3 days before Christmas-Right after our first phone call!

Hey Mom and Dad!

That was so fun getting to talk to you guys! I felt so good just getting to here your voices. Things have changed just a bit for Christmas. I probably wont be able to call until about 1:00 pm central time, so it will be 11:00 your time. I am so excited to talk to yall. I forgot to ask you one important thing on the phone though. When do you want me to sent the memory card home? I could send it today, but then you wouldn’t get all the pictures that I take on Christmas. I think im just going to send it to yall the day after Christmas so that you can get more pictures. That will also give me some more time to make a longer recording on the tape recorder

Theres not really that much to say right now because I just talked to you and Im going to have a lot of stories to tell you on Christmas! I already told you the highlight of my week last week. It was so awesome. We were riding our bikes to an appointment with a new investigator, and as we were riding, some kids that were skating on there ramps were making fun of us saying, “Come ride your bikes off our ramps!” They were all laughing at us. So I turned my head around and yelled back, “We will on our way back!” So after our appointment, we were riding back, and sure enough, the kids were still there. They thought we were just going to ride by again so that were still kind of laughing at us. Then I turned the corner and stopped right where they were skating and I asked them what kind of decks they had. They were a little stand offish at first, but then one of the kids who looked like the oldest of the group asked me if I wanted to try. So I got on his skateboard in my brown Bostonian dress shoes and my white shirt, tie, and slacks, and landed a 360 flip on the first try. Right away all of the kids opened up and all started letting me ride with them. While this was happening, Elder Hill was talking to their youth pastor about the restored gospel. He saw that I was messing up my dress shoes, so he took his shoes off and let me where his. After about 45 minutes, we ended up leaving, and we thought that was the end of it. But the next day we got a phone call from the other Wards ward mission leader saying he had talked to some youth pastor that said he was extremely interested in the message that these two young skater missionaries at taught him the day before! So were going to go back this week and talk to this guy more!! So yeah that’s our fun missionary story for the week. My mission has been full of these types of experiences so far. I don’t know why the Lord has blessed me so much when I am such a punk haha! I love Him for it though. He understands me perfectly, and im starting to understand Him a little more every day. I love how it works. Prayer has completely changed my mission and my life. I love it. I am so grateful for everything I have and for the miracles that I have seen out here.

Mom and Dad, I love you guys so much. Thank you for everything you have done for me. Thank you both for the patience that you had with me. I love you with all my heart. I am SOOOOO excited to talk to you on Thursday!!! I love you!!!! Merry Christmas!!!!

Love,
Elder Joshua Burnham

p.s.- Sorry this was a short one, I figured I wouldn’t say as much so that ill have more to tell you on Christmas