Christmas + 2 days

 
Family,
 
I loved talking to you all on Christmas. It was so cool to see your faces as well as hear your voices.
 
Story time: About a week and a half ago, we knocked the door of a house, and the woman said we could come in. Her husband wasn't home, so we set up an appointment for the next day. We went the next day and saw the husband getting out of his car, and he asked us to come back another day. I was loosing hope in them. But the next time we went by, the wife, Rosa was there, with her nephew who lives with them. We talked to her for about 20 minutes, and found out that she had met with missionaries before, and had even bee to church. We were excited. She then tole us that her husband had been baptized into out church. They were a part-member family! They were on our records, but both the phone number and address were wrong. Last Sunday, we finally got to teach them. They were both very nice and open. Right when we walked in, they gathered their children together to listen (although through the lesson they slowly moved to doing other things). We invited then to church, and they said they wanted to come. They also want their 11-year-old son to come to scouts and their children to go to primary. Oh and we had talked to the husband, Pedro, before and he remembered a lot about Joseph Smith and the restauration. We asked him if he still believed it and he told us he thought it really did happen. We stopped by briefly two more times last week, and both times they mentioned they would come to church. And they DID!! It is quite rare that people come to church the first week after you teach them, so it says a lot about this family. They really liked church, and another member told us they said they were planning to keep coming. Pedro wants to come back into activity and Rosa supports him in it. The members fellowshipped them so well, and I think they really felt welcomed. Rosa even signed up to feed us today! They have four boys, and are all awesome. The oldest- Alex, 11- said after church, "Well, I guess we'll see you next week." I love this family already, and hope that she chooses to get baptized, along with their 11 year old son.
 
I love you all. :)
-Elder Burnham

T'was the p-day before Christmas

 

Merry Christmas!

 

I love you all, and our Savior does too. Remember him this time of year.

 

We had a good week this week. We found a really cool part-mamber family this week who wasn't on the records. They want to come to church, and seem golden. The father is the member, and he still has a testimony of Joseph Smith. I will tell more about them later. We also taught another part-member family who we had worked with before, and the mother is considering baptism. Eva (I've talked about her before) want to get baptized too, but needs to get married first. She want to get married, but was waiting for about 6 months for legal documents/money reasons. But she told us she would think about getting married sooner, like in February. I am excited for all of these people.

 

Seeing as I will be talking to you on Saturday, I am not much in the mood to write. But think of questions or things to ask me about in the call (I'll call at 4:00 your time). I love you all and look forward to hearing your voices!

 

-Elder Burnham

Transfers, Elder Keele

 

Family,

 

Transfers brought an unexpected result. Trainers usually stay with their companions for two transfers, but in this case, Elder Perez left. I am training another missionary, Elder Keele. He spent two months in the MTC, and that's how much Spanish he knows. He is from Idaho. He is a little quiet but is a good kid and is opening up and talking more. I like him. He seems to click better with me that Elder Perez did; we are just more alike. He wants to major in Physics. That's cool. I will send pictures.

 

Please sent all mail from now until the end of the year (especially packages) to my apartment.

Elder Burnham

610 13th Street #507

Sioux City, IA 51105

 

Saturday we had some crazy weather. It was a blizzard. It was about ten degrees all day, and snowed about six inches. And it was Super Windy. There is a thing called Tell Me, which is a number you can call to get information on sports, weather, etc. It described the wind as "moderate gale force winds". Needless to say, it was intense. We went out for about 90 minutes in the afternoon, and another 90 at night, after it had stopped snowing. I was very bundled up, and stayed warm, except my cheeks because snow kept getting blown into my face.

 

Our church was canceled this Sunday. We were sad that our investigators were not able to come. But we got permission from our bishop to hold a sacrament meeting in our apartment with the other missionaries. It was a very spiritual experience. It was one of the most meaningful times taking the sacrament I have ever had. The words of the prayer seemed to mean so much more. Afterward, we had a testimony meeting. It too was powerful. It strengthened my testimony of the priesthood and the sacrament. I know that we have the priesthood of God in the church. I know that the sacrament is an ordinance Christ set forth so that we could be renewed weekly. I know he sacrificed his life for us, and suffered for us in Gethsemane. He loves me, and I in turn love him as my brother and saviour. I know that the testimony that the Book of Mormon gives of him is true, and that any person on earth can strengthen their testimony of him through reading it. I love Christmas time.

 

I love you all, and look forward to talking to you in two weeks. Enjoy Christmas time!!

-Elder Burnham

December and Transfers

 

To my wonderful friends and family,

 

Don't you all just love Christmas time?? I do. I have waited for this for 11 months. The Christmas Devotional was fantastic. All three of the talks inspired me- -especially President Monson's and President Eyring's. I have an increased testimony of my savior and want to share that with others.

 

On Friday, we did not have a lot of success before we had come in for dinner. When we left, I wanted to see some. I felt like God could do a miracle for us. We prayed hard before leaving the apartment to find someone who had been prepared. After leaving, we continued praying, offering a series of about 6 prayers with specific questions of where to go. We were led to a corner and we went to a few houses. At the third house we went to a hispanic kid of about 18 answered. We asked if we could share a message and he said we could. He told us he loved Jesus and said we could come back to try to teach all in the house. I feel like we were led to him and I hope we can teach everyone there.

 

This Wednesday and Thursday are transfers. Another one has already passed. It is crazy. But I will let you know what happens.

 

So apparently Amanda got the story wrong from Silvia. It was kind of the opposite of what I said last week. But oh well.

 

We had interviews about ten days ago. In it, President said the following- We have a lot of Spanish missionaries coming in , and we will have about 18, which is 4 more than we need. If it is necessary, would you be willing to finish your mission as an English missionary? We will still need experienced missionaries to serve with some of the new ones, but would you be willing to switch if I needed you to?

I said I would if it was necessary. We will see what happens.

 

I hope you all have a splendid week and remember the birth of our Savior. I love you all.

-Elder Burnham

Spanish Meeting 11/22/2010

Family and all,

We are trying to work with all the new investigators we found last week. It has been hard. They don't have a whole lot of time and lots of appointments we makw with them fall through. I suppose that is part of missionary work. Eva, who had come to church once (I think I have already written about her) has basically disappeared. She started school and it seems like she is never there, or just chooses not to open the door. Either way it is frustrating.

We are working with a lady named Silvia. She is the next door neighbor of a recent convert of 10 months, Amanda. We had taught her once about 6 weeks ago, but then Amanda stopped comming to church for three weeks. Amanda is coming again, with her testinomy as strong as ever, and she is helping Silvia a lot. They have a strong bond, and there is a lot of fellowshipping. She brought Silvia to church with her this week. It was good. We hope to teach her one or two more times this week. Amanda actually brought up baptism in the lesson, and said that she wants Silvia to be able to do it. We are going to invite her to set a baptismal date this week. I am really optomistic for it.

We also had a cool meeting on Saturday. All the Spanish missionaries from the mission got together and had a specialized training. We talked about the culture, the language, and other things. It was fun to learn and see all the other missionaries. After, we went to the temple and did a session in Spanish- my second one. I was really cool.

I am also excited for thanksgiving. I hope you all are too. I love you and hope your testimonies are growing!

Alma 34:38

D&C 78:19

-Elder Burnham

P.S. Zach Anderson is the ward mission leader for the ward the assistants are in. While down in Omaha Saturday, I saw him! It was strange to see someone that I had known before the mission. We talked for a few minutes. Fun stuff.

PPS The picture with lots of people is of all the Spanish missionaries.

The one with four people is me with all my former Spanish comps still in the mission.

The one with 6 of us is the missionaries in our ward and our ward mission leader Ignacio who is going out of town for 6 weeks. We will miss him.

Thanksgiving

Hello There!

 

I hope you all had a fantastic Day of Thanks. I did. We played in a Turkey Bowl in the morning with the first ward. It started at 8:00 and when we left our appartment it was about 7 degrees, but by the time we finished it had warmed up to 15 or 20. It was a little chilly. I dressed warm and once I got moving I had a blast. My face was the only thing that was too cold. My companion did not have good warm clothes so he wore just shorts and a long sleve t-shirt. He was cold. I felt a little bad for him. We are all sore now from the game but enjoyed it.

 

We got a lot of invites for Thanksgiving dinner. It was a little different than last year when I got transfered the day before to a tiny area. We accepted two dinners. One was with the Flory family and the other was with Amanda and her family. We both liked the Flory's food better but both were good. We were stuffed. It was a good Thanksgiving.

 

We had a good week as far as the work goes too. I talked last week about Silvia. She did not come to church this week because her husband was sick, but Amanda told us some really cool things. Before, the husband was not interested. Silvia wanted to go to church as a family, but he didn't really want to. But she came last week with Amanda and really liked it. Her husband also has arthritis in his leg, and it gets very painful in the winter. But when Silvia was at church, he said it didn't hurt him. Not only that, but he felt a peace and calm unlike anything he has felt before in his life. He now wants to come to church. It was a really cool experience, and I know the Lord is doing what he can to help his children know the gospel. I am excited for them.

 

We had had an investigator named Julio Chavez. He read the Book of Mormon a little bit and had said he would get baptized if he felt it was true. But he was working a whole lot and we hadn't been able to teach him for about 5 weeks. He lives in a house with about 15 other people. Last night we walked by his house and saw someone outside. It was dark and I didn't think it was him. But something told me to go back and talk to the person. It indeed was him. We talked for a few minutes and he let us in. He lives in a tiny little bedroom in the 3rd floor of an appartment/house. The roof is only 6 1/2 feet tall at the highest point and slopes down on the sides. The floor space is probably 10' by 8'. He shares a bathrom and a kitchen with others. But he let us in his room and we read some from the Book of Mormon. We then invited him to be baptized the 1st of January. He acepted. We are both excited and will work with him some more. He will stop working so much this next week (staring next monday probably) and we will be able to meet more frequently. We are seeing things progress here and I am excited about it. We are really trying to work with the members and are seeing fruits of it. I like it.

 

I hope you are all doing well and I love you all!

 

-Elder Burnham

 

PS There is still no snow on the ground. I love it. Sat and Sun were in the 40s and sunny. But today is cloudy and cold.