Woah!

Mom, it sounds like you are doing absolutely wonderful over there. When the branch president presented the whole new way to teach out here I got super excited. I am actually really excited to see how things are going when I return. I have a feeling that this same program will be implemented into the adult classes as well. Teaching the gospel is such a sacred responsibility and I hope it is something I will have the privilege to do the rest of my life. Whether it is as a teacher in Sunday school or a ward missionary or wherever I am. I am super excited to hear more about how your class goes and the preparation for it. Teaching your class is a whole lot harder to do compared to the adult class where there are still manuals. Anyway, I am super excited to hear back from y'all.

So yes due to the holiday I didn't get the opportunity to email. We could have done it a different day, but we were super busy this week. I guess that is a good reason for not writing y'all. Elder Young and I are teaching a lot and on a finding frenzy. I know it is never about the numbers in this work, but is good to see where the Lord is blessing us on paper. :) We have been biking a ton this week due to minimal miles, in the freezing cold as well, but as we all know sacrifice brings forth the blessings of heaven. We are working really hard with the investigators we have now and it is always great to be teaching, but we are still working on getting those members involved. We have brainstormed a lot of ideas on how to get things rolling and some things that may bring some more unity within the branch, but it will take an energetic branch council and willingness to get things going. That is where we lack. We will see how it goes. A new young couple from Apex just moved into the branch and from what we hear he is pretty solid. Maybe he is the answer to our prayers in the branch. We'll see. :) 

So a lot has happened in the past two weeks and it will be a little tough to tell you everything. But real quick, we have a part member couple looking to get married so the wife can be baptized, we have been dropping and finding investigators consistently, we had five new investigators in one day and in one trailer park, and we two investigators finally come to church this last week. It feels so good to have progression. My companion shared with me from his studies this morning how Ammon was serving the king three days, just watching sheep, before anything happened. He explained to me that he feels that Ammon probably was wondering what in the world he was doing or what the Lord had in store for him in that position. Well three days later we read how excited Ammon got when he finally had the chance to show his power and get some action going in his missionary work. Elder Young then expressed how some times he feels that he has no idea why we are doing certain things or he feels he has no idea why the Lord has us in a certain situation when he does, but if we patiently endure for even three days of riding bikes in the freezing cold we will see the reason and the opportunities arise to share the power we have. I know that this is true and we have definitely witnessed it lately. It has been a roller coaster of a week, but we are definitely grateful for the ups of the ride we have seen. 

Well family I love y'all a ton and am very grateful for all you do for me. I sure hope life is treating you well. I know that Ryan's time is slowly coming around, I hope he's ready. :) If I can do anything for anyone let me know. Oh hey how is Russell?(For those of you that don't know Russell.  He is Sean's friend serving in the Nevada Las Vegas Mission that came home for a few weeks to have a benign tumor removed from his head.  Ryan got to do some great missionary prep with him during that time.  He went back out to the mission field and was called to be a Zone Leader.  A couple of weeks later he slipped on ice got a concussion and some stitches, but that's another story.  All is well, the Lord watches over his flock.)  Any news on him going back out? I sure hope he is alright. Well I love you keep up the good work. Oh one last thing, Mom. That love that you were talking about in your last email when describing Sis. Wagner's lesson. You are very much right that we need to love these people into the fold. But at the same time we have to remember that we need to love the people enough to open our mouths and testify of what we know to be true and that will bring these people that same amount of love. Living as a good example is excellent, but it isn't enough. We have to act because God expects that of us and that is why we have that ability. I don't mean that because you aren't doing it, but it is something I feel strongly about and I have heard too many times of members that only want to do missionary work by being an example. There is a lot more to it. But obviously it takes that love and charity to do it. That is something I understand better now than I ever did. Love ya mom! Talk to ya later.

Con Amor,

Elder Burnham