March 24, 2014

Hola familia y amigos!

We had a baptism this last weekend!! It was for this kid named Sh...n, who is 12. His family situation is super confusing, but basically his mom was a member but she died in childbirth and his dad is not a member, but he lives with his step brother (who is 9) at step brother's grandma's house, and she is an active member, so he has been coming to church for a while now. His dad comes to his lessons to "hear what his kid is learning," but he has slowly been being converted as well :) He doesn't live in our stake though, so we haven't been pursuing teaching him until we can find out who the missionaries who cover his area are. Sh...n is super intelligent. Way too much so actually! His dad didn't know much about the Gospel beforehand as we were teaching them, and Sh...n would go off about outer darkness or the second coming or who knows what all! Haha but it has been great teaching them. His dad wasn't there for this last lesson that we had before the baptism, so he had grandma ask us if he could reschedule with us so that he could get the last lesson as well (he is SO interested!! And not just on his son's behalf!). Milagros!! At the baptism, An...y (the dad) gave the closing prayer, but before doing so he took a moment to tell Sh...n how proud he was of him, and how he knows that Sh...n is doing the right thing and is on his way to becoming a very good man. An...y's prayer was amazing. He didn't use all of the thee/thou/thine's, but his prayer was definitely the prayer of someone who has been/is being converted to the Gospel.

Sh...n's ward was the ward where Sister So...s and I spoke about the Restoration and sang a musical number, which I was really excited about because there were several less actives and nonmembers there supporting Sh...n. And, I just love any opportunity I get to testify of the Restoration of the Gospel!!

I am growing to really love the members here in this area. They are all so sweet and supportive! Especially the St....n family. He is our ward mission leader in Sh...n's ward, and the whole family is just so great! We have FHE over at his house on Mondays and he invites all of the less active and nonmember families that we are working with in his ward. They have a daughter on a mission in Florida, and their 16 year old daughter, Co...y, is the one that sang with me on Sunday. They are just the neatest family! OH, and another one of our ward mission leaders, Bro Mc...an, had us over this week for their daughter's mission call opening. They are a great family as well :) This area is just overflowing with amazing people! Did I mention that we ate dinner the other day with a lady who asked me, "Hey, since you are from Chico...do you know a lady that goes by Grandma Donna?" Boy did that stun me for a second! "Um, that's my grandma. How do you know her?!" Small world! I guess their daughter is a good friend of Me...a. What are the chances of that?

Can you believe that it is already week 4 of this transfer?! Craziness. I feel like I haven't been with Sister So...s that long...although I guess I haven't really, because we have been going on tons of exchanges! We haven't decided for sure, but I think that I will be going back into Washington East (Leeds!) tonight and tomorrow, and then we'll be exchanging with Livirkin on Wednesday and Snow Canyon on Friday. And then exchanges should be done for the transfer :) Wahoo! It will be nice to stay put for the last two weeks of the transfer.

Well I love you all and I am so grateful for each of you! Have an amazing week!
Love,
Sister Burner