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