First Week Training

Monday: I was still very nervous about training but President Brown (my Mission President ) sent me a text and said "Sister Burden, the Lord and I have great confidence in you. You are going to do wonderfully well! Faith Forward." I know I needed to receive that text. We were able to have dinner with the Josephs which went very good. After we went home and I let Sister Danz unpack. And I cleaned and went through our apartment.

Tuesday: We got so much done! We did our studies, emailed home, and visited many people. We saw Sister Black, Sister Biffle, Sister Cabanaw, and had dinner with the Hull's. We met with the Bishop. He told us his expectations and gave Sister Danz some advice on missionary work.

Wednesday: Two weeks ago our Bishop told us we have 600 names on our records and less than 200 members at church. We have no clue who the non-attenders are for the most. So we were able to find that 4 of those don't even live there. We  met with our one and only investigator who is progressing. We decided to start teaching the Restoration and only taught the first two points (God is our loving Father in Heaven, Gospel blesses families) We have been praying about inviting him to be baptized.

Thursday: We did service for Habitat. This week,we painted the inside of a house. While trying to find these people who don't come to church weekly we found a teenage girl named Jennifer who has stopped going because of her family. We taught her the restoration and visited with her. She is a strong young lady. So we have been praying to find those who are ready for the gospel message, we went to visit a less-active and on the way back to the car this lady started talking with us. She wanted to know why we were out so late. But she told us to come back. Her name is Ebrina. (I'll let you know what's to come)

Friday: We had some great lessons and visited with some great people. we had a great lesson with the Randall's and Amanda. It was Sister Danz first time weekly planning so it was forever long. . . . but that's okay. I do want her to understand. And know who these people are.

Saturday: During studies I had the impression when we met with Sue to ask her if she could teach us some Spanish . . . she is always very busy and the last 12 weeks has wanted nothing to do with us. So we went over and when we sat down I gave Sister Danz some time to get to know her and chat then I asked Sue if she could teach us the Restoration pamphlet in Spanish. She was so happy! She loves times for her to grow. She told us it would be a learning experience for her. But the thing is, I can read most Spanish. I just can't say over 70% of it.

We had dinner with the Carrillo family, their son just left this last week to the MTC. He is going to the Jacksonville, Florida mission. We then went to the Marks for his new member lesson and it was different because, well, the only pamphlets I had were in Spanish so needless to say I had to really think about what I was going to say. I know we got through it, and it all worked out.

Sunday: We went to church and I tried to introduce Sister Danz to as many people as possible. We had her first missionary correlation and it was so good. Our Ward Mission Leader asked us to stop by and get eggs. So we stopped by and Debbie made cinnamon rolls, yummm! what a blessing! We had dinner with Sister Pringle. She told us if we need her bike for exchanges we can use it. Cause otherwise we are walking. (the sister I'll be with for 24hrs can't drive) so needless to say in the last 5, almost 6 years, I haven't road a bike once. Last time I road a bike I broke a bone. (July 2010) but just pray that on May 28 I don't die.

So many great things are happening. Lately I've been studying talks and Jesus the Christ, and the Book of Mormon, all about the life of Christ. And as I've review and studied the conference talks from this last April. I love this line from Elder Holland's talk "Those strong brotherly arms saved my life that day as I dangled helplessly above what would surely have been certain death" I love thinking about how true it is with each of us how we to dangle in a pit and only because of our older brother can we get out. An atonement was needed. We all need a Redeemer. I know Christ is our older brother I know as we rely on him and turn to him for everything he can help pull us out. He loves us more than we can ever understand. If you get a moment, read this talk or listen to it. Its all about the Savior.

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2015/04/where-justice-love-and-mercy-meet?cid=HP_WE_5-13-2015_dPTH_fGC_xLIDyL1-B_&lang=eng