December 22, 2013

Dear Whanau! (That's family in Maori!)

Merry Christmas!!!! It is weird to me that it is Christmas time because it is HOT here. Not like warm but hot. On Saturday we had a missionary car wash. I decided since we were washing cars that it would be a good idea to wear my flip flops (here they are called "jandals"). The car wash went really well, we had about 20 cars come through. We held it at the Chapel so that we could offer tours and DVDs and such to help out with our missionary efforts. Most people were not too interested, but would take a DVD or something and make a donation to the Church. There was something that was really cool that happened. There was a young woman who was walking down the street and she just started talking to the Sisters. I guess she was pretty interested because she took a Book of Mormon and hung out with the sisters for another hour or so at the car wash. She said she was going to come to church tomorrow but something came up and she wasn't able to come. But still a really solid potential for the sisters, and a miracle for sure! So back to my smart decision  of wearing sandals, just check out the picture I will attach. I guess that is what happens when you spend a couple hours in the sun...it doesn't hurt as bad as it looks though.

Yesterday we went carolling at a rest home. Our investigator Michael was the one who set it up for us because he works there! We had about 20 members come and we split into two groups and went around singing to the old people there. They really enjoyed it and so did I! It kinda reminded me of singing in Chamber at Oak Ridge. After we were done singing, they had afternoon tea for us in a reception hall sort of thing. That was super awesome. It was good for Michael too because he got to work with the Bishop to get it all organized. It for sure made him feel more welcome in the ward. He came to church with us yesterday, along with 4 other of our investigators, the most we have ever had! I guess that is what Christmas time will do! They all really enjoyed it and so did we. 

The other day we were biking around and we decided to make a quick stop at the secondhand shop so I could look for a suit! I tried a couple on and picked a sweet one out. I will send a picture of it too! It is a dark blue color and has some sweet buttons on it! I also went the other day into the store in town called Farmers and got myself a Christmas gift. They had some dress slacks that were 50% off so I got two nice pairs of slacks for $70! It was a really good deal! I just hope they hold up to the assault of my bike seat! So now I have some clothes to wear! I am still thinking I can fix the two black suit pants with some patches, just haven't found the time to do it yet. That is pretty much my excitement for the week. Nothing too out of the ordinary this week though. We did go on exchanges this week so I spent a day in Carterton again with Elder Jacobsen who was in the same intake as me. It was a good day down there but an even better one for my companion up here. We had a lesson with an investigator, Owen. He seems to be doing really well now. I heard he opened up a lot more to the missionaries and shared more of his past. We are hoping to be able to meet with him again but we are having trouble getting a hold of him. 

Well we are all set for Christmas this week. We have a million places we can go and eat. We are probably going to explode from too much food. We have a set breakfast/brunch at 10 and a lunch at 2. We don't have anyone set for dinner which is good. I don't think we could handle three Christmas meals! 

Well that is about it for the week! I will send a couple more pictures that I took this week! Hope you have a wonderful Christmas! Love you lots!
Love,

Elder Burnham

                                                       Sunburned Feet

                     

                                                                 Suit with sweet buttons

                                 

                                      This is a dinner from Michael our investigator, yum! 

P.S.  From Derek's mom,  Derek wants to thank all who donated a tie.  He loves them and is grateful you gave one to him.  To the rest of you, Derek wanted more ties, so I had a few people donate their ties, not new ones so when he wore it he could say, this is a tie Dad wore or this is a tie Karl wore.  If you would like to have Derek wear your tie on his mission, add a comment and I can let you know where to send it.

December 15, 2013

Well what an adventure this week has been! I am pretty much over my sickness so that is real good. On Tuesday, we did lots of service, as always. We love to do service though. Most, if not all, of the service we do is yard work and mostly it is mowing lawns. We have 4-5 lawns that we mow on a weekly basis, including our own. It is fun, and we always sleep really well on Tuesday night! Well this week has been pretty normal though, nothing too crazy. Well one crazy thing did happen.....On Friday, we were biking to a teaching appointment with our investigator, Michael. He actually lives only a couple houses down from us. So we were biking from one appointment to the next and I decided I would go up on the footpath to ride my bike. Unfortunately the driveway/curb that I decided to use to get to the footpath was a bit bigger than the other ones. I didn't take it perpendicular enough to the curb and both my front and back tires caught and my momentum carried me off the bike. I flew off the bike and landed on the ground and slid on my hands and knees for a couple feet. I hopped up and assessed the damage. When I got up, I immediately looked at my left hand, grabbed a rock or something that was stuck in it, and ripped it out. It was weird because I didn't even think like "Oh there's a rock" and start freaking out, I just ripped it straight out and dropped it on the ground. So that was cool. But I ripped a nice big hole in my slacks and got a big graze on my knee. Ripped a hole in my shirt on the arm and on the chest from sliding on the ground and got a wound on my elbow. And both hands have some pretty good injuries on them. But other than that, I am ok! No head injuries or broken bones. My left shoulder is a little sore because it took the most of the energy from the impact but still it is pretty much 100%. I made sure to use plenty of Neosporin on all these wounds so they will heal faster and not get infected! I had to buy some more bandaids though, the ones I had weren't big enough. I will show you a picture of my torn up and bloody clothes! But I am all good, so don't worry! That was pretty much the most crazy thing that happened. Something that was really awesome that happened was that we went to give a white shirt, a tie, and a Christmas card to a recent convert and his mother. He mentioned that his shoulder was bothering him still. It had been sore for about a week already and wasn't getting better so we offered to give him a blessing. He said sure and so we went in and gave him a blessing. We shook hands and took off. About 2 hours later he sent us a text message saying that the pain in his shoulder was gone! That was really great! Especially because I wasn't having a great morning but that really made the whole rest of the day great! Well except that was on Friday, the day I crashed. But this new convert, Laurie, passed the Sacrament on Sunday and his mom, an investigator, was there and really proud of him. It is great seeing new converts continue to grow in the Gospel. He also got called as a ward missionary! That was really cool! So he is doing great. We have another investigator that is really dear to us. His name is Michael. He is 29 years old and is from the Philippines. Even when we met him was a miracle because it was like 8:30 at night, right before we were going to go home. Anyway we have been meeting with him and have been having some really good times. He doesn't have too many friends so he really enjoys our company. He is a pretty strong Catholic but has a brother that is a convert and has been sealed in the Temple. He helped his brother make these steps so we are hoping he will follow the example of his brother. We had an awesome lesson with him on friday, after my bike crash, with the Bishop. Bishop really likes him and we can all see him being a wonderful Priesthood holder! He things he may someday want to become a Priest or a Brother. We shared with him that he could become a Priest, with the true restored Priesthood authority, sooner than he really thought. He was pretty interested. He is still somewhat reserved or perhaps scared to leave his faith though. We went with him to a showing of the Christmas Devotional from the First Presidency last night and he really enjoyed it! We hope he just keeps doing the little things and that he will continue to feel the Spirit and work his way toward conversion! Well that is pretty much all of the exciting things that have happened this week. Pretty eventful I guess. I hope all is going well for you guys! 

December 8, 2013

Hello Family!!!
Well this week has not been too great. Monday was good. We had a real good basketball game, 5 on 5. It was cool because we had the other elders in the district come up from their area and play with us. They are about 10 minutes away by bus. It was pretty hot though, so people got tired pretty quick. But it was real fun! On Tuesday, I woke up with a sore throat. We did lots of service in the morning and it didn't get any better. Tuesday night we had dinner with this very kind investigator family. I guess they are more of potentials than investigators but the father is really genuinely interested but is pretty hesitant. He read a bit of the Book of Mormon but said it didn't "flow" like the Bible. I didn't really understand what he meant but we gave him some good chapters to read. Hopefully he will feel the Spirit when he reads them! He also had a concern with a couple of the Articles of Faith. I was able to address them somewhat but not entirely. I studied some more and hope to be able to address his concerns better next time. So my sickness continued to get worse. Wednesday was not too bad but by Thursday my nose was so stuffed up that my ears started getting plugged up and I could hardly hear myself talk. I started taking Sudafed and ibuprofen to help out with the sinus congestion but it didn't really do much. Friday it was a bit worse but still manageable. Friday night we had an activity with us, our ward mission leader and any of our Recent Converts, Investigators, or Less Actives. We went to the indoor bowling! It was pretty fun but kinda weird bowling in a shirt and tie! I did ok, got a 77 I think. But it was kinda a small activity. We had several people say they would come but only one person showed up. It was still good for him and for us though. By saturday, I had started coughing a whole bunch. The congestion had kinda moved from my sinus into my chest. Saturday we had to stay home because I was feeling really terrible. I am still taking the medications and it has been helping a lot. Yesterday I was much better and I am continuing to get better every day. I felt bad that we had to stay home though, I really wanted to go out and work!  On top of all that......I have three pairs of pants that have holes worn through them.... I will send a picture of them and where the holes are. They are about an inch or so in diameter and maybe 2-4 inches from the inseam of my pants, near the back pocket sorta. At first I thought it was just the old pair of black pants. Then this week I found the other pair of black pants and the brown pants had a hole in them. I think it is from the bike seat.... So we adjusted my bike seat a bit, hopefully that helps! That was a real....bummer...hehe I guess we will find a way to fix it. I need those pants! Right now I only have three pairs of pants to wear, that's not enough haha But yesterday was a real good day! We had the senior couple up here for the day. They are Elder and Sister Robbins from Orem. They are a wonderful couple. They had a couple of lessons with our investigators and recent converts. They just click with just about anybody they talk to. We had a little Family Home Evening sort of thing last night at the ward mission leaders house. It was real good. And of course, there was food there. We also had lunch at the Bishop's house. He really likes us which is cool because I don't think he liked some of the missionaries in the past. He was very happy to hear we were staying for another transfer. So pretty much I think that because we are staying here though Christmas, I am going to gain another 5 kg by Christmas. That would put me at about 80 kg or 175 lbs. They feed us WAY TOO MUCH! I can't believe it. It will all be good though, I am sure I will lose it all as a starving student at BYU! Well that is about it for the week. Full of unfortunate things but also some good stuff too. Hope things are going well! Love you!
Love,

Elder Burnham

December 1, 2013

Hello Family!!!

Well transfers are this week but as of now, I have no clue what is going on! We haven't received an email yet with the transfer sheet! So I am anxiously awaiting that email. But for now I will just describe the week!

This week has been a pretty good one! Tuesday was my comp's birthday! It was a pretty good day. We didn't get to do service like we had planned because the weather wasn't too great. But we did have some great times that day. We had fish and chips for lunch and a member bought us Subway for dinner! Then we went to the little video store next to Subway where they sell real American candy and soda! So I bought my comp an authentic Dr. Pepper and I got an A&W Root Beer! Woohoo! Thursday we had Zone Conference which is basically like a big District meeting. With lunch! We had some real good Samoan food from the members! It was really good but I tried not to eat too much. I am trying not to over eat and feel sick after I eat! But that was really good. It was really rainy and windy the whole day. When it was time to go home, we carpooled back to where our cars were and we saw that the mountain pass back to my area was closed! We were stuck in the Zone Leader's area! So we went on little exchanges and had two threesomes. We anxiously awaited the update of the sign, which said it would be updated at 6 PM. When we checked it at 6, it said the road was back open and all was well. I guess what had happened was there was a fairly large mud/rock slide and they had to close the road for a bit to clean it up. Pretty crazy! So it ended up being about 8 or 830 before we got back. That was an adventure! Friday we spent most of the day doing service. We went to the Bishop's house and trimmed hedges, moved lawns, cleaned up trees, and all sorts of stuff. I spent a little bit of time on the roof of their shed in the backyard. I was walking along it and cutting up all these branches and vines and stuff that were on the roof. I couldn't really see where I was stepping so it was kinda sketchy. Also the roof was made of shingles so I was afraid of breaking them. One step I took, I either broke a shingle or step on an already broken shingle. It created a little whole in the roof and my foot and ankle fell through. I got a little scrape on my ankle and had my heart racing real fast! I thought I was gonna fall off or through the roof, but it is all good! We then had dinner and Bishop's house last night as a kinda thanks for the service we did and that we know that the transfers are here so the sisters were invited too. He had a big old BBQ for us. Really good. What the bishop didn't know was that we had another dinner appointment that night too! We spent a little too much time at the Bishop's so we were late to the second dinner appointment and they had already eaten most of it so we were lucky we didn't have to eat too much! But I was still stuffed beyond all belief! And it was all after fasting too! Crazy! But yeah we have had a pretty good week this week, nothing too exciting because I still don't know what is going on with transfers. I will let you know what is going on as soon as I can! I hope you are all having a great week! Love you lots!!!


Derek ended up staying in the same area with the same companion.  He was very happy about that.

November 24, 2013

Dearest Family,

So last week was kinda embarrassing when I thought it was Thanksgiving! I guess I thought it was the third Thursday in November not the fourth. Oh well! Happy Thanksgiving! I hope you have a nice turkey dinner and think of me! We are having Zone Conference on Thursday. I don't really know what goes on at Zone Conferences or how long they are or anything like that but I am excited! I hear there will be food there so I should be eating well on Thanksgiving! Also, tomorrow (tuesday) is Elder Christensen's birthday! I am trying to get something together for a member or somebody to have a big feed for him. We are going to be doing service in the morning, I am not too sure how excited he is about that. We had district meeting on Wednesday and had a nice big fish and chips lunch as a district and some cake for pudding after! That was pretty cool. We had it at this nice park by a little late where lots of ducks hang out. They could smell our food and all started running toward us. I left a chip on the ground for them to eat but if any ducks came close I would scare them away. Pretty childish but it was really funny haha. 

We went on exchanges this week. So because my comp is the District leader he goes on exchanges, and therefore I do to, with each of the Elders in the District. So it ended up that on Tuesday me and the other Elder who came in on the same transfer as me were together. We are both still being trained so it was kinda funny. I think the trainers were a little worried about us! But nothing went wrong, we behaved ourselves! 

It has been really super hot this week. We have been dying the last couple days. Yesterday we had to wear our suits to church. We also biked to church because the sisters, who usually pick us up in the morning, went to the other branch in the District instead of our ward. So that was really hot. The sun comes up probably before 6 and doesn't go down until like 8:30 so it gets real hot during the days, even in the morning and at night. I really need to find me some short sleeve shirts. I never liked them but they are a necessity for weather this hot. And it isn't really even that hot yet, they are saying it is around 27 or 28 C. Feels more like 40 C. 

On Friday we went to the other Elder's area down to a town called Martinborough. It is like the vacation spot for the Wellington area. The elders from Utah (which is all except me) call it the "Park City of New Zealand." Lots of vacation homes and stuff there. Its for sure a weekend getaway kinda place. Very nice area though. I took a couple pictures so I will attach one of them! We just went to help them out down there because they don't get to go down there often, its too far. We took the bus down there which was pretty exciting. Kinda reminded me of a band trip because there were a couple of really annoying college (high school) girls sitting behind us being loud. But then they got off and I started to fall asleep haha but it was real nice down there for sure a place to visit. 

So when time for haircuts come around, I cut my companions hair (very poorly) and he cuts mine. he does a great job but I guess it isn't too hard when I just have him use the clippers. The dried kiwifruit chocolate is awesome. Dried kiwi tastes a lot like fresh kiwi and it is unusually good with chocolate. Also we had these frozen coke with vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce things at Burger King. That was an unusual but tasty combination as well. We cook probably two thirds of our lunches and dinners. Maybe a little less. Some weeks it is more and some less. We usually just do easy stuff like instant noodles and grilled cheese and frozen pies and chips. I did make tacos once but international food is expensive. For breakfast I usually have cereal. We buy this cereal called Wheet-Bix. I am pretty sure it is a NZ/AUS only thing. It is like these little flaky biscuit things that are the size of a granola bar. I crush them up and put cornflakes and tropical muesli on top. The muesli is like oats and some bran things and...believe it or not...dried fruit! And I enjoy it! Crazy huh! But that is my usual breakfast. 

So transfers are next week. I am hoping that Elder Christensen and I stay together but I have no clue! I hear that people don't usually spend a long time here in Masterton. Also I think that after our training is done we usually move. I do love the people here and don't want to leave so I am sure hoping that happens! We will know on Monday if we are transferred and then leave on Wednesday or Thursday morning. So just about a week left of this transfer!
Well that is about it for this week, nothing too exciting from me! Sounds like things are going great for you guys! Hope all goes well with Thanksgiving! Greg, I saw a Toyota GT-86 here in Masterton. It was an interesting rust orange colour but looked pretty cool! First one I have seen here! And I hope that all goes well with Kathryn and the new little girl! I am very excited! Love you lots!!!
Love,

Elder Burnham

November 17, 2013 Pictures

 Here is the hair cut I got two weeks ago. 3 on top 2 on sides. It was a little short. But it is cheaper for us to do it ourselves than to get it done so that is what we do! IT grows quickly anyway


 Bet you don't see this in the States too often! It just had pieces of dried kiwifruit in it! And it was only like 3 bucks for the whole thing. Pretty cool!


 So here is Laurie and James at the Baptism this weekend. Laurie is on the right and James on the left. 

November 17, 2013

Well this week was real good! The best part was that we had another baptism! I can't believe how awesome the work is here in Masterton! This weekend was the baptism of Laurie. He is a 19 year old guy that is way cool. We had James, the recent convert, baptise him! What a neat experience! It did only take him maybe.....6 or 7 tries to get him all the way under! It was kinda sad but they both were good with what was going on. The main problem was that James didn't have his hand high enough on Laurie's back so his head wouldn't go all the way under. But all good! It was a great service and Laurie's mother, who has a baptismal date for the 30th, was able to attend as well and I think she really enjoyed it! We are hoping to have a lesson with the senior couple and them on Wednesday, should be good! Laurie was confirmed on Sunday and ordained in the Aaronic Priesthood, to the office of a priest. How wonderful!

The next highlight of the week is that last week we had the most number of investigators with a baptismal date out of the whole mission! Just an amazing testimony to me of how lucky I am to be serving here in Masterton! The Lord really is hastening his work here in Masterton and I am so grateful to be a part of it! We just gotta keep working hard to keep all this good stuff going! We had some baptismal dates fall through this week though so we are hoping to reset those this week and continue to set more new ones! The people here are really great! We did a lot of talking to people on the street and stuff this week. It is kinda hard for me sometimes to break out of my shell but I am doing my best. We talked to about 218 people this week! Our goal is 150 per week so we were overwhelmed with that success. Overall this was just a great week to be a missionary! 

The next cool thing that I have to share is about my old room mate, Hunter Fowers.  He was called to the............SACRAMENTO CALIFORNIA MISSION!!!!!!!!!! So, Mom and Dad, if there is an Elder Fowers that is serving in the area you better make sure to feed him and his companion every week! When I read that email I was shocked beyond all belief! He is leaving for the MTC on the 4th of December so expect him in the mission two weeks after that!!!!! I am very excited for him! Also, I would encourage you all to feed the missionaries as much as possible. I certainly appreciate anyone who gives me food and I know all other missionaries do! So Mom and Dad, if you don't want leftovers, FEED THE ELDERS! And send them home with more food! 

Speaking of food, Happy Thanksgiving! We actually have a dinner appointment for Thursday! So we should be getting a nice feed for Thanksgiving but other than that it is a normal day. Not too many Americans around here. There is one that we know, he is an Excom but a real nice guy! He gives us pies every once in a while. So nothing too exciting over here for that!
Well I think that is all for this week. Pretty exciting week! I hope all is going well in the good old USA and that you guys are having a great time! Love you lots!
Ofa'atu!

Elder Burnham

November 10, 2013

Dear Family!

This week was a very exciting one! To start of the week we went on exchanges with the Zone Leaders. We took the train down to Upper Hutt. When we got there we found out we went to the wrong station and we were supposed to get off at the next one. So we had to buy another ticket and get back on the train to get off at the correct stop. All together the trip took maybe about an hour and a half. Then we met the Zone Leaders at their house. We got to do all sorts of good stuff. I was with Elder Tinei who was just called to be a Zone Leader. He is from Auckland, is 25 years old and is half Samoan half Tongan. He is a really great missionary. He is very soft spoken yet bold. He taught me a thing or two about having fun while we are still doing work. For example, we were door knocking and we would give each other a color that we had to mention sometime in the conversation. So one door I gave him the color orange. He said "ok just watch this" So he knocked on the door and started talking to the guy that answered. We got a return appointment and then just before I left he says "it's been a really hot day, you wouldn't happen to have an orange for me?" I was shocked with this man walked away and came back with three oranges for us. It was really really funny! So that was really neat. We then came back to Masterton to have an interview for Kent's baptism! And he passed! So we set in stone the baptism for Saturday night. Tuesday night we had four of us Elders in our bedroom. We only had two mattresses so the Zone Leaders just slept on the boxspring thing beneath the mattresses. That was funny. Except that I didn't sleep well at all. Elder Tinei was snoring like a freight train. And it was really hot! We then had district meeting in the morning and the Zone Leaders left. 

Thursday morning we went to a funeral for the long time ward adviser for the Masterton ward. He was also a part of a big family here in the Wairapa. We just helped with preparing food the whole time. I was kinda sad because I thought we were there to meet nonmembers and less actives that came and to give them the opportunity to learn from the missionaries, but oh well. I am sure our service helped a lot, just not in the way I expected. There was heaps of food afterward and I was definitely filled up. We then got a ride home from a member senior couple from Carterton. Masterton is like an extra 10 minute drive from Carterton so we were really happy for them helping out with that. Friday we went to have dinner and a lesson with Michelle and her family. We had some real good BBQ and some very tasty dessert. It was wayyyyyyyy too much food. It always is over at her house. We then taught the rest of the Plan of Salvation. We then invited them to be baptized and they all accepted! Michelle was especially excited! We set their date for the 7th of December, which is out of this transfer so we were kinda sad about that but it will be all good! They then set off fireworks after the lesson. This is the only week fireworks are legal in NZ so it is kinda exciting. They had some that shot up little ones into the air that popped. So Brad, the son, set some off. But the firework bundle fell over so they started shooting these fireworks every which direction. It was actually quite scary! There were some that went toward a shed in the neighbor's yard. It was a close call a couple times but nobody got hurt! It was probably the most exciting fireworks I have ever watched haha

Saturday we had our baptisms, two in the district! One was the sisters investigator down in Featherston, about 30 minutes away. The other was Kent! It was a really cool service. A recent convert, James gave a  talk on faith and repentance that was real cool. Elder Christensen was the one to perform the baptism. Kent's father and brother attended the baptism and he was very excited about that. They were unable to make it to sacrament meeting yesterday so the Bishop decided that he should be confirmed that night. He asked me to perform the confirmation. I was apprehensive because I thought that the confirmation was supposed to be at the sacrament meeting. But I went ahead and did it anyway. I had a couple people tell me that it was a beautiful confirmation which made me feel good since it was the first one I had ever done! It was an overall great service. I am very grateful to see the fruits of the work that we have put in. It for sure gives me confidence to keep working! 

Yesterday we moved forward a baptism date to this weekend. The investigators name is Laurie. He is 18 or 19 years old and is a real cool guy. He has really enjoyed coming to church. So we might be having another baptism this weekend and a couple more in the next couple weeks! Laurie may baptize his mom, Brenda, once she is ready. She has not been able to attend church yet so it is going to be at least another couple weeks. The bishop is going to be out of town next weekend when the original date was set so he told us to either move it forward or back a week so we did. The zone leaders weren't too happy though, it means they need to make another trip down here. But oh well! So that is about it for this week. Lots of exciting things happening! We also had some really yummy food given to us. It is called Paua. It is a shellfish that is maybe about the size of the fist. I first had it a couple weeks ago raw. It was good then but yesterday we were given 4 whole ones that we fried up for lunch today. Real good! They grow very slowly so the ones that we ate were probably 80-100 years old and worth $150 each if they were sold in China. Crazy. They are pretty much the delicacy of New Zealand. Well that is about it for the week! Lots of exiting things happening! Hope all is going well at home!
Love,
Elder Burnham

November 3, 2013

Wow! It's November already! Time is flying by so quickly! I can't even comprehend that I have already been gone for two months, it feels like two weeks! I do remember dad saying that something like the first year of the mission is really fast, then the next 6 months are kinda slow, then the last 6 months are like a twinkling of an eye, to use a scripture term I guess! So I certainly believe the first part for now!

This week has been a real good one! We have been super busy all week. We almost have too many people to meet with and teach that we don't have enough time for them! But we are managing. There is always enough time for more investigators! We are really focusing on Kent this week. He has his baptism interview tomorrow! I think he is very excited. We met with him on wednesday and he asked some really neat questions about the temple and temple marriage. Unfortunately, these question came up because his family doesn't really support him in the decision that he is making to be baptized :( We are certainly sad about that and praying that his family softens their hearts. He is a little bummed because he said "I don't think many people will be there" when speaking about his baptismal service. We hope the ward will support him a lot!

We did some service this week, helping this guy move. Well we didn't really help him move, we helped him clean his house while he packed up so that he could get all of his deposit back. It was pretty gross actually. But he really appreciated it. He was running real late and just left while we were still cleaning. He left a whole bunch of stuff behind and told us that we could take anything we wanted. So I scored a 16 GB usb drive for free! Well not free but just for soing service. We also got an axe and some cleaning supplies. And a whole stack of XBOX games to take to one of our recent converts and his brother. They really appreciated that. There was a game in there that his brother was looking for for ages! And we just show up and give it to him for free. He was blown away. Way cool.

Halloween here is really really low key. In fact, the vast majority of Kiwi's don't "celebrate" it at all. They say it's an American holiday haha. We saw maybe 10 people the whole night that were trick or treating. They just don't see the point in handing out "lollies" to people dressed to scare other people. We just explained to people that it was more about the coming together with friends and family and just having a good time than it was about the whole scary demons stuff.

Michelle and her family are doing well. We stopped by there last night and were supposed to have dinner but Brad wasn't home so we weren't able to come in. So she just gave us heaps of groceries instead. I think it is the most food we have ever had in our flat. We won't have to go grocery shopping this week! Which is good because right now we are actually on exchanges with the Zone Leaders again. We took the train down from Masterton and got off at the wrong stop so we had to get another ticket to go to the correct stop. Then take out suitcases and bikes (yes, I biked with a suitcase; pretty comical) to their house. It was only like a 3 minute bike, but it was also through a very busy roundabout. That was exciting. But more on the exchange next week, it has only just begun! It was neat about Michelle and her family though, when we talked to them yesterday she told us that Brad, who she thought was not too interested, was asking her questions during the week about the differences between the Book of Mormon and the Bible. Like why the names and stuff were different. It was neat to hear that. We have another dinner appt. with them on wednesday this week where we will share the rest of the plan of salvation. I am very excited!

We have had an unusual number of very ill people we have heard about this week. There are 3 people very close to the ward that are in the hospital. One is the previous Masterton ward adviser from the high council. He is also part of one of the big families here in Masterton. I believe he suffered from a brain aneurism. He is the uncle to the Bishop and the Bishop says he thinks that we are going to be having a funeral very soon. He is on life support as far as I know. It is sad. Also the father of one of the counselors in the bishopric suffered something similar but is in a little better shape. And there was another brother in the ICU on sunday as well. Human life certainly is fragile. Our fast and testimony meeting went for about an hour and a half, maybe a little more.

On friday night, the Zone Leaders challenged us to find three new investigators on saturday. So we planned to visit several of our potential investigators. We ended up getting three new investigators! In one day! It was certainly a miracle because not everything went according to plans but it all worked out! Three new investigators is actually the weekly goal for every companion ship in the mission. We were able to achieve it in one day! Last night we saw another miracle. We were door knocking but it was getting late, about 8 pm. I was feeling frustrated and unproductive and I kinda got on Elder Christensen's nerves. I said something to set him off and he said something back at me that made me feel kinda bad. I was pretty quiet for the next little bit. We walked back to our bikes and started to unlock them and stuff and my comp. apologized for what he said and that he didn't mean it. I accepted the apology and moved on. We then started to head into town for some unknown reason. It was 8:30 by that time and there was no way anybody would be out. We then stopped to talk to one guy on the street, the first guy. He was walking back to his flat and it was on the same street we were on so we started walking and talking with him. He really opened up to us. He said that he didn't have many friends so he wanted to go on bike rides with us. We said we would love to do that! he's a little apprehensive about taking lessons because right now he is going to a Catholic Church and doesn't want to confuse himself but he said he feels guilty every time he sees us and turns us down. He has a brother in the Church and I think he really admires him. We will just continue to be friends with him and maybe one day start teaching. When we got back to the flat we had a little laugh. I said the only reason that happened was because Elder Christensen didn't listen to me when I was complaining. He said that the only reason that happened was because we had gotten over the little conflict we had haha

Well that is about it for the week. We did not get the chance to go to the beach this week. We are on exchanges but even if we weren't, our trip could only be 3 hours from the time we leave to the time we get back and it is about 50 km away so most of that would be travel time. So we might not be able to go at all. But oh well! Hope things are going well at home!!! Love you lots!

Love,
Elder Burnham

October 28, 2013

Dear loved ones,

This week has been a great week! We had heaps of stuff to do this week. We had so much food this last week I feel I am going to explode. And much of it was unplanned dinners and some from investigators. We have this family we have begun teaching that we met door knocking. The mother's name is Michelle. Last night we went over and had dinner with them and taught the first half of the plan of salvation. Her son and daughter both joined us. We were able to introduce the Book of Mormon to them and to give them a passage to read. I feel the lesson went very well. It was very interesting. I had my scriptures out on the table and they saw that my first name was Derek. They thought that was a big coincidence because the name of the father and grandfather of the children was Derek. Then they saw that my middle initial was A and they guessed Andrew. Andrew was the name of Michelle's brother who also passed away this year. That was when things got REALLY weird. I felt at that moment that I was the person that needed to teach these people the Gospel. That we had been led to this wonderful family and that I must do all I can to help them receive the great truths we have. There was no way this was just a coincidence. She always sends us home with more food we know what to do with. It is great! 

We got to go up to visit our investigator, Kent, who lives on a farm on Mt. Bruce (every thing around here is named after Dad I guess....). He was going to have us for dinner and watch the Joseph Smith movie. Unfortunately, he had some trouble with a cow that was giving birth. I guess they calf had died a couple days earlier and he didn't know. So he went to pull the calf out and the leg just tore off....he had to call the vet and get some help. It took them some time to get the calf out, much longer than it should have. I just remember Mom telling me that the only time she saw her dad get really upset was when birthing a cow. Now I can see why sometimes. We also got a little tour of the dairy shed. It was pretty cool!

On Friday we went just over the hill to do some volunteer work. We heard that it was at a go-kart track. But when we got there, we found out it was an outdoor karting league track. There were people from age 6 and up that were driving these karts around the track. It wasn't too good of a day for it though...it was pouring rain and very windy. The track way very slick. SO our jobs as volunteers was to be flag marshals. So if there was ever an "incident" on the track we were to hold out our yellow caution flags. I was at the end of a long straight were there was a tight hairpin turn. There were quite a few crashes and spinouts. It was very exciting and makes me kinda want to do it now! They are much faster and bigger than the little indoor ones. These ones were cool!

On sunday we went down to Upper Hutt (just over the mountains) to go to a special fireside. At this fireside we had a former All Blacks player speak of his conversion story. His name is Norm Hewitt. He had been investigating the church for 13 years before he and his family were baptized. He had some very rough times in his life where his rugby career got in the way of everything else and he really treated his family very poorly. But he shared some very good insight and it was great for everyone there. We had an investigator that wanted to go, Kent. He even offered to give us a ride! So we rode down and back with him. There he got to meet President and Sister Kezerian. I think he really enjoyed that and the fireside. On the way back he had some good questions that he asked us and we were able to answer. We are looking forward to his baptism on the 9th of Nov.

We did some service the other day. I don't know if you remember the lawn that I mowed a while ago that was really long but this one was even taller. Probably like 18 inches tall, no joke. The mower had some struggles sometimes but over all not too bad. The crazy thing was what happened to my companion. He was pulling some weeds near a wire fence. He reached down and pulled a handful out and accidentally grabbed the fence. He pulled up the weeds and got a gnarly cut on his pinky. You could see the huge chunk of flesh that he got cut out of his hand. I was pretty sure it needed stitches but he decided he was going to just put super glue on it. But we had no super glue. So he just put a bandaid on it until yesterday when we got super glue. It was pretty crazy. 

Well I think that is about it for this week. Pretty exciting stuff though! I hope all is going well back home! Oh also I am emailing on a Tuesday because yesterday was Labor day, a public holiday so the library was closed. That's why it's a day later! Love you lots!!!

Love,

Elder Burnham

October 20, 2013

Dear Friends and Family,

Well this week was the last full week of the transfer and today I found out what the transfer looked like. I am staying right here in Masterton! Our whole district is actually staying intact which is wonderful! I am excited to continue to work with the Elders and Sisters in my district and the people here in Masterton. It really is a wonderful little town and the month of November is going to be a very exciting one! We have a few baptisms on the horizon and other exciting things going on. This last week we went on exchanges with the Zone Leaders from Tuesday afternoon to Friday morning. I was with Elder Lawson, who actually grew up in the ward next to where he is serving right now. His family moved up to Auckland a couple years before he left on his mission. He thought he would never serve in this area of the mission but I guess it is the right place for him. It was really good to get to learn and grow from the things he has to share with me, as a younger and less experienced missionary. He told me that many of the struggles and challenges that I am facing right now, he remembers going through the same things. He helped me just to open up and talk with everyone I see. I even talked to a guy that was wearing a Tyreke Evans jersey. He had just gotten out of prison...but he is a less active member and asked us to pray with him before we left and talked to other people on the streets. It was interesting just praying right there on the street but a very neat experience too. 

Funny story. As we were leaving Masterton to go down to Upper Hutt, a suburb of Wellington, for exchanges we got a flat tire. What happened was we were going to stop and get some fish and chips. We passed the shop and so the driver turned around. One of the Zone Leaders was driving and he is a CRAZY driver. He whipped the van around super quick. I guess there was already a nail or something stuck in the tire and they knew about it but the little slide the back tires did caused the nail to be pulled out and the tire was rapidly losing air. So when we got to the fish and chips shop, my companion and I went in and ordered for the four of us while the zone leaders changed their tire. They have changed so many tires on their car that they finished changing the tire before the fish and chips were ready! And it was takeaway fish and chips! I was very impressed. So that is the funny story. Another funny but sad story. The crazy driver zone leader had the wheels and seat off of his bike stolen. We thought it may have been a joke by someone but when we learned it wasn't, it was kinda sad. He was "gutted" as they say here in New Zealand. Scary story. That same day we had to drive over the mountain range to get to the zone leaders area. There were several instances on this drive that I, no joke, thought we were going to catapult off the cliff to our deaths. This zone leaders is the most insane driver ever. And we were in a minivan! It was a very curvy road and while I was ok, my companion started to get sick. That part was kinda funny. On the way back though, he drive even slower than normal just for my companion haha. 

Things are going well over here though, overall. We have been fairly busy with stuff other than lessons so we hope to teach more lessons this week. But it will be good not having anyone be transferred because we don't have to drive down to Wellington to drop anyone off. Hopefully we can get lots of lessons to help these investigators with baptismal dates ready! There are several right now in the month of November. Some are very promising! We are working hard every day and loving every minute of it! One of the recent converts here just was called as a Ward Missionary. We really like him and he says he wants to serve a mission so we are going to bring him along to as many things as possible in order to help him reach that goal and so he can help fellowship people into the Church. We have also been having a ward basketball night for our investigators to come to but in the letter President Kezerian sent the whole mission, he clearly explained we are not to have Elder or Sister missionaries playing any sports with members, investigators, or nonmembers of the opposite gender. So we are going to have to cancel that but it was just for the month of October so it hopefully won't be too bad. 

Well that is about it for my week! It has been a pretty good one, very busy! I hope things are going well back home! I look forward to hearing from all of you next week!

Love,

Elder Burnham

Pic Oct. 13, 2013

This is the name of the street that the grocery store we shop at is on.  (For those of you who may not know- Derek's dad's name is Bruce).

October 13, 2013

Hey Mom,

Things are going well. We had a good week and were pretty busy. General Conference was really good! We had 4 investigators show up so that made us really happy! Today we woke up and one investigator, Kent, who was planning on getting baptised this weekend told us that he wasn't quite ready yet. That made us pretty sad because we had planned to have an interview with the Zone Leaders this tuesday. But we will just have to keep working with him and address his concerns. He is a real good guy though, we really like him. Just takes a little more time and we won't be able to baptise anyone this transfer. This week we went on transfers so I went down to Carterton and Featherston which is about 20-30 minutes drive south of Masterton and a fair bit smaller. It was good to work with another Elder and learn from him. He actually went to BYU fall semester and we had the same Book of Mormon and American Heritage professors and didn't even know it!

I haven't really had to eat anything too weird. I did have something called boil-up. Basically they take a whole bunch of pork bones with a little meat, cabbage and some dough and throw it all in a pot with some water and boil it for who knows how long. It was pretty good but not too much flavour. And it was kinda hard to eat it politely so the member's house who we ate it at, Tame, told us just to dig in with our hands next time! Our flat is really nice! Next week I will take some pictures and do a little visual tour for you. Its two bedrooms, one bathroom, a kitchen and a little living area. We also have a one car garage. Fairly new too. We have a washer and dryer but no dishwasher. One of the bedrooms is our study room. I will be wearing a suit until like January or something I think. That is when it gets the hottest I guess. It is sometimes already way too hot to be wearing a suit but oh well! Sounds like things are going well back at home and maybe settling down a little bit. Jacob is pretty creative to come up with something like that to ask Eva to Homecoming. Hopefully he has a great time! 

This week we will be going on transfers with the zone leaders down closer to Wellington. They are pretty busy I guess down there so they need some help to get things done. Either that or things are going slow so we are going down there to help things pick up, I can't remember. But that will be exciting, they are real good Elders. Well that is about all for this week, nothing too exciting. Oh except that we are both pretty much completely out of money. I have nothing at all left and Elder Christensen has like 13 dollars. We need to get reimbursed for purchasing some petrol so we are waiting on that. And we get our "blessing" in just a couple days but just not in time for p-day. So we get to make do with the little bit of food we have left and see what members will feed us haha. I am not too worried. When we are doing what we are supposed to be doing, the Lord always provides for us missionaries so I will just keep working! And making sure I don't get "hunger anger.' Haha. 

Well I hope you all are having a great week and I am enjoying the pictures you are sending! Did you spend time in St. George because Grandma isn't doing too well again or just to get down there? Either way, I hope you are enjoying your time! 

Love,

Elder Burnham

October 6, 2013

Kia Ora family and friends!!!!

This week has been fairly good! We were able to do a whole bunch of service it seemed. We just got a lawn mower and a weed eater for ourselves and the sisters flat. Also we got it so we could do service if there was anyone who needed something done but didn't have a lawn mower. So we got it and mowed our own lawn. Which was full of rocks and was really not flat. It was also about as long as the lawn was that I showed you the pictures of last week, about mid-calf! But a lot smaller. We didn't bag it up either because it was just way too much grass. It would have been like 20 bags of grass. It was also a super small bag so that might be part of it. Then we went up to our bishop's house to help him out with his lawn because he does so much for us as missionaries! He then fed us a super huge dinner off the BBQ. Pork, steak, and sausages, garlic bread, salad, and some amazing bread and butter pudding (dessert). Then on saturday, we were riding our bikes to stop at our flat real quick and we stopped to talk to a lady on her porch. We asked her if we could do anything for her and she said yes! People almost ALWAYS say they are good. So we changed, and headed back over. She just wanted her little gardens weeded and turned over. She had cancer twice and was pretty weak, unable to do it all by herself so it was good to help. She had lots of questions about the Church and Missionaries that we were able to answer.

Other than service though, we haven't been able to do much. We made a trip down to Upper Hutt to have district meeting where the zone leaders are. We also had interviews with President Kezerian. That was a really cool thing to be able to talk about what was going on and meet with him for a couple minutes. He actually knew a lot about Sacramento and used to go there all the time when  he was still working for UPS I think it was. He knew the Folsom Dam and Folsom Prison! So that was good to talk about home a little bit. To get to this place, we have to go over the Rimatuka mountain range. There are some pretty steep and narrow roads up there so it is always exciting haha very beautiful though!

When we had dinner with the Bishop, he kinda filled us in on what was going on in the States. He told us that Oracle won the America's cup 9-8 after being down 1-8. I think all of New Zealand is a little sad about that. He told us a little about what was going on politically. He was pretty shocked that the US would allow something like this to happen but I wasn't too surprised. I guess he said that the government is "losing" about $300 million a day when it is shut down. That is heaps if it is an accurate figure. He also said something about a woman being shot and killed because she tried to drive her car though the fences at the white house. That is kinda crazy. Hopefully things get worked out! Bishop was asking questions about what party the majority of the members of the Church align themselves with. We are kinda instructed not to talk to much about politics but I guess this was ok haha.

We won't get to watch conference until this weekend. They have to wait for it to be broadcasted because they can't get it live here. It is kinda a bummer that we have to wait but it is something I am certainly looking forward too! We printed out 500 invitations to hand out to people. It was probably a little optimistic but we are going to do our best to hand them all out! We want as many people as possible to show up to the Chapel to watch conference on our new bis projector screen! We were planning on having a couple baptisms this weekend but I think they are all going to be postponed because there won't be a sacrament meeting. And because the investigators aren't quite ready yet.

Things have been going alright. Our key indicators this week have been fairly low because we have been busy doing random things. We haven't had too many lessons or anything this week. We are going to try really hard to have an awesome week this week! We had a lesson with the xxxxxxxx family last week. It went pretty well. They are really pretty interested on learning more. We taught them about the restoration and invited them to baptism. They said it was something they would think and talk about to see if they are interested in pursuing.  We left them with a restoration DVD (20 min) and a Joseph Smith: The Prophet of the Restoration (60 min) to watch. We are going to follow up soon on if they have. We invited them to a kneeling prayer at the end of the lesson and the 15 year old son, Jonas prayed. Both parents thought it was really neat to hear their son pray, even though they haven't ever really been religious. They have really good values though! We set our next lesson with them on the 21st of October. It is really far away so we are kinda sad but we just get to do more pop-in visits!

We are going on exchanges this week but I am not too sure where I am going. I could be staying here or going down to Carterton to go with the other senior companion in the district. It is about 10-15 km away and smaller than Masterton. I am excited to learn from another missionary. Elder Christensen and I are hoping that we are staying together for another transfer. I am thinking that we will because I still have a transfer of training left.

The weather here is starting to get really hot. Well really hot for a suit. We went door knocking yesterday and pretty much everyone told us we were crazy to be wearing a suit. It was only like 25 degrees though. I guess it can get up to like 30-35. Oh boy. But it does cool down at night and is really really nice. And there are heaps of stars you can see because there aren't too many lights in town.

The other day we had a excommunicated member give us a call. I had met with him once before and the other elders have met him before too. He is a really nice guy but also will tease you on like everything you say. He was a seminary teacher and a bishop before so has a lot of knowledge of the church. He just made some serious mistakes. Anyway he called us and we were really confused because he doesn't really ever do that. So we called him back and he asked if we were coming over so we said sure. When we got there he asked if we were wondering why he called us and we were very curious. He then walked into the kitchen and grabbed about a dozen little meat pies to give us from his work as a chef at a golf course here. He said he had heated them once and his rule is that he doesn't heat things twice. We gladly took them off his hands haha they are really good! So that was awesome to get those from him!

Well I think that is about it. I have started driving though, even though my license has the wrong date. It is kinda weird being on the wrong side haha Hope things are going well back home! I am enjoying the pictures you are sending!

Love you lots!!

Elder Burnham

September 29, 2013

Dear Family and Friends,

Well this has been a pretty great week! We have been very busy. We are occasionally stopping in with this great family, the ?????? family. They have 4 kids, ages 15, 12, 10 and 7 I think. They are friends with a pretty good number of people in the ward. The first time we visited a while ago, the kids had a ton of questions  like "where did God come from?"  We set a return appointment for this week and we have been looking forward to it for the last couple weeks. We are really praying and pondering hard about what we want to teach them because they are such a neat and golden family, but also really busy so we want to make the time we have with them REALLY count. We stopped by one night to hand off a DVD and just pop in. The father, Rusty, gave us some frozen mince and venison! It is still frozen but we are going to thaw it out and cook it sometime. They are just a really awesome family and we love them! So I will let you know how that goes next week.

I got my drivers license and my approval to drive from the mission! BUT the date of birth on the license is incorrect... They put xx-xx-xx when it should have been xx-xx-xx. That was kinda a bummer and they couldn't change it over the phone because I have to show my passport again. So I have to wait for the Zone Leaders to come up here because they have my passport. But it is valid for 10 years! Kinda crazy. 

We met this new fella named Owen. He is 20 years old and really interested in the Gospel. He has some family in the Church and had gone to a funeral for a member about a year ago. We got in contact with him and met him at the Chapel and gave him a little tour. We ended at the baptismal font (of course) and he thought it was pretty cool. We then sat down in a classroom and talked to him a little bit about the Church and stuff. He even brought his own Book of Mormon to the appointment! We committed him to baptism and set a date! He told us he felt this feeling that he couldn't describe. He said it was some sort of energy right in his chest. I told him that was the Spirit because I felt it too and so did Elder Christensen. That was probably the most awesome experience on my mission so far! 

We got a new car! I don't remember if I told you last week but it is a Holden Cruze, which is pretty much the same as a Chevy Cruze, just the steering wheel is on the wrong side of the car..... I haven't driven any thing yet though, just my awesome bike! I have a few pictures that I have to show you this week.

We met with a young boy named Shayden. His older brother Tane got baptised a couple weeks ago and now we taught him the lessons and he wants to be baptised. We talked to the parent and step parent but they think that we should wait because he is young and isn't committed to things too well. So we get to wait until November 16 until the parents feel it is ok. They support him 100% in his decision, they just want to make sure that he is fully committed to this. Which is really cool that they understand it is a big decision and a lasting one as well. 

 A recent convert named James is starting to have some awesome missionary experiences. He said the other night that some guy he knew and that used to go to church a LONG time ago just randomly showed up at his door super drunk. James took him in and started to talk to him cause the guy was really down on himself. The guy didn't even know that James had been baptised and he thought that was really neat. The most amazing part of this story is that not too long before, James was taught about missionary work in an after baptism lesson. It was certainly a miracle! He also had a friend from work come to Church this sunday too! It is really good for him because he is like 21 and thinking he might want to serve a mission. 

We did some service the other day. We mowed this Sister's lawn. The grass was, no joke, taller than the lawn mower. It took ages to get it done but it was good to do some service!

Well that is just about it for this week but I still have some time left so if you have any questions, let me know! Also I am going to be including some pictures as well!

Love,

Elder Burnham

The Holden Cruze

This is me and my companion, Elder Christensen on a swinging bridge in Masterton. We didn't go far out on it but the whole thing shakes, you wouldn't like it haha.

 Here is a picture of the dessert I had at a cafe that a recent convert works at. It is a chocolate milkshake/ice sorta thing with every type of fruit imaginable on top of it!

This is the 16 inch long grass that we cut the other day. And no bag on the mower our legs got grass all over them but I managed to avoid it fairly well.there was a whole huge yard like this

From Mom-  I have removed some names and dates for privacy reasons.

September 22, 2013

September 22, 2013

Hello Family!!!

I had a great week this week! We had a baptism just on Saturday.

Just yesterday we visited a man named Andrew. He had been divorced and his ex-wife found a new partner fairly quickly after that. She has the custody of the kids for all but 2 days every 2 weeks. A little while ago, the Sister Missionaries saw this man standing on a high ledge, looking like he was about to jump to take his own life. They convinced him not to do it and he told us last night that those two sisters saved his life that day. The previous Elders had given him a Book of Mormon and taught him the Restoration but he told us last night that he hadn't read any of it. He told us very plainly that he didn't understand what the Atonement could do for him or how to use it. We were able to tell him how the Atonement could be used and showed him a couple passages in the Book of Mormon that he could read. He said he would read it. He told us that he is part of the Salvation Army and that if he ever mentions the Book of Mormon the people there tell him not to read it. So we are hoping that he will ignore them and read it because he could really use the spiritual uplifting in his life right now. It was amazing, he just jumped right into praying as we were leaving. We know that he felt the Spirit and that he felt compelled to thank Heavenly Father that we had chosen to visit him at that time. It was one of the coolest experiences so far on my mission!!!!

I did not find the moleskin, I must have just forgot to throw it in the bag with everything else. The blisters are healing up nicely, don't bother me at all any more. We teach maybe 15 lessons a week but we really want to be doing about twice that. We just have been so busy with meetings and trying to get me acquainted with the members and stuff that we don't have the time but we are going to try for 8 lessons with a member present, 5 lessons to recent convert and less actives and 15 other lessons. It is a goal we can definitely attain. We have had maybe one or two service opportunities but both for the same member. It seems like most people around here like to do things their own way. We eat with members maybe 2 or 3 nights a week. Mostly because we block out two nights for "family finding" And many of the members here are older, single (divorced, widowed or unmarried) ladies so the sisters get fed plenty but the elders, not as much. But I am OK with that because I guess the Wellington mission is a "40 pound mission." That is plus 40 pounds... So far I am about even so hopefully I can keep that up!! Elder Christensen has gained 30 lbs. in 6 months..... The brown suit and the new black pants we bought are a little tight in the waist so there is no way that is happening to me or else I will have to get new suits!

Good to hear about Jordan Preciado. I am sure he will be a great missionary! I don't remember if I told you guys but we are going "global" in January, so that is like facebook and iPads and all that good stuff. It will be neat to see that happen. I got an email from Madison so I will read all about that but that sounds exciting! It is good to hear about Kaylee.  I had never heard of something like that happening. And they moved her call date up too! First rain of fall eh? Well we are warming up now. It is kinda weird to be going into summer again... Tell Lance and Mandy congratulations from me and I hope that things are going well! You will have to send me a picture of the new kitchen table.

This sunday we had a special invitation sunday were we just had everybody invite anyone they wanted and we invited like everyone we talked to. We ended up having about 100 people there. It was really neat. One person came to the chapel at about 1:30, church ended at 12. But he found the Bishopric and they gave him some materials. We contacted him but it sounds like he just wants to come to church, not too interested in the missionaries....YET! We will get to him haha but it is amazing the miracles we see every day!

Well I hope everything is going well! I am doing great and working hard!

Love,

Elder Burnham

Hamilton NZ Temple Visitor Center

Elder Burnham and his MTC companion at the Hamilton NZ Visitor Center before leaving the MTC.

First Week in the Field

Hey Family!!!!!

My first week in the field is now over! Well it wasn't quite a full week but it feels like it was only just a day! The first day we spent in wellington and did some street contacting. that was kinda Crazy. I was really really nervous to talk to anybody but we gave out 4 copies of the Book of Mormon so that was kinda cool. I don't know if anybody actually followed up on that but hopefully! Then I spent the night at the zone leader's "flat" and woke up at 4;30 to go back down to the airport so that I could be picked up by my new companion! His name is Elder Christensen. He's from Layton Utah I believe. He is a really cool guy and has been on his mission for about 6 months. We are serving in a small (pop. ~7,000) town called Masterton. It is on the North Island about 140 km NE of Wellington. The people here are very very nice but lots of uneducated people as well which makes it hard to teach sometimes. The work here is pretty tough but at least the people are nice. There were 2 or 3 baptisms just about a week before I got here. So we are super duper busy because there are lots of referral that we need to contact. I love the mission president and his wife! They are just about the most energetic and happy people I have ever met. Which can be kinda annoying when you are really tired from waking up at 3:30 to leave the MTC in the morning....But I certainly look forward to working with them! We get a car for like half the week and the sister missionaries in our area get it for the other half. We have been doing a TON of biking though. The town is pretty small and relatively flat but it gets really tiring by the end of the day. Anyway I don't have much time left I don't think and I still have to email the Mission President. Thanks for the instructions on the watch I will see if that works. Sounds like jacob is doing good work, tell him to keep it up and invite nico to our house to have the missionaries teach there! Good to hear about grandma and grandpa!!! Hopefully dad's shoulder gets better and he doesn't have to get surgery! Talk to you guys later! Love you!

Elder Burnham

Elder Burnham has arrived!

Hey Mom!
Well I am officially now in the MTC. The flight was super long and I hardly even slept so today will be a very long day. But there isn't a ton of stuff that we have to do so I was told I can take time to relax. NOT SLEEP but relax. They really want to keep us up until at least 9 so that we can start to get used to the time change.

Well in LAX, after about two hours of waiting, I met up with 11 other elders and 4 sisters. From what you heard on the email list thing, I was expecting only a couple to show up. I had already had dinner but they were mostly all from Salt Lake so they already kinda got to know eachother a little and had dinner at the airport. These Elders and Sisters are all really cool though. But none of them are my companion here in the MTC. My companion is from Tonga and has not made it here yet. I didn't quite catch his name though. It will be really interesting to see what differences we will have and how we are going to work around that. Especially since.....I am a district leader! I am feeling a little daunted by that but hopefully it will teach me and help me to be better at other leadership callings I might have later in my mission. 

 

Well we got a little packet that has our schedule in it for the next 12 days and boy is it going to be busy! There is always something that we are doing, wether it is classes or excersize or eating or anything. There is just always stuff scheduled. I think it will be good though. The more busy we are then the more quickly time goes by!
I am starting to realize that I forgot to pack a good number of things..... The most important thing I forgot was a copy of Preach My Gospel. It didn't even cross my mind, I don't even remember it being on my list! I am sure that I will get a copy of the Preach My Gospel here. They are bound to have a couple around here.
The MTC was only about a 10 minute drive from the airport. But it was 10 minutes on the LEFT side of the road! It was really weird....And of course, it is raining here. Like pouring rain. It is kinda weird to see because we don't ever really get rain in August or September. They keep telling us that it is really cold down on the South Island and in the Wellington area, much colder than here. I think that will be awesome though because I don't think it is too cold here so I should be fine down there too. Although someone said that it is still snowing down there....
So we all had interviews with the MTC President. His name is President Talawhiti. The "wh" is pronounced "f" though which is kinda weird. He recognized our last name though and asked if I had a grandfather that came down here. I said I didn't think so. He said that he was a school teacher though so I thought maybe it actually was grandpa Burnham. You will have to ask Dad on that one.
The MTC here is really small though. I think there are only like 40 or so people here right now. It will be cool though because I will get to know everyone here better, and so will President Talawhiti.
Well anyway, I am not too sure when my next chance to email will be but I am running out of time on the computer is running out and I want to make sure this will actually send. I am doing well! Talk to you later!

Love, Elder Burnham