2 weeks in one + pictures

 

 

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

 

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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

 

Family,

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

-Elder Burnham

2/9

To all my Beloved Fans,

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

-Elder Burnham

Stayin put 1/24/2011

Family and all,

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

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

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

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

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

Awesome Week!!

 

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

 

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

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