February 18, 2014

Hola familia y amigos!

This last week has been so great! We've had fantastic lessons, a baptism, Valentine’s day, all kinds of fun stuff :)

S.....e had an interview with the mission president to see if he can get baptized, so now we are just waiting on hearing back from the First Presidency. Hopefully all will go okay with that, but whatever happens I am sure will be what is meant to happen.

We had an amazing lesson with Jo.... on Tuesday. We taught the Plan of Salvation, which I thought he would have had a lot of questions about, since he has had a slightly "devil's advocate" kind of attitude in the past. But he loved every bit of it, we were able to answer the very few questions he had, and President Pr....e (the last branch president) was there and was saying all of the right things at the right moments (sometimes you worry a lot about what fellowshippers will say!). Jo.... even brought his fancy camera so that he could take a picture with his missionaries :) I think that is a good sign! We are meeting him at the Visitors Center tonight, which I am really excited about. It is going to be really good, I can feel it!

Cr....g is doing fantastic. He is beyond reactivated. He has his sights set firmly on going to the temple, and it's like he can't get enough of reading the scriptures, going to church, and meeting with us! He is the only person who shows up for Priesthood with the entire lesson read through and thoroughly annotated. When we went to his house on Wednesday for our appointment, he was outside waiting for us--almost jumping up and down because he was so excited to tell us the news that he was asked to be a home teacher! He ran into the house to show us his home teaching assignment list. He is so great! We asked him to help us fellowship one of our investigators, La....y, who hasn't been able to find any friends at church. You would have thought we had asked him to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, he was so honored! I'm excited :) This will be good for both him and La....y!

Ju....e is on day 12 of being sober! She is doing so great. Now she just needs to stop smoking...which hopefully will happen really, really soon! Sister Ri....a went over to her house while she was at work on Valentine’s Day and worked on clearing the leaves and sticks and whatnot from her front garden area for about an hour, but I'm not sure if she noticed it or not because she didn't mention it. But at least we know that we did something nice for her, so when she goes to clear it out (she mentioned needing to do that the other day) it won't be as big of a job.

On Thursday, we also had an amazing Plan of Salvation lesson with Ju...l! He reacted about the same as Jo....--he had a hard time getting into the Restoration lesson, but he just loved the Plan of Salvation! Apparently for their anniversary last week, he and Do...a went out to dinner and he gave her a card that said something like, "I want to be with you forever" so his wife turns to him and says, "Well, if you want to be with me forever, you need to get baptized first." He responded, "Yeah I know...but I just like coffee too much." to which the brilliant woman says, "Which is more important to you? Me, or coffee?" Hahaha isn't that so great? He said, "Uh...I hadn't thought of it that way before." So maybe that was why our lesson when so well a couple days later! I hope that he continues to progress.

For our dinner appointment Friday night, the 10th branch (they are a retirement branch, so only 65 and older or something like that) invited us to their Valentines Dinner. I figured it wouldn't be as weird as a normal ward Valentine’s Day thing, because they would all be too old to be overly romantic, which was true, except that they had this guy singing old love songs accompanied on his guitar. I felt SO awkward! The man sitting across from us said, "Not exactly your kind of music is it?" When I responded with, "Yeah, I'd rather listen to hymns" he had a surprised expression, so I think he was thinking more along the lines of Justin Bieber or something. But I'm a missionary, not just some youngster! haha. It was kinda funny because we were thinking entirely different things! We excused ourselves after the first song or two because I just couldn't handle it, I felt so awkward!

Well, I hope that you all had a beautiful and less-awkward-than-mine Valentine’s Day!

I love you!

--Sister BurnerBottom of Form

 

February 10, 2014

Hola familia y amigos!

Milagros, milagros, milagros! Last Monday night we had a lesson with Pey....n (the ten year old girl we are teaching). We asked her to be baptized a couple weeks before, and each time we met she would say that she hadn't gotten her answer yet. But Monday before we went in we prayed that we would see un milagro. We even went ahead and brought a baptism program with us for her to fill out. After teaching the lesson (I can't remember what it was), I said, "Sooo...February 15th?" She kinda laughed and said, "yeah." Sister Ri...ra says, "Will you be baptized on February 15th?" And again she says, "Yes." Wahooo! So we showed her the baptism program and how to fill it out and I think she was just about bursting because finally she said, "By the way, I got my answer." Haha :) She is so cute! She told us that after we had left the time before (when we had conveniently had a lesson on how to recognize the Spirit) she had felt so happy and good inside that she almost cried, and she knew that that was her answer. Cute! So, we are going to have a Valentines baptism this weekend!

Meanwhile, it has been worse than pulling teeth trying to get our investigators to go see Dr. Pi....ton! Finally Ju...e went on Thursday to be cured for drinking. She has been an alcoholic for 6 years, and couldn't go a matter of hours without a drink. She went in to the doctor with a craving, came out without one, and hasn't had a sip of alcohol in 4 days :) She felt so good when she woke up that one morning she got up and drained all of her alcohol into the sink and threw away the bottles! Wahoo! She is going to go back in soon to quit smoking, and then one week after that she can be baptized! Now, why is it so hard to get people to go in and get cured?! Sister Ri..ra and I decided that it is just like the people of Moses with the fiery serpents: "He sent fiery flying serpents among them; and after they were bitten he prepared a way that they might be healed; and the labor which they had to perform was to look; and because of the simpleness of the way, or the easiness of it, there were many who perished." 1 Nephi 17: 41. Craziness.

Quotes of note:

"Satan is a loser and he will give up, but Jesus won't." --Brother Ba..d, our new Ward Mission Leader...he is way cool. Bad-kid-gone-good type of guy. Super funny!

Me: "Why do you think it is important to write things down when you study the scriptures?"

Pey..n: "So that you can remember the things you feel."

...Where did she come from?!

Well, I hope that you all have a great week!
Happy Valentine’s Day! I love you!
--Sister Burner

January 27, 2014

Hola familia y amigos!

I took some notes this last week, so hopefully I will be able to remember an adequate amount of things to write to you all this week!

Pey..n, our ten year old investigator, is so cute! We meet with her twice a week. On Monday, we asked her to pray about being baptized on February 15th. Then when we met with her again on Wednesday, we asked her how it went and she told us that she had prayed about it twice since we saw her but that she hadn't gotten her answer yet. But she really wants to be baptized :) Also, we had shown her how we mark our scriptures with different colors to mean different things, and then when we went back the second time she showed us how she had made a little color coding system in the front of her Book of Mormon, and she was super excited to show us that she had already marked two scriptures! Haha it was SO cute! I really hope that everything works out for her to be baptized the day after Valentines. That would be adorable.

We have been teaching a less active couple, Cr.... and Ma... (I think I told you last time about her having a seizure while we were there) since way back when I was in Leeds with Sister Pha....h. But they have never gotten up the courage to go to church! It has been driving us slightly crazy because we have tried everything we can to get them to church. They love meeting with us, and tell us that they really want to get back to church. Anyways, Cr.... finally went to church yesterday!! Ma... didn't go yet, but we were practically jumping up and down when we found out that Cr.... had gone! I consider that a huge success in my book :) He stayed for all 3 hours and apparently had a good time. We weren't able to go to his ward, but our Ward Mission Leader gave us an update at Coordination meeting. We also had 3 investigators attend that ward yesterday! Wahoo!

Cr.... and Ma... have been doing a lot better with reading the scriptures, but their comprehension isn't as great yet so we have been going over and reading with them every once in a while. This last week when we went Cr.... got off on a tangent about how we know that the Church must be true, he ended up saying something to the effect of, "There are only two true churches, Ma... Either you are Catholic, or you are LDS." Ummm I think we have a little more work to do!

The other day we had a lesson with Ju... in the middle of the day, but she called saying that she was too busy at work (we usually meet her at her work office during the day to have lessons), so we rescheduled to do it that evening at her house. When we got there she was somewhat of an emotional mess--work had been challenging that day. She runs a machine repair shop, which she took over when her husband passed away a few months ago. So when we went to see her, she was crying and said that that day had been one of those days that she just wished that her husband was there to show her how to do things. I have no idea how she figures out how to fix all kinds of machines--she is a tough woman! Anyways, she asked us if we could make our meeting short that night. We just read a chapter with her, but the Spirit worked miracles that night because by the time we left we had her laughing and smiling, looking completely peaceful and content, opposite from the state she was in when we came. God watches over His children! I'm glad that we could help her to feel better.

Our talks in 3rd ward yesterday went alright. Sometimes I just find it super distracting when it's so noisy in there! I feel like no one is listening. But the Spirit is always there, regardless of how many children are screaming. We spoke on "the Godhead," and of course I tied a little bit of missionary work in there, too. :)

I hope that you all have a wonderful week! I love you.

Love,

Sister Burner

January 6, 2014

Hola familia!

 

Sooo, I have some stories to tell about this week! BUT, I also have a semi-lame keyboard, so this will be an experiment to see how much patience I have :) So if my sentences seem abrupt, that is why!

 

There is a less-active lady that we have been visiting lately, named Je..n. Her daughter, Ta...ya, is not baptized--so we were hoping that as we meet with Je..n, eventually her daughter will be home and join us. Anyways, we scheduled to share a Christmas message with her on Christmas Eve, and then this last week we scheduled an appointment to meet with her again. We planned to introduce the Book of Mormon and talk about prayer--our standard first lesson that we have with the people we teach. Her daughter wasn't there, as usual, but oh well. We started talking and she brought up how neither of her kids were baptized, and then she says "In fact, I don't think that I was ever baptized, either." WHAT? We had been counting her as less active lessons, when really they were other lessons! And we had been thinking of involving her with fellowshipping La...y--it's a good thing that we didn't! Haha. Anyways, it became clear during the lesson that, although she loves us, she isn't the biggest fan of Mormonism. She pulled every complaint in the book--"Why do you need another book?" "Why can't everyone go in the temple?" "I think that this is a cult" etc. But she just wouldn't really listen to our answers, so eventually I just bluntly said, "Je...n, I think that your problem with the church is deeper than any of this. Has someone in the church offended you?" And of course, someone had.  So she told us the story (I've grown sooo insensitive to those...honestly!).

 

At the end, she said "I'm sorry, but I just don't believe in your Book of Mormon." I think that my response shocked her a bit--I said, "Well, of course you don't! I wouldn't either, if I had never even opened the cover or prayed about it." Definitely not what she was expecting. Needless to say, we committed her to praying about the Book of Mormon that night, and she said that she would.

 

On Thursday night after planning, we got a text from one of the Bishops in Leeds saying that he had someone that needed to be baptized on Saturday. No big deal. WHAT?! It turned out to be this 11 year old, Ca.......n, who had had missionaries for a long time but his dad wouldn't let him get baptized until the dad was worthy enough to perform the baptism. The kids all go to church with their mom, but getting Dad worthy has been a problem. Anyways, the family was moving Sunday morning to another state, and I guess the dad decided that it was finally time--so he called the Bishop and told him that he was finally ready (the Bishop has been working with him for quite some time). Anyways, we hadn't taught him all the lessons yet--Sister Ri....a had taught the Restoration, but that was it (sisters before us had taught them) We went over on Saturday morning and within 40 minutes taught him the Plan of Salvation, Gospel of Jesus Christ, Word of Wisdom, Chastity, Sabbath Day, and reviewed all of the baptismal interview questions. Good thing they already knew pretty much everything from going to church. After the lesson we all went over to the church and met our District Leader (Elder He.......t) for the interview. He and his brother Ca....on (who is 8 so he didn't need the lessons) were both baptized and confirmed that night. Craziness!

 

Well, I need to get going! Sorry to cut my stories short. Love you all!

--Sister Burner

 

New Years zone activity

 

 

 

 

 

Skyping with family on Christmas!

Christmas program at the St. George tabernacle!

 

 

 

 

Christmas district activity

December 30, 2013

Hola familia!

This week was pretty slow with teaching. In fact, when we did our weekly planning on Friday, we hadn't been able to teach any of the lessons that we had planned. Everyone was out of town for Christmas, or cancelled for some reason or other :( Sad day! But we were able to pic up a new investigator, Larry, and teach him a few times! Yay! And we have seen a couple of our investigators since Friday. We are really praying that this next week will be a lot better and that everyone will be back in town!

Story behind Larry--it was actually a set of elders in our district that found them! Elder Da...y and Elder Le...e came to our Zone Activity on Christmas super excited about a new investigator that they were going to have a lesson with that night at the VC. But, that night we got a call from them and they told us, "Hey, so that new investigator that we got...actually lives in your area. Would it be okay with you if we taught him?" As you can guess, they got a big NO on that one. Poor guys. It went something like this:

Them: "Hey, so that new investigator that we got...actually lives in your area. Would it be okay with you if we taught him?"

Me: "Have you seen him more than one time?"

Them: "Well, no, but he really opened up to us!"

Me: "Well, seeing as you have only met with him once he most likely has no critical emotional attachment to you. So I see no need for you to teach him. I strongly believe that we have been placed in this area for a reason, and we are the ones who are supposed to teach those who live within our area. But we will let you know if we have a problem that necessitates your teaching. What was his address?"

Haha those poor elders! Sister Ri...a was trying to practice saying what I had said after we hung up the phone. I have no idea where all of this boldness comes from. I'm definitely not as passive as I was before my mission!

We contacted La...y the next day, and set up an appointment for the following day, which went great! And we had a member that lives nearby give him a ride to church on Sunday. Next appointment is for tonight! I am excited to see this man progress and change his life as he strives to center himself on Jesus Christ.

I love you all and hope that you have a fantastic New Years!

Love,
Sister Burner

 

December 23, 2013

Hola familia y amigos! Feliz navidad a todos, espero que tengan felicidad y amor por todo esta semana :)

This has been an amazing week! B..n's baptism was yesterday and it was incredible. By far the most spiritual baptism I have been to. This kid is...amazing. He has so much potential! Tons of people from his "school" came, as well as people from the ward. You probably remember the situation--Bishop Ah.....n owns this facility for troubled youth, and he noticed a spark in B...n. B..n would always talk to the returned missionaries that were on the staff about the Gospel. So then we started teaching him, and he fell in love with the Book of Mormon. I'm pretty sure he finished the whole thing in a matter of 8 weeks or less. Each week he would tell us in animated detail about where he was in his reading.

The baptism was performed by Bishop Ah....n. As the two of them stood there in the water and Bishop Ah....n got ready to say the prayer, he paused for a second because he couldn't speak. Tears were coming down both of their faces, and I'm sure many faces of those watching. After a minute, he baptized B..n. As they were getting ready to come back out, we sung "I Know that My Redeemer Lives" and "I Believe in Christ" to keep the Spirit there. Afterwards, B..n got up and bore his testimony. He is such an incredible young man; I know that he will do great things! He is planning on leaving on a mission as soon as he can.

The other day as I was getting ready for bed I was thinking about Christmas coming up, and I had this realization that I am slightly embarrassed hasn't occurred to me before. I was thinking about how, yeah, the birth of Christ is great, but the Atonement is what is most important. But then I realized that what we celebrate at Christmas has slightly more to do with our Heavenly Father than it does with Jesus Christ; "For God so loved the world, that He gave is only Begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him be saved." (John 3:16-17). God knew perfectly well what He was sending His Son to do here on Earth; He knew everything that He would suffer, and the sacrifice that He would make. I guess we could liken it to a mother sending her son off to war--the hardest part is the good-bye. At Christmas time, celebrating the Savior's Birth, we are celebrating the sacrifice that God made in sending His Son to the world. Or at least, that's what I would like to think :)

And just as I said last Christmas, I feel blessed that as I celebrate God's greatest gift to us this year, I can be giving others the second greatest gift that I have power to give.

On a lighter note, last night we had our Missionary Christmas Program! I was super excited to be in St. George area this year so that I could participate. All the missionaries in Washington County met at the Tabernacle and sang. The Tabernacle was pretty much full! It was really neat. I took pictures, which I will send to you :)

After the Christmas program, I was out in the audience saying goodbye to a couple of the other sisters before heading out, and this little 9 or 10 year old girl ran up and gave me a huge hug and said, "I found you!" I was slightly confused how I knew this girl, but it was really cute! Her mom was a little confused as well, so she asked her, "How do you know her?" And she replied, "The primary activity!" I guess that she was one of the 1000 primary kids that came through the Visitors Center a few weeks ago, and she was in one of the groups that I did--amazing that she remembers me! How sweet is that?

 Know that I love you all so much, and I am excited to get to speak to some of you in two days!

Love,
Sister Burner