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!

July 2, 2013

Hola familia y amigos!

My new companion is Sister He...., who is 19 and from Maui, Hawaii.  She is so sweet, and super gorgeous.  She has been so easy to train.  

I love serving in St. George!  The Visitor's Center is amazing.  I love looking out the window and seeing the Temple right next to us!  And hearing the Christus over and over throughout the day.  And having prepared people come right to me, instead of having to hunt them out!  There are so many people who come into the VC and say, "I don't know why I am here.  I just felt like I should come."  Oh! Pick me, pick me! I know why they came!!

I have felt the Spirit so strongly there.  We have a video exhibit thing called "God's Plan for the Family," and I love taking people there (they have it in both english and spanish) because afterwards I get to bear my testimony on the family.  And I get to think about my family :) We also have a room filled with paintings of Jesus Christ, which I love, because I could talk about Him forever!

I feel like I am already rambling, but basically, I just love it!

The area I came into currently has zero investigators, so we are starting from scratch.  Poor Sister He..... isn't a fan of having to spend time in our area, but I wouldn't either if all I associated with it was tracting in 117 degree weather!  No worries Mom, we take lots of water each day.  And I made a rule that I would never say no when a member offers us a bottle of water, so we are drinking enough :) Anyways, we have found a couple of potentials, so I am hoping that things improve with the area soon and that we can begin to teach people.  I'm not too worried--miracles always happen when a companionship is training!

Hope everything is going well for you all--

Much love,

Sister Burner

Waiting for our greenies to be done with a new sisters meeting one morning!

June 24, 2013

Hola familia y amigos!

This last weekend was amazing!  A little sad because we will be leaving tomorrow, but everything else was so great!

On Saturday, we went to the Manti temple with Wy.... (our service missionary that helps us a lot) and Ra...... (the one who got baptized/confirmed/received the Priesthood/blessed the Sacrament last week).  It was busy and they said it would be about an hour and a half wait, so we walked down to the family history center which is at the bottom of the hill.  There, we set Ra.... up with an LDS account and showed him how to use Family Tree, and we got his grandfather's name all ready for the temple work.  Then we went back up to the temple and they let us in :)  So we did both baptisms and confirmations for Ra...'s grandfather, as well as a bunch of family names that the Rh....s' gave us (they are the couple that we live with).

Wy.... performed the baptisms and Sister H and I went first, but we stayed there dripping wet with our towels around us so that we could watch Ra.... be baptized.  It was amazing.  We could both feel that there were angels surrounding that font.  Ra..... said that he could feel his grandfather's presence there with him as he did his work.

I love the temple!!

Yesterday, Ra..... was sustained in Sacrament meeting as a member of the branch's YM Presidency.  Have I  mentioned before that he is just amazing?? He went to the Work of Salvation broadcast with us last night, and he is so excited to be able to serve a mission in a year.  I wish he could just go right now!

There are a lot of people in this area that I will miss, but I know that there are people down in St. George who have been waiting for me.  And I can always come back and visit!

Please pray that everything will go smoothly with me learning how to work in the Visitor's Center, and that I will be a good trainer for my new companion.

I love you all so much!

--Hermana Burner