Baggy Pants and Glasses

Transfer weeks are always longer, it seems.  I feel like I haven't written an email in ages.  Quite a bit of "negative" stuff happened this week, but I feel pretty good right now.  I'll just walk you through what happened:

During a scambio (companion exchange) in Modena where my Zone Leaders serve, I lost my nifty little scambio bag that Anziano Treadway gave me on the train.  It had all my needed toiletries in it, including my contact solution and case.  Since Italy is famously the Land of Inconvenience, I wasn't able to find a case to put my contacts in for a few days.  Thanks to sweat, heat, and allergies, they dried up really fast in my eyes and even started to shrivel.

I threw them away.  I brought just enough contact lenses to Italy to last me the whole mission, and I have a system to change them every 28th (so that I get a new pair on my birthday in August).  So not to mess anything up, I'm going the entirety of August wearing glasses.  It's super weird, I haven't worn glasses this many days in a row since I was a little kid.  I look totally different since I recently cut off all my hair (too hot) and all my skinny pants wore out.  I'm wearing baggy slacks and glasses every day.  Keeps me humble, at least.

You'd think I would have learned from losing my bag on the train, but just a few days ago we went back to Modena for a Zone Training Meeting.  It was a terrific reunion where I got to see lots of missionaries that I love and we were all spiritually pumped by our awesome Zone Leaders, Anziani Richardson (future general authority, calling it now) and Cook, who was my District Leader back when I served in Ferrara.  One year later, eh?

So on the way back to Reggio from Modena, I was carrying all sorts of stuff, and I forgot something else on the train: my scriptures.  That bound stack of ultra-thin paper that tells the story of my God and how I'll get to know Him.  The volumes I've been studying, marking, and making notes in for the last 18 months of my life.

As you can probably imagine, I was beyond devastated.  I couldn't sleep, and I may or may not have bawled my eyes out on the kitchen floor.  But I got to call Anziano Taylor (remember?  District Leader in Pesaro when I served in Ancona.  Love him!) who's serving in Milano to check the Lost and Found.  We'll see what comes of it.

Anyway, I love you guys and I hope you try to find out the purpose for everything you do and everything that happens.  Purpose is so important.

Love,
Anziano Burton