August 10, 2014

Dear Family!

Well there it is! I am training again! So my new companion is Elder Hxxxxxxxxx. He is from Tonga. I don't really know anything about him because he is brand new but the cool thing is that he went to the same ward in Tonga as our Branch Mission Leader here in Timaru. So that is pretty cool. Other than that, I will tell you about him next week! 

Well this week was pretty good! We had a nice family home evening night with a member family from Argentina on Monday night. On Tuesday, we did a lot of service chopping wood and stacking it. We also did some help setting up the chapel on Tuesday night for a funeral on Wednesday. So we also helped a bit with the funeral on Wednesday. There was a woman who used to be a member of our branch but had moved away who passed away. She was taken by cancer at the young age of 46. Just goes to show how precious life really is. There were quite a few less active members and non members there as well. So we had the chance to friendship a few of them. We also helped out at the Salvation Army store. They gave me a slice of chocolate cheesecake for my birthday, so that was really kind of them.

Overall we had a pretty quiet week. We have been sorta saying some goodbyes because of Elder Lxxxx leaving. For me, that just means some nice Tongan meals! Saturday night we had an activity combined with the ward closest to us. It was a Talent Show. There was a lot of Samoan and Tongan dancing and singing going on. The ward next to ours is mostly Tongan and Samoan. But that was cool. We did a number with the Branch President. He is very talented musically and he has a song he likes to sing called "Missionary Blues." So we sung back up for him haha but that was pretty cool. 

Oh and I did get the packages so thank you for that! I am enjoying it all! Thanks! Hope you are all doing well! Have a great week!

Love,
Elder Burnham