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

Christmas + 2 days

 
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

 

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

 

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

 

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