Merry Christmas!!! Time is flying by I can't believe it is already
almost Christmas. When we are out talking to people, and start talking
about missionary life, we tell them that we can only talk to our
families on Mothers day and Christmas, and this week when we were
talking about it I realized that it was only a week away!! Its crazy
how fast it goes! Glad to hear that everything is going well. I don't
really have a favorite Christmas story, I love them all and can't
really pick a single one to say that is my favorite. Me and Elder
Provost are doing well. All the times where people freak out at us are
pretty memorable because it is super funny, like yesterday while we
were walking down the street someone starting yelling at us and
flipped us off as they drove by. We always just find it funny how
people can get so mad at a couple of young men spending two years of
their life sharing what they know to be true. I just don't understand
it, but its pretty funny. Living with a companion has taught me to...
never get married lol just kidding. No it has been good, it is a
little harder to get along with somebody 24/7 than it is just hanging
out with them occasionally. But you just have to be patient and try
your best to serve them.
This week was good, it was a little bit slower since a lot of people
are going out of town to see family, but it was still good. I went on
exchanges with the zone leader, Elder Edwards, who is my trainer's
trainer. His area has a ton of work, so that was cool to go to a 4 or
5 lessons in a day. They have 6 or 7 baptismal dates right now, so the
work really is hastening! We had an interesting lesson with Lubia this
week. She has become friends with a convert in the ward who is pretty
crazy. So Lubia goes over to her house all the time, and we had to
teach Lubia over there. Sharon, the convert, always just changes the
topic to how evil the world is and how mean people are, so we
struggled to keep the lesson on topic and ended up talking about
Christmas because it was going to be impossible to teach a good lesson
with Sharon there. So it provided for a very interesting experience.
Lubia is so excited for her baptism, she is so ready for it! We
couldn't meet up with John because he had a work emergency that lasted
the most part of the week, but we saw him at the ward Christmas party
and he is doing well. Lucas has still been busy with work so still
haven't seen him in a while, and hoe to meet with him after Christmas.
Bram is doing good, but had to cancel for our appointment too, so we
didn't really get the chance to teach many lessons this week. We met
with Richard this week, he realized that it is too important to go to
church, and that it isn't worth it to skip church because someone
offended him. So that was exciting to hear, and he is doing well once
again.
On Friday we had a Christmas Devotional zone conference which was
really good. we had a Christmas program with a bunch of songs by the
musically gifted missionaries which was really good. Then we had a
testimony meeting which brought the spirit so strongly. It is really
uplifting to hear all those testimonies about how Christ lives, and
has paid the price for us. Thats pretty much our week, the holiday
season is kind of slowing it down right now, but it will pick up. I
can't wait to talk to you all on Christmas!! I might have to call a
little earlier because the people's house we are going over to are
planning to go to their parents, so we are not quite sure what time.
But it will probably be sometime around noon your time. I love you all
and miss you, can't wait to see you in three days!!!!
We got to Skype with Dallon on Christmas Day. It was so good to talk with him. We got to spend 1 hour and 45 minutes tying up his ward mission leader's computer. That was a real blessing to hear from him. He has grown and matured so much in a short time. We traveled to San Diego and emailed with him from there during the Christmas break on December 29. Here is his reply.
Hey how is everybody? I hope you had a great week, it was really nice
to Skype you all on Christmas!! I hope you all are still doing well.
We had a nice week. Not too much to write about though. We had a
couple good lessons. We taught John the restoration, and we mainly
focused on the importance of reading the Book of Mormon and praying
about it. He has been reading the Book of Mormon with us, and we are
almost done with 1 Nephi, but we found out that he hadn't been praying
about it really. He was pretty hesitant to pray about it until we came
right out and asked him "Whats the big deal about praying?" He then
realized that nothing bad would come from it, and so he committed to
pray about the book of Mormon everyday! He is coming so close, its
like we just need top get him over that last little hump and he will
get baptized. We had a couple lessons with Lubia and her family, we
went over Christmas eve and shared the Christmas story with them, and
we brought the presents that the ward got them since they are
struggling financially. They were sop excited! Then the story of
Christs birth and the gift of his life for us is so powerful, the
spirit was super strong. The presence of the Holy Ghost seemed to be
extra strong this week as we shared the Christmas story, with both
members and investigators. Thats it with our investigators, Bram and
his family were super busy with Christmas, and they had a little
sickness going around so we weren't able to meet with them. Since it
was Christmas week, we had a lot of dinners, and spent some more time
with the members of t he ward which was nice, as was all the roast and
ham haha. Sorry this email is shorter, but I don't really have too
much to talk about after Skyping on Thursday. I hope you all have a
great week, and a Happy New Year! I love and miss you all!!!
Elder Burnside
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