Dallon had a Baptism!

Dallon's June 22nd Letter.  The pictures are (from Dallon's words) 1. when we got IPads. 2. me in
our new mission car haha. 3. Destiny's baptism.  4. Destiny's baptism.  5. me and elder taylor at his departing missionary fireside.

Hist June 22nd letter

Happy Father's Day! How was it? We had a great week this week! I guess
I will start with Destiny. We taught her the law of tithing and
keeping the Sabbath day holy on Tuesday. She accepted it all and so we
set up a baptismal interview, and she passed that. Then she got
baptized on Sunday! The baptism went good, and interesting as always.
I conducted the program because only one of the branch presidency was
in town due to Father's Day, and he was presiding, baptizing, and
welcoming her into the branch. Her sister who gave the baptismal talk
was completely unprepared and didn't really talk about baptism, but I
think that she did say what Destiny needed to hear. Then for the
actual baptism the 2nd counselor wasn't able to get her back up out of
the water and they both fell over, it was pretty funny. The spirit was
strong though, and she is so happy to be baptized, she said that when
she came up out of the water she just felt new.
We started teaching a lady named Lumi. Her friend has been bringing
her to church for about 2 months, but she wanted to come to church a
couple more times before meeting with us. So we finally met with her
for the first time on Tuesday, and our mission president actually came
with us. She had read all of he gospel principles book, all of the
teachings of President Benson, but only a little bit of he Boom of
Mormon because it is hard for her to understand. She had a lot of
questions, as she has no religious background. We taught the
restoration and having President there definitely helped. At the ended
when we asked her to commit to baptism she thought about it for what
seemed like forever. Then after a good 2 minutes she said she had to
think about it, and wasn't ready to commit yet. We had her Read 2
Nephi 31 about baptism because that is what most of her questions were
about. Elder Rickman then went back on exchanges on Friday. And they
taught her the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and committed her to be
baptized on July 12! She has the desire to be baptized, she is just an
extremely timid and hesitant person. But she will definitely end up
getting baptized.
Also while I was away on exchanges they went and taught Fransisco. He
was a referral that was suppose to be Ysa but he is married and has 3
kids. Luckily he lives in our Gardena area anyway. So they taught him
the Restoration and he accepted a baptismal date for July 19th! His
wife wasn't there when they went by, so hopefully we will be able to
teach her soon, and set a date with her too!
We taught Fito and Blanca about the priesthood and the temple since he
got the priesthood last month. So the are going to start family
history work so they can take some names of the temple with them. They
are so solid. I love them.
So a lot of progress in the work this week! We also had some
interesting stuff happen. On Wednesday night a recent convert in the
other Gardena Elder's area called us and asked us to come over. He
struggles with substance abuse and he also is gay. So when he called
us he had just relapsed and was drunk. So we went over there and the
whole time he was hitting on us and trying to "seduce" us. It was
extremely awkward especially because we had our recent converts Fito
and Blanca in the car since we were taking them to help us teach when
he called. It was crazy to see how different he was when he was under
the influence. He was completely different. So we were there for about
40 minutes and finally left and had to take his pills from him since
he threatened to overdose on them, it was crazy. He was just not
himself it was weird.
Then later that night president texts us asking what size shoe I wear.
Apparently someone wants to anonymously buy me a new pair of shoes
haha. Even though I have several good pairs haha.
It was a good week this week, hopefully next week will be just as
good. I hope you have a great week. I will send some pictures in a
little bit. I love you!!!
Elder Burnside

Let us also include his June 29th Letter

Good to hear that you all are doing well. I leave my shoes tied loosely, they are most comfortable that way, and they are quick and easy to slide on and off. The car is a 64 corvette that is owned by some members in the ward named the Lee's who fed us that day.
We had a decent week this week. Destiny got confirmed on Sunday. Branch President Hanson confirmed her. It was good, she was very excited, and is so happy to have the Holy Ghost. Next week she will have an interview so she can go to the temple and do baptisms for the dead. Then sometime over the next couple weeks we will have a transition lesson with her with the elders in the family ward, so she can get her kids baptized.
We met with Lumi this week. She had called its and told us that she couldn't get baptized because she doesn't understand the Book of Mormon. So we were go into help her resolve her concerns, but when we got there she had already resolved her concerns. She told us that she understood that she needs to be baptized and that she feels good when she reads the Book of Mormon. So we taught about he Holy Ghost and how it is much more importNt to feel the Holy Ghost and do the things that allow the Holy Ghost to be there. Then after you are doing that, he understanding will start to come.
We haven't been able to get in contact with Fransisco since last time. He has been very busy so we weren't able to meet with him, and then he didn't come to church either.
We got a new investigator this week named Sarah. She is married with 2 kids, ages 8 and 13. She has been meeting with missionaries for about 6 months now. She even had a baptismal date, but then her husband lost his job and they got evicted from their home. So they came to our area because her mom lives here, so the kids stay with their grandparents but Sarah and her husband are sleeping on the streets. They are pretty cool and we just need to help them find a home, because they are ready to be baptized. Although I am not sure how much of the actual story we are getting, because they didn't show up to church and they haven't responded to us since we met with them Friday. Something just feels a little off about it, but hopefully it all works out!
Then of course we had a couple lessons with Napolean this week! We read towards the end of 2 Nephi. And I really liked the last verse in chapter 26. It talks about how everything God does is to help us draw closer to him. Everything he does is to help us, and it says that he makes it plain into us. He lets us know his plan for each of us individually through the scriptures, the prophets, and prayer. As we do those things he will give us personal revelation on what he wants for us and what he wants us to do.
So it was a solid week of teaching. I hope you all have a great week and Fourth of July. I love you!!!
Elder Burnside

More June Letters

Dallon's June 15th Letter

So this week has been really good. On Tuesday we taught Destiny the
plan of salvation, and when we talked about baptism we talked about
some of the commandments we have to follow in order to be baptized,
like the law of chastity and the word of wisdom. She committed to
keep the commandments no problem. She is so ready for baptism and very
excited for this Sunday!
We had a couple lessons with Napoleon this week. We continued our
reading of the Isaiah chapters in the Book of Mormon. I really liked 2
Nephi 22. It is a good chapter about what the people will say in the
last days. And it talks about how the people will be declaring the
good tidings. And so that is really what we should be doing is
declaring the gospel to the whole world. We also had a lesson with
Napoleon on the apostasy. We talked a lot about the importance of the
prophet and the priesthood. We also talked a bit about personal
apostasy and how if we are only "lukewarm" in he gospel that we will
fall away. We need to be continuously nourishing our testimony or
eventually it will wither away.
On Saturday we got iPads! The stuff we are able to do with it is still
limited because we are only in the early stages of implementing iPads
in the mission. But they are useful, it is a lot lighter than carrying
all of our books around and I am able to link stuff together on the
gospel library app and do all sorts of stuff with that.
We also got to train with an MMA fighter. His name is Justin. He is
interested in coming to church, but he doesn't really want us to come
teach him. He said that he would be happy to train us for free though,
so hopefully we will be able to fellowship him and then slowly start
to teach him. It was pretty cool, but I have no idea what I am doing
when it comes to fighting haha. I just hope that all the training
will be able to help me lose all this weight lol.
On Sunday we had two friends of the 1st counselor in the bishopric
come to church. He had given them a Book of Mormon and invited them to
church. So hey came and enjoyed it. Their names are Kenneth and
Beverly and they are engaged. So we are going to try to meet with them
this week. He only problem is he works nights and she works during the
day so heir schedules are really busy. So we had a pretty good week. I
hope you guys have a great week! I love you!!!
Elder Burnside

After I replied Dallon PS'd

Those pictures are pretty cool! I would not say that the parent fishare the best looking fish haha just kidding. I just saw all youremails, and to answer all of your questions, we are still in a car. In fact we went and exchanged cars, so now we are driving a brand new 2015 Corolla that is grey. Yeah hump day is what missionaries call it. I get to keep the iPad, and we are suppose to pay a "usage fee" I think the stake president was suppose to talk to you about it. That's cool you got the new job! Now you get to just boss people around huh.?  You will do great at that! Lol.

June 1st and 8th Letters

Dallon's June 1st letter from Gardena

Sounds like everyone is having a good time, especially now that school
is over. High school graduations parties are fun, especially for the
one who the party is thrown for haha. Leaving your kids for Cozumel
should be fun too. To answer your questions, Elder Rickman is from
Cicero, Indiana.  It has been a bit hot but not too much. Its not really too much different covering YSA. It is just a
lot of fun! haha. We do a lot of activities with them like FHE and
stuff like that. We cover the west half of the Gardena ward. So
everything west of Vermont and east of Crenshaw. Then south of
Rosecrans and north of 190th. But then are YSA area is a lot bigger,
so we go all over the place. I like the Samoan's a lot of them are on
the east part of the Gardena ward, but they feed us very well! haha.
Monday was fun. After we finished preparation day activities, we went
to FHE. Which was soccer and a barbecue. It was a fun activity to
invite people to. We had 1 non member and 1 less active there that
really enjoyed it.
We had our pre-IPad training on Tuesday. Elder Schweizer of the
Seventy and Elder Gonzales from the missionary department were there.
They gave good talks, and talked a lot about how our number 1 safety
against Satan is our own level of commitment towards Christ, and our
own righteousness. So that was a really good meeting, Elder Schweizer
did really well, I liked him.
We had a lesson with a recent convert that got baptized a couple weeks
ago. His name is Alex and he is really cool. He is married and has two
little kids. His wife is a now re-activated member. He loves having
the gift of the Holy Ghost and is super excited for the priesthood. He
told us about how the spirit has helped him in his conversion even
though a lot of his family didn't support him. So he is pretty solid.
We had a lesson with a guy named Tanner as well. His sister is an
active member, and she had us over for dinner, so we could teach him.
We talked a lot about church and the Book of Mormon. He doesn't really
seem sup[er interested, but he did commit to read the first couple
chapters of the Book of Mormon for the next time we come back.
Hopefully that will spark something.
Friday I went on exchanges in Redondo beach, it is a pretty nice
area. When I was there, they had their baptismal date's mom call. His
father passed away unexpectedly the night before, and they asked us to
come over. So we went over and got the bishop and some other people to
come over to help set up funeral and all that stuff, and to support
her. But it was just sad to see to see the grief the mom had because
she didn't understand the Plan of Salvation. It just reminded me what
a blessing it is that we have doctrines like that, and we have the
peace and support that comes form Jesus Christ's gospel. On a much
better note, while I was away, Elder Rickman set a baptismal date with
a girl named Destiny for June 21! Her sister is a member and has been
bringing her to church the past couple weeks. from the few chances I
have had to talk with her, she seems super prepared. You could say
that it was her Destiny to be a Mormon. Lol sorry I couldn't help
myself haha. She is YSA but has 3 kids, so we might give her to the
family ward because she has kids, but at the same time her sister is
her main fellow shipper and is at the YSA branch. So we are not sure
yet, we will ask our mission president what he thinks.
Sunday Fito and Blanca got confirmed, it was really good. They are
going to make great members, they are already super active both in
church activities and in their studies at home. We only had 2 people
come to church this week, but I think it was just one of those,
everyone just happened to have something come up, so next week will be
better.
I love you and hope you have a great week!
Elder Burnside

Dallon's June 8th Letter

Well it sounds like you all are having a somewhat decent time haha.
Sounds like a lot of fun! That is a lot of cool diving. Sorry dad but
I am not well versed in this foreign diving language you are speaking,
what is Nitrox?
Well our week was a bit slow in terms of actually teaching lessons. We
got to teach Destiny the Plan of Salvation on Tuesday with the branch
president's wife. It went super well. She just is eating up the
gospel. She is already friends with all of the relief society at the
branch as well. She has no concerns too! At our lessons she told us
that she had heard we aren't allowed to drink coffee so she stopped!
She just knows that this is the path that God wants her to take. So
that was a really good lesson.
We also found a new investigator named Myles. He is in his mid 30s and
has a wife and at least two kids. We got a referral with him, and were
able to set up a time to teach him the restoration. It went really
well, he just wants to be able to find what will help his family the
most. The only problem is when we came back for our return appointment
he said he was busy and was just about to go pick his kid up, but he
smelled and looked like he had been smoking pot. So we will have to
get that all taken care of, but he is a pretty good guy.
We also were finally able to meet with a YSA referral named John. He
stays at his parents house Wednesday nights, but he just hops couches
the rest of the week. He cooks at a restaurant in my old area. Anyway
he seems like a much younger version of Ron haha. He is pretty funny,
but his struggle is with faith. He reads a lot of religious and
philosophical books, but he has trouble having faith in something that
can't be proven. So we had him read Alma 32 and talked a lot about
receiving a witness of the Book of Mormon. We will meet with him on
Wednesday so hopefully that goes well.
We retaught Fito and Blanca the restoration as part of their new
member lessons. They really soaked up the gospel! They remembered
everything and were really able to teach most of it to us. They are
super cool!
We also had a couple lessons with Napolean. We read a couple more
Isaiah chapters in 2 Nephi with him. It is cool how much more I am
able to get out of those when we are trying to teach him, instead of
when I read just by myself. We also had a lesson about Agency. We just
studied that topic in the topical guide and read scriptures about it.
The scripture I found really interesting was D&C 58:28, "For the power
is in them, wherein they are agents unto themselves. And inasmuch as
men do good they shall in nowise lose their reward." I like the first
line about how it is a power. And as we use this power to make good
choices and repent and improve upon ourselves, it will lead us to the
final goal to fulfill our potential and be with God.
Anyway that was our week. I love you all and hope you have a great
rest of the week diving!

Elder Burnside

One last post from May's letters Dallon is in Gardena!

I think I forgot to post these pictures.  They come from Dallon's May 25th letter.  This was his first letter since transferring to Gardena.

His letter follows

Well according to Mom it sounds like you all had a good week. Jeremy
also told me you need to update the blog. He said he reads it when he
is not having a good day and it helps him out. So apparently these
emails are actually having some form of an effect on somebody haha. So
my new companion is Elder Rickman. He is from Indiana. he has been out
for 9 months, so he came out in the group right after mine. Apparently
he looks very similar to me, but I will let you all be the judge of
that.
Anyway I love my new area! It has tons of work! Like most of what we
do is contacting the giant list of referrals we get here. Because we
cover the YSA we get a lot of them! This past week we received 21!
That is right 21 referrals, it was mind boggling how they just kept
coming and coming. My first day here we got 12. The most I had ever
gotten in a week was 5 and we got 12 in one day. Since we are part of
YSA they do a bunch of activities too, and we always go, and people
are a lot more willing to commit to go to that than church. haha.
So a lot of the teaching pool here has gotten baptized, not a bad
problem to have haha. So we are trying to find a little bit more, but
none of our referrals ever seem to answer the door. One of the
investigators we have is named Napolean. He has been investigating for
about 6-8 months now, and if you didn't know better you would think he
has been a member for a long time. We go over and read the scriptures
with him, and he just has a very strong testimony and knows a lot
about the scriptures. The only reason he isn't baptized yet, is that
his girlfriend who he has grandchildren with refuses to marry him. But
he is actually going to leave so he can get baptized once he gets some
medical issues fixed. He is really cool though.
Then 2 of our investigators, Fito and Blanca got baptized yesterday!
They are an older Hispanic couple that has been getting the lessons
for about a month. They are super cool and super nice. They couldn't
wait to get baptized, they were so excited! Their baptism was perfect
and the spirit was super strong. For once nothing actually went wrong,
it was nice haha.
We have another 3 people who are suppose to get baptized this week,
but it doesn't look like that is going to happen. Their names are
Syliva, Laticia, and Isaiah. Sylvia is the grandma, and then Laticia
is the mom, and Isaiah is Laticia's son. They all have testimonies and
had been coming to church frequently, but then when we went over there
Wednesday they had been evicted. And now nobody can get a hold of
them, they have just dropped off the face of the Earth. So keep them
in your prayers! Hopefully they come back.
one referral that we contacted this week that we will teach is Justin.
Justin is an MMA fighter who actually trains with Anderson Silva
(which I guess is a big deal) haha. He lives in our Gardena area.. He
told us that he would come to church this week, and wants us to come
by on Saturday or Sunday. The biggest problem right now is that he is
training a ton and is super busy with that. But he looks to have
potential.
Otherwise that has been my week, just trying to get to know everybody.
one thing I realized is just how useful that board with the pictures
of all the families is at church back home. They have something very
similar at the YSA branch, were they have a lot of peoples pictures up
on it, and it is super useful for me to get to know everybody. Oh and
an update with IPads, we are having a training on them, but are not
going o get them for another "several" weeks :( I love you and hope
you have a great week!! I will send an email with pictures in a
second.
Elder Burnside

About the Pictures: So the first two are of me and Lucas and Ivette. The third one is of
me and Ron. The fourth one is me and Elder Rickman, and the last one
is me, Elder Shepherd, and Lucas and Ivette

Dallon will be transferred to Gardena

May continues.  Dallon gets transferred this week to Gardena.  This is the last picture of Elder Shephard as they go to get haircuts.

I am glad you enjoyed your trip. Like mom I am not very surprised
either, early Alzheimer seems to be taking its toll haha. That is
crazy that Aaron is a priest! It makes me kind of feel old, until I
get the common comment that I look like I am 14 haha. I do miss
frisbee, it had become like my 2nd favorite sport to play behind
baseball. It is difficult to play out here because we can't be with
more than two other companionships. Rain is always fun, we got
drenched on Thursday since we weren't expecting the rain haha. It did
help us get people to open their doors for us though lol. They felt
bad for us, but you know you do whatever it takes to share the gospel
haha. I am glad to hear you are all doing well though.
So on Tuesday while we were at Pep Boys having our car worked on,
Emilio and Wendy came up and talked to us. We street contacted them a
couple weeks ago and they are super cool! They have two kids and are
just really prepared. We haven't even actually taught them yet but
they already love us. They were going to come to church Sunday but
they had an issue. They are moving into our area, but they are in
between apartments right now and are basically homeless. They were
staying at Emilio's mom's house, but got kicked out. So they had to
find a place for their kids to sleep. But they called us and just felt
so bad afterwords. So to sum it up we are excited to teach them.
Wednesday we got to teach a guy named Dwayne that we had street
contacted the day before. He is 24 married and has two kids. When we
met him on the street, and asked if we could share a card with him; he
stopped and just said "For sure, preach to me brothers!" he said we
could come back the following morning, so we did and taught him the
restoration. He accepted a baptismal date for June 20th! When we
started the lesson, he just told us that he wanted us to come over, so
that he could hear the word and then be able to give all of his
friends and family the word too! He is really cool, and we are just
starting to see the work take off! After months of hard work, we are
finally starting to see some success.
On a not so successful not we met with Ron a couple times this week
haha. He is just really stubborn, so we are probably going to stop
meeting with him. We did take him over to a members house for dinner
again, and he loved it. So he is starting to make some friends in the
church, so hopefully he will continue to come to church. But really
there isn't too much to report about him.
Sunday was pretty good. We didn't really have people come to church
but the lessons were good. Somebody in the high counsel gave a talk
about how we are all under construction, and we all just need to work
together and help each other improve. In elders quorum we had a lesson
given by a guy who is a convert of only a few years. It was about the
Book of Mormon and he was just super bold. I loved it. He talked a lot
about how we need to know the Book of Mormon, and compared it to being
on the Lakers, and the play book is the Book of Mormon. Anyway he
ended with "So get off the bench get in the game and score some points
for God. In the name of Jesus Christ amen." It was just a great bold
kick in the butt kind of lesson haha. We then went to a baptism in
Elder Shepherd's last area, and that was really good.
And of course then we had transfer calls! And I am.............
leaving. I really liked this area but I am excited for my next area
too. I will be going to Gardena. And I will be covering the Gardena
and the El Camino YSA ward. So it should be fun. I have heard there is
a lot of work there so that has me excited. My new companion will be
Elder Rickman. I don't know him, and all Elder Shepherd knows is that
he is short and looks a lot like me haha. So at least I won't have to
look straight up to see my companion anymore haha. So other than that
I don't know much about my new area or companion. So I will tell you
more next week. Have a great week I love you!! Here is a picture of me
and Elder Shepherd after getting our haircuts today!
Elder Burnside

It's May

May 4 Letter from Dallon

Cool it sounds like you all have a had a good week. Baseball is always
fun, it is good that he is making more contact. Church sounds like it
was pretty good, I love testimony meetings especially here in Los
Angeles. You never know what you are going to hear. An 8 year old kid
got up and gave a super funny one for us on Sunday. He got up and
said, "Wow big crowd today, I am sure Jesus likes that. I am sure he
likes all the fellowship, and I do to. Take my dad for example, he met
his wife at church. In the name of Jesus Christ amen." It was really
funny. Lol another funny note I was looking through the SD card on my
camera just now and there is a video you took of Stevie's 6th
birthday. I couldn't listen to it, but I watched it and it was just
kind of funny to watch. For Skype on Sunday, we will probably Skype
somewhere between 1:30 and 5:30 your time. We will only have 40
minutes though, so make sure you prepare before hand. And just in case
can you send me your Skype address again?
Anyway getting to my week. Our week was kind of slow, mostly because
of Tuesday. On Tuesday night in the sometime between 6:30 and 7:30
Elder Shepherd and I both lost our planners. We lost them at the same
time! We couldn't believe it! The chances of that happening have to be
extremely small. So we haven't been able to find them, and so we lost
a ton of potential investigators information. I guess that will teach
us to update our area book more often haha.
So we spent a lot of time this week trying to find, and rebuilding our
potential investigators pool. One super cool experience we had this
week was, that on Friday during weekly planning we decided we would
start praying to teach a family of four. The next day we got a
referral for a family of four, although we haven't been able to get in
contact with them yet. Then yesterday as we were walking down the
street a guy named Amellio and his two kids turned one of the corners.
And when he saw us he just started smiling and waving at us, and so we
talked to him, and he said he would love for us to come by and teach
him and his family of four. He said they live in Inglewood, but that
they are moving into our area at the end of this week! So we are
excited to start teaching them, although the two kids are both really
young. We also had a cool experience Saturday night. We started
talking to these young guys who were sitting on the street smoking and
drinking beers. At first they weren't too open, and just kind of
wanted to take the card and have us leave. But then we just started
testifying about the Restoration, and they completely changed. They
started opening up and asking questions . We even gave one of them a
Book of Mormon (the other one already had one). When we told him he
could have it he was so happy he hugged us! It was super cool to see
the spirit touch their hearts. The number that Enrique (the one we
gave the Book of Mormon too) gave us didn't work though. So we are
going to have to stop by and hope they area there.
Then we had a bunch of lessons with Ron. He is progressing. We took
him over to dinner with a super cool member in our ward and he loved
it! Ron couldn't stop talking about how much he enjoyed it and how
great Mormons are haha. They connected quite well. We talked about a
lot of gospel stuff there. At one point we got to talking about how he
had some poor parents. And at one point he said that if he could
forgive them that would show that there is a God and he would get
baptized. So now we are having him pray for help to forgive his
parents. Then Sunday we had a good preparatory lesson with him. We
have been wanting to teach him the Plan of Salvation for a long time,
but every time we start we just get back onto the subject of faith.
But then at the end of our lesson Sunday he started asking a bunch of
Plan of Salvation questions. So we told him all the answers are in the
Plan of Salvation, and we would love to teach him that next time. We
also told him to invite his neighbor over, so that would be really
cool if he could do that!
That was pretty much our week though. I hope you guys have a great
week. I love you and will talk to you Sunday!
Elder Burnside

It always confuses me when people give fake information. I don't
understand why they don't just say they aren't interested when we ask
if we could get their information. But no it doesn't really bother me
too much, you can't take it personally. If they are ready for the
gospel than they will accept it, if not you just plant the seed and
move on. And the interesting thing I have noticed is that those who
are prepared will find you. We don't really find people. Our job is to
let our light shine before the world, so that those who are prepared
can find the truth.

Then we got to talk to Dallon on Mother's Day.  That was wonderful.  He is doing well and really acts like a Missionary.  He followed Mother's Day with the following letter along with pictures!!

It was good to talk to you guys too, I enjoyed it. It is always
exciting to call home. I have had good companions, and I don't know if
I would call any of them difficult, I had fun with all of them. But if
you made me pick one, I would probably say that Elder Provost was the
most frustrating, because he would get on my back about a lot oh
stuff. But he was still a good companion. So why are you in Kansas
City again? I am glad that you guys enjoyed Mothers day and had a good
week. So you already know about most of my week, but I am just going
to pretend like you don't and email everything anyway haha. That way
maybe I will include stuff I didn't mention yesterday.
So a week and a half ago we talked to a kid named Julio on the street,
and he said we could come by and share more about the Book of Mormon,
so we went by last Monday. They didn't have much time so we just
shared the scripture 3 Nephi 18:21 about the importance of praying in
you families. When we shared the scripture another kid named Reuben,
who graduated last year said that he already has a Book of Mormon! He
said that somebody gave him one in High School. So that was super
cool, their family is really busy but we are going to try to stop by
again this week to teach them the Restoration.
We had several lessons with Ron this week. We are really pounding the
importance of the Book of Mormon into him, and he is finally getting
it. He has begun to listen to the Book of Mormon everyday so we are
making some progress again. We prefaced the Plan of Salvation with
him again, because he has so many questions that can be answered
through the Plan of Salvation if he would just let us teach it haha.
He committed to read the pamphlet and we told him that we will go over
it this week. He came to church on Sunday which was really good.
Although he only stayed for two hours, so we are still working on
trying to get him to come for the whole thing. It was pretty funny,
there is an old lady in the ward that is pretty crazy and we always
joke to each other about introducing Ron to her. Than after sacrament
while we were talking to some one else, she came up and made friends
with Ron, and when we went by Sunday night they were talking to each
other on the phone. So i guess that is good for Ron to have more
friends in the church. But she is pretty crazy so we will see how that
works out hahaha.
On Wednesday we met Aiden. He is the one I told you about on Skype. He
is a 14 year old kid that we met while trying to visit inactive
members. We knocked on the address for one of the members and Aiden
came to the door. It turns out that the member had moved out a long
time ago, but we started telling Aiden a little bit about the
restoration and how our families can be eternal. When we asked if we
could come back he said definitely! We went back on Friday and taught
him the Restoration. And afterwords he said that he knew that the
gospel and would help his family, and that if he followed the
commandments both him and his family would be blessed. So we
committed him to a baptismal date! He accepted to be baptized on June
13th! He is super prepared! We are excited to continue teaching him!
Sunday my last companion Elder Ching had his departing missionary
fireside, which is a fireside where all the missionaries that are
going home bear their testimonies and sing songs, and then greet
everyone after. It is a really good fireside. Anyway we took Ron to it
since Elder Ching helped teach him. It was a pain to get him there but
it was worth it! We were suppose to meet Ron at 5:30 because it takes
about 40 minutes to get there and it starts at 6:30. After I finished
skyping Skype decided to stop working. So we went the next 2 hours
fixing it, so Elder Shepherd finally finished calling home around
5:20. So we didn't get to Ron's until 5:50. When we got there he had
decided it was too late and he didn't want to go anymore. We finally
convinced him to go after a half hour of persuasion and offering to go
clean his house for him tonight. So we finally left around 6:20 and
ended up getting there twenty minutes late which wasn't too bad
considering when we left. So then we got there, and Ron complained
that he couldn't hear, so he spent forever walking around up front
trying to find a better seat. But finally he did and was able to
really enjoy it, and he said he was extremely happy that he went. But
that was our week. Attached our some photos from that departing
missionary fireside. I love you!!

Elder Burnside