever, Your REALLY UPSET Mom

Email reply from Elder Burton:

DO NOT CALL OR EMAIL MY MISSION PRESIDENT! I am writing you letters today and you will get them next Wed. or Thurday.

So today we went to Utrecht with the whole Zone and pretty much did the whole soapbox thing. Sabrine prayed and read and knows it's true. We have an appointment with her tomorrow. Susan won't make any appointments with us, but is in really good contact with alot of the ward members and goes to all the singles adult activities and everything, but she feels we are only here to baptize her and she wants to be friends.

July 2, 2008

I went on exchanges in Rotterdam two day ago, and I visited a guy that I met on the airplane when I was coming here. He's an inactive member and he's way nice. He goes to Utah and visits friends two or three time a year. It ws pretty cool. Things are going alright here. We have a lesson tonight with a lady named Sabrina, she is so amazing and she's way nice.