8-9-10 Sioux City

Family,


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


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


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


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


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


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


I love you all,
-Elder Burnham