September 4, 2013

 

Familia y amigos!

 

Lots of things happened this week, so I am just going to try to start at the beginning and go chronologically.  Hopefully I remember everything I want to tell you about!

 

Last Wednesday night Sister Center (the Mission President's wife) and Sister Watkins (the VC Director's wife) put together a girls night for all of the sisters who are working in the VC.  We all went over to the mission home, and they talked to us about how we should dress and how we should do our hair/make up in the visitors center.  They made it kinda fun though, with visuals and games and things like that.  They just want us to wear brighter colors and fix our hair nicely.  Sister Watkins always gets on me for wearing too much beige and black, but hey... when I came out, they told us to wear things that were conservative! She is completely welcome to buy me a new wardrobe if she so desires.  I won't even complain one bit if she does.  Not likely though.  Oh well!

 

I had a moment this last week that reminded me of Trey!  I was going out to check on the annex, and as I was walking over I noticed this cat was climbing Spiderman-style up a tree.  I guess he was aiming to eat some bird for dinner because a minute later theses two birds burst from the tree.  One fell to the ground with an injured wing, but it was okay because it was able to fly away a bit.  The other one, though, flew straight into the roof that connects the annex and the VC, and fell to the ground with a splat.  It was so sad!  Sister Lo.... ran out of the annex and grabbed the cat from running after it, and she took the cat to the opposite end of the temple grounds and sat it outside as I tried to get the injured bird into a safer spot.  We went out to check on it a few times throughout the rest of our shift and to the best of my knowledge, Trey, the bird was safe :) I kept on thinking about that time when a bird flew into Trey's head and he felt like it was his fault so he nursed it back to health! Oh goodness... I love that kid!

 

Saturday afternoon we had some interesting visitors at the Visitors Center! Two unkempt men came, one with a big cross and the other with a sign, and protested outside of the Visitors Center.  They were rather annoying.  We had a really good German tour (quite a few even took BoMs), and on their way back onto their bus one of these men went up to them and gave them a bunch of anti-Mormon flyers.  Good thing they didn't speak English!  I think he was trying to teach them how to pray as well... at one point he was kneeling on the ground and gesturing up to the sky or something.  Anyways, temple security came out and 3 policemen came to talk to the protesters, but there wasn't really anything they could do except to remind them that they had to stay on the sidewalk and keep moving around.  And they weren't allowed to approach people or jump out at anyone.  Oh gosh.  We just responded with kindness.  One of the sister passed by and he just went off with "This is a free country! I can be out here if I want to!  You can't make me go away!"  She hadn't said anything about that though, and she just responded with, "Well, is there anything that we can do for you?"  He didn't quite know what to say to that.  They left around 6 after being there for about 3 hours.

 

Ann...... prayed out loud for the first time!  We weren't even there though.  Ahhhh!  But I was so excited when we found out.  It was during their Gospel Principles class on Sunday (we were on shift at the VC so we weren't there).  Also we were talking to her fellowshipper later that day and she told us that during testimony meeting Ann..... had passed her a note that said, "BAPTISM?  September 28th?"  AHHH! She told her friend that the thought had just hit her during testimony meeting.  Awesome!! Ann..... has yet to tell us for herself though.  But that would be so amazing!  September 28th is her birthday (her fellowshipper didn't know that), how sweet is that?!

 

The other day I was working in the annex of the Visitors Center, where it just talks about the construction of the temple.  These two girls came in who said they were going to college about 45 minutes from here.  I just assumed they were LDS because they were dressed modestly, which isn't too common for nonmembers here in St. George (it's too hot for them here.... Mormon women are tough!).  So I gave them a tour around the annex, and we were sitting there chatting for a minute when it finally came out that one of them wasn't LDS!  Ooops.  But it was way good.  Maybe it was supposed to happen that way, because by the time I found out we had already established a comfortable friendship and she didn't have to feel like it was just because she was a nonmember that I was being overly friendly to.

 

Anyways, I took them over to the main part of the Visitors Center and showed them the Savior of the World room as well as the Christus.  The girl was catholic and had just started dating an LDS returned missionary a few days ago.  She was super nice, and I know for sure that we were all able to feel the Spirit super powerfully during the tour.  It is amazing how you can show the same pictures and exhibits to different people all day, but when the Spirit is there and the person has an open heart, the tour is completely different.  The Spirit definitely had me say some things to her that I had never even thought to tell anyone in relation to those paintings before.  It was incredible :)

 

I've gotten to use quite a bit of Spanish lately!  The other day I gave five tours in Spanish.  It was like there was just one after another!  They were all members though.  But it was just nice to be able to practice my Spanish!

 

Thank you all for all that you do for me!  I love you lots.

 

Your missionary,

 

Sister Burner

 



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

 

July 30, 2013

Hola familia y amigos!

I have a lot to write to you all about, so this email might get a tad bit long! Sorry about that!

First of all, I got a little surprise the other day when I got back from my shift at Brigham's and there was this big package on the couch in the break room waiting for me! Hand-delivered! It made my day!! Thanks so much, Aunt Lisa :)

We've had several interesting experiences this week! We saw bats (picture to come), did a door approach with a few teenage boys who were obviously on drugs, and the most bizarre is probably this man who came into the Visitor's Center. He claimed his name was B.... Smi.... and that he was a member, and he just "wanted an audience." He was probably in his 70's or 80's, and he seemed a little creepy, so Sister Gui... went to grab a priesthood holder (Elder He......... was in the annex, so he came), and they both joined us. We (Sis. He...., Sis. Gui..., Elder Hew........, and myself) sat down in the Special Witnesses of Christ room because it is open, but a little more private of a spot. Then the man went on this big rant that got around to how he thinks that we should use the Bible to convert people first, and then bring in the Book of Mormon. He said that we should just leave our Book of Mormons at home, and that if Joseph Smith had done that, he wouldn't have died and the saints would not have suffered so much. Oh gosh. Anyways, he went on for about 45 minutes, with each of us trying to bear testimony to him and get him to think logically. Finally I told him, "B......, I can promise you that before I plan any lesson, I always pray and listen to what the Spirit tells me the person needs to be taught. And if they need to be taught from the Bible, then I teach from the Bible. In fact, I usually teach almost the entire Plan of Salvation out of the Bible. But if the Spirit tells me that I need to share something from the Book of Mormon, then I will not go against it." He responded by telling me that the Spirit is mostly just in my head, something that my subconscious makes up. Ooooh gosh. After that we just told him that we didn't have anything more to say, but that we invite him to go out and convert all of his non-member friends using the Bible, and then give us the referrals. 

What he said got me thinking over my mission though, and as I thought about it, I became more and more convinced that the Spirit is real. It's not something that my subconscious is making up. How else would we have found Ra.....? It didn't make logical sense to go to a house that we had been trying to contact with no success and missed appointments for a long time. But we followed the Spirit, and we saw a miracle. And there are countless times when I am prompted to share specific verses with someone, and it turns out to be exactly what they needed, for reasons not previously known to me. The Spirit is real. And anyone who denies that is not under the influence of Christ, but of the Adversary.

On a happier note, Wednesday we got to march in the parade with Elder Holland! They had us in groups of 50, lined up in 10 rows of 5. First went a group of scouts, then a group of elders, followed by a group of mostly sisters, then another one of local youth. We didn't get to meet him, but he road in a little horse-drawn carriage right past us and we waved, to which he responded by applauding us as they passed by. He rode in front of the troops, and as we marched along we sang a few missionary-themed hymns. It was still pretty neat! 

We taught Ann.... the 10 commandments yesterday, talking about the Sabbath day with number four and chastity with number seven. I love teaching the Law of Chastity! It is my favorite thing to teach! Haha I love how when I started out on my mission, I felt super awkward about it, but now I am super to the point and I just say it as it is. I loooove it! It was a great lesson. She still won't agree to a date though, and she has yet to pray about it. I hope she prays about it this week. She said she would! Cute thing she said though--she was talking to a man at work who was saying how he hates Mormons. She asked him why, and he said something like, "I don't know, I just don't like them." And do you know what she said? She said, "Well, then I guess you won't like me." How cute!!

Our shift yesterday at the Visitor's Center was amazing! A nonmember couple from Grass Valley came in, and we took them to the Savior of the World room, but ended up teaching them pretty much the entire Restoration on the spot, showed them the 20-minute Restoration movie, bore testimony, gave them a Book of Mormon, and got their contact information so that we can keep in touch. How awesome is that?! Poderoso! Also, I had received a referral from some Spanish-speaking elders the other day, for this lady in El Salvador whose relative they had just baptized. So I finally had time to call her yesterday, and she sounded super excited and said that I could send missionaries to her! Wahoo! That was so great :)

Also, my companion and I were doing Mormon.Org chat, and this guy came on with a bunch of questions--all easily answered though :) I love it when they ask sincere questions, and aren't just trying to trip us up. Anyways, he asked about the Word of Wisdom, and about the part where it talks about grains and herbs...so he says, "Well, I don't eat wheat. Does that mean that I am disobeying the Word of Wisdom?" Of all the people to have answered that chat, it was me!! Totally got that one. I told him that I am gluten-free as well, and that the main point of the Word of Wisdom is to take care of our bodies--so if there is something that is bad for us, we should not eat it. Inspired! We had a really nice chat. He is waiting for the missionaries to come over now; he had already referred himself to them. 

Last night we had an amazing experience as well. We had eaten dinner with Bishop Son.... the other day, and he gave us a few names of people that he wanted us to go by. One of them was this woman named And..... She is an active member in her mid-thirties, and has 5 kids. About three months ago, her husband was playing church basketball and tore his ACL, and had to go in and have surgery on it. A few days later his blood clotted and he went into Cardiac Arrest. He passed away. He left behind a family that is amazing. As my companion and I were walking up to their doorstep, I felt that we were walking on sacred ground. Their 12 year old daughter answered the door, and we went in to the mom's bedroom. She had just had surgery on both of her feet, so she couldn't move around much. Her parents were there as well, so we had a nice little chat, along with a few laughs. Everyone felt completely comfortable. My companion and I just pretended that we didn't know anything about what had happened. There is an amazing spirit in that house. Eventually And.... and her mom told us about her husband passing away, and we all cried together. I asked them if it was okay if I shared a scripture, and I read John 16:33 and bore testimony of how even when we feel completely alone, the Savior is always by our side. It was an unforgettable experience, and I feel like we will be friends with this family for a long time. I know that my calling as a missionary is to work with nonmembers, but my calling as a member is what I covenanted with God when I was baptized--to "mourn with those that mourn; yea, and comfort those that stand in need of comfort" (Mosiah 18:9). My goal for my mission as well as for my life is to be His hands and His voice, doing His will in all things, and not my own. I feel like I did that last night. 

I am so grateful for this experience that I am having, serving the Lord as a missionary, bringing others to the path that will lead them to eternal happiness. I am also grateful that I have a wonderful family who supports me and sets such amazing examples for me to follow.

I love you all,

Sister Burner-

Bats......

View in St. George (See the temple?)

July 23, 2013

Hola familia y amigos :)

I'm still keeping up my Spanish! The other day a hispanic lady brought in her nonmember family that was visiting her from Mexico, and she was so excited to have them get a tour of the visitors center. She wanted them to see EVERYTHING. We started in the annex, and I told them everything about that, and then we went in and they looked at the BoMs in different languages, and then I explained our temple display that has pictures of different rooms in the temple...then they insisted on watching 8 little mormonAds on these little screens in that room. They wanted to see God's plan for the family, but there were people in there, so I showed them the Savior of the World room with all of the paintings of Christ. Then finally I got them in God's plan for the family. After that they wanted to hear the Christus, so I played that...and then they were finally satisfied. But oh my goodness, it took over an hour, and within that hour was what was supposed to be my dinner time, so while they were looking at the Savior of the World room I ran to the break room to grab a few bites, and then again when they were in God's Plan I went back to eat a little more before I had to go back to close it...it was just craziness! Haha my dinner was sitting on the break room table for a long time. But that's okay. Good Spanish practice, and the nonmembers in the family seemed pretty receptive.

Zone Conference was last Thursday. It was just our zone and the Cedar zone, but both of those zones are so huge! Or maybe all of the zones in the mission are huge now that they have added so many new missionaries. I don't know. It could just be that there is a higher concentration of missionaries in the St George area, so the zones are bigger. Anyways, it was really fun! I accompanied the special musical number, which Sisters Bar....., Gui...., Du...... and Ki...... sang. It was nice to be a part of the special musical number without being the main focus :) I think that everyone did a really good job.

Ann...... is doing really well. She had been praying to find a job, and she finally found one! Started yesterday. I hope it works out. She has terrible back pain, but the job is mostly sitting so I hope that it is okay...it's better than standing at least! Anyways, she stayed for all 3 hours of church even though Sister He...... and I could only stay for the first two (we had to get to the visitors center). My mission president and his wife came to church with us, and they stayed for Gospel Essentials as well. It was neat that they picked to go to 6th ward with us because that just happened to be where our investigator was, so we all got to sit together. And Ann...... was telling them about how "wonderful" Sister He...... and I are, so that made us look good :) Ann....... is so great!

Hope everything is going well for all of you! I love you so much!

--Sister Burner

Making tortillas during DTM.

July 16, 2013

Hola familia y amigos!!

This was a pretty good week! Still no new investigators, but we are working on it. It rained a few times, which cooled the weather down a bit so tracting wasn't so bad. Haha one day my companion and I were sweating so bad that we had to go home and completely change our clothes before going to our shift at the Visitors Center! But hopefully God sees that we are willing to work hard, so He will bless us with more people to teach soon!

One evening we had a member drive us around for a bit to save miles and have better fellowshipping, but she had to leave early, so she dropped us off at the Visitors Center around 8pm so that we could get our truck and drive back to our area. We noticed when we got there that there was a sprinkler outside going bezerk and spraying directly at the front window of the VC (the entire front area has windows from floor to ceiling). When we got inside, we noticed that there was a puddle forming on the carpet next to the window, so we let the other sisters know (luckily there wasn't any visitors there at the time) and soon we had pulled the chairs away, I had found some towels in the break room to soak up the water, and Sister Ey........ emptied out a trash can and bravely went out and put the trash can over the sprinkler to stop it from spraying. Sister Gui........ put a folding chair over the trash can to keep it in place. But it was still flooding the area between the grass and the window, so someone found a bunch of buckets and about five of us went out there, took off our shoes, and were scooping water away from the window and throwing it out onto the grass. Sister Bre.......s eventually figured out where the control was and shut off the sprinkler. It was a little crazy! A senior sister had called security when we first noticed the puddle, but there was some sort of medical emergency at the temple, so they couldn't come (an ambulance rushed by with its sirens on a bit later).

I got pictures, but the sister I handed my camera to didn't get any good pictures with me in it...you can only kinda see me in one of them. But it was kind of a fun little adventure for the night :)

Another funny moment--Well, first some background information. We get a ton of tour buses coming to the visitors center, but sometimes they just stop and take pictures of the temple without coming into the Visitors Center. When they don't come in, we call it a "drive by." Well, there is a senior sister from LA that didn't know this, so one day a sister said something about there being a drive by, and this sister dropped everything and dove for cover under the front desk. Haha she thought they meant a drive by shooting, and she was hiding for her life! Poor Sister Da.....! Sooo funny though.

Last night when we were tracting, we found a non-active couple named the Law..........s. He was from Germany, and had a super thick accent, even though he moved to the US about 50 years ago, when he was only 21. They invited us in to talk for a minute, and explained that they didn't like organized religion. Anyways, they did say that they had investigated several religions after they had become less active, and they decided that if they were to go to church, they would go to the Mormon church. They showed us a bunch of Jehovah's Witness pamphlets they had been given  and started talking about how much they dislike that religion, and then he said, "I'd rather go to Hell with a bunch of Mormons than be stuck in Heaven with Jehovah's Witnesses!" Haha I thought that was kinda funny with his super thick German accent! He let us share a scripture and close with a prayer, so I hope we made some sort of positive breakthrough at least.

Well I hope everyone has a great week! I love you all so much!

--Sister Burner

The VC flood from the sprinklers-- Sisters' bailing the water.

July 9, 2013

Hola familia y amigos!

We finally got an investigator! Wahoo!! We have been tracting, getting referrals and contacting them, pulling from the area book, doing all kinds of finding techniques like crazy, and finally we got one!  He name is Ann........., and apparently she has been going to church for a couple of months now.  Her son is a member, as are many of her friends.  She grew up Jehovah Witness, so when she moved to Utah 20 years ago she swore she would never become Mormon.  But things change!  She loves everything about the religion.  We sat with her at church on Sunday, and it was way cute...she told us, "I was so proud to be sitting next to my missionaries!"  She came in to the Visitors Center for us to give her a tour/lesson yesterday, and it went well.  We started at the Christus and talked about how God loves us, and tied that in to prophets and apostasies, up until the coming of Christ.  Then we took her to the Savior of the World room, where it has paintings of Christ's life, starting with His birth and going through when He appeared to His disciples.  She had tears in her eyes as my companion and I taught her about the Atonement.  It was powerful!  Afterwards, we began to teach her about Joseph Smith, and we had her watch the shorter version of the Joesph Smith movie (about 20 minutes).  She was a little overwhelmed by Joseph Smith having seen God, but we invited her to pray about it and she said that she would that night.  I hope that she got her answer!

There are lots of Spanish visitors in the VC!  I am always getting pulled into other rooms to give a tour.  Which is really helpful for my Spanish, especially since I am in an English area.  Some of them ask questions that are hard to answer in a different language though!  "What qualifies someone to enter the temple?  What does "worthy" mean to you?"  "What happens inside of the temple?  Why can't other people go in?" All kinds of stuff!  Sometimes I have to work my way around words.  But that's okay, they understand.

Slightly embarrassing moment--these two ladies were in the back of the VC, where my companion and I were, and they were speaking some foreign language that sounded like French, so I asked them if they had had a chance to speak to a French sister yet.  They looked kind of confused and said that they didn't speak French, they spoke Spanish!  Ooops!  So I switched to Spanish and asked them where they were from, and they said Costa Rica.  I hadn't spoken to someone from Costa Rica before, and boy do they have a different accent! It seriously sounded like french, until I listened more closely.  How embarrassing!

Something neat that happened--there has been a drought in the area (I think all of southern Utah at least has been going through a drought), and the Bloomington Hills stake fasted for rain this last Sunday, and by the time that we left for Church there were already rain clouds in the sky, and it was rainy throughout the day!  Fasting works!!

For the 4th of July, we got up and went to the city parade at 7:30.  Only the Sisters were allowed to go, so that we could contact people and give out referral cards there.  It was fun :)  After that, we had Zone Training Meeting (ZTM), followed by our VC activity, where we did the balloon thing (I explained that with the pics), played some games on the grass, and then went inside and played signs.  After that, we worked in the VC for a bit (it was only open for a couple of hours), and then we had dinner (we ordered from Jimmy Johns, I got a lettuce wrap).  That night we had our District activity, where we played volleyball for an hour and a half, which was a BLAST, and then played signs until we had to go home.  It's so fun to be able to spend time with other missionaries!

Well I hope you had a great week!  I love you all so much!!

--Sister Burner

 Sister Burner has the only mission truck.

Sister missionaries at the 4th of July parade!

Cows from the Chick-Fil-A float :)

At our VC activity, they gave us each a balloon and had us think of something that we needed to "let go of" in our lives, and then we let the balloons go!