Mom and Dad-
That’s so cool that you are spending all this time with Chad, Em, and Parker. Im so jealous of you guys! Im glad that you had a fun week. I got your package in the mail. Thank you so much! Did you see how much was on the Card you sent me? You really didn’t have to do that. But thank you. And thank you for those pictures too. Chile looks great I was a little worried when you said that you didn’t get my email. I felt so bad when that happened last time. Shawna sent me some pictures of the kids at knots, Julie looks so old! Ryan is still looking like his crazy self haha. And Kenna is getting huge too! I love the pictures that all you guys send out, thank you so much. Im working on taking more pictures so that you don’t have to wait as long as last time to get some. I took some pretty good ones lately. There are these bright green lizards out here that are pretty easy to catch, and if you put anything in front of their mouths, they will bite it and not let go. So we had some fun clamping them to our noses and ears and whatnot. I love it out here in the spring. The Weather is so nice. I guess I just don’t really remember last spring very well cuz all my attention was focused on not getting killed by E. Honzic. Its definitely starting to heat up though. At least I only have to go through one more, and hopefully I will get to ride a hurricane or something.
We had a pretty good week this week. We went and visited a lot of Part Member families and set up some appointments to go back and talk with them. We also met a couple of really cool less-active members that have a lot of good potential for coming back.We also did a lot of tracting and found 3 people to teach from it so that was way cool. We had Lesson with Emily (the girl we brought the cheesecake to) and that went really well. We had a member come with us and it worked out perfectly. She fed us all dinner before the lesson and we had a really good time. She is pretty solid. We taught her the Restoration and for the most part she accepted it pretty well. Were really getting excited for everything that’s been happening lately here in Fort Walton. There was nothing here when I first got here except for damage to fix from previous missionaries, but were finally starting to see success. I really hope that I stay here for another transfer with Elder Gooch. I might ask president if he can ask the Lord if I can stay.
We met some kid while we were tracting who said that we could come back the next day, and E. Goch and I both felt like it was goiig to be a bash for some reason. So we went back the next day, and it pretty much was. The Kid was probably about 19 and he was asked us what we believed, so we told him. He then went on to tell us how there was no Savior and that there was no way to no if there was any savior. He said he believed in God, but that everything else about Christ and the Ressurection and all that wasn’t true. Right away we just started to bear testimony of the Fall and how all of us are fallen and if it were not for the Atonement, all of us would be lost. It was really cool, because at first, this guy was swearing at us and acting all tough, but after we finished talking, it seemed like his countenance totally changed and he was actually willing to listen. He still wouldn’t let us come inside and talk to him, but he took a pamphlet and said that he would read it. So that was kind of a neat experience.
Well, im happy all is well back home. All is well over here. Im having so much fun with Elder Gooch. Sorry I only write about the missionary stuff, I should probably start writing about some of the fun stuff too. Send some more pictures of the lake and all that good stuff. I love you guys so much, thank you for everything that you have done for me. A party for the year mark sounds great! Its on the 9th of next month. But I probably wont be at my own party haha. Oh well. Anyways, I have to go, I love you Mom! I love you Dad! Talk to ya next week
Love,
E. Josh
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Joy in the journey
Mom and Dad: ...It was such a good week! I am so happy right now with Elder Gooch. I think he's probably my favorite companion so far. I thought we were going to be sick for a lot longer, but we got better, and so that's good. We did a lot of less-active and part-member work tis week with a lot of tracting thrown in between. We worked hard all week and found a lot of very nice members who actually showed some interest in coming back to church after not coming for years. We also found three new investigators who we are pretty excited about. We had such a great lesson with the Millers. We asked them if they would be baptized and they said yes! I have been so happy so far this transfer. Heavenly Father has been blessing me with more than I could ask for It seems like anything that I have been praying for lately, He has just been giving me freely. I have been finding true "joy in the journey" as President Monson would say. So anyways, life is good! Its starting to warm up out here again. Its so weird to be coming up on April. There really isn't any spring out here, it pretty much just turns right into summer. Well, I think I'm gonna go now. I love you guys so much. Thank you so much for everything you have done for me. Love, Elder Joshua Burnham
Monday, March 9, 2009
March 9, 2009 Committed the Millers to baptism
Mom and Dad,
Ok so this is going to be pretty short. We are in Destin for our P-day right now on our bikes haha! We couldnt find a library so we are in an office max right now doing our emails on the laptops. But dont worry, i am for sure writing you a letter and sending it in the mail today with some good pictures.
So this week has been great. We both feel 100% better and we have been working really hard. We had an excellent lesson with the Millers and committed them both to baptism in which they accapted! We are so excited about them. We found 3 new investigators this week and we did a lot of tracting. Ive been so happy all week long. Ive come to realize how much i love my mission. Their isnt a single part of it that i do not enjoy.
Anyways, i really have to go, but i promise you im going to send a nice long letter out today with those pictures so dont worry. Mom- I love you! Dad- I love you!!!
Love, Elder Joshua Burnham
P.s.- Ill tell you all about our day today in destin in the letter. It is so amazing here!
Ok so this is going to be pretty short. We are in Destin for our P-day right now on our bikes haha! We couldnt find a library so we are in an office max right now doing our emails on the laptops. But dont worry, i am for sure writing you a letter and sending it in the mail today with some good pictures.
So this week has been great. We both feel 100% better and we have been working really hard. We had an excellent lesson with the Millers and committed them both to baptism in which they accapted! We are so excited about them. We found 3 new investigators this week and we did a lot of tracting. Ive been so happy all week long. Ive come to realize how much i love my mission. Their isnt a single part of it that i do not enjoy.
Anyways, i really have to go, but i promise you im going to send a nice long letter out today with those pictures so dont worry. Mom- I love you! Dad- I love you!!!
Love, Elder Joshua Burnham
P.s.- Ill tell you all about our day today in destin in the letter. It is so amazing here!
Monday, March 2, 2009
March 2, 2009 So how cool is the Book of Mormon?
March 2
Mom and Dad-
This week was another pretty slow week. Our whole apartment was coughing up a lung all week. I started getting better around Thursday, but Elder Gooch was still really sick all the rest of the week until yesterday. The doctor prescribed us with some antibiotics so we are both feeling much better now. So yeah not to much happened this week as far as finding people to teach. We did get the chance to go and visit the Millers though. He is still very sick but they are both still very interested in coming to church. We just taught them a little bit of the Restoration, and when we told him about modern Prophets he said, “ well sure, I would definitely have to agree with that.” So we will see how that goes. Were going to teach them the Plan of Salvation this next Thursday and I think it will go over well considering how old they both are and how sick he is.
Although I was pretty sick all week, I was still able to get some stuff done. So downstairs in our apartment, we have a map that is about 4ft by 6 ft. It’s a huge map. Its probably a little bigger than the one I sent you pictures of in Crestview. I had the Clerk print me off a current Ward Roster and I had the Bishop Mark every Less-active member and part member in the ward. In our ward there are about 375 members, about 120 are active. So I went out and bough a ton of these different colored see through tabs that you can write on, then I took the Roster, and one by one tagged each active, less-active and Part member family on that giant map of ours. Its all color coded as well, so all the Pink tabs are less-active, all the yellows are Part members and all the Greens are Active. So now just by looking at the Map, we know where every single member on our Roster lives. It makes it so much easier to plan out routes throughout the day and it makes it so you don’t have all this wasted time just looking around for places. It also helps of course to have a GPS haha. But still, it was a fun project to work on while I was sick because it made it so I wasn’t just laying around doing nothing.
So the doctor told us to buy a humidifier, which would be like $20. He said it would help with our coughs. But instead of doing that, everynight this week after planning, all four of us in the apartment get into our towels, bring stools into the bathroom, close the door, and turn the shower on as hot as it gets. It is probably the most amazing thing ever! The bathroom turns into a giant steam room. For some reason the water in our apartment gets ridiculously hot so its perfect. We didn’t realize how gay it probably looked until the Spanish missionaries came over wondering where we all were, and then heard some talking in the bathroom, and then opened the door to see 4 sweaty dudes in towels in a steemy bathroom. It was pretty funny haha.
So you got the new horse huh? That’s really cool. How far away is she from our house? I bet the kinds will think that is the coolest thing ever. I remember growing up, when ever I was at the other Burnhams house, we would go across the street and feed carrots to the horses there. I always thought that was so cool, so im sure the kids will think the same.
SO I got an e-mail from Chad today. It sounds like he is getting really excited. I am so happy for them. That is just going to feel so good to be done with school and to actually be working.
So how cool is the Book of Mormom? I am just going to keep bringing it up every week because it is so amazing. There are so many promises to us In that book. I am at the end of the War chapters right now reading about the 2,060 strippling sons of Helaman. That Book is just so full of good. I cant explain it. It has just come to life so much more since marking in the new way we learned. Just in reading the war chapters over the past few days, my testimony has increased so much of power of this Book in the conversion procces. Ive felt like I can almost here the voices crying from the dust as ive been readind about all of these wars in the ancient world. I Love it! I love being a missionary. President summerhays said something really cool in a recent Zone conference about missionary work. He said, “ If you don’t like missionary work, you better start liking it, because one day your bound to have a mission statement that goes something like, This is My Work and My Glory, to bring to pass the Immortality and Eternal life of Man.” So we all better really start enjoying missionary work haha! So Good. Anyways, I love you both so much. I am so happy that you guys are happy. Thank you for everything. I love you Mom! I love you Dad! I love you Family! You are all in my prayers every night and day!
Love,
Elder Joshua Burnham
Mom and Dad-
This week was another pretty slow week. Our whole apartment was coughing up a lung all week. I started getting better around Thursday, but Elder Gooch was still really sick all the rest of the week until yesterday. The doctor prescribed us with some antibiotics so we are both feeling much better now. So yeah not to much happened this week as far as finding people to teach. We did get the chance to go and visit the Millers though. He is still very sick but they are both still very interested in coming to church. We just taught them a little bit of the Restoration, and when we told him about modern Prophets he said, “ well sure, I would definitely have to agree with that.” So we will see how that goes. Were going to teach them the Plan of Salvation this next Thursday and I think it will go over well considering how old they both are and how sick he is.
Although I was pretty sick all week, I was still able to get some stuff done. So downstairs in our apartment, we have a map that is about 4ft by 6 ft. It’s a huge map. Its probably a little bigger than the one I sent you pictures of in Crestview. I had the Clerk print me off a current Ward Roster and I had the Bishop Mark every Less-active member and part member in the ward. In our ward there are about 375 members, about 120 are active. So I went out and bough a ton of these different colored see through tabs that you can write on, then I took the Roster, and one by one tagged each active, less-active and Part member family on that giant map of ours. Its all color coded as well, so all the Pink tabs are less-active, all the yellows are Part members and all the Greens are Active. So now just by looking at the Map, we know where every single member on our Roster lives. It makes it so much easier to plan out routes throughout the day and it makes it so you don’t have all this wasted time just looking around for places. It also helps of course to have a GPS haha. But still, it was a fun project to work on while I was sick because it made it so I wasn’t just laying around doing nothing.
So the doctor told us to buy a humidifier, which would be like $20. He said it would help with our coughs. But instead of doing that, everynight this week after planning, all four of us in the apartment get into our towels, bring stools into the bathroom, close the door, and turn the shower on as hot as it gets. It is probably the most amazing thing ever! The bathroom turns into a giant steam room. For some reason the water in our apartment gets ridiculously hot so its perfect. We didn’t realize how gay it probably looked until the Spanish missionaries came over wondering where we all were, and then heard some talking in the bathroom, and then opened the door to see 4 sweaty dudes in towels in a steemy bathroom. It was pretty funny haha.
So you got the new horse huh? That’s really cool. How far away is she from our house? I bet the kinds will think that is the coolest thing ever. I remember growing up, when ever I was at the other Burnhams house, we would go across the street and feed carrots to the horses there. I always thought that was so cool, so im sure the kids will think the same.
SO I got an e-mail from Chad today. It sounds like he is getting really excited. I am so happy for them. That is just going to feel so good to be done with school and to actually be working.
So how cool is the Book of Mormom? I am just going to keep bringing it up every week because it is so amazing. There are so many promises to us In that book. I am at the end of the War chapters right now reading about the 2,060 strippling sons of Helaman. That Book is just so full of good. I cant explain it. It has just come to life so much more since marking in the new way we learned. Just in reading the war chapters over the past few days, my testimony has increased so much of power of this Book in the conversion procces. Ive felt like I can almost here the voices crying from the dust as ive been readind about all of these wars in the ancient world. I Love it! I love being a missionary. President summerhays said something really cool in a recent Zone conference about missionary work. He said, “ If you don’t like missionary work, you better start liking it, because one day your bound to have a mission statement that goes something like, This is My Work and My Glory, to bring to pass the Immortality and Eternal life of Man.” So we all better really start enjoying missionary work haha! So Good. Anyways, I love you both so much. I am so happy that you guys are happy. Thank you for everything. I love you Mom! I love you Dad! I love you Family! You are all in my prayers every night and day!
Love,
Elder Joshua Burnham
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
