Jan 3 2010

Mom and Dad-

It sounds like your week was pretty packed. Im glad you guys had a fun and safe time. Your probably pretty sick of driving now though huh?

This week was pretty hectic. My patience was definetely tried and tested, but it was good for me. The first few days of the week went pretty good. We found a couple people to teach and we were working hard. New Years eve was a bit frustrateing in the day time because noone was home, but we still had a productive day. At around 7pm we went to the Schlamers home and they fed all eight of us missionaries. We watched them light off some fire works as well, so that was fun. Heres the great part of the week. We went to sleep on New Years Eve, and one of the other missionaries had thrown a load of wash in right before he went to bed. Well, i woke up at around 12:30am to a strange bubbling noise. It sounded like it was coming from the window which is right nect to my bed. So i tried messing with it, but the bubbling noice was still there. I soon realized that the bubbling noice was coming from underneath my matress, which is on the ground. I reached down to the floor and my hand went under 2 inches of water. So i got out of bed, turned on the light, and saw that our entire apartment was filled with water. The hose on the back of our washing machine had come off and was running for over two hours, dumping water into our apartment. After i turned the water off, we took our matresses, which were filled with water and weighed about two hundred pounds, outside and just went to sleep on our couches in the front room. The next morning, we called maintenence and they came and tore out most of the carpet in the apartment. So everything is a mess right now in our place and we had to spend alot of our time just trying to figure out what to do until we get new carpet this week. Its been good though. I have had some time to talk to Elder Fox about pretty much everything that i talked to you guys about, and he has been really trying to do better. This week has been tough, but i feel like alot has been acomplished, so it has been good.

I was reading President Summerhays's email today, and i realized that i have been a huge dummy! I havent been saving any of his emails. I should just forward them to you guys every week so that i can have them for the future. I hope you dont mind if i start doing that.

I had a neat teaching experience last night. We were at a dinner appointment with an active family. They invited one of their friends who is a nonmember to come and join them for family home evening afterward. A discussion opened up about the word of wisdom, and the non member lady asked why we could drink soda, but not tea. Everyone was trying to give all of these scientific answers to her. They were all trying to give these logical explanations and health facts, but the lday wasnt buying it. She said, none of that feels right, and until i here something that makes sence, i cant believe what you believe. After not saying anything the whole time, something from preach my gospel came to mind, and i told her, "ma'am, i dont think that that is the real question you have. I think the real question is whether or not Joseph Smith is a true Prophet. Either he is, or he isnt. If he is not, then you can take the word of wisdom and everyone of his teachings and throw it out the window; But if he is, then that answers every single question that you have about all of this. All of your questions can be answered by praying to know if he is a true Prophet. There was a little pause, and she then said, "in my 14 years of asking that question to mormons, i have never had a responce like that. That is logical. That makes sence." The Spirit was really strong. It felt so good because we havent had very many teaching oportunities lately.

Anyways, i dont have much more to say about this week. The more i think about you guys coming up here to pick me up, the more and more i like the idea. I am happy that you kind of talked me into it.

I love you guys. Stay safe this week!

Love, Elder Josh Burnham