Week 67 - Pit, a Priesthood Blessing, and the Parks

What's up, y'all? This week actually went by pretty quickly! I experienced so many miracles and tender mercies from God.

Monday

We played some fun games with other missionaries in our zone, like "Psychology" and "Smurf." We also drove down to PCB to have dinner with a "long lost cousin" we had found at our family history event. Apparently, we are 4th cousins! And she is 10th cousins with Sister Stites. While there, a HUGE rainstorm came and we could not even see out of the window! I prayed that it would stop by the time we had to leave, and my prayer was answered! We made it back safely and then went and had family night with the Lucas family. They are seriously the best! I can't begin to describe how much I love them. We played a card game, "Pit," with them, and I totally lost. It was hilarious because I always seem to lose over there!

Tuesday

We visited a referral that we received, Maurice. We went with the Lyles to visit her, and she is quite the character. She kept saying how badly she wanted to be baptized and become a preacher so that she could share the gospel. She even preached at us for a short minute! She kept saying, "Thank ya, Jesus!" She truly has a sweet spirit about her. Late tonight, I was practicing the violin for a musical number, and I hear a loud knock at the door. I thought it was someone complaining about me playing too loud or something, so it made me really sad, and I started putting my violin away. Next thing I know, there is more pounding on the door and footsteps running away, so we open the door to investigate. There, sitting on our doorstep, is a package of bacon! The Lucas family had dropped it off for us because we had been joking last night about wanting bacon but it being too expensive. They are seriously the best.

Wednesday

Today was really good. We had lunch with a young lady who recently moved into our ward boundaries. We got to know her more and talked about how lots of people ask why "Mormons think they get their own planet in the next life." That is something our mission president was going to role-play with us today in interviews. She had heard lots of weird things about our church before she was baptized. Interviews went very well. I was able to talk with President Smith about some things that had been on my mind. He set up a time that evening to come and talk with me more at our church building, because he just so happened to be staying in the area to go to a lesson with the elders. He is the busiest man ever, but still made time for just me. Later that night, we were able to talk more one-on-one and he was able to listen and counsel with me. Afterwards, I asked him if he could give me a priesthood blessing, and it was exactly what I needed. My love and admiration for him has grown exponentially this week. We also got to see the Parks family today and teach them about the Plan of Salvation and help finish making the baptismal programs.

Thursday

We got to help the Lyles clean the church this morning. I put my phone up to the microphone on the pulpit to play some children's songs over the speakers while we cleaned :). We also had the elders teach Bible Study tonight, and it was quite the interesting experience...

Friday

We went to see the Parks again and taught the kids about the Restoration. Sister Parks has been so grateful for our help with the baptism. Lana is so excited, and I feel like a big part of why I am in Callaway is to meet and help this amazing family. I hope the dad will join the church one day so that they can become an eternal family! That evening, we accidentally double-booked ourselves for dinner again. I actually decided that I LOVE when this happens. It makes me so happy because I know people really love us and want to take good care of us. We just have to make room for them all, even when our dinner calendar is full! What a big change from the beginning of my time here in the ward. The members have definitely grown to love us a lot more and are opening up. Brother Harris took us out to a buffet, and he was such a gentlemen. He was all dressed up and held the doors open for us. He also told us that we sisters are leaps and bounds above the elders (but we aren't allowed to tell them he said that). Then we had dinner with the Willmores, and had a fun spa night with the other senior sisters living in our complex. It was such a relaxing evening, and I truly felt the Savior's love for me while we relaxed and pondered over what the Savior would say to us if we were speaking to Him face to face.

 Saturday

Some funny business went down at the Methodist Community Breakfast this morning. When we were first walking in, one of the preachers playfully confronted us about how he can't call us "LDS" or "Mormon" anymore. "What am I supposed to call y'all?" he asked. I responded with the full name of our church. He let out an exasperated sigh and said it was such a mouthful, and it was so much shorter and easier to say "LDS." I responded, "Shortcuts can't get you into Heaven!" I got him good there, and he didn't have a good response, so he jokingly shooed us away. We were the only musicians up there because the regulars couldn't make it, and so we decided to sing and play "Book of Mormon Stories," complete with the hand actions and everything. I also played "Joseph Smith's First Prayer" on the vioin. Planting seeds!

Sunday

Maurice came to church and loved it! She says she really wants to be a member. Lana's baptism was amazing! I was privileged to participate in the musical number. We sang, "A Child's Prayer" because that is Lana's favorite song currently. We had her sing the first verse with us two, and then I played the second verse on the violin while Sister Stites sang it. Then I played the third verse on the violin (the piano part) and I snuck in there "How Great Thou Art" as a surprise because it is Lana's mother's favorite song. She teared up during the musical number, and we received so many compliments afterwards. I have found such great joy in using my talents to bring the Spirit and bless others' lives. That evening, we had dinner with Bishop's family, and we did the "can smashing the finger" object lesson, where the Book of Mormon protects your finger from getting seriously injured. They really enjoyed it and thought it was a brilliant object lesson!

 Ether 12:23-29, 37

As I was reading through these verses about Moroni's insecurities, I found myself totally relating. I love how verse 26 points out that Christ's grace is sufficient for the meek, and no one shall take advantage of their weakness. Despite all of our many imperfections and weaknesses, the Lord's divine help and strength (grace) will make it so no one can take advantage of our weakness. He will truly strengthen us to be able to do what we are called to do. I know that I could not have survived a single day of my mission without the grace of God. 

I also loved verse 37, which points out that when we see our weaknesses, then the Lord can make them into strengths. I've found that pattern to be so evident throughout my life. I recognize a weakness and work hard to change it with the Lord's help. Sometimes not at the pace that I want. But through His Atoning sacrifice, I am slowly becoming a new and changed individual.

Much love,

Sister Burnham 

Week 66 - Kids are the Best Teachers... Right?

Howdy all y'all! I hope you had an absolutely amazing week! I love learning about myself. How I think, respond, and act about things, in relation to others and to God. And I love finding ways to change things about myself that bring me closer to becoming like my Savior. This is what repentance is all about. This week I really felt the Lord start preparing me for going home. I know it is still 3 months away, but Heavenly Father truly knows I will need a long time to prepare because I don't want my mission to end. I love every aspect of being a missionary, and so God is slowly helping me to plan ways I can still be a missionary even when I am not wearing a name-badge.

Monday

Coming on a mission teaches you about a lot of skills you have. We had some other sister missionaries over for a "crafting party," and apparently I am becoming known as the "Master Crafter." We also had dinner and family night with the Lucas family, whom I love so very much! We had such a fun time laughing all night long, and it was just what I needed.

Tuesday

We worked on family history today because I am training Sister Stites so that she will be able to help ward members work on their family history. It has been a slow process for me, but I am slowly catching onto the Spirit of Elijah. I think what has been the driving factor for me is I want to know how my ancestors made it through the hard times. When faced with discouragement, death, heartache, and seemingly no hope, what were they thinking and how did they carry on? Because maybe that can help me too. And as we learn more about them, and our hearts turn to them, they will turn to us and help us in our afflictions. That evening, we had dinner with the Willmore's, and they got us cute turtle souvenirs!

Wednesday

We were able to teach Brother Harris about overcoming depression and negativity by reading through 2 Nephi 4. It was very intriguing to read through it with a new lens of "diagnosing" him with depression and seeing how he overcame it with the help of the Lord. We visited a few people and had dinner with a less-active couple. On the way to dinner, I was so tired and not feeling well, but I said a prayer and went forth anyway. Elder Busche has made this promise, and it truly works: "Steer your thoughts away from yourself and direct them, in gratitude and love, toward your Savior and your Heavenly Father. This will help you overcome fatigue, despair, and physical sickness." I've relied on this promise often throughout my mission.

Thursday

We went to help some members wash their car. They said we could wash our car with them, so we parked it next to them under a pine tree. But ours looked spotless compared to theirs, (granted, we had just washed it on Monday) so we just worked on their cars. We scrubbed and washed for a few hours, and when we left, our car had some pine-needles, leaves, and tree sap on it. So we left with it dirtier than before, which I thought was so funny and ironic!

Story time: We had dinner with a family, and the husband told us that when he first joined the military, he started doubting if there was a God. He had a grand idea to pray and ask God to stop blessing him, thinking that then he could tell if anything changed in his life and prove to himself if there was a God or not. Well, I will be the first to testify that God does answer prayers! So, what happened next? God answered his prayer. And within months of being perfectly healthy, this man got into a terrible accident and was paralyzed and had seizures all the time and tons of pain. Now he is on full disability. But he turned back to the Lord and has been repenting, and was able to go through the temple and be sealed to his wife and kids, and has seen how the Lord is slowly healing him and taking away lots of his pain. Be careful what you pray for, though! 

Friday

The absolute best day this transfer! Sister's Conference was amazing. Every single sister across the entire mission gathered together in Bonifay. This meant that I got to see Sister Strong again! She is one of my best friends, and I may or may not have almost started crying when I saw her again. We had some very inspired trainings on the importance of setting boundaries (something everyone should look into and do). We also had a very interesting training entitled, "What is flirting?" Yes, and President Smith led out the discussion. So that was fun! Apparently a lot of sisters don't know when they are flirting with elders, so yeah. There's that.

Saturday

We attended a baptism this morning for Sarah. We have met with her a few times because she lives in the Callaway Ward boundaries, but she has been attending a nearby ward with her friends. However, her non-member family came to the baptism, and the grandma seems very interested, so we are excited for the possibility to teach Sarah's family! We were also blessed to be able to do service for a ward member. People are finally taking us up on our offer to serve... I don't know why it can be so hard to ask for help. We all love serving, but if nobody ever asked for help, no one would have the opportunity to serve. Just as important as serving others is humbling yourself enough to ask for the help you truly need! We were really blessed because of the opportunity to serve for a few hours (and avoid the hot sun).

Sunday

Heidi came to church to support Sister Stites in giving a talk. She did wonderfully, by the way. The whole ward loved the personal poem she shared and many were crying in the audience. The last two hours were rather stressful.... So last Sunday some senior missionaries asked if we could teach their primary class. My companion agreed, and we shortly realized that we had also been asked to teach Young Women's. The days kind of passed together in a blur and Saturday night, we realized they both took place third hour, and it was too late to ask anyone else to sub. God had a grand plan, and He inspired me with an idea... We are all supposed to become as little children, and teach simply like kids, so why not have the primary kids help us teach the Young Women about the importance of family? Yup, we totally pulled it off with only minimal threats for the kids to behave and be quiet ;). The young women absolutely loved interacting with the kids and listening to them. We also had them teach the kids a short lesson about being kind (which was what the kids were supposed to be learning about that week. We told the young woman it was so they could have practice teaching kids for when they are mother's one day. Way to kill two birds with one stone!) It did get rowdy at the end, so we just ended a few minutes early, but they never suspected a thing! They actually really enjoyed it. We also went to a baptism for a little girl in the ward, and we had been asked to show a video while she was back getting changed. Well, we realized when the baptism was just starting that the old, dinosaur church TV wouldn't read the videos on my flashdrive... Luckily I had brought my violin to church that day, so I swung together a slide-show of pictures of Jesus while I played some music! Heavenly Father sure loves for me to share my talents with all of those around me!

Funny moment of the week:

We were calling a lady to confirm a dinner appointment, but no one answered. My companion left a message asking when was a good time and saying, "We love you, bye!" A while later, we got a text back from the number saying, "We love you too but you got the wrong number..."

I am grateful for each and every day of my mission. There are good and bad days, but they are all worth it. Heavenly Father makes every wrong right and speaks peace to the soul in a way that no other source or person can. We can have a perfect brightness of hope that no matter the difficulty in the world surrounding us, God has a grand plan that will bring us eternal happiness and joy. Hope is an abiding trust that God will fulfill His promises to you. He has promised eternal life and exaltation for those who do their best and desire it. And when we receive exaltation, it will not be because we have earned it, or because we are worthy of it. It will be because our perfectly loving Father in Heaven desires to give it to us as a gift. We don't have to sit here and wonder if we will "make it" or be "good enough" for this gift of exaltation. All we have to do is accept it because we love Him too. 

Much love,

Sister Burnham 

Week 65 - Shell Island

Hey you guys! Hope you've had a wonderful week! Mine wasn't too shabby ;) Shout-out to my cousin whose birthday is today!

Monday:

The Lyles are the absolute best! They booked a tour for us to go on boat to Shell Island. We fed the birds, saw dolphins, and hunted for shells. Unfortunately, the island didn't live up to its name because we didn't find many shells... But we had a great time together! The Lyles are basically my adopted parents :)

Tuesday:

We decided to visit a recent convert, but he didn't answer the door. We decided to drive around his neighborhood, searching for someone to talk to. It was a very sketchy neighborhood, and we didn't get very far before we had a very bad feeling and saw two men walking towards us. We drove out of there as fast as we could, and I just prayed that the Spirit would lead me to where we needed to go. We pulled up by a lady in another neighborhood and had a great conversation with her. The Lyles took us out for lunch, and the waitress was super friendly. I invited her to church, and she was actually very interested and said she was looking for a church for her and her baby boy to go to. Then we went tracting all afternoon, and Sister Stites had her first experience of someone shutting a door in her face! She was surprisingly excited and said, "You are not a real missionary until that happens!" I hope she still has that cheerful attitude when it's the 20th time someone slams a door in her face ;). We had dinner at Heidi's home, and she had also invited the Lyles along. I was able to ask her a few questions that could lead into teaching the plan of salvation,  but it didn't go anywhere. :( 

Wednesday:

We had dinner with the Parks family this evening, and I absolutely love them! We got to meet the non-member husband. After dinner we all played a Book of Mormon card game and had so much fun! 

Thursday:

We went out with the Relief Society President to visit some people, and it was funny because she wanted to visit Sister Parks, since she hasn't had the chance to meet her. Little did she know we had just seen them last night, but it worked out good because Sister Parks had a lot of questions about her daughter being baptized and we were able to help her plan it. We are so excited! At our dinner appointment that evening, the daughter taught us how to sign our missionary purpose in ASL! And she taught us some insults to do when the Elders start annoying us ;)

Friday:

ZONE CONFERENCE! It was really good. The Spirit was very strong, and I received answers to my prayers. At our dinner appointment that evening, we taught a brief Plan of Salvation and the son played a "character" to be tough on us. The hardest part was he started out as an atheist, then went into Baptist beliefs, and ended with Judaism beliefs... 

Saturday:

Our entire day was filled with the Family History fair! People came from ALL over the area, even hours away. We did a lot of one-on-one helping. We got to take a break for lunch, so we drove down to Panera Bread. That was a fun treat! Today definitely put my limited Family History skills to the test, but the Lord blessed me. We also feel very strongly to start doing family history with the ward!

Sunday:

It surely was a day of rest because after church, Sister Stites hadn't been feeling well and rested. After, we drove over to visit Sarah and meet her mom and grandma. The grandma is actually quite interested in what we believe, and hopefully the mom will be soon. We are starting to find some people that might be interested, and we received some referrals. The Lord is surely blessing us!

I feel very strongly to bear testimony that I know Heavenly Father hears your prayers, is there for you, and loves you unconditionally even when you can't feel it. We were sent down here to experience trials and afflictions in order to grow, and we don't get to pick and choose them. Only our Heavenly Father knows what will help us grow the most, and He knows you are strong enough to make it through with His help. However overwhelmed you feel, take a step back and realize that if you have the desire to serve God, to be better and fit for His kingdom, then He will grant your desires. Hold onto those desires and keep working toward them! Just remember you can't put a time limit on patience... because that is paradoxical! I love y'all and hope you have a wonderful week!

Much love, 

Sister Burnham