Yo me voy!

Yo me voy!  I have transfers, who knows where I will go or who will be my companion. 
Ugh the anticipation! haha.  It´s a little disappointing to leave, because I really liked this
area.  We opened this area with hardly anything, and now I feel like we are starting to
have a lot of progress and potential, and I am leaving. We had FIVE investigators in
 church on Sunday.  But it is also exciting to have change.

On Friday we had interviews with President Ferman.  What I liked was that he focused on
how we need to work with less active members and recent converts.  We can help
strengthen the ward and they will give us references.  He didn´t focus on tracting tracting
tracting, when some missionaries think that´s the only way to do missionary work and find
new people to teach.  Pretty much all of our investigators are references.  

On Saturday we had a ward baptism for Jonatan, an 8 year old boy, from a member family. 
His parents basically asked us to organize everything, so we had been focusing on getting
that all ready this week.  It was a really great, simple service, and we had 2 investigators there.
whoo!

There is a youth, Victor, in the ward. He is 15 and will turn 16 in November.  No one in his
family are members, but his mom, Jackie, came to church on Sunday (last week) and really
liked it.  She appears to be really positive.  We had a really powerful lesson with her on Saturday. 
She went to the Catholic church when she was really little, but then never went to any church for
the rest of her life.  We invited her to pray at the end of the lesson, and then she started crying
because the spirit was so strong, and because she had never really prayed before in her life. 
She really wanted to, but didn´t know how.  Then her son came over and sat next to her and
guided her through and taught her to pray.  It was so amazing.  Victor is going to turn 16 and
we made a goal with him, that if she wants to continue with us that he should be the one to
baptize her.

We had a really good week here in Sorzales and I am a little sad to be leaving, but Elder Gomez
will be able to take care of everything.  It's crazy how fast this time went by, and I already finished
training Elder Gomez.  He is such a great missionary, and I feel like I have learned so much more
from him, than he from me. haha.  I love you all so much, have a great week.

- Elder Burnham  

Getting Lost in Tegucigalpa

The weeks are just flying by too fast, we only have a week left in this transfer and it's a 90% chance that I´m leaving, and I am not sure how I feel about that quite yet, haha.  I felt like I just started training Elder Gomez and now we are in the last week of training. woah!

We finally had Emily´s confirmation!  After her baptism like three weeks ago.  The weekend after her baptism was General Conference, and the week after that, her father´s friend passed away, so he was gone and we could´t have the confirmation yet.  But yesterday we had her confirmation.  Her dad, grandma, and her 94 year-old great grandma were in the sacrament meeting!  It was so great.  We also had Ortencia, one of our investigators, in sacrament meeting!  This was the first time she had come to church with us!  Hopefully she will want to keep coming back!  

On Wednesday, we had the second new missionary/training meeting.  We decided to take the bus and got really lost! haha.  We basically got on the wrong bus and ended up on the complete other side of Tegucigalpa.  (I think we even went out of mission boundaries, but shhhhh it was an accident). So we took a taxi and were only 5 minutes late. haha.  But, we did get to see a new side of the city.  It's where all the rich people live with the giant houses, and we also passed by Suyapa, which is this really giant, old Catholic cathedral.  We can see it from our area, but it's reallllly far away, so it was interesting to pass right by it.  We got to the meeting and it was really good.  The usual stuff on how we need to be obedient to the rules especially the mission schedule, and how we need to love and serve our companions.  

We have been teaching Bryan and his sisters Carol and Vanessa.  Bryan one day decided that he was not interested anymore, so he kind of dropped us, but his sisters still want us to visit them.  So we are still teaching them, and we talk to Bryan whenever we can.  We are still friends, but at this moment he is just not interested in the religious parts of our visits.  

For p-day today, we basically just had a little barbeque with the zone.  We cooked chuleta (pork) and had rice, beans, guacamole, and tortillas, super delicious.  We just kind of ate and hung out in the church. haha.  

Ahh just one more week in this transfer, we've got to work hard and end this transfer really well.  

I love you all, have a great week!

Elder Burnham

rough week/fun week

This was kind of a difficult week, but we ended it today with a really fun p-day.

So last week, my companion learned that his dad had an accident at work and basically fell off a building and broke his clavicle into three parts. He needed to have a surgery on Tuesday to fix everything up.  So my comp was a little preoccupied with that.  But then on Tuesday morning, his mom calls us.  On our mission phone.  We don´t know how she got our number.  He answers the phone, and then passes it immediately to me.  So I talked with his mom for a little while.  She said that everything went well with the surgery and that his dad is fine. He just needs to stay at home and rest for a while, and won´t be able to go back to work for a while.   My comp was really glad that everything went well, but was really mad that his mom called us.  He was really frustrated because we basically broke a really big rule.  That's why he passed it to me because he didn't want to talk to her.  So that was a weird story that we had this week.  

We had a zone meeting this week, that was really good.  But the best part was that we ended it with a cake and piñata! whooo! haha.  The cake and piñata where made my ward members.  The piñata was a giant missionary name tag that had our zone name in the front. haha.  

Well, my comp got sick again this week.  He is still sick.  On Saturday and Sunday we had divisions with members so he could stay in the house and I could go out and work.  He basically has a big cold and coughs and aches.  It's a little hard because he is allergic to some medications, so he can´t take ibuprofen or others that are similar, yep.  Then the week ended with investigators that aren't progressing and no one came to church, meh.  But it's all good.  Just one step at a time.  It's a new week and my comp's health is the priority right now.

My comp stayed home with a member so I could go to the p-day activity with the zone.  We went to Picacho!  It's a national park up in the mountains outside of Tegucigalpa.  There is a zoo and gardens and a big statue of Christ, kind of like the one in Rio, Brasil.  It was really fun, and I feel a little bad that my companion couldn't go, but he didn't want me to miss out.  He will have a lot more opportunities to go in the future because he is from Honduras, haha.  

I hope you all have a great week!

- Elder Burnham

Conference! New House! Rain! (Oct 6)

This week went by really fast, but at the same time I felt like we didn't get much done haha.  We keep having crazy rain storms like every other day.  But whooooo we live in the new apartment!  It is so much bigger and brighter and better!  There are these glass block skylights in the ceiling so we have so much natural light, and it's so quiet.  It is basically the opposite of our last apartment.  We walked by our old apartment today and noticed that the landlord sent people to rip up the floor and put new tiles in.  I guess after YEARS of elders living in the apartment, they have to update it to LIVABLE standards if she wants to rent it out again. haha.  I´ll get some pictures of the new house later.  We moved on Wednesday morning at the same time as the hermanas.  They moved all their stuff to their new apartment and we moved into their house.

On Tuesday we had interchanges with the Zone Leaders and I went with Elder Peña in his area.  He has been studying English so we basically spoke in English all day when we were not in lessons.  He can actually speak pretty well.  He makes a lot of mistakes, but I can understand what he is saying.  We even made a contact in English. We knocked on a door and this woman knew English because she works at a Bilingual school, so they both wanted to practice their English and we made the contact and had a small lesson and scheduled a return appointment all in English.  I don´t get to do that very often here. haha

On the last day of September we were walking in the street and heard the song by Green Day ¨Wake me up when September ends¨  haha.

Yesterday was my half birthday! Whoo! My comp was like, ¨Eso no tiene sentido...¨  (That does not make any sense) haha.  

On Friday I got some Christmas cards........that were sent TEN months ago.  They had the Mexico MTC address and then reassigned to Honduras, and probably were sitting around in the office forever. haha, But it was a good surprise.  

On Friday we helped Hermana Daisy move (the same who we made pupusas with) and it began to POUR rain.  Basically there were rivers in the streets and all her furniture was getting wet when we were loading it into the truck, and it was kind of a big mess. The power went out for a little bit, but then came back on. The next day more members came and helped to finish up.  You can never really count on the weather here this time of year.  

General Conference was really great!  During the Saturday afternoon session the power went out, then followed by a huge BOOM of thunder and rain.  It came back on in five minutes and we were able to continue. We watched all the sessions in Spanish except for the priesthood session.  We had to go to another chapel to watch and they set up a TV in English for the gringo missionaries and those who wanted to practice their English.  Elder Gomez and Elder Peña stayed with us for the English. 

Some of my favorite highlights from Conference: 

Uchtdorf: The gospel can function for anyone, we just need to focus on our love for God and he will bless us in our paths.  Then his ´´flamed´´ jokes in the priesthood session.  Our spiritual experiences may be difficult to explain in ´´worldly´´ terms, but that doesn't mean they´re not real.  Wanting to believe is the necessary first step in faith.

Larry R Lawrence: The spirit doesn't expect us to make big changes all at once, but works with us little by little.  The atonement is for everyone, saints and sinners.

Holland:  Mothers!  The love that a mother has for her child is divine and similar to the love Christ has for all of us.

I hope that you all enjoyed this wonderful General Conference and have a great week!

- Elder Burnham

Crazy week

This week was kind of all over the place.  It rained like crazy a few days here and my comp got sick.  He had chikungunya or something similar.  He didn't want to stop working even though his whole body ached, so it was a miracle that I convinced him to just rest and stay in the house so he could get better.  He still is a little sick, but is feeling better.  We had lots of divisions with members so my comp could stay in the house and I could work.  When we finished the week, I was surprised at how many lessons we had even though we lost a lot of time to work.  

We also had a great surprise at two in the morning on Saturday.  Our house flooded!  Since we only have running water every three days you can accidentally leave the faucet on and not know it, so the water came on at two in the morning.  My comp woke up and heard the sink on and  when he stepped out of bed and felt water on his feet, he jumped out of bed and turned the sink off and woke me up and we cleaned up the water.  It really wasn't too much, just about 1 cm of water, but in all of the rooms in the apartment.  We were also really lucky that we didn't have anything important on the floor.  One of my suitcases got a little wet and some of the t-shirts inside, but not much else.  As missionaries, we don´t have much stuff in general so there is not much to get wet.  haha 

I don't really like the apartment that we are in, but it's all good because we are moving to a different apartment on Wednesday.  It's a long story.  When we first got to our area like two months ago, our apartments got changed around, The apartments for the two areas (Sorzales and Toncontin) are both in my area.  Before we got here there were companionships of elders in the two areas. But when we got to Sorzales, they changed the elders out for sisters in Toncontin.  They got the apartment originally meant for us because it is wayyyy nicer, and we got the tiny crappy apartment for Toncontin.  But the sisters searched for a new apartment that is actually inside their area, so they would not have to walk so much, and we are going to move back into the apartment that was originally supposed to be ours.  It is so much bigger and has a real bathroom with running water all the time.  There is also a giant rooftop terrace, so I am kind of excited to move even if it might just be for a month.  We have to clean up our apartment really well before we leave, but the floors are really clean now... :)  

I also realized that in one part in my area on a hill, you can see the temple in Tegucigalpa, so that's neat.

The first counselor in the bishopric called us on Saturday night to tell us that we were giving talks on Sunday, so that was fun.  I got a really simple topic ¨What does it mean to have faith in Jesus Christ?¨  Sacrament meeting started really late so we didn't end up having to speak for very long.  But I felt like we both gave pretty good talks.  whoop!   

On Sunday night we had the baptism for Emily!  Her parents are divorced and on Saturday her mom said that she didn't want Emily to be baptized, but her dad did.  We only need the approval from one parent, but we didn't want to cause problems within the family so we planned to have the baptism a different day when he mom would give us permission.  Then later on Saturday, Emily came by and told us that her mom changed her mind and wanted her to be baptized, so we decided to have the baptism again on Sunday night.  It was a really great service and the primary presidency helped a lot with the program, we had investigators that came, but it was awkward because Emily´s mom ended up not showing up.  But it was a really beautiful service.  We have to wait two more weeks to confirm her a member because next week is general conference.   We and the bishop are going to work with the father to activate him in the church so he can participate in the confirmation.  

Yup, kinda crazy this week, but all good,

- Elder Burnham

Honduran Independence Day (9/21/2015)

Another interesting week.  Tuesday was the Honduran Independence Day and also transfers...

such a great mix. haha.  We were not too concerned because we didn't have changes.  But we 

didn't really get that much work done because no one was home. haha.  My companion is a 

native Honduran so we had to celebrate somehow, haha.  We got flags and a little cake! Whoo! 

That day, we found out that we were finally going to have the new missionaries meeting (por 

fin) and that it was going to be combined with the even newer missionaries that just got to 

the mission that day.  

In other news we went to Wendy´s twice this week.  I was crying for joy in my head because I 

basically got to eat chocolate frosties twice this week. We went on Thursday after zone weekly planning and then we went again today. yay!

We also got new mattresses this week! Whooo! The beds in the mission are basically rocks and I just got used to sleeping on them, but my comp really hadn't been able to get any sleep because the beds were so uncomfortable.  The secretaries came by in their truck with the new mattresses from the mission and now we are sleeping much better.  

Yesterday I kind of went crazy and started throwing a corn tortilla at my comp and used it as a frisbee.  I don´t really know what happened.  

After getting that Adventure Time/Zelda shirt, my comp and I have been talking about Adventure Time all this week and he is just as obsessed as I am.  yep.  

I don´t really know what happened but Elder Gomez has been saying ´´yolo´´ all this week and I am kind of confused.  But whatever, yolo.  

The work in this area has been pretty good, we have both been just a little sick because we are out walking in the rain (don´t worry mom, I am wearing a coat and we have umbrellas haha).  

We have been teaching this little girl named Emily.  Her parents are divorced and both inactive,  but we are working with them and getting her ready for her baptism this Sunday.  

She is really intelligent and understands the lessons.  We just hope that everything will go well this week.  We have a lot of references from the youth in the ward and they always want to go out and teach with us.  Whoo!

- Elder Burnham

I Don't Like Parades...

So tomorrow is the Honduran Independence day, so there have been 

all these parades and marches in the streets on Sundays, so it has 

been really hard to get members and investigators to go to church 

because they are all busy watching or marching in parades.  Everyone 

has been really busy and the students are kind of forced to participate, 

so they are always practicing in the afternoons.   

 

Tomorrow are the transfers and I am so glad that we are both staying 

here.  I don´t know why the president hasn't changed the transfers for 

another day.  Maybe there will be some last minute changes.  We have 

20 missionaries coming to the mission this transfer and the trainers still 

haven't been announced.  I guess tomorrow will be a bunch of surprises!  

Also two of my past companions finish their missions and go home this 

week. ¡que loco!

This week was also Dia del Niño. (Day of the child)  We don´t have that 

in  the USA.  Which meant that all the kids were having little parties with 

piñatas and candy. haha.  

Saturday we went with the sister missionaries to Hermana Daisy 

( a member) to make pupusas! Yum!   

We have a really progressing investigator named Bryan who we originally 

contacted at his house.  He really likes the lessons and is really receptive 

and understands everything.  He and his sister came to mutual on 

Wednesday, and he and his cousin came to church on Sunday! whoo!  

We also ran into him this morning at the grocery store haha.  We were 

able to have a good lesson with him yesterday with the bishop and he 

invited us to come back to teach him today.  Yeah!  

It was a pretty normal week, whelp I don´t have too much to write.  I hope 

everyone has a great week! Whoo hooo!

- Elder Burnham