1-18-10 Good Week

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

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

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

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

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

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

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