New investigators!!

Family,

I am short on time again this week. :( But here is is.

Our president asked us what we admire about our companion. I said this: My companion has a strong desire to go out and work! He loves teaching and being a missionary. He is patient with himself and always tries to improve.

It is true. It is a pleasure to serve with him.

We had a really good week. We basically dropped all of our investigators because they were not progressing, and started over. We made finding our focus and found 8 new investigators!! It involved a lot of walking, and knocking quite a few doors. It was cold this week, being in the 30s and 40s. It snowed one morning but did not stick, and drizled two other days. But about the investigators: Three of them are from the same family, but the rest are all seperate. We look forward to helping them prepare for baptism! We plan on extending hard baptismal invitation to them all this week,a mnd helping them get to church. Many of them seem to have a lot of potential. We are working hard and loving it.

Sorry I don't have more time! I am in a writing mood this week, but can't

Love you all.

-Elder Burnham

PS the picture is of me, Elder Perez, and my trainer.

11-8-10

To the Burnham Clan,



This was a hard week. We did our best, but things just didn't go our way. We have dropped many investigators who were difficult to find home or would not keep commitments well. We are kind of starting from scratch again. We are going to exercise our faith and try to be led to the Elect. Both Elder Perez and I are striving to find, teach and baptize. I know there are people in this area that are ready to not only hear, but also accept and apply the gospel in their lives.



Elder Perez continues to have a strong desire to work hard and be obedient. he is learning a lot, and is getting more comfortable teaching and being a missionary. We have had some rough times lately, but he is pushing through, and we are focusing on the successes we have gotten.



We have recently been trying to work better with members. We have started giving them all thank-you notes for the things they do to help us, and for feeding us. We are going to be asking for referrals more often and powerfully, and may start teaching the lessons to active members so they can feel the power they bring and want to share it with their friends. I am excited for it. We do not have a lot of members, but we will do what we can with what we've got.
-Elder Burnham

11-1-10 November

Family and all,

 

I hope you all had a good Halloween. We did. Two investigators came to church!

 

So transfers came and went, and so did my companion. He left even though he had only been here for 6 weeks. But I got to stay!! I am happy for that. My new companion is Elder Perez. I am training him. He is about 13 inches shorter than I am. Ha I'll send a picture next week; I don't have one this week.

He is a good missionary with a lot of desire and enthusiasm. He has a great testimony. I have enjoyed getting to know him better. It is a little different training that I expected, but we are both learning. He has ADD and ADHD, which sometimes make it hard for him to concentrate in lessons, but he is doing his best to overcome that. Bing involved helps him focus. His Sanish is not qute as good as I was expecting; I speak a good deal better than him. But he speaks well enough to communicate, and that's what's important. He also has a little bit of a stutter in English. Is is magnified in Spanish, and takes him a long time to get out what he want to say. Being nervous, scared, or excited adds to it, but he is gtting more comfortable, and his speech has improved since he has gotten here. He has a great desire and we should have a good transfer or two together. I am praying that we have lots of good experiences together, so he can desire a love for the work and see success.

 

So, Rosalba (the one who was going to get baptised) disappeared of the face of the earth. I'm guessing that either she got some anti stuff or took of early to Mexico for vacation. Hopefully it was the latter. Very hopefully. We have not had contact with her since last saturday (the 23rd). But hopefully we can get some baptisms soon.

 

I sent something to pops that I'll throw in here because it's good:

This week on Monday I had an experience. I was visiting with a recent convert of 9 months. She had a strong testimony, but was having difficulty coming to church recently because of pressure from her her husband, who is going to another church. She told us she had made the decision to stop coming to our church so the family could be together, even though she felt much different in our church than inany other. She had a testimony of our church, but felt like God would hear her in whatever church she was in, and she wanted to have her family go together. I had no idea what to say, but tried my best to listen to the spirit. I began to talk and felt prompted to talk about the Sacrament. I told her that she could go there and God would listen to her, but she would never feel the same, and would not be happy because they did not have the sacrament blessed by the proper authority. I really felt the spirit as I testified to her that the only was to get her family happy and united was by coming to our church. I felt like the Spirit led me to know what to say.

 

That's about all for this week. If you have and questions, write and ask them! I love all of you.

-Elder Burnham

10/25/2010 This week.

One of the most frustrating things with the missionary work right now is teaching the people we find. We can find lots of people, and we find many people who seem golden. But then they are difficult to get for appointments and are hard to catch home. I am not sure if that's just normal, if it is the investigators we have, or just the hispanic culture. I am trying to figure that out. But I am going to talk to my companion and I think we will try to work on setting more appointments.

We are also struggling getting people to church. On Friday we had 4 people who looked solid and were somitted to come, but none did. It was frustrating.

I love you all and the work. We have transfers this week. I REALLY hope I stay. But the Lord's will be done.

Rosalba should get baptized this Saturday.

I want to send you all my testimony. It is a little different writing it out, but it will work.

I know what I teach is true. I know that every single doctrine of this church is from God. I know that the only way to get back to live with our Father in Heaven is through the Atonement of Christ. The only way to use the Atonement is by living the Gospel of Jesus Christ: having faith in Him, repenting, being baptised by proper authority, recieving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. By doing these, we will get eternal life- the greatest of all the gifts of God. I know God has reatored the church in these days, and that there is a living prophet who recieves revelation from God for us all- to guide us. I know that we all are children of God. The Book of Mormon is scripture. Christ is our Savior. He loves us all so much. I can feel his love and help every day- and even more so on days that are hard. I love him. I know God hears and answers prayers, and that he speaks to us through the Holy Ghost. I have felt it numerous times and I know that feeling can come from nowhere but God. I love you all.

 

-Elder Burnham