August 28, 2013

Hola familia y amigos!

 

The keyboard is a little temperamental.... so if there are grammatical errors in this email, know that it wasn't me!  Haha.

 

We just got finished helping clean the temple! It is closed for three weeks (we aren't entirely sure if that means that it will be slower or busier in the VC.... I guess that we will just have to find out!) for cleaning, and they let the sister missionaries sign up to help clean on our p-days.  Sister He...... and I were there for an hour and a half, moving chairs from the sealing rooms off of the celestial room on the second floor up to the assembly hall on the fourth floor (they are going to re-do the carpeting in the sealing rooms/celestial room).  All together we moved 78 chairs, and we were sweating like crazy, so we both felt like that was somewhat of an accomplishment!  They said that we could stop by again next week when we have more time, and they will let us go up into the tower : ) Cool or what?

 

Guess who came by to see me on Saturday?!  Sister Chas......! (Missionary trainer)  It was so great to see her!  She was on her way up to Provo with her best friend/trainer, Sister Madr..... (Bir....), so we were able to take a four generation picture!

 

The other day I got to take a German bus!  Well, kinda.  There weren't any German missionaries on shift, so sister Eyr...... and I took it.  We just introduced ourselves and shared a couple basic facts for the church (their tour guide was translating for us), and then Elder Cann...... got there (he is a senior missionary, they called him to come over to the vc as soon as they saw there was a German Bus) so he got to take the rest.  But it went so smoothly! They took like 14 Books of Mormon or something like that.  I don't really remember the number.  But it was a lot! And there were definitely a few people that looked like they were interested.

 

An rm who served in France came by Brigham Young's the other day, and he told the sister there that while he was in France, occasionally when he would knock on a door, the people would say, "Oh yes, we know about you!  We went to St. George!"  and then they would let them in!!  How amazing is that?!  Our little planting seeds work down here really is producing fruit after all : )

 

I hope you all have a great week!  I love you!

 

--Sister Burner

 

 



August 21, 2013

 

Hola familia y amigos!

 

SOOO, exciting news!  I quote an email from the mission president:

 

"By now you are aware of the meeting coming up on Saturday the 7th of September with a member of the Quorum of the Twelve.  All of the missionaries in the mission will be invited.  You will receive 3 talks in preparation for this meeting that you are asked to study carefully.  This meeting was specifically requested by the visiting Apostle and will be three hours of serious instruction.  Please prepare yourself spiritually for this meeting... You may never have another opportunity such as this.  You will need the companionship of the Spirit to receive from it what the Lord has in mind for you to learn."

 

All three talks are by Elder Bednar!!! AHhh I am so excited!  We are going to be meeting up in Salina from 9-12 in the morning : ) SO EXCITING!

 

This week in the missionary world has been pretty great!  Monday night was crazy at the Visitors Center.  There were only 3 companionships on shift:  Sister He..... and I, Sisters Ande...... and Lar......, and Sisters Dup.... and Wai.......  Thank goodness we had super solid missionaries there!  And also we had two senior couples-- so we didn't have to worry about the Annex because both senior elders were there taking care of it.  So the sisters worked between the front and the back of the Visitors center.  I have never seen so many people in the visitors center! 7 sets of missionaries brought investigators in to teach, but only 2 of those sets had made reservations.  So between them, all of the families coming in for FHE, and the random people stopping by the Visitors Center, the teaching rooms and theaters were full almost every second of the night.  I'm pretty sure the rooms each had about a 5 second turn over rate.  People were asking me (since I was "lead") constantly where they could put people.  BUT, somehow (with help from above) all of the missionaries had someplace to teach their investigators, and we only had to turn away a couple of families who wanted to watch movies.  It was just loco!  And in the middle of it I had elders calling me to ask directions to YSA people in our area, I was putting people in/closing God's Plan, and about a mission other little things.  When I got home that night still alive, I could definitely say that for once I felt thoroughly productive and that there was not much that I felt I could have done more.  It was s nice feeling : )

 

Oh, and while we were there, Sister Sor.... and Don........ had asked to take our car since they hadn't found rides, and when they got back they had filled up the gas for us!  How sweet is that?

It was a good day!

 

We had a great lesson with Anndrea on the Word of Wisdom yesterday.  It was a super powerful lesson;  the Spirit was there super strong.  Sister He..... taught better than she ever has before!  Companionship unity!  But of course Satan knew that we were going to have a very spiritual experience.... so Anndrea was babysitting her 7 month old grandson, and he was grumpy and wiggly and she had to hold him pretty much the whole time.  But she was effected by our lesson regardless.  Poor Sister He.... though.  It seems every time she starts to get emotional and bare powerful testimony, a phone goes off.  Or someone comes to the door.  Or a baby starts crying.  Something!  Satan just knows how amazing she is and works hard against it.  She is going to be such an amazing missionary.

 

I love you all so much!  Thank you for all of your letters and emails showing love and support.  It really helps me to put things in perspective and be a stronger missionary.

 

Have a great week!

 

--Sister Burner

 

We finally got our flags!!

 

 

A picture of us in front of the Pasta Factory, where a member took us to lunch after the temple today. But hey, it was way good!  The had string zucchini in place of noodles for me, with marinara sauce and grilled chicken.  Sooooooooooo good. --August 7, 2013