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