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