Funny How Things Work Out . . .

From Zack's email, March 20, 2010:

Man, zone conferences take everything out of you. Traveling and getting less sleep attacks right when they all finish. The only annoying part is that there is no time to rest and recuperate, haha.

The conferences were wonderful. I think I already explained them last week, but this week we had the last 3, in Santo Ângelo, Cruz Alta and Santa Maria. I especially love going to Cruz Alta and the feeling of wanting to go back. Everything there is so familiar and I love that city. So many people and experiences; it marked my life forever.

At conference, as part of President's closing remarks, he showed a clip of President Eyring and his talk "You are Called of God." The feeling that came over me the 6 times that I watched it was so powerful; it was hard to hold back tears. I am so grateful to know that on this earth there are apostles and prophets who lead and guide us; who know Christ and can teach us His will. What a blessing it will be to hear from them again in two weeks.

Transfers will happen here in a week and a half, so I will get a new companion. It has been great with Elder Bryson.

In other news, things are starting to look up in our area. We have 5 dates marked - two for the 28th of March and three for April 4th. The first two are Iara, who is a woman of 40-something years and is the daughter of a recent-convert, and Bruno, who is the brother of the kids we baptized a few months ago but was traveling for all this time. The other three are Anderson, Daniela, and their daughter Brenda. This family is so awesome. They were being taught by Elders about 6 months ago and even had dates marked, but some serious . . . problems and they fell. The elder who was here at the time, Elder Jones, who is a good friend of mine, was stunned. He told me that he had had a dream where he promised them in the pre-mortal life that he would come and find them (for they knew they would be born without the gospel) and teach and baptize them. Everything was set and then it fell. So, one day I was passing in the street with Elder Marx and we passed in front of a house that had a young couple outside listening to music and I saw them looking at us. Elder Marx said they had already knocked that door and that no one had been there. We were continuing forward to another appointment when I just was restrained and had to return. We turned around and the wife had already gotten to the gate to talk with us and just told us to enter without even presenting ourselves. Funny how things work out. Elder Jones, who they loved, is back in the city as a secretary and all has been set up for them to be able to come back. It has been awesome to be able to teach them, though it is very obvious from some things that have happened that the enemy does not want this family to be baptized. Please pray for these people, pray that they might be able to have a true testimony, that they may know that President Monson is a prophet of God when they watch conference, and pray that they can fulfill their baptismal date. Thank you already for the prayers.

Com Amor,
Elder Burnham