July 6, 2014

Happy 4th of July!

Well I may be a little late with that one but it's the best I could do!

We had a sorta tough week this week. It was just hard to follow up and see our investigators. We had several appointments this week but it seemed they all fell through. So hopefully this next week will be better! 

We went on exchanges with the Zone Leaders this week. So I spent half of Thursday and all of Friday in Christchurch. It was pretty good. We did heaps of biking when we were on exchanges. It was kinda unfortunate because the reason we had to bike so far was because there was an appointment on the whole other side of their area. So we get to the appointment and it turns out the person was "sleeping" according to the rude partner who answered the door. So all that biking was for not much progress. But that's OK. It just helped build my appetite for our meal on Friday night. The Zone Leader, Elder Kxxx, learned how to make sloppy joes. So I had a real American meal on the fourth of July! It's funny because Elder Kxxxis from Scotland and never had sloppy joes until he got to the MTC, and he loved them. So now he makes them because he loves them! So that was good.

I also got to see the big city center. Well what used to be the big city center. Christchurch is, apparently, nothing what it used to be. They had a very bad earthquake a couple of years ago. The first was stronger than the second but did less damage because it was more of a "normal" earthquake where things shake back and forth. Well they had a second one that was not as strong but it was worse for damage. Pretty much the way this one hit was devastating. It was 2 km below the surface of the earth and I heard it described as "punching" straight up under the city. So essential all the buildings "jumped" up. But on the way "down", there was another "punch" straight up. They said it was like when you are on the trampoline and someone steals your bounce. You just collapse. Well that is what a few buildings did. They just fell. There were many deaths. But of the buildings that stood, nearly every building was damaged beyond the point of repair. So nearly all the city center was demolished. What used to be the bustling city center is nearly entirely abandoned. Only two skyscrapers are left standing, both in need of repairs. You can walk along and see the huge foundations of the multi-story buildings just sitting there. It is kinda haunting. They also had liquefaction and major flooding in parts of the town. There are entire streets of the city where the EQC (Earthquake Commission in change of helping rebuild they city) has red-zoned. Entire streets where the houses are all too damaged to live in. Yet through all this destruction, the people are still wicked haha you would think that would cause people to repent but heaps of people just got angry at God and reject religion even more. It is very sad. But I did enjoy my time there. 

Well that is about all this week. Nothing too exciting. I am doing pretty well. I have gotten over my sickness so that is good. I can get back to working my hardest! It is still cold down here but the days are starting to get longer so I am happy about that! Hope all is well back home!

Love,
Elder Burnham