Week ending 10-19-09. Columbus!!

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)

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

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

Week Ending 9-21-09

Friends and Family-

I learned some valuable things this week. First- cutting hair is harder than it looks. Second, cutting your own hair is even harder than that.
Yes- I attempted the self-haircut this week. I bought a pair of clippers and went at it. I cut the sider nicely and then started to hack away at the top with scissors. I used the method I've seen my mom (a pro hair dresser) use- comb it up, grab the hair in between two straight fingers, and then snip. I repeatedly combed, grabbed, cut, eventually leaving the comb out of the sequence. After about half an hour of this it was looking... wearable. Had I kept at it, I probably could have perfected the top, but I decided to just take clippers to it too. It turned out nice. Now I don't have to pay for hair cuts the rest of my mission!

So Elder Burton and I were talking this week, and we discovered that we are COMPLETE oppopsites. We had known we were different before, but we realized that besides the mission and the church, we really don't havae ANYTHING in common. We couldn't be more different. I figure if I can get along with him, I can get along with anybody.

The appartment here in Hastings really has become my home. I don't say "let's go back to the appartment", I say "let's go home". It's strange- I feel like I've known everyone in the ward for years. Sometimes I think that if I mention anyone here that you should know exactly who I am talking about. You wouldn't though. There is Teresa, a member of three years with a 14 year old son, DJ Adams, a cool member of about three years who is 23 (his birthday was yesterday and we made him brownies), and the Turpins, a couple who feeds us often. They are really cool and have an 18 year old boy named Boyce. Those area the members with which we have the best realationship and see often.

There are lots of small animals here. Squirrels and rabbits abound bounding across the road. There are a few skunks too. Unfortunately, this results in lots of roadkill. Poor animals.

I think that's all for this week. I would like to share a quote that President sent out in his weekly email. "When obedience ceases to be an irritant and becomes our quest, in that moment God will instill us with power." -Ezra Taft Benson
I hope we all make it our quest to keep the commandments.

I love you all so much.
-Elder Burnham

Week ending 9-14-09

Friends and Family,

Not too much to write this week. (Sorry!) We had a district meeting on Tuesday. One elder in our district left and now our district leader is training a greenie. We still have a really young district.

We are still teaching Aaron Shanley. We met with him twice this week. We just found out that he is going to be moving the begining of October. He is still planning on being baptized here, and is excited about it. I hope he doesn't stop going to church after moving, but I don't think he will. He is the only really progressing investigator we have at the moment- we are working on enlarging our teaching pool.

We had dinner with a really cool member family this week. They are the Turpins. They are both about 25 and have an 18 month old baby. They just moved here a few weeks ago. They both served missions so they know how it is to be in our position. We have dinner with them again this week.

So most of the ward here is inactive. I think if every member came, the ward would be about three hundred, but we only get 40-60 depending on the week. We have lots of re-activation work to do, but they just don't seem to want to come to church! it's frustrating sometimes.

One of our members attends the community college here and has us over for dinner at the cafeteria there. We ate there this past week. When dinner was over, it was pouring, and our car was a three-minute walk away. We had just come from a meeting, so we had our suit coats on. We opened the door and took off. Rain was coming down in football sized drops, and puddles were EVERYWHERE. And these weren't just normal puddles- there were anywhere from three to five feet deep, and spanned miles and miles. At least, that's what it felt like. I ran with all my might, mind, and strength, laughing hysterically the whole way. Man, it was so fun. Needless to say, we both got soaked. Good times on the mission.

Okay that's all for this week, but I'd like to share a quote from Jesus the Christ by Talmage. "Prayer is made up of heart swells and the righteous yearnings of the soul, of suplication based on the realization of need, of contrition and pure desire."
That's going from memory, but I think it's word-for-word. I read it and really liked it. It's now hanging above my desk.

Love and miss you all,
Your Nebraskan Elder Burnham

Week ending 9-7

Hallo Friends and Family!!

Transfers were this past week. I am staying in Hastings with Elder Burton for six more weeks. I love this place.

The library is closed today so we are using a member's computer. I don't have much time to write because of that. It will be a short email.

We have an absolutely amazing investigator right now. His name is Aaron Shanley (I think I mentioned him about four weeks ago). He just showed up at church- never been to an LDS church or taken lessons before- and wanted to "be a Mormon" as he said it. He disappeared for three weeks but finally came back! We taught him Friday and we have three appointments set up with him next week. He soaked up everything we said and loved the Restoration video, which he wants to show his brother. "I definitely felt something," he said after our lesson. He is set for baptism for the end of this month.

I would love it if any of you could send me CDs or sheet music! Along with what I said last week, I could use:
Fred Jones Pt. 2 (sheet music)
Les Miserables CD (from our computer)
Thank you so much!!

I am still at the same adress. Send it there or just to the Mission home and they will forward it.

I love you and miss you all!
-Elder Burnham

P.S. Sorry it's so short.

Week ending 9-31-09 (but really 8-31)

Friends and Family,

First off, thank you all for your letters and emails!! I love getting them and look forward to hearing from ALL of you.

This week, Elder Burton and I had another baptism. We baptized three people from the Pendleton family. The husband was a convert at 9, and served a mission in the Canary Islands. He went inactive for a while, but wanted to get his life back no track. His wife has two ten-year-old twin sons and they have a five-year-old baby. We baptized the Wife and two sons. I performed the actual ordinance; it was a neat experience. The water was really low, however, and because of that, I had to redo one of the boys (his head didn't go all the way under). Brother Pendleton spoke at the baptism and it was really good. Missionary work is amazing.

Okay, random fact: the Hastings branch is part of the Kearney (pronounced car-knee ...weird, I know) Stake. Kearney stake is the largest geographical stake in the world. I guess that's what happens in Nebraska.

Transfers are this Thursday. I feel like I'm staying, but I don't know about Elder Burton. We'll just have to see.

I have two requests:
1- Can you send me some sheet music for Memory and other cool piano songs? I often go down to the church on preparation day and play, but I would really like some music to read. If you could also send the music for All of Me, by John Shmidt (I think it's in the book we have) I would love that.
2- Can you send me a few CDs? I don't have a CD player, but we can listen to them in the car. As of right now, we are using leftover CDs from other missionaries. They are good, but I would like some variety. Here are some suggestions of music I would really like:
-Mormon Tabernacle Choir
-Piano CDs (maybe cool-sounding hymns?)
-Soundtracks (Man from Snowy River and the like)
The sender would get my eternal love and might enjoy some Chipotle or something good when I get home....
Wait to send them till next week when you can send the package right to my appartment (I might be moving). Send letters to the mission office though.

Okay that's about all for this week. Sorry it's kind of short. I guess it's time for a little pre-mission insight for the Westwood Ward priests and any others who read it. Find some favorite scriptures and memorize the basic idea and the reference. Memorize one every week, and soon you will be armed with an arsenal of powerful passages. If you have at least one scripture no each topic, there will be few situations where one of them will not apply. The scriptures are so powerful, and we can harness that.

I love you all,
Elder Burnham