March 11, 2013

 

Buenos dias, familia y amigos!

 

This week has been SO great! And I kept a list of things that I wanted to tell you all about :)

 

Wednesday night, we had dinner with this couple up in Cleveland, and she had baked me gluten free bread! How nice is that?  It took me about 10 minutes to actually start eating dinner because I was just so excited and savoring the bread :) It was SO good. Her mother-in-law helped her with it, so all these people spent their morning baking special bread so that a missionary could have bread with her meal! They are so sweet! They even sent the rest of the loaf home with me, which was gone by Saturday.  It was such a tender mercy! Also, I got this big package of all kinds of gluten free goodies (breadsticks, rolls, burritos, egg rolls, and muffins) from my wonderful grandmother. I feel like I have been eating like a queen! God loves me a lot.

 

Funny moment--we were teaching this man that used to be a pastor and he was slightly boasting about how as a pastor, he had had the gift of tongues. And we had just come from an appointment teaching the Restoration to a man who doesn't speak a word of english. Pure Spanish. I just thought that was funny :) I didn't mention that to the man though.

 

Oh, I wrote down a few sweet things that Sister Kim told me this week! One was, "Sometimes I feel like you have been out way longer than I have. Mainly because of the way you teach by the Spirit."  The other, "In the middle of the lesson I just had this stupor of thought, and then I got the impression we should bear our testimonies of how we came to know that the Book of Mormon is true. Not even five seconds after I felt that, you did exactly what I had been impressed to do." Wow! It just made me feel like a good missionary :)

 

On Friday, we had a member and his son come give Priesthood blessings to Ti..... and Ke..... because they have really been struggling with addictions. It was SO powerful. Afterwards, we asked them how they felt, and they said that they knew that those blessings had come from God because they said things that only God would know about them. They know that the Priesthood is real. It was such a neat experience! I feel blessed to have witnessed that.  Ke..... went to all three hours of church on Sunday, and she even said the prayer at the end of Sunday School and asked questions in Relief Society. We have been meeting with them several times throughout the week.

 

It snowed a couple days this week! Oh goodness, I can't wait until spring gets here! The first and second of March were absolutely beautiful. In the 50's, I think. I hope it warms up again and stays that way!

 

Another funny moment--we called the Bishop of one of our wards, and his daughter answered (she's about 5 or 6). She went to find her dad but after a moment she returned to the phone and said, "um...He will have to call you back. He is having a cow." It was all I could do to ask her to have him call the missionaries and hang up before starting to crack up! Haha in California, I would have thought that meant he was upset about something, but here they mean it literally--that he is helping a cow give birth. Oh gosh. Where am I??

 

My companion and I gave talks in Sacrament meeting yesterday! When they have the missionaries speak here, they have them take up the entire time, which always makes me a little nervous (that's like 20 minutes! How do I keep everyone awake that long?) But it went really well! Mine was about Joseph Smith, which was nice because I have tons of practice telling the story of the Restoration. And one of our kid investigators, Li....., was there, which was really convenient because we were having a lesson on the Restoration that night! We asked her to be baptized on March 30th, and she accepted. Happiness!

 

Miracles: One of the bishops up in Cleveland had an 18 year old kid come up and tell him that he wanted to be baptized. Sweet!! We started teachig him Saturday night. He already has who he wants to baptize him picked out! Also, we got a call Friday morning from the Seminary teacher, who told us that one of his students had run back to him after class and told him that another student, Da...., had just told everyone that she wants to be baptized. We had run into her the day before and scheduled an appointment with her for Tuesday--how inspired is that?! She has already been to church, and has been in seminary this whole year. She sounds so prepared!

 

This was such a great week :) Love, Love, Love it! Being a missionary is such an amazing experience. I love you all so much. Have a wonderful week!

 

--Hermana Burner