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March 30th (P-day is Preparation Day. It is a day when the missionaries have some time to shop, do laundry, etc.)
Sorry for the no email last week. I ended up doing P-day on Saturday with President, didn't plan for it and never had the chance to write a letter. It was the best P-day ever, though.
So, no changes this transfer. I will remain in the center of Santa Maria for one more transfer, though President Myrrha already told me that I will only stay for this one and then I will leave. I am excited for another transfer with Elder Botelho. We are really good friends and we are working really hard to baptize a lot this transfer. The actual transfers were crazy because I actually had to do a lot of stuff, being an office worker. [I had to] make sure that everyone was there, had their tickets, that their luggage was stored properly and all that great stuff was a pain, but I got a free churrasco buffet in return--so not that bad I guess.
This week was very good. A few months ago, 23 year-old guy named Juliano was baptized and about a month ago we started teaching the rest of his family. He has 9 brothers and sisters, so, yeah, that is a lot of people. So, this Saturday we baptized 4 of his brothers and sisters. It was really cool to have a baptism with so many people dressed in white. They are being integrated very well into the Branch (a smaller congregation; large congregations are called "wards"), with seminary and young women's activities. Now we are going to focus on the other brother who still lives at home and the parents. We also marked a date with an eternal investigator named Mari. She is really cool and knows everything, but just needs to get in the water. We are teaching a lady named Elizabeth from Uruguai. It is interesting because she only speaks Spanish. It is strange and really cool because I understand what she says--in fact better than she understands me. Her life is like a movie (which is a story for another time), but she is progressing a lot. We also have one more investigator, named Edmilson, who is the future Stake President here who, technically, has a date marked for this Sunday. He is really looking for his reponse about the Church. We challenged him to receive the response and be baptized when General Conference arrived.
I am so excited for this weekend and the opportunity to attend General Conference. It is like a holiday - the same kind of anticipation as for Christmas. It is also a great missionary work tool because we always teach about how there is a living prophet and living apostles, and now the investigators have the opportunity to see for themselves. So, I am hoping to bring many people to church this week and hopefully we will see the fruits in the upcoming weeks.
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April 6, 2009
Happy Birthday KIRS!!!
I am very sad that conference is done already and that we have to wait another six months to hear the voices of those men again. Conference is as much an anticipated thing for me as Christmas--with those same joyous, yet tremendously sad, thoughts that it has already passed and gone. The worst part is that the Priesthood Session is really late here so we weren't able to watch it. I have to wait until the May [edition of the] Liahona before I can read it.
One thing that I noticed this conference that I had never really taken into account before now is the fact that most of the things that the Brethren say I already know, we have already heard, and yet at the same time I learn so very much. There are so many things I have to apply into my own person and that very concept of working hard to make myself into the better and up to the best me that I can be excites me so much.
Things are well here in the field. I am healthy, though not quite fit; skinny, but not quite thin; and tired, though well rested. But, I guess that comes along with the job. Things are going very well. The office adds some stress to what should be a stressless two years, but things with my companion could not be better and this transfer is going well. We have two investigators who should be baptized this Saturday. One is named Edmilson, maybe 40 years old. He is very successful, very intelligent, and a man who will truly be a leader within the Church. He is an eternal investigator, and I have no doubt that he already knows the veracity of the Church, but he just needs to make the firm decision. The other is Rochielle, who is 18 and also an eternal. She has already borne us her testimony about the Church but still has some adolescent restrictions that she is having a hard time overcoming. I think that conference really was the turning point with these people, for now to deny baptism would be to deny the Spirit they felt as prophets spoke. We also marked a baptismal date with a woman named Mari. She is around 40, and, once again, an eternal. Her problem is giving up smoking. She is firm on her decision and I have no doubt that she will make it.
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April 13, 2009
WOOOOHOOOO!!! Congratulations, Dane! Paraguay! That is so cool. Man, that brings me back to almost exactly 1 year ago when I got that phone call from the Cannon Center saying that my call had arrived - and then the most anxious,yet unnervingly calm drive up the mountain to open it. Dude, that is so awesome! One more language thrown into the Hammer mix. The tower of Babel in that home. Man, you are going to be my neighbor... kinda... yah for rice and beans!
I spent a good deal of the day yesterday, in between appointments, trying to find out any connections between Christ, a rabbit, and hidden eggs, but the whole concept is lost to me.
Well, this week was one of the most difficult I have had on the mission. Just one of those times when it seems as though literally everything that could possibly go wrong or work against you does. But, we all need those times. Thinking of President Monson's talk about the woman who buried her 4 children with a spoon really puts into perspective anything that we can possibly think of as difficult in our lives.
(Editorial Note: President Monson, the President of the Church, gave a wonderful talk in Conference about "a woman in postwar East Prussia who found herself in an area no longer controlled by the government under which she had resided. With her husband killed, she took her four children (1,000 miles) on foot to Germany. One by one they died. She used a tablespoon to dig each individual grave, until the infant died and she was required to use her fingers to dig through the frozen ground to bury her baby. Go to http://www.ldg.org/ to read the entire text.)
One thing is for sure, time will continue to tick and things will continue to change. The next day will be there just as the day before. So, the key and the cure lies within our own conscience. Devoid of offense before Him, there is nothing to ever worry about. This season of Easter is a time where we remember the last week of His life and His sacrifice, but the day of Easter actually lies on the Sunday, or the ressurrection; His triumph over death. Now the question is, what is death? What was it that He triumphed over when He rose from the sepluchre? The answer is so undeniable simple, yet utterly profound that some don't even realize its import: everything. When He rose, He gave unto us the gift and the knowledge that He overcame, quite literally and in every sense, everything. In the garden, He lived individually every single one of our lives and on the cross passed through every one of our deaths - and yet He had the power still to defy all of it? Yes, He did and He does. So, the first question, what is death? Death is the combined finishing blow to life's heartaches, difficulties, weaknesses, and trangressions. What did Christ overcome? All of those things - and more. Everything we pass through, He passed; everything we feel, He felt. And now, we are tested as such, with hardship, to learn how it is to overcome them in the end. So, with a greater knowledge of what the ressurrection was we can know that He defeated it all, and overcame everything. So we will, too.
As for the work, we should have a baptism this weekend of Rochiele - if not this one then next one. And, we have the baptism of Mari marked for the next weekend. We are fighting against the cigarettes with her, but I am sure that she will overcome this vice. Edmilson will be baptized in May. That is fantastic, of course, but sad because I will not be here.
Thanks for eveything! I love you guys! Congrats Dane! Mangs, you're next!
Com Amor,
Elder Burnham
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