62nd Week in Spokane

I hope everyone had a good thanksgiving!! For us, we only had two meals, a lunch and a dinner, and then a dessert. I was good this year and ate very little at each place which is a huge improvement over last year! This time I was just sufficiently full when last year I thought I was gonna throw up! We made only four stops for the whole day and ate just a little at each one.. it was good! And it was my birthday so that made it extra good! Well, we were able to find new people to teach this week, pretty solid ones too. One of them, Tiffany, said that the night before she had a dream that she got baptized and that she was full of light while she was. so we're working towards baptism for her which will be really good! With the Stolley family, we haven't had any contact with them for over a week, they just disappeared so hopefully they will reappear so that they can get baptized on Christmas day! So last week we got A LOT of snow! right now there's about fourteen inches on the ground. and for two days straight it didn't get above five degrees but instead stayed about -5 degrees.. so.. it was cold! Its no Mongolian or Canadian -40.. but it was still cold! So the wells family is doing really great, we met with them twice this week and the mom came to church again this week and said that during sacrament meeting she received an answer to her prayers. So things are going really great here, love ya!!!

61st week in Spokane

Sorry about last week, we ended up taking a last minute trip to the temple which takes place of our p-day so we had no email time last week. But the temple was awesome, it had been over a year since I went so it was really nice. So the past two weeks have been pretty eventful. We ended up chopping lots and lots and lots of wood! But I actually used a gas powered splitter one of the times and that was interesting.. I think I prefer the old fashion way. We've been on four exchanges the past two weeks so we've been staying busy that way. It was cool though, for one of the exchanges I went to Spokane to be with my old companion, Elder Moleni, for a day, it was fun, it brought back a lot of memories. Kinda weird its been almost a year since I was companions with him. Anyways, he covers the singles ward (which covers my very first area) so we were able to go try people who I tracted into a year ago. I was able to see Natasha (my first baptism) and invite her to start coming back to church and Elder Moleni is going to get the singles ward relief society president over there to meet her. We were also able to see Jessie Torkelson (my fourth baptism) she was excited to see me, and I was too. So that was a good exchange. Jennifer is doing really good. Kinda crazy story that happened, we taught her that night, after my last email, and she was way receptive and we set a date for her to be baptized, and her son too, then the very next day her husband died. So it was a really tough week for them but they were very grateful that we had found them when we did to help them get through it and they recognize the Lord's hand in it. Another miracle that happened this week is with a lady named Charlene Wells. We sort of just happened onto her, we accidentally drove down her driveway and figured since we were already there we might as well knock on her door. Well she came outside before we got to her porch and said "what are you doing here?" and we told her it was kind of by accident and she just stood there quiet for a second and just said "wow" she told us that she had been trying to get in touch with someone from the church to get a book of Mormon, well we just so happened to have one with us that we gave her. Anyways, long story short, she was baptized at eight but stopped going when she was nine, and she wants to take the missionary lessons and have her family take them with her. So we are starting that tomorrow and we are excited about that. Things are going really well in the zone too, nearly every companionship has people that have set a baptismal date within the next six weeks. So things are going really well here, I hope everyone has an awesome thanksgiving! Oh ya and you can go ahead and think of me while you're eatin that turkey cuz I will be turning 23 that day!! Haha just kidding.. love ya!!

59th week in Spokane

This week was awesome! Probably one of the better weeks I've had in this area. We were able to find six new people to teach and a few really strong potential people that we set appointments with this week. Still no one that has set a date to be baptized, not yet anyways. so just a couple stories from this week. Yesterday for dinner we got fed burgers, not just any burgers, they took a one pound package of hamburger, made it into one patty, homemade a bun and fed it to us.. this thing was massive! My companion finished it but I couldn't! It sure was delicious though! Also, we were in Libby, Montana on Friday and the elder from over there and I were out knocking on doors together and there was an old man that came to the door, you could tell that he wasn't quite all there and he couldn't speak all that well. But all he kept saying was "I'm Catholic!" So we tried talking to him a little bit but that's all he would say, then he took us both by the elbow and escorted us off his porch! That was a first for me, it was kinda funny! Then we said "Have a nice day!" and to that he turned around, struggled to get words to come out and blurted "YOU'RE FAT!!" and turned around and walked inside.... pretty sure he had turrets! So things are going really well here, one of the ladies that we're excited about is Jennifer, she is one that the Lord led us to, someone that we were supposed to find. We have our first lesson with her tonight, and she's got two kids! Well, that's about it for this week in our area, in the zone, there are two new people preparing to be baptized, so we are excited for that! Well, that's about it for this week, till next time.. Elder Burns

58th Week in Spokane

Sorry I didn't get a post out last week, I didn't end up having much of an email time. But there's really not a whole lot to update on, the work has slowed down considerably. The family that we've been teaching, the Stephans, they decided it was too hard to quit smoking and coffee and decided to go to a different church. that was pretty heart breaking. We were able to find a couple new people to teach though so that's good. Its been raining non stop for the past two weeks and so whenever there's a slight break, we just end up doing service, chopping and stacking wood mostly, its fun. There's this one guy named mark, he's pretty cool, somewhat interested, well he owns a lot of land and he has a horse that he got shipped from England, the Excalibur breed.. they're the horses that the knights used to ride, they are pretty stout. not real tall, but way way stout, he's also got a goat that he got shipped from Jerusalem, I forget what the breed was called, but they are the type that grow the horns that you can cut off and use as a bugle, they're pretty sweet.. goofy lookin too! We had zone conference last week too and that went really good, it was all on the Book of Mormon and how we can use it more effectively with our investigators. We were also all given a blank copy of the Book of Mormon and as a mission we are all reading it from cover to cover and finishing it by Christmas and marking along the way every reference to Christ and all the words He speaks and His attributes and things like that, the activity is from preach my gospel, page 114 I think, its the last page of the Book of Mormon chapter and its the third bullet point under mission president, its pretty good, you should check it out. It has made so many things make so much more sense, even though they already made sense.. its been awesome reading it all the way through with a focused purpose. Well believe it or not, transfers are today and... I'm staying in Bonners Ferry with Elder Westwood!! We were excited about that. We had stake conference here yesterday, it was super good, about strengthening our homes and families and then afterward we got to have a meeting with our stake presidency and mission presidency and discuss how the work is going in the zone, which covers the whole stake, and about how we can improve and have a better unity between us and the members, it was really good. Well, I suppose thats about it for now, oh ya, last week we had a sewer line break and it took like four days to fix so we just showered over at the church, it was pretty sweet.. kinda stunk too. Well, we have a lot of really good things about to happen here and we are excited that we are serving here and at this time. Love ya!

56th week in Spokane

Well, this week is going to be a pretty short one. I was in Spokane all week having meetings and we got pretty much zero proselyting time in our area. The training was excellent though and we are excited to be able to apply it in our own area with our own investigators. I heard some way good news though! In my first area in Spokane, we found, taught, and baptized a mother and son named Cheryl and Tristian Millmaker, well, I found out this week that the husband is getting baptized next week!! So now they will be able to be united as a family and will have the blessing of having the Priesthood in their home!! Also this week, Elder Westwood and I both gave a talk in sacrament meeting and that went pretty good except for the fact that I tend to be long winded and didn't leave Elder Westwood very much time! But really that's pretty much it for this week, we just had meetings!

55th week in Spokane

We had somewhat of a rough week with all our investigators who are working towards a baptismal date. Satan has been working double time to keep them from entering the waters. We were only able to meet with the Stephens family once this week because they kept calling and canceling and they are still having problems with the word of wisdom and so they can't be baptized this week. Its all been very frustrating. But on the upside we did find some sweet new people to teach this week. One of whom is Ricky, she's way interested, has tons of questions, and has a whole lot of potential. We also found a new family, the mom has been taught before but she is re-interested and has two kids that she wants to learn more about God and the scriptures. So we are looking forward to seeing what comes from that. We have been getting a lot of requests to split wood for people and so of course I love doing that. As for the zone, there was a baptism this Saturday, a guy named Calvin. So that was good especially since there hasn't been a baptism in the zone since August. Next week there's another baptism on Sunday. so things are looking up, we just need to have people quit holding cigarettes higher than they hold God, which is exactly what they are doing. So there's been a lot of questions about the responsibilities of a zone leader. So basically it works like this.. two missionaries make up a companionship where there is a senior companion who is accountable for that companionship, a few companionships make up a district where there is a District leader who works closely with all the missionaries in their district, especially the senior companion, and is accountable for the companionships in his district, a few districts make up a zone where there are two zone leaders in a companionship who work very closely with the district leaders and are accountable for the all the missionaries in that zone, and then there are two assistants to the president in a companionship who work very closely to the zone leaders. So that's how leadership in this mission is broken down. So as far as responsibilities go, there's not a whole lot different then any one else, other than we work very closely with the stake, or stakes, in which our zone covers, meeting with high councilmen and the stake president and helping to ensure that the missionaries and the church leaders are on the same page with everything. So as zone leaders we have meeting with the stake, we also go to the district meeting within the zone, we meet once a transfer with all the other zone leaders in the mission and the president in whats called a zone leader council, which just so happens to be tomorrow. We also have a conference call every Thursday night where all the zone leaders and the president are all on the same line where we give some sort of accountability and receive direction from the assistants and the president. there's also whats called a zone conference that happens every other transfer where all the missionaries in a few zones meet together where we receive direction and training from the president, then we split up and receive training from the assistants and then the zone leaders give trainings after that. Then there's also one more thing that's fairly new, called leadership training, I went to it as a district leader in July. basically its where we receive training from the president for four days, eight hours a day and all zone leaders, district leaders, and trainers are invited to that..Its pretty intense but its so awesome at the same time and that just so happens to start tomorrow too. So for this upcoming week I will be in Spokane from Tuesday morning to Friday night. so I'm looking forward to that, it will be fun. So I don't know, that may sound like a lot, but its not. Well I'm looking forward to reporting on this week next time. I love you all thanks for all you do!

54th week in Spokane

Things went well this week, what could be better then to end it by listening to the Lord's Prophet and Apostles?? We were able to teach a lady named Mary this week and invite her to be baptized Oct. 23rd and she accepted! The zone has also been really blessed this week with two more people who have accepted a baptismal date. That makes six for the zone! That's more than the zone has had in the past six months, so things are looking up here. We were able to meet with the Stake President this week and talk about each ward individually and set up some goals with him. There's definitely a feeling of anticipation here as the fire is being lit in the stake and in the zone. I am grateful for the talk given by Elder Nelson in the Priesthood session talking about how the members of the church need to be missionaries as well. Especially since that is the gap that's missing here, as in the majority of the church as well I'm sure. If that gap can be bridged between the members and the missionaries, the world will see miracles. We need to be the tools used in the Lord's hands as He ushers in His second coming. We need to do our part. As the Prophet began to speak in the welcoming to conference Saturday morning, my testimony was again confirmed and strengthened as the Spirit bore witness to me that Thomas S. Monson is God's Prophet on the Earth today. I know this is true. that's why I am serving the Lord, to spread the good news.