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
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