Mission Split

Alright well business first. If it would be easier to just email the letters that would be fine, but you can do whatever. If I can't read it one Monday I will probably get to it the next so it's not too big of a deal. Also I am now feeling much better and it looked like I was attacked by a stomach virus that took me out almost all week. All the mission doctor told me was to try to drink water and rest. Not too helpful, but I am healthy now and that is all that matters. The other thing is that the mission is for sure getting split up in July and there will be the Chesapeake, Virginia mission which will take half of our mission and part of Virginia. MY zone and the Kinston zone will be leaving the mission and chances are very high that I will be going with them. I don't know how I feel about that or why the Lord will put me with three different mission presidents and two separate missions, but all I know is that I am supposed to teach the gospel for two years in Spanish apparently and where I am put doesn't really matter, I guess. So I am working hard and leaving it at that. All final calls about who is going where will be told to us in June, but it isn't too hard to predict. We'll see how it goes.

Other than that this week has been pretty crazy. Due to my sickness Elder Sosa and I were very restricted to how much work we could do. I had zero energy and felt like puking at even the smell of food so it was a rough time. We still got out when we could and luckily the members were very nice about not forcing me to eat, but I hate being sick. We didn't teach as much as we had planned and we didn't find as much as we had planned, but we did our best under the circumstances. We even had 6 investigators come to church which was amazing. This area is golden, but there is a lot of work that has to be done. It seems like a lot of investigators and members here were converted to missionaries rather than the gospel so Elder Sosa and I have some things to get done. I am loving life over here and as long as I'm happy then that is all that matters. Many are called, but few are chosen.

I love y'all very much and I sure hope all is going well. Keep up the good work!!!

Con Amor,

Elder Burnham

I am sick

Elder Sosa and Elder Burnham

I am feeling miserable right now. I believe the Mexican family that fed us enchiladas last night poisoned me. This is the first time I have ever felt this gross on my mission. Gotta love eating at strange homes right? :)

Well on the positive side of things I am loving Smithfield, NC. The ward here is nice and big and everyone is on top of things. I am glad to be in this area where the members are actually somewhat missionary minded and love the missionaries. I must admit that I do miss Wallace though. I sure hope all is well there. Here in Smithfield my companion is the wonderful Elder Sosa from Honduras. He has never lived in the states before and his English is very broken. It is so funny hearing him teach Americans. He has been out 9 months and is a great teacher in Spanish. I am definitely going to learn a lot from him. We get along very well and we even just had a baptism together. Here are some pictures of us.

Well I am feeling super gross right now so I am not going to write much more, but I hope life is going well. I love y'all very much and yes we got that news about emailing so it is okay. And also it looks like my mission my be getting split and there is a very good chance I could be going to the other mission. Well with that I leave you. Thanks for everything. Good Luck Sara. :)

Bye,

Elder Burnham

Why Me ?!

So I must say that was the best picture of my little brother I have ever seen, besides when we were little boys of course. Also he can never make fun of my cheeks again. :) I love my little brother. It is amazing to see him in that way and I almost can't believe its real. I am definitely proud of him though and I hope we see some pictures of him and his trainer soon. Work hard little brother!

So first things first. I am getting transferred. I will be leaving Wallace tomorrow morning and I am not one bit happy about it. Yeah change can be fun, but I love this area and the people and I just didn't get the amount of time I wanted here. I have so many things I have started that I have to let by boy finish. I am doing my best to recognize the hand of the Lord in this and realize everything happens for a reason. Unfortunately that probably won't happen until I am in my new area. I am not nervous to leave or who my next companion will be, I am just sad I am leaving Wallace. I do feel really good about the work I got done here though and how much I was able to make a difference in this branch. Now my boy and his new companion have to keep the momentum going from here. I pray it keeps picking up for them. There has been a huge change in this area, especially in the branch members. I hope to do better in my next area. Well that is where I am at for now. 

I am super excited to hear how the next SS class goes. The Book of Mormon is my favorite topic. There is nothing that book can't do when it comes to bringing us closer to Christ. I could go on forever on that book. Most of what I would say though can be summarized in the fifth chapter of PMG. I sure hope those kids can find some sort of passion for that book after your class. We all have to read it over and over. Nothing should keep us from it. I am extremely glad to know I have figured that out and also learned the why behind it.

Dad, I would have loved to have been in that meeting. I am also excited to hear how your lesson goes and what videos you use. Let me know if there is anything I can do to help out. I love y'all very much and I guess I'll be writing from another place next week so be ready. :) Well I hope life is treating y'all well. Keep up the good work and remember I'm praying for you.

Con Amor,

Elder Burnham

Elder Burnham 1

I can't believe there are two of us once again out here serving. It was so good to hear that Ryan is already serving in a leadership role and working hard and understanding the necessity and importance of prayer. It is going to be his best friend for the next two years. Study it, Use it, and please Master it!!! The other thing is why are they already sending that release stuff home. I am still young. I'm in the middle! I can't even think that that day will come. I have so much to get done. 

Anyway this week has been kind of slow, but we definitely saw miracles. We have been working on our faith this week. Faith in finding the elect every single day! Elder Young and I have been really learning a lot and seeing progression. Our investigators that are just waiting to get married, moved this week and we helped them as much as we could. It seems like their lives keep getting more hectic as they get closer to this step in their life. Also our other investigator that I told you about last week has been struggling with Satan as well. He had one more day of probation and then he got a ticket for driving with out a license. Because of that he had to go to court and pay a fine and also received 18 more months of probation, which means that he can't baptized for that time. Every time these people get close something comes flying their way from Satan. He really has a desire to change, but he has a lot of consequences for his actions that need to be paid first. It is super unfortunate, but it is the way of life. We also had other investigators that just couldn't keep commitments and other nonsense. It was rough here and there, but among the bad we found a lot of good. The biggest miracle we saw was that this Sunday was a special day. It was stake conference for us, and also our mission decided to do a mission-wide fast to find the elect. Well I was all gun ho for that and we had a great meeting. Unfortunately being the only Spanish elders in the stake we had to translate the whole meeting. Well I had to so it because Elder Young is still working on that. We did have one returned missionary form the singles ward help out as well, but either way it was an interesting two hours of trying to translate these talks about crazy stories and analogies to weird things. What was really good was when our mission president actually spoke and threw down on doing missionary work and exciting the members to get out there and help the missionaries. There are so many ways to help, it just needs to be done! Well after that great meeting we went home and got ready for a lesson with a referral from one of the youth in out branch. We drove out to the appointment after picking up the young man and had a wonderful first lesson with the Martinez family. We found the answer to our prayers. We found 3 new investigators and the elect all in one day. My testimony grew. They accepted a baptismal date right away and even committed to take their 17 year old daughter to mutual and then come to church on Sunday. It was absolutely wonderful. Miracles are so great. What was funny was that after the lesson we realized that I parked the car in their front yard where the mud was so bad that we got stuck. So we had to ask for them to help us get out of their front yard. That's how you gain trust my friends. :) 

Well that is pretty much all I have for you today. It was a roller coaster of a week, but it was full of the hand of God. I love y'all very much and I am so happy to hear from my little brother and little sister as well. Keep the love coming. Thanks for everything.

Con Amor,

Elder Burnham

Nice!

Yeah!!!! I am so excited to hear how that night went. I am glad to hear so much of the family came out to send him off. I also want to know about this Nate fellow. Where did he come from? Anyway, life here in Wallace has been going well this past week. I still wish I could have been with y'all just for a few nights before Ryan took off. I hope he is loving his time in the MTC. It is weird that he only has a super short time in there. He will be out in the field baptizing in no time. Hoorah!!!!!

Well Dad I'll thank you for the info. I was just wondering because of a certain investigator situation that we have been working through and then our branch president decided to be a party pooper and tell us that once they are married and start coming back he would have to talk to the husband about excommunication. I just don't feel much love and mercy from this man towards any of our investigators and that is something we have been working with. Speaking of that though, we have made some big progress. At least in my eyes. I came up with that pass-along fireside idea and after pitching it to my companion and revising it and writing it out and stuff we finally presented it to our branch mission leader just to let him look it over. Well he then had his dad, the branch president, look it over as well. He actually complimented me on it and just told me to come up with a solid way to measure success form it and then at branch council this week we will present it to the council to see if we can excite the branch to do some work! I felt good about that response and was surprised to even receive that much. We'll see how it goes. I'll let you know next week unless I get completely shut down and tore to pieces. So other than that we are still in the beginning stages of getting some type of catalyst thrown in the mix of this small branch. Vamos a ver!

Another miracle worth sharing is that we found an investigator who had been taught in the past and has the biggest desire to change his life around. I was going through the area book entering some addresses in my GPS of some former investigators that got dropped in the past. Well Chris was one of them and one evening because one of our appointments fell through we decided to go find some of these people. We drove up and there he was standing out on his lawn with some alcohol on the porch waiting for us to approach him. At first I was like "hmmmmm" and then my confidence decided to wax strong like usual and I was like "just another adventure for the missionary journal." :) We approached him and I started to talk to him about how we saw he had visited with missionaries in the past and we just wanted to come visit and see if he wanted to retry changing his life. Well come to find out the only reason he wasn't baptized in the past was because he went to prison. Good reason I guess. Well Chris has been in and out of jail, has 20 years experience with illegal drugs, has kids who knows where, and right now has the biggest desire I have ever seen to change his life around and find the straight and narrow. He told us it must have been divine intervention that we came that day because he has been wondering where those past missionaries went. Well we set up an appointment and met with him a few days later. That man is one of the craziest men I have ever taught and yet the most enjoyable and the most full of desire. His past life has had such a huge impact on his life that everything he can relate to right now isn't at all in line with the standards of the gospel. Go figure. :) When we taught about prophets and what they do he then went on to say, " So you guys are like prophets, but not really; kind of like a man who is a wannabe pimp, but isn't really a pimp." Yes we got compared to wannabe pimps in our first lesson with him. This guy is the best. :) I am sure I will have more adventurous stories to tell y'all about shortly.

For now that is all I got. I sure hope life is treating you well and hopefully the quiet at home isn't too difficult to adjust to. Well I love you all very very much. Thanks for everything.

Con Amor,

Elder Burnham 1

Elder Ryan Burnham to the MTC

I guess today he is being dropped off. ("Brother "  Elder Ryan Burnham)Tell me everything. How many tears were shed. I will admit that when I read Ryan's email about allowing me to be with him throughout the day on Sunday, I cried. Why would I cry? Anyway, I can't believe this is happening. I am so excited to see how things are going. I wanted so bad to be there this week. I wanted so bad to be there to feel the spirit and to give all my knowledge I can to him. I know he will get more as we write back and forth, but there is so much I want to say to him in person. I sure hope he takes my last letter to heart and just dominates out there. What is Sara going to do now? There isn't anyone home for her. She better stay out of trouble. I miss you all very much and I sure hope everything is going well.

Well for me in my neck of the woods, not much has really happened out of the extraordinary. We are still teaching quite a bit and Elder Young is coming along really well. We went on exchanges this week and I left the area so it was on him to take over what was planned for the day. He had some good lessons in Spanish that he was able to follow the spirit on and I was proud to hear that. My boy is growing up. I am training one of the best.

Well family, I don't really have a lot to say this week. I can't think of anything remarkable that happened. We did have an inactive man come back to church this last sunday. I feel like the Lord is definitely blessing us, but it just hasn't been with anything humongous this week. Sometimes I wonder if that is because I just don't have enough faith in big miracles or maybe it is just not time yet. Hopefully soon though because we have so many investigators that just need to make a few more changes in their lives and they are set. One couple has to get married and another has to give up his smoking habit and another has to just decide to read and put Moroni's promise to the test. I pray so hard for these people and these steps aren't the biggest ones that they could make in life. Right now and where they are at they shouldn't have any problems with just doing it, but for some reason it is the biggest fight. I am pretty bummed that there is a good possibility I might leave in the next few weeks and I won't see the progression of these people completed. That's alright though I know it is all in His time. One day I'll accept that much more freely. :)

...

Well I love you all and I hope today was a great day!!!

Con Amor,

Elder Burnham

Oh Man!

I can't believe this is THE WEEK!!! I am so nervous for everyone now. This is going to be crazy. I hope Ryan got my letter and I hope everything is ready to go. I want him more than anything to be 5x the missionary I am. I know that's not hard, but I can promise him that if he will take to heart that letter I wrote him completely he will be better than any other Missionary. The hard part is applying it perfectly. It will be an ongoing process that every missionary must learn. I must say that my progression as a missionary has increased immensely because I am training. When you have to focus on every little detail it really helps you change in the areas that need it most. I am definitely learning a lot. I really feel that this is sometimes much more for me than for my boy. I have been trained in patience and humility and much more. IT IS WONDERFUL. ;) So before I answer your question Mom I just wanted to let you know that prayers have been answered. Last night we had dinner at the branch president's home and we had the best meeting with him there. I kind of took the opportunity to make this dinner into a heart to heart with the president. His son was also involved because he is the branch mission leader. Well we first built the trust by talking sports, which is what I am good at. Then we pulled out the progress record to discuss the work. They looked it over and started calling us out on little things here and there and eventually I just came out and told them how we know what we want things to be like and how they can help us there. He actually agreed with some of the things I said and told me that he has been trying for seven years, but hasn't gotten anywhere. Well I have been working an idea up for awhile now about a pass-along fireside thing and I finally ran it by them. They kind of said in their own way that they aren't really sure it will work. But after explaining more he was all for me expressing this to the rest of branch council to see if it will go anywhere. Now I still have to perfect the idea on paper, but it was definitely a trust building moment with the branch president. I may not be in this area much longer and I may not see any fruits from this, but I am going to get something rolling out here. This area has a ton of potential and I see it and so does my companion and so do some members. Now we just have to get everyone on board to step up there game ans start by building their own unity within the branch and then the missionary effort will follow. It is an exciting thing. I'll keep you updated. Oh yeah so we found out yesterday that because of the increase of incoming missionaries this next transfer this current transfer is only 5 weeks. That means there is a possibility I may be gone soon. UGH!!! Anyway, pray my boy gets transferred and I stay. :) 

Okay now to answer your question. This topic has actually been something on my mind for a while now. I think of Alma 29 and how Alma wishes to be an Angel to travel the world and preach the gospel to everyone. I have been pondering how horrible of a missilery I was back at home. Yes, I feel like I lived a pretty good life and lead by example, but we all know how I feel about that whole example thing. Mom, I am so sad that during my high school years I was not a better missionary. I had such solid friends that I was close too. And yes there might be things that I did that influenced them for good, but did I share my testimony in the way I should have? NO! Did I keep my baptismal covenant in the way I should have by being a witness of Him, YES and NO! Like I said, yes I was a good kid and lived high standards, but I did not express my feelings of the truth like I should have or at least not enough. I did not extend enough invitations to people to change, to join me in activities, to come to church, to read the Book of Mormon. Now I can say that a big part of that was because of the level of my own testimony and how there was still doctrine behind missionary work that I didn't understand, but now that I do I am saddened by it. Everything I am saying reminds me so much of Alma 29. And I am happy with where I am at now and how I am preaching the gospel and I understand I can't go back in time and I have learned from that,  but oh how I wish I could have been better. If all those youth in your class could understand the true joy that Alma talks about they would be on missions in no time. One experience I wish I could have had and that I wish everyone can have is to see a close friend of theirs get baptized and gain a testimony of the truth. I don't care if it is a girlfriend, a best friend, a complete stranger that you get to know through going out with the missionaries, but the joy from taking part in such an experience is the greatest thing known on this earth. God tells us this same thing in the D&C. How great will be our joy? Alma said Now, when I think of the success of these my brethren my soul is carried away, even to the separation of it from the body, as it were, so great is my ^ajoy.   

 I hope this answers your question Mom. I know I could have been better. I know I wasn't horrible or the vilest of sinners, but I could have been a better missionary and in reality I could have experienced more joy. And isn't that what this life is all about? JOY!!! 

I love you all very much and I sure hope everything is going well. I am excited to hear how things go. I love you soooooooooo much!

Con Amor,

Elder Burnham

P.S. Ryan resolve to send your testimony or a BOM or an invitation to some nonmember friend before you leave. Invite everyone to your farewell, especially nonmembers. Leave satisfied.