Super Excited

What an amazing week!  Did I see this many miracles at the very beginning of my mission?  Probably not.  I was sick and bedridden for two weeks instead.  Ha!

On Thursday morning we all headed to Verona's biggest train station.  I said goodbye to Anziano Petterborg who went with a few other missionaries down to Bologna, eventually to head towards his new home in Livorno.  I'm gonna miss him, he is a dedicated Elder and a wonderful companion.

I got on a fast train with a few other missionaries from other cities and headed to Milano.  There were only 13 new missionaries this transfer, thus 13 trainers together in a room in one of Milano's chapels receiving a little instruction from President Dibb.  He talked up the role of a trainer a lot and brought us to a realization of our duty.

The new missionaries walked in, wide-eyed and exhausted.  None of us new which we were paired with yet.  One by one we stood at the front of the group, talked about the cities we are serving in, and then read out our new companion's name from a slip of paper from the Assistants to the President.  Mine is Anziano Kessler, and he's awesome.

Anziano Kessler comes from a city near Sacramento, California.  He's a gymnast--more specifically, he coaches kids tumbling.  He's funny, confident, not bad at all in Italian, and learned a ton at the MTC.  He shocked me on Sunday when he stood up to bear his testimony during Fast and Testimony meeting without any promptings from me in front of the whole ward.  He did wonderfully, and I can't think of a better way to show his courage to our members.

We've already seen miracles together.  President challenged all of this transfer's trainers to teach 21 lessons in these missionaries' first week.  That's 3 lessons a day.  I did my best to set up some appointments with the few investigators we have, and we prayed a lot.  This is the third day of the week, and we've already taught 8 lessons and found 2 new investigators thanks to faithful casa (going house to house to present our message) in the cold.

We're both super excited, we get a long really well, I get to teach and he gets to go with the flow (which both of us love to do), and we're in Verona, in case you forgot.  This is such a beautiful city with such an amazing ward.  Anziano Kessler is getting a spoiled start to his mission, but I hope that as I strive to be obedient and listen to the Spirit and do what the Lord has assigned me to do, he will set very high standards for himself that he can maintain throughout his two blessed years here in Italy.

I'm so excited to see where these next 12 weeks go.  Keep us in your prayers, and know that you are in mine.  My testimony of prayer grew so much this week.  Pray frequently, whenever you feel like it, and great blessings will come.  God is our Father and our friend: get to know Him better.  He knows you perfectly.

Love,
Anziano Burton

Our Thanksgiving!

My last night with Anziano Petterborg.  There's a famous, giant, white, metal star that they set up coming out of the ancient Roman Arena during Christmastime.  We reached for it.

Me and my new companion/greenie, Anziano Kessler!  He's awesome!  And Californian!