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
No comments:
Post a Comment