Mom and Dad-
Hey guys! Troy is amazing. That is cool that you are able to google map the area. Like you said, it is a really small area. We actually cover all of Pike county which covers a smaller city called Brundage and all the rural areas round about. We have alot of investigators that live out in the sticks, so it is really interesting to get out and see the real backwood areas. Theres a good mix of white and black here. Most of the community is black, but not all. The cool thing is that there are a ton of Chinese foreign exchange students here, and we are teaching about 5 of them. One of them just got baptized recently, and he speaks a little more English than the rest, so he comes with us and translates. It is so different teaching these chinese students. I am used to teaching people that already have a good knowledge of who God is and what the bible is; but these students have not even heard of God, or the bible! It is so different! But at the same time, it is good because they are so innocent and their minds have not been corrupted with all of the apostate Christian doctrines that pollute the South.
The members here are pretty cool. It is a pretty small branch so things are a little bit different. For instance: They dont allow women to say the opening prayer in sacrament. There are a few other little things that are a bit strange, but its all good. The Branch President seems pretty solid. Right now we are just trying to get the branch re-motivated to do missionary work. We get fed maybe a a few times a week, so its not too bad as far as dinners go. The cooking out here is amazing. We has pan fried stakes the other night that were fried in about 2lbs of butter and grease. My insides have been greased up all week from that one meal.
Elder Bond is really great. Me and him are already best friends. He has only been out for about 4 months, but his teaching skills are amazing and he is the hardest worker i have been with so far on my mission. I have not had any free time at all for the past week. We get in at 9pm, then we plan until about 945, then we have been flagging all of our less-active members in the branch on a giant wall map that we bought, and we do that until about 1015, and by that time we hardly have any time to write in our journals or study or anything. It feels really good to be working so hard. I could not be doing this by myself. The Lord has given me strength beyond my own, and i have felt his presence so strong the past couple weeks. The last couple days, i have actually been pretty sick with a cold, but Elder Bond gave me a blessing a couple days ago, and even though i havnt felt too great, i havent slowed down at all form the sickness.
Like i said, we are teaching some really great people. The Chinese students are all really solid, then we have a lady named Alexas who is progressing every day. Sam and Miriam are probably are most solid. They are a married couple from Kenya who have a little baby boy. Then we also have Jorge, who is a hispanic guy who has read like 20 chapters form the book of mormon in just about a week. The people here are great, we just need to motivate the members to help us by coming with us to appoinments and whatnot.
Thank you for looking up all that information for schools. That will be very helpful. I think President usually starts letting us look that stuff up on our P-days when we are down to around 4 months left. Can you believe that it is almost october? Christmas season is just 2 months away! I wonder if i will still be in Troy when i talk to yall on Christmas? Who knows, but i am excited to talk to you guys. I am also very excited for General conference. We have some investigators coming so that will be good.
The Pictures are being sent in the mail TODAY!!! I am sorry for the lag. I have been so busy, and last P-day went by way too fast. I promise, Today they will be sent. Oh and by the way, can you send me everybodies adresses again? I think i left my adress book in Fort Walton. Anyways, i dont know what else to say. The weather here is still hot and sticky. Today has cooled down a little bit, so hopefully this is the starting point for the faal weather. I love you guys so much! Thank you for everything! I miss you and love you and pray for you everyday.
Love, Josh
LETTER FROM SEPT. 21. First week in Troy, Alabama
Hi guys!!
So i think this is going to be one of the best tranfers of my mission. Elder Bond is a super hard worker and we get along so good. This area is on fire. This week has been so great! My second day here we had one whole entire day of teaching lessons all day long. That has never happened in any of my areas. Troy is alot smaller than any of the areas ive been in so far. I guess there is around 6500-11000 people here but most of them are college students so during the summer and holidays there arent very many people here at all. It is so much different up here in Alabama than anywhere else i have been. I cant really explain, its just different. This whole town just looks like a little piece of down town Baltimore or something. Everything here is really historical.
We are teaching alot of really solid people right now. A few of them are some guys from China that are here for school at Troy University. They dont speak that great of English, but its enough to where they can understand what we are saying. We have 3 investigators with baptismal dates so that will be good. You have no idea how happy i am to be here right now. I feel like all the things that i did in Fort Walton have prepared me for Troy. Elder Bond and i are working so hard together and it feel great. The Lord has been blessing us so much in the short amount of time that i have been here. If i had to compare him to any of my companions it would probably be Elder Taylor, which is wierd because this was where Elder Taylor served for 11 months after he served with me. I have never been happier. I feel like i have said that alot before.
I am ok as far as food goes. I have been eating alot healthier for the past 6 months. I feel alot better as a result so thats good. Sorry i never listened to you mom. Today i felt like a girl; I bought This organic oat cereal, soymilk, carrots, peppers, bannanas, apples, and wheat thins. That was my shopping for the whole week. Oh yeah, my adress is 503 E. Elm st apt. #5 Troy, AL 36081.
That is pretty crazy that are dogs almost got killed by a rattle snake. I would have been very sad, so i am glad they are ok. I just got emails from Brett and Ray. It sounds like they are having alot of fun up there at Snow. I still dont know what i want to do. I will probably go to Provo. That way i can still hang out with with them, i just wont necesarily be right there in Salt Lake city. How is the family doing? Any funny stories? I wrote everyone letters this week so hopefully they will forgive me for being a slacker.
Sorry about the pictures. I was going to send them off, but then i decided to wait until i got to Troy so that you could see the new companion and the new area and everything. You will get peictures this week. I love you so much. Im going to go email President now. Tell everyone i love them!
Love, Elder Burnham
Sept. 14, 2009 Waiting for the Transfer
Mom and Dad-
So we are here at the library but we have not yet received transfer information. So I will just keep writing until I get that email. I am actually pretty nervous, but also very excited. This could end up being my last area, but I doubt it. I will probably have one more after this next one. I definitely wrote Boppa a thank you letter by the way. It was probably 5 or 6 months late, but I definitely wrote one. Its ok though, I know I have been horrible at writing people back. I set a goal for myself a few days ago that I am going to take a couple hours out of every p-day and write everyone in the family, even if it is just a small note. A few nights ago I was laying in bed, and I was overwhelmed with the live that I felt for our family, and after that passed, I was also overwhelmed with guilt for not ever writing anybody in our family. So I am going to start today.
This week was a pretty good week. We spent a lot of time knocking on doors and trying to contact potential investigators that we had found a couple months ago. We didn’t have too much success this week in our finding efforts, but I still felt like we got a lot accomplished. We actually found a couple of people to teach that seem pretty solid. One guy was named Eugene, and he has a wife and a few young kids. He has been looking for a church to settle down in with his family and he said that ours was the only one that he felt peaceful about. So we are excited about him. We are teaching another couple right now who seemed pretty normal at first, but come to find out, they both claim to see spirits on a regular basis. And I guess one was petting my hair in sacrament meeting last week. Pretty weird haha.
We just received transfer information! I am going to Troy Alabama with Elder Bond. From what I here, Elder Bond is a very hard worker and is a pretty cool guy. He has been out for only a few months. Troy is a really small town with a lot of back wood country so I am really excited about that.. Elder Bond and I are going to be co-district leaders so that will be nice to have another person to give trainings with each week. I am so excited right now! I have loved Fort Walton so much, but it is mainly because I have had the most growth here. I have had some really trying experiences, but they have made me more focused and have helped me to rely more on the Lord.
So I am trying to finish the Book of Mormon again by September 30, and im only half way through it. It is so crazy that every time I read it, I get so much more out of it each time. Its interesting comparing to the other paper back copies that I have read and marked. Sorry that I write such boring emails by the way.
Everyone is ready to leave right now and I still haven’t written my email to President yet so I have to go. I love you guys. Pictures will be sent home today! I will talk to you next week all about the new area
Love, Josh
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