Lots of Singing

Tomorrow I will have 6 months in the mission. What?  Anyway, another good week here in Zambrano.

Last Monday, we had a fake P-day, because we went to the temple on Thursday.  We pretty much just
wrote emails and then got smoothies, then went back to work.

Word gets around that I like to sing, so I get requested to sing musical numbers/participate in choirs
for various activities.  We had a multizone conference in Tegucigalpa on Tuesday, and I ended up
singing a solo (Abide with Me tis Eventide).  It was a super great conference, and the last conference
with President Fortuna.

We also had a Branch Conference on Sunday, and I sang in the choir.  We sang come Thou Fount in
Spanish, but then some of us sang the second verse in English.  Then last night, the assistants called
me and want me to sing for a mission activity that we will have at the temple on Sunday. So we have
to go to Tegucigalpa tomorrow for a choir practice.  Fun Stuff!

We had a temple trip on Thursday, and it was really great. I did the session in Spanish this time, and
felt that I could pretty much understand everything haha.  There is always such an incredible spirit
there.
 

We also had a fun incident this week. Our electricity and water got cut out because nobody paid the
bill in 4 MONTHS. Elder Solano and I were completely unaware of this and came home to find a bill
on our door, with no power!  Don´t worry, we only went one day without power,  We sorted it out
the next day. We will make sure to be more on top of that! haha.

I got grandma's package!!!!!!!!!!!  I am pretty sure that got here in about two weeks, but the office is
a little unorganized and it didn't reach me for a month and a half.  But I got it!  Thank you grandma! 
hint hint..   She sent me these really good trail mix bags from Target called Archer Farms... hint hint

Also, thanks for the Maker Faire pics!

We have a lot of investigators, that I don´t really have time to write about them.  We should have
some baptisms this Saturday though!  

Have a great week!  

 Elder Burnham

New area, new companion, new investigators, new everything!

New area, new companion, new investigators, new everything!  My first transfer to a new area, and it's a lot to absorb! haha.  My new companion is super great.  He is also the district leader.  His name is Elder Solano (or Pichardo) and he is from Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic.  He is one of those people that is super serious, but then can be super loud and outgoing the next moment.  We have completely different personalities, but after a week together, I think that this will be a good transfer.  I am also the only gringo in my district, and only one other in the zone, so I think my Spanish should also improve a lot this transfer. 

My new area is called Zambrano, and we are about 30-40 minutes outside of Tegucigalpa (I think west of teguc).  It's this town kind of tucked in these pine tree covered hills.  It's a lot colder here compared to Catacamas.  There is also the main highway that runs right through the middle.  

 

 Zambrano is super different, and feels a lot safer.  There are not many cars driving around, and a lot less dust in the air.  There are some houses that are up in the hills, so I have to get used to a little more hiking, haha.  My last area was completely flat.  Our area also covers this neighborhood/community that we have to take a bus to get to, called La Divina.  Our district is really spread out, we go to Tegucigalpa for our district meetings.  On Friday, we had a first district meeting, and I ran into Elder Torres at the church building.  It was fun to talk to him about Catacamas and having our house broken into haha.  Other districts use that church building as well so there were a lot of missionaries in one place. 

Okay, so our house is really strange.  It is a house, but an actual House... 2 stories, 4 bed, 3.5 bath.  Spacious yard.  It is super weird, so many rooms with practically nothing inside.  We do get our own bathrooms which is nice.  But the water is super cold. haha.  Sometimes it's really chilly in the mornings. 

This week was Family Week, for the church in the centroamerican area.  Each night there was an activity or workshop centered on helping families.  Activities about family history work, temples, emergency preparedness and food storage, and a talent show.  I sang a hymn for the talent show, which was fun. 

On Saturday, we had a zone service project, and went to Tegucigalpa and sweeped up and picked up garbage in some mercado parking lot. 

We have a large teaching pool, with lots of investigators.  There are some really great people here. I am still getting to know the people, members and investigators.  I am still adjusting, but I really like my new area.

I hope everyone had a great week.

 

- Elder Burnham  

 

 

Our new house

Park near our new house

 Bye Elder Bradshaw

Hey... We Got Robbed... Again

Hello! I´m going to keep this letter short, because I just spoke with my family yesterday on Skype.  We have cambios (changes) tomorrow, but we will find out today.  I could stay or go. I don't know!

This was kinda a crazy week!  Someone broke into our house!  We were walking home and we see our landlord and his wife standing outside our apartment and he says, ¨uh, we have a problem.¨  Someone had robbed our apartment just 15 minutes before we got home. They climbed over the outside wall and used a crowbar to break down the door.  They ended up taking my scripture case, which had over $100 inside that I had saved up for emergencies, and my shoes and the dvd player.  They also stole Elder Bradshaw´s camera, his wallet, his belt.  There were marks on the other elders door indicating that they tried to break down their door as well.

On Monday we went to Iguana´s again, (because we have to at least once every cambio, so all the new people can go).  Whoo, expensive food and animals! haha.  

This week the branch is having ¨Family Week¨ with activities each day this week at the church, that should be fun, and a good thing to invite investigators to.  

I hope everyone had a wonderful mothers day!  We will see where I am next week!

It was great to talk with you all yesterday!  We will find out sometime today what the transfers are!  

No, Wait! I just found out! I have transfers! I am leaving!, but I find out where tomorrow!

- Elder Burnham

Old Door getting pulled off

Side Yard of our apartment

New Metal Door.... WaHoooo

 

  

Demon Spider #2

Whelp, another week has gone by. And only one more week of this transfer.  I could stay, I could go, who knows?

Last P-Day, we had a power outage at 6 pm so we never even left the house.  We are not supposed to be out when there is no power at night.  

We had a lot of strange weather this week.  Earlier this week there were a lot of fires in the hills and I am not so sure if they were wild or controlled, but the sky was filled up with smoke.  Kind of like when there is a wildfire in California when everything is gray and the sun looks red.  Every now and then, a piece of ash would fall from the sky.  Kinda strange.  Then we had a ton of rain, thunder and lightning, which was good because it washed away all the smoke.  This was the first time that I had seen lightning in Honduras.  

We had consejo de rama (branch council) on Wednesday and they took us out to eat afterwards, which they had never done before, so that was fun.  The other elders didn't go to the meeting, so they missed out. haha.  

We had another demon spider at our house again.  I went out to the pila in the morning, and there was this giant spider SWIMMING in the water.  It would float on the top of the water and glide around.  It was the size of the palm of my hand.  haha.  I would dunk it under water and it would swim/flail around until it plopped back up to the top.  And Elder Bradshaw had the solution, which obviously was to drop it into a cup of bleach.  It reminded me of a story when dad killed a giant spider in a similar way.  We are very cruel to the bugs in our house.  

Lurbin came to church again this Sunday! along with her daughter and brothers.   She has been progressing so much, and at this point, we have practically taught her almost all the lessons.  She knows it's true, she just is hesitant about baptism.  She basically said she is not quite done sinning yet.  haha.  But she hasn't been drinking coffee and told us she wasn't going to work on Sunday.  We have been teaching  a lot of other people as well, but it is just too hard to get people to church. And people are never home. But we will change that!

- Elder Burnham

 

Demon Spider #2

 

Our Zone

 

Walking... and Walking

 

 

We have been walking a TON this week (4/27/15)

¡Hola!

Another week has passed by!  This week we had interviews with Presidente Fortuna.  We had them at the chapel and not in our apartments this time. (which means we didn´t have to make them spotless! haha)  He wanted us to have scriptures memorized about the atonement, so we could share one with him in the interview.  I shared Alma 7:11, which talked about how 

Christ suffered for all of our pains, afflictions, sicknesses, and sins.  I really like this scripture because many times people think that Christ only suffered for our sins, but he took ALL of our pains and sicknesses, sins, and pretty much anything negative in our lives upon himself, and that we can be healed in SO many ways through the atonement.  

Later that day, we had divisions and I went with Jose Luis, a member, and also the first counselor in the mission presidency happened to be in Catacamas that day so he went with us as well.  So I was just a little nervous.  But everything was great.  We visited a less active family.  Sally and Suyapa.  Sally was sick, so we offered to give her a priesthood blessing.  She asked me to give it, and I was kind of nervous, because I had never given one before, let alone in Spanish.  But that is what the mission manual is for, so I was able to use that to help me along.  It was a short blessing, and I don´t really remember what I said, but I know that the spirit was guiding me. 

We have been walking a TON this week, out in the hot sun, but we have been able to visit a lot of investigators and less active members.  We technically had nine investigators with baptismal dates, but NONE of them could make it to church on Sunday.  But I have hope for next week!  We also had to give talks in sacrament meeting.  Presidente Gomez called us at 7:00 am on Sunday and asked us to give talks about baptism and the gift of the holy ghost.  Too bad our investigators weren't there to hear them.  

We are going to Juticalpa again for p-day, but we are writing before we go so we won´t have any complications.  We might go explore a river nearby or something. Whoo!

¡Adios! ¡Hasta Lunes!

- Elder Burnham 

 

We are walking a long way to find folks

Pondering a Pond

Gecko!!!!!