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



March 17, 2014

Hola Family!

I got to go on exchanges with my babies this week! After Zone Conference on Tuesday, I went back to Kaibab with Sister He.... We spent the night in Cain Beds, and then spent Wednesday working in Colorado City. It was intense! We stopped at Craigos Pizza for lunch, and the workers were these women that were wearing polygamist dresses (they look Amish) with aprons over them. I felt like I was back in the 1800's! Cool and sad at the same time. We had a couple of really neat lessons though! They aren't allowed to teach practicing polygamists, but they can teach the ones that aren't practicing.

Wednesday afternoon I came back and then Wednesday night we went on exchanges with Sister Ph.....h and Sister Bie..., so I got to spend Thursday back in Coral Canyon! It was really fun. We had a lesson with Le..., who we had taught when I was there but then since I left they have only been able to meet with her twice. Sad deal. She and her mom were both super excited to see me and in the opening prayer Le... said, "thank you that Miss Burner can be here again" cute right! And I realized that my hair was covering my tag, so she had just remembered my name! Adorable :) Also, we went to see Sister Smi... and she wasn't there so we went to contact a referral across the street. They pulled up to their house as we were knocking on the door, and their little girl (Al...e, who has special disabilities) said, "Mom, look, Sister Burner is back!" Ahhh I just feel so loved!

Tomorrow I will be going on my first exchange where I stay in my area, so I am a bit nervous! We cover 11 wards, and the people that we work with are pretty spread out all over the stake, so that is a lot of streets to navigate! But it should be good :) I'll be with Sister Don....n, and she will be patient with me. She's a sweetheart. I wish I knew my area better, but it's hard not being there all of the time. Sister So...s quizzed me on our maps the other day and I did really well, so at least I have made progress. I can get around within wards pretty well, but it's the getting to a specific ward part that is kind of a challenge.

Overall things have been going well! Just adjusting to my new area, my new companion and my new calling. I love it all so far though!

Have a fantastic week!
Love,
Sister Burner

March 10, 2014

Hola familia!

Week one of this transfer went so great! It was sad to say goodbye to Sister Da..la when she left on Tuesday. But, I was super excited to take her place being companions with Sister Sor...s! Sister Ri...a's new companion wasn't getting here until 6 on Tuesday so we were a trio for part of the day, which was fun! Sister Sor...s and I have been getting down to business pretty fast. We went to two ward council meetings on Sunday in addition to church and coordination meeting. As we've gone around to meet the Bishops, I've managed to get us two speaking assignments for March 23rd (I hope that Sister Sor...s doesn't hate me!). We also already went on an exchange--Friday night to Saturday night I went to Kanab with Sister Cisn...s, who is waiting for her visa to Brazil, and Sister Chi...n came to Washington Fields with Sister Sor...s. These first couple of exchanges I'm going to the other areas because I still don't know where things are in Washington Fields lol. I'm getting to know the area pretty fast though.

I'm really excited to get to know the sisters that we work with. We mostly just have the sisters in our zone, but we have two companionships from nearby zones as well. The other day one of our sisters texted us because she was having a really hard time with serving in the Visitors Center. She is Spanish speaking, so she didn't come down to the Visitors Center until her 6th transfer (same as me!) and she hasn't adjusted to it very smoothly. We went over and talked with her for a while (and took her ice cream) and I think that she is feeling better now. Poor thing! It feels really nice to be able to help sisters come to love missionary work more :) I just feel like I have all of this experience, and I have learned so much on my mission, and I want to use it to help other sisters! So basically I am just really grateful that I can be an STL for my last transfer. I just want to be able to do all the good possible while I am still here! I want to help everyone in every way I can, and make a positive difference in the lives of everyone around me. I wish there were about five more hours in a day!

Tomorrow is Zone Conference!! I am way excited. Afterwards I am going to Kaibab with Sister He...! Colorado City here we come! Not going to lie, I am a little bit excited to see all of the polygamists. No worries though, if Sister He... hasn't gotten stolen yet, I won't either ;) And I am also excited to have one more day with my mission daughter! I really wish that my camera was working!

Well, I hope that you all have an amazing week! Remember that I love you.

Love,

Sister Burner

March 3, 2014

Hola familia y amigos!

This last week was so great! Sister Ri...a and I had tons of appointments, and many of them actually didn't cancel! Haha. It was fun being busy and running around from appointment to appointment. It makes us feel productive as missionaries. Tuesday we went and did a service project cleaning the temple (and they gave us lunch and let us go up in the top of the tower :) ), on Thursday we had Zone Training Meeting, and on Friday we went to Cedar City for a Spanish Zone Conference. Saturday we went to a baptism for the Coral Canyon sisters (Al...n and Pha...h). It was a man that both Sister Ri...a and I had taught while we were in that area, so it was really neat.
 

Here is a quote that I liked from Spanish Zone Conference:

"Introverts recharge their batteries by being alone. Extroverts recharge their batteries by being around people. Saints recharge their batteries by doing service." Isn't that so true? I've noticed lately that every time we get to do service--yard work mainly lately--I come away feeling so refreshed. I have found myself saying, "Sister Ri...a, wouldn't it be so great to go on a mission where all you do is go around serving people, all day?" She always tells me that that is what we do, but I mean like physical service :) But it's nice that she reminds me of that. I just want to make people smile though, and most of the day we get frowns from the people that we are serving spiritually, not smiles. But a couple of times a day we get a smile, which is nice :) Smiles from spiritual service are about a million times better than smiles we get from physical service.

We had been getting a lot of dinner appointments, so all Sister Ri...a and I got for food this last pday was things for nachos and sandwiches (we had a picnic with Sisters Ni...ls, Fro..t, Da...la and H..e after ZTM so that's why we got sandwich stuff...I still don't like gluten!) but then a lot of our dinner appointments didn't work out this last week, and we didn't have food to eat! Kind of unfortunate. So I had a muffin for dinner the last two nights but I only had time to eat a little one cuz they took a while to bake. So, moral of the story is--today we are going to make sure to actually buy enough food, just in case! Haha :)

I love you all so much! Please pray that everything goes well for me this next transfer--I am super excited, but it will probably also be pretty hard.
Thanks!

--Sister Burner

The Tabernacle!

Zone picture

 

 

February 24, 2014

Hola familia y amigos!

This week went by so fast, I have no idea where it even went! And I know that this week will go even faster--our planners are already almost bursting with appointments for this week. It is going to be really good, I can feel it!

We spoke in Washington Fields 6th ward yesterday on the Plan of Salvation. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy! I've had lots and lots of practice on that one! Sister Ri...a and I broke it up so that she taught the first half (pre earth, creation, earth life, Atonement) and I taught the second half (death, spirit world, resurrection, 3 kingdoms). By the way, during weekly planning on Friday I noticed that I was coming close to the end of the Book of Mormon, so I set a goal to finish it before the end of the transfer but then after today I only have 11 pages left...so I think I'm going to finish it way before the end of the transfer! Haha I guess I can get back to the New Testament after that. I'm almost done with that, and then I'm half way through the D&C...haven't really touched the Old Testament too much, but maybe I can finish the NT and D&C before my mission is up :) Happiness!

We had a neat lesson with La...y the other day. We planned to teach him the Law of Chastity (especially since he has a new online girlfriend...oyy) and then when we got there and followed up with him on his reading, he reminded us that we had given him a reading assignment for Baptism and Confirmation, which is what we had originally been planning to teach him the next time. OOPS! I had completely forgotten that--I have no idea how that just completely was gone from my mind. Well, actually I have an idea of how. Anyways, we told him that we would go over that next time, but this time we wanted to talk to him about the Law of Chastity. I've become pretty blunt with teaching that--we had a very spiritual yet bold lesson and it went great! At the end I asked him what he thought of the Law of Chastity, and he said, "You know, it's neat that you wanted to talk about that today. I've been thinking about that all week, and I think this is just what I needed to hear." Beautiful! Thank you, inspiration!

Cr...g is still doing great! He is on Mosiah 9 now--he has listened on audio up to Mosiah 26, but he is going back after he listens to it (he listens to it while driving ...he works for a towing company) and reading/studying it over. He is so great! He is also reading from the beginning with his wife, Ma..y, and trying to get her caught up. She is only on 1 Nephi 14 though. It's hard for her. We are praying that one of these days the same thing will snap in place for her that did for Cr...g! She has yet to come to church. Cr...g has dropped from smoking 3 packs a day to smoking 1 pack every 3 days. Not perfect, but getting there! I don't know if Mar..y has made any real progress with quitting. They weren't there when we stopped by one time this week, so I left a note (attached in the pic) on their porch table where they have their cigarettes. Cute? I noticed the next time that they had put the note up on their fridge where they can see it :)

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

Love,

Hna Burner



 



We just learned this trick to teach faith...they have to have faith that this isn't going to burn their hand! The paper floats away before it burns you : )

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