Hello everyone!
I hope you all had a fantastic week. Mine started off by helping this elder named Elder K------, who is a huge Tongan missionary who went home on Tuesday, pack his mountain of stuff. When we finished we went and got Wendy's. My burger tasted fine but I ended up getting food poisoning and vomiting. Fun I know. So
that was rough and it took me a couple days to recover from that. Then last night I think the people who fed Elder G----- and I, gave us something that probably wasn't good anymore (it was pizza with a lot of stuff on it) because this morning we were not well to say the least. So that was pretty rough.
So I think I told you about L----- before. He is a Tongan, returned missionary who was excommunicated and is trying to get his blessings back. He is a great guy, I love him to death. He had us come over and fed us horse. I'm not gonna lie, I've been excited to try it and it was actually pretty good! I'll attach a picture of it. I wasn't
able to eat a lot since I was still recovering from my experience with the death burger. After we ate, we shared a message and then L----- gave me some nice basketball shoes that are totally bomb. He is an awesome guy. We play basketball with him and a few other people on Wednesday nights and we have a good time.
Elder G----- and I were supposed to go to Temple Square three times this week with three different investigators but they all cancelled on us so we were not able to go this week. We had a lot of people cancel on us this week so that was a bummer but we still had a lot of really good lessons. We did have a lesson with this little boy named B------. I think he is nine or ten. We got him on date for the seventh of January and we found out that either Elder G----- or I are going to baptize him so that will be a great experience for us.
So that is about it for this week. I'm sorry this week's letter is a little negative but whatever, life goes on. I hope you all stay warm and have a very merry Christmas!!!
Love you all,
Elder Burner
Monday, December 19, 2016
Mission Field Week 11
Hello everyone! I hope you are all doing well. I am doing pretty well.
Elder G----- and I had a massive blessing this week. We received something truly glorious. It is a missionary tool that we are still giving thanks to Heavenly Father for. We got a car! It is a 2017 Malibu for those who care or know things about cars. Now we can get to all of our wards and have work in them. Also this week was transfers and both Elder G---- and I are staying so we are very happy about that. Sadly, Elder F----- is getting transferred which makes us sad because we got along really well and had a great time with him.
I saw Avery earlier this week for a little while which was awesome and then a couple days ago Avery, Janelle and Zak surprised me at the door with food to make me fat which was super nice of them.
I was able to give a blessing to a man who has been having chronic migraines for a while and I saw him a few days later and he said he was feeling much better so that was a really cool experience for this week.
The Spanish elders (plus Elder W------ who was on exchanges with them) and Elder G----- and I were able to help someone this week. We were at Arby's when this 20 year old girl named M----- came up to us and asked us if we would pay 10 dollars to get a cartoon drawing of us. Elder G---- and F----- each paid for a cartoon portrait she drew of them, Elder W----- bought her and her brother some food and Elder G---- and I each gave her a few dollars because we appreciated her doing something to earn money and not begging on the street corner. She was very grateful and I can tell we made her day.
Yesterday Elder G----- and I gave talks in Sacrament meeting. We talked on the Book of Mormon. I talked about 3 powers the Book of Mormon has, the power to inspire, the power of feeling the spirit and the power to change the lives of anyone who read it with real intent. It was my first time giving a talk without writing anything down and I messed up a couple times but for the most part I thought I did alright.
That was about all for this week. Good luck with life everyone.
I hope you stay warm and safe. Love you all.
Elder Burner
Elder G----- and I had a massive blessing this week. We received something truly glorious. It is a missionary tool that we are still giving thanks to Heavenly Father for. We got a car! It is a 2017 Malibu for those who care or know things about cars. Now we can get to all of our wards and have work in them. Also this week was transfers and both Elder G---- and I are staying so we are very happy about that. Sadly, Elder F----- is getting transferred which makes us sad because we got along really well and had a great time with him.
I saw Avery earlier this week for a little while which was awesome and then a couple days ago Avery, Janelle and Zak surprised me at the door with food to make me fat which was super nice of them.
I was able to give a blessing to a man who has been having chronic migraines for a while and I saw him a few days later and he said he was feeling much better so that was a really cool experience for this week.
The Spanish elders (plus Elder W------ who was on exchanges with them) and Elder G----- and I were able to help someone this week. We were at Arby's when this 20 year old girl named M----- came up to us and asked us if we would pay 10 dollars to get a cartoon drawing of us. Elder G---- and F----- each paid for a cartoon portrait she drew of them, Elder W----- bought her and her brother some food and Elder G---- and I each gave her a few dollars because we appreciated her doing something to earn money and not begging on the street corner. She was very grateful and I can tell we made her day.
Yesterday Elder G----- and I gave talks in Sacrament meeting. We talked on the Book of Mormon. I talked about 3 powers the Book of Mormon has, the power to inspire, the power of feeling the spirit and the power to change the lives of anyone who read it with real intent. It was my first time giving a talk without writing anything down and I messed up a couple times but for the most part I thought I did alright.
That was about all for this week. Good luck with life everyone.
I hope you stay warm and safe. Love you all.
Elder Burner
Mission Field Week 10
Hello everyone! I hope you are all doing well.
I had a pretty good week, although I did get sick. I am feeling a lot better now. So I had the privilege of going around and visiting people with Brother Joseph Freeman, the first African-American man to receive the Melchizedek priesthood in this dispensation. He is truly an amazing man. He is so humble and it makes me realize that I have so much to improve on. He has a book called "In the Lord's Due Time" and I really want to read it. I took a picture with him too and will be sending it.
We have been meeting with a man named O----- for a couple weeks now. He is originally from Kenya but moved here from Minnesota. He is a great guy and is really trying to come closer to Christ. After we taught the Restoration with him, Elder G----- asked him if he would like to be baptized. He accepted and we put him on date for New Years Eve. We are really excited for him and we look forward to teaching him more.
While nothing is more amazing then helping someone come closer to Christ, I had a really awesome experience. I was able to shake hands with Elder Ronald A. Rasband of the Quorum of the 12 Apostles. He came to the mission and spoke to all the missionaries here. He was such an amazing speaker. He made us a promise that every day until Christmas, if we go to the sealed part of the scriptures (the topical guide) and study all the scriptures under the section Jesus Christ, we would have a much greater love for our Savior and we would have a more personal relationship with him. If any of you would like to also do this challenge, I would encourage you to do it.
I had one of the best Sacrament meetings ever yesterday. Elder G---- and I had just arrived at church and hadn't put our stuff down yet. Elder G---- still had his beanie on. So we were going around shaking people's hands and telling them good morning and introducing ourselves. When we got to the last person, a lady in the back corner, she looked at Elder G---- and told him he needed to take off his beanie. He told her he was going to take it off before the meeting began for sure. She then said he needed to take it off immediately or leave. So we left until it started. Then, since it was Fast and Testimony meeting, she got up and told everyone "I want to apologize to the missionary I may have offended today. But I want you to know that you should show respect to God when you are in his house and to not do things that take away the spirit." In front of the entire congregation! We were sitting there laughing because we couldn't believe it was actually happening. So after she was done, Elder G----- got up and bore his testimony on the Atonement, moving on and becoming better. Then I got up and said something along the lines of "Something I have learned on my mission is that the church is not perfect. It is
run be imperfect men and women who have flaws and who make mistakes. But that doesn't matter. What matters is that the Gospel is perfect and that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ love us no matter what. That is what's really important......." I never enjoyed myself more at Sacrament meeting. After the meeting, we got a ride to our missionary meeting and we told what happened. He thought it was hilarious and now he understood what she was talking about and why we bore our testimonies on the subjects we did. Later we got a gift from a Samoan missionary couple. They gave us kakui nut necklaces which are a sign of respect. It was really nice of them.
Well I need to leave and I will respond to questions and email pictures later. Have an awesome week! Love you all.
Elder Burner
I had a pretty good week, although I did get sick. I am feeling a lot better now. So I had the privilege of going around and visiting people with Brother Joseph Freeman, the first African-American man to receive the Melchizedek priesthood in this dispensation. He is truly an amazing man. He is so humble and it makes me realize that I have so much to improve on. He has a book called "In the Lord's Due Time" and I really want to read it. I took a picture with him too and will be sending it.
We have been meeting with a man named O----- for a couple weeks now. He is originally from Kenya but moved here from Minnesota. He is a great guy and is really trying to come closer to Christ. After we taught the Restoration with him, Elder G----- asked him if he would like to be baptized. He accepted and we put him on date for New Years Eve. We are really excited for him and we look forward to teaching him more.
While nothing is more amazing then helping someone come closer to Christ, I had a really awesome experience. I was able to shake hands with Elder Ronald A. Rasband of the Quorum of the 12 Apostles. He came to the mission and spoke to all the missionaries here. He was such an amazing speaker. He made us a promise that every day until Christmas, if we go to the sealed part of the scriptures (the topical guide) and study all the scriptures under the section Jesus Christ, we would have a much greater love for our Savior and we would have a more personal relationship with him. If any of you would like to also do this challenge, I would encourage you to do it.
I had one of the best Sacrament meetings ever yesterday. Elder G---- and I had just arrived at church and hadn't put our stuff down yet. Elder G---- still had his beanie on. So we were going around shaking people's hands and telling them good morning and introducing ourselves. When we got to the last person, a lady in the back corner, she looked at Elder G---- and told him he needed to take off his beanie. He told her he was going to take it off before the meeting began for sure. She then said he needed to take it off immediately or leave. So we left until it started. Then, since it was Fast and Testimony meeting, she got up and told everyone "I want to apologize to the missionary I may have offended today. But I want you to know that you should show respect to God when you are in his house and to not do things that take away the spirit." In front of the entire congregation! We were sitting there laughing because we couldn't believe it was actually happening. So after she was done, Elder G----- got up and bore his testimony on the Atonement, moving on and becoming better. Then I got up and said something along the lines of "Something I have learned on my mission is that the church is not perfect. It is
run be imperfect men and women who have flaws and who make mistakes. But that doesn't matter. What matters is that the Gospel is perfect and that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ love us no matter what. That is what's really important......." I never enjoyed myself more at Sacrament meeting. After the meeting, we got a ride to our missionary meeting and we told what happened. He thought it was hilarious and now he understood what she was talking about and why we bore our testimonies on the subjects we did. Later we got a gift from a Samoan missionary couple. They gave us kakui nut necklaces which are a sign of respect. It was really nice of them.
Well I need to leave and I will respond to questions and email pictures later. Have an awesome week! Love you all.
Elder Burner
Mission Field Week 9
Hello everyone! I hope you all had a fantastic Thanksgiving and week. I suppose I will start off with talking about how my Thanksgiving went.
So on Thanksgiving, my thumb was mostly healed but still wasn't all the way better by any means. I decided to try a new way of treating my thumb. It was called playing football with a bunch of Tongans. I'm sure you can agree that it was the best idea ever. Yes we are allowed to play football, we just can't play tackle. So I played and did pretty well considering I was playing with adult Polynesians. I got two touchdowns and I won the game by getting the interception that declared us winners so that was pretty cool. The only downside was that we were playing in the snow and I had decided that tennis shoes and basketball shorts were the ideal clothing for the occasion and that my thumb was not feeling super great. It would just take a few days longer to heal all the way now. Pretty cool right? We later went to dinner at a less active family's home. The food was really good but the house smelled badly of cigarettes. Oh well.
The work has been slowing getting better. We met a guy named O----. He is a great guy and is excited to take the lessons with us. I am very happy we have the privilege of working with him. We also met with a man named J---- who is also interested. His brother just passed away about 2 or 3 weeks ago so he has been having a hard time with that. We went over the Plan of Salvation with him and he really liked it. He is a very nice man who is going through a tough time.
So the other day Elder G----- and I went to this store which sells the rejected products of other stores and stuff like that. It was a DI for stores so you can by candy and other stuff for stupid cheap. When we were on our way in a car honked at us and we waved as usual and went inside. Later in the store, Elder Gr----- and I walked past the young girls that waved at us. When we did they started giggling and making whatever other noises girls that age make make. We thought that was a little odd. Then at the check out, one of them came over and asked how old I was. I told her and she ran back to her friends. She came back and said that her friend thought I was hot. Her friend looked like she was about 12....if even. Elder G----- and K------ (the guy that lives with us and who gave us a ride) started dying of laughter. Well at least I have fans.
Last night I went to temple square with the H---- brothers. It was really cool! The lights were awesome. We stopped and talked with these two sister missionaries for almost an hour. They were really cool and it was really funny watching the younger H----- brother, who is the inactive one, hit on one of the sisters. We were laughing pretty hard. I asked if they knew Sister W-----. She said she did and she would tell her hi for me. Yes I did take some pictures of the temple and the lights and I will be sending them. I hope you all have a wonderful week and stay warm. Love you all.
Elder Burner
So on Thanksgiving, my thumb was mostly healed but still wasn't all the way better by any means. I decided to try a new way of treating my thumb. It was called playing football with a bunch of Tongans. I'm sure you can agree that it was the best idea ever. Yes we are allowed to play football, we just can't play tackle. So I played and did pretty well considering I was playing with adult Polynesians. I got two touchdowns and I won the game by getting the interception that declared us winners so that was pretty cool. The only downside was that we were playing in the snow and I had decided that tennis shoes and basketball shorts were the ideal clothing for the occasion and that my thumb was not feeling super great. It would just take a few days longer to heal all the way now. Pretty cool right? We later went to dinner at a less active family's home. The food was really good but the house smelled badly of cigarettes. Oh well.
The work has been slowing getting better. We met a guy named O----. He is a great guy and is excited to take the lessons with us. I am very happy we have the privilege of working with him. We also met with a man named J---- who is also interested. His brother just passed away about 2 or 3 weeks ago so he has been having a hard time with that. We went over the Plan of Salvation with him and he really liked it. He is a very nice man who is going through a tough time.
So the other day Elder G----- and I went to this store which sells the rejected products of other stores and stuff like that. It was a DI for stores so you can by candy and other stuff for stupid cheap. When we were on our way in a car honked at us and we waved as usual and went inside. Later in the store, Elder Gr----- and I walked past the young girls that waved at us. When we did they started giggling and making whatever other noises girls that age make make. We thought that was a little odd. Then at the check out, one of them came over and asked how old I was. I told her and she ran back to her friends. She came back and said that her friend thought I was hot. Her friend looked like she was about 12....if even. Elder G----- and K------ (the guy that lives with us and who gave us a ride) started dying of laughter. Well at least I have fans.
Last night I went to temple square with the H---- brothers. It was really cool! The lights were awesome. We stopped and talked with these two sister missionaries for almost an hour. They were really cool and it was really funny watching the younger H----- brother, who is the inactive one, hit on one of the sisters. We were laughing pretty hard. I asked if they knew Sister W-----. She said she did and she would tell her hi for me. Yes I did take some pictures of the temple and the lights and I will be sending them. I hope you all have a wonderful week and stay warm. Love you all.
Elder Burner
Monday, November 21, 2016
Mission Field Week 8
Hello everyone!
How are you all doing? I am doing pretty well here. So last P-Day night Elder G----- and I decided to contact as many people as we could because we were tired of not having any people to teach. We basically doubled our potential teaching pool and found our one solid investigator we were looking for. His name is L-----. He is a super jacked Tongan man that we found. He is a returned missionary and was excommunicated a little while ago for a mistake he made and he has never lost his testimony. He is trying hard to regain his membership and blessings. We meet a lot of excommunicated people out here so it's not very surprising when we teach someone who was. He is super nice and very funny. He told us to come eat dinner at his place last Wednesday and it was really good. He said he will feed us horse this next week so I'll be sure to let you know if he was serious or not.
We have one other solid investigator actually. She is a nine year old girl named J-----. She is a really sweet girl and she is very funny. She wants to be baptized and her mom is now active in the church so we are excited for her. We have her on date for baptism in December so that's really exciting. I promised to teach her how to do a one-handed cartwheel if she will say our opening or closing prayer at or next lesson. We will see how that turns out.
We had a wonderful blessing this past week or at least Elder G----- did. His girlfriend sent him a package and it apparently was delivered but when we went to the mailbox it wasn't there. So we went to the post office and they gave us a number to call. He called the number and they were having our mail lady come to the mailbox to see what happened. We went to the mailbox early so we wouldn't miss her (the package has been missing for a couple days now and Elder G----- is really anxious to get it). This man that lived maybe two houses down from the mailbox. He came out holding a package and calls to us "Hey is one of you Elder G-----? I have your package" why he had his package we do not know but we didn't care because G----- was overjoyed that he finally got it.
So in this new area we are fed by a different ward every week. For some reason, this past week we had no idea which ward was feeding us and nobody called us asking where we we were so we had no dinner appointments this past week with the exception of our Tongan friend/investigator. So the older H----- brother, who lives in the room next to us with his younger brother (they are 23 and 21 I believe), took us to Olive Garden which was really good. He served his mission here maybe four years ago. The old lady with the odd questions I talked about in my last email was also one of his investigators when he was a missionary here. She is a very, very interesting person.
Last Saturday for lunch, we went with the Spanish Elders to Costco to get some hot dogs and slices of pizza which were very good. We stopped and took pictures with reindeer afterwards. When the four of us were almost home we saw an older man on the ground in his yard who looked like he was doing yard work or something. We yelled to him and asked him if he needed help but we didn't hear him respond. We took a couple steps to keep going but I really felt like we should ask him again if he needed help. So I stopped and asked him again if he wanted help. This time he waved us over. When were got to him we saw that his head was bloody from these cuts he had all over his face and head. He had fallen and landed on a thorn bush. He managed to move himself off of it but couldn't get up and he couldn't get help from people for the next hour and a half until we came along. We got him in a chair and told his wife who had been inside. She called the paramedics and a fire truck came. They asked us if we got him up and made sure he was alright, which we said we did. The captain then said "Good, you're hired" so I can now say I'm a firefighter right? Elder G----- and I went by a couple hours later and raked his leaves for him which he was very grateful for.
Well that pretty much sums up my week. Oh before I forget, today is a half P-Day and we do have a P-Day on Thanksgiving, but they told us we are not allowed to email. Oh well. Anyways I hope you all have a fantastic week. I do have pictures this week so hopefully you can see those. Later people!
How are you all doing? I am doing pretty well here. So last P-Day night Elder G----- and I decided to contact as many people as we could because we were tired of not having any people to teach. We basically doubled our potential teaching pool and found our one solid investigator we were looking for. His name is L-----. He is a super jacked Tongan man that we found. He is a returned missionary and was excommunicated a little while ago for a mistake he made and he has never lost his testimony. He is trying hard to regain his membership and blessings. We meet a lot of excommunicated people out here so it's not very surprising when we teach someone who was. He is super nice and very funny. He told us to come eat dinner at his place last Wednesday and it was really good. He said he will feed us horse this next week so I'll be sure to let you know if he was serious or not.
We have one other solid investigator actually. She is a nine year old girl named J-----. She is a really sweet girl and she is very funny. She wants to be baptized and her mom is now active in the church so we are excited for her. We have her on date for baptism in December so that's really exciting. I promised to teach her how to do a one-handed cartwheel if she will say our opening or closing prayer at or next lesson. We will see how that turns out.
We had a wonderful blessing this past week or at least Elder G----- did. His girlfriend sent him a package and it apparently was delivered but when we went to the mailbox it wasn't there. So we went to the post office and they gave us a number to call. He called the number and they were having our mail lady come to the mailbox to see what happened. We went to the mailbox early so we wouldn't miss her (the package has been missing for a couple days now and Elder G----- is really anxious to get it). This man that lived maybe two houses down from the mailbox. He came out holding a package and calls to us "Hey is one of you Elder G-----? I have your package" why he had his package we do not know but we didn't care because G----- was overjoyed that he finally got it.
So in this new area we are fed by a different ward every week. For some reason, this past week we had no idea which ward was feeding us and nobody called us asking where we we were so we had no dinner appointments this past week with the exception of our Tongan friend/investigator. So the older H----- brother, who lives in the room next to us with his younger brother (they are 23 and 21 I believe), took us to Olive Garden which was really good. He served his mission here maybe four years ago. The old lady with the odd questions I talked about in my last email was also one of his investigators when he was a missionary here. She is a very, very interesting person.
Last Saturday for lunch, we went with the Spanish Elders to Costco to get some hot dogs and slices of pizza which were very good. We stopped and took pictures with reindeer afterwards. When the four of us were almost home we saw an older man on the ground in his yard who looked like he was doing yard work or something. We yelled to him and asked him if he needed help but we didn't hear him respond. We took a couple steps to keep going but I really felt like we should ask him again if he needed help. So I stopped and asked him again if he wanted help. This time he waved us over. When were got to him we saw that his head was bloody from these cuts he had all over his face and head. He had fallen and landed on a thorn bush. He managed to move himself off of it but couldn't get up and he couldn't get help from people for the next hour and a half until we came along. We got him in a chair and told his wife who had been inside. She called the paramedics and a fire truck came. They asked us if we got him up and made sure he was alright, which we said we did. The captain then said "Good, you're hired" so I can now say I'm a firefighter right? Elder G----- and I went by a couple hours later and raked his leaves for him which he was very grateful for.
Well that pretty much sums up my week. Oh before I forget, today is a half P-Day and we do have a P-Day on Thanksgiving, but they told us we are not allowed to email. Oh well. Anyways I hope you all have a fantastic week. I do have pictures this week so hopefully you can see those. Later people!
Monday, November 14, 2016
Mission Field Week 7
Hey what's up everybody?
So in my last email I believe I stated that I was getting transferred. I did and I am now literally down the street from Avery. It's a little unusual but it's perfectly fine in my opinion. He took us out to Sizzler the other night and the three of us ended up getting a free meal since apparently they like missionaries. That was pretty cool. My companion is Elder G----. He has been out for a total of about 8 months. I say total because when he was only a couple transfers in, he went home because he thought mission life wasn't for him. He then went and played a year of college football. After a year he began to consider going back on his mission. Soon after that he became a starter for his football team. Nevertheless, he prayed about it a lot and decided that serving a mission was more important. So he quit and came back out. He is a very nice guy and we get along very well.
We are over the G------ North Stake. Our one stake is one of the biggest stakes in the mission. We cover a Cambodian branch that technically extends all the way to Provo. You would think we would have a car right? Sadly not. We walk everywhere which makes it very hard to knock doors since everyone is so spread out. We talked to the assistants and they said that since we cover such a large area we will be the first to get a car once they come in. We were excited for a moment, then he told us that the new cars won't be coming in till January. Oh well we'll get walking then.
One of the few lessons we taught this week was with this elderly lady who is known to bring a Pastor along to our lessons to bible bash with us. We were kinda looking forward to it so that we could just refuse to bash with him and be super nice to him, blowing his mind. But he never showed up. The lady was very interesting. She kept asking us questions she obviously already knew the answer to and was trying to trip us up with her questions and reasoning. It was pretty weird. She kept asking us if we believed God physically impregnated Mary or if it was the Holy Ghost that did (neither of those are correct by the way). We were able to answer her questions though, but five minutes into the 45 minute lesson the spirit was gone so it just wasn't very great.
We are currently living in a room with the Spanish elders. We have two bunkbeds in one room and one bathroom so things are a little crowded. We all get along very well so that's really nice. We, along with the Zone Leaders, go to the gym at 6AM most mornings. Unfortunately, my sprained thumb isn't completely healed yet (I have nearly full movement, it's just a little tender) so I can't lift there. So I decided to just run on the treadmill. I usually go around 2-4 miles on it without puking which for me is incredible so that's pretty cool.
Thanksgiving is coming up soon. We have had one offer to feed us so far but I don't know what we will be doing that day. I do know that it is an all day P-day so I'll be able to respond to your emails on Thursday all day instead of only until 6PM.
I have not been seeing any riots since Trump was elected president. I'm sure there are people throwing fits everywhere but since I don't watch the news I have not heard much at all on the subject.
I live upstairs in a member's home. It would probably be best to send all packages to the mission office. I hope you have all had a great week. I heard it will probably be snowing this week so I may not survive but whatever. Love you all and I hope you all stay warm. Sorry I've been lazy with pictures.
Elder Burner
So in my last email I believe I stated that I was getting transferred. I did and I am now literally down the street from Avery. It's a little unusual but it's perfectly fine in my opinion. He took us out to Sizzler the other night and the three of us ended up getting a free meal since apparently they like missionaries. That was pretty cool. My companion is Elder G----. He has been out for a total of about 8 months. I say total because when he was only a couple transfers in, he went home because he thought mission life wasn't for him. He then went and played a year of college football. After a year he began to consider going back on his mission. Soon after that he became a starter for his football team. Nevertheless, he prayed about it a lot and decided that serving a mission was more important. So he quit and came back out. He is a very nice guy and we get along very well.
We are over the G------ North Stake. Our one stake is one of the biggest stakes in the mission. We cover a Cambodian branch that technically extends all the way to Provo. You would think we would have a car right? Sadly not. We walk everywhere which makes it very hard to knock doors since everyone is so spread out. We talked to the assistants and they said that since we cover such a large area we will be the first to get a car once they come in. We were excited for a moment, then he told us that the new cars won't be coming in till January. Oh well we'll get walking then.
One of the few lessons we taught this week was with this elderly lady who is known to bring a Pastor along to our lessons to bible bash with us. We were kinda looking forward to it so that we could just refuse to bash with him and be super nice to him, blowing his mind. But he never showed up. The lady was very interesting. She kept asking us questions she obviously already knew the answer to and was trying to trip us up with her questions and reasoning. It was pretty weird. She kept asking us if we believed God physically impregnated Mary or if it was the Holy Ghost that did (neither of those are correct by the way). We were able to answer her questions though, but five minutes into the 45 minute lesson the spirit was gone so it just wasn't very great.
We are currently living in a room with the Spanish elders. We have two bunkbeds in one room and one bathroom so things are a little crowded. We all get along very well so that's really nice. We, along with the Zone Leaders, go to the gym at 6AM most mornings. Unfortunately, my sprained thumb isn't completely healed yet (I have nearly full movement, it's just a little tender) so I can't lift there. So I decided to just run on the treadmill. I usually go around 2-4 miles on it without puking which for me is incredible so that's pretty cool.
Thanksgiving is coming up soon. We have had one offer to feed us so far but I don't know what we will be doing that day. I do know that it is an all day P-day so I'll be able to respond to your emails on Thursday all day instead of only until 6PM.
I have not been seeing any riots since Trump was elected president. I'm sure there are people throwing fits everywhere but since I don't watch the news I have not heard much at all on the subject.
I live upstairs in a member's home. It would probably be best to send all packages to the mission office. I hope you have all had a great week. I heard it will probably be snowing this week so I may not survive but whatever. Love you all and I hope you all stay warm. Sorry I've been lazy with pictures.
Elder Burner
Mission Field Week 6
Hello everyone!
I hope you all had a great week. I don't have a lot to talk about for this week. I usually use my journal to help me remember what happened this week, but I had to write with my left hand with a pen. If it was with a pencil it wouldn't be a problem because I've had a lot of practice with writing with a pencil left handed. Pen is a lot harder. So what I'm getting at is I didn't write a lot. But my thumb is doing a lot better now so I am back to writing with my normal terrible handwriting again.
We had something really unusual happen twice this week. So twice we have had people call us and ask us to come over and teach them. We figured they were either crazy or just wanted a welfare check from the church. But they turned out to be super awesome! The first were a couple that have not come to church in a very long time. They are in their late twenties I think. His name is T----- and her's is K-----. When we knocked on the door, T----- answered and he had tattoos all over his neck and on his knuckles, so I instantly liked him. They are really spiritual people and they really want to be more like Christ in all that they do so they really are golden investigators. The second call we got was from a man named D-----. He is a really kind man. He has a seven year old daughter who was mad at him because he wouldn't put Ghostbusters on pay per view for her to watch so she said "Daddy I don't like you right now". He responded by saying "Well Daddy loves you very much". He's super kind and he has been having a lot of troubles in life right now which has led him to humble himself and seek out help from us. I challenged him to baptism on the first lesson and he accepted with joy. It was really cool.
Unfortunately, I then found out I am getting transferred out of our area tomorrow. Awww man. Oh well. I am getting transferred to the Granger North Stake. So I'm staying in my district though. Elder B--- is the new district leader which is hilarious because of who he is. He's a great missionary and all, he just likes to watch the world burn. But the good news is, I think I am now in Avery's area. Weird right? I'm not for sure though. My new companion is Elder G----. He seems like a pretty fun guy. The only problem I have with him is that I know he likes to go to the gym and work out at 6 in the morning, which means we would be getting up an hour early. But luckily for me, President Palmer is putting restrictions on gym for missionaries since a lot of them are going into debt because they don't pay their gym membership fee.
Yesterday I went on splits with Elder K---- again because our companions are working on their musical firesides with the Polynesian choir "Devine Heritage". Since K---- is also getting transferred, we went around to the people in his ward he was close to and said goodbye. When we were at dinner with a member family, they had 3 daughters ages 17, 13 and 7. The 13 year old really likes Superman so she had an instant giant crush on Elder K----. It was pretty hilarious. We took a picture with them and the mom should have sent it to you Mom. As we walked out the girl yelled "I love you!" to Elder K---- and I nearly died laughing. Poor K----. We then went to another family who were very nice and fed us a second dinner. We laughed a lot with them. I'll try to send the picture I took with them. The last family we went to was one of the ward mission leaders. They served us pina colada and margaritas (non alcoholic of course) which were really good. They have really great people in their area.
Well that is pretty much everything. Mom I'll be sure to answer all your unanswered questions later today. Have a great week everybody. Be good and don't drive like a lot of Utah drivers do.
Love,
Elder Burner
I hope you all had a great week. I don't have a lot to talk about for this week. I usually use my journal to help me remember what happened this week, but I had to write with my left hand with a pen. If it was with a pencil it wouldn't be a problem because I've had a lot of practice with writing with a pencil left handed. Pen is a lot harder. So what I'm getting at is I didn't write a lot. But my thumb is doing a lot better now so I am back to writing with my normal terrible handwriting again.
We had something really unusual happen twice this week. So twice we have had people call us and ask us to come over and teach them. We figured they were either crazy or just wanted a welfare check from the church. But they turned out to be super awesome! The first were a couple that have not come to church in a very long time. They are in their late twenties I think. His name is T----- and her's is K-----. When we knocked on the door, T----- answered and he had tattoos all over his neck and on his knuckles, so I instantly liked him. They are really spiritual people and they really want to be more like Christ in all that they do so they really are golden investigators. The second call we got was from a man named D-----. He is a really kind man. He has a seven year old daughter who was mad at him because he wouldn't put Ghostbusters on pay per view for her to watch so she said "Daddy I don't like you right now". He responded by saying "Well Daddy loves you very much". He's super kind and he has been having a lot of troubles in life right now which has led him to humble himself and seek out help from us. I challenged him to baptism on the first lesson and he accepted with joy. It was really cool.
Unfortunately, I then found out I am getting transferred out of our area tomorrow. Awww man. Oh well. I am getting transferred to the Granger North Stake. So I'm staying in my district though. Elder B--- is the new district leader which is hilarious because of who he is. He's a great missionary and all, he just likes to watch the world burn. But the good news is, I think I am now in Avery's area. Weird right? I'm not for sure though. My new companion is Elder G----. He seems like a pretty fun guy. The only problem I have with him is that I know he likes to go to the gym and work out at 6 in the morning, which means we would be getting up an hour early. But luckily for me, President Palmer is putting restrictions on gym for missionaries since a lot of them are going into debt because they don't pay their gym membership fee.
Yesterday I went on splits with Elder K---- again because our companions are working on their musical firesides with the Polynesian choir "Devine Heritage". Since K---- is also getting transferred, we went around to the people in his ward he was close to and said goodbye. When we were at dinner with a member family, they had 3 daughters ages 17, 13 and 7. The 13 year old really likes Superman so she had an instant giant crush on Elder K----. It was pretty hilarious. We took a picture with them and the mom should have sent it to you Mom. As we walked out the girl yelled "I love you!" to Elder K---- and I nearly died laughing. Poor K----. We then went to another family who were very nice and fed us a second dinner. We laughed a lot with them. I'll try to send the picture I took with them. The last family we went to was one of the ward mission leaders. They served us pina colada and margaritas (non alcoholic of course) which were really good. They have really great people in their area.
Well that is pretty much everything. Mom I'll be sure to answer all your unanswered questions later today. Have a great week everybody. Be good and don't drive like a lot of Utah drivers do.
Love,
Elder Burner
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