Week 19: Tender Mercies

Hey y'all! So this week was full of tough lessons, but many miracles. This week I've been studying about diligence and the Atonement of Jesus Christ. My companion is very fit and can work hard for long periods of time. She loves running marathons and biking in 150 mile races. I wish I was stronger and didn't have so many health concerns. This past week I felt like I was holding us back from working super hard because I have to stop to eat and rest throughout the day. Then I got called to repentance a lot. 

     1. God created my body. He knows my weaknesses, and He still put me with Sister Palmer for a reason. 

     2. Don't compare yourself to others! We are each on our own individual and unique path back to salvation. 

     3. Part of being diligent is not running faster than you have strength. Mosiah 4:27 "And see that all these things are done in wisdom and order; for it is not requisite that a man should run faster than he has strength. And again, it is expedient that he should be diligent, that thereby he might win the prize; therefore, all things must be done in order."

     And the biggest blessing of all was that this week was seeing the miracle of us reaching our goal of seven new investigators. I got sick this week and felt like I slowed down the work. By the time Saturday came around, we had zero new investigators. But I decided to put full faith in Christ and expect miracles to happen that day. They sure did! By the time we came home that evening, we had seven new investigators! That was a confirmation from God that even if I can't work at as fast as a pace as I want to, He will not hold back any miracles or blessings when I put my faith and trust in Him.

A quick overview of my week:

Monday:

We tracted in the cold wind and rain for two hours because our appointments decided to fall through, and no one wanted to let us in! Lots of doors slammed in our face :). But then we had a tender mercy: we met with our investigator Alex (15 years old) and her mom let us come inside the house for the first time! Usually we have to sit outside on the porch. She is really softening towards missionaries and the gospel.

Tuesday: 

On our way to district meeting, we stopped to take pictures by the Florida sign. Sister Palmer decided to climb it! We also served at a foster care home, sorting clothes and supplies. That evening, we met with Johnny and Rhoda. Johnny has been too shy to pray out loud. We decided to talk about prayer, and Sister Palmer promised him that as he started praying out loud, his children would see his example and join the gospel. The Spirit was so strong. I also got to try boiled peanuts for the first time! A southern specialty. They were pretty good.

Me with Johnny. He is the cutest old man!

Wednesday: 

In the middle of the day, we were driving to an appointment, and didn't feel right about it. We pulled over into the nearest parking lot (happened to be a church, of course) and said a prayer. As we looked up, we saw the sign that said "Jesus is the Answer!" Well, our prayer was answered that day! We felt prompted to talk to as many people as possible in the next few hours before we had to go to a dinner appointment. We were able to meet a lot of potentials and gain referrals. That evening, we had dinner at a member's house. The soup was really, really good. That should have been the first clue that something was wrong. A while after dinner, my stomach started feeling weird. We went to a lesson with the Allen family, and the Lord sustained me through it because as soon as we left, I slumped over onto Sister Palmer and my stomach hurt SOOO bad. She drove me to get a priesthood blessing, and I felt slightly better afterwards, but was still very sick. The soup contained gluten (which must be why it tasted so darn good). 

Thursday: 

We weekly planned all day, but had such a wonderful experience that evening. We went to Rhoda and Johnny's home, and guess who offered the opening prayer? Johnny! After months of giving the missionaries a fit about praying, God had softened his heart. It was so sweet, and we couldn't help but smile. We also had dinner at the Foxes home, and because the mom had a rough day, she told us we were playing the card game Skip-Bo instead of having a lesson. It was a tender mercy for me because I still wasn't' feeling very well. 

Friday 

We had a devotional at the senior center. We watch a lot of Mormon Messages and sneak in Book of Mormon verses into the discussion! They truly love us coming and thank us every time for setting aside 18 months of our lives to bring people to Christ and to teach them every Fridaymorning. They are so sweet. We had dinner at another members house that night, and I completely forgot to let the lady know about my food allergies! I've been slightly out of it for the last few days and not feeling real well. I had some beef jerky and almonds in my bag, so I ate those while they ate the casserole dish. She felt bad even though it was my fault and said she'd start praying for my stomach so I can eat whatever I want. Her deaf nephew seems to like me a lot because I can sign with him (maybe a little too much).

Saturday: 

We met Rhoda's family and got to know them. They are all so prepared and told us we can come back. That evening, we went to Flomaton for a few appointments we had. They ended up falling through, but that left lots of room for miracles to happen! We contacted a lot of referrals and tracted into a lot of prepared people. This was when we received seven new investigators! We met a lady named Selena, whose mother had just passed away the day before. We gave her a hug and she started crying and said we could come back. That evening, there was a porch fest down our street! It was the first one to take place in Alabama! We went to check it out because there were tons of people. We had no clue who to talk to. Sister Palmer turned to me and said, "What do you want to do?" I told her we were going to walk to the end of the street, talk to someone, and then go home. Those words definitely didn't come from me because I had no clue who we were going to talk to, but we just started walking. About 10 feet later, this man waved us over to come talk to him. He was a police chief (off duty because he was drinking) that lived down the street from us. We had a good discussion with him (for the most part) and will have to talk with him again sometime, preferably when he isn't drunk. Then Sister Palmer decided to buy frozen cheesecake while I talked to this lady. She looked super interested, but her husband waved us away. 

 Me with Rhoda. She is a recent convert and has such a strong testimony. 

Sunday: 

We road to church with Rhoda and Johnny, and afterwards they took us to see the Allen family. They were supposed to be there at church. We can feel how prepared they are, and we had a strong spiritual impression that we need to be very bold with them and let them know we represent Christ, and God wants them to come to church and learn more, but Satan is attacking them. We stopped by, but they weren't there. We will go back next week and have a very bold and loving conversation with them about God's purpose for them. We tried to contact a head quarter referral named Jennie that wanted a Bible, but apparently there house doesn't exist. In a crazy mix up of names, we met a lady named Jean who seemed interested, took a Book of Mormon, and said we can come back. Then we met another referral Catherine. We pulled up right when she was about to go inside, and she told us she was not in the mood to meet with us because her brother had just died. We gave her a hug and comforted her. 

Side note: Johnny prayed twice today! He really is progressing and everyone around him has noticed the change in him. 

Funny Quote of the week:

We had a high councilman come speak during sacrament. He said, "Are we latter-day saints, or are we latter-day ain'ts? (Excuse my English)." 

Life in the south is great! I'm surviving love-bug season and learning a lot that I otherwise wouldn't if God hadn't called me here. I think my grammar is getting worse, but I still haven't developed a southern accent; really disappointing, I know! I live in a brick house in Brewton and get to drive a red Rogue with 1600 miles a month. Our area sure is huge! I feel many more tender miracles coming in the future and feel so much potential in this area!

Much love,

Sister Burnham

 Sister Palmer stole cotton from a field and here is a picture of us with it. IT'S SO FLUFFY!

We got to see Brother Kelley's "toys." He is the Branch Mission Leader. He told us he found a way to flood the work with the Book of Mormon: throwing them out of airplanes! I don't think my mission president will be too thrilled ;)

Week 18: Hurricane Irma

Hey y'all! 

This past week has been full of anticipation and preparation for the coming of Hurricane Irma! We’ve had so many conference calls and weather updates! I don’t think I even knew exactly what a hurricane was before now. Besides some very high wind speed and rain, my area is safe from the hurricane!

One of the exciting things that happened this week was I finally got a new planner on Tuesday! I know it sounds ridiculous, but it’s so hard to stay organized as a missionary without one! Sister Palmer and I came up with a new method to remember to ask for referrals. For every person we forget, we have to do push-ups the next morning. Well, we have definitely got a lot better at asking for referrals, but I've also gotten a lot stronger this past week! Side note: people give the craziest referrals... "There's this man named Piwi who lives down the road on the left after the brick house." That is so helpful...  "And I know this other lady on Glen Road who has a white house, a white car, and a white truck." We drove down that road very slowly and saw ten white houses. We think we might have found the one she was referring to, though! I've also learned how to use Family Search a lot more! We helped a recent convert try to find information for two hours. It was kind of like trying to solve a puzzle or mystery. I am really starting to feel the Spirit of Elijah on my mission as I testify to people that they have ancestors waiting for them to do their work.  

Wednesday, we picked Scoponons (no clue how to spell it, but they are not normal grapes!) with our recent convert Diane for an hour. We also met with a lady named Ceola that afternoon, and we were 40min late coming from another lesson. She said she had almost given up hope that we were coming. She has a great knowledge of the bible and the gospel, so we gave her a Book of Mormon. She was very hesitant about it, and Sister Palmer felt like she should ask her about prophets. We were able to explain the Restoration and prophets, and she opened up a lot more.

On Thursday, we helped plant in Mary's garden. Sister Palmer had a great time hoeing. It was very straight, and she said it was because on the farm growing up, her dad would bury their rows and make them do it again if it was crooked. I got to sprinkle in all the seeds and bury them. The ones planted a week ago already popped up above ground. I was so surprised! I thought it was a miracle! Apparently it's because I'm from Arizona, the state where nothing really grows, and it takes forever. 

Friday we had exchanges with the sisters from Gulf Breeze. I left with Sister Fletcher Friday morning to go to Gulf Breeze, while Sister Palmer and Sister Sant stayed behind. It was cool being in a different area and seeing the bay. We contacted a few people and got a new investigator. For dinner, a member took us out to a Japanese Hibachi bar! It was super fun to watch the performance, and the best part was mine got made in the kitchen to avoid cross contamination, so my food was all ready at the same time and I got it sooner than everyone else. I ate while I watched him prepare everyone's food. Afterwards, we talked with the people sitting at the bar table with us. We explained what we did as missionaries, and I gave her a copy of the Book of Mormon. She also told us how she was not happy with preachers because their last one had just got convicted of murder, and they found out his next victim he had planned to kill was going to be her son! Folks, these are the last days that are prophesied about in the last days! Crazy things go on, and a lot of people draw close to God with their lips, but their hearts are far from him! Late that evening at 10pm, we got the call that we weren't having zone conference on Monday because of Hurricane Irma, but that we were having it the very next morning at 10am, combined with another zone. The next 20 minutes was a crazy mess of phone calls trying to figure everything out. But their beds were very comfortable... I felt like I was the princess from "The Princess and the Pea" because they had so many mattresses and box springs.

Saturday! We left at 7:30am to drive to zone conference. I got to meet up with my trainer, Sister Wall and hear about how the people in Semmes are doing! I also got to see my MTC companion Sister Scott! It was a happy reunion. Sister Scott was so excited to see me, she almost tackled me with a hug. I love her so much! She told me lots of crazy stories... and said she had a dream the night before that I would be training next transfer in Brewton. Well, only three more weeks to see if her dream is accurate ;). In zone conference, we talked about the talk "Be Responsible" that was given at BYU. It was very good and taught me a lot more about justice and mercy. I love being surrounded by missionaries and being lifted up by their sweet spirits. That evening as we headed back to our area, Sister Palmer told me how they had found 10 new investigators on the exchange! Miracles always seem to happen on exchanges. I can definitely see how God is blessing us whenever we work hard and make sacrifices. That exchange used a lot of our miles, but it was definitely worth it. We are now teaching a family that is super interested in the message. There are 7 kids we are teaching and gave copies of The Book of Mormon to, along with their mom and uncle. They are excited to continue to learn more and read from it. They already see how this is going to bring their family closer together!

On Sunday, my companion and I had the privilege of speaking in sacrament meeting! I felt prompted to speak about the Restoration, which is what I had talked about in my last ward. Sister Palmer spoke on the enabling power of the Atonement. We also had a linger-longer after church! Everyone brought a ton of food, and members made sure there was food I could eat. It was great talking and getting to know everyone better. Plus we got sent home with a lot of food! Later that evening, we met up with a former investigator, DJ, who had texted us out of the blue and wanted to start meeting with us again. We started to teach the Plan of Salvation, but in the middle, he said he didn't believe in Joseph Smith, so we stopped and started teaching the Restoration to him. I have never been so bold and bore testimony so strongly in a lesson before. He was very irreverent in the way he talked about God and Sister Palmer got soooo frustrated with him. She stared him down and was very serious and kept asking the same question because he wouldn't answer it. We both talked about how weird we felt afterwards. Drugs had definitely messed with his mind, and we are praying to know what to do with him. I am grateful for a tough companion that watches out for me and protects me!

One lesson I really learned this week was that I need to have confidence in Christ—not in myself or in others. As I've pondered how I can do this, I've been studying about the Atonement of Jesus Christ and about the nature of Christ. He is perfect and can do all things. His words will all be fulfilled, because He cannot lie. Therefore, no matter how inadequate I feel, I can trust that everything will work out because of Him. Often times I put myself down, saying "I can't do that; I'm not talented enough." But I'm really starting to trust the statement in Philippians 4:13. "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me." Of myself, I cannot do a lot of things. But I'm starting to have more confidence that I really can do all things with Christ's strength. 

Fun fact: we are now teaching a CJ, a DJ, a KJ, and a TJ! This will be fun :)

Much love,

Sister Burnham

Sleeping like Princess and the Pea

Sister Scott and I, reunited at last :)

With my companion, Sister Palmer

Got to see my trainer again, Sister Wall

Week 17 - "Souls to Satan"

Hey y'all! 

This week has been quite the adventure. On Tuesday, we had district meeting in Florida! It's so cool how often I get to drive past the state line! They plant a line of palm trees by the border since that's what Florida is known for, even though you won't find them around very often. Afterwards, we had a service project planned, but because of all the rain (from tropical storm Harvey), it was cancelled. And we had forgotten to plan backups! We drove to the side of the highway, praying and pondering about what to do. As Sister Palmer looked on the GPS to see who was nearby, I saw three or four houses on the side of the highway. I said we should tract them. We walked along the highway to save miles because we were already over our limit... As we were walking, a truck driver passed us and pulled around to ask us if we were broken down and needed help. I walked up and said, "No, we are good! We are actually missionaries and would love to share this with you!" Then I handed him a pass-along card. We met one elderly lady who had a Book of Mormon from her husband that passed away, and we were able to talk to her for an hour! She was so friendly and invited us back anytime. A few houses later, we gave a Book of Mormon to a young lady that sounded interested. It was so cool to see the result of following the Spirit and finding those who have been prepared.

On Wednesday, we taught Sandra again. She said she gave her chicken Pineapple a bath! We taught her the Plan of Salvation, and she said it made way more sense than anything else she had ever learned! She was very excited and had read 10 pages in the Book of Mormon. She is definitely very prepared. Members took us out for lunch and dinner! 

On Thursday, after a long morning of weekly planning, we taught a nine-year-old named CJ the Gospel of Jesus Christ using cups. He has a very short attention span, so we have to get creative with his lessons! That evening, we taught the Nelsons the plan of salvation using cutouts that spelled "love." They absolutely loved it! ;) It helped them remember to focus on the bigger picture. While we were there, Curtis said, "We decided to give our souls to Satan." I gave him the strangest look and he said with a laugh, "The sole of our foot!" He also compared Satan to a drug dealer--he hands out misery to take people down with him. 

This Friday morning, after the devotional with the cute elderly people at the senior center, they invited us to stay after for lunch. They said all the food had already been blessed! Unfortunately, I couldn't actually eat any of it because of my food allergies, and when the cooks found out, they prepared a beautiful plate of fruit for me to eat. They are so sweet! We went to the Fox family that night for dinner, family home evening, and service. Christy loves football, so she taught us an entire lesson about faith and football. People here sure love their football! We worked out in the garden and Sister Palmer destroyed a MASSIVE ant-pile covering a plant and got bit a ton. 

We rode bikes a lot on Saturday and a nice couple gave us some ice cold water when we ran out. Southern hospitality is a real thing!

On Sunday, I attempted to go without food and almost passed out during a lesson because my blood sugar got too low. I started slumping forward and the lady we were teaching noticed and got me some water. I've met so many new and kind people here. I have definitely felt Heavenly's Father love for me so much this week. I relied on the Atonement of Jesus Christ so much this week to pull through. I know the enabling power of Christ's Atonement is real, and that it can heal physical sickness and fatigue as we turn our thoughts in gratitude to God. God has a plan for each one of us, and I know I am exactly where He needs me to be!

Pictures of me and Sister Wall with Kennedie and her siblings. This was taken a week before her baptism & before I was transferred.

What a musical week! Johnny is quite the collector of musical instruments and showed them to us to try out :)