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
Monday, November 24, 2014
Monday, November 17, 2014
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.
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.
Monday, November 10, 2014
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.
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.
Tuesday, November 4, 2014
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.
Monday, October 27, 2014
Meeting Many Amazing People!
Another week in the field. How crazy is it that this week I will have been gone for a week?
I left Oct 1, and Nov 1 is this week!!!
This week we met way more people from the ward.
Which is great, having been white washed in we didn't know anyone the week before. So it's improvement.
We had a couple crazy experiences. And ever got a door slammed in our faces. (YES, it does happen to sisters) I guess we are leading the zone with receiving referrals. We received 13 this week! And got a huge text back from the zone leaders. We met with Mary (on date for baptism) twice this week. And guess what...she doesn't have any desire to smoke! She has literally only had 2 puffs and the next time she went to lite one she felt like she was going to have a heart attack so she threw it away! How Crazy! She is golden and so willing to follow the example Jesus Christ set for us. It just amazes me so much every time we meet with her. Great example!
We have another investigator Carly, she is 21, and been looking into the church for herself for the last month or so. Her sister Rachel (16) just joined the church about a month ago. At Rachel's baptism Carly was overcome with the spirit and ever since then she wanted to learn more. Her parents are not religious and don't want anything to do with it, but they are open to letting their children learn and what not. Which I think is way cool!
Melissa is another one of our investigators. She is a single mom who was in the Marines. Heavenly Father is amazing isn't he? I've had some amazing experiences meeting with people in the military throughout my life and know a fair amount about the marines specifically. So how great is our Heavenly Father. Her sons name is Logan and he's a hand full. He's such a sweetheart though.
The members here are so great. They are so willing to work with the missionaries. We get feed so good. Dinner every night, with active, less actives, and even part member families. I love this area so much and the members as well.
As much as I love Elder Holland I thought I'd share this “Don’t give up, boy. Don’t you quit. You keep walking. You keep trying. There is help and happiness ahead—a lot of it—30 years of it now, and still counting. You keep your chin up. It will be all right in the end. Trust God and believe in good things to come.” No matter, what as long as we keep pressing forward we will find happiness, We believe in enduring to the end. Well, we don't know when the end will be so for now we endure 7 days over and over again. So keep pressing forward. Don't give up no matter how hard things may be.
Love, Sister Burden
 |
| The missionaries who went to Fort Worth with Jenny |
We had a couple crazy experiences. And ever got a door slammed in our faces. (YES, it does happen to sisters) I guess we are leading the zone with receiving referrals. We received 13 this week! And got a huge text back from the zone leaders. We met with Mary (on date for baptism) twice this week. And guess what...she doesn't have any desire to smoke! She has literally only had 2 puffs and the next time she went to lite one she felt like she was going to have a heart attack so she threw it away! How Crazy! She is golden and so willing to follow the example Jesus Christ set for us. It just amazes me so much every time we meet with her. Great example!
We have another investigator Carly, she is 21, and been looking into the church for herself for the last month or so. Her sister Rachel (16) just joined the church about a month ago. At Rachel's baptism Carly was overcome with the spirit and ever since then she wanted to learn more. Her parents are not religious and don't want anything to do with it, but they are open to letting their children learn and what not. Which I think is way cool!
Melissa is another one of our investigators. She is a single mom who was in the Marines. Heavenly Father is amazing isn't he? I've had some amazing experiences meeting with people in the military throughout my life and know a fair amount about the marines specifically. So how great is our Heavenly Father. Her sons name is Logan and he's a hand full. He's such a sweetheart though.
The members here are so great. They are so willing to work with the missionaries. We get feed so good. Dinner every night, with active, less actives, and even part member families. I love this area so much and the members as well.
As much as I love Elder Holland I thought I'd share this “Don’t give up, boy. Don’t you quit. You keep walking. You keep trying. There is help and happiness ahead—a lot of it—30 years of it now, and still counting. You keep your chin up. It will be all right in the end. Trust God and believe in good things to come.” No matter, what as long as we keep pressing forward we will find happiness, We believe in enduring to the end. Well, we don't know when the end will be so for now we endure 7 days over and over again. So keep pressing forward. Don't give up no matter how hard things may be.
Love, Sister Burden
Monday, October 20, 2014
First Investigator = First Baptismal Date
I'll start off now saying sorry. No pictures this week...We made it all the way to the library and I realized I forgot my chord to upload pictures. So next week I'll send some.
I left the MTC Tuesday Oct 14, at 3:30 am! I guess they weren't aware I need beauty sleep, so I went to sleep at midnight and woke up at 2 am. Yah! Right? Working two jobs and trying to have a social life taught me how to do that. (Never doing that again) Ever! (I hope).
So we got to the mission home at 11 am. I didn't get to sleep on the plane. Ugh! We still didn't know where we were going or the name of our companion. President Brown (my Mission President) went over ALL the rules. It took what felt like forever....luckily they let us have a nap after! They do love us...we felt it when they said "go take a nap" -only time I'll ever hear that on my mission! Well then they had my favorite food (key lime pie), Elder Garfield and I couldn't be friends because we'd fight too much over who got the last slice!! lol
The next morning I got to meet my trainer Sister Brittney Clark from UT. She is a big time basketball player...she might play for BYU when she gets home. She is a little older than me and way nicer then me. I was told she is the best and I believe it. She is such an example to me. I love her to death. The other day I was talking about my old Stake President (President Littlefield, Orem YSA 3rd stake) and we then realized we were in the same stake. I was in the 32nd ward and she was in the 37th ward.
This transfer, Sister Clark and I are opening an area (we do have elders in our ward). They haven't seen sisters in over 25 years! (sounds something like Paintsville) Every mission has an armpit and well, my first area (where I've been born) is the heart. We live maybe 15 minutes from our mission president. (no outer darkness for me). When we got here we knew no one . . . just the name and number for our ward mission leader . . . so we did what anyone would do, and we called him. He told us we had dinner with a member set up so we decided we'd teach them the Restoration.
We went to dinner and (the food was great) this member has a daughter who is not a member (Mary). Mary is in her 40's and helps take care of her mom. We were so excited! At the very end of the FIRST LESSON she told us she has a desire to be baptized!!! How great! The next day we were told we went to the wrong dinner....nope Heavenly Father just had a different plan for us. lol. So Mary needs glasses and can't read the Book of Mormon. However, since we are in the heart of the mission, we drove to the mission office and got the Book of Mormon audio and then went to drop it off to her and shared lesson 2 (plan of salvation) and set her with a date (Nov 15)! Holy Cow! How much crazier can this get...right? -Just wait! Progressing...I think so! Saturday we had a lesson (member present ) taught lesson 3 (Gospel of Jesus Christ) we asked her to come to stake conference on Sunday and she came! Wow! She then told us she smokes...(I could tell, my companion couldn't...oh well) she told us that was day 1 of not smoking! WOW! She is amazing! Right now she is on day 3 smoke free. But she used to smoke 2-3 packs a day. So she will need some prayers for sure. Saturday after conference she received a blessing. Super powerful. So please pray for Mary.
Last night we got our first referral! Holy Cow we had the biggest smiles on our faces walking out of the that house! Wow! It's crazy. The members told us they never give referrals because they don't trust the missionaries . . . wow!!! We got into the car and my companion was so happy she screamed a little! Crazy, the little things that make you happy.
Lesson # 100000: P-day on the mission doesn't mean pants day.
On a more spiritual thought, I read a scripture this morning in D&C 3:8 and it made me think about all the times in our lives Satan tries to tempt us to do the wrong thing. And the scripture is so true if we reach up Christ will protect us. Christ never leaves us. We leave him. He is always there for us and willing to do anything for us. I love that. I wanted to share my testimony of that. Christ is there, he does hear and answer our prayers and he loves us more than we may ever know. I know if we turn our 'burdens' over to Christ he will protect and support us every step of the way.
Love, Sister Burden
I left the MTC Tuesday Oct 14, at 3:30 am! I guess they weren't aware I need beauty sleep, so I went to sleep at midnight and woke up at 2 am. Yah! Right? Working two jobs and trying to have a social life taught me how to do that. (Never doing that again) Ever! (I hope).
So we got to the mission home at 11 am. I didn't get to sleep on the plane. Ugh! We still didn't know where we were going or the name of our companion. President Brown (my Mission President) went over ALL the rules. It took what felt like forever....luckily they let us have a nap after! They do love us...we felt it when they said "go take a nap" -only time I'll ever hear that on my mission! Well then they had my favorite food (key lime pie), Elder Garfield and I couldn't be friends because we'd fight too much over who got the last slice!! lol
The next morning I got to meet my trainer Sister Brittney Clark from UT. She is a big time basketball player...she might play for BYU when she gets home. She is a little older than me and way nicer then me. I was told she is the best and I believe it. She is such an example to me. I love her to death. The other day I was talking about my old Stake President (President Littlefield, Orem YSA 3rd stake) and we then realized we were in the same stake. I was in the 32nd ward and she was in the 37th ward.
This transfer, Sister Clark and I are opening an area (we do have elders in our ward). They haven't seen sisters in over 25 years! (sounds something like Paintsville) Every mission has an armpit and well, my first area (where I've been born) is the heart. We live maybe 15 minutes from our mission president. (no outer darkness for me). When we got here we knew no one . . . just the name and number for our ward mission leader . . . so we did what anyone would do, and we called him. He told us we had dinner with a member set up so we decided we'd teach them the Restoration.
We went to dinner and (the food was great) this member has a daughter who is not a member (Mary). Mary is in her 40's and helps take care of her mom. We were so excited! At the very end of the FIRST LESSON she told us she has a desire to be baptized!!! How great! The next day we were told we went to the wrong dinner....nope Heavenly Father just had a different plan for us. lol. So Mary needs glasses and can't read the Book of Mormon. However, since we are in the heart of the mission, we drove to the mission office and got the Book of Mormon audio and then went to drop it off to her and shared lesson 2 (plan of salvation) and set her with a date (Nov 15)! Holy Cow! How much crazier can this get...right? -Just wait! Progressing...I think so! Saturday we had a lesson (member present ) taught lesson 3 (Gospel of Jesus Christ) we asked her to come to stake conference on Sunday and she came! Wow! She then told us she smokes...(I could tell, my companion couldn't...oh well) she told us that was day 1 of not smoking! WOW! She is amazing! Right now she is on day 3 smoke free. But she used to smoke 2-3 packs a day. So she will need some prayers for sure. Saturday after conference she received a blessing. Super powerful. So please pray for Mary.
Last night we got our first referral! Holy Cow we had the biggest smiles on our faces walking out of the that house! Wow! It's crazy. The members told us they never give referrals because they don't trust the missionaries . . . wow!!! We got into the car and my companion was so happy she screamed a little! Crazy, the little things that make you happy.
Lesson # 100000: P-day on the mission doesn't mean pants day.
On a more spiritual thought, I read a scripture this morning in D&C 3:8 and it made me think about all the times in our lives Satan tries to tempt us to do the wrong thing. And the scripture is so true if we reach up Christ will protect us. Christ never leaves us. We leave him. He is always there for us and willing to do anything for us. I love that. I wanted to share my testimony of that. Christ is there, he does hear and answer our prayers and he loves us more than we may ever know. I know if we turn our 'burdens' over to Christ he will protect and support us every step of the way.
Love, Sister Burden
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