May 6, 2013

 

Hola familia y amigos!

 

Before I forget, there was a couple of verses that I read during my pesonal study that reminded me of you.  They are found in Romans 1:8-9:

 

"First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world.  For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers."

 

Paul knew exactly how I feel! Every morning and evening prayer I say, I thank my Heavenly Father that I have such a wonderful and supportive family.  A family that strives to center their lives around our Savior, Jesus Christ.  I am so blessed!

 

Thanks for all of the support this week-- I got a package from Aunt Lysol, and two days later I got a package from Grandma Jacque! And I got letters from home.  I felt so loved :)

 

Yesterday my companion and I went on splits so that I could go to the branch in Elsinore, and stay for all three hours, which we have never been able to do there.  My companion went to correlation meeting with our branch president here in Axtell, and then went to the branch in the afternoon.  It was a bit weird at first to be without my companion-- I felt like my other half was missing! But then after a while, I adjusted to it.  At the branch in Elsinore, the spirit was there more strongly than I think I have felt it in my entire mission.  And when I bore my testimony, I think it was the most fluent Spanish I have ever spoken.  Our investigators weren't able to make it to church there, but the Bl.....s' (the couple who picked me up; she was my temporary companion) picked up a nonmember along the way, so that was nice.  It was definitely worthwhile.

 

Saturday night, Gunnison had a community 5 de mayo fiesta in the park, so we went and volunteered for it (pics to come), and then spent most of the night contacting peope there.  We were able to share messages with at least 18 nonmembers, which was so great!  Plus we invited many people to come to church.  It was a very successful endeavor :) And way fun!  At one point they set a chicken loose and a whole crowd of people were running around chasing it, trying to catch it.  Plus they had pinatas, a traditional mexican dance performance, and volleyball.  And lots of food.

 

Have a wonderful week, everyone!

Con mucho amor,

Hermana Burner

 

 

 

 



Hermana Burner and her twin! April 2013

Big and Brave twins!

5 de mayo fiesta~ May 4, 2013

 

Espanol friends!

5 de mayo fiesta~ May 4, 2013

Heating up the tortillas...

P-day hike to the Gunnison "G"-- April 29, 2013

Missionaries on the "G"!

P-day hike in Gunnison, Utah-- April 29, 2013

Missionaries on the "G"!

P-day hike! (April 29, 2013)

 

Elder Billings, Hna Hernandez, Elders Brawn, Eggen & Lee, Hna Burner
(Hike to the "G" in Gunnison)

P-day hike! (April 29, 2013)

The spanish sisters!

All in a days work...

Snack time!

A visit with the cows!

And here we are....

Hermanas and investigator! March 2013

Hermana Burner, investigator, and Sister Kim

B-day to padre

 

B-day wishes to padre!

love

B-day wishes to padre!

B-day wishes to padre!

 

Temple Day- April 5, 2013

Manti Temple

Temple Day at Manti-- April 5, 2013

 

The northern half of the
Utah St. George Mission
(Hermanas Burner & Hernandez- front/center,
Pres. and Sister Leonard- front/right)

April 29, 2013

 

Hola familia y amigos!

 

Story time!

 

This last Thursday we had a district meeting down in Richfield, so after we were done we came home and ate lunch, then headed out to contact the first person of the day (we didn't have a lesson scheduled until 8 that night).  We drove over and parked in front of the Gunnison Post Office and we both got ot of the car.  Just as Sister Hernandez was getting her things out of the backseat, someone called us, and as she answered the phone she absent-mindedly closed the car door.  With the keys inside.  And all of the doors locked. ...Yeah.

 

We called Elder Woolley (he is the senior missionary in charge of the cars in our mission) and he said that he would drive up to bring the spare key.  So we set out walking from place to place, which kind of reminded me of the primary song that says, "Pioneer children sang as they walked and walked and walked... aaaaaand walked!" Only I guess our verson would go something like, "Las misioneras sang as they walked and walked and walked and walked....aaaaaand walked!"  Anyways, we walked for over 4 hours, going from one end of Gunnison to the opposite end of Centerfield.  Craziness.  Tender mercies though: 1, the weather was perfect. 2, we ate dinner with the Smiths that night, and they always drive us around for the rest of the night so that we can save miles.  Oh, and 3, we were too lazy to go to the gym that morning, so we weren't as exhausted as we could have been!

 

Around 8:30 we called Elder Woolley again because he still hadn't shown up, and he told us that he had decided not to come up afterall and that he would give us a call in the morning.  Wonderful.  So at this point Sister Hernandez was a little stressed because all of her things were still in the car--her memory card, wallet, scriptures, and not to mention the car keys.  I told her that we were in Utah so it would be fine, but she was still worried, so Brother Smith started to make some phone calls.  He ended up on the phone with the Manti Police Department, who said that there was only one officer in the whole area who could break into cars, and he just happened to be on duty in Gunnison.  God loves His sister mssionaries :D

 

Pretty soon we pulled up to our car, at the same time as both the police officer and a friend of Brother Smith's.  Sister Hernandez was filling out some paperwork as I watched the police officer (guy in his early 30's, I'd guess.) shove some blow-up things under the upper edges of the car door.  I was a lttle worried at this point, so the officer turned to me and said, "Sister, quit worrying.  I'm not going to hurt the car.  My tithing paid for this car."  Haha! Only in Utah.  Anyways, he pumped air into the blow-up things until the edge of the car door was about 3/4 inch off of the car, and then he stuck this long yellow stick inside the car and pushed the unlock button.  The car alarm went off, but we just hurried and found the keys and stuck them in the ignition and it was all good :) It was kind of neat to watch all of that--I felt like I was watching a movie!

 

So that was the excitement or the week!

 

Our Branch President was talking to me yeterday about how he had just found out that I was gluten free-- apparently Brother Johnson had mentioned to him that he had driven down to Richfield the day before to get some rice flour, because the new sister missionary was gluten-free.  How nice is that?? We eat at their house every Sunday, so last night he made waffles, with special gluten-free ones for me.  And they were so good.  I just think it was so nice that he went all the way down to Richfield just to get special flour to make me waffles! And he didn't even mention it during dinner. I just feel so blessed :)

 

Things are a little slow with the work right now.  All of our baptisms look like they will need to be pushed back-- two of them just a couple weeks, and then with Da..... we are still not sure.  But we are meeting with him tonight and we hope that his mom will be there too because we are teaching him about baptism and confirmation, straight from the Bible, which would be good for her to hear.  I keep praying that his parents' hearts will be softened.  He really wants to be baptized! He even rearranged his schedule so that he won't have to do things on Sunday anymore because he wants to make sure he can go to church every week.  AND he fasted on Tuesday.  He is just so great!

 

Well, I hope everything is going well for all of you! You are all in my prayers every day.

With love,

Hermana Burner 

 

 



April 22, 2013

 

Hola familia y amigos--

 

Yesterday I gave my first talk in Spanish!! It went great.  My companion and I were the only speakers, so we each had about 20 minutes.  I spoke about how God answers our prayers.  Not perfect, but they could understand what I was saying : )

 

We stopped by our investigator Da.....'s house this last week, and he told us that after we had left from our last lesson (the super powerful one about the Atonement, I think I mentioned it last week), he had prayed about being baptized.  After he prayed, he went to sleep, and his dream was all about him getting baptized, so he took that as his answer and he for sure wants fo be baptized!  We went to church with him yesterday (not the branch we spoke at, the other one) and the last speaker kinda droned on and on... but afterward we asked him what he thought, and he said "That was awesome!" So great!!  He has been taking seminary this year, and his seminary teacher is amazing, and has been answering Da....'s questions and helping him along the way.  When Da..... asked his parents to be baptized his dad said no, and when he brought it up with his seminary teacher the next day Bro. Ca....... mentioned fasting about it.  So after Sacrament on Sunday, Da.... says to us, "My dad doesn't want me to get baptized until I am 18... but I was wondering, could you teach me about fasting?  I heard about it, and I think it will help."  How sweet is he?? We are going over to his house tonight to have a lesson on it, using great examples like Esther and the sons of Mosiah.  And 1 Nephi 3:7.

 

Can I just say that I am SO grateful for the Priesthood!! We were going through a hard time this week with this member who has been bullying one of our investigators to push his baptismal date back so that he can be there.  We told him that we had prayed about it, but he continued to text and call us, saying really rude and inappropriate things.  I was really shaken up by the things that he was saying to me (my companion didn't completely understand what he was saying because it was in English), so I asked the elders to give me a blessing, and as soon as Elder Eggen began the blessing, I felt the Spirit wash over me like an invisible, comforting blanket.  It was amazing.

 

I went to my first Quincenera on Saturday!  All of the Hispanics were going to be there, so we figured we would go and do some contacting, which worked out great because we were able to meet and talk to a lot of people there!  As well as do some service by helping them set up (some of the people we teach were in charge of decorating).  It was way fun! We left before the dancing started though, of course.

 

I love you all!  Thanks for all of your letters and emails and prayers :)

Con amor,

Hna. Burner 

April 8, 2013

 

Re:  Transfers (April 2nd) and New area

 

We got a ride from soneone in one of the elders' areas, who had a big van and could take a lot of us.  We live in Centerfield, with an older couple.  We cover all the way from Fayette through Gunnison, Centerfield, Axtell, Salina, down to Richfield... and all of the little towns in between and around. CRAZY huge area, and we have to be super careful with our miles.

 

Re:  General Conference

 

We watched conference with members, in English.  Later we watched Elder Holland's talk in Spanish with an investigator. I LOVED Elder Holland's talk, and President Uchtdorf's.  They were all really good!

 

Re:  Branches serving in

 

We cover two branches, one in Richfield and one in Axtell.  We hardly ever go o Richfield though because it is so far away and we have to watch our miles.  We eat with members about half of the time.  So far it has been American members that go to the branch, but we have dinner with some of our Hispanic investigators coming up.

 

Re:  New companion-- Hermana Hernandez

 

My companion is still learning English.  But that's okay, we meet in the middle between English and Spanish.

April 1, 2013

 

Hola familia y amigos!

 

This week was so amazing! Transfers first though-- I am going to Axtell Spanish (PURE Spanish, so no more English for me!), which I believe covers Richfield Spanish as well.  My companion is Hermana Hernandez who is from Honduras and served here in Huntington as well : ) My Spanish is going to be improving for sure!  Please pray that I don't get too stressed out lol.

 

The beginning of this last week, we had Da.... and Li.... both on date for Saturday.  Li..... was doing great-- we finished teaching her all of the lessons early, and had a couple extra lessons-- Lehi's Dream, and we had a whole lesson on the Law of Chastity (we thought that a whole lesson on that would be helpful...she lives with her mother and her mother's "roommate").  Da....., however, kept having to push back lessons becuase she helps her madre make tamales to sell, so we were behind on teaching her everything she needed to know before baptism.  Before our lesson with her on Tuesday, she texted us to say that she wouldn't be able to meet with us that day.  We asked her why (If there was anything she needed help with), and she said she just "needed time to think things over."  Scary!! We finally went by and talked to her on Thursday (two days before the baptism!!), and she told us how her aunt had told her that she should really think over her baptism because Mormons worship someone name Jose (I think she meant Joseph Smith).  Da.... told us that she had been praying a lot, and during the night she just could not stop thinking about the Gospel, and how she knew that is was true.  TENDER MERCY!!

 

The day of the baptism came (Da.... and Li..... are in the same ward, so we did a double baptism), and we got there to find about a million people waiting in the foyer....I guess all of Li....'s extended family decided to come from Salt Lake for the baptism! Ju.... (Li.....'s mom's "roommate", who is a less active member) came up to us a little frantic, saying that the people from the last baptism, who were supposed to leave the water in the font, had drained it.  Yikes! Sister Kim and I ran down to investigate, and it turns out that they had remembered halfway through and had stopped draining.  We got Brother Fe..........., the Ward Mission Leader, to be in charge of refilling it... which we had to do slowly throughout the first part of the baptism, so that it would be warm enough.  Crazy!

 

Da.....'s friend, who was supposed to do the talk on the Holy Ghost, didn't show up (everyone here drops everything and goes camping in the desert for Easter) so Sister Kim and I got to fill in.  That ended up being perfect though because a lot of Li.....'s family doesn't speak English very well, and I spoke in Spanish so that they could understand.  My first spur of the moment talk in a foreign language!  Haha it went great though.

 

So overall, our little "Flower Baptism"  for Li..... and Da..... went well! And they were both confirmed on Easter Sunday.  How special is that? It was an amazing weekend : )

 

I'm really sad to be leaving this area.  It is just starting to bloom-- we have several investigators that we just started teaching, who we can put on date for April and May.  And I finally know my way around, and everyone knows who I am...it's kind of fun to be the companion that everyone recognizes and talks to as if they know everything about the area.  But that's okay.  Maybe Axtell will begin to bloom as well once I get there! Last time I heard from the sisters there, they only had one or two investigators.  But I have faith and I know that miracles happen! It is going to be great.

 

I hope you all had an amazing Easter, and took some time t think about our Savior and everything that He did for us!  I love you all so much!

 

Love,

Hermana Burner  

The pigs in Huntington and Hermana Burner ~ Feb. 2013

District ~ Feb. 2013

Hermana Burner, S....., and Hermana Chase

Hermana Burner, S....., and Sister Kim

March 25, 2013

 

Hola familia y amigos!

 

This week was CRAZY full of highs and lows! But most of the lows are also highs. If that makes sense.

 

Last Monday (p-day) we went to the desert with a part member family named the Fe.........s', who are such a nice family.  He is Catholic and she is LDS.  We got to see a dinosaur footprint, ancient Indian writings, and an alligator fossil thing.  It involved a lot of climbing over big rocks.  It was just so nice to be outdoors! 

 

Wednesday, we had a lesson with K......, and her friend K...d....... came as well.  K...d....... was raised LDS, but she has taken a really hard path in life that has involved lots of drugs and alcohol, which has led to various mental, physical, and emotional problems.  Some people in her ward have reached out to her lately, so she has been wanting to meet with us.  Anyways, as we walked into K.....'s trailer, T...., and K...d.......'s brother were just leaving, so we just got to exchange a few words before they left.  We taught K..... and K...d...... about the second half of the Plan of Salvation, and answered all of their questions about death, the Spirit World, and the Three Kingdoms of Glory.  It was a really neat experience--I think they were both very uplifted and had enlightened understanding about what happens after this life.

 

The next morning, we got a call from K..... who told us that K...d......'s brother had overdosed during the night and passed away.  Sister Kim and I found a neat picture of Christ in the Ensign to frame with construction paper and mound on a little piece of cardboard to take over to K...d.......

 

We also shared a scripture about how Christ can help us each day because He has already overcome the world.  It is amazing how much God loves us so much--even those of us who have taken the wrong paths and are living in sin.  It wasn't a coincidence that we answered all of her qestions about the Plan of Salvation earlier that night.

 

I will probably be transferred this next week, which is so sad!  I really do not want to go.  I just hope that both Sister Kim and I stay in this area.

 

I found some neat scriptures this week! One is Alma 37:44, and the other one is 2 Nephi 25:13 (we are using that a lot this week when we share messages about Easter with people).

 

I love you all so much!  Thank you for all of your support!

--Hermana Burner