Elder Burnham and the Nebraskan Adventure

La Ultima

2011-07-06T13:14:00.000-07:00

Family,

I am doing well. We had a good week. tomorrow are transfers. It is a strange feeling. I love you all .

-Elder Burnham

3 John 1:13-14

THE EMAIL....

2011-06-27T13:45:00.001-07:00

Hey!!

I am happy, and I am doing well. Some good and cool things happened this week, but I am in absolutely no mood to write. BUT, if you ask me about his week when I get home, I will most definitely tell you about it. Here is a brief summary:

We found two new investigators who seems to have good potential: Daniel, and Griselda. Griselda has a daughter whose name is Jimena, a lit like my companion's last name.

We finally got in contact with Jose Soto again. We could not teach him a lesson, but we were able to talk a little bit and see how he was doing. If his work permits, we will teach him next weekend.

We had a member come on a team up with us and he ended up getting in a heated discussion with a very rude person on the street.

It rained a WHOLE BUNCH.

We were the answer to someone's prayer.

We walked all Friday because we had a "car fast" and could not use the mission vehicle. We almost got stranded 8 miles from home at 7:30 at night.

I love you all, and hope to see you soon!

-Elder Burnham

Don't Forget!

2011-06-20T23:23:00.000-07:00

Family,

I had read and responded to all the emails in my inbox and all the other missionaries were still going, so I was going to go read some Spanish book in the labrary, but then I remembered I had not sent the mass email! It seems I am a bit forgetful today...

We had a Zone conference this week on Wednesday. It was good. We learned about working with members and how to best do it. The stake president from the Omaha Stake also spoke about keeping journals. It has helped me have the desire to have better and more frequent entries.

We found Jose Soto!! I told you about him before when I first got here to Omaha. We thought he moved to Denison and have been trying to call him a lot but he never answers. We called him yesterday and he answered! He is working during the week in Denison, but is here on the weekends. We are hoping to be able to teach him this week.

We have also started teaching Frankie. He is the 11-year-old brother of Fabiola (I believe I have talked about her before). He has come to Sacrament meeting twice and likes it. He wants to get baptized. The only holdup would be his parents. But if we get permission from them, it is a go. I will let you know how it goes next week.

Love you all.

-Elder Burnham

Mid-June

2011-06-18T17:36:00.001-07:00

Faithful Email Readers,

Hello! I hope this email finds you well. I am doing good here in good ol' Nebraska.

We had ward conference this week. The stake leaders came and it was good. The Stake president has had the calling for a few years, and did not speak any Spanish when he started. He has learned a lot, and in Sacrament meeting he bore his testimony in Spanish without any notes. It was powerful.

Last preparation day we went to the Zoo here with the Spanish missionaries from the North. It was a lot of fun. It was a little pricey, but worth it. I will send some pictures.

All the normal computers are busy, so they let us use the kids' ones. The chair I am sitting is rather small.

No investigators came to church this week, but Gustavo did again! We were excited about that. I hope he returns to full activity. He could even serve a mission.

There is a flooding problem here. I guess there has been a lot of melting snow and rain recently and they have started letting a lot of water out of dams up North. There has been a lot of sand bagging and such going on. I am sure you could hop on the internet and find out more than I know about it all in less than five minutes so I will not write any more on the subject. I'll let you do some research if you are curious.

We are planning on going to the Trail Center with Salvador this week to watch the Joseph Smith movie in Spanish. I am really excited. I will let you know how it goes.

Love you all! Until next week,

-Elder Burnham

Start of a new Transfer

2011-06-01T20:51:00.000-07:00

Burnham Clan,

Thanks for all your emails and prayers. I appreciate them a lot. I am writing on Tuesday this week because the libraries were closed yesterday for Memorial day. This was transfer week. I guess I told you about that last week now that I think about it. I am staying with Elder Jimenez.

The work has gone well this week. Adriana and Salvador did not come to church last week, but Adriana got a new job so she can be free on Sundays. They should come on a regular basis now. I am really excited. She told us last night that his biggest hangup to getting baptized is Joseph Smith. She tells him he needs to pray about it to see if he really was a prophet. She wants a pamphlet about Joseph Smith so she can know more and then explain it to him. We are going to try to go to the Trail Center this week on Saturday and watch the Joseph Smith movie with him. We feel like that would really help him progress toward baptism.

We also found a new investigator named Ariel. I mentioned him last week. He is a really good investigator. We taught him twice and he read the chapter we left him from the Book of Mormon, and the one before it too! He took it to work to read it there. He drove himself to church and wore a red button-up shirt and tie. The ward really fellowshipped him and he told us he liked it and wants to come again next week. That is really promising. I hope to see him baptized before the end of the transfer. He could do it.

I hope you are all well! Have a great week.

-Elder Burnham

Omaha with Jimenez take two

2011-05-25T21:52:00.000-07:00

Family,

Because this is transfer week, we have preparation day on Wednesday. We had an activity this morning so we are writing later. This morning, about 12 of us missionaries got together and played sand volleyball outside while it rained lightly. It was really fun. We threw a frisbee and football around too and grilled a little food. It was a lot of fun. Several of the missionaries in the zone are leaving so it was nice to see them again before transfers. I will be staying here in Omaha with Elder Jimenez. I am excited. I am also going to be a district leader again. It is going to be a good transfer. The work is picking up and the members are getting a lot more involved thanks to the bishop. Good things will happen here. In fact yesterday we found a promissing new investigator. His name is Ariel. One of our other investigators talked to some people she knew about the gospel and they seemed intersted so we swung by! I'll talk more about him next week.

We are working with a part-member family- Adrianna and Salvador. She is the member and just moved from Mexico a few months ago. She had not gone to church in quite a while, but still knew it was true. He has talked to missionaries in the bast and was very close to getting baptized, but didn't. He likes what we teach though. The thing that has been holding them both back in the past is that they usually work on Sunday, so they cannot come to church. But on Saturday she called us and said that she wasn't going to have to work, so whe wanted to come to church. Her husband is the only one that can drive and he had to work so she asked if we could find her a ride. A member agreed to take her and we told the member we would meet her at Adrianna's house. When we got there, Salvador was outside getting into the car. We thought that was kind of lame because he told us he would have to work at 7:30. We were going to wait for the member, but Salvador called us and asked us where the church was. We told him we were at his house and got out and talked to him. It turns out he had woken up, but did not want to go to work. His wife said, "Well let's go to church then!" He agreed! They found the church and came and loved it. Salvador was participating like mad in the gospel principles class and got to know a lot of members. At the end of church, he said, I think we'll come next week too. I am excited for them. I hope he decides to get baptized.

I am about out of time. BUT. Saturday, we had an awesome meeting! Elder Cristofferson of the Quorum of the Twelve apostles, Steven E Snow of the presidency of the Seventy, Richard C. Edgely from the Presiding bishopric, Elder Cook of the Seventy, and our area Seventy, Elder Real all came and spoke to us. It was a two-and-a-half-hour-long meeting. Elder Cristofferson left it open for questions for about 45 minutes and they answered each one. It was a spirit filled meeting and we learned a lot. I know this is the true church, and that we are led by prophets and apostles that are led by Christ. I hope you all have a great week!

-Elder Burnham

Another Parade (5-16-11)

Family,

It is already Monday again. It seems like I just wrote you. Last weeks email turned out to be long, but I am not sure if this one will be the same. I will send pictures though. They're about a thousand words each right?

There was another parade this week. This one was for Florence- a historical part of Omaha I think. We were in it as pioneers pushing handcarts. It was fun. We handed out a lot of cards and fliers to those watching the parade.

This Saturday an Apostle and some other General Authorities area coming to the mission. We are excited. I will tell more about it next week.

Yeah that's all I got today. Sorry.
Love you all. Have a tanfastic week.
-Elder Burnham

Mother's Day Aftermath

2011-05-10T16:59:00.000-07:00

Family,

It was so nice to see you all yesterday! I like Skype. It is a cooler experience than just calling. I could see you well, but when my companion got on, I found out I could have made you bigger during my call. Oh well. I am glad you are all well.

So- just some random tidbits about this week. A few days ago, we went to go get gas. We pulled up and my companion went to start pumping. Then this guy came out of the building and stopped him. It turns out it was a full-service gas station. The man pumped our gas for us while we talked to him (he did not clean our windshield) and then we went inside and payed. I did not know gas stations like that existed anymore. I felt fancy. I also felt old-fashioned at the same time. It was unique feeling.

Jose Soto and his wife have fallen off the face of the earth. We have called them many times and stopped by but cannot seem to get ahold of them. It is a little disheartening. On Saturday we called and his wife answered and we invited them to church and a ward activity, but they did not come. We are going to keep stopping by when we can and hope for the best. Our area covers a lot of area. We go to Council Bluffs Iowa every other day or so, and that is where he lives. If you are corious about our area, you can look at a map- We have everything south of the I-80 and Council Bluffs. The North Elders have everything else.

Saturday we had a ward talent show and culture night. It was good. There were a few people who thought they had talents, but... not so much. They did their best though. Although no investigators came, a less-active did. He has come to church for several weeks now. He is a good guy. It was enjoyable.

We got a referral from some Sister Missionaries a few days ago. However, the address we got from the office was bad. We went to the address the office told us and then called the Sisters because they were appartments and we had no appartment number. Ther told us we were in the wrong spot and the referral was actually three miles north of there. We were short on miled and time so we decided to try back the next day. This time we could not use my companion's GPS because we did not have the exact address- only the house number and a general location. It took us about 45 minutes to find. It was quite a search. We FINALLY found the house and breathed a sigh of relief. The Sisters had told us the guy was eager to have us over, but it turned out to be someone else who was not interested. It was a little frustrating, but we laugh about it now.

Oh so two weeks ago the normal pianist for Sacrament meeting was gone. Last minute the bishop asked if I played piano and if I could play for sacrament meeting. I agreed with the warning that I could only play the top hand if I did not know the song. That is what I did for three of the four. It was not the best, but it was better than not having music.

OH! I almost forgot. On Saturday there was a big party on 24th street (The hispanic part of town) for Cinco de Mayo!! There was a huge parade and big rides and food booths and stuff. It felt like the State Fair. The parade lasted about two hours. Ten of us missionaries got together and attacked the people watching with Finding Faith in Christ passalong cards. The missionary I was with and I handed out about 100 each. The other missionaries handed out lots too. Hopefully we get a lot of people calling in that we can go visit! There were a lot of people giving out fliers and things and a lot of them ender up on the ground or in the trash. But I did not see a single one of our cards in either one of those places. In fact I heard one father say to his son, reffering to our card, "No te la tires. Este es el Diosito." In English it was more or less, "Don't throw this one away. It's shows God." It was cool. I like the respect the hispanic people have for things of God.

I hope you all have a good week! Love you much.

-Elder Burnham

PS That turned out to be a long one. Hope you enjoyed reading it.

Catch up!

2011-05-08T15:44:00.000-07:00

*** I didn't realize it had been so long since I'd updated this blog! I thought I was up to date... I guess time got away from me. So here are the emails from the last month.***

5-2-11 Come to Christ!

Family,

I have good news and bed news. The good news is that I am doing well and loving life. The bad news is that I really don't feel like writing today... Sorry. I will try to get some good stuff down.

So. Jose Soto is awesome. whenever we teach him, he just soaks everything up. He understands so well and believes it. We read 2 Nephi with him, and when we got to verse 5, it says something like this, "If the Lamb of God, being holy, has need to be baptized, how much more need we, being unholy, to be baptized, yea, even by water!" Before I even finished reading the verse, he interrupted and said "a lot!" We invited him to be baptized and he is thinking about it. He says he wants to read a little more from the Book of Mormon before deciding. But I an confident he will make the right decision and do it. I am excited for him. He did not come to church though. :( We are meking a big push for next week. He should be there.

We went by an investigator's house this week, and it turns out his kids had locked the keys in the car. He and a friend were trying to use wires to unlock it through the window. We got there and wanted to help. I took a wire and squeezed it through the door on the side of the car they were not on. I messed with it a little bit, and BAM! A minute or two later I had pulled up the lock and was in the car. I must say I was proud of myself. I will include a picture for your enjoyment.

We also have a returning inactive named Miguel Sosa. He is so sincere and is doing all he needs to have the fulness of the spirit in his life. But funny story about him- he was trying to give us directions to where he lived. He told us he lived on Park and "walwoo" street. We were quite confused, but tried our best to find it in my companion's GPS. We couldn't. We called back and had wim try to spell the street name. He spelled it Woolwok. We looked some more, and found it: Woolworth. It is quite hard for Spanish people to say apparently. But it was quite a quest trying to find "Walwoo" street.

I hope you are all well. Love you all.

-Elder Burnham

4-25-11 Good week

Family and All,

Hello again! It's cray to realize it's already been another week. They go fast. We are here in some library in Ralston emailing. We did laundry with at the Zone Leader's appartment this morning, and are now doing emails with them. The computers are nice. I brought my card reader to send some pictures home, but it turns out they have them built-in here. That works too.

What's happened of importance this last week.... Elder Jimenez went to a specialized training on Tuesday morning, so I did my studies with the Omaha North Elders. It was nice to spend time with them. On Friday, while we were walking, we say a lady with a flat tire. We helped her change it. It was fun. Elder Jimenez also worked in a mechanic shop. We enjoyed helping. Right as we finished, her husband drove up. He could have changed it but I guess we saved them a little bit of time. She ended up giving us a rosary (I think that's how it's spelled- the necklace things with the cross on them) for helping her. It was a nice gesture. Because it was Good Friday, there were a WHOLE bunch of proplr at the Catholic church. They had police cars in the surrounding blocks keeping traffic away. I guess it's kind of a big deal. Ha ha.

There is a missionary here named Elder Carius. He just got transfered to Logan, where I have served. I did not mention this last week, but when I was talking to him, I found out that his MTC companion was Sam Anderson!! That was a surprise. I told him that I knew him and they had been in our stake a long time.It's a small world.

We are going to have a mission-wide conference in May!! Our president told us that an Apostle, a member of the presidency of the 70, and another General Authority will be coming to our mission the 21st of May, each one will speak in one of the stakes around here on Sunday. It is really exciting. I will let you know more about it when I find out.

We are teaching a man named Jose Soto right now. He is awesome. They had been teaching him a little bit before I got here, and we taught him Saturday and Sunday. He is a really good investigator. He says that it only makes sense that Christ would keep guiding us with prophets and apostles, and he told us he believed Jesus Christ came to the Americas even before we read about it with him in the Book of Mormon! Some of his ideas are a little bit off, but he had the right idea. Saturday and Sunday were the first times his wife was there too, so we are now teaching both of them. She has- well, they both have- lots of questions, which is great! We answer them and it really gets them thinking. we are really trying to help get them to church this Sunday! At the end of the lesson, She said, "So, when are you coming back?" They love having us in their home and want to learn. Then they asked at what time church started. He turned to his wife and asked, "Do you want to go? Do you think we can make it?" I am excited to see them progress.

We had a pretty good Easter. I hope yours was good too. I love you all!
-Elder Burnham

4-18-11

First Week in Omaha

Family,

Hey! Hello from Omaha. We are in the Bellevue University computer lab emailing. They are pretty nice computers, but they do not have built-in card readers, so I will not send pictures this week. I will bring my small card reader and send some next week. It's not a big deal though because I don't have a good picture of me and my companion anyway. He is Elder Jimenez. His grandpa is from Mexico, which is where the name comes from, but no one in his family speaks Spanish anymore (except him) and he is as white as can be. But I am kind of jealous of him last name. Most people have trouble saying mine... But we get along real well. He has been out about 6 months, and speaks Spanish pretty well for that long (in my opinion). We are going to have a good transfer. We have also been talking to each other in Spanish a lot. My Spanish is going to progress a lot this transfer.

So my first day here (Thursday) was real good. After transfers (from 6:30 to 7:45ish) we all went to IHOP. There were about 30 missionaries. I guess it's kind of a tradition here. It was delicious. We then went to our apartment and I unpacked, and we did a little bit of tidying up. Elder Jimenez is a real clean guy, but his last two companions were not. So we have gotten the apartment nice 'n' clean since Thursday. Later that day, a guy just came up and talked to us, telling us that he really liked the Book of Mormon and had gone to church in Mexico a few times as a kid (about 40 years ago). He is about to move, but we got his phone number. Then later when we were tring to visit a referral, someone called out to us from across the street, "How you doin Elders?" it was a member family from the Ralston-La Vista ward. The mother and father both speak Spanish because of their missions. It turns out that they were already trying to fellowship this family we were trying to contact. It was awesome. The only thing is that the referral family is almost never there. We will try to get them though.

I am getting to know the area and all of the investigators. Our teaching pool is a little small, but we get a lot of referrals from the English missionaries in our areas, which is nice. We cover the area of nine different English areas. It is pretty intense. It can be difficult at times. We were going to go to the trail center on Saturday with some investigators, but they canceled. I was excited to go because I have not been since the beginning of my mission. They have some cool bronze sculptures of Christ there right now. But we did some service on Saturday morning. We helped a friend of a member move. The sister missionaries also helped a little bit, and will hopefully start teaching her. The member is from the Bellevue ward, but was cool. He also speaks Spanish so we can use him for team ups in the future. To thank us, he invited us to dinner that night. We also got some money from another member there to go buy lunch. We went to a small taco place called La Chiripa. We talked to two guys there and gave them copies of the Book of Mormon. One of them paid for us too! He seems kind of set in hes ways, but he was really nice. So we ended up not using the money we had gotten for lunch. It was like we got three meals in one day. :)

Two investigators came to church yesterday- Fabiola and Jorge. They want to get baptized, but need to get married first. They are waiting for a divorce to go through for him (with someone else) so they can do it. I am hopefull for them. The missionaries in the North are Elder Keel and Elder Orellana, both of which I have served with. It is nice to be around familiar faces. This ward has two sets of missionaries- one in the North and one in the South.

Things are going good here. I hope they go well for you too. Love you all!

-Elder Burnham

4-13-11

Family,

Transfers come and go again, and so do I. I only got six weeks here in Norfolk. We got the call last night saying that I was leaving. I was a little surprised, but I think Elder Bittner was more. I'm still not sure where I am going yet, but I will tell you later today when I find out.

I forgot to tell you last week that preparation day is on wednesday this week because of transfers. It was like this last time too but I was going to remind you. We had two district meetings since I wrote last, but that's the only thing really different this week. We continue to find new investigators and teach those we have. No one showed up for church Sunday, even though some people committed to come. I hope the people here choose to accept the gospel. I love them as God's children and want them to have the happiness that comes from keeping all the commandments. Sometimes I wish the people we talk to could know that. But they often don't. I hope I can really help some people in my next area.

That's about all this week. I will write more next week and tell you about my new area.

-Elder Burnham

Conference

2011-04-04T18:35:00.000-07:00

Family,

I loved General Conference. Wasn't it awesome? It has always been something I have looked forward to as a missionary. I loved all the talks, and enjoyed the spirit I felt there. I love how every apostle has their signature way of teaching. I was sad not to hear from Robert D Hales. He is a good one to listen to. We watched conference at the church for all 5 sessions. For one session, us missionaries were the only ones there. But we had a good turnout to the priesthood session. We invited several investigators to come and were very excited for them, but none came... It was disappointing.

Other than that, not a whole lot happened this week. We had difficulty getting ahold of several people, so we did not teach as much as normal. On Thursday we went to Sioux City for interviews. It was nice to see my mission president.

Here is that poem I promised a few weeks ago.

In the early morning light I read the scriptures and ponder.
As I think of all these prophets and men, my mind begins to wander.
I remember the people of Enoch. None were wicked, no, not one.
I reflect on Father Abraham willing to sacrifice even his son.
I read of noble Isaiah who saw Christ laid in a manger,
And About a good Samaritan who gave freely to save a stranger.
Then mighty Nephi comes to mind, who said he'd go and do,
And many righteous Nephites who were faithful through and through.
Two thousand sons of Helaman defended freedom with the sword.
The brother of Jared with his faith saw the finger of the Lord.
I meditate on these and others with their righteousness and purity,
Then I slowly realized that that's what the Lord expects of ME.

I'm not like them. I have not done all these good things,
And the thought of all the the things I lack stings.
I start to count my mistakes and sins and realize I am guilty.
With all of these impurities, my soul has become quite filthy.
Ashamed of my unworthiness, I shrink from the presence of the Lord.
The reality of truth is sharp and it cuts me as a sword.
O wretched man that I am! My heart grieveth.
My soul is exceedingly sorrowful- even unto death.
I am encompased about because of the many
Temptations and sins which do so easily beset me!
In my desperation I find hope in another-
A man of sorrow- my older brother.

O Jesus thou Son of God have mercy upon me!
Encircled about by chains of death, I yearn to be set free!
Take away my guilt! Eliminate my sorrow!
Help me carry on that I may live to see tomorrow.
With Christ's image in my mind, my shame begins to be lifted.
Despite all of my weaknesses, I know in whom I have trusted.
Just as Enos of Old, my guilt is swept away.
Darkness is replaced by light- the dawn of a new day.
I feel to sing the song of his redeeming love.
I have had a change of heart- a sacred gift from above.
Now with Enoch, Nephi, and Abraham, I eternally shall dwell.
Cleansed through the power of Christ, I know that all is well.

I love you all.

-Elder Burnham

Just another week

2011-03-28T15:50:00.001-07:00

Family,

Well, this was basically just another week. We had a specialized training in Sioux City on Thursday. It was pretty nice. It was a meeting with just the missionaries in our zone- there are about 14 of us. The assistants to the president came too, along the mission president. We learned about the power of prayer in conversion and how to teach our investigators how to pray. It was a spirit filled meeting and it was nice to hear from our mission president.

We continue to teach severel investigators. Enrique is an investigator we have been working with for a while. He came to church several times, but then his wife cheated on him. It has been really difficult for him. He has started drinking a lot, but has started drinking less now. For quite a while he kept telling us there was nothing that could be done that could help him, and only time could make any difference. But this week he finally told us that he enjoys us coming over and teaching him- that it makes him know he is not alone. He has started reading the Book of Mormon on his own.

We are also teaching Pablo. We are trying to teach his wife too, but she isn't too interested. He expresses a desire to come to church and be baptized, but has not come to church yet. We want to get some members involved to help him make that step.

We have not taught Marcos this week but should next week.

We had a small fan in our appartment. I saw it and decided to take it apart. I have just the motor that can plug into the wall now. I might make a small car with it. We'll see. It's ben a fun little project.

We had some cake and ice cream with a member yesterday for my birthday. It was delicious.

Love you all!

-Elder Burnham

Last week of being last

2011-03-14T19:44:00.001-07:00

Family,

I have been thinking a little bit, and I have come to a conclusion. It is this: I always write the email to you all after reading the individual emails, and writing to my mission president. I get kind of burned out. That is part of the reason I write short email (but not all of it). I have decided that I will write you first next time. Maybe that will get me to write more. We shall see.

We did not have any meetings this week- no Zone conference or District meeting. It was a little different.

I wrote a poem this week. It is kind of long. But when I finish editing it, I will type it out and send it to you guys. It should be next week, but no promises.

The weather has been nice.

It was a pretty slow week. Not much happened..... We have been working with several investigators, but not are progressing much.

That is pretty much our week. I hope yours was good!! And I hope you all have a good week starting today.

Love you all,
-Elder Burnham

2 weeks in one + pictures

2011-03-07T18:20:00.000-08:00

I forgot to say- We got a new car- Chevy Malibu. It is nice. It only had 20 miles on it when I got in the first time.

Interesting road Kill- a bat. How does that happen?

We found a break off of the church here. We took pictures.

NORFORK (3/7/11)

Family,

Time has been good here in Norfolk. But before going on, I must inform you of how to pronounce it. Here's the story:

When the people here applied to be a city, they wanted to be called North Fork. However, there was already a city named that. So they decided on Norfork. There was a mix up in the application process, and it came out Norfolk. But every on here just says Norfork anyway. It is a good city. We are working hard to find new investigators.

So I am liking it here. My companion is Elder Bittner. I will send a picture. I love him. We are gertting along well, and have many things in common. He is into drawing and writing. He also loves Settlers. He has it and we have played it a few times during lunch. I am writing a poem that I will probably send to you next week.

The weather has been really nice... untill today. It is snowing again and there may be up to 8 inches. :( I hope it doesn't snow much. But have fun with Spring break! I will be shovelling snow. Ha.

We had a regional stake conference here yesterday. It was televised and we listened to President Eyring, Bishop Burton, and Elder Cook. It was good.

There were a few more things I was going to say, but I forgort them. Next week.

Love ya.

-Elder Burnham

* * *

To Norfolk (3/2/11)

Family and all,

We got calls about transfers about an hour ago. I was a little surprised because what is happening is different that the things I was expecting. But I know it is from the Lord.

I will be going to Norfolk Nebraska, in the Sioux City Zone. It is about 25000 people, so it is back to a small town again. I guess I belong in small places. I was kind of hoping that I would get to serve in Omaha. It could still happen, but is less likely now. My companion will be Elder Bitner, who is an English missionary, but I will still be Spanish. I will not be district leader this transfer.

I have said my goodbys to the people here in Sioux City and will miss them all. But I will still be able to see them periodically.

That's basically it for this week. I will let you know next monday how Norfolk is.

I love you all. Have a good week.

-Elder Burnham

Typical Week

2011-02-21T15:10:00.001-08:00

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

2011-02-09T19:35:00.001-08:00

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

2011-02-06T18:59:00.001-08:00

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

Awesome Week!!

2011-01-20T17:50:00.001-08:00

Family,

We had an amazing week this week. We were strugling a little bit with the excercizing in the mornings, so we started trying to get up at 6:00 and excercize really well (that's 30 minutes before we need to get up). Although it was a little later some days, we were always up before we were supposed to be. We have been excercising well and hard and it feels way good. It is really making a difference in the work too. Since Wednesday when we started getting up earlier, we have taught at least two lessons every day, which is quite a bit more we almost doubled the number of lessons we usually teach. And three people came to church! That is the most people that have come in the same week since I've been here. I know the Lord has seen our efforts to be more obedient and is blessing both us and our investigators in the area. It is a good feeling.

My companion was sick yesterday on preparation day, so we could not email then. We are doing it today, but have little time. He is feeling mostly better. Another Elder hurt his ankle yeaterday playing basketball, so what we are doing is I am going on exchanges with my District Leader and we are covering both areas while the other two stay at the apartment to heal up.

Any minute now we find out if one of is leaving on wednesday for transfers. Is it nerve wracking. I was hoping I would be able to find out sooner so I could tell you what's going on, but we have not yet. I'll tell you next week.

Love you all!

-Elder Burnham

Winter Wonderland

2011-01-20T17:49:00.000-08:00

Beloved Family,

Right now it is a winter wonderland. We are getting the biggest snow of the winter thus far. About 6-7 inches have come down, and it is still snowing. But even with this, it is 5 times nicer than last winter. by this time last winter, we had already had about 3-4 feet. But we are just over a foot-ish so far this year. Even with all of its annoying qualities, I will miss the snow. It can be adventurous.

The days are slowly getting longer. I love it. I wait for the days when it does not get dark at 5:30.

Due to the snow, church was shortened this week. There was the English Sacrament meeting, followed be a half-hour Spanish one. There were only about 10 Spanish people there. It was a good meeting though. The only sad part is that we had 4 people who told us they were going to come to church, and none showed up. We'll get 'em next week. Hopefully there is not a snow storm then.

We also had to have a member drive us here to the library because we are not allowed to drive our cars until 1:00 due to road conditions.

I have started reading the Book of Mormon anew, focusing on the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I want to bear my testimony of it. I would not be here without the Atonement. I have needed it many times in my life, and I especially needed it to fully prepare for my mission. There are few feelings better than feeling through the spirit that God has forgiven you for every mistake you have made. I know we would not be able to feel that if our loving brother Jesus Christ did not perform the Atonement for us. I have recently been reading about the end of Christ's life in Jesus the Christ, and I feel the spirit testify of his divinity when I do. I am always amazed that he says, "My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even unto death." It was a tremendous load that was surprising even for him. But he drank the dregs of the bitter cup. I love that in the Book of Mormon in 3 Ne 11 that this is the first thing he tells the people after he introduces himself. That is how important it is. I love the Saviour and what he did for me. I hope you all continue to use the Atonement daily. If you have not read Jesus the Christ, I suggest you do- or at least parts of it. It is quality.

I love you all, and God does too!

-Elder Burnham

New Year

2011-01-03T16:54:00.000-08:00

Family,

Happy 2011!! It is hard to believe the new year is already upon us. I hope you all had fun partying Friday night. :)

We had a quality week. One thing we have been focusing on is trying to set up as many appointments as possible. It is helping us teach more and have more solid lessons. This is an area I have struggled with in the past. It is simple, but sometimes it is easy to not make the calls (especially since talking on the phone is not my favorite thing). But we have seen good fruits from it.

We have continued working with Rosa and Pedro, but they did not come to church this week. I have faith they will come next week. We have several other good investigators, and we are going to focus on getting more members out with us this week, to help them progress. We are going to start teacgin a 9-year-old that wants to get baptized. He is the friend of a member and has come to church about 5 times already. I am excited for him. I think there will be a few baptisms here the end of Jan or the first of Feb. I hope I stay (transfers are the 20th).

Friday night I got a little sick. We had to go back to the appartment about two hours early. It made me realize how grateful I am that I have good health normally. It is only the second time I have gotten sick like that on the mission. I am a little congested now, but I am mostly better.

I am going to include a few pictures from Christmas and since. I hope you enjoy them. Love you all!

-Elder Burnham

Christmas + 2 days

2010-12-27T16:31:00.001-08:00

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

2010-12-21T13:33:00.000-08:00

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

2010-12-13T15:47:00.000-08:00

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

2010-12-06T19:39:00.000-08:00

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

2010-12-04T12:28:00.000-08:00

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

2010-12-04T12:26:00.000-08:00

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.

New investigators!!

2010-11-16T19:27:00.001-08:00

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

2010-11-10T10:56:00.000-08:00

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

2010-11-03T20:21:00.001-07:00

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.

2010-11-03T20:20:00.001-07:00

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

10-18-10 :)

2010-10-23T11:31:00.001-07:00

Family,

This was a a pretty good week. We had some trouble meting with some of our investigators, but should be able to teach them this week. Rosalba's baptism was pushed back, but I really feel that she will get baptised on the 30th. She will be going to Mexico soon after, but I feel like she will stay strong. I really want to stay here (transfers are on the 28th), I feel like the work is going to go well in November, and Elder Orellanaand I are learning a Lot of Spanish together. I guess we'll see what God wants.

I was discouraged on Tuesday when I wrote, but it didn't last too long, We had an amazing District Meeting on Wednesday. I came prepares to recieve revelation and learn what to improve on, and it ended up being one of the most, if not the most spiritual meetings of my mission for me. I'm not sure if it was the same for the others, but I felt the spirit really strong, and it strengthened my testimony a lot, especially on some aspects that I was trying to work on.

We are trying to switch the focus here from transfers to months. We are starting monthly planners, instead of transferly ones.

This coming week we are going to be focusing a lot on Church and Baptism with Everyone. We are praying to see results. It should be good.

I finished the Book of Mormon for the second time in Spanish this week. It is true; it is the word of God. I love it. I started again, reading everything before 1st Nephi. It is a powerful book.

I love you all.

-Elder Burnham

10-12-10

2010-10-23T11:30:00.001-07:00

Family,

This was a tough week. It just seems like things were not going our way in anything. We had most of our best appointments fall through, and complications with Rosalba's baptismal date. Needless to say, I am a little discouraged and don't feel like an really effictive missionary. But I know this feeling with pass with a little time. I think the most important thing I learned was that I need to focus more on the spirit. I have been working, but I feel like a good chunk of it is just doing the normal stuff. After the meeting with Elder Ellis of the Seventy, I focused on this, and I saw good things happen. I know it makes a difference, but I lost my focus this week. I am excited for our district meeting tomorrow, where I can learn how to continue improving, and feel the spirit. This is an opportunity to use the Atonement.

Love you all,

-Elder Burnham

PS okay so looking back on it, that is a pretty dismal letter. Not the note I want to end on. But missions can be hard at times. Know that I am working hard, and growing in my love and appreciation for the Savior and his atonement. I feel the spirit as I write this and I love it. I know what we teach is the word of God, and that it contains the fulness of the Gospel, to help people take advantage of the Atonent and reach the Celestial Kingdom. I know this is a growing opportunity, and I will try my best to get as much out of it as possible. Again, I love all of you. Have a great week!!

PPS I may send pictures next week. We'll see.

9/27: Hello.

2010-10-23T11:29:00.001-07:00

Sorry, I am short on time again. I am going to copy my president's letter here, but I would like to preface it. This week, we had Elder Ellis of the Seventy and his wife visit. It was a really good Zone Conference.

The two things I took away from Zone conference were:

Prayer- more heartfelt and sincere

Cast out unbelief

I have continued pondering on these things, and faith. As I have done this, I have had a lot of personal revelation about what I have to do to change and be better. I was thinking about having the faith of a mustard seed, and got a little discouraged, because I thought, "I can't move a mountain. I don't even have the faith of a mustard seed." But then I got thinking. I know that if I felt the Holy Ghost tell me to do it, I would have the faith and power to do it. I later read a quote from Jeffrey R Holland about needing to pray with faith in order to take advantage of the Lord's promise "ask and ye shall recieve". Sometimes I don't have a whole lot of faith when I pray, but the same realization I had applies to this kind of faith. If the Spirit tells me to pray for it, I will have the faith to get it. I now relize why it is so important for the spirit to tell us what to pray for, as it says in Doctrine and Covenants. I am striving to be led by the spirit in my prayers, and really expect them to be answered.

I really feel like this is a crucial part in my mission. My faith and desire are really increasing, and I am being really obedient. I am doing what I need to to be the missionary I want to be. I have the spirit so much more with me, and I feel like I am a tool in the Lord's hands. I am sincerely excited for the work.

We had an amazing finding experience last night. We were heading back to the car at about 8:20. It was dark and I was tempted to go back to the appartment to work on the area book, but decided against it. Even though it was late, I decided to look through my planner and find someone else to visit. As we got to the car ans I did so, a lady walked up. We talked to her and she seemes so prepared. Her mom is a member in Mexico, and her sister too. She had seen us before, but was just too shy to ask us if we were the Mormons. She said she had been commenting to her daughter that they needed to find a church to go to, but did not want to go to the Catholic because they didn't know when the spanish Mass was. We have an appointment with her tonight. I am really excited, and know that we were led to her.

Love you all.

-Elder Burnham

9-20-10 Elder Orellana

2010-09-20T16:05:00.000-07:00

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.

2010-09-13T21:47:00.001-07:00

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

2010-09-12T20:49:00.000-07:00

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

2010-09-12T20:48:00.000-07:00

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

2010-09-12T20:46:00.000-07:00

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

2010-09-12T20:44:00.000-07:00

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

2010-09-12T20:42:00.000-07:00

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

2010-09-12T20:40:00.000-07:00

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

2010-09-12T20:38:00.000-07:00

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

2010-09-12T20:37:00.000-07:00

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

2010-09-12T20:35:00.000-07:00

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

2010-09-12T20:28:00.000-07:00

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

2010-09-12T20:25:00.001-07:00

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

2010-09-12T20:22:00.000-07:00

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

2010-09-12T20:21:00.000-07:00

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

2010-09-12T20:20:00.001-07:00

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

2010-09-12T20:16:00.000-07:00

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

2010-09-12T20:13:00.000-07:00

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

2010-09-12T20:11:00.000-07:00

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

2010-09-12T20:03:00.000-07:00

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

2010-09-12T20:00:00.000-07:00

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

2010-09-12T19:56:00.000-07:00

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

4-19-10

2010-04-20T19:51:00.000-07:00

Family and Friends,

I'll start off with a story from last week. We have several investigators who live in Denison, which is 45 miles north of where we live. If we drive there and back in the same day, that is 90 miles minimum, far more than we are allotted daily. Elder Mitchell talked with President Kunz a few weeks before I got there, and got permission to stay at a member's house there, so we could save on miles. The member is Anthony Lewis. He is about 30, and African American, but due to a healt issue, he has the maturity of a 16-year-old and stutters. He knows about everyone in the town of Denison it seems. So last weekend when we were spending the night there, something interesting happened. We were in the spare bedroom sleeping, when at 3 in the morning, there was a ring at the doorbell. about a minute later, Anthony's phone started ringing. He answered it and then went to the door while talking. He let someone one and talked to him for a bit. I was trying to block out the conversation to I could go back to sleep, but I heard the stanger end by saying, "You're a pal Anthony." There had been a party across the way earlier, with alcohol and loud music and such. This guy was too intoxicated to get home, so Anthony let him sleep on his couch. He's so nice.

The next morning, Anthony left to work at 6:00. We woke up and stayed in our room for a bit, wary to go out. When we did, we discovered that this guy was still there. Two missionaries, in someone else's appartment, with a sleeping drunk guy on the couch. I never thought that would happen. But we minded our own business. We both showered and poured cereal, which we ate in the room. During our studies someone came to the door and knocked. They ended up taking the guy out and probably back home. Needless to say, we were a little relieved to have our (Anthony's) appartment back to ourselves.

We had a little miracle this last week. We were in Harlan, one of the towns we work in, I think is is about 2,000 people. We had been searching for a less-active family that lived there. We had knocked the door that the branch roster said they lived in, but no one ever answered. Later that day, we felt like we should go try to find some new investigators (knock doors) in a trailor park in town. Our teaching pool in Harlan is rather small and we are trying to build it up. We saw a man there pushing a lady in a wheelchair, so we talked to them. The lady talked more than the man, so we asked her if she had ever heard about the Book of Mormon. She said no, so we stared to talk about it. We asked them what they thought the Bible was. The Man spoke up and said it talked about what had happened in the past, and what was going to happen in the future, right before the end and when Jesus would come again. We thought it was a strange answer. We finished talking about the Book of Mormon and asked them why they thought there were so many churches. The man spoke us for the second time and said "There is only one true church and all the reset are made up." "Which one do you think is true?" "Yours. The Church of Jesus Christ." Based on what he had said before, we assumed he was talking about having Jesus in your heart being true religion (lots of people say that). But no, he was definitely talking about the restored Church of Jesus Christ. It turns out that he was the less-active we had been searching for. However, before we knew this, he went on to testify to us and to the lady in the wheelchair (who was a friend) of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. He had moved from his old house and to that trailer park, so it was good we got a hold of him. Miracles happen.

Well, that's about all for this week. More later. Love you all. Write me and tell me how you are!

-Elder Burnham

4-12-10 Movin' On

2010-04-12T16:21:00.000-07:00

My Dear Friends and Family,

I hope everything goes well with all of you. I hope all of your testimonies are growing and that you are all able to participate in missionary work where you live. It is the coolest thing ever to do.

We had John Atem come to church this week again. He is the coolest. We were hoping on three other investigators, but they didn't come. One was a 14-year-old, Claire Probasco. Another was a nine-year-old from a part-mamber family, and the last one was Lisa Tidwell. She was going to get baptized the same day as John, but now that she didn't come to church, she will have to wait. Whe has made some great changes in her life, though. She had stopped smoking, stopped drinking coffee, is of high blood pressure medicine, and is almost under 300 pounds for the first time in many years. We now shoot for church next week.

We had a fun preparation day. I bought some cool new shoes. They are "vaquero" Hispanic style. They are long and pointy and beautiful. I will sent a picture of them. We also started a fun project. Since we are in the middle of nowhere, we don't get to do activities with other missionaries (like sports and stuff), we are doing our own. The members we are living with have a nice workshop, and they had a pair of skateboard trucks. This gave us an idea. We are going to build a short-board. We did most of it today, cutting out the board, and making spacers for the trucks. We will finish next preparation day.

Sorry that this was a lame and short letter. Better one next week.

-Elder Burnham

4-5-10 Transfers, John Atem

2010-04-11T20:42:00.000-07:00

Family and Friends,

Transfers came and left again, and so did I. I am getting pretty good at packing my luggage. I have been transfered back to Iowa, in the same area! I am excited to serve back in the same branch. I have felt myself mature a lot as a missionary since I was here before, and hope it will help my investigators I am serving with Elder Mitchell. He is a good missionary. He has been out a little over a year and a half. I can tell this is a start to an amazing transfer. He is not a Spanish missionary, but does speak a little bit of Spanish- probably about as much as I spoke when I left Logan. I will have to be the senior speaker when we teach Spanish investigators. I was talking to Elder Mitchell about the gift of tongues, and I felt the spirit testify powerfully to me that God with work through me and that I will be able to speak well enough, if I try my best. Like Mosiah 4:27, God will not require more than my best, and if I am diligent, I will "win the prize" for me and my investigators.

We had a really cool experience with John Atem, an Sudanese investigator. He is an amazing and prepared investigator. He called the chapel about two or three weeks ago and said he wanted to learn more about Jesus Christ. He had been taught about the restoration and been to church before I got here. We talked about his concern of not wanting to be baptized a second time on Friday. Saturday night he came to the Priesthood session, and loved it. Sunday we talked to him again and taught the Plan of Salvation. As we touched temple work, I felt impressed that we should talk about it and help him see beyond baptism. He really enjoys meeting with us and talks and shares a lot. At the end, I asked him is he was still concerned about being baptized again, and he said that was no longer to be a problem. He has a baptismal date of the 24th of April. Such a good guy.

General Conference was also amazing. It focused a lot on families. The Lord is really counseling and directing us in these perilous times. It was cool to hear from Wilford Anderson, my former stake president, and Elder Perry and Halstrom, who visited our mission. I learned so much and was spiritually filled. I know Jesus is the Head of this church, and that we are lead by his apostles. It is an amazing feeling. I hope all of you also loved it and learned a lot. If not, we can read the Ensign when it comes out!

I love you all and hope you are doing well.

-Elder Burnham

I also am sending some pictures. The first is Elder Shumway and me. The second is Elder Orellana (the new Spanish missionary) and the truck and me. The third and fourth are Elder Mitchell. He accidentally ripped his pants at transfers.

3-29-10 Gabriela baptized and Transfers soon

2010-03-29T18:10:00.000-07:00

Friends and Family,

This week was GREAT. Saturday was the highlight, with the baptism of Gabriela Navarro. It was amazing. She was so ready for this. She has such a strong testimony of the Book of Mormon and the restored gospel. I could tell she felt the spirit at her baptism, and her husband did too. They will be a strong family in the Spanish group, and hopefully pioneers for the Schuyler branch in the future. I am amazed at how the Lord prepares people. President Lindquist (the branch president) did the baptism. We told him he could do it in English, but he wanted to do it in Spanish. A bilingual member had written it out phonetically, but he still struggled with it. He did get it on his fourth or fifth try. It was a good experience.

We had an interesting experience at church this Sunday. Maria Gutierrez (an investigator about 60 years old) got really emotional during the second hour of church in the Spanish group. She started crying a little bit and then walked out during the lesson. before the third lesson, her daughter was looking for her. A few branch members joined in, but no one could find her. Finally at the end of the block, we found her in the truck they had come in. When we visited her later that night, she told us that she had just become overcome with emotion and couldn't handle it. She went for a little walk to cool down. She had meant to come back, but when she tried, the strong emotions came back. She is doing well though. She always feels the spirit, and says she hasn't found this in any other church. She had a Gospel Principles book, and reads it often. She read about fasting, and decided to fast on her own for her daughter and son-in-law. She is doing really well and we hope to help her set a baptismal date this week. She wasn't able to make it to the baptism Saturday, though.

il date this week. She wasn't able to make it to the baptism Saturday, though.

I translated for the first extended period of time in Church today. It was really hard. I think I got the message through, though. It was an experience.

I am really excited for Easter and General Conference. It seems like we just had it though. But I am not complaining- I love to hear the apostles and I am excited for our investigators to hear them too. It is nice to focus completely on conference, without the distractions of every-day life.

We went running this morning with our branch president. He had wanted to come two weeks ago, but couldn't, so we ran a little without him. Today, we jogged just over two miles. I need to get in shape. I had to walk a few times.

Transfers are this Thursday. They come so soon! But the funny thing about them is that they are on April 1st. I have a feeling there may be a few April Fool's Jokes played. I will write about how transfers go next week.

I love you all and hope things go well with you all!
-Elder Burnham

3-22-10 St Patrick's Day

2010-03-23T17:46:00.000-07:00

Family and Friends,

come. End of story.
The weather is playing tricks on us. Wednesday it was about 50. Thursday it was 65. It was heavenly. We even left out suit jackets at the appartment, and opened the sliding glass door to let the air come in. Then Friday is snowed an inch. Accursed skies- they threw us for a loop. But it is back up to the 50s and about all the snow is gone.

We had six investigators attend church, one of which will be baptized this Saturday (Gabriela Navarro). I am really excited. She and her husband had told us they wanted to get baptized, but did not want to set a date yet. We had a team up this week with our branch mission leader that went really well. We went over Mosiah 18 and asked her what was keeping her from being baptized. She gave us a few reasons, but her Husband told her that they weren't really reasons, but excuses. She realized this and told us the only thing that was really keeping her from a date was that she needed to stop waiting and just do it. She agreed to be baptized the 27th, and she is super excited for it. They announced it on Sunday in our Spanish group, and it seemed like she was alive with the spirit. Her husband and son should follow along too, soon. We also have Carlos Sanches set to get baptized the 27th. We really hope he can make that date and be baptized.

I am also sending a few pictures. One is of a really tiny house. I don't know if the picture does it justice. Two are of out "Easter" eggs, and one is Elder Shumway standing on a table. We have terrible reception in out appartment. TERRIBLE. But if we stand on the table, it works a lot better.

Until next week,
-Elder Burnham

3-8-10 Keep Going

2010-03-10T20:51:00.001-08:00

Friends and Family,

I don't feel much in the writing mood today, but we'll see how things turn out.

I guess first off, I'll talk about who came to church. We had Gabriela and Serafin come to church, with their three kids: 8,4,2 (I think). This is their second time and they really like it. We have talked to them about baptism and they say they want to be baptized, but we are working on setting a date still. We also had a friend of a member come. His name was Alberto. We talked to him briefly about coming to church when we say him at the member's house, and it turned out that he came! He seemed a little bored, but later that night he called us, and told us he really liked it! He asked when the next service and seemed a little disappointed when we said that they were only on Sundays. But he gave us his address and we are excited to teach him more.

There was a leadership council this week in Omaha. I was invited to come with my companion, who is a District leader. There were about 50 missionaries there. The meeting was about 7 hours long (lunch included) and we heard from one person from the missionary department and another from the MTC. We learned a whole bunch of good stuff and I feel like this is going to be a turning point for this mission. I remembered the MTC guy and he gave basically the exact same thing he did when I was there. I still had the notes on it and everything. Back to training for our mission! After the meeting we went to the temple. It had been a while so I was really glad to go.

Okay that's basically everything exciting for this week. We did find some promising new investigators though. I look forward to working with them.

Love you all.
-Elder Burnham

2010-03-02T20:37:00.000-08:00

Everyone!

This has been a pretty fun week. I ate cow tongue tacos, we got pulled over by an investigator, and we met someone who payed eight cows for his wife. Schuyler is a fun area.

We had a good turn out to Sacrament meeting this week. We had Gabriela and Serafin come, a couple we have been working with. She has a really strong testimony of the Book of Mormon. They read it together at night and then discuss it. They both like what they read. She told us they ask each other "do we believe it?" and the answer is always "yes we do". Maybe they will be some of the pioneers of the Spanish branch here. We also had Ana and Adam come to Sacrament meeting. Ana is a member, and Adam is her boyfriend. She was baptized in Lexington many years ago, and has not been to church in over 15 years. It was great to see them come. Unfortunately Estela did not come with them, but we will continue to work with her. Estela is a family friend that lives with them. We helped set her for baptism this week.

We had three team ups this week. One of them spoke English, and the other two spoke none. I translated everything for one, which was good practice. It was interesting having them there, but it was cool to see how we could overcome the language barrier. I though they were all effective. All the people we went on team-ups to were the ones who came to church. Yay!

When we were shopping last week, Elder Shumway saw a 10 lb. bag of potatoes on sale for only $2. It was an amazing amount of food for so little money, so, you know, he just had to buy it. We got back to the apartment, and then realized that we had TEN whole pounds of potatoes. They aren't exactly a microwave dinner. It turned out well though. I had some sour cream already, and we had real butter, so I made awesome mashed potatoes. We even had a random bottle of minced garlic in the fridge (I'm not sure how old it was but it tasted good). It was delicious- I was proud of myself. Thank you mom for letting me help you in the kitchen to learn. I ended up using about a third of the bag. Elder Shumway cut up another third of them and fried them with onions. He had some meat that he ate with it. I tried a little and it was good. We just need to use the last third of the bag this week. Fun times.

I hope you are all doing well back in AZ. Hope you are enjoying the weather and such. I hope you all have the opportunity to help in missionary work. If not, Get to it!! I love you all-

-Elder Burnham

2-23-10 Mission Conference!!

2010-02-23T20:54:00.001-08:00

Family and Friends,

To start off, I am staying here this transfer. We got calls Wednesday and found out. It will be strange to stay here for so long!! I am excited though, and I will still get to see the Sanchez family get baptized. Elder Anderson left from Columbus and the new Elder there is Elder Simms. This is his third transfer, and he was also trained be Elder Burton. That makes him my "brother" in mission language.

I am writing on Tuesday for a special reason. Yesterday, we had a once-in-a-mission-time Mission Conference. The whole mission gathered together in Omaha to listen to a few special people. Elder Holstrom, from the Presidency of the Seventy, and Elder L. Tom Perry of the Quorum of the Twelve visited our mission. It is part of a week long thing they are doing, and are visiting 8 different missions. Apostles have a week "off" from their normal stuff to prepare their General Conference talks. Elder Perry has such enthusiasm for the work, he decided to take this time instead and visit missions. He was formerly the Apostle in charge of missionary work until Feb 1st.
It was a great experience. Elder Holstrom spoke about the purpose of companionships, as well as some other counsel for us. The spirit was strong as they all spoke. Elder Perry talked about the restoration. He talked about the history of the earth, and dispensations. He talked about the reformation. He talked about how those who have the priesthood are Agents of the Lord, and that they have his "power of Attourney", able to do things in his name, as if he himself were doing them. He bore special testimony about the Church in these days, how it is truly led by Christ himself. He bore testominy that all the Apostles are called of God. It was really special.

Due to lack of Spanish-speaking members, we have three English team-ups this week. It is going to be interesting. We are not sure quite how they are going to go, but we will make the best of them.

I feel like there was something I was going to write about, but I am drawing a blank. I will probably remember it as soon as I log off, or as we are shopping. Oh well. Maybe next week.

I know this is God's Church. I know it was restored through Joseph Smith. I am so grateful that we have the restored Church, and that we have the Book of Mormon, physical proof that it was restored. I know that anyone who sincerely prays about the Book of Mormon with a sincere heart, real intent, and faith that their prayer will be answered, will recieve a powerful witness of its divinity by the power of the Holy Ghost. I know that we have fifteen Apostles of God today, with the senior apostle being President Thomas S Monson. I hope each of you take time this week to renew your testimony of the Book of Mormon through prayer. I know it will bless your lives in all aspects and that you will find renewed peace and happiness. I pray for you all and appreciate you prayers on behalf of all missionaries in the world. I love you all.

-Elder Burnham

2-16-10 Almost Transfers

2010-02-22T19:04:00.001-08:00

Family and Friends(if any friends actually read these),

I did not write on Monday because it was president's day. It is wierd to write on a Tuesday.

Transfers are almost here again (they come too quick). We find out what is happening tomorrow evening. Maybe I will take over my first area. Maybe I will be shipped off again. Maybe we will both stay here again. Who knows?

So the My LDS Mail switched to a gmail server. It is way nice. It works so much smoother than the old one.

The weather was terrible Sunday. They canceled church because of it, which was disappointing. We had the Sanches family planning to come, but had to call them and tell the m to stay home. Hopefully they can make it next week and still be baptized on the 27th, but that would involve the dad pulling an all-nighter because he works every-other Saturday night.

I will include something that my missino esident sent out to us:

"Mission Boundaries

On Saturday there was an article in the Church News that stated: "To better align resources and adjust to the ever changing needs of the Church, 10 new missions will be organized in July, while 14 other missions will be combined with neighboring missions. The resulting number of missions will be 340." Related to us it stated that Church will "combine the Illinois Peoria Mission with the Iowa Des Moines, Missouri St. Louis and Nebraska Omaha missions." The mission president of the Peoria Illinois mission completes his three year mission in July. That is all I know at the moment, speculation on potential mission boundaries is not a concern to us now, we will be informed at the appropriate time, so please discourage any discussion about these changes. All I can say is that the Lord runs this Church and what is planned is His will."

We also get two new spanish-speaking greenies this week. I am excited for that.

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

-Elder Burnham

1-25-09

2010-01-25T20:02:00.000-08:00

Family and Friends,

So from last week- the Pentecostal Church. We were invited by an investigator we are teaching. The Service was two and a half hours long. It began with 45 minutes of ground-shaking music- giutars, drums, keyboards, and singers. Next was a guy who came up and cried as he paced back and forth, giving a five munite speach thanking god for the spirit he had sent to the congregation. The Pastor spoke alittle, then we heard from a speaker. He wasn't a very good puclic speaker. Imaging the most boring sacrament talk you have ever heard, and stretch that out for 40 minutes in a language you can't completely understand. While he spoke, people from the audience would randomly shout "Gloria a Dios!" or "Halleluijah!" or "Cristo Viene!" After the speaker, the was a healing. People who needed to be healed would come up front. The Pastor would shout at them for a few minutes and tell them to be healed. The service was concluded by another 30 minutes of music. It was such a contrast from what I am used to.
The people were all really nice. They all wanted to shake our hand afterward. I hope us going there opened up some doors, and that those people can feel the peace that spirit brings in the right enviroment.

I will include an excerpt from my letter to President Kunz:
"The Munoz family here is kind of the trunk of the Spanish part of the Branch. But a week or two ago, Brother Munoz got some anti-Mormon stuff from a co-worker. He ended up going online and found some stuff that really shook his testimony. They haven't come to church in four weeks. But we talked to them last week and this week, and got a lot of things straightened out. Yesterday we got a member to go with us to their house, and we shared our testimonies. It was all really powerful. I was thankful that we had the spirit. Elder Shumway shared Heleman 5:12, and it seemed like the scripture was written just for him.
Without the Munozs there, we have only had two or three people in our spanish class the last few weeks. We have had many investigators say they wanted to come to church buth then not show up. Elder Shumway and I have been talking a little bit about it and we both feel that without the Munoz family there, as the trunk, it is stunting the Spanish part of our branch. We feel that Heavenly Father doesn't want investigators to come to church without the strength of that family there. We will continue to work our best and hopefully we will see the fruits of our labors."
That's easier than writing it again for you guys.
On another note, the priesthood relief society is using the same book as the gospel principles class. This means that we get two lessons from the same book right in a row in our Spanish class. I guess we need it. Back to the Basics.

For those of you who don't know, there is a little joke that goes around our house about spanish commercials on American products. The commercials have some hispanic person doing the commentary in their fast, monotone voice, then, all of the suddeen, they say the product name in completely clear english. "SCRUBBING BUBBLES" or "SUPER BLENDER" and immediately drop back into spanish. I have heard several commercials like that here in Schuyer, and it catches me off guard every time. Spanish people never turn off their TVs. They just turn the volume way doen when we come. Maybe this is because they still want to be up to date on their "novela" (soap opera).

About 70 percent of the Spanish-speakers here are from Guatemala. Most are from a town of about 40,000 named Chichihualco. Because of this, there are two "Tiendas de Guatemala" here. They are like a little guatemala. They sell all the authentic stuff, and everyone there speaks Spanish. They are fun to go into to just brouse.

I have 4 minutes left, so it looks like I need to be done. I love you all. Until next week,
-Elder Burnham

1-18-10 Good Week

2010-01-25T20:01:00.000-08:00

Family and Friends,
This was a pretty good week. But the library is really full so I have very little time to write about it. The little bubble just came up telling me I have 10 minutes left. I will write fast.

The weather has been really good this week. It got up to the low 40s one day. A lot of the snow has been melting, but there is still a lot more. We heard there is supposed to be some freezing rain today, but I'm not sure.

So the place we moved in to used to be just retirement housing. They lifted that at the beginning of the year. I think we are the only ones living there who are younger than 50. They are a bunch of duplex houses. We made good friends with our neighbor and gave her a copy of the Book of Mormon, which she has actually read. It was her birthday Friday so we sang to her.

I have had a small epiphany. Through all the times of trying to explain to investigators how the Holy Ghost feels, to help them recognize it, I found a way that I like to describe it. The Spirit is Joy. When I feel the spirit, I usually feel happy. The spirit, like joy, is a feeling that completely envelopes you. It makes you happy, and it's a feeling that you never want to end. In the MTC I heard a quote from a General Authority that said that you can tell if you and your investigator are feeling the spirit if neither of you want to be anywhere else at that moment.

We have one investigator who has a baptismal date. Her name is Nina. She is awesome. She has a whole lot of faith and wants to start her journey of doing what God wants her to do. More about her next week.

We also went to a Spanish Pentecostal Church. More about that next week too.

I love you all. Have a great week.
-Elder Burnham

1-11-10 Transfers-Schuyler

2010-01-11T16:24:00.001-08:00

Friends and Family,

Hello again. Transfers came and went again this week. I got transferred Again!! Heavenly Father just keeps moving me around. I left Logan Iowa and got transferred to Schuyler (pronounced SKYLER) Nebraska! If you remember, that is the Spanish area in the Columbus Branch. It is nice to be back in the same branch, with a whole bunch of familiar faces. I look forward to serving here with theBranch President and Branch Mission Leader again. They are both great. The Branch President's wife also makes AMAZING food (especially rolls) and feeds us about every Sunday. We had some awesome food after church yesterday.

Oh- before I forget, next Monday is MLK day. We are going to be proselyting then (hopefully lots of people will be home), so our preparation day will be Tuesday that week. Just a heads up.

So my new companion is Elder Shumway. He has been out about a year and a half, and learned Spanish in the MTC. He is way awesome. He is a great worker and missionary. I am super excited for this transfer; I think it will be my favorite one of my mission so far.

We have a lot of Spanish investigators here, and I have already gotten a lot of practice with my Spanish. I should get a lot better this transfer. I hope I stay in this area a long time. Schuyler has about 5,000 people.

The missionaries here were previously living in a trailer in someone's garage. We finally got an apartment here about a week ago. It is really nice and I am excited to live there.

I am not too familiar with the investigators here, but we do have someone with a baptismal date. Her name is Soccoro. She is a Spanish investigator. She knows this is the church she wants to join, and that the Book of Mormon is true, but she is living with someone. She does not yet know she needs to get married or move out, but she wants to get baptized. We will talk to her about that next time we see her (I have not met her yet). We have some other potential investigators, that I will write about next week.

-Elder Burnham

1-4-10 New Year

2010-01-05T18:53:00.000-08:00

Friends and Family,

Welcome 2010. Man it's gone fast. I am excited for a new year. It is a time of beginings. Transfers are here again (they come so quick!) on Thursday. Elder Poccori hates them, I think it's fun to see what happens.

Nothing too eventful happened this week. It was just plain old missionary work. We have some good Spanish investigators, and we were able to have a Spanish member in Denison go on a team-up with us Saturday. It went really well.

The scriptures rock. There's so much good stuff in them. Read them often. STUDY them. I like doing studies by topic. Read the church magazines too. We have a less active family, converts of about a year and a half. The father read the Ensign, and was amazed at all the good articles. He said he had read from the Ensigns a little bit, but he had never read an entire one and he was glad he did.

Nothing much else to say. I love you all.
-Elder Burnham

12-28-09 Christmas

2010-01-01T16:35:00.000-08:00

Friends and Not-Immediate-Family,

(I spoke to my immediate family Thursday- they don't need an email this week)

I hope you all had a great CHRISTMAS!! I certainly did. It was nice to talk to my family and hear their voices. I will miss Christmas time, though. Ten more months....

On Christmas Eve, we watched The Nativity and Mr Krueger's Christmas with the Hess's. After that, we sang Christms hymns and read the Christmas story out of the New Testament. Christmas morning we opened presents at about 8:00. We had a big Christmas breakfast and then played in the freshly-fallen snow. I called home at 4:00 and we had Omaha Steaks for dinner at about 6:00. It was a good day.

The weather was not fun this week. Our cars were grounded Tue-Fri, so we did as much work as we could here in Persia, but that's not much. I am excited to have a normal week finally. Hopefully the weather agrees.

There is about 2-3 feet of snow on the ground right now, with drifts up to 4ft. This is apparently the worst winter they have had here in a long time.

Transfers are coming up. Don't send any mail to Persia after New Year's Day. Send it to the Mission office, so if I get transfered I will still get it.

I love you all and have a happy new year!

-Elder Burnham

This was after an ice storm. The trees look way cool.

We played in the snow on Christmas. I am hiding behind a snow drift.

Me and Elder Poccori.

He made me angry...

There was about 3 and a half feet of snow here. We both jumped in it.

He turned me into a newt!

...

I got better...."

-Monty Python and the Holy Grail

12-21-09 Christmas

2009-12-22T19:49:00.000-08:00

Family and Friends,
First off, I love you all and wish you a Merry Christmas.

We were going to have a baptism this week, but it got pushed back. The investigator starts Chemotherapy Tuesday, so It may not happen for while. We will still visit him as much as his health will permit and keep him on the road to the waters of baptism. He is such a kind hearted guy.

The work with hispanic invertigators remains the same. We are trying our best to get them all to church. We have a few new Spanish investigators.

This week was very eventful. We had Zone conference Wednesday (it was supposed to be last week but was moved due to snow), Exchanges that night and the next morning, the Temple Thursday night, and Interviews Friday morning. It was nice to get back home Friday after two nights in Council Bluffs.
It was also so nice to go back to the temple after about 5 months. I learned even more than I have previous times. It is always so peaceful in there.

I am excited for my first Christmas away from home. It will be a new experience. It has come so quickly.

I got a principles of the Gospel Book in Spanish from Zone conference, as well as the Nov and Dec Liahona. All the missionaries also recieved a copy of Teaching, no Greater Call.

We had a bit of freezing rain Saturday night. The trees looked really cool, all white, with ice crystals hanging down from all of the branches.

Merry Christmas again. Remember the Savior and the purpose for his life.
-Elder Burnham

12-14-09 A Baptism soon and More Snow

2009-12-14T16:32:00.000-08:00

Friends and Family,

I am not really in the writing mood right now, so I appologize if this week's email is a little short or boring.

We got a lot more snow this week. on Tuesday, we got about 12 inches. There were winds with gusts of up to 50 miles an hour in the evening, making blizzard conditions. Because of this, we could not drive Tuesday and had to stay inside. This really has been a strange winter this year. We had snow really early, then virtually no snow in November, and then a huge snow storm way earlier than usual.

We had our branch Christmas party. The theme was "A Night Without Darkness: The First Christmas In The Americas". It turned out really well, and every one enjoyed it.

We have a baptism coming up next week. His name in Pete Clark. He is about 75, and has terminal Cancer. We are excited for him to be baptized, though, and he is too. I will tell about how it went next week.

We also have several Spanish-speaking invetigators who would be baptised, but are being held up by lack of church attendance. We are trying to get them all to come to church, and then we will have more baptisms!!

So it is a really short one. I will write a longer email next week.
-Elder Burnham

2009-12-07T18:25:00.000-08:00

This is Elder Poccori. His birthday was Friday, so the Hess's made him a birthday cheesecake.

We found a frozen pond. We had just finished helping someone to move, so we were in regular clothes and decided to have some fun.

I started to do some poses, but the ice made a really loud crack after this, so I got off.

* * *

My Dear Friends and Family,

I hate driving in the snow. With a passion. But I love it on the ground. We will probably make a snowman later today. I am excited.

We have a car in this area. I am the designated driver (the mission kind, not the alcohol kind). Most of the towns we go to are 20-45 miles away. We drive there, work, and then drive back at night. On Wed and Th, we got snow flurries off and on all day, but nothing really stuck. Friday was clear, as was Saturday. The highs have been in the mid 20s and the lows in the low teens. Brrrr. Yesterday, it started snowing and there is several inches of snow on the ground now. We had a dinner appointment with our Branch president and his family. It was about a 45 minute drive, pert of it backroads. It snowed on us on the way there. We slipped a little going up a steep hill and lost traction for a few seconds, but we made it safely. We ate dinner there and shared a message. I also got to play their piano, which is very nice. They invited us to stay for the First Presidency Christmas Broadcast, which we did. I was very nice. After, we had to drive home. It had been snowing the whole thime we were there and there was about three inches of snow. We had trouble getting out of their driveway because it was a gravel backroad. We finally got back onto the highway, and I took it slow. I became more comfortable as time went on, which led to me going a little to fast. we were going around a turn and I lost controll. Inexperienced as I was, I overcorrected several times and we went off the road. Thankfully, there was a level grass field fight next to the road, and not a steep hill. I think Heavenly Father was warning me to drive more carefully. We got back on the road with some pushing help from my companion. We took an alternate route home to avoid the steepest hills, and to use more roads that had been plowed. With the reduced speed and longer drive, it took us two hours. They were some of the longest hours of my life. I was ecstatic when we got home (later than we were supposed to) safe and sound. I survived my Driving-in-the-Snow- tutorial. Now I finally have some experience under my belt, along with a hatred for driving front-wheel-drive cars is fresh snow.

Now on to a happier note. We got a golden referal from a member last Sunday. He wants to be baptized. We met with him once last week and he came to church with this member. We should help him set a baptismal date tomorrow or the next day. He is going through a divorce, after being married 50 years, and he starts chemotherapy for his cancer this week (he had radiation before). He could definitely use the joy and peace the Gospel brings.

Funny story (at least I was amused): As I was driving, I saw a sign at a repair shop, with the name of the shop on it. I glanced at it, and from what I saw, it read, "Satan's Repair Shop". It took a moment to sink in. I incredulously looked back in my mirror to discover that it was actually, "Stan's ...". I was sad. But now, if I ever open a mechanic shop, I know just what to call it.

So with the snow, I need warming accesories. One of these was a scarf. Living by small towns, there are not too many big clothing stores. I was having a hard time finding one, and when I did, they were way expensive. We ended up going into this one small crafts store. I really didn't think they would have cold weather stuff, but Elder Poccori wanted to try it. They ended up having fleece for $8 a yard. It was perfect. I bought three feet by nine inches, and it was an awesome scarf for $2. I can fold it over and make it double thick. Scarves really help, especially since it hasn't gotten over about 28 in the last five days.

All the Spanish missionaries had a teleconference with President Kunz on Wednesday. About 6 of the 14 Spanish missionaries will be gone by next May. That means all of us who are learning need to do so quickly. He said he wanted us to be able to teach and communicate in the language by February, so he could put some of us together if needed. That's going to be a challenge. But after that, he blessed all of us that were learning, through the Priesthood Keys he held, that we would be blessed with the gift of tongues. It was pretty powerful.

If any of you reading this want to do something special for me for Christmas, just write me a letter telling me how you're doing, and maybe a favorite Christmas memory. I write a letter back for every one I get.

Merry Christmas!! I hope you all enjoy the spirit of the season, and remember what Christmas is all about- Jesus Christ. There is no better gift you can give someone than sharing the Lord's Gospel with them and hwlping them strengthen their relationship with our Savior who is Christ.

I love you all,
-Elder Burnham

11-30-09 SPANISH!!!!!!

2009-11-30T21:19:00.000-08:00

Friends and Family,

This week has been one of the most exciting of my mission, and not because of Thanksgiving. On Tuesday morning, my mission president called me and formally extended the call to me to be a spanish-speaking missionary. He ordered the MTC materials for me, which I will probably get tomorrow. As of Wednesday, I have a native spanish-speaking companion. So exciting. I will tell a little background about it.

At the begining of the transfer six weeks ago, I was talking to Elder Petersen who served in the same branch as me, but spanish. He said that he had been called English, but told President he would liketo go Spanish. He was switched a transfer later. He said that if I showed desire to do the same, there was a chance I could. I started studying Spanish in my free time with some spanish materials I found at the appartment: a MTC lesson and grammar book, the pamphlets in spanish, and a spanish Preach My Gospel I borrowed from the church library. When Interviews rolled around, I told president I would love to switch. He said he would consider it. Many of the Spanish missionaries do not have driving privelages, because they are from foreign countries. He said they were always in need of ones who could drive. Now we jump forward to the morning before transfers. I got the call from President, and I was off.

I am now serving in the Logan, Iowa branch, in the Council Bluffs stake. The branch is mostly english with the exception of Denison. Denison used to be a spanish area with its own missionaries and branch. It closed 6 weeks ago and became part of the Logan Branch. The Logan branch has about 100 people who come regularly and has a nice building.
My companion is Elder Poccori. He wasw born in Peru, and moved to the US about 7 years ago. He speaks English, but only enough to get by. I am helping him with it, and he is helping me with Spanish.

We live with members- the Hess family. It is just a husband and wife who are both retired. We live in the town of Persia which has about 360 people. It is right in the middle of the major population in our area: Logan, Missouri Valley, Harlan, and Denison. We get our mail from the post office, which has a public area of about 5ft by 10 ft inside. The members we live with are cool though. They feed us all the time, and we have a spiritual thought every night.

It is officially Christmas time!! I love it. Every one is putting up Christmas lights and we are singing Christmas hymns in Church. I love it.

Send mail through the Mission office, but if you send a Christmas package, send it to:
Elder Burnham
Box 57
Persia, IA 51563

Doing this will keep the mission office from getting flodded with Christmas packages.

That is all for this week.
-Elder Burnham

PS. Iowa actually has hills. It is nice to see something besides FLAT.

Pictures

2009-11-26T08:35:00.001-08:00

Here are some pictures that Austin sent. I forgot to post them right when I got them, so they're a little outdated. Better late than never though, right?

2 Weeks

2009-11-23T15:58:00.000-08:00

11-23-09 End of Transfer.

Friends and Family,

Well, this was a pretty good week! Transfers are coming up on Wednesday. They are usually on Thursday, but they moved them up to Wednesday this week because of Thanksgiving. I will probably stay, but just in case, don't send any letters to the appartment this week. Send them all to the Mission Office. Speaking of letters, thank you all for the ones you have sent. I look forward to recieving more soon!

We found some promising people this week. One couple is Tiffany and Greg (18 and 19). They felt the spirit when we taught them the first time, and we helped them recognize it. Greg asked if the Book of Mormon was the missing puzzle pieces of the Bible. We told him Absolutely it was! They have some hectic things going on right now so they won't be able to meet with us for a few weeks, but I am confident that is things go right, they will get baptized. We jsut have to get them married first!

Another couple we found in Ryan and Stasha (both 23). They were both former investigators who had recovered from narcotics. Through that experience, they learned to rely on God. Ryan does not believe too much in organized religion, but we can fix that. He also smokes. Stasha is awesome though. She loves everything we teach her, and she says it just makes so much sense. She wanted to come to church, but her phone was on silent, so her alarm didn't work. She felt bad and actually called us to appologize. That's rare! We are seeing them tomorrow, and will try to get them a baptismal date. We just need to get them married or moved out.

We had a branch family history activity this week. They showed us how to use familysearch.com and they talked about record-keeping and had some family hierlooms.

Thanksgiving is coming up, and I had some thoughts about it. The Lord has blessed us with Everything! We were just little bits of knowledge before-"inteligences", but if we are faithful and keep the commandments, we will experience eternal bliss, and inherit all the powers of the universe. Wow. All that he asks is that we be righteous. He has even given us our agency. The least we can do is thank him for it, and do what he wants. But even when we choose the commandments, he will repay us and we are still in debt (see Mosiah 2:24).

That's all for this week,
-Elder Burnham

* * *

11-16-09 Interviews

Every week when preparation day rolls around, I feel bad, because I don't feel like I have anything to write. Sorry.

So this week, we went out with our branch mission leader to find some people. We visited a less active in a trailor park. We knowcked lots of the doors. We found one person who might be interested, and we taught a lesson to the girlfriend of another Less-active. We still are finding. It is hard for us, because we don't have much experience.
We have two investigators we are still working with. It is a mother and daughter. The mother cannot get baptized until she gets married, and the daughter wants to get baptized at the same time. The boyfriend is pretty firm about a date in May for the Wedding. It may be a waiting game. We have a good relationship with the investigators, though. The boyfriend has really opened up more even since I've been here (they started being taught about two months ago). He used to sleep on the couch when they were over, or just play video games. He now talks to us, and we even taught him how to solve a Rubix Cube. He told his girlfriend about a week ago "You know I'm never going to be Mormon, right?" But he's coming along. He has started praying every night during family prayer, which they started about 10 days ago. They all go around and take turns talking. I hope he sees the blessings it is bringing his family and desires to have them for himself as well.

The weather here has been really nice lately. We haven't had snow in about three weeks. And it's FINE with me. The more mild the winter, the better. one person said they usually have about a foot of snow by now, and it has snowed about 12 times. We will probably get some tonight though.

I migh have already said this before, but the church building here is pretty small. It is on the outskirts of town, and has a cornfield on three sides of it. I love it. Maybe I will take some pictures. It's a shame I can't email them home.

We had traveling interviews this week. That is where President Kunz (with his wife) comes to all the appartments and does the interviews there. It was cool. They liked our Christmas decorations. We continue to build them up. We have wrapped boxes and put them under the tree to look like presents, and I bought red and green poster boards and cut out letters to spell MERRY CHRISTMAS! on the wall.

That's all for now, but I will include some thoughts.
The first thought is about pondering. I have a quote in my scriptures by M.V. Ashton in the Nov '87 Ensigh: "Pondering gives the spirit the opportunity to impress and direct. It is a powerful link between the heart and mind." I really like that quote. I have it written down under the book of Enos. Enos was forgiven of his sins when he was pondering while hunting. In D&C 138, Joseph F Smith recieves revelation while pondering in the Temple. In D&C 9, the Lord tells Oliver Cowdry that he must "ponder it out it [his] mind".

My companion has been waiting on me for about 20 minutes, so to spare him, I will give the other thought next week. I challenge all of you to hake it a habit, however, to ponder about things, especially gospel topics. It brings some cool revelations,.

I love y'all,
Elder Burnham

11-2-09

2009-11-02T18:59:00.000-08:00

Here is my Columbus Address:
Elder Awesome Burnham
3805 27th St. #5
Columbus, NE 68601

My Dear Family and Friends,

Well, I went on exchanges with my District Leader this week. I really enjoyed it. We had a long talk about everything mission-related. We talked about the book of Mormon, following the spirit, how to be better missionaries, and all sorts of things. It made me think a lot, and I learned about my purpose as a missionary, and how to better accomplish that.

I don't remember if I said this last week, but the Schuyler Elders live in a fifth-wheel trailer in a garage. So cool. I got to sleep in it this week. I think very few missionaries get to say they did that. Those Elders also got the only truck in the mission for their car. It is so fun to ride in.

Okay, I'm really short on time, so that will be all for this week. Sorry! I will give a longer email next week for sure.

I love ell of you.
-Elder Burnham

P.S. We had only a three foot Christmas tree before. We bought a six foot one as well. It is so cool.

Week ending 10-19-09. Columbus!!

2009-10-20T19:38:00.000-07:00

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

Winter (October 12)

2009-10-12T19:23:00.000-07:00

Friends and Family,

It is officially winter here in Nebraska. Nature couldn't hold off any longer. I suppose she felt like she needed to start early just because she has a native Arizonan living here... It snowed Friday night about an inch or two leaving a nice blanket of snow for us to find Saturday morning. It was so weird. It honestly took me a few hours to wrap my head around it (as stupid as that sounds). I am finally used to the idea that there can be patches of real snow in random spots around the own that I live in. The snow didn't make the roads icy, thankfully, and was mostly gone by that evening. The cold is here to stay though. It hangs around the trirties or fourties during the day. My Arizona body has some adapting to do. We also got a heavy dusting of snow last night and this morning. It makes me miss highs of 85 down in Mesa.

In the past few weeks, swine flu has hit Hastings, and hit it hard. It seems like everywhere we go, someone has it. Our mission president has counciled against going into places that could put us in risk of getting it and putting us out of work. It can be quite frustrating sometimes.

Okay so I've decided that I am really glad I did not go somewhere requiring the acquisition of a new language. It would be so hard. I feel like it's a blessing being able to jump right in and not have any cultural or language barriers. Sometimes, though, I wish the missionaries here would have had to learn a language. It would be a huge investment of time and maybe everyone would be more invested in their missions and have the desire to work their absolute hardest.

I've had the realization of how amazing of an investment of time a mission is (is done properly). My mission prep teacher back home said that when he got home from his mission, he felt that even though he had given two whole years of his life, that he came out on top and that the Lord had blessed him more far more than he had deserved. A member here who's family recently got baptized (the Pendletons) said that out of all his schooling and life experience, that if he could only keep one thing, it would be his mission because that's where he learned the most. I am begining to feel the exact same way. I also feel that the harder you work, the more blessings you get and the more you mature. I am amazed at how much I've grown spiritually and emotionally already.

Okay so this is an interesting story. Our appartment is on the West edge of town. Whenever we go anywhere, we go through a certain traffic light by our house. Here's the weird part: about 80 percent of the time we pull up to it, it's green, and then turns red right before we get to it. What the heck!! How does it do that?? There is no way of the light "knowing" when we are coming. It is the first light we come to, so it's not like it's just the timing of the lights. I am baffled! I can only come up with two solutions: either it is just a freakish coincidence, or Satan has one of his minions sitting there messing with it to stop us from going to work. Either way, I think it's kind of wierd.

About a month ago, some members of the ward PEC suggested that we teach a primary class to help the ten-year-old Pendleton twins better understand some basic doctrines. We agreed. When we visited them at home the next time we asked the boys some questions and found out that they understood everything astoundingly well. We diagnosed that they did not really need the extra lesson in primary. We made a call or two. Apparently the message never got through, because we were left last minute to teach them that Sunday without any preparations. We couldn't just leave them sitting there. We had to teach them Something. But we couldn't just teach them anything. These were rowdy kids- the 8-11 year old class. We had to try hard to keep their attention. What we ended up doing was teaching the ten commandments with hand signals I made up on the stop. It was a rush, but it was a blast. And now, I know the ten commandments really well!

Transfers are this Thursday. I am excited to know what is going to happen and who my new companion will be. President basically told me in interviews that I am taking over the area. Because of a few other reasons, we know I'm staying and Elder Burton will be leaving. I'm going to miss him. In mission lingo, he's my "Daddy", or my trainer. In sacrament meeting he went up to bear his testimony. In it, he told the ward that he would probably be leaving and that I was a hard-working obedient missionary. I was grateful for that. I love the Hastings ward and I got up after his to tell them that. I also shared a few of my short insights from General Conference and bore my testimony. I was a good church.

I hope that's long enough to fulfill my promise of giving a long letter this week, and I hope you enjoyed it. If not.... deal with it I guess. Or complain to me in a letter. those are always nice- even if filled with caustic remarks. That's all for this week.

Love you all. Study the November Ensign! It's good stuff.
-Elder Burnham

October 5th

2009-10-12T19:22:00.000-07:00

Friends and Family,

It will be a short email this week. I will make up for it with an extra long one next week.

General conference was very spiritually uplifting. I loved all the talks and cannot wait for them to come out in the Ensign. Elder Holland's testimony of the Book of Mormon was my favorite. Conference really is a different experience out here. I loved it. We also had two Elders from Holdrege here watching it with us because they have a branch down there so they do nt have a building with satelite.

We had interviews with our mission president this week too. In mine, he asked how well I knew the area and if I was ready to take over. Looks like I'm staying another transfer or two. Transfers are the 15th.

Well that's a pretty lame email. Sorry but you'll get a better one next week.

I really love you all.
-Elder Burnham