Elder Burns permanently assigned to Spokane

We got the official word today from President Bangerter (Highland, UT East Stake)that no one is being sent to the Mongolian mission and the one's currently there are being pulled out because the Mongolian government said for them to leave. Elder Burns is now permanently assigned to the Spokane, Washington mission and his current mission president is very happy about that. So, from this point Elder Burns will finish his mission in Spokane and continue the work there. His mission call is to serve the Lord and bring souls to Christ and that is just what he has been doing and will continue to do so. Weekly reports will occur right here as usual.
Thanks Elder Burns for your service to the Lord so far and for much service to come.

22nd week in Spokane

We had a really good week! Ti was confirmed yesterday and that's always a cool experience! We were able to find a few new people to teach! The first one is Dave and his ex wife was Mormon and so he knows a little bit about it and so we talked to him for about twenty minutes about his religious background and everything like that and we gave him a book of Mormon and invited him to read 3 Nephi 11 and he said he would, he's a really nice guy so we are excited about that. The next is Christina, she is a single mother of 3 boys, ages 4, 2, and 5 months shes really nice and she said that she's not ready to go to any church just yet but she would like us to keep coming by to help her build her faith. Next is Denelle, she's pretty cool, she was at her boyfriends moms house when the missionaries knocked on her door and she got interested then and the other missionaries gave us her info so we've been trying to get a hold of her for a few weeks and we finally did and taught her about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon and she wants us to teach her more a few times a week so we are excited about that!
OK well its hard to believe but six weeks has gone by since I got transferred to be with Elder Itgel which means that tomorrow is transfer day and we got our calls last night and Elder Itgel is staying in the Glenrose ward and I am getting transferred to the Beacon Hill ward which is about 20 minutes north of where I'm at now. So next week there will be more info on my new area and my new companion!
I am grateful for this last six weeks, I've learned a lot and I feel that I've grown a lot too. Our ward here is extremely missionary minded and so caring for everyone, it really is just a huge family, the way it should be. I plan on taking those principles with me to try to help out future wards! Especially too the opportunity I had to be companions with a Mongolian to help me with the language, even though by the sound of things I won't even be going, oh well! At least I don't feel so unsure about everything meaning that I wasn't sure when or if I was going to Mongolia, so now its easier to focus on what I'm doing! Well I love you and thank you for all of your support!

21st week in Spokane

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!!! Hope everyone had a good one, we sure did! It was a day to remember! We started it out with Snaedis' baptism at 8:00 and it was way good! Everything went really good and the spirit was really strong! Then at 1:00 we had ward conference where the stake president and his councilors were there and that went way good. Then Elder Itgel and I had to go fill up the font right after church for two hours for Ti's baptism at 6:00! I was asked to give the talk on the Holy Ghost, so I had one all prepared and about 30 seconds before the baptism started I found out that the other girl who was supposed to give the talk on baptism was all prepared to give the talk on the Holy Ghost! So I told her I would go ahead and talk on baptism. I had about one minute to prepare a talk so I grabbed a few scriptures, grabbed a few thoughts and felt fairly confident. But then I got in front of everybody and forgot pretty much everything I was thinking about and said some stuff that probably didn't make sense so I stopped trying to arrange my thoughts and just bore my testimony and sat down! But luckily the talk on baptism is followed by the baptism itself and everybody totally forgot about me and my "talk" and the spirit of that sacred ordinance was able to fill the room. It really was such a special day, one that I hope will soon be duplicated!

20th week in Spokane

Well it appears as though I need to change the blog name to Greg in Spokane! I got an email from the mission president in Mongolia that they have gone a few steps back in the process and they're not sure that they will be able to get us in the country at all! So I'm pretty bummed about it especially since they were so optimistic about it the last time we heard from them! But anyways, we had a pretty good week, found a couple new people to teach, the biggest event that happened this week was we moved houses! We went from the Clark's house to our Bishop's house, Bishop Porter, so that's exciting, it will be good because we will be able to work really close with the bishop since we will see him every night! Oh ya and we got two baptisms next week on valentines day! Sneadis and Ti are getting baptized and we're really excited for them! Sneadis is from Iceland and Ti is from Samoa! Sneadis husband is a member and Ti's mom was baptized in November! well anyways that's all for now, i love you!

19th Week in Spokane

Hello from Spokane still! Well I haven't heard anything more about the visa situation, except that they haven't given up yet! Oh ya and our threesome got dropped to a regular twosome this last week, elder Allred got transferred, we were pretty bummed because we all got along way good, but it happens.. well besides that, we had a pretty good week. Last Sunday one of the guys we are teaching, Ti, his mom got baptized in November, well he wanted all of us to fast for him to get an answer to his prayer on whether or not he should get baptized, so we did and he said by the end that he had received his answer and he's going to get baptized on February 14th! So we are way excited about that because we've become pretty close with his family! Also we were able to find a few new people to teach, one guy, Shawn, he was all ready to get baptized like 6 months ago but had a few things come up in his personal life that he had to put the church on pause, but now that that's all done with, he wants to still get baptized, so that's cool, hes a way cool guy. Another lady, kaycee, we tracted into her and she is way interested and doesn't have any objections to anything and really wants her family to get involved, she is married and has five kids! So what an opportunity it will be to watch as the gospel enters into these peoples home and to see them change their lives for the better as they accept the gospel and Jesus Christ in their lives!