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.
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
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