ONE MORE!!!

Excerpt from Zack's email, dated April 3, 2010 . . .

YEAH!!! WOOHOO!!! One more down . . . and one more that I don't know. At least Reillee will only have a few months without me. Amelia, on the other hand, is likely to cry and try to get as far away from me as possible, haha. Congratulations Kirstin! She looks beautiful! I love the name, too, though when I read it my pronunciation of the name ws very different (it turned out Haley, darn English and its dumb rules and vowels that don't follow any patterns).

You know, you really feel old when the day before you leave on your mission your sister tells you she is recently pregnant and then has a kid. Then after that one is born, the other sister annouces she is pregnant and then she also has a kid. That means 9 months at least twice... oh man.

Anyway, who is excited for Conference? I am! Here in an hour it will start and I am so excited. It is pretty cool because right now I am in the Internet Cafe of Mari, the woman here in Santa Maria that I baptized last year. [It was a] year ago I invited her, an investigator, to go to Conference. And now, she is still going and again will be at the Conference. Those are the best parts of the mission. I also heard from Marcelo in Cruz Alta that his wife got a job to start saving money to go to the Temple in September and be sealed --that is what it is all about. So, I am very excited for this Conference weekend and for the opportunity to hear from our beloved Prophet. What a blessing it is to have a prophet of God upon the earth. I hope that all might be able to make the best of this opportunity.

This week was very good. One more transfer has past, and yes, again, I will stay here in Santa Maria. My new companion's name is Elder Reis, who is from Ceará. He has a year-and-a-half on the mission and is the man. We were already friends before, and I have known for these two transfers that he would be my next companion. Also, my new half-companion in the field is Elder Witt. Yeah Dane, did you hear (read) that? It is Elder Witt, one of Dane's buddies from BYU who lived in MH3 also, haha. It is so tight to have him in the house and work with him. He is a stud new missionary. It is almost as though I am working with Dane.

This week was busy, as we had to give various training to the new missionaries and trainers and so on, but it was very good. It was sad to take Elder Bryson to the airport; he was a great companion, but things are going really good. We still have those dates marked for that one family that is just golden - the perfect family. They want to be baptized sooo bad! It will happen next week as they have to work today.

Mom, Sister Myrrha wants to send you beijos (kisses)! That maybe sounds slightly unusual, but is a Brasilian norm. I told her that you are always telling me to thank her and President. She slapped me and said, "Then why don't you tell us!?" She is such an awesome woman, I love her and President so much.

I love you all so very much. Have a wonderful Easter, especially with the new baby, and a wonderful Conference! Tchau!

Com Amor,
Elder Burnham