So this has been a fun week. (08/29/16)

Hello!  So this has been a fun week.  I am with my new companion Elder Rodriguez.  He is from El Salvador and has the same amount of time on the mission as I do.  Which means that I will most likely leave this area the next transfer because we can't finish the mission in the same area at the same time haha.  He is a really good teacher,  he is so direct and good at asking inspired questions.  Hopefully we make this transfer really awesome.  

This week we have been working really hard and finding new people.  We found this one family that has like 11 people and they were just swarming us with questions!  Not attacking us, but just genuinely curious.  That was fun.  

We have been getting a ton of rain this week!  Yesterday it was raining almost all day and we got soaked! We were also able to take refuge in the houses of members while it was coming down like crazy.  haha.  Good thing we live on a large hill and the water runs down, because  other parts of the city have been dealing with flooding issues.  

I have become the cat whisperer because sometimes when we are outside in the streets, I will make meow sounds (I know, I am kind of strange) and other cats will meow back and come out looking for where the sound was coming from! haha  

We have also been trying to have more Family Home Evenings with the members so they can have more confidence in us and help us out with the missionary work.  And plus they will be more likely to invite us over for dinner ;)

Yep!  Have a great week!

We brought little lemonades... 08/16/16

Another week went by!  This week we went to go help the other ward that meets in our building with some visits with less actives.  But I think we were hit with some bad luck because 5 out of 5 of the families we went to go visit were not home! haha.

This Sunday was really cool.  We had the Christensens come and speak in our meetings.  They are the couple missionaries that serve in the temple.  Brother Christensen is the first counselor in the temple presidency.  They taught in the Sunday school class and spoke in sacrament meeting.  So obviously they spoke about temples.  Hermana Christensen is so funny.  She told us, "you've got to tell the youth not to use so much hair gel because it comes off and just floats on top of the water in the baptismal font"  They were both really great, just hopefully our investigators didn't get too confused.

Earlier this week we went to this big park that they built in front of our church building to go contacting.  We brought little lemonades and were giving them out and talking to the people.  The only thing was that most of the people that come to the park live in the boundaries of the other ward, so the other elders benefited more from this activity. haha  But it was really fun.  This morning we went to the park again to go have our studies outside.  The park is run by the government so they keep it really clean and well maintained. 

Next week we have changes so we will see what happens.

Adios!

- Elder Burnham

My little balcony garden in coming along pretty well... 08/08/16

We got some rain this week, but mostly in the night, the hurricane did not attack us! haha  We got more water last p day when we had a water balloon fight with the zone!

We also had a zone meeting this week.  It was really great.  I really like how my zone leaders know how to do a simple, but inspiring zone meeting.  We don´t need to be in a super complicated long meeting to be motivated to work hard.  We really focused on using time more efficiently and focusing on finding new families. 

This week in general I felt like we just kept contacting old people! haha Maybe we will end up with a teaching pool of mostly seniors! 

The elders that we living with us asked us to help them paint their new apartment.  So we all went and started painting their new house.  I think they ended up moving in too soon and the land lord wanted to paint the apartment, so we were able to help out with that.

Our old (fake) investigator decided that she wanted to progress all of the sudden and wants to get baptized soon and wants to have her baby that was born three months ago presented in the ward, so that was neat.  I say fake investigator because she really is a member, but since her record was never put into the system, she has to get baptized again to officially be considered a member.  If she doesn't have a record, she won't be able to receive ward callings or get temple recommends and such.  She had been inactive for a while, but wants to go to church again.  Yay!  

My little balcony garden in coming along pretty well too, I´ll send some pictures! 

Have a great week!

- Elder Burnham

photos

our zone!

tomatoes and green peas!  

It has begun, the sister missionaries in my mission are now wearing....PANTS! 08\01\16

It has begun, the sister missionaries in my mission are now wearing....PANTS! haha  I know this is old news, but this week was the first time that I had seen the sisters actually wear pants haha.

This week we had interchanges with the zone leaders.  I went with Elder Massey in his area in Quezada.  It was a really good time.  We were able to teach a lot of lessons.  Something that he is all about is teaching really simple short lessons,  We don't need to spend 45 minutes explaining every concept of the restoration.  We can just give really simple lessons with a couple principles to invite the spirit and teach simple truths.  And also sometimes people get bored if you try to teach a lot. haha It was a really good day, even though I got a little sunburned.  

The next day we went to immigration (I never thought I would go back there again) haha.  My companion this time had to go take out his residency.  haha.  

A family that the other elders are teaching were getting married and roasted a pig for the wedding,  But we were there when they killed the pig......  It was a little terrifying.  They tied up the pig and smacked it on the head with a hammer to knock it unconscious, then they slit its throat open so it would bleed out and die...But i bet it was delicious at the wedding!  The elders also moved out of our house this week, so now there is a little more peace. haha  And we have been able to clean up the house a lot more.  

This week has been a little rough, because we have been dropping a ton of our investigators because no one was progressing.  So this week we will have to work hard to find basically a new teaching pool.  But there are always people ready to hear our message.

This morning we also had the opportunity to do some service.  We helped these people at a tortilleria carry in their mountain of firewood. Fun stuff!

Also it is now August!  Wow time flies.  Have a great week!

- Elder Burnham

Sorry, no pictures this week..  

We got to go look at a little lake - 7/25/16

Hello!  Last P-Day we went to this little reservoir that's kind of near our area (and because there is not that much else to do).  We went as a zone and when we started out, it started POURING rain.  We all got soaked.  But it was fun.  We got to go look at a little lake.

We also had our multi-zone conference this week.  It was really long.. haha.  Sometimes I feel like president doesn't know how to do short meetings.  But we learned a lot!  We focused a lot on testifying of the Book of Mormon and developing Christlike attributes.  It was a really good meeting.

Our investigator Ilda got baptized this weekend!  She is super awesome, and has a strong testimony of the gospel.  Her children got baptized like 10 years ago, but she never had the chance to do so.  I was able to perform the ordinance and elder Garcia was able to do the confirmation.  

Also in sacrament meeting, Elder Small and I sang a musical number.  We sang Come Thou Fount in Spanish, but is was some other version, because the words were different than the normal Spanish version.  

Another short email, but I have pictures this time!

 - Elder Burnham

4 people in one apartment--with no water 07/11/16

This has been an interesting week. Another companionship of elders in our district were moving houses, but they had to move out of their old house before they could move into their new house, so they are living with us right now, and who knows how much longer it will be.  It has been kind of a challenge because we don´t get very much water in our apartment, so we have been rationing it between four people.  We had to go borrow two buckets of water from our land lady so we could bathe this morning because we pretty much don't have any more water.  But it should come again tomorrow.  

On Saturday, we had a district activity where we went and sung to our investigators.  Elder Small brought his guitar and we sung hymns to our investigators.  It was pretty fun! haha

Yesterday, we were walking back to our area and there was some water running down the sidewalk, and I completely tripped and fell! haha.  I got my pants and shirt all dirty, but we were able to go back to the house and change.  But it was kind of embarrassing because some people on the other side of the street saw me slip and fall haha.

We haven´t heard anything about the transfers yet, so I will have to let you all know next week.

Sorry, I didn´t take any pictures this week.  Hopefully I will get some to you guys next week.

- Elder Burnham

Yay! Happy Fourth of July Everybody 07/04/16

Yay!  Happy Fourth of July Everybody.  I won´t be able to do much to celebrate, but we might go eat hot dogs and sing the patriotic songs at the end of the hymnbook! haha

This was a really exciting week for my companion.  For some reason he never called his family on Mother's Day so we went to the office on Tuesday so he could make his call home.  I also realized that I am glad I don´t have to deal with all the work and stress of the office anymore! haha.  

Elder Garcia had also not received his Patriarchal Blessing before the mission, so he was able to get that on Thursday.  We went to our chapel and the stake patriarch came and gave him his blessing while I chilled outside.  

We had a contacting activity in my area this week with my district.  We all divided up and went contacting in our area.  We all found some new people to teach so hopefully we can help them progress. 

I realized that I haven't been taking any pictures lately, I´ll try to get better at that, but in the meantime, here are some pictures of my area again! haha

Have a great week and 4th of July!

- Elder Burnham