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