Burton’s Missionary Tales

Posted By burtons on November 2, 2009

Dear Family ,
We had a busy week last week.  We worked on a possible crisis situation.  One of our couples was asked to meet with the Minister of Religion in Perm, where they are serving.  We heard about it on Tuesday and worked all that day and part of Wednesday to try and get the couple prepared for the meeting.  The meeting was suppose to be on Thursday afternoon, but  was called early for Wednesday afternoon.  Luckily, the branch president is also the president of the LRO (Local Religious Organization) and he went with them.  We are still waiting to see how it turns out.  It will be interesting to see what happens and if they let us do projects in that area.  They have asked for our official charter and I do not know if that has been sent.  Our missionary couple there are wanting to do a good job and are willing to work hard, but are still learning Russian ways.  The couple are pretty trusting and innocent.  He thinks a person could subsist on a small acreage.  I told him he probably could, if he sent his wife out to work.  Anyway we were concerned that they would be eaten alive by this guy, but they think all went well.  Since then, we have received the request for the charter.

We had our Mission district over on Thursday and fed them.  They seemed to enjoy themselves although I think the roast was from an old dairy cow.  It tasted OK.  It was just as tough as shoe leather.  On Friday night we went to the middle single adult group.  We did an getting to know you activity with them.  and stayed for a few minutes for their dance.  As usually there were three women for every man and one of the men just shows up for the food.  He did get out and dance. They just dance in a circle, they don’t partner up.  I think the man who seems to just come for the food, may simply not have any social skills and just needs people around him sometimes.  One of the girls was really upset, because he never pays the entry fee and is over 45.  She wanted to know how to get rid of the dead beat.  I told her Pres. Monson would tell her to error on the side of generosity, but I don’t think she was convinced.  It’s hard to explain to people how the only person they can really change is themselves.  Most of us don’t see that we need to change.

On Saturday morning we went on a service project with the district (like a stake, but smaller).  Our public affairs person set it up.  We were to meet at a Metro station at 10:30, and then someone would take us to the site from there.  We got there and all the young missionaries were there and two Senior couples. Then two YSA kids showed up and then a mother and her daughter and still no one in charge.  About 10 til 11:00 Serge showed up and led us to the trolley stop.  We got tickets to ride the trolley and headed for the site.  about half way there the trolley stopped because there was a wreck on the tracks, a fender bender.  We all got off the trolley and then the trolley driver let us get back on as one of the cars drove off.  After we got to the park where the service project was, we hiked another half mile to the actual place where we were to work.  We got our helping hands vests on and our assignment and by now it is 11:30 The project was suppose to start at 11:00.  Dad worked outside raking leaves and I worked inside.  I was suppose to wash a window, but there was this hot plate that was filthy to I spent 45 minutes on it.  Dad and I needed to get to the middle single adult activity by 3:00, so we were going to leave early.  They wanted us to have a sandwich which was prepared for after the projects, so we went into this room in this little cabin we were working in and around and had a sandwich.  They gave us a hot drink which we sipped and discovered was tea.  The lady that gave it to us was horrified.  I think she thought it was apple cider.  So we finished our sandwich and drank from the bottle of water we have learned to always take with us and headed for the trolley.   Back to the apartment, and quick change into our better clothes and back to the single adult activity by 3:00.  We were only 5 minutes late.

We played some games with those who were there.  They had wanted us to do speed dating but there simply were not enough men, so we played Electricity, Category and 20 questions.  We did that for about an hour and then they had other activities, so we went home.  We really enjoyed ourselves and as the new CES couple has arrived we will be free on Monday nights most of the time and are thinking of having this age group in our home for family home evening.  We will start exploring this activity this week.  Pres. Cranney says we can try it and see how it goes.

We had a great spiritual thought this week at our weekly Prayer Meeting.  Our area authority gave it.  He works in the same office building we do.  he talked about the temple and how lucky we were to have this opportunity.  He talked about how living righteously allowed you to go to the temple and receive the ordinances that would allow you to reach the highest degree of glory.  As he talked I thought that in order to receive those ordinances and the concurrent blessings, we were required to go to the temple so that we could covenant with the Lord.   Keeping those covenants helps us stay on the straight and narrow path.  Without keeping those covenants we cannot hope to return to our Father.  Each time I visit this topic, I get a little more insight.  Maybe someday, I will fully understand the temple and its importance in my life.

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Categories: Aid & Projects, Letters, Spiritual
Tags: arva burton, Branch President, Charter, Couples, Crisis Situation, DeVere Burton, Getting To Know You Activity, Good Job, LDS Church, LDS Missionaries, Religion, Religious Organization, Shoe Leather, Single Adult Group