Typical Week

 

Family,

 

The work continues to go forth here in Sioux City. Rafael Flores should be baptized the 12th of March and is excited for his baptism. I am so excited to see this family be completed and a potential priesthood holder join the Sioux City Spanish group. He is a very good person and I want him to have the blessings of baptism.

 

Silvia has come 4 out of the last 5 Sundays.She likes it and plans to keep coming. She wants to get baptized, but has law of chastity problems (living with someone and not married). She wants to get married, but her boyfriend does not seem too fond of the idea. Bur I know that with the help of God, she can overcome this obstacle and be baptized.

 

Sioux City has been my favorite area so far, partly because I have actually spent time here. I love all the members and investigators. But I have been here a long time. It is starting to wear on me. I would be fine with a change. Transfers are in about 10 days. I think I am leaving. I an anxious to see where I go. Also, preparation day will be moved to Wednesday next week, so I will email you all then.

 

The weather has been awesome. I wore short sleeves for the first time this year. It ended up getting a little bit colder and I kind of regretted it but oh well. Sunday Morning it rained hard and hailed and it is snowing a little bit today but not much. Almost all of the snow here has melted, so I guess it is time to get a little more.

 

Well, I love you all, have a great week!!

 

-Elder Burnham

2/9

To all my Beloved Fans,

 

I have ten minutes to write a good email to you all. We'll see how it goes.

 

We had a District meeting on Thursday. I was recently called as a district leader again, so I was in charge. I miss not having to do much to prepare for them. We talked about gaining a testimony through prayer. I found some really good scriptures and I feel like we all learned in the meeting. We did an activity where we all went alone and prayed for 10-15 minutes asking what the Lord would have us do to improve. I recieved inspiration about how I could be a better, more spirit-driven missionary. The only other companionship im my district lives two hours away, so transportation is often an issue. But we organized rides with some other missionaries and they were ablt to get in here to Sioux City for it. I loko forward to getting to know the missionaries in my didtrict better.

 

We had two investigators come to church this week, for which I was very excited. One is Silvia Gonzales. I have talked about her a lot in the past. She is progressing nicely. The other was Rafael, the dad of a part-member family we have been working with. His wife and kind got baptised a year ago and are way solid. He is coming along too.

 

We cleaned this morning. It was interesting to see my companion clean. He was not taught the same way as I was. He "swept" the kitchen and got a nice little pile of stuff. I reswept after him and got a pile twice the size of the one he just had. But the apartment is clean now. Not everyone is super clean like I am. Thanks to the parents for teaching me good cleaning and organization skills.

 

Curses. I am out of time. I wanted to write more too. Next week. Love you all.

 

-Elder Burnham

Stayin put 1/24/2011

Family and all,

We got the call for transfers last Tuesday night and....  I'm staying in Sioux City again! This is my 5th transfer. I have been here almost 6 months, and will be staying another six weeks. I am glad. I really like this area. I think I will be happy to move in six weeks, but for now I am content.

There were two nonmembers at church this week. One was Silvia, who we taught before. She kind of disappeared on us and stopped answering the door. Amanda, her member friend, said she kind of avoided us. But even though we stopped visiting her, Amanda kept with it and she came to church again! She signed up to feed us this Wednesday, so we will see what happens. I hope she will progress.
The other person that came to church was Flor. She is the girlfriend of David- a returning member- and came with him. She has come before once, but we have not been able to teach her. We set up an appointment for Thursday. They work different shifts, so it is hard to get ahold of them both.

I am a district leader again this transfer. I have been for one transfer before, in Logan. I was rather surprised by the assignment, but I will try my best to serve my district (which is one other companionship).

I recently experienced the death of a good friend. Although he has no name, we have been together almost every single day for nearly three years. Time of death, 11:55 PM last night...... I still mourn his loss. My heart will never be consoled.... It you are confused. Good. My watch died. It does make me sad. But there is nothing more to do than to buy a new one. I had bought my old one on the Naval Base in San Diego on our priests' quorum scuba drive trip. I suppose live must move on.

I love you all! I pray for you.
-Elder Burnham