More pics from Palmdale

California? [Week 10] (Mammoth Lakes)

Hey everybody! 

Hey everybody!

So we made the long trek to Mammoth on Tuesday, it was a five hour drive from Bakersfield. all the way through the desert. No joke we actually passed several turn offs for Death Valley. Some facts about Mammoth Lakes: 

It is way up in the high eastern Sierras, at about 8000 feet.

It is a total ski resort town, so there aren't that many people that are permanent. We estimate that about 30% of the houses up here actually have people living in them year round. 

Mammoth Mountain is the one Ski resort, It has at least 25 "chairs" and is fairly large, it also employs probably half of the people that live here. 

Mammoth is, obviously, a party town. I have counted at least 15 bars or liquor shops, though I am sure there are more. 

Everyone up here just lives in the now and essentially lives off of the booze. 

It is essentially like a cute, more packed together Park City that is RIGHT in the mountains. We aren't even in a valley. We live down the street, about 250 yards from a Ski hill/lodge

It is nice having all of mammoth be our area, it means that everyone we meet is a potential investigator. Mammoth is about 45 minutes away from Bishop, which is the closest thing to a real town out here. So everyone that works here also lives here. Sometimes we just ride around on the free trolley and try and talk to people. 

The best part of Mammoth is the cute little LDS chapel. We are in a branch of about 12 people, including the four missionaries that attend it. Though we are prone to get a lot of visitors who are in town for the week. 

Work is different up here. Everyone is fairly happy, and they generally don't take things seriously. People live here to have fun. I'll send pictures next week, maybe. 

Elder Burton

Pointing toward home?

Transfers [Week 9] (Palmdale)

Wow big week! 

Big things that happened this week-- The sisters in our districts investigators asked Elder Craig and I to baptize them! That was awesome. We met them once before when Elder Craig interviewed them for baptism -- we are actually the only real priesthood holders they know. What an experience! I baptized nine year old Antonio, he is a really happy kid who was so excited to be baptized. It was stellar to see their strong commitment to their love for God at such a young age. 

Transfer calls came!! Elder Craig got transferred to Mammoth, and I am staying. 

As his companion in Mammoth! yeeehaaaw. 

Actually it's Mammoth Lakes and it is the most north, most high (elevation), most secluded, coldest, most coveted area in the whole mission. Also it is super rare to stay with your companion when you get transferred. We are excited! Soon we will be seeing snow at 8,000 feet! Mammoth Lakes is a resort town, but I'm hoping we see a saber tooth tiger or two. 

We are sad to leave Palmdale 4th ward all at once (Elder Laubaugh and Billings also got transferred)

But we are excited for our new adventure. 

All is well here, I hope all is well with each of you. 

p.s. We went hiking and saw some big horned sheep!! cool. 

Week 8 (Palmdale)

Hey what up?!1!

So this week was good, slower than I'd like, but there were good parts. I read all of Daughters in my Kingdom this week. Which is a 200 book about Relief Society. That was kinda cool. I really like Eliza R. Snow. I think she was like the 2nd General RSP? One quote that I really liked was: "Let them seek for wisdom instead of power, and they will have all the power they have wisdom to exercise." I love that! 

Also this week we had a blind man with a large white mullet do a meditative exercise with Elder Craig in which he accused him of smoking pot, that was awesome. I laughed SO hard. 

We visited with an active family, the steeles, on friday night. They have an 18 year old son with some special needs but he is really high functioning and was eager to go out and teach with us. They also have two little ones: Emily, who is 7 and Jordan who is 9. Emily was so dang cute. We asked the family how they could help other people out and be nice and she would shout things like "Tell them about Heavenly Father!" and "Tell them about the Temple!" She was really happy and such a good example. When we were leaving she looked at us and in her raspy voice she said "Isn't it sad when people don't come to church..?" YES! Yes it is! 

I still have one more week here, we'll see what happens at transfers. Here is a picture of me and Elder Laubaugh. He is Elder Billings companion and we laugh a lot. 

Much Love

Don't Limit God [Week 7] (Palmdale)

Heaaaay

This week was all over the place but I'll try and cover the good stuff. We always teach Will on Tuesday, and that is lot of fun. He has awesome faith and humility. He is struggling with understanding how important the Priesthood is, so we are asking him to pray specifically about that. We brought the Nichols with us, they are in their 70s and are so darned cute. Sister Nichols started being extremely bold in telling Will that his previous baptism didn't count and things almost got awkward. But thankfully, it was a positive lesson, and the Nichols didn't seem too racist. (we were legitimately worried about that. 

On Wednesday we tracted for a few hours. We are very picky about where we tract since our area is huge. So we looked at our area map on the wall and we both sat their for a little bit and we pointed at where we felt we should go at the same time and we both pointed in the same spot. So cool. 

Anyway we met a man named David who has a lot of faith, a lot of humility, and the best part, he has a family! We talked to him about his life and about the gospel for 45 min, and he said something I really liked. We were talking about how when we do things we need to give glory to god, because through him all things are possible. Then he said "We limit God, because we limit ourselves" Let us do our very best to never limit God! I am very guilty of this. I think, oh, this person can't get baptized or convert (because of whatever reason) But in all reality, God will work miracles through our obedience. 

Last thing. Our ward has anywhere from 130-180 people in sacrament meeting, and there are 780 records in the ward boundaries :O Turns out people don't move to Littlerock or Pearblossom to socialize or even to be found. Every less active member we visit with has a story but more importantly, a testimony. Though dormant, it can be reactivated. Hopefully it can spew its hot testimony lava all over the town's at the bottom of the volcano. Take that as you will. 

I love you all. I still have two weeks left in the transfer (at least) , since this is a seven week transfer. 

Write me letters or don't or emails or don't.

3512 Coffee Rd

Suite B 

93308

Bakersfield, CA

E. Burton

Week 6 (Palmdale)

Things are well here in California! It rained all of Saturday and Sunday, which was awesome and a real answer to a lot of peoples prayers here. I went on two more exchanges this week since Elder Craig is the District Leader.

On Tuesday Elder Laubaugh and I went to Will Burnett's house. Will is a 52 year old hilarious black man/dad/grandpa. He just got out of a battle with cancer so he is still recovering.  This is about the third time that we have taught will and it is so fun and so cool every time. When I asked Will to be baptized he responded with a muttered "aw hell yeah" !!! Yes! hahah I'm sorry but that was so nice to have him respond with confidence. We have a few more lessons to teach him but I am so excited. 

A lot of things happened this week, but I want to focus on one of them. Every single Thursday, we go to teach Sister Gurzi at four o'clock. Sister Gurzi was baptized 7 years ago and is 40 years old. She recently, within the last year or two, realized that she needs to start coming back to church. She hasn't had a real job in two years and finally she got one. Her job makes her work every Sunday, and she has been missing church every week for months.  Sister Gurzi has strong faith and really longs to be at church. She also really needed a job, she has a few children and bills to pay after all!

Why would God give her such a blessing as a job, when it forces her to break a commandment that he also gives her? I think of Adam and Eve in this situation. They were commanded to not eat the fruit, but they had to to bring forth the plan of salvation. I believe in our own ways, we all have situations like this. It can be frustrating. As Elder Holland said "Sometimes the only way to get from A to C is by way of B." God wants us to follow the commandments, but even more so he knows what he wants us to be. Sometimes, we need to go through the valley to appreciate the mountain top. 

If anyone wants to write me letters or wants me to write them letters, send me your address! 

Elder Burton

New Year ~~~ [Week 5] (Palmdale)

So this week seemed to fly by for sure. 

New years was not cool here, not at all. We had a curfew of 7:00, which is understandable, and I essentially just lied there for 2 hours until I fell asleep. Holidays are not cool on your mission, which is ok, because I need to stop worrying about myself. 

There was a HUGE rumor that we would get snow in the Antelope Valley on New Year's eve, and it was shaping up to look like it. When the 31st came you couldn't see any cloud in the whole sky. :l Oh well. My whole mission has been in a drought for the last several years, so it was a little disappointing. 

Here are some things about Palmdale

Palmdale:

It has the worst tasting tap water in the world. Everyone buys bottled water. 

There are constantly police and ambulance sirens, all through the day and night.

We pull over for sirens about 2-3 times a day, which is weird for me. 

Everyone in Palmdale commutes to the valley, not Antelope Valley, Down by LA valley.

If they don't commute to the valley they work at the Airforce base, Lock Heed, or some other machinist that has something to do with aerospace engineering. 

Elder Craig and I are not doing too well with numbers or with people opening their door. Out of 20 doors knocked maybe 8 answer, 6 will actually talk to us, and 0 give us a solid return appt. time. Keep in mind we have mostly been knocking on recent converts and less actives doors. 

I have been praying a lot to find prepared investigators as I am almost half way through my first transfer. Elder Craig and I have resolved to do better these next four weeks. 

On Friday I got to go on exchanges with the Zone Leaders since Elder Craig is a District Leader. Our Zone Leaders are Elder Hyde and Elder Crandall. Elder Hyde has been out for 17 months and has been a ZL for a year! He is a farmer from Arizona. Elder Crandall is from Cottonwood Heights, he has been in our mission since August, but had been in Sierra Leone for 6 months prior until he was evacuated because of Ebola :(. It was awesome to see how much work they have to do in their area, I got to go and teach a man that wants to be baptized and his son who was baptized last month. He can't be baptized for a year because of some past sins when he was part of a big gang, but he has an awesome testimony and plans on being baptized when he can. 

As missionaries we have the opportunity to see people in all walks of life, and some are really struggling. It is really powerful to me to know that God loves the crack addict as much as he loves President Monson. Keep your heads up!

Sorry for the long email!

I love all of you.

Elder Burton 

Christmas time, In the Boonies Week 4 (Palmdale)

Hello!

This week we were able to teach a few lessons, but they sort of seem surreal. I don't know, it seems like none of the people we are teaching take us very seriously, except for one investigator named Will Burnet. 

Will is a 52 year old man, he has 5 or 6 kids that are all out of the house. One of his sons went to the UofU or Utah State (Can't remember) and married an LDS girl. Will also has 11 Grandchildren. He is very black and just finished his battle with cancer! He is incredibly faithful and humble. He says that he respects all beliefs and he is just constantly seeking for truth and light. We gave him a few pamphlets and challenged him to read, so far he actually has read, so I'm excited to have a progressing investigator. 

So the ward that I'm serving in actually covers a bunch of little towns too. We cover the towns of Littlerock, Pearblossom, Juniper hills, and a bunch of really small ones we never go to. All of the towns and cities are really spread apart compared to Utah towns. 

An old hunched over man that kinda reminds me of a turtle, a wise sensei-like turtle, named Brother Crawley shook my hand church and talked to me for a while. He sat down after a little and mentioned how he can't stand for a long time. I told him that his spot sitting was better than my spot standing. He told me something I will try to never forget. It was along the lines of this: 

Sitting isn't all it is cracked up to be, standing is much better. When you are standing you are up and ready to serve. 

I could feel his yearn to serve even at his old turtle-like age! 

Anyway, I challenge you all to sit less and to serve more. 

Hoo boy P-dale! Week 3 (Palmdale)

Well, here I am, right in the heart of Kansa-- California. Also I'm being informed that I am not at all in the heart, but closer to the liver. Because of flying and overlap I didn't get a chance to email last week, well there was one chance, but I thought I'd keep you all hungry for my words. hehehe, just kiddin'

Tuesday was transfer meeting. We met in a big stake center in Bakersfield, or Bakes since that sounds cooler than Bakersfield. Everyone who was being transferred, or whose companions were being transferred, showed up to the meeting. All of the departing missionaries had a chance to bear their testimony and then we set off to our respective areas. 

My trainers name is Elder Craig. He has been out for 17 months. He identifies as "One of the 50" This means that he was one of the 50 missionaries who all came out at the same time when the mission was opened. The Bakersfield mission is that young! It took a chunk from the San Fernando mission and a chunklette from the Ventura mission (I think) and created itself. 

My first area is, as you might have guessed, Palmdale! More specifically Palmdale 4th ward. There are two sets of missionaries in our ward; Me and Elder Craig, and Elder Laubaugh and Elder Billings!! Woo! For those of you who don't know, Elder Billings is from Springville and we went to all of our public schooling together. It is great to see a semi-familiar face. 

Wow! where to start! Ya'll can go to the MTC if you want to hear more about that because that seems so boring now.. 

Elder Craig used to be in a trio in Palmdale with two missionaries who, in his words, didn't care and didn't work. SO. We have a lot of work to do. We have a few investigators right now but I don't know how serious they all are. I'll write about them next week. I haven't even met two of the three ( or four maybe?) 

Palmdale is the most southeast part of the mission, and is in LA county. Palmdale and surrounding cities are in the Antelope Valley. It feels like early fall, but a little bit colder, no that 40-60 degree weather is anything to complain about. It was raining the first couple days that I was here which is SUPER rare. So rare that every time it rains, it floods. 

We eat dinner with Members 20/21 times that we eat, which is kinda weird for me. Elder Craig told me that the way he got over it and accepts all of the charity is by realizing that when families feed the missionaries, they are blessed. Plus they do want to feed us. Still pretty weird.

A lot of the members/people out here work at NASA or the Airforce base or one of the other multiple rocket/jet/aviation fields. We drove past a lot of airplanes just chillin' in the desert, y'know, kicking it and listening to club music, or whatever giant airplanes do. 

I hate being the new guy and look forward to just getting into the groove of things. I'll be more spiritual and stuff next week. Merry Christmas everyone! Get everyone you know who isn't LDS or who is less active to watch the He is the Gift video, and you will be doing exactly what I have been trying to do for the last week. 

Elder Burton

P.s. I hung out with a Falconer this morning and we watched his hawk hunt and kill a rabbit! 0.0 

Some photos from January 2015