Prayer has changed my life

Mom and Dad-
Elder John is amazing. He says he loves yall. He says you did an amazing job raising me. Anyways, how are you guys? The pictures are in the mail as of today. This week has been really good. I went on a 2 day trade-off this week. It was really fun. I love the district im in right now. That’s crazy that you guys went to the lake for the whole week, but no education week? What’s up with that? Ya I felt really bad about last week and how I ran out of time. And I am really sorry about the pictures! Im horrible with taking pictures. I labled them all last night and they are being sent today.
The storm was pretty lame in our area. Church was cancelled yesterday because we were supposed to get 12 inches of rain, but the storm missed us. There were some areas right around us that got over 30 inches of rain in 2 days! That’s more than seattle gets in a whole year. Crazy stuff. They say that because we have had so many storms in the passed couple months, we will most likely have a hurricane before the season ends. There were a lot of tornadoes that went through mobile and Tallahassee. Im mad we didn’t get any
Time is flying by out here. This transfer has been so awesome. Ive kind of figured out how to work hard and get work done but not stress myself out too much. Ive connected with a lot of the members in this area. They are a great support. We have so many people we are teaching and 2 of them have committed to baptism. I love this area. Im pretty sure I will be here for 2 more transfers. I hope ill be training next transfer. That would be so much fun.
Did I ever tell you we are moving into a new apartment? We are moving in today! Im really excited to get out of the 10 by 10 ft room that we have been living in. Itll be nice having a place to ourselves again. Can you believe that this summer is already almost over? School is in session for most of the kids out here. That is so weird. I’m almost at my 5 month mark. So crazy.
Sorry I didn’t really go into to much detail about how this week went. It was kind of hectic because of that trade off that I was on. Elder Keesler has been sick all week too so we havnt gotten too much work done. But its been good because I have had tons of time to study. We only got like 3 new investigators this week. Well do better next week though.
Could you put just a little more money in my account? I had to go by a pair of prosyliting church pants from pac sun because im getting to fat for my pants haha. Im trying to stop but I don’t know how. My stomach is getting bigger and bigger. The pants I have still fit, they are just getting pretty tight on me. Im all out of money on my mission card, but we get money put back in that at the end of this week so I just need like $20 to get me by for food.
I miss you guys so much. Don’t get me wrong, I love my life right now, I just miss my family. Im glad everything is still going good at dads office. How is the your business going mom? Anyways, I love you guys, I hope all is well. I think about you all the time. I hope averyone is saying your prayers everynight and morning!! Seriously, if you guys aren’t, start doing it! Prayer has changed my life. I love it so much. Its crazy how much prayer really works. I love my heavently father. He has worked so many miracles through us in this area. The gospel Is the greatest. I love you Mom! I love you dad! I love you Family! Bye!!!
Love,
Elder Burnham

There is a hurricane coming up toward this direction...

Mom and Dad-
Since i couldnt really write you guys yesterday, i got permission from our district leader to come back to the library for just a little bit and write a little more. Its still productive because Elder Keesler is looking up something on the church website that we will probably use in our next lesson.
Tonight we are teaching a teaching the Purvis's, who are a part member family in our ward. We are also teaching an investigator named sister Hutchins who we think will probably committ to baptism soon. Shes an awsome lady. We are teaching her at Sister Thomas's house. I think i told you about sister thomas, shes that awsome black lady who i celebrated my birthday with.
Everything is going good here in Pensacola. There is a hurricane coming up toward this direction though. Im sure youve heard about that. Im getting pretty excited. They say its projected path is a little more East of our mission, but everyone ive talked to down here says that the weather people dont know anything and that as soon as the storm hits the gulf it could pretty much go anywhere. Maybe that will humble the people here a little bit.
Anyways, I dont wanna use up too much of our prosyliting time. I just wanted to let you know that everything is alright and that I love you guys with all my heart. I love my mission. Its da best! I love you Mom! I love you Dad! Im sending pictures home before the week is finished. I promise this time! Tell everyone i love them!
Love,
Elder Joshua Burnham

5 solid new investigators...

Mom and Dad-

How are you guys?? I love hearing about how everything is going back at home. That's awesome that Chads pretty much done with all the schooling and stuff. I loved that Alma 36 thing that you guys sent me. That was so awesome.
Oh crap, for some reason they are closing the library early today! They just came around and said they are closing in 5 minutes! Dang!

Ill hurry and write. If I don't get that much done I promise I will just write you a letter tonight

So yeah this week has been really good. We got about 5 solid new investigators. Elder Keesler and I are getting along great. I love teaching with him. He is so powerful. A lot of prayers have been answered for me this week as far as asking for strength and I have felt the Lords presence very strong. I love being a missionary. I have some of the best missionaries in our district. We played Volleyball today so that was really fun. Im a little bit rusty though. Oh poop they are making us log off right now! I love you! Ill write you tonight and send pics!!! I love you
Love,
       Elder Burnham

really productive week...

Things are going really good out here. We just got done playing dodgeball at the church with most of the zone. It was way fun. Were ending our p-day early today and going back to work until about 6pm. Then at 6 were having a zone bon fire. Its going to be really fun. My trainer (Elder Hunzic) leaves on the 19th so hes gonna be there. He called me last night and hes starting to get really sad that hes leaving.
This week has been a really productive week. Its also been one of the more difficult ones because of how hot its been. We found 6 new investigators, all of which are very solid. One of them has completely agreed with everything we have taught him and says that he and his wife want to get baptized. We have about 20 people in our teaching pool right now but after this week im sure that number will drop a little bit. Teaching is becoming easier and easier, but there is definitely room for improvement.
I got the cloths you sent me Im so mad about those jeans though. They used to fit me pretty loose, and now I can hardly fit my legs into them. And there is no way I can button them. So that was kind of annoying haha. But everything else worked out so thank you.
Im really sorry I havnt sent pictures yet. I promise im going to soon. Im going to take a bunch tonight at the bon fire and then Ill send them off. Ive love the picture you guys have been sending me.
My comp. is great. Hes an extremely hard worker and doesn't ever let anything slow him down. Are personalities are very different though so im working on that. Sometimes he gets a little to stressed out and way to serious so Im trying to get him to calm down a bit. But other than that, I love the kid.
Jeez it seems like every email I get, you guys are heading back to the lake or just getting home from the lake. Im Jealous! Actually, im not that jealous. I just miss spending time with the family out there. And I miss being with the dogs out on the beach. How is Sadie doing? Is she still healthy? She better still be alive when I get home or I will be extremely sad. I love that Dog.
So yeah this transfer is flying by. Its already half way through. Im pretty sure ill be out here one more transfer because elder Keesler is going home after the next one and I don't think they would send him or me somewhere else befor he leaves. Then I will probably stay one more after that cuz im sure they wont white wash this area. So maybe they will have me train? Thad be way cool.
We got bible bashed again the other day by three Bible Baptists. They're the ones that stand out on the street corners with their bibles and yell at people. They make their wives and little kids stand out there with them too. Its really sad. We were just knocking on some doors and when we knocked on this one, two friendly guys answered the door and let us come in. We were stoked at first because of how nice they were. Then we walked in and saw that they had two huge bibles and a pass along book of mormon sitting on the table and right then I knew we were in trouble. They started by saying they had a few questions about the book of mormon and that they were interested in finding out if it was true. The main thing that they drilled us with was The fact that we say that God was once a man. And they pointed out scriptures in the Book of Mormon that say that God is infinite and eternal. It was pretty annoying. We just had to keep bearing our testimonies to them because they knew how to set us up using the bible. Very frustrating, but it was a good learning experience. If you have a good answer to their concern, please feel free to write back about that one.
Well, I have to go write president an email. Is everything going good at home? I hope so. I love you guys. That's crazy that Sean is back already. I miss those guys. Tell them I love them. I havnt written Ray yet. Ill probably do that today. Anyways, I love you Mom! I love you Dad! I hope everything is going great with the office Bye guys!!!!!!!!!!
Love, Elder Joshua Burnham

I need some p-day clothes...

I hope I have enough time to write you a long one like I said I would last week. I just wrote a ton of emails so I'm really sorry if this isn't that long. Sounds like everything's going great back home. I just got the pictures you sent. They are so good! What camera is that? The quality is amazing. My favorite is the one of Ryan flying through the air like a mad man haha! I laughed so hard when I saw that picture. I've looked at it everyday since I got it. Yeah I got the memory card you sent back and yeah I just got Katey's package this week. Thank you again for everything. Everything you sent me is perfect. That gps has gotten us through a lot so far. Its being used every single day. Thank you for everything
Why do you think I'm not telling you everything about how I'm doing out here? Of course there has been some rough days, but for every rough day I have had there has been 3 to 4 amazing days. And besides, the rough days aren't even that bad because I know that those are the days that I'm being stretched. And its worth being stretch because then that gives me more experience which gives me even more awesome days! I don't even know if that made any sense but whatever, it made sense in my mind haha. But seriously, If I have a week that's really just stinks, I will tell you. Honestly though, I haven't had a week go by yet where I thought, "well that week sucked." Every week I have been out here has been awesome, whether it was a tough week or not.
The new companion is awesome. He is one of the most powerful teachers I have ever met. It took him a few days to open up to me but now he's way cool. We have a lot of fun together. The new district is so fun. They are some of the coolest guys I have ever met. We had a bon fire at a members has last P-day so that we could get to know each other. Next week the whole zone is having a bon fire at the same place on P-day so im getting excited for that as well.
Today were going to go play some soccer with the district and maybe some dodge ball at the church gym. Oh yeah befor I forget, Could you send me some of my old cloths? I need some p-day cloths out here:
1.) My grey shorts with pinstripes. I thing the brand is RVCA?2.) Some of the shirts I used to wear. If you just send a box of shirts that you think you remember me wearing I can just take the ones I don't wear to goodwill3.) My blueish brown volcom jeans.
If you cant find any of that stuff don't worry about it. If anything, those shorts are the most needed. Its so Hot!
Anyways, sorry I couldn't write very much. I have to go. I love you! And I promise ill write more next week!!!! Actually, ill probably write you a letter today and ill send picks later on this week I love you Mom! I love you Dad!!!!! Love, Elder Joshua Burnham