Hey what's up everybody?
So I have had a pretty good week. Monday night I was in a lesson with a man named T---. He has a wife who is a member and two young daughters. He is what we call an eternagator (an eternal investigator). He has gone through at least six sets of missionaries. After our lesson he says "Elders I have decided it is time for me to get baptized. I have already asked my friend to do it and it should happen around Christmas time." We broke the cycle! He's really awesome and we are super excited for him.
The next day, we were walking to a Samoan family's home. We knocked on the door and a large Samoan man answers the door and says "Elders, come baptize my children." Haha can do. We have the two kids and the mom on date for baptism. The day after that we were at a lesson with one of our usuals, T----. She is a returning member and a great woman. She lives with her sister and her children and grandchildren or something. Anyways, one of her grandchildren is a 14 year old girl named H----. H---- sat in on one of our lessons before because she was keeping these two puppies from getting into trouble. We asked if she was a member. She said she wasn't. So my comp was like "Oh....do you wanna get baptized?" And she said she would like that. All this happened in two days! It was really amazing. And then yesterday we were having a lesson with a less active family whose younger daughter (I think she is 14 or 15) hasn't been baptized. So we scheduled it and the family is going to start going to church with her again. Sweet!
So as I have mentioned before, my apartment is not that great. It's not in a good part of town and our neighbors do dumb things like smoke cigarettes into our AC vent so our apartment smells like smoke. My companion and I got tired of this and our lease on the place is almost up so we went house shopping and found a place down the street that, while not wonderful, is a lot better than our current place and we negotiated the price down to the same price as is being paid for or current apartment. We will hopefully be moving in within the week. I'll send the address when we do.
We have another less active member who we have been teaching named W-------. He was unemployed, drinking all the time and is a heavy smoker (we have to go change our clothes after being in his place because we wreak of smoke). He has been working so hard to become more like the Savior and overcome his trials. He has been sober for about three weeks now I believe and he has finally got a job working at FedEx. Once he has kicked his drinking habit he plans on quitting smoking and then in a few months getting his temple recommend. It is super amazing to help him beat his challenges and to completely change his life for the better.
On Friday, Elder B--- and I, along with Elders S--- and K--- and three sister missionaries, went to a Samoan wedding. It started out rough when the bride was an hour late to it. Since we let the other guests go in first, we missionaries did not get good seats at all. You see the church they were at (I don't know whose religion it was) was too small for the amount of people that showed up. So the missionaries and a few other people got seated facing a wall next to the room where the wedding was. And since the wedding was in Samoan we didn't understand a word. But we were happy to be there for them. Elder B--- was the photographer so we went and took their wedding photos afterwards.
Alright Mom I'll now answer all the questions I didn't answer already.
1. Yes I have received my care packages. Thank you so much! They really help a lot since we only get 100 dollars a month so they were greatly appreciated.
2. Sundays here for missionaries are different. Since we cover at least 6 wards per companionship, we go to the Sacrament meetings of three wards the go home for a little while. Then we have a lesson, go to dinner and then another 2 lessons. That's pretty much our Sundays.
3. So the way our stake does dinners is we have a different ward feeding us every day. This is not a very efficient way of doing things because it's really confusing for the members and some of our ward mission leaders don't care about us or their callings at all and don't even bother to ask their ward to feed us so we will usually get fed 4
days a week or so. Hopefully they will be changing it so we have a ward feeding us for a week, which is a lot better. And no I have not had anything unusual and I have not seen jello at all so far. Knock on wood.
4. How did I survive my bike ride? By not falling or crashing. It was difficult but I made it without problems.
What's up everybody???
I hope you have had a fantastic week. I'm typing this on Sunday night because early tomorrow morning Elders S---, K---, B--- and I are going on a bike ride down to temple square which is about ten miles. For those that do not know I have bad luck when it comes to riding bikes so there is a possibility that I may die a greenie in a biking accident. Oh well. It will be fun. We might be bringing a less active friend of ours as well so hopefully she will come along. I may not send my responses to those who emailed me till later in the day but don't worry I will reply.
My week started off going to a ward activity. We were working at the Bishop's storehouse putting containers of applesauce into boxes. For those who do not know, the Bishop's storehouse is where food is stored for those who are in need of it. Only 6 people out of the whole ward showed up to help. In total, Elder B--- and I put approximately 5,000 containers of applesauce into boxes. It wasn't that bad though. It's always nice to help people who need it.
The next day was zone conference which went from 10:00 to 3:30. It was a five and a half hour long meeting. At least the chairs were comfy and they fed us chick fil a. I probably didn't spell that right but whatevs. That night we had a meeting with the ward mission leader and we talked about missionary stuff. On the way home, we walked by an apartment building. This one room had the window open and we heard this couple arguing loudly and swearing at each other. We were contemplating calling the police when we heard a big smack! We then decided it was probably a good idea to call the police so we did. We don't know how things turned out but I hope the cop didn't have too much trouble.
The next day was awesome because I went to dinner with Avery! We went to In n Out because we needed to rush to our appointment after. It was really cool cuz who else is in the same city with a sibling when on a mission? No mom we didn't have time for pictures please don't disown me or anything.
Then on Saturday I had my first baptism! His name is E---- and he is from Liberia. He has such a strong testimony and even though almost nobody from the ward showed up, the spirit was really strong and he was crying after. My mission president and his wife were there and they said that it was one of the best baptisms they had ever been to. Yes mom I did take a picture with him and I will attach it to the end of the email. After the baptism the assistants to the mission president, the zone leaders and Elder and Sister R----- came togetherin the church kitchen, where Elder B--- taught everyone how to make sushi. Sister R----- also brought homemade chocolate chip cookies and a fruit salad for us to devour as well. They are pretty much our mission grandparents.
So my mission president is so amazing. He has the philosophy that it isn't his job to police the missionaries so his number one rule is just don't be stupid. He is such a good man and his wife is amazing too. I could not have asked for a better mission president.
Well I hope you all had a wonderful week. I'm having a great time here. I've had a lot of...interesting experiences so far. My advice for all of you is to not drive like the Utah drivers. They are absolutely terrifying and I am happy I'm walking and not driving.
Alright see ya everyone. Stay healthy, stay happy and be good drivers. Elder Burner
Hi everyone! So Tuesday was my comp's birthday so we went to the Fat Fish to eat sushi and, I think it's spelled faa. It's pretty much ramen. We were joined by elders S--- and K---. When I went to the mission office prior to going into the MTC we met some Samoan missionaries and the one we talked to most was Elder S---. So it was cool to see him again. Our lesson fell through that night and since we had nobody to contact and it was cold we grabbed some hot chocolate.
Earlier in the week we have been going to Brother S----'s garage where he works on all the mission bikes and makes sure to fix all the things the missionaries broke. He had tore some ligaments in his arm so my comp and I helped him out. We have a baptism scheduled for the 15th. He was already on schedule for baptism when we got there so we have been keeping up with him. He's a black man with a very thick accent so he can be hard to understand sometimes but he's a good guy. Oh yeah, his name is E----. We've been teaching a part member family for a while and the father is ready for baptism, he just needs to develop a testimony of the Word of Wisdom first.
One of the days we helped Brother S---- he took us to KFC. This KFC was the very first one so it had a little museum inside of it. While we were in line, a two police officers paid for our meal which was awesome. Take that all you police haters out there. Haha.
On Friday, we a newly active member we've been working with to the Bountiful Temple to do baptisms for the dead. It was super awesome and the spirit was super strong. We weren't allowed to go in the font but we were given special permission to be right there watching him in our suits. We then did the confirmations with him which was really great. I'll send a pic us us in front of the Temple. His mother came with us (he is maybe in his mid thirties).
Hello everyone!
This is my first time using my iPad to email, so I don't know how to use it super well. My point is I had to add you all into the group email individually. Anyways, I said farewell to the sisters in my district at the MTC and boarded the train. I am in West Valley. My companion is Elder B---. He has been out on his mission for about 21 months. We get along just fine. My mission president is super chill and I really like him. When I had my interview with him I told him my brother lives here and he said "wow really? You should go to lunch with him sometime". So, I have had a lot of...weird experiences already on my mission. You know how every city has that part of it that is full of drugs and crime? Yup. That's where I live. My companion has seen someone get shot at the house across the street from us and has called Child Protection services on the people behind us for beating their children. Thankfully we are moving to a nearby place that is much better within a month.
On my first day out, we were at these lower class apartments when this lady calls us over. She puts out her cigarette and starts crying saying how there are demons in her home and she doesn't know how they got there since she and her boyfriend/husband try to be spiritual people. She said she feels sick when she is home and she gets swelling in her hands and feet. She also said she sees bugs crawling in her skin, which is a symptom many people on meth have but we have not confirmed that with her. Anyways, I dedicated her home and said that no evil influences may dwell in her home or something like that. When I finished she said she felt so much better already. So that was pretty cool. I also gave a less active man who is a heavy smoker a priesthood blessing to help him. He's a very nice man and my companion made him a resume while he was there to help him get a job.
Now the weirdest thing that happened this week was my companion and I were walking past the In n Out Burger parking lot when we were called over to this car. The person told us that if we buy them dinner then they would listen to us speak. Get this, it was the Pagan witch, trans-sexual daughter of Warren Jeff. Warren Jeff is the leader of the FLDS church (not LDS). He has recently been arrested for polygamy amongst other things. Anyways it was a very unusual experience. I learned about Paganism and I listened to "her" pray over her food in Gaelic.
Saturday I went and saw conference. We took a man who just moved here from Sudan, who speaks Arabic, French and some English. We took him on a little tour of Temple Square and got a sister missionary to explain stuff to him about temple square and general conference to him in French. The people who were protesting saying that "Mormons are Satan worshippers" and how we are "evil people" were actually really funny a couple of times. Oh well. Anyways conference was awesome. I really enjoyed President Uchtdorf and Nelson's talks.
I hope you all have a good week. I apologize if I didn't answer all the questions some of you asked me. Oh yeah, my companion and I are currently whitewashing which means we both just got transferred here. Thankfully my comp was here the transfer before last so he knows the area. I'll send pictures but I have to take the case off my iPad which may take a while so be patient. Love you all in a Jesus Christ kind of way!
Elder Burner
