Jan.26, 2008 "You are our Amulek"

Hey Mom and Dad

This has been a pretty good week. We worked hard and got a good amount of stuff done. My studies have been really good lately for some reason. I realized that I’m still not where I want to be as far as teaching, so for 30 minutes of my personal study time in the morning, I role play by myself to the picture of Jesus that we have down stairs. It’s actually really helped me a lot. The other Elders sometimes think I’m weird though when they walk downstairs and here me talking to myself. Our mornings are really good here. Every other morning Elder Cornwell, me, the Spanish Elders, and a couple of our investigators wake up at around 6:15am and play basketball for about 45 minutes for our exercise time. It really helps me out because I have a hard time exercising in the mornings. Then we usually make our shakes, get ready, study for our 2 hours, and then leave by 10.

The baptism went very well. Juliana asked me to confirm her the next day at church so that was kind of a neat experience. She has such a great testimony of the gospel. She is definitely facing some opposition though which sucks. She lives with her sister Danielle and her brother in law Matt. Danielle has a history of being a little crazy. Last night we got a phone call form our ward mission leader saying that Danielle physically assaulted Juliana, and so now she will be living with him(the ward mission leader) and his family. Its really sad because Juliana was already kicked out of her parents house, and now this happened. She is the most tender hearted girl and wouldn’t harm a fly, so it really made me upset when we heard about that. But, its ok, she has a testimony and has a strong institute group to support her so she will be fine.

There is some pretty crazy stuff going on in the mission right now. I guess Were going to be opening a new Zone sometime soon and we are going to be covering a lot more of Georgia. That would be really cool if I got transferred up there, I don’t really know why, I just think it would be fun to open an area. Also, they just opened an area called Prichard up in the Mobil stake. This city is the most dangerous place in the mission and has highest murder rate in the country! I guess President Summerhays has felt very strongly lately that we will find a lot of success with the African Americans. So anyways, he sent one of my good friends (Elder John) and the old A.P. (Elder Loar) to open up Prichard. President doesn’t want them to just find people there to baptize and then bring them up to Mobil, he wants them to start the Church right in the middle of Prichard. So they’ve started a store front and so far they have about 10 people meeting there every Sunday. In our last Zone conference, President told us some of the stuff that has been happening there and it is a miracle. I guess in their first day in Prichard, Elders John and Loar went to this Old Barber shop in hopes that they would be able to talk to someone. When they went in, they were warmly greeted by a large group of Afro Americans who were just hanging out. The Barber that works there is well known around the neighborhood, and everyone loves him. The Elders taught everyone in the store and I guess the Barber was very interested about what they had to say. He said that he would read the Book of Mormon and Pray. When Elders John and Loar got home that night, they read In alma where it talks about Alma in Ammonihah and how he went and found Amulek and Amulek went with him from that point on and they converted many. While they were reading this, they felt strongly that this Barber would be their Amulek in Prichard. They felt impressed that they should go back to the Barber shop even though it was already about 9pm. When they arrived, to there suprize, the Barber was in his shop all alone. They knocked on the door and he let them in saying, “ I havnt been able to stop thinking about what you Elders told me. Elder John then told the Barber, “ You are our Amulek.” The Barber looked confused, but at the same time wanted to know more. They then opened up the book of Mormon and had the Barber read silently the chapter about Alma meeting Amulek. When he was finished reading, tears filled the Barbers eyes and he said, “I know you two have been sent from God. I will be your Amulek.” President Summerhays drove all the way across the mission to meet the Barber who is now baptized and helping the work move forward in Prichard. Sorry I cant write it as good as President Summerhays told it, but yeah, it was a really cool story.

Anyways, theres not too much more to talk about, other than how much I love you guys. Thank you so much for everything. I love your emails every week. Mom- I love you so much. Dad- I love you so much too. Tell the family that I love them! Love Love Love,
Elder Joshua Burnham