Howdy all y'all! The most stressful part of training a new missionary is the unrealistic expectations you sometimes place on yourself. I am working on that, though! I'm not perfect, but I am called of God specifically to train Sister Stites (though most often I feel like I am the one learning from her). We've had quite a few crazy adventures this week!!!
On Tuesday, Sister Stites said that she felt very strongly that we should go to a park and contact people there. So, we schedule it into our evening, and when we arrive, she looks over at me with a terrified look on her face and says, "Um, I don't actually want to do this anymore!" I gave her a playful squinty-eyed glare and said, "This was you're idea! Too bad, we're still going!" So we got out of the car and walked around the park. We talked with one lady walking around for exercise, and Sister Stites did great! She left her with a Book of Mormon! As they were finishing up talking, my eyes caught hold of a cute family up ahead of us, and I had this feeling we needed to talk with them. So we did. Turns out that the mom used to be Mormon but became less-active, but is super friendly with the church. She had recently moved here with her husband and little girl from Italy, and was so lonely. We talked with her (or should I say, she talked with us) for 45 minutes! It was pretty cool. And super hot and humid. Y'all, I've been so dehydrated! The senior couples were so inspired that evening to invite us over for watermelon, and without knowing we were lacking water, gave us a giant case of bottled water!
Wednesday... I have quite the story, y'all! We got to teach Jon Harris, our recent convert, and some other less-actives. That evening, we had a dinner appointment with an active member. We were able to share a very spiritual message with her afterwards. She was really feeling the Spirit and opening up to us. Then all of the sudden, her less-active, cynical son walks into the room and starts questioning everything we are saying. I don't know why, but I felt very strongly to speak up. In my companions' words, I sat straight up, looked him in the eye, and said, "We have the authority to call people to repentance." He looked taken aback for a second. I went on to exhort him to study his scriptures and pray everyday because he had nothing to lose. According to him, his life sucked, and it could only get better if he followed the Savior. It was one of those moments when I knew the Spirit had spoken through me, and I hope that was what he needed to hear (in the long run).
We had Zone Conference on Thursday! All of the senior missionaries were invited. I got to participate in the musical number and play the piano. I felt very impressed about the importance of keeping your fire burning as you testify to others. Always testify of principles that have personal relevance and meaning to you. When we got back home that evening, we found out that our AC wasn't working anymore...
On Friday, our AC was still broken, and boy was it getting HOT inside. We were finally able to get it fixed, but not before Sister Stites raided the freezer for some ice packs.
Saturday was super fun! First of all, I finally did it... after 13 months, my hair was in dire need of being cut. At the Methodist Community Breakfast, they have two hairdressers that cut the homeless people's hair. Well, I'm far away from home, so I count, right?! Plus we wanted to get on the good side of a potential investigator. So my hair got chopped. A little shorter than I wanted, but oh well. That evening, we drove down to St. Andrew's Park to have dinner with members. They took us out to Gator Lake and the beach after. Boy oh boy, did we see some gators!!! It was so exciting. One of them was right up by the shore, and a much bigger one was swimming further away.
We had two families that moved in recently finally come to church! It was so good to see them there. I connected really well with one of the families, especially their little girl. She reminds me a bit of CJ from Brewton. I sat next to her and she would copy exactly what I was doing. We went over to a member's home for a late lunch (like, 3pm) and it was really good! They cooked a lot for us! But... we had a dinner appointment at 6pm with Bishop's family, only a few hours later. It all worked out though. We have been really trying to bond and connect with the ward, and have made plans to spend as much time with them as possible to let them know that we are truly here for them.
This past week, Sister Stites and I have been studying about the signs of the Second Coming. With the revelations that President Nelson has given to us and his address to the youth, we really feel that the second coming is a lot sooner than any of us realize, and we need to step up our game to prepare. If you look around the world, the wicked are wicked enough to be destroyed. God is waiting for His Saints to step up their game and be prepared for when Christ comes again. Even among church members, He is sifting the wheat from the tares. What can each of y'all do to more fully prepare for when our Savior comes again? I testify that we will see Him soon, and when we see His face, we will realize that no sin is worth keeping us from His eternal presence.
I really love y'all and am so grateful for the support you give me. Have a wonderful week!
Much love,
Sister Burnham
Bonus pics from Gator Lake:
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