9-20-10 Elder Orellana

Family,

I love you all. Here I am again. Basically I have only about 5 minutes to write today. We are now 5 missionaries, instead of four. One new one does not have a library card, so I am sharing a computer time with another. I will try to write lots.

My new companion is Elder Orellana. He was born in Guatemala, but moved here when he had 6 months. He is from Utah, but has lived a little bit in Arizona. He has been out 6 months, and just finished training. We are speaking spanish a lot, and both improving. He speaks just a little bit better than me.

I loved serving with Elder Markham. He is an amazing missionary. He came out ready, and has such a strong testimony. He helped me be so much better, and strengthened my own testimony. I miss him. But I know he prepared me to serve with Elder Orellana. I am excited for this transfer.

Rosalva came to church today with her mom, but the two others we were planning on did not. Sad day. We did have 47 people in our Spanish sacrament meeting, which was phenomenal.

The work goes well. I love you all and love God. Be missionaries.

-Elder Burnham

9-13-10 Good week.

Family,

The computers are rather busy today so I will not have much time. I will try to write a good letter still.

Thsi week was a really good week. We found 5 new investigators, and most seem pretty solid. I am excited to work with them. Here is a brief list of some of them (and others):

Alma- She is Evangeical. The first time we went, she said, "There's no comitment is there? I already have a church." She used to be cathilic, but was converted. She says it was difficult, and she faced opposition from her family, but was strong. We have met with her twice now and she said this, "I don't wan't to change, but if it is what God wants of me, I will do it." She agres 100% that she needs to ask God. She knows God sent us to her, for whatever reason.

The Hernandez Family- We have met with them three times now. I wrote this about them last week, "We found a cool family this week. It is a mother and Father and their children. They have 6 kids and we have met three. The mother seems really interested, and she wants to do what's right for her children. One of the children seems quite interested too. Her name is Dolores and she is 15. They all went to the Johova's Witness church (minus the dad I think) but don't any more." They are a really good family. They pray every day as a family, and are just such good people. We taught them yesterday, and I taught the parents in Spanish while Elder Markham taught two of the kids in English. It worked really well. They said they would pray to know if the Book of Mormon was true. They ask good questions, and I can tell they really want to learn.

Maria, Ricardo, Cristina- We knocked into this family two weeks ago, but they didn't seem too interested. We finally got to get in and teach them Saturday. The mom (Maria) and the 18-year-old (Cristina) are the most interested. Cristina didn't like how other churches said that they were right and if you didn't believe exactly what they did you were going to Hell. We were able to answer her questions. There are a bunch of other kids, and they kept coming in and out and listening for parts. When we finished, the mom asked, "When can you guys come back?" and the daugher said her favorite part was the first vision. They should come to church next Sunday. I am really excited for them.

Rosalva- She set a baptismal date, and is planning on getting baptised on October 9th. It's exciting.

Mauricio- He came to church for most of Sacrament meeting yesterday, right after he got back from work at McDonald's (our Sacrament meeting is last). We talked about how church is such a good thing, and then at the end of the lesson, he said, "I am going to talk to my supervisor to see if I can get Sundays off. He doesn't feel ready for baptism yet, but we are going to continue working with him.

We have some other investigators that should be coming along soon, but those are the ones we are teh most excited for right now. I am glad for the privelage to be able to teach them. They all are great people and increase my faith.

I love Elder Markham. We are working hard and being really obedient, and the Lord is blessing us. It seems like we just keep finding amazing people. He understands a lot of Spanish, so he can follow along with the lessons. He usually adds comments in English and I translate. It work pretty well. I will get a new companion at transfers this Friday. This turned out to be wuite a good letter. I love you all. Thanks for your love and prayers.

-Elder Burnham

9-7-10 Elder Markham

Family,

As of an hour ago, Elder Palomeque is no longer my companion. It is weird. It went so fast. My new companion is Elder Markham. I was going to write about him last week, but didn't. He went into the MTC to learn Portuguese, so he could go to Brazil. He couldn't get a visa, so he came here to wait. He has been in the field about two and half weeks now. He was with the Zone Leaders, but is going to be with me for the rest of the transfer (10 days). IT is going to be strange having a companion that doesn't speak Spanish in an area of all Spanish. He does understand quite a bit though. He is still so new, that he still has that "Greenie Fire", and we are going to work super hard and be really obedient. Elder Palomeque was a hard worker, but didn't have a huge respect for the rules. I miss him though. Elder Markham is from Provo, Utah. I will send pictures.

Oh- Preparation day is on Tuesday because President wanted us to work on the Holiday. Just in case you were wondering.

So another big change here is that our District leader and his companion- those with whom we share the car- got a mini missionary. He is From Omaha, and will be with them for a week. That is going to be strange and exciting. It reminds me of when I went with Elder Crook for three days. I loved it.

We found a cool family this week. It is a mother and Father and their children. They have 6 kids and we have met three. The mother seems really interested, and she wants to do what's right for her children. One of the children seems quite interested too. Her name is Dolores and she is 15. They all went to the Johova's Witness church (minus the dad I think) but don't any more.

There was a baptism this Saturday by the English Elders in our ward. We went, and Rosalva came too. During, Rosalva asked us when there would be other baptisms. We told her the 18th and 25th. After, she was talking to an English Missionary (she speaks some English), who asked her if she was going to be baptized. She said soon. She told him she was deciding between the 18th and 25th. I am so excited for her. She loves church and she knows it is true. I want to see her get baptized and continue faithful in the church.

Um... The end.

-Elder Burnham

8-30-10

Family,

We had a really good week this week! We found some good investigators and were able to work with some others that we already had.

My companion goes home in a week. It is wierd. Don't worry- I am not trunky at all. Enough said on that.

Could someone get a four generation chart for me and send it out? just a random request.

On Saturdays we usually go to Le Mars to see Rosalva. This Saturday we also went to Sioux Center to find people because it looked like there were a lot of hispanics there. We found some people we could teach. One of their names was Agustine. He let us right in, and we taught him for about 20 minutes. He had talked a little bit with missionaries in Mexico, and has now been in the US for 4 years. He left his family there. He seemed really receptive. He prays every night, and he told us he would read the intro to the Book of Mormon. It was also his birthday. We gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon and a pamphlet and told him they were presents from God.

Last week I mentioned a referal we got from the English Elders, named Mauricio. He is a really good investigator. We taught him two more times this week, one of which was at the church building. The spirit was strong. We went over the Gospel of Jesus Christ and ended at the baptismal font. We invited him to be baptized the 18th of September and he said he would try all he could to do it, although he says he is still struggling with faith. We have only taught him three times and look forward to teaching him more.

We had gotten a referal from a member for a Jehova's Witness. We have taught him at the member's house three times now. This last time was really frustrating. We had thought he was making a little progress, but he fell back on his old beliefs this time. He won't accept the Book of Mormon. He says it could have been inspired, but won't read it. IT was kind of a lame end to a great week.

I am out of time. I have some things to write next week.

-Elder Burnham

8-23-10

Family,

Things are going good here. We have found some good investigators and are excited to work with them. We have been in the finding mode here these last two weeks, but we have gotten a lot of potential investigators that we are going to go contact and hopefully teach! We made a list of all the people (referrals and potentials) we can contact and it was huge. I am excited for it. We also got a referral from the English elders named Mauricio. We taught him yesterday and he seems really interested and had good questions. We have a return appointment, so hopefully it goes well. I always enjoy getting good referrals.

We are still working with Rosalva. We taught her in a member's home this Saturday here in Sioux City. Her mother (An eighty or so year old Jehova's Witness) was there as well, and we were able to include her in the lesson as we reviewed the restoration. Rosalva is planning on coming to a baptism this Saturday, which we are excited for. Maybe she will feel the spirit strongly and have the desire to make the decision to be baptized.

So this last week we have had the privilege of praying with drunk people on the street twice. That's always a fun experience. I'm not sure if they remember, but we did what we could. We also meet these three guys who thought they were totally gangster. They told us "This is our neighborhood. If they ever be any favor we can do for you, just let us know." It was funny.

It has been way hot here. It has been in the 90s and like 80% humidity. The other Elders have had the car, so we were walking the whole week. My undershirt would usually be soaking after about 10 minutes outside. Needless to say, I am excited for fall.

I hope all goes well for you. Sorry I don't feel like writing a lot today. Love,

-Elder Burnham

8-16-10

To the Fam,

Hullo! Here I am again at the library, writing yet another email. It seems like I was just here. Do the weeks go this fast for you guys? I sure hope not.It's kind of ridiculous.

So the work is going about normal. No- it's going a little better than normal. We have some good investigators, and made contact with several more this week. I am not sure if we will have any baptisms this transfer, but we should have some early next transfer. Rosalva Torres is the closest.

She is an amazing investigator. She understands every reading assignment we leave with her, and she repeats it back to us in detail when we ask about it. She said that she usually doesn't enjoy reading religious books, but she does with the Book of Mormon. She likes church and feels the spirit there. We have been talking to her about baptism a lot. She knows it is right, but she wants to make the decision on her own time. I feel like she will take the decision soon. We are planning on doing something called pause, ponder in prayer with her this week to help her get the revelation through prayer that the time is Now- that there is no reason to delay the blessing of baptism. Pause ponder in prayer is something that President Kunz brought up about 8 months ago. It is something that we can do with our investigators or by ourselves. We pray, and give thanks and the normal stuff, and then we ask a specific yes or no question, and then pause and wait. The pause can be anywhere from 20 to 60 seconds, and during it, we listen to our feelings and give God an opportunity to talk back. It is really cool. It is like on demand revelation, as President Kunz says. I hope I haven't explained that in an earlier email. if so, Oh well.

So my companion is Elder Palomeque. I wrote a little bit about him last week, but now I know him better. He is a big joker. He is always saying something funny or trying to trick people to believe something that is not true. He usually tells us right after though that he's just messing. He is a big people person. He has no fear of anyone and just talks away. One of his companions told him he should be a salesperson. I think he would be really good at it. But he really just loves the people. Sometimes it is a challenge for me to teach with him just because I am not as big of a talker as he it. But things are going good. I enjoy serving with him.

Completely random thought: Do you remember that one time at the Burnham Family reunion when Brandon made an icecream cone with mustard in it and then told Brad he didn't think he could eat it in one bite?

So Elder Palomeque's license expired on the 10th, so I have ben driving. We are actually in a car share, so the first ward elders have the car for a week and then we get it for a week. We had it this week. We try to walk a lot still, so we can contact people on the street. Well, I am out of time, so I will talk to you all next week! Love ya,

-Elder Burnham

8-9-10 Sioux City

Family,


I hope you all enjoyed the pictures I sent home. I bought a bigger card and thought you would enjoy a big batch of pictures from me. Looking back at pictures from the beginning of my mission, and the ones Lindsey and Tanner sent me from my farewell, I realize that I have grown quite a bit. It is weird.


Transfers were this week. I expected to stay in Crete, because I had only been there one transfer, but God had different plans for me. I got transferred to Sioux City. Our mission used to have just five stakes: Omaha, Papilion, Council Bluffs, Lincoln, and Kearney. But we recently (July 1st) got the Sioux City Stake from the Iowa Des Moines Mission. It is north of Omaha about 90 minutes. I am here in Sioux City Spanish, with Elder Palomeque. He is from Mexico, where he lived until he was 5. He moved to NY and lived there until his mission. He speaks perfect Spanish and I love it. Hopefully I will learn a lot from him before he leaves. He is on his last transfer, but is going to go home a week early for school. So I only have him for a four and a half weeks more. It is going to go fast.


I got to pack up ALL my stuff again and leave the god old town of Crete. I am getting kind of sick of packing and unpacking. Hopefully God wants me to stay here a while. I really like the area, and the members here area really good. Elder Palomeque is very good at working with the members, and I look forward to learning that from him, as it is one of my weak points. Sioux City is HUGE! my biggest area before this was Hastings with only 25,000 people, and now there are more that 100,000 here. I am getting used to it. It's a good in-between size for if I ever serve in Omaha or Lincoln.


We had an investigator, Rosalva, come to church. We taught her Saturday, and she felt the spirit really strong! We had a member there and it was nice. She also brought her 70ish year old mother to church. They both really enjoyed it- Rosalva said her favorite part was the Sacrament. It was a good week. Hopefully we will have a baptism or two this month.


We live in a castle. It's rad. I will send pictures next week (I don't have any yet). But I think we may have to move out next transfer.


There was a crazy storm last night. There was a whole bunch of rain and lightning, and like 50 mile an hour winds. It was insane. A big branch across the street from us fell, as well as hundreds of others across the city. This morning, we saw a HUGE branch that fell on a house. It was like 30-40 feet long, and about 2 feet wide at the thickest part. It made quite a dent in the roof. We were instructed to stay inside to be safe during the storm.


I love you all,
-Elder Burnham

8-2-10 End of transfer

Momma, Pops, the olders, the youngers, and whoever else might read this,

Time goes so fast! It is insane. This last month was the fastest of my mission and I'm not sure how I like it. I am really gaining a better testimony of how precious our time is. There are still times when I just want to get back to the apartment at night and rest, but I have learned a lot about the value of time.
There are a lot of things I have learned this transfer. I have worked harder this transfer than any other of my mission, and it has been the most difficult of my mission, but I have grown more these six weeks than ever before. I really can't describe how much I have matured and grown. I think of what the pioneers went through, and how much they sacrificed, and they must have grown so much closer to the Lord. That's what trials and hard times do (if we have the right attitude and rely on Him). I know this is the Lord's work. I am glad to be a part of it.


We had a cool experience this week in finding. We saw some hispanics going into a house, so we decided to write it down and knock it later. The next day, or the one after, we were driving by it and I felt prompted to stop. I drove past and went a few more blocks, but knew I needed to turn around. I did, and an older man answered. He has 7 kids, and he seemed a little bit preocupied. We told him we would like to share a message with him and his family, and he told us thanks, but that they were catholic. We Again testified of how important our message was and how it would help him and his family. Elder St.Clair asked him if he had ever gone through any family difficulties, and he said he was right then. We asked one more time if we could share our message with him, and just waited. After about 15 seconds, he said we could come back another time. inspired questions and pausing worked for us.


We also had a good experience with an investigator. I had taught Videl about twice, who had talked with missionaries about ten years ago. He didn't seem too interested, and had not read the Book of Mormon or come to church. This week, we got to teach his wife Guadalupe too. She hadn't been there the other times. We talked a litle bit about the Book of Mormon. The conversation led to how there are many churches and how they bash on each other. Her husband piped in and told her how Mormons don't do that. We shared the Joseph Smith story, and when we got to the first vision, we told them to close their eyes and imagine they were there with him. I shared the first vision, speaking slowly and with gaps to give them plenty of time to imagine it. After a ten second pause after, I opened my eyes, and every one else's were still closed. I closed mine and waited a little longer. We asked them how we felt. Guadalupe opened her eyes, and told us how she felt tingly all over and like she was floating in the air. She was smiling really big. We told her it was the spirit, and promised her that same spirit if she read the Book of Mormon and came to church. They said they had family coming that weekend, but she would try to read the Book of Mormon. We asked them to be baptized, and they said they wanted to learn a little more first. But it was a really spiritual lesson.


Luis is a 15 year old kid we are working with. He wanted to come to church, but we had problems with the ride. We could not get ahold of him Saturday on the phone or in person. We finally found him home Sunday about two hours before church started. It taked about 45 minutes to get to the church building. We talked to the Avila family (the only people driving to church from Crete that week) and they had left early for an interview with the bishop. There was no one else he could ride with- we were devastated. When we told him, he seemed really disappointed that he could not come. I think it may have helped him realize that he really wants it. I hope he can come this next week, and eventually be baptized. He is a good kid.

The Alarcon Family was hard to work with this week. They canceled our appointment on Wednesday because he was sick. They didn't come to church because then she was sick. I don't know how bad it was- if it was really bad, or just an excuse, but hopefully we can teach them this week and have them come to church. She should set a baptismal date on Wednesday.

Have a good week all! Love you,

-Elder Burnham

7-26-10 Good progress

Family,

SO. We have been having a little difficulty getting people to progress this transfer. I feel like we made some good progress this week. We were at the Alarcon's house this Wednesday, a part member family where the wife is not a member. We have been trying to get ahold of them for weeks, but have not been able to have a good sit-down lesson. She has a good testimony of the restoration and the plan of salvation, we are just trying to get her to finally decide to make the decision to be baptised. Elder St.Clair used some inspired questions and it was great. He asked if she had prayed like Joseph Smith did. She said yes, so he asked what she found out. She said she felt like it was finally the time to be baptized. We committed her to pray about a date, and she said she would. It was cool hearing from her that she wanted to finally be baptized. We also invited them to come to church, which they have not done in about two months. They said they would try, but usually when Hispanics say that it actually means no. They didn't come. We were disappointed.

We have also been meeting with Gabriela. I wrote about how we found her last week. She is such a nice person, and it is a shame that she is having problems with her husband. We met with her Wednesday and talked about the book of Mormon and read a little bit of it. She said she would come to church, and she seemed like she really would. We went back Friday, and she had not had a chance to read the Book of Mormon, but she said she wanted to and was going to try after we left. We shared with her the message of the restoration. We asked her again about oming to church, but she didn't seem to sure about it this time. She ended up not coming. Hopefully next week.

We knocked the door of a Cuban guy on Friday. If you don't know, Cubans talk funny and don't say the ends of their words. It makes them really hard to understand. He said we could come back the next day, which we did. He had a friend over there, whe was watching TV. For about two minutes, he did not say anything. But once the guy we were there to see introduced him, he wouldn't stop talking. The friend was about 50, and went off about the History of Cuba, and religions there. We couldn't really talk much. But after a while he went off about his own religious beliefs. He said he believed in brujeria, which in Spanish means witchcraft. I was pretty wierded out, and didn't know what to do. My companion didn't know what it meant, and assumed it was some Cuban religion. He proceeded to tell us how they weren't how everyone here thought they were, and that they didn't hurt people or anything. We made an excuse to leave the first chance we got, and left a restoration pamphlet with the guy we had originally gone to see. He didn't seem too interested after all. Interesting experience, though.

I am out of time, but hope you all enjoy my letter. I just bought a new memory card, and transfered all my pictures to it. I will send my old card home so you can all look at all my mission pictures so far. There are also some videos on there. Hopefully you enjoy it all. Love you all!

-Elder Burnham

7-19-10

Family and All,

We had a busy week this week. Monday we had a Zone Activity. We went up to Lincoln the last part of preparation day, and met with the whole zone. President Kunz even came. We had a barbecue, and played football and ultimate Frisbee. It was really fun, because I had not done any of those things in a while. I was sore the next day.

Wednesday, we had a training meeting. The missionary department just came out with a new series of 8 trainings for missionaries, to help us better teach and adjust to investigators needs. These will help standardize what missionaries are trained on around the world. We will have 4 training sessions the next two weeks, with two every month. This training session, we learned about how to better find the Lord's elect, and how to teach to investigators needs by using inspired questions. It was good stuff. We have been trying to apply them in our daily teaching. I felt like we did alright with asking questions before, but we have really improved, both in quantity and in quality. We get more feedback from our investigators, and they understand better. I also think they are more comfortable with us, and know we are there for them, not for us.

Saturday, we had a group activity. It was a carne asada lunch at the park/lake with activities. We invited some people, but no one from Crete showed up, sadly. Lincoln Elders did have a few investigators. It was fun. We had a balloon toss with towels and teams of two. We also played soccer. We enjoyed it.

Sunday, we had about 45 minuted in between getting back from church and a dinner appt. We had an appointment with a back up planned. The appointment fell through. As I thought about the back up, I doubted she would be there. But as I did, the house next to her came to mind. I felt we should knock it. Indeed, she was not there, so we knocked the door. No one answered. But I had seen a little hispanic kid around back, so we went around there. There was a mom, with 4 kids. Her name was Gabriela. We talked to her, and had a good conversation. Aparently she is Evangelical/Pentecostal. She has a lot of faith, but her Husband is a dumb face. He is not religious, and she is having some troubles with him. She said she almost didn't go to church that day even. We left her a proclamation to the world, and will try back later.

I am a slow writer. It is frustrating. It always takes me forever to get out what I want to say, whether or not I am on a computer. So my time is up, but I will write more next week! Love all of you.

-Elder Burnham

7-12-10

Family,

The work is picking up here. I like it. This week we taught some neat investigators. The first ones were Benedicto and Sara. They are a couple we found knocking (how we find 90 percent of them). They told us we could come back another time, and so we tried them when they said they would be available, and about 5 other times. We finally said we would try them one more time, and they were there! We taught them the first half of the first lesson, and then Sara kind of unloaded on us. She told us that she has diabetes and a problem with her feet that are hard for her. She told us that she was a 7th day advantist in Guatemala, but isn't active here. She said that she went several times, but it didn't seem like people really cared for here there. She stopped going, and she said that no one from that church, or any church, has visited them since. They were grateful and surprised that we had come by. As she was talking, I could really feel God's love for them, and felt privileged to be able to teach them. Since then, we have taught them about the Book of Mormon, families, and we watched the Restoration video with them, which they liked. They seem like they have a lot of potential to progress. We just need to get them to church and to consistently read the Book of Mormon.

We also taught Manuel. The ELders found him before I got here, but it was difficult to get a hold of him. He lives in the basement of a house of some staunch Catholics, who like to drink, and are not terribly interested. We finally got a hold of him, and taught him about eternal families. He lost a 20-year-old son, who was never baptized. Being aroung a lot of catholics, he was probably told that his son was going to Hell. We told him there was hope, and he seemed so interested. He told us that is felt good to hear that. He wants to learn- he has said several times that faith comes by hearing the word. We hope he reads that Book of Mormon. I don't think he has a TV, which would mean he had lots of free time to read.

Momma gave me some suggestions on how to better emails home. They have been getting lame-ish lately. I will try to use a few of them every week to spice things up.

A typical day here goes somewhat like this: The night before, we plan from 9-9:30 for the next day. We usually have an appointment or two, and then we put down names of investigators and potentials in the rest of the hours. 10:30 is bed time. At 6:30 we wake up and excercize. We then shower and get ready for the day. 8:00-9:00 is personal study. 9:00-10:00 is companionship study. We share what we learned in personal study, read from the rule book, and make lesson plans for the day. Sometimes we do roleplaying to help us improve specific things. We then study the language for an hour, followed by lunch. Then we proselyte! We go carry out our plans. Many times our plans fall through, and so we knock doors, or talk to people on the streets to try to find more investigators. On a normal day, we teach anywhere from 1-3 lessons. We also teach some less-actives, although there are not many here. Some days are really good, and we teach lots, but others are really hard and we end up doing a lot of finding. The days are rare that we don't knock at least a few doors. We take an hour for dinner, usually at about 5:00. We proselyte until 9:00 and then we do it all over again!

I hope you enjoy the letter- I always enjoy yours! Love you all

-Elder Burnham

PS My companion had a "hair cutting incident". I will take a picture and send it next week.

7-6-10 4th of July

Family,

We had a crazy week of finding! We tracted up the wazoo and found six new investigators. Some of them seem really interested, so we are excited to teach them. I will let you know how it goes.

We are not allowed to let off fireworks, but we are alowed to watch them. An English member family here in Crete had us over, and they set some off (they are completely legal here). They were really cool. The whole city of Crete was smokey. It really sounded like a war zone. It reaminded me of the people who fought for the freedom of our country. God was with them, preparing the way for the restoration of the gospel here. The fireworks comtinued into the night (later than I would have liked) like they did back then, giving "proof through the night that our flag was still there." I liked it. Arizona should legalize fireworks.

I was in a writing mood earlier, but not any more. Sorry. Oh- last preparation day and this one we did make something cool. I will send pictures. They go about 15 feet.

Love you all. I hope you are doing well.

-Elder Burnham

6-28-10 Crete

Family,

Transfers were on Thursday. I found out Wednesday that I would be going to Crete with Elder St.Clair. Crete is a Spanish area, a town of about 6,000 located 25 miles SW of Lincoln, where we go to church. Elder St.Clair is on his second transfer. He is from Queen Creek area, which makes him my first companion from AZ. Yay! He Wes trained by Elder Petersen, who is the one who told me I could and should tell President that I wanted to switch to Spanish. Elder Petersen also trained Elder Hepworth (my second companion) in Columbus. Crete was actually exactly the place I wanted to come, so I am excited to be here.

The weather here has been rather lame the last two days. It has been in the high 90s with 40-50% humidity. It makes for lots of sweating, especially if we are walking instead of driving. It makes for good memories though. Saturday when we were our walking we saw a garage sale (they are plentiful here in Crete). I saw a computer for cheap so I bought it. It is sitting in our apartment right now. It works and is pretty fun. It actually only cost 50 cents. I will send a picture of it.

The group here is about 20 people. We are a part of the Capitol Ward in Lincoln. The group is full of a lot of good people. We had three les-actives come, including one who hasn't been for about a year. It was a neat experience to see him enjoying church and his old memories coming back to him. There are two English members that live here and go to the Seward branch (Seward is N of Lincoln, about 5000 people). They feed us occasionally. This week on Friday, we got fed by Sister Herrick. We had corn dogs. There were plenty, so I ate 6. I think it was the first time in my life that I have had my complete fill of corn dogs. They were delicious, but not too healthy. We had ice cream sandwiches for dessert.

One of our investigators is Luiz. He is 15. They left him the restoration and he loved it- he watched it three times. We talked to him Friday about the Gospel- faith, repentance, baptism, the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. He seemed pretty daunted by the prospect of baptism. We hope we didn't scare him. We asked him to read 2 Ne 31 and pray to know if baptism is what the Lord wants him to do. He has already prayed about the restoration, without being asked. He saw it in the pamphlet that he was given and did it. I am excited for him, but he will be out of town for about a week.

That's all for this week. Love you all.

-Elder Burnham

6-21-10 Zone Conference and Temple

Family and All,

We had Zone Conference, Interviews, and the Temple this week. It was a good week. In Zone Conference, we talked about qualifying for the spirit, and the Book of Mormon. We each recieved a small, flat clear stone to take with us to remind us to stay pure for the spirit. Our mission President counseled us to keep it in our pockets always. I felt the spirit there and I loved it. The next day we went to the Temple. It was the most spiritual experience I have had there so far in my life. I receipted many impressions from the spirit, and everything just seemed to make so much sense. It is so nice to see our mission president and other missionaries I know and love there in the temple. I hope those of you who can go to the Temple do so as often as you can.

Fireflies have finally come out! I love them. The weather is pretty cool too. There have been a lot of crazy thunder storms. I like it lots.

I love you all,

-Elder Burnham

6-14-10 Progress

Friends and Family,

We had a decent week this week.I wrote last week about our goal to find new investigators. We did not wuite reach that goal, but because of our dilligence, We had some good success. We should also have some more new investigators this coming week.

We taught Jerry Summers on Thursday. He is a non-member father of a less-active member family. He has been meeting with missionaries for quite a while. We heard that because the land lord was being dumb, they were going to be moving into Omaha at the end of July. We would really like to get him baptized before then. We focused a lot on church this time. He said that he likes to come and knew the good things that would come for him and his family if he did it, but that his wife makes it hard for him. I wasn't sure if that was the truth, or if it was just an excuse he was using. Before we left, his wife called. He put it on speaker phone for some reason. She seemed upset that he was not at his son's baseball game (which is where she was) that had started 30 minutes earlier. He said he would be there soon and then expressed his desire to come to church that week. She said something to the effect of "Okay fine if you want to leave me all alone to find a new home for your kids. That's not that important. Just go to church and leave the rest of us." I was startled and devastated at what she had said. Jerry then told us that she used to get on him for coming to church, and now he has to drag her there. It really saddens me that she has lost the desire to do the will of God. I hope she can find that again, and that the family can find the joy that living the gospel brings.

We have also been meeting with Lisa Tidwell. She has also met with missionaries for a while. She has had a baptismal date several times, but not made any of them. We talked to her about setting another date as a goal. She said she would like to and then chose a date, July 10, which was the same one we had felt earlier. It was a neat experience and we feel like she can make this date. We are excited.

I went on exchanges with the Zone Leaders down in Council Bluffs. It was nice to be in a different area for a while. I learned good things and came back motivated.

I love you all,

-Elder Burnham

6-7-10 Hard Work

Friends and Family,

I hope you all had a good week. Ours was a good but a little rough. We are still really trying to increase our teaching pool here in Logan. Because of this, we put a lot of effort into finding people this week. Sadly, we did not get and new investigators. However, in Weekly Planning, we really focused on our goal for new investigators for the coming week. We prayed about it and we had a neat experience. During the prayer, we both strongly had the same number, 4, come into our heads. We talked after the prayer and discovered that. We then prayed to confirm it. We are going to do all we can to find 4 new investigators this week, and I have confidence that the Lord is going to help us.

For preparation day today, we came down to Council Bluffs. We played basketball with a lot of other Elders. It was really nice to be able to do that, since I have not done any activities with other missionaries since I got back to Logan. I am now exhausted.

I love you all and appreciate your letters and emails.

-Elder Burnham

6-1-10 Short email

Family and Others,

We have been emailing in Logan the last few weeks. It usually closes at 8:00 which allows us to come a little later and email until we start proselyting at 6. However, with our preparation day being on Tuesday this week due to Memorial Day, It closes instead at 5. We got here at 4:45. I was very sad.

Basically this is my letter for the week. I am doing well, and look forward to the coming week. I love you all and hope you are well.

-Elder Burnham

Family and All,

The weeks go by so fast. And they keep going faster. I don't think I will ever get used to it.

Missionary work continues as normal. We have been putting forth a lot of effort finding lately, without a whole lot of success. It is a little discouraging, but these are the times that the Lord will reward us the most if we are faithful and continue working.

We did have a really good Zone Conference this week. We usually havae it in the Chapel, but we had tables and chairs set up in the cltutral hall in a semi-circle this week. We had a good discussion about how we han improve as a mission. We also had some personal time to think about how we can in prove on a personl level. The spirit was so strong there. In Zone Meeting (a section of Zone Conference but with only our zone instead of two) we set a zone goal of new investigators for this week. The spirit was really strong confirming that we could reach our goal, even though it was really high. It will take a lot of work, but we are excited for it. The Lord will help us for sure.

That's about all I have for this week. More later. I love you all.

-Elder Burnham

P.S. We have also been chalenged by our mission president to read the Book of Mormon in two months, highlighting anything that has to do with our purpose as missionaries. If any of you feel so inclined, it would be cool to have you reading the Book of Mormon at the same time in two months as well. You could look for anything, such as names of Christ, prophesies of Christ, promised blessings, or a favorite gospel principle. The posibilities are endless.

5-17-10 Transfers

Family and All,

Transfers came again. Elder Mitchell left and I stayed. I am now serving with Elder Savage, who had been out about a year. I have also gotten the assignment of being a district leader. Weird stuff. I am excited for this transfer and the work we will do.

There was also a meeting this thursday for all spanish missionaries. All 14 or so of us met in Omaha. We discussed things like how culture has an impact on missionary work. It was a really good meeting and I got to see people I haven't seen in a long time. It also was a nice rerfesher because I have basically been an english missionary for six weeks in Logan. But I know that this is where the Lord wants me. After the meeting, we went to the temple in Spanish. It was one of the coolest experiences ever.

That's about it for this week. I love you all.

-Elder Burnham

5-10-10

Pictures:

A funny sign.
Me peeking through a hole in the floor of the bathroom.
Two pictures of cool lightning.
Us in front of the temple.

All,

I hope you all had a great Mothers' Day. I certainly did. It was nice to talk to family. We also had a baptism yesterday. It went really well. Her name is Abby Krum. She is a ten-year-old from a part-member family here. All her family was there and it was a good experience.

It is pouring right now and super windy. I love it.

Transfers are coming this Thursday (Again). We'll see what happens.

I might have already said this, but our bathroom has been getting remodeled the last few weeks. The tile is now done, and the toilet and sink should go back in today. I am excited.

Hope you enjoy them. Love you all.

-Elder Burnham

5-3-10

All,

We had a good week here in Logan. We are teaching more lessons and more people. I like it.

We had the opportunity to go to the temple this Thursday. I love that place. It always is filled with the Spirit and I learned a lot. It increases my testimony every time I go. I am thankful for the priesthood that makes the work there possible.

I went on exchanges this week. Elder Warby, our DIstrict Leader (also my district leader in the MTC) came here to Logan. Our whole district was really close, so it was nice to be back with him for a day. Thursday night, on the exchange, there was a big thunder storm. I got a cool picture of lightning. I love storms. I learned good things on the exchange.

The members we live with are remodling their bathroom. Well, it's more like our bathroom. There are two in the house, one up-stairs, and one downs-stairs. We live up-stairs, and that one is completely demolished. Sink, toilet, floor- all gone. We still can use the shower, although there is no door. It kind of gets tedius going up and down the stairs so often though. They are putting in the new tile partway up the walls right now. The rest should follow shortly.

Things are going well here. I love you all- have a great week, and mother's day!

-Elder Burnham

To everyone who gets to read it,

Hullo! I hope you all had a great week. Mine was pretty swell.

Saturday we had a baptism for John Atem. He amazes me just about every time he opens his mouth. He has such a great testimony. His baptismal service was good. We held it down in Council Bluffs because we do not have a font at our building. We had to go up to Denison to pick John up and then back to CB ( a member drove us). We ended up spending about 5 hours driving that day. A member ended up confirming him (Brother Hess-the one we live with).

All of the sudden I do not feel like writing. But I will send a picture.

Love you all,

-Elder Burnham