Hello everyone,
Well wow what an amazing week! This whole mission thing is tough sometimes but hey we loved it anyways. This week was challenging because as you all probably know but maybe not, I am in an area working with Portuguese speakers. We have a 3 way car share so that means we get the car 2 days of the week, Tuesday and Wednesday, but this week we had to take the car in to get a new bumper. ( some missionary hit something before I got here) and it got fixed from Tuesday to Friday which means we were walking the whole week... Yes I know it's not that bad but.... when you can ONLY work with Portuguese speakers we walk the streets for hours on end and not see a single one. If we see English speakers we pass them to English Elders. If we see Spanish speakers we pass them to Spanish Elders. So this week has been very challenging. Unfortunately, Jonathan and his girlfriend ,our only progressing Investigators, seem to have dropped off the face of Bridgeport haha. So this week for finding and teaching was rough... we taught 1 other lesson and 3 lessons to members. The mission is the greatest teacher. I am one of those "learn my experience" people, So all those Christ-like attributes I can say I've experienced so far on my mission haha. Patience is one I am working on now.. also hope :)
Good news from this week is we have a Brazilian member named Irmao (bro) Carvalho. I love this guy haha he is a stud. He is 25 and has 2 little kids. This last week the 22nd, he had a party for his little 2 year old girl. He spent over 4,000 dollars on this party haha It was crazy. We helped him set up for it all day on Saturday, It was very long and tiring but it paid off because when we went to it that night there were TONS of Brazilians there to talk too :) We got a couple numbers and hopefully some potential investigators. (Fotos attached)
Yesterday we went and visited a Former Investigator named Jade and Elson. They have never been to church and they have never really had interest to go so says the teaching record. We'll I called her and set up an appointment for last night and we stopped by to visit. We just went and Got to know them. Which is a huge step in missionary work. We found some common ground ( Elson and I) in call of duty. We then talked about coming to Church and he said he would love to come and try to see what its like. Which brings up a big point that I've come to know to be true... LOVE! Before asking someone to do something you have to love them and show interest in their lives.
A rule I learned pre-mission while working at ATEC... Before you can correct someone you must, First let them know what they are doing good. Then correct the poor behavior. I believe the ration was something like 15/1 with Special Needs kids. Correction is hard to take sometimes especially for me. Early on in my mission I would get up set when people would corrected my Portuguese. Then I remember reading the scripture in 1 Nephi which says something to the effect: the wicked take the truth to be hard. In order to take correction we must be humble and if we are not humble, at some point we will be made humble. When we are truly humble that is when the Lord gives us the success. Thank you for all your emails and letters! I love you all and I'll be seeing you
Elder Burton
