It Is Better To Be Obedient!

Another crazy week....

I went on Exchanges again...this time I hated it. I know no one is perfect, but I really wanted the opportunity to learn different ways of teaching, sadly rules were broken by this missionary I served with and no lessons were taught. It's sad to be around missionaries and see disobedient behavior. I was disappointed and the whole time wished I could be back in my own area. But lesson learned was YOU CAN HAVE FUN AND BE OBEDIENT vs having fun and being disobedient.

I had the opportunity to go caroling twice this week. It was lots of fun. Out of all the people we sang to, only 2 DIDN'T cry...so for those who cried, not sure if it was because they were in pain from hearing us singing or because they loved it...probably both lol.

We had our Christmas Zone Conference this last week, pretty sure I've never seen so many missionaries crying. It was a wonderful day filled with beautiful musical numbers and testimonies. The day was really centered around Christ and we have started a new Book of Mormon reading where we are going through and highlighting all things about Him. So we highlight His names, His words, His doctrine, and His attributes. I have really loved it so far and gotten so much out of reading the Book of Mormon in this way. This is something they asked us to start doing....guess I've gotten a little carried away because its something I've been doing for weeks! I'm in the book of Jacob already. So I'm a tad bit ahead, but have loved doing it, you just get sucked in and it's hard to stop reading.

We were able to give one of our potential investigators, George, a Book of Mormon which was so great. We were able to talk about the restoration. It was great! So we will see what is to come with him. We decorated the gym for the Christmas party and it was pretty great. 6 hours of service! I'm pretty excited about that. Sadly my battery on my camera was dead that day so I don't have any pictures. But I'll ask and see if anyone else got any it was so beautiful. Thank you everyone for all your letters, emails, and packages! I love you all.

LDS CHRISTMAS VIDEOS

Love, Sister Burden

The Lord Puts Words in Our Mouths

This week was a little crazy.
Every week seems it.

 Mary had her gallbladder removed on Tuesday and is recovering. My companion and I went to Golden Correll and ATE. Its something her family does every Christmas. A member had given us a gift card and we went. It was a hard week but the memories we made that night are ones that will last a life time.

This week we had the opportunity to meet one of our Potential Investigators at the Family History Center. While there, a miracle happened. I was feeling a little homesick for the first time in my life. While at the Family History Center helping our PI, I saw a man with a University of Kentucky cap on. I walked across the room and asked where he was from he told me Kentucky! I asked him where in Kentucky and began to talk with him about people I knew from Lawrence County and Johnson County. He told me of a family I know very well. I then found out he was Wendy's dad. Breanna's Grand dad. I soon felt so happy. From that point on I no longer felt homesick. I was able to increase my testimony about prayer, and how God answers our prayers through others. I'm so grateful for this experience.

One of the families we meet with weekly on Wednesdays, the husband is a member and the wife isn't. Well, I struggle meeting with them because he always ask all these questions and I never seem to know the answers and they are always about what other churches believe and hardly ever about what our church believes. I started doubting the strength of my own testimony and through that I was able to see, I know enough and that it's not important to our Heavenly Father if I know all about other churches. I knew my testimony was true I never doubted that but I realized I didn't need to know all these other things. I no longer felt lost. And I had the courage to open my mouth and share what I truly know. Later we walked out and my companion told me that was one of our most powerful lessons in that home we've had. I then realized my testimony was enough. I wasn't alone like I felt when he was rambling about other religions. Heavenly Father helped me say what he needed me to say.

 A couple weeks ago we did service and I was finally able to get those pictures. We had like 5-6 layers of clothes on so we all look huge but I loved doing the service so here they are.

 I wanted to end with this quote from President Uchtdorf: "If the Savior were among us today; we would find Him where He always was-ministering to the meek, the downcast, the humble, the distressed, and the poor in spirit. During this Christmas season and always, may we give to Him by loving as He loves may we remember the humble dignity of Hi


s birth, gifts, and life. And may we, through simple acts of kindness, charity, and compassion, fill the world with the light of His love and healing power"

 http://www.mormon.org/christmas 

Love,
Sister Burden

A Very Happy Thanksgiving

The week was amazing! Thanksgiving was amazing, typically a holiday I hate and would rather sleep through - as a missionary that's not an option. And I truly enjoyed it. It was super nice being somewhere I felt needed and wanted. It was amazing the love I felt for others, and knowing that was how my Heavenly Fathers feels for each of us. It was a pretty great experience to feel of that love.

So, the picture of me holding a worm if because of a deal I made with a child . . . her mom wanted her to get dressed in nice clothes, and she didn't want to . .  so our deal was that if she got dressed in nice clothes, I'd hold some of her worms from her worm farm....yes, a worm farm...yuck! Well since she did her part, I had to do mine. Teach me to make deals with a child.

I got myself into another bad deal as well since one of our members struggles with keeping our commitments. I told him if he wrote his testimony in a B.O.M I'd speak in sacrament . .  so guess who had to speak in sacrament. That's right me. Scary stuff in a family ward. With loads of people.

Next picture is from Sunday 11/30/14 at Mary's baptism! Yah! Best day ever! She was so great and the whole thing was amazing! Biggest turn out I've seen at a baptism (40ish people) The ward was super supportive. Mary was also able to receive the Holy Ghost without having to wait until this following Sunday since she has surgery on Tuesday. It's crazy to think she is now a member and just looking back on that day we met her.

Here is the full story of our meeting Mary:

So, since we were doubled in, the only name we knew was the family we'd be living with and the ward mission leader so when we got the home we'd be staying in, Sister Meadows told us some more people and their callings, sadly the ward list we had was out of date but we decided to call and introduce ourselves to the mission leader. He then told us we had dinner with the Smith family. So that night we went to dinner. We met Phyllis and Mary. We decided to share a lesson. Then later we found out we went to the wrong dinner! But Phyllis and Mary had dinner for us so it all worked out for us in the end. The night we met Mar,y at the end of the lesson she expressed her desire to be baptized. So we began teaching her. One day we were talking about Prayer, Phyllis told us the very first time we ever knocked on the door she had just finished praying that Heavenly Father would send someone to teach her daughter! Holy Cow! How crazy of a story, and to be part of it. Heavenly Father is so great.

The next picture is the West family. I love them. There couch is so comfy you just sink right in! The family is so great. They did so much to make this Thanksgiving a great one. 

D&C 8:10–11

Remember that without faith you can do nothing; therefore ask in faith. Trifle not with these things; do not ask for that which you ought not.

Ask that you may know the mysteries of God, and that you may translate and receive knowledge from all those ancient records which have been hid up, that are sacred; and according to your faith shall it be done unto you. 

Check out this talk, super powerful!

Love, Sister Burden

Transfers Week: Staying Put

I'm safe this transfer! That's a big deal since there is a new rule that President said came from higher up than him: (mission office -Salt Lake). Sisters and elders are no longer to work in the same wards. So now wards will have only all elders or all sisters. Sister Clark and I get Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years here in our same ward! With Sister Clark as well! This makes me smile so much! 


This week has been crazy! If anything, I had 4 nights I slept the whole night. Warmer weather means the mice don't move as much . . . who would have thought. So that's been a huge blessing. With that being said this week was week 6 which means I got to take lead this whole week in our companionship, holy cow it was scary. Well maybe not, It was mostly me over coming this fear of messing up. Which was hard. But Sister Clark was great at encouraging me to keep going.

Missionary work isn't easy. This week was a difficult one, but I feel like I have really grown so much in the past seven days it's insane (: This week was pretty amazing, yesterday we both had to talk in sacrament. Sister Clark had to give a talk and I had to bear my testimony because the speakers didn't use all the time . . .  then we were in charge of the youth fireside . . . 23 youth showed up. We want to help the youth have personalized Mormon.org cards (yes, you can do that) and also help them make an "I'm a Mormon video" we are pretty excited to do this, and for the opportunity we have to use technology to do this.

This Saturday is Mary's Baptism!! She came to church yesterday and stayed all 3 hours! And she only had one bad spell with her health. So please continue to pray for her. We had an early Thanksgiving dinner yesterday with Mary and Phyllis, it was also Phyllis's birthday she is 73. She reminds me so much of my Grandma Peggie! So of course I love her! How could I not? Things are going very well with Mary so far lets hope Satan doesn't attack her this up coming week. This week we had many crazy experiences, I'll be sure to share next week. I'll be sure to tell everyone all about Chris and his family. And about many others. But that's all for now.

I love each of you.
Love,
Sister Burden

Must . . . Get . . . Sleep . . . !

Sorry this one won't be super long mostly because I'm almost out of time.

So this week has been full of ups and downs. Kind of felt like a roller coaster, to be honest. Things were going really well. Monday we had dinner with the Anderson family (they are amazing)! Well, I haven't been sleeping at night because the house we live in has mice. (I know they are small but so are spiders and those things are scary!) Anyway, when the mice move at night (which is all the time) I wake up and its hard getting back to sleep, so Sister Anderson let us borrow her soft noise thingy. Well, I can still here the mice but I'm getting more sleep than before. So for me this last week felt like a roller coaster but if you ask Sister Clark she'd say otherwise. No sleep is no good for many different reasons. And I'm in week 6 this week (crazy right) and I've only had 4 nights I slept all through the night without waking up. So Melatonin is my best friend. (It's natural..)


So the dog in the picture is Taffy, she is 12 years old (I think) and she is a mini poodle. So cute and full of energy! Gotta love it. Taffy likes to come down and visit us and will sometimes bark at the mice . . . how thoughtful! At least the dog looks out for me.

The next picture is the house we live in. This was the morning after the first snow . . . its only snowed 4 times since then . . .

We taught Mary again and let me just say she is golden. I hate that she is in pain from all her health problems I wish we could take it away, Mary is 49 almost 50 and she is such an example to me of endurance. She was so set on coming to church yesterday but wasn't able to for many health reasons. She ended up going to the ER.

Tuesday night Brother Tingey gave me a blessing. My companion brought it up and after a little thought I agreed because of how tired I have been. Not getting sleep drains you. I love sleep and this has been my biggest struggle so far. The Tingey family is my favorite! They are all amazing. At the pumpkin patch a couple weeks ago we played football (yes in skirts) with their son (he's 10) and a couple other kids and one of the investigator's kids, talk about super fun. Make friends with the kids, that's the key. Sister Tingey is a great member missionary.

Elder Baxter from the 70 came Saturday for mission tour. How crazy that I got to shake his hand. He taught us many different things but the one that struck me was When Elder Baxter was talking with a member who was dying of ALS, he said to him "this doesn't seem very fair does it" the man responded "who asked for fair?". Remember this, life isn't about being fair, it's about learning to overcome the challenges and being happy, even when we aren't happy. And Satan strives to bring down the saints through: despair, despondency, discouragement, and depression. Resist these things by thinking that you are better than you think you are. We tend to be our own worst enemies and are always tearing ourselves down. Stop it."

I simply saw the angel in the marble, and I carved until I set it free" -Michaelangelo.

Heavenly Father is the sculpture and we are the blocks of marble. He sees our true potential and knows the amount of chipping away that needs to be done to unlock our divine selves.

Lots of Crazy Trials

This week was super crazy. One whole day was basically thrown out the window basically. We spent the whole morning at a funeral for Sister Bonnie Blackburn. And got home did personal study and as we finished our prayer from companion study we got a phone call telling us Mary (our investigator age 49) our was in the ER, talk about a moment of panic. We called our dinner appointment and cancelled. Then we went to a fast food place and got Mary's mom dinner. Then sat with them at the ER until she was released. Then it was 8:45 pm . . .we had just enough time to drive home. We were drained that day.

The next day everything fell through. We didn't teach one lesson...which was hard because it was hard not to wallow in self pity. It was hard to not look inward and feel like it was our fault. But we were both able to overcome that and not fall to deep into that trap.But Heavenly Father gave us a great learning experience from that. We had to push back Mary's baptismal date but we don't know when it will be. She will have to have her gallbladder taken out, she has an ulcer and gallstones. She keeps having attacks. So Thursday she has another appointment in which we will know more then. Please keep her in your prayers.

Well since my family always loved how I was the child who accidentally called 911 I bet you'd love to know I've done it 4 times now on my mission. ): My phone has a 911 key and my little fat hands hit it or my bag hits it....basically I'm not used to phones with keys! I like touch screen where you never pocket dial anyone.

On a more spiritual note I'll end with a quote . . . "When doubt or difficulty come, do not be afraid to ask for help. If we want it as humbly and honestly as this father did, we can get it. The scriptures phrase such earnest desire as being of “real intent,” pursued “with full purpose of heart, acting no hypocrisy and no deception before God. I testify that in response to that kind of importuning, God will send help from both sides of the veil to strengthen our belief."  -Elder Holland

Pictures: Dorthy, the lady in the picture is my fave! I love her so much! She is 87, and is amazing. She has lost a lot of her memory but we go and share messages and read scriptures with her. She amazes me every time we see her. Sister Swain (In blue cardigan) was my companion on exchanges, which was crazy fun! And since I got to take lead it was a little crazy. Had 1 door slammed in my face... one of the first one l. But we were able to teach and find some less actives. So I finally took a picture with my companion after exchanges. So Sister Clark and I have 1 picture together. haha She is amazing and I can see why we were put together.

Teaching In Front of the Mission President . . . Not so bad!

This is my district! The Elder on the far right might be going home this week...He fell off his bike
and did some pretty bad stuff to his arm and the recovery time is looking to be 8-12 weeks. (with physical therapy) It's super sad. He wants to stay, but no one is sure what will happen.

Update on Mary...Well she is amazing! I never thought I'd love my investigators so much! She had been smoke free for FOUR weeks! This week she will give up coffee! She is so willing to follow and obey its truly amazing teaching her. She is so willing to follow the word of wisdom. This Saturday we are taking her to a baptism so she will understand what hers will be like. Her baptism is on the 15! Its getting so close!

Update on Carly...we had to pass Carly off to different missionaries....after we started teaching her. The Stake President decided it was okay for her to be taught in the ward all her friends are in. (not the ward she lives in). We taught her one lesson and it was at President Brown's home. (my mission president). That wasn't as scary as you might think. As long as you focus on the investigator and their needs and you focus on the spirit you don't think so much about your mission president being in the room. It was a powerful lesson. So even though we had to give her to other missionaries, I was grateful for the opportunity to teach her that one lesson and I know Heavenly Father needed us to do so.

 Kenta is our new investigator. She is a 14 year old Indian (from India). Her parents are Hindu. We had the opportunity to meet her and her amazing member missionary friends who are 15 at the ward Fall Harvest. During which she wanted a picture of the temple being built. We have pass along cards with that on there how cool! Well we had the opportunity to talk with her about Jesus Christ, who she knew nothing about! It was nice to be able to talk about him and share our testimonies about Christ and show pictures of his life. Its nice to remember our message is all about Christ, Christ is our Hope.
 

1 Timothy 1:1 

"Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the commandment of God our Savior, and Lord Jesus Christ, which is our hope"

I love this scripture because I love that Christ is our hope. Through the Atonement, we can return back to our Heavenly Father, it is through the grace of God we can return. Christ died for us because he loves us, he did this so we don't have to suffer like he did. None of us are perfect, We all make mistakes big and small, each and every day. Because Christ knew us all perfectly he understands us all perfectly and was willing to atone for us, He is willing to forgive us when we repent for our sins and change our thoughts and actions. It is thought Jesus Christ that we can talk with our Father in Heaven he is our advocate. That is why the Atonement was necessary and very important. We don't have to carry our burdens and feel worthless or alone, or forgotten. Because of the Atonement we can move forward and be better each day.