Elizabeth City, NC

This week may not have been super eventful for y'all but over here we had a lot going on. First thing is that I am getting transferred probably to my last area of the mission. President called last night to let me know I'll be serving in Elizabeth city, NC. I guess that is somewhere on the outer banks and apparently they have a Spanish branch out there. The odd side of that is he kept specifying I will have the responsibility to help a young missionary get back on track. He has only been out for 6 months and President wants me to "help him out". I guess this will keep me from being trunky... I get bussed up there on Thursday. I'm going to miss Smithfield and all the people here. This ward really does feel as close to home as it can get out here for me. I'm positive I'll be coming back here sometime. My present companion, Elder Leisek, will be taking my spot as the district leader over this district as well as training. This is going to be sooo good for him. He has been praying to be a senior companion for 14 months and now he is getting it all in one big swoop. I'm excited for him. Other than that we have had a ton of service opportunities as well as helping members to do missionary work. We have been able to get a few families to invite recent converts into their homes to fellowship them as well as getting other members to invite friends and family members to finally meet with us for the first time. I have done so much pushing for this and now that we have the ball rolling I am getting transferred. Typical...

... Well keep up the good work and I'll talk to you later.

Con Amor,

Elder Burnham

Elder Burnham and Elder Leisek

Trunky???

I'm glad to hear that life is getting back into those crazy days of school and and other fun stress. Sounds like the ward is really starting to to enjoy those missionary talks. Hey just wondering, but what would a talk in the first half of November have as a topic? Just thought I would ask? :) This week for us has been full of member work. Well I'm assuming the world is changing to that culture and to be honest I have a feeling that the missionary work is going to struggle a little bit out here for a while until we can really get that culture embedded into the member's heads. It sounds like from that one broadcast that the brethren don't want us knocking on doors. I COMPLETELY agree with them. Well we have set goals and made great plans to get these members going. We have had some great success in getting these people excited to make their own plans to share the gospel. We still have a lot of work to do, but I have a good feeling that even if we don't see immediate success it will come shortly. Probably after I get transferred, but that's okay.

Other than that we have seen some other little miracles. This week we went to the courthouse and got all the info needed to know how to get two illegal hispanics married. That, my friends, is a tough job. At least both parties have consented to do what they can to get it done. This means Leonarda's long wait to get baptized may be coming to an end. We are excited. Another miracle is I'm worthy again as President Baker came down to get my recommend updated. :) Other than that it has just been a simple week of gaining member trust. There is a lot more to do that we have planned this week, but things are happening.

Oh another thing is that I went on exchanges with an older missionary who is going home next week, which may have made me a little trunky since most of what he wanted to talk about when the day was coming to an end was BYU and marriage and other real-life junk. Anyway it does make me think about housing and all that other stuff I will have to worry about. Just wondering if there is any updated news on that stuff and also if Brianne or someone could look around for jobs open as well. Maybe she could see what requirements they are asking for now at the MTC. Just thought I would throw that in there. Well I love you all and hope this week goes great.

Con Amor,

Elder Burnham

P.s. I really enjoyed reading that letter to the presidents. I pray that it will be seriously considered and even more that it comes to pass.

Bishop LOVES us

Wow yall had a super great week. I wish I could have been there to see all those great experiences. I love the spirit I feel just reading about how our family is growing and progressing. This week has been just a happy week all around. The family is doing great, Ryan is fluffy ;), Sara is excited for school, Brianne has my back for school, the grand kids love the grandparents, and the members here in NC are loving the work. We have made a huge push to focus so much more on the members. This Sunday was brilliant. We saw less actives bear their testimony, we had new people come to church, we had investigators make progress after a long time of fasting and praying, and member trust is building. It feels good to be making progress with these people. The best part is Bishop LOVES us. That is one thing that has been a struggle in this area in the past and we have blown it out of the water. Not that it is a competition, but the sisters have nothing on us. I mean having 6 months in this area may be part of that reason, but hey I love the members and we just get along.

Two huge miracles outside the members is that one of our investigators has finally made progress with getting her man to marry her so she can be baptized and she really wants us to be her witnesses. Super exciting stuff. The other is that a 13 year old boy that wants to get baptized came to youth conference and has made progress with his mom who was super anti. Poco a poco vamos a llevar a cabo el plan de Dios en esta area. :)

Hey mom thanks for taking care of those pics as well as sending that card. So i found out that i will be going home a week earlier than expected thanks to a shorter transfer because of the mission change. Also my temple recommend expired last week and President hasn't been able to interview me yet. Elder Leisek keeps joking with me that he can't work with such an unworthy creature. Its not my fault! We are having fun and making the most out of this transfer. I'm afraid this will be my last one here in this area.

I love what has been going. I hope y'all are doing well and keeping the good work. Well I'll talk to ya later.

Con Amor,

Elder Burnham

Pictures

Just me and one of the funny priests in the ward.

A recent convert, Brother Wormsley to the right and a super helpful ward missionary to the left, Hermano Luis

Another crazy YSA kid, Devon Carey

A crazy funny family whose name I cant remember.

Me and the cereal I lived off of for a couple weeks

A reunion with an old zone leader of mine at a transfer meeting.

My zone's stats on our key indicators. I guess that was the business side of me coming out in our zone meetings.

We saw this lady sitting in the window while driving to an appointment and could help but laugh at her and the words on the window.

All those giant weeds we were looking at was our service project one morning. Missionaries will do anything for member trust.

All this crap is what was hidden by the jungle of weeds from the above picture

This is what it looked like after we cleared out a ton of the weeds and trash. So fresh and so clean

. Inside a super wealthy members home with a home theater. I find her and him attractive. ;)

Just crazy greenery in NC.

The aftermath of a members home catching fire. Cool story about how everything was burned up on that side of the house except the dresser containing her garments.

An old 19th century sewing machine.

Better than a box of chocolates

This week was wonderful, but there is so much more I wish we could have done. Time just doesn't want to be there for us. So first of all I am glad to hear this week was good for y'all. Yes Jenni you are getting old and I am too in the mission age. Pretty soon if you procrastinate enough I will be home to help paint that home of yours. We would have a good time doing that. I'm not sure exactly where Mom and Dad went , but I sure hope Sara is working hard and getting things ready for school. Water Polo is going to be awesome. You will definitely need to be fierce and play no games. I am excited to see how that goes. Read a lot Sara and please don't slack on those assignments. You are the last to go through high school and I sure hope you show all of us up in how well you do. Goals for the future have to be set now. Probably my biggest regret of high school is not planning far enough ahead in the beginning. I am excited for you.

So on this side of the world things have been great. As you can see we had a wonderful baptism where Bro. Vincent entered into a covenant with God. Their little family is great and are going to be doing a lot for this ward here. His wife has been through a lot through her life, but she found a this guy who is bringing her back into activity with her Savior. They are great to be around and to learn from. This week has been full of working hard at helping investigators progress and become commitment keeping people. The other thing about that is I have been stressing over how to get these other missionaries to do the same. I have been throwing down on accountability with the missionaries, but now its time to approach the love and charity side of things. :) We had interviews with Pres. Baker this week and he is excited for some of the ideas I have come up with that are actually totally different than anything my last two presidents would have allowed. Its fun being an older missionary that kind of gets to mold some of the mission culture here. Hopefully things stick after I leave.
Well other than that I have found myself being asked trunky things like about school and housing and I guess I need to just ask Brianne to keep her eyes and ears open and be ready for all that. I have zero idea on when and what to do about all that why i am here. I am almost nervous to have to go back and deal with all that real-lief junk. ;)

Well I love you all a ton and hope life is treating you better than a box of chocolates.

Con Amor,

Elder Burnham

Vincent Family

Represent Modesto!

I'm glad to see that all my childhood friends are the best missionaries ever. Representing Modesto!!! I'm also glad to see that the family is surviving all the craziness that is going on. This week has been pretty crazy for us as well. Lots of changes are still being made and as leaders we are shaping the new culture of this mission. We have been doing a lot of changing up the way we hold missionaries accountable and how we can better unite the districts and the mission in whole. I'm afraid it may take a while before a culture is completely established. The mission president has been trying to figure out what will work best for who and where. These next couple of weeks should be interesting. I have a lot of work to do. the unfortunate side if it is that most of it revolves around missionaries instead of investigators. We do have quite a bit of progressing investigators and even a baptism coming up shortly. One miracle is that this Sunday the bishop had asked our recent convert's husband to speak and he bore a powerful testimony. He was the first speaker and even though it wasn't the longest talk it was inspiring. Other than that this week was just busy work. We are excited to see some results from this throughout next week as some ideas are applied.

My little brother is getting so old. He is filling out nicely. ;)  I sure hope we can be companions sometime soon. I hope he understands that being called as a trainer is going to train him more than it will his boy. I'm excited to see how that goes. Hey did y'all get my SD card. Hopefully it wasn't wiped clean like Ryan's.

Jenni that was a nice looking house. All I could think of though was the task of trimming all those bushes and stuff outside the home. I feel like I have done those kinds of things a ton out here so I naturally notice the work. :) Have fun with that.

Well family I love you all a ton and I'm glad to see things are going well. Sara keep reading a ton and go for gold in whatever you decide to do. I love you all and I am excited to hear how next week goes.

Con Amor,

Elder Burnham

New Address

Here is Elder Sean Burnham's New Address for his new area in Virginia:

 

Virginia Chesapeake Mission

1115 Cherokee Road

 Portsmouth, VA 23701