12-21-09 Christmas

Family and Friends,
First off, I love you all and wish you a Merry Christmas.

We were going to have a baptism this week, but it got pushed back. The investigator starts Chemotherapy Tuesday, so It may not happen for while. We will still visit him as much as his health will permit and keep him on the road to the waters of baptism. He is such a kind hearted guy.

The work with hispanic invertigators remains the same. We are trying our best to get them all to church. We have a few new Spanish investigators.

This week was very eventful. We had Zone conference Wednesday (it was supposed to be last week but was moved due to snow), Exchanges that night and the next morning, the Temple Thursday night, and Interviews Friday morning. It was nice to get back home Friday after two nights in Council Bluffs.
It was also so nice to go back to the temple after about 5 months. I learned even more than I have previous times. It is always so peaceful in there.

I am excited for my first Christmas away from home. It will be a new experience. It has come so quickly.

I got a principles of the Gospel Book in Spanish from Zone conference, as well as the Nov and Dec Liahona. All the missionaries also recieved a copy of Teaching, no Greater Call.

We had a bit of freezing rain Saturday night. The trees looked really cool, all white, with ice crystals hanging down from all of the branches.

Merry Christmas again. Remember the Savior and the purpose for his life.
-Elder Burnham

12-14-09 A Baptism soon and More Snow

Friends and Family,

I am not really in the writing mood right now, so I appologize if this week's email is a little short or boring.

We got a lot more snow this week. on Tuesday, we got about 12 inches. There were winds with gusts of up to 50 miles an hour in the evening, making blizzard conditions. Because of this, we could not drive Tuesday and had to stay inside. This really has been a strange winter this year. We had snow really early, then virtually no snow in November, and then a huge snow storm way earlier than usual.

We had our branch Christmas party. The theme was "A Night Without Darkness: The First Christmas In The Americas". It turned out really well, and every one enjoyed it.

We have a baptism coming up next week. His name in Pete Clark. He is about 75, and has terminal Cancer. We are excited for him to be baptized, though, and he is too. I will tell about how it went next week.

We also have several Spanish-speaking invetigators who would be baptised, but are being held up by lack of church attendance. We are trying to get them all to come to church, and then we will have more baptisms!!

So it is a really short one. I will write a longer email next week.
-Elder Burnham

This is Elder Poccori. His birthday was Friday, so the Hess's made him a birthday cheesecake.


We found a frozen pond. We had just finished helping someone to move, so we were in regular clothes and decided to have some fun.


I started to do some poses, but the ice made a really loud crack after this, so I got off.

* * *

My Dear Friends and Family,

I hate driving in the snow. With a passion. But I love it on the ground. We will probably make a snowman later today. I am excited.

We have a car in this area. I am the designated driver (the mission kind, not the alcohol kind). Most of the towns we go to are 20-45 miles away. We drive there, work, and then drive back at night. On Wed and Th, we got snow flurries off and on all day, but nothing really stuck. Friday was clear, as was Saturday. The highs have been in the mid 20s and the lows in the low teens. Brrrr. Yesterday, it started snowing and there is several inches of snow on the ground now. We had a dinner appointment with our Branch president and his family. It was about a 45 minute drive, pert of it backroads. It snowed on us on the way there. We slipped a little going up a steep hill and lost traction for a few seconds, but we made it safely. We ate dinner there and shared a message. I also got to play their piano, which is very nice. They invited us to stay for the First Presidency Christmas Broadcast, which we did. I was very nice. After, we had to drive home. It had been snowing the whole thime we were there and there was about three inches of snow. We had trouble getting out of their driveway because it was a gravel backroad. We finally got back onto the highway, and I took it slow. I became more comfortable as time went on, which led to me going a little to fast. we were going around a turn and I lost controll. Inexperienced as I was, I overcorrected several times and we went off the road. Thankfully, there was a level grass field fight next to the road, and not a steep hill. I think Heavenly Father was warning me to drive more carefully. We got back on the road with some pushing help from my companion. We took an alternate route home to avoid the steepest hills, and to use more roads that had been plowed. With the reduced speed and longer drive, it took us two hours. They were some of the longest hours of my life. I was ecstatic when we got home (later than we were supposed to) safe and sound. I survived my Driving-in-the-Snow- tutorial. Now I finally have some experience under my belt, along with a hatred for driving front-wheel-drive cars is fresh snow.

Now on to a happier note. We got a golden referal from a member last Sunday. He wants to be baptized. We met with him once last week and he came to church with this member. We should help him set a baptismal date tomorrow or the next day. He is going through a divorce, after being married 50 years, and he starts chemotherapy for his cancer this week (he had radiation before). He could definitely use the joy and peace the Gospel brings.

Funny story (at least I was amused): As I was driving, I saw a sign at a repair shop, with the name of the shop on it. I glanced at it, and from what I saw, it read, "Satan's Repair Shop". It took a moment to sink in. I incredulously looked back in my mirror to discover that it was actually, "Stan's ...". I was sad. But now, if I ever open a mechanic shop, I know just what to call it.

So with the snow, I need warming accesories. One of these was a scarf. Living by small towns, there are not too many big clothing stores. I was having a hard time finding one, and when I did, they were way expensive. We ended up going into this one small crafts store. I really didn't think they would have cold weather stuff, but Elder Poccori wanted to try it. They ended up having fleece for $8 a yard. It was perfect. I bought three feet by nine inches, and it was an awesome scarf for $2. I can fold it over and make it double thick. Scarves really help, especially since it hasn't gotten over about 28 in the last five days.

All the Spanish missionaries had a teleconference with President Kunz on Wednesday. About 6 of the 14 Spanish missionaries will be gone by next May. That means all of us who are learning need to do so quickly. He said he wanted us to be able to teach and communicate in the language by February, so he could put some of us together if needed. That's going to be a challenge. But after that, he blessed all of us that were learning, through the Priesthood Keys he held, that we would be blessed with the gift of tongues. It was pretty powerful.

If any of you reading this want to do something special for me for Christmas, just write me a letter telling me how you're doing, and maybe a favorite Christmas memory. I write a letter back for every one I get.

Merry Christmas!! I hope you all enjoy the spirit of the season, and remember what Christmas is all about- Jesus Christ. There is no better gift you can give someone than sharing the Lord's Gospel with them and hwlping them strengthen their relationship with our Savior who is Christ.

I love you all,
-Elder Burnham

11-30-09 SPANISH!!!!!!

Friends and Family,

This week has been one of the most exciting of my mission, and not because of Thanksgiving. On Tuesday morning, my mission president called me and formally extended the call to me to be a spanish-speaking missionary. He ordered the MTC materials for me, which I will probably get tomorrow. As of Wednesday, I have a native spanish-speaking companion. So exciting. I will tell a little background about it.

At the begining of the transfer six weeks ago, I was talking to Elder Petersen who served in the same branch as me, but spanish. He said that he had been called English, but told President he would liketo go Spanish. He was switched a transfer later. He said that if I showed desire to do the same, there was a chance I could. I started studying Spanish in my free time with some spanish materials I found at the appartment: a MTC lesson and grammar book, the pamphlets in spanish, and a spanish Preach My Gospel I borrowed from the church library. When Interviews rolled around, I told president I would love to switch. He said he would consider it. Many of the Spanish missionaries do not have driving privelages, because they are from foreign countries. He said they were always in need of ones who could drive. Now we jump forward to the morning before transfers. I got the call from President, and I was off.

I am now serving in the Logan, Iowa branch, in the Council Bluffs stake. The branch is mostly english with the exception of Denison. Denison used to be a spanish area with its own missionaries and branch. It closed 6 weeks ago and became part of the Logan Branch. The Logan branch has about 100 people who come regularly and has a nice building.
My companion is Elder Poccori. He wasw born in Peru, and moved to the US about 7 years ago. He speaks English, but only enough to get by. I am helping him with it, and he is helping me with Spanish.

We live with members- the Hess family. It is just a husband and wife who are both retired. We live in the town of Persia which has about 360 people. It is right in the middle of the major population in our area: Logan, Missouri Valley, Harlan, and Denison. We get our mail from the post office, which has a public area of about 5ft by 10 ft inside. The members we live with are cool though. They feed us all the time, and we have a spiritual thought every night.

It is officially Christmas time!! I love it. Every one is putting up Christmas lights and we are singing Christmas hymns in Church. I love it.

Send mail through the Mission office, but if you send a Christmas package, send it to:
Elder Burnham
Box 57
Persia, IA 51563

Doing this will keep the mission office from getting flodded with Christmas packages.

That is all for this week.
-Elder Burnham

PS. Iowa actually has hills. It is nice to see something besides FLAT.

Pictures

Here are some pictures that Austin sent. I forgot to post them right when I got them, so they're a little outdated. Better late than never though, right?

2 Weeks

11-23-09 End of Transfer.

Friends and Family,

Well, this was a pretty good week! Transfers are coming up on Wednesday. They are usually on Thursday, but they moved them up to Wednesday this week because of Thanksgiving. I will probably stay, but just in case, don't send any letters to the appartment this week. Send them all to the Mission Office. Speaking of letters, thank you all for the ones you have sent. I look forward to recieving more soon!

We found some promising people this week. One couple is Tiffany and Greg (18 and 19). They felt the spirit when we taught them the first time, and we helped them recognize it. Greg asked if the Book of Mormon was the missing puzzle pieces of the Bible. We told him Absolutely it was! They have some hectic things going on right now so they won't be able to meet with us for a few weeks, but I am confident that is things go right, they will get baptized. We jsut have to get them married first!

Another couple we found in Ryan and Stasha (both 23). They were both former investigators who had recovered from narcotics. Through that experience, they learned to rely on God. Ryan does not believe too much in organized religion, but we can fix that. He also smokes. Stasha is awesome though. She loves everything we teach her, and she says it just makes so much sense. She wanted to come to church, but her phone was on silent, so her alarm didn't work. She felt bad and actually called us to appologize. That's rare! We are seeing them tomorrow, and will try to get them a baptismal date. We just need to get them married or moved out.

We had a branch family history activity this week. They showed us how to use familysearch.com and they talked about record-keeping and had some family hierlooms.

Thanksgiving is coming up, and I had some thoughts about it. The Lord has blessed us with Everything! We were just little bits of knowledge before-"inteligences", but if we are faithful and keep the commandments, we will experience eternal bliss, and inherit all the powers of the universe. Wow. All that he asks is that we be righteous. He has even given us our agency. The least we can do is thank him for it, and do what he wants. But even when we choose the commandments, he will repay us and we are still in debt (see Mosiah 2:24).

That's all for this week,
-Elder Burnham

* * *

11-16-09 Interviews

Every week when preparation day rolls around, I feel bad, because I don't feel like I have anything to write. Sorry.

So this week, we went out with our branch mission leader to find some people. We visited a less active in a trailor park. We knowcked lots of the doors. We found one person who might be interested, and we taught a lesson to the girlfriend of another Less-active. We still are finding. It is hard for us, because we don't have much experience.
We have two investigators we are still working with. It is a mother and daughter. The mother cannot get baptized until she gets married, and the daughter wants to get baptized at the same time. The boyfriend is pretty firm about a date in May for the Wedding. It may be a waiting game. We have a good relationship with the investigators, though. The boyfriend has really opened up more even since I've been here (they started being taught about two months ago). He used to sleep on the couch when they were over, or just play video games. He now talks to us, and we even taught him how to solve a Rubix Cube. He told his girlfriend about a week ago "You know I'm never going to be Mormon, right?" But he's coming along. He has started praying every night during family prayer, which they started about 10 days ago. They all go around and take turns talking. I hope he sees the blessings it is bringing his family and desires to have them for himself as well.

The weather here has been really nice lately. We haven't had snow in about three weeks. And it's FINE with me. The more mild the winter, the better. one person said they usually have about a foot of snow by now, and it has snowed about 12 times. We will probably get some tonight though.

I migh have already said this before, but the church building here is pretty small. It is on the outskirts of town, and has a cornfield on three sides of it. I love it. Maybe I will take some pictures. It's a shame I can't email them home.

We had traveling interviews this week. That is where President Kunz (with his wife) comes to all the appartments and does the interviews there. It was cool. They liked our Christmas decorations. We continue to build them up. We have wrapped boxes and put them under the tree to look like presents, and I bought red and green poster boards and cut out letters to spell MERRY CHRISTMAS! on the wall.

That's all for now, but I will include some thoughts.
The first thought is about pondering. I have a quote in my scriptures by M.V. Ashton in the Nov '87 Ensigh: "Pondering gives the spirit the opportunity to impress and direct. It is a powerful link between the heart and mind." I really like that quote. I have it written down under the book of Enos. Enos was forgiven of his sins when he was pondering while hunting. In D&C 138, Joseph F Smith recieves revelation while pondering in the Temple. In D&C 9, the Lord tells Oliver Cowdry that he must "ponder it out it [his] mind".

My companion has been waiting on me for about 20 minutes, so to spare him, I will give the other thought next week. I challenge all of you to hake it a habit, however, to ponder about things, especially gospel topics. It brings some cool revelations,.

I love y'all,
Elder Burnham

11-2-09

Here is my Columbus Address:
Elder Awesome Burnham
3805 27th St. #5
Columbus, NE 68601

My Dear Family and Friends,

Well, I went on exchanges with my District Leader this week. I really enjoyed it. We had a long talk about everything mission-related. We talked about the book of Mormon, following the spirit, how to be better missionaries, and all sorts of things. It made me think a lot, and I learned about my purpose as a missionary, and how to better accomplish that.

I don't remember if I said this last week, but the Schuyler Elders live in a fifth-wheel trailer in a garage. So cool. I got to sleep in it this week. I think very few missionaries get to say they did that. Those Elders also got the only truck in the mission for their car. It is so fun to ride in.

Okay, I'm really short on time, so that will be all for this week. Sorry! I will give a longer email next week for sure.

I love ell of you.
-Elder Burnham

P.S. We had only a three foot Christmas tree before. We bought a six foot one as well. It is so cool.

Week ending 10-19-09. Columbus!!

Beloved Friends and Family,

This was a crazy week full of surprises! Last week I talked about how President had told me I was going to take over the area. Well, he made some changes to how the zones work, so he had to change what was going to happen to me. I did NOT stay in Hastings. Elder Burton stayed there and will be serving with Elder Mohr, an Elder who came out with me. I got transfered to Columbus! I am in the Lincoln Zone. We were both super surprised. When our District leader told us I would be leaving, we looked at each other and then said, "You mean Elder BURTON, right?" "No. Elder Burnham." I was shocked at first, but I am excited to serve here. It's so weird to leave my first area.

My new companion is Elder Hepworth. I have a picture of him, but the way the computers are set up here in the Columbus library, I can't email pictures home. It will have to wait until I get transfered again. I will also send pictures of my last companion and sone pictures of the other people from Hastings. I will try to pain a picture of him with words. He is about 5'6", 250 lbs, has short light-brown hair, and rosy red cheeks. He is cheerful and ready to work. I am glad to be his companion and have enjoyed working with him so far. This is his second transfer, which means I am follow-up training him and will be the senior companion. I don't know what President is thinking, but I will do my best. (I guess I shouldn't say that. He is inspired of the Lord, and the Lord is a whole lot smarter than I am.) It also means that I still have not had a companion over three transfers old. Sometimes I really wish I had a really experienced companion to teach me everything he knows, but I will get a lot more experience and growth this way. I will go where ever (and with whoever) the Lord wants me to go.

The situation in Columbus is interesting. Elder Hepworth's old companion, Elder Peterson, was Spanish speaking. Elder Peterson is cool. He is also our District Leader. They have doubled up missionaries in this ward, and now Elder Peterson is serving about 25 miles East of here is Schuyler (pronounced Skyler- crazy Nebraskans). I like having other missionaries so close to talk to and see at Church, but... they took the car. They took our stinking car. Elder Hepworth and I are on foot and bikes. In the winter. I am not excited about that aspect of this area. Luckily the church is only a ten or fifteen minute walk from our appartment.

I think I called it a ward earlier, but it is only a branch. It is bigger than hastings, but it has a smaller building. I think it is partly the building size that determines what it is. The qualification to become a ward and get the building added on to is to have an average of 100 people attend per month for six months straight. we average about a hundred people now, but some months it is under, ruining our streak. I think it will be about another year before it is a ward.

The members here are pretty cool. There are several who will really help with the work. Our Ward Misssion Leader is also amazing. He wants to work hard with us, he has contact with all of our investigators, and sometimes he will go knocking doors on his own and hand out copies of the Book of Mormon. He is about 75, and he is a funny guy.

That's about all I can think of that I was going to say. I would like to include something I wrote to Bryce:
Ether 12:27 is definitely on my list of top 3 favorite scriptures. It jumps around in there. I actually had another experience with it this week. It was Saturday night, and we had had a really long day. We had looked up 5 former investigators and we had a few potentials to see. Basically all of them fell through. All of the formers had either moved or were not intersted, and the potentials were not home. On top of that, no one we had talked to on the street was interested. Talking to people on the street is one thing I am not the best at. I was really discouraged and felt like I was not a good missionary. I think it was the hardest day of my mission yet. I was sitting at the appartment that night and that scripture came to mind. That's not the first time it has saved me from emotional darkness and discouragement. I felt like Alma, snatched from the gall of bitterness. As soon as my mind laid hold on this scripture, my attitude changed. I was remotivated and redetermined to try my best to improve and I knew I could overcome my weaknesses. Since then, things have turned up a lot.

Oh. One more thing. Don't send mail to the Hasting Address. Just send it to the mission home and they will forward it to me. It should be on the blog. I hope nothing shows up in Hastings now that I am no longer there...

I love and miss every single one of you.
-Elder Burnham

Winter (October 12)

Friends and Family,

It is officially winter here in Nebraska. Nature couldn't hold off any longer. I suppose she felt like she needed to start early just because she has a native Arizonan living here... It snowed Friday night about an inch or two leaving a nice blanket of snow for us to find Saturday morning. It was so weird. It honestly took me a few hours to wrap my head around it (as stupid as that sounds). I am finally used to the idea that there can be patches of real snow in random spots around the own that I live in. The snow didn't make the roads icy, thankfully, and was mostly gone by that evening. The cold is here to stay though. It hangs around the trirties or fourties during the day. My Arizona body has some adapting to do. We also got a heavy dusting of snow last night and this morning. It makes me miss highs of 85 down in Mesa.

In the past few weeks, swine flu has hit Hastings, and hit it hard. It seems like everywhere we go, someone has it. Our mission president has counciled against going into places that could put us in risk of getting it and putting us out of work. It can be quite frustrating sometimes.

Okay so I've decided that I am really glad I did not go somewhere requiring the acquisition of a new language. It would be so hard. I feel like it's a blessing being able to jump right in and not have any cultural or language barriers. Sometimes, though, I wish the missionaries here would have had to learn a language. It would be a huge investment of time and maybe everyone would be more invested in their missions and have the desire to work their absolute hardest.

I've had the realization of how amazing of an investment of time a mission is (is done properly). My mission prep teacher back home said that when he got home from his mission, he felt that even though he had given two whole years of his life, that he came out on top and that the Lord had blessed him more far more than he had deserved. A member here who's family recently got baptized (the Pendletons) said that out of all his schooling and life experience, that if he could only keep one thing, it would be his mission because that's where he learned the most. I am begining to feel the exact same way. I also feel that the harder you work, the more blessings you get and the more you mature. I am amazed at how much I've grown spiritually and emotionally already.

Okay so this is an interesting story. Our appartment is on the West edge of town. Whenever we go anywhere, we go through a certain traffic light by our house. Here's the weird part: about 80 percent of the time we pull up to it, it's green, and then turns red right before we get to it. What the heck!! How does it do that?? There is no way of the light "knowing" when we are coming. It is the first light we come to, so it's not like it's just the timing of the lights. I am baffled! I can only come up with two solutions: either it is just a freakish coincidence, or Satan has one of his minions sitting there messing with it to stop us from going to work. Either way, I think it's kind of wierd.

About a month ago, some members of the ward PEC suggested that we teach a primary class to help the ten-year-old Pendleton twins better understand some basic doctrines. We agreed. When we visited them at home the next time we asked the boys some questions and found out that they understood everything astoundingly well. We diagnosed that they did not really need the extra lesson in primary. We made a call or two. Apparently the message never got through, because we were left last minute to teach them that Sunday without any preparations. We couldn't just leave them sitting there. We had to teach them Something. But we couldn't just teach them anything. These were rowdy kids- the 8-11 year old class. We had to try hard to keep their attention. What we ended up doing was teaching the ten commandments with hand signals I made up on the stop. It was a rush, but it was a blast. And now, I know the ten commandments really well!

Transfers are this Thursday. I am excited to know what is going to happen and who my new companion will be. President basically told me in interviews that I am taking over the area. Because of a few other reasons, we know I'm staying and Elder Burton will be leaving. I'm going to miss him. In mission lingo, he's my "Daddy", or my trainer. In sacrament meeting he went up to bear his testimony. In it, he told the ward that he would probably be leaving and that I was a hard-working obedient missionary. I was grateful for that. I love the Hastings ward and I got up after his to tell them that. I also shared a few of my short insights from General Conference and bore my testimony. I was a good church.

I hope that's long enough to fulfill my promise of giving a long letter this week, and I hope you enjoyed it. If not.... deal with it I guess. Or complain to me in a letter. those are always nice- even if filled with caustic remarks. That's all for this week.

Love you all. Study the November Ensign! It's good stuff.
-Elder Burnham

October 5th

Friends and Family,

It will be a short email this week. I will make up for it with an extra long one next week.

General conference was very spiritually uplifting. I loved all the talks and cannot wait for them to come out in the Ensign. Elder Holland's testimony of the Book of Mormon was my favorite. Conference really is a different experience out here. I loved it. We also had two Elders from Holdrege here watching it with us because they have a branch down there so they do nt have a building with satelite.

We had interviews with our mission president this week too. In mine, he asked how well I knew the area and if I was ready to take over. Looks like I'm staying another transfer or two. Transfers are the 15th.

Well that's a pretty lame email. Sorry but you'll get a better one next week.

I really love you all.
-Elder Burnham

Week Ending 9-21-09

Friends and Family-

I learned some valuable things this week. First- cutting hair is harder than it looks. Second, cutting your own hair is even harder than that.
Yes- I attempted the self-haircut this week. I bought a pair of clippers and went at it. I cut the sider nicely and then started to hack away at the top with scissors. I used the method I've seen my mom (a pro hair dresser) use- comb it up, grab the hair in between two straight fingers, and then snip. I repeatedly combed, grabbed, cut, eventually leaving the comb out of the sequence. After about half an hour of this it was looking... wearable. Had I kept at it, I probably could have perfected the top, but I decided to just take clippers to it too. It turned out nice. Now I don't have to pay for hair cuts the rest of my mission!

So Elder Burton and I were talking this week, and we discovered that we are COMPLETE oppopsites. We had known we were different before, but we realized that besides the mission and the church, we really don't havae ANYTHING in common. We couldn't be more different. I figure if I can get along with him, I can get along with anybody.

The appartment here in Hastings really has become my home. I don't say "let's go back to the appartment", I say "let's go home". It's strange- I feel like I've known everyone in the ward for years. Sometimes I think that if I mention anyone here that you should know exactly who I am talking about. You wouldn't though. There is Teresa, a member of three years with a 14 year old son, DJ Adams, a cool member of about three years who is 23 (his birthday was yesterday and we made him brownies), and the Turpins, a couple who feeds us often. They are really cool and have an 18 year old boy named Boyce. Those area the members with which we have the best realationship and see often.

There are lots of small animals here. Squirrels and rabbits abound bounding across the road. There are a few skunks too. Unfortunately, this results in lots of roadkill. Poor animals.

I think that's all for this week. I would like to share a quote that President sent out in his weekly email. "When obedience ceases to be an irritant and becomes our quest, in that moment God will instill us with power." -Ezra Taft Benson
I hope we all make it our quest to keep the commandments.

I love you all so much.
-Elder Burnham

Week ending 9-14-09

Friends and Family,

Not too much to write this week. (Sorry!) We had a district meeting on Tuesday. One elder in our district left and now our district leader is training a greenie. We still have a really young district.

We are still teaching Aaron Shanley. We met with him twice this week. We just found out that he is going to be moving the begining of October. He is still planning on being baptized here, and is excited about it. I hope he doesn't stop going to church after moving, but I don't think he will. He is the only really progressing investigator we have at the moment- we are working on enlarging our teaching pool.

We had dinner with a really cool member family this week. They are the Turpins. They are both about 25 and have an 18 month old baby. They just moved here a few weeks ago. They both served missions so they know how it is to be in our position. We have dinner with them again this week.

So most of the ward here is inactive. I think if every member came, the ward would be about three hundred, but we only get 40-60 depending on the week. We have lots of re-activation work to do, but they just don't seem to want to come to church! it's frustrating sometimes.

One of our members attends the community college here and has us over for dinner at the cafeteria there. We ate there this past week. When dinner was over, it was pouring, and our car was a three-minute walk away. We had just come from a meeting, so we had our suit coats on. We opened the door and took off. Rain was coming down in football sized drops, and puddles were EVERYWHERE. And these weren't just normal puddles- there were anywhere from three to five feet deep, and spanned miles and miles. At least, that's what it felt like. I ran with all my might, mind, and strength, laughing hysterically the whole way. Man, it was so fun. Needless to say, we both got soaked. Good times on the mission.

Okay that's all for this week, but I'd like to share a quote from Jesus the Christ by Talmage. "Prayer is made up of heart swells and the righteous yearnings of the soul, of suplication based on the realization of need, of contrition and pure desire."
That's going from memory, but I think it's word-for-word. I read it and really liked it. It's now hanging above my desk.

Love and miss you all,
Your Nebraskan Elder Burnham

Week ending 9-7

Hallo Friends and Family!!

Transfers were this past week. I am staying in Hastings with Elder Burton for six more weeks. I love this place.

The library is closed today so we are using a member's computer. I don't have much time to write because of that. It will be a short email.

We have an absolutely amazing investigator right now. His name is Aaron Shanley (I think I mentioned him about four weeks ago). He just showed up at church- never been to an LDS church or taken lessons before- and wanted to "be a Mormon" as he said it. He disappeared for three weeks but finally came back! We taught him Friday and we have three appointments set up with him next week. He soaked up everything we said and loved the Restoration video, which he wants to show his brother. "I definitely felt something," he said after our lesson. He is set for baptism for the end of this month.

I would love it if any of you could send me CDs or sheet music! Along with what I said last week, I could use:
Fred Jones Pt. 2 (sheet music)
Les Miserables CD (from our computer)
Thank you so much!!

I am still at the same adress. Send it there or just to the Mission home and they will forward it.

I love you and miss you all!
-Elder Burnham

P.S. Sorry it's so short.

Week ending 9-31-09 (but really 8-31)

Friends and Family,

First off, thank you all for your letters and emails!! I love getting them and look forward to hearing from ALL of you.

This week, Elder Burton and I had another baptism. We baptized three people from the Pendleton family. The husband was a convert at 9, and served a mission in the Canary Islands. He went inactive for a while, but wanted to get his life back no track. His wife has two ten-year-old twin sons and they have a five-year-old baby. We baptized the Wife and two sons. I performed the actual ordinance; it was a neat experience. The water was really low, however, and because of that, I had to redo one of the boys (his head didn't go all the way under). Brother Pendleton spoke at the baptism and it was really good. Missionary work is amazing.

Okay, random fact: the Hastings branch is part of the Kearney (pronounced car-knee ...weird, I know) Stake. Kearney stake is the largest geographical stake in the world. I guess that's what happens in Nebraska.

Transfers are this Thursday. I feel like I'm staying, but I don't know about Elder Burton. We'll just have to see.

I have two requests:
1- Can you send me some sheet music for Memory and other cool piano songs? I often go down to the church on preparation day and play, but I would really like some music to read. If you could also send the music for All of Me, by John Shmidt (I think it's in the book we have) I would love that.
2- Can you send me a few CDs? I don't have a CD player, but we can listen to them in the car. As of right now, we are using leftover CDs from other missionaries. They are good, but I would like some variety. Here are some suggestions of music I would really like:
-Mormon Tabernacle Choir
-Piano CDs (maybe cool-sounding hymns?)
-Soundtracks (Man from Snowy River and the like)
The sender would get my eternal love and might enjoy some Chipotle or something good when I get home....
Wait to send them till next week when you can send the package right to my appartment (I might be moving). Send letters to the mission office though.

Okay that's about all for this week. Sorry it's kind of short. I guess it's time for a little pre-mission insight for the Westwood Ward priests and any others who read it. Find some favorite scriptures and memorize the basic idea and the reference. Memorize one every week, and soon you will be armed with an arsenal of powerful passages. If you have at least one scripture no each topic, there will be few situations where one of them will not apply. The scriptures are so powerful, and we can harness that.

I love you all,
Elder Burnham

Week ending 9-24-09

Friends and Family,

I had a great week! We had a baptism- my first on the mission, and it was great. Her name is Audra, and she is 21. The baptism went great, with only one hang up. The member who took the towels home last time to wash them didn't bring them back. There are supposed to be a few at the church, but there weren't any. We were able to get some last minute, with a member there running over to a nearby member's home. We didn't find the real culprit for the missing towels until after the baptism was over. That means the missionaries got the blame. Go us. It all worked out though.

The sidewalks here are terrible. It seems like everyone gets to do the ones in front if their house however they want. They can choose from one of four options:
1-concrete right on the street
2-conrete about ten feet in
3-brick, half eaten by grass
4- no sidewalk at all
In some areas of the town it's almost like people make it a point not to have the same type as the person next to them. The sidewalk will be going along perfectly fine, and then it will suddenly dissappear. Thirty feet later, it will slowly reemerge... A few bricks and there with what seems like miles of overgrown grass inbetween. And then all of the sudden. Poof!! It's there again! But what's this? It ten feet over from where it was last time!
In areas like that, we usually just walk on the street.

So I said before that I have a really young companion. Actually, it's more like my whole district. There are six missionaries in my district. One is on his first transfer, three are on their second and one is on his third. The last one has been out just over a year (he's our district leader). They are all young, but they all rock.

Transfers are only a week and a helf away. So crazy. It seems like the first of August was only a few days ago. Time is already going so fast; I hate to see how it will be in a year. But I'm going to enjoy all my time while it's still here.

I was told that when you're on your mission, all the days of the week blend together. I'm surprised at how true this is. We drive by a middle school every day, and now that school has started, there are usually cars there. We drove by it on saturday and I couldn't understand why there were so few cars in the lot. A few seconds later it hit me- it's the weekend! Threre isn't any school today!

Okay well I'm out of time for this week, but I will leave some advice for all- especially those who are preparing for missions themselves:
Learn to love to pray. Pray earnestly. It is so important. In the MTC, we had a fireside on just that. If you look in the Book of Mormon, you will see prayer left and right. It is mentioned in the fifth verse of 1st Nephi, and in the last chapter of Moroni. There are numerous stories of how prayer brings miracles, and helps conversion. Christ even prays with the Nephites when he is with them. That's how important it is. May we all plead with the Lord every morning and evening and have a prayer in our hearts throughout the day.

Love you all,
Elder Burnham

Week ending 9-17-09

Hello Friends and family,

Thank you everyone for your emails and letters! I always enjoy them.
SO. I mentioned last week that I was going to try and buy an electric keyboard from the thrift store. We went, and they had one!! It was eight dollars, so I bought it. The keys are smaller than usual, but still playable. I love it. It's not as good as a piano, but it's enough to satiate my desire for music and the piano. It should fit in my suitcase, so I'm planning on taking it with me my whole mission.

Okay I meant to write about this last week, but I forgot. The first week I was here, I looked for refried beans, and COULD NOT FIND THEM. That either meant that I was just an idiot, or that they did not have them. Naturally, I decided to say it was the latter. Sadly, I was wrong. As it turns out, refried BEANS are not on the BEANS aisle.......... way to go, Walmart. Who would have thought??? I discovered the next week that there is a Mexican aisle, which consists solely of refried beans and taco shells- what a waste of space. In Mesa, the entire Walmart is a Mexican aisle. I was surprised to see that the signs in the Walmart here were only in English!! Anyway, moving on.

Story time: Wednesday morning, I went out on the balcony of our apartment, and looked down at our car. The passenger mirror was broken and just hanging there. I was incredulous. I asked Elder Burton if he knew anything about it (we had been on exchanges with the assistants the day before and he was driving that car). He was surprised too. We went down to check it out. We got to the bottom of the stairs and were met by another surprise. On each side of the doors leading into our apartment, there are glass panels. One of them was completely shattered, and the other was covered with cracks. We went the rest of the way out to the car to see the damage. It was broken and we would have to get a new part to have it fixed. Our car was the only one with the broken mirror, and the doors going to our apartment were the only ones broken. It was a little scary. I felt like we were being hunted. We looked on the windshield and there was a police business card with an insurance claim number on the back. We called the number and they just said to put that number on our insurance thing.
Well- as it all turns out, some girl in our apartment had a drunk boyfriend who felt like going on a little rampage in the middle of the night. He broke two car mirrors. We had the awesome luck of being one of them. He is in jail now. Now we have to go get our car fixed. Lame.

We had zone meeting Tuesday. Me and Elder Burton gave a training there. It went well. And we also get to give another one this Wednesday at interviews! Man we're so lucky. (For those of you who don't know, a training is where you get up in front of people and talk for about 25 minutes on an assigned topic that we as missionaries can do better at.)
Zone meeting was good though. We played dodge ball for about two hours after.

We went on exchanges Tuesday and Thursday this week, with the assistants to the president and our zone leaders. Not much to say, but I learned a lot. (can you tell I'm getting a little sick of writing?)

We set four more people for baptism this week. Mike- someone who I found with one of the APs, and the Pendletons- a family where the dad is a member but the wife and two ten-year-old kids are not. It's way exciting. Most definitely, the best thing about missionary work is seeing people change their lives for the better and finding greater joy because of what we teach them. We also have an investigator, Vihn Tran, who stopped smoking about a week ago. He is so determined. It is awesome.

I like to wave to people and see how many people wave back. It doesn't matter if we are in the car, or walking down the street. I wave to everyone I see (well, almost). It just makes me happy. Usually about 70 percent wave back. It's great.

This weekend was teh 12th annual Kool-Aid Days!! Yes, once a year, they celebrate koolaid here. And it's big. There were so many people. There were a whole bunch of blow up things, a band, and the worlds largest Kool-Aid stand!! I bought a shirt and a commemorative mug. I will send pictures home.

To the priests in Westwood ward back home:
Thank you for your emails! It's nice to hear from all you and I'm excited for you guys to go on missions as well! It's nice to know a little bit about what's going on back home.
The mission field is awesome. As I said earlier, the best part is seeing people change their lives because of what we teach. It brings such great joy. A mission is definitely worth all the preparation and sacrifice.
I recommend you all go to mission prep class. You will learn valuable things there that will help you prepare. I also suggest you prepare to enter the temple and make more covenants. It is an amazing place, and the more you prepare, the more you will get out of it.
Go on splits with the missionaries as much as possible. I'm glad I went as much as I did, but I definitely could have learned more if I had gone more frequently. Those experiences made the MTC a much better learning experience because I already had some missionary experiences to look back on. Splits are definitely worth the time.
I also suggest you become as familiar with the scriptures as you can. Learn how to study effectively, and learn to love it. Out here, you study an hour a day by yourself, and another hour with your companion. All the knowledge and studying habits you bring with you will help.
I'm excited for all of you to continue preparing and eventually serve a mission! Check back here every week and I'll try to include some more advice in every email.

Love you all,
Elder Burnham

Week ending 9-10-09

Family and Friends.

It seems I have had yet another bad experience with myLDSmail. I sent my email last week and it said it went through. I logged on today, however, and had a report saying it never went through. VERY frustrating. I resent it and I hope last week's and this week's get through. I will try to be a little less violent with this computer, seeing as they might take away my library card if I destroy the computer.

I got a free bike this week!! We had zone conference this week on tuesday. Apparently Elder Plowman's dad had called Elder and Sister Johnson (the mission car coordinators) and asked them to find a bike for him. They had it in their car at zone cenference, but Elder Plowman already had gotten one. I told her I needed one stil so I got it!! I'm so rad.

The rest of zone conference was awesome. We learned a lot and it got me excited to do the work. We have zone meeting this week.

I made cookies last preparation day. They were interesting. We didn't have brown sugar, so we were going to go get some and just put it in at the end. We ended up not getting any so I just added more regular sugar. I also put in more flour because they didn't seem like the right consistency. I guess I added too much because they turned out kind of cakey. They were still good though. I will do better next time I make them.

So the guy who just showed up at sacrament meeting (who you won't read about until today[curse that email...]) hasn't called and didn't come to church again. I'm still hoping he calls this week or comes to church next sunday.

I have fallen in love. The piano in the chapel is amazing. It is a nice grand that sits across from the organ. I play it every time we are at the church. Sadly, I think I'm the only person who does. They use the organ in sacrament and I'm the only one who can play it in priesthood. It sounds so beautiful though. I really miss playing the piano. We are going to stop by the thrift store today and see if they have any electric keyboards I can snag for the appartment.

Well, that's about it for this week. The letter's kind of short, but I think it will be okay since you get two week's worth all at once.

Later-
Elder Burnham

Week ending 9-3-09

Family and Friends,

The COOLEST THING EVER happened this yesterday. Well, the coolest as far as missionary work goes. We were greeting people waiting for sacrement meeting to start when a menber came in and told us there was someone who had never been to an LDS church or met with the missionaries. We rushed out to talk to him. He told us that he had moved to Hastings about three months ago. He was raised Catholic but didn't really believe they followed the Bible. He had looked into BYU Hawaii and came to see "the requirements for being Mormon. He said he knew we didn't drink or smoke and he was the same way, and wanted to surround himself with like-minded people. He asked how long it would take before he could be baptized and wondered how many lessons he could take a week! I didn't know what to say!!!! It seemed too good to be true!!! I can't wait to see how it turns out. I'm really hopeful.

So I seem to blank whenever I come to write letters, so throughout the week I wrote down what I wanted to write about. I will just put them in the order they are in in my planner.

I saw fireflies!!!!! Ha ha I love it. It made me so so happy. I have always wanted to see them. They are smaller than I expected, but still cool. The light up for only about a second while they are flying and then go dark again. It makes me giddy every time I see them.

So traffic is pretty weird here in Hastings. In the residential streets, sometimes they have what I call a 4-way-go. There are no stop signs on any of the streets leading to the intersection, so you just have to yield. The thing is though, not all of them are like that. Even though I don't drive, I have gotten in the habit of checking the OTHER way for stop signs, to determine what kind of intersection it is: A four-way, a two-way, or a no-way stop
.
We set someone for baptism this week!! Her name is Audra. She is 21 I think. She will be baptized the 22. I am so excited. It will be my first.

So you all know how my companion is only on his second transfer? It turns out that I am two months older that hin. Weird. We also taught Audra the third lesson. I had only taught it once in the MTC, but Elder Burton had never taught it. Crazy to think that I would have taught that lesson more times than my trainer. This experience is helping us both to become more mature and experienced missionaries.

Dad- That's awesome that you got the Lumina sold. I feel like a burden has been lifted from me! I do feel a little sorry for the guy who bought it though...

So a weird thing happened. We were helping someone move, so we were both in street clothes. I had on one of my more favorite pair of jeans. But then the thought struck me that they weren't comfortable! SO weird. I always loved wearing jeans back home. I guess I'm just more comfortable in a suit and tie now.

So my companion had this weird way of doing his hair. it makes me laugh, so I thought I would share it. It is a combination of combing the hair all forward with the front sticking up, and combing it to the center, like a fohawk (is that how you spell it?). The result is a piont of hair right at the front of his head. I think of a unicorn every time I look at it. I will send some pics of us next week.

Also- Could I get a picture of little Brigster? I miss that kid.

Our ward mission leader here is Bro Brown (kind of a coincidence eh?). He is old and just a funny guy. He never gives a straight answer. He always mutters "I suppose.." and then fades away into nothing. He also has a forest of hair in his ear. Some of his ear hairs are longer than my head hairs. He is truly an old man.

So because we are on daylight savings time, it gets dark really late here. The sun rises and sets about the same time we do: about 6:30 and 10:30 respectively. (okay maybe about nine thirty, but is sounded cooler that way.)
In the Kmart by our appartment, they have an entire corner dedicated to Huskers items- shirts, jerseys, cups. It's crazy how devoted to the team the whole state is.

Shopping last week: We went to Wal Mart to get groceries. I wanted to make some chese crisps (quesadillas), so I bought tortillas and cheese. To spice things up a bit, I wanted to get some refried beans too. We went to the beans aisle, but they were nowhere to be found!!! THEY DON"T SELL REFIRED BEANS IN NEBRASKA! What is this?????? They have every variety of chili and pinto and black bean you can think of, but not refried beans. I was astounded and severly disappointed. I will have to go without, or make my own.

So that is everything I wrote down. Time to move on and respond to your emails. Thanks to everyone who sent one! (Mom, Brandon, Annie, Wesley, and Zeus [aka pops])
Mom- Yes I remember going to Wheel of fortune. It was a couples edition for Vallentine's Day. It was a good memory.
Brandon- Thank you for your travel log. I read it this morning and it was very enjoyable. Also. That is lame about the ipod. But it still works. It's not like it costed very much anyway... :)
Annie- I look forward to your letter.
Wesley- Congrats on the new CD! yes I miss music very much. I just sing songs in my head now.
Dad- That's cool that mom is Relief society President! I remember when she was in 4th ward. I know she will do a good job. Also, the attaatchment does work. You can just send it like that from now on.

I hope I didn't forget anyone or anything!! If I did, I might just end up writing a letter later today. It seems like a do that almost every week.

Your missionary,
Elder Burnham

In Nebraska Now

Dear Family and Friends,

I feel a long letter comming on. I am writhing this from the library here in Hastings, Nebraska Pop~20,000- he birth place of Kool-Aid!! They actually have something called Kool-Aid days coming on August 12. We'll probably end up stopping by there.

There are lots of cool, old buildings here. Many of them are churches- small cathedrals with large spires. It seems like there is a church on almost every corner! It's probably pretty close to that. But lots of churches means lots of people who faithfully go to other churches. Lots of Catholics and such. The most common answer when we try to talk to someone is that they already go to a church and are happy with that. It can get frustrating.

My companion is Elder Burton. Both our last names start with BUR... So sometimes on the phone people aren't sure who it is. He is super new. This is only his second transfer, which means that this time last week, he was still getting trained. SCARY. We are both learning a lot, however, and will be good missionaries by the time our six weeks are over.
We don't ride bikes in this area. I'm going to try to snag one off a missionary going home next transfer; we'll see hoe it goes. We do have a car, though, and that's what we use to get around. He is the assigned driver. The weather here is not too bad. It hangs around 80-90 but is humid as can be. Two days ago I saw a thermometer that measured temperature and humidity. It was 85 degrees and 55 percent humidity. Surprisingly it doesn't bother me as much as I thought it would! I just get sweaty a little quicker, but what's a little perspiration to a missionary??

We had an adventure getting to Omaha. We left the MTC at 6:00 Tuesday morning. We took a bus to the Salt Lake Airport, went through security and checked luggage, and then waited about an hour for our flight. We got on and it started off as a normal flight. But the cabin wasn't pressurizing correctly. My ears were popping all over the place. I felt like I was scuba diving and had to clear them every minute or so. We hit almost 10,000 feet when the captain realized this. If we went any higher, the oxygen masks would have dropped because the pressure wasn't right. So he basically cut the engines. In a few seconds, we went from climbing to a fairly rapid descent. It was kind of scary. Then the air conditioning went out and the plane got really hot. The flight attendant came on and told us the deal and said we would have to land *lots of groans* but in order to get to landing weight, we had to fly around for about 15 minutes to burn off our fuel. We did so and got back to the ground. Some workers came on the plane to check it out and said that it would be a long fix so we would have to switch planes. We unloaded and waited about another hour and a half until we left again. Our next plane was sweet. It was straight out of the factory- it had never been flown before. It was also far more spacious. There were some open seats in front right behind first class so I stole one. I had SO much leg room!! I felt like a king. But because we didn't make it on time, we missed our connecting flight from Denver (Yes, we had a layover on such a short flight). Because there were 13 of us traveling together, we had to wait until 9:40 for the next flight to Omaha. Eight hours in the airport. Eight long hours. We finally got to Omaha at about midnight. We were picked up by President Kunz and didn't get to the hotel till about one. So in the end, we left at 6:00 in the morning and didn't get there until midnight. It would have been faster to drive....

The next day we had orientation at the mission home and then went to see the temple and the Mormon Trail Center, as well as the cemetery. It was a good afternoon. We all went out tracting after that with some older missionaries. I went with Elder Marchant. He had just been released as an AP and sent home Friday. He was cool. We talked to a guy and gave him the first lesson outside his house while he painted. He was pretty receptive.
That's pretty much all I have to write. So until next Monday, farewell.

-Elder Burnham

P.S. Nebraskans do NOT have accents.

P.P.S. Here is my new adress. When it gets toward the end of August, start sending them to the mission home again.
Elder Awesome Burnham
3020 Parklane Drive #5
Hastings, NE 68901