Visit to the Wright Brothers Monument

  The Wright brothers memorial with another missionary in the district.

Great Birthday

It really was a great birthday my friends and family. Thank you so much for all the messages and love that were sent my way. I have truly been blessed with a great amount of people in my life that love me. My birthday consisted of a wonderful training that the missionaries headed in our ward council that morning, translating an intense talk about ordinances that we make, teaching the Spanish member's class, and eating some delicious cheesecake that a Sister in the ward made me. The day started out really well. It ended a little odd with seeing one of our investigators stumble around from being super drunk, but all in all we made it a great Sabbath day. To be honest this week was a growing week for the two of us. We were happy as we could be even through the all the hardships that came our way. Elder Merkley is such an optimistic upbeat missionary and we get along super well. We could both get hit by cars and be paralyzed for the rest of our lives and still have a good time being missionaries together. We just work well together.

Anyway I just wanted to let y'all know that I love you and I am extremely grateful for all the love that I have felt from friends and family back at home. I can honestly see the blessing of happiness that the gospel brings to a family even from this far away. It is awesome to know that I can strongly testify of the knowledge that this gives me as I talk with people everyday about the family.

So I have all these goodies to eat now and I have really been trying to work hard at staying skinny, but this is going to kill me. I am glad to have two other elders here living with us so I can share the fatness. We as missionaries certainly rejoice in the fatness.

Sara, I love you to death as well and I am super happy to hear your doing good and trying not to stress out. Your make me laugh every time I read your letters. Make sure to give Ben a great big hug for me and tell him I love him. He seems to have definitely grown a ton. I can't wait to talk with him again when I get back. We have a lot to discuss.

Jenni, I shared with my companion the part of your email where Landon had to dance every time a good song came on because that is exactly how my companion is. Landon gets more and more studly everyday I'm sure. I am excited to see those munchkins again. Thanks for the pretty calabasitas and the drawings y'all sent. I am looking forward to seeing the family again and having some good times.

Well this next week is going to be a better week than this last one because we have more work to get done. Quoting a wise younger brother, "not a second wasted". I love you all and hope the wedding and all the other Utah stuff that you will do is a blast. Tell Eric congrats for me.

Con Amor,

Elder Burnham

Last General Conference on my Mission :(

This week was up and down all over the place. You can't get much better than conference weekend though as a missionary. We had a pretty good week full of teaching and finding and receiving revelation. We met a new neat little family that has the same story as almost every other Hispanic out here. They working all the time, have cute little kids, grew up catholic and aren't active, and love the Bible. But after all that they felt the spirit of the restoration and want to get baptized. They still have a lot to work on which may take them a while and I may not be here to see them through, but they are a good family. That always feels good to talk with families like that.

So conference brought a lot of revelation as well as a ton of soul-searching questions. I decided that instead of going into to detail with it all I would just list them off for you and let you consider the questions and inspiration and to have you figure out which question or goal goes with what talk. :) This is what I walked away with after this weekend:

• We are here to learn and then go home to apply and obey. (Is that the same principle for the mission or even for this entire life?)
• Meeknes/Humility and Gentle persuasion is how we overcome difficult people.
•  Am I determined enough or have the courage to remain faithful through difficult circumstances?
• Do I have faith in God's specific plan for me?
• Do I have faith in the covenants I have made?
• Never feel like I have done enough!
• Am I living up to my potential as a missionary?
• Is it a blessing to work with less?
• Could the blessing be to go without?
• I need to be more keen on finding the spiritual blessing of obedience rather than the temporal.
• I love being a member of this church because the ability I have to act and to use my talents to help others. Are we not the happiest when we sincerely help someone else with a problem they couldn't fix themselves? 
• GOAL: Never miss an opportunity to study scriptures with future family.
• My future wife has to understand the importance of her role and heed the prophets counsel when geared towards women. :)
• How can I share the burdens of women. 
• How can Christ forgive others through us?
• How does the Atonement's power of forgiveness really work?
• Be quick, but don't hurry!
• Do members fear the revelation they will receive by seeking inspiration to do missionary work?
• GOAL: Conduct family missionary council with future family.
• GOAL: Share, what I didn't in the past, with friends back from school.
• What impact did my primary teachers have on me?
• Have I internalized the testimony found in the 13 articles of faith?
• Why do we have to make mistakes to become a champion?
• I want to be the champion NOW, so how do I overcome the fear that that won't happen?
• GOAL: 100% home teaching every month.
• How can I become friends with those I home teach?
• What choices have led me to love the Lord with all my heart?
• For what purpose have I been sent to each person I meet in my life?
• What is my ultimate priority?
• I know challenges I have never experienced before are on their way, will I remain steadfast and of good cheer during those moments?
• How can I really cast my burdens upon the yoke of Christ?
• GOAL: Always go to every Sunday meeting.
• How can I make the sacrament more serious in my life?

There is a lot here and I may already have the answers to most of these questions, but they were all self-reflecting points that came to my mind as I sat and listened. It sure was a great weekend. I am sad this was my last conference as a missionary, but it was perfect.
There is a lot more to be learned. Well family I thought I would just share those things with you to ponder. I love you all and I am grateful for the Happy Birthday wishes. Mom, I too will be needing all new "Holy Underwear" for when I get home. Missionaries kind of trash the ones we wear. I probably will get rid of most of the ones I have out here so I'll need some for when I am home. Also have y'all decided on what I should do with my bike? Time is winding down. We are on crunch time now. Let me know when you can. Oh also I would love to go with Aunt Laurie on that special trip. :)
I love you all!!! xoxoxoxo
Con Amor,
Elder Burnham

No Transfer...6 weeks to go!!!

Surprise!!! No transfer news here. I am staying to be killed off by Elder Merkley. I start probably the craziest 6 weeks of my life today. Last night we had a super awesome missionary fireside, where we watched bits and pieces of the Hastening the Work broadcast with members and discussed how to become better missionaries. It was a very spiritual evening and we heard some great comments and strong testimonies of recent converts that found the gospel through the help of friends. It all comes back to the members, never the missionaries. We are nothing. We simply guide your friends to receiving personal revelation about the most important message on this planet. That's it! The member does the real work. Out of pure love for their friends and family members and newly found strangers they extend inspired invitations and help these children of God enter into the one true fold. At least that's how it should work and that is why we had the fireside. It was a great way to kick off this last transfer of my mission.

This last week was full of miracles because we have a great member, Pedro, who has one mission in mind. He has the strongest desire to bring every Latino in this area into the church. He will probably buy a bus to get them to church once we have enough investigators to fill up his van. He invites everyone to church. And the best part is he isn't afraid of rejection. The worst they can do is say no and then he moves on and invites the next Spanish-speaking stranger he meets. The work is starting to pick up here.

I am super excited for General Conference next week. I have a feeling this will be a huge one for me when it comes to receiving personal revelation. As I have gotten older in the mission I keep getting more questions I need answered. I'm excited to see what the Prophets have to tell me specifically this time around.

Well family time is getting short. I love you all. Hey some more boxes may be coming your way soon. I am going to try to thin out as much as I can over this month so I am not bringing so much junk home with me when the time comes. I guess I'll see what my companions want first and then just decide what to leave behind and all that stuff. Hey should I get my bike shipped home or leave it in the mission? It is still in good shape and is a nice bike, but I don't know what it costs to ship that home. Let me know what you think.

Hasta luego,

Elder Burnham

Never give up, Never Surrender

Staying busy is the way to go. Sounds like this week has been full of lots of experiences all across the board. Ryan seems to be having fun battling his branch, which reminds me of my third area a lot actually. He will get through to them eventually. Never give up, Never surrender. I hope Brianne makes it into the concert so I can go up and see her in it. Also I hope Sara is doing well in school and staying away from those fungus-filled creatures. Life seems to be good over there.

To answer your questions quickly, I hadn't heard about speaking with Russell, but I know we had mentioned it before the mission as a "what if" so I would actually really enjoy that and I'm sure others may love it too. If it's possible that would be a request from my side as well. I know he doesn't get home until about two or three weeks after me, but it would be fun. I haven't heard from Brianne yet about BYU so I'll wait on that, and I also got the itinerary. This is crazy. I don't like that the tunnel is starting to have a very large visible light at the end now. In fact this week we had a zone conference and because I am departing before the next zone conference I was asked to bear my testimony at the end of it. Only one other Raleigh missionary bore his testimony with me. I remember looking up at the older missionaries when they were giving departing testimonies and wishing I could be like that one day. Now I'm here and I guess I have gotten to the point of conversion that they were at, but I don't want to be at this age. The conference was a rude awakening to how fast this has gone by. The "real world" is right around the corner.  I AM NOT TRUNKY THOUGH!!!

We are working hard here and learning a lot. Elder Merkley and I are having a lot of fun and because he is so young and really kind of needs to be retrained on a lot of things I am being kept on my toes. We have been finding getting ready to baptize people every day. My purpose is getting fulfilled every morning with my morning prayers, inviting myself to come closer to Christ and be better. I have a lot more to learn for sure, but as for my purpose I got that down. We did meet a lot more rude people this week and we dropped a lot of people, but the Lord blessed us with new people to teach. This area really isn't the most prime spot for Spanish work, but we are doing our best to work with the few we have. We are getting there though.

Mom we don't have a ton of youth in this ward actually and we also don't even spend a lot of time with the families, because we are the Spanish missionaries and we only have 1 Hispanic family in the ward. When we do eat with the English members we are always trying to find people for the other elders to teach as well, but in order for us to do what we have been assigned to do out here, it doesn't help too often to visit with the "English-speaking white folk". They are a blast to be around though. Well that is where we are at for now. I hope all is going well and if you have more questions let me know. :)

Con Amor,

Elder Burnham

P.S. The picture is from our last week's preparation day. We went and toured the lighthouse on Bodie Island. It was the closest to a beach I have been my whole mission. Talk about trunky... :)

xoxoxoxoxo

Pretty Good Week

Hey family we had a pretty good week. Everything didn't happen exactly as we had planned, but we had more success this week than last. Our finding has been a little rough due to the super prideful Hispanics in this area, but we are working hard. This week I had two run-ins with Hispanics that wouldn't budge even if an angel slapped them in the face with the Book of Mormon. I did my best to stay calm and just testify, but they denied that I even had a testimony, so that is when things got a little hairy. I stopped her from going any further and simply, boldly stated what I know to be true and how sad I was to hear that she could be so satisfied with having so little knowledge of the gospel because she isn't willing to even try to learn more. It was a an awkward situation from there because I stopped the lesson from going any further into the pit of anti where she was angry and frustrated by calling her out on how she was frustrated that I was confounding her craziness and then continued by praising her for her testimony of Jesus Christ and how she loves the Bible and that she eve let us in her home. I am glad that I went that direction though because even though she didn't want anything more to do with our beliefs she lightened up and fed us a delicious cat fish meal. Needless to say she isn't being taught anymore, but her son, who is a recent convert, will be getting our visits. Elizabeth City is a crazy place. I feel that 20 years ago this was a rich beautiful community and now it has turned into the hood. It really is quite a sad thing to see, because the remnants of a beautiful outer-banks city are all around the place, but since then it has been "ghetto-fied".

Anyway besides that we did have some good things happen. We set a young couple with a baptismal date for the middle of October. so we are still finding some elect fellows among this craziness. :)

We have been trying to work closer with members, but we only have like 4 Spanish members so it isn't the most productive. I feel like I've opened up this area for the first time. The last elder here didn't leave me with much to work with. My companion is so new he likes to just watch me and learn. Hopefully Ill get him leading a lot more things. Maybe that is why I am here.

Well I'm glad to see the family is doing so well. I am excited to see that new temple video when I get back. Oh speaking of that, did yall get a call from the mission office about what airport I am supposed to be flying into. They called me about it and I wasn't sure what we had decided so I gave them Mom and Dad's cell numbers. I hope that all got situated.

Well other than that I guess I shall answer Sara's questions.
When it comes to types of stereotypes I'm not sure what they want. What first comes to mind is the stereotype that black people like fried chicken and watermelon which can be seen all over the south in any KFC or Bojangles. Another stereotype is sweet tea and the typical southern family. Another stereotypical thing to see is a Mormon family with more than 4 or 5 kids. I guess there are a ton of stereotypes if you just think of every culture and what first comes to mind. The way I would react to all of them is with laughter and pointing a finger saying "well that's stereotypical!" hahahaha I hope that answers your question baby sister. I love you a ton as well. Keep working hard and get good grades  :)

Con Amor,

Elder Burnham

So much work, so little time

Well to start I must say I am a little depressed that SLC would shut that opportunity down so quickly. My mission president didn't even get a chance to really look at it. Well it's a bummer, but I guess there is nothing we can do about it. This first week here in Elizabeth City has been kind of rough. The area is so new to spanish work and so is my companion that I have so much to get moving. I guess it keeps my mind busy on better things than being trunky. :) It seems like the hispanic population out here isn't as big as I had hoped which doesn't make it easier, but there is always a ton of less active work to do as well as giving solid english referrals to the two other sets of english missionaries that serve here in the ward with us. As I serve the people here in this small town I often ask myself why would I get sent to the South of all places to be a spanish speaking missionary? What am I needing to learn? To be honest I don't know if I'll ever find out the answer. I do know it is hard work though. I did a study the other day on how to specify my faith. In fact a big part of my study was finding the faith to find and what I received revelation on was that it all connects to the Atonement. Yes, I realize that is a pretty broad response to my question, but as much as I don't like to accept it I know that when Elder Holland said the most important convert on a mission is yourself I understood how much I need to be feeling the atonement daily to know that my faith to find is increasing. My experiences with the atonement + sharing those experiences at every doorstep = increased faith to find. Why? Because I understand more of the atonement in my own life and how it can help others so just like Enos my desire to share it changes, thus I will be that much more willing to get out and find people to teach. Maybe that made sense maybe it didn't, but I guess it did in my mind.

Anyway basically to sum everything up I have a lot of work to do still and not much time to do it. We have found a few people this week and had some success getting recent converts to share the gospel, but the work is no where near where we want it for the spanish work at least. I don't really have much else to update you on. I love you all and hope everything is going well. Keep working hard and I'm dead serious about putting me as WML and I'll get those missionaries going as well as the work in the short time I'll be home. ;) Well if I can do anything for you all let me know. Hasta luego!

Con Amor,

Elder Burnham