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
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