69th Week in Spokane

This week was definitely an exciting one! It started out with a companionship in our zone having some difficulties and so we went on a 24 hour exchange with them where I went to their area with one of the elders and the other elder came to our area with elder Tamblyn. It went really good except for two things.. one. elder Tamblyn got sick, and is still sick. and two. It snowed about 7 inches! So it was pretty exciting and we were able to help the other elders out. So when we got home the next day about three o'clock, elder Tamblyn went to bed and I went out and shoveled for a couple hours! We've got a pretty big driveway and with seven inches of snow, it took some time! Not to mention the temperature was in the low teens! Well, the next morning, there was about another seven inches on the ground! So we went out and shoveled that out of the way! And then of course by night time, it was raining! And it rained all the next day.. and about half the next and then everything froze! Before I tell you what happened next, let me remind you that missionaries have a mile limitation that they are allowed to drive per month. Also, for mom's sake, I'll spare some of the details until after my mission!! So in our area, there's a shortcut that takes you up the side of a mountain, its called Blume Hill Rd. (in case you want to Google map it!) Well, we had an appointment at the bottom of this hill at six and then right after we had an appointment at the top of this hill. So obviously we took this short cut that would save us about twenty miles. So here's the problem. There was a sign that said "not maintained in winter". Well, this sign has been up for about two months and I've been up and down it countless times, especially since we're teaching someone who lives at the bottom, and there's never been any problem at all, we just pop our truck into four wheel drive and off we go. And this night, there were fresh tire tracks going up this hill, so I never thought twice about it. So we went up and it was no problem.. until the last 200 yards.. it was solid ice! So we kept going up it with the momentum we had and that took us about 2/3 of the way up.. then we started sliding backwards. But luckily the side stopped us because there was a little bit of snow there, just before the ditch. Well we tried a few times to get out but with no luck, Whenever we tried we would just slide backwards. so we thought we'd just try to back down to where there wasn't any ice. Well that didn't work either because we had zero control while we were on that ice. So we called up a guy in our ward that sells chains and asked him to come get us. Well, he didn't bring any chains and so when he came, the exact same thing happened to him, except he was bounced into the opposite side of the road into the other ditch, which was a good thing because this ditch was only about six inches deep. So he tried using that to get him to the top of the hill and that didn't work so he decided to try backing back down the hill using this little ditch. he got down almost all the way to where there wasn't any more ice when his tire popped out of the ditch flinging his back end across the road to where his back tire was hanging off the other ditch. So they got out, called a tow truck who then came and got both of us and we got home at about 11:00 that night. So like I said, I'll have to spare you the really exciting details for when I get home.. for moms sake! So that was our little adventure this week! As for out teaching. we were able to start officially teaching a part member family, who finally agreed to take the missionary discussions!! So we are very excited about that! There's also a few other very exciting things going on right now with our teaching that I look forward to reporting on as they unfold a little bit more. I love you all!

68th week in Spokane

This week we were at meetings for two days. a zone leader meeting and a zone meeting. It went really good, we had a lot of really good trainings, but they were both about two hours away and so with pday thrown in there too, we didn't get as much teaching done as we would have liked. On Wednesday it snowed about four inches and then by the end of the day it started to rain and it rained all the next day and then when it stopped raining the temperature dropped down to single digits and so everything turned to solid, thick ice! It was interesting going tracting! We were sliding all over the place! In our zone leader council we talked a lot about setting goals, in our mission and also in our life, it was a really good training and I'm really trying to live to meet my goals. Well, there's not much more to report on, we were able to meet with Joseph again this week and he came to church so that was really good! We got a lot of really good things lined up for this week though so that's good. Yesterday was Jessie Torkelson's one year mark from her baptism which means that she's be going to the temple really soon! So I'm way excited for that! Its gonna be a really neat experience! Well I love ya and hope everyone's doing good! Oh ya one more thing.. I hit my 18 month mark! Love ya!

67th week in Spokane

We had a great week! Probably the highest teaching week I've had in this area. And we were able to find quite a few new people to teach! All but one came from tracting so that's good! Someone I forgot to mention about last week is a guy named Joseph Black. His family used to be a part of the FLDS group in northern Arizona. His two brothers broke away from it and now live here and have since joined the church. Joseph just moved in with his brother and so now we're teaching him. It was kind of interesting at first when we were trying to figure out what to teach him about. But of course we are teaching him the normal lessons and having him read from the Book of Mormon like everyone else. He just needs to gain a testimony of the current prophet. We were also able to meet a less active member this week named Brother Brittenham. Man oh man, he is the biggest story teller I have ever ever met! He told some pretty out there stories, hopefully someday when I get home I'll be able to tell you more about it! We had a great new years eve! We went over to our ward mission leaders house because his family went out of town without him. We cooked up some crab, lobster tail, squid, and shrimp! We had a pretty good time and then we finished it off by watching the best two years! Well I wish I had a bit more time to tell you everything, but unfortunately, I don't! love ya!!

66th week in Spokane

Sorry about last week, we had zone conference on Monday and so our p-day turned to Tuesday and so we didn't have as much time to email. But we had a very good first two weeks of the transfer. Elder Tamblyn is great, we get along really well. He only has ten weeks left on his mission so we made a goal that this will be his best two transfers of his whole mission. It's gonna be great, hopefully I'll be able to stay with him another transfer to see that goal to the end. He is from Phoenix, Arizona and is loving the cold! Zone conference last week was really good, it was focused on our purpose and finding. Then at the end we had a little Christmas program and a testimony meeting, it was a spiritual meeting. Like I said before, every companionship in the zone got switched up so its been fun getting to know the new missionaries. For Christmas Eve we had dinner and a little program at a members home, it was fun, there were tons of people there, all family, so it made me feel like home. Then Christmas day we had brunch over at a members home and then we called home, it was really nice to be able to hear everyone's voices, that's always a special treat that we get as missionaries. We also saw one of the families we're working with, the Stolleys, and had a really good visit there. Then we went and had dinner at another members house. It was a good weekend! The work is moving right along, we're working with some really great people and are excited to watch them progress in the gospel! I love this work and I'm growing more and more each day! Love ya!!

65th Week in Spokane

Elder Burns was in a Zone Conference on Monday and couldn't email until today. He had a very short time so wasn't able to make a blog entry. There will be one next week.

64th week in Spokane

This week went really well, it was our highest teaching week all transfer. So I guess I'll start with the updates. With the Compton family (the Diest and messianic Jew couple) we went over and had dinner with them. He read in the book of Mormon all the introduction and testimonies and a few pages into first Nephi. she started to read the intro and then went to the plan of salvation pamphlet that we had left with them. They both had lots of questions and we were able to expound on a few things. We are going back there this Saturday. With the Stolley family, we found them again! She moved back in with her mom, so we are excited about that, she still wants to get baptized so we will be meeting with them this week. We met with Eddy Madden last night, I don't know if I've talked about him before but we've been going over there for a couple months now. Its been cool to see him come to grips with what we teach. He's realizing that everything we teach, he already believed, but not from another persons teaching, from his own study and he said that whenever he talks about those things people call him crazy and give him a hard time. But last night we had a really good lesson with him. He told us that if he received an answer to his prayers that the book of Mormon is true then he would get baptized! We met with this other lady named Jeneen, she is probably more devoted to Christ than anyone I've taught. we had a pretty good lesson with her, she has a few concerns which we were able to address, but overall it went pretty good. We are going back this week. We met with Milt Kenny, the JW, and there wasn't much desire to change, he basically just wanted to argue his point and wouldn't address our questions. So on Saturday, we attended two Christmas parties. One for the community and one for the ward. In the one for the community, a member organized it and so they asked us to have a part in it. Elder Westwood read a poem. I read Luke 2 and also sang with three others “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day”. It was fun and we were able to get some good face time with the community. The ward party went really really well too, there were about ten non members there and a bunch of less actives, so that was really good! Alright, now onto transfers... Elder Westwood is getting transferred to be with Elder Akaka in North Spokane. Elder Akaka and I lived in the same house when I was in beacon hill. I'm staying in Bonners Ferry and my new companion is Elder Tamblyn. and I don't know hardly anything about him. But I am excited to take over the area and I'm excited to see what this transfer is going to bring! And in the zone, every single companionship is being switched up so its gonna be fun! Love ya!!

63rd week in Spokane

The work was kinda slow this week because Elder Westwood was sick for two days and we were in Spokane for a day too. But some pretty good things came of what time we did have. We were able to do a lot of service too, a whole lot of shoveling snow and helping people get unstuck.. things like that. We were able to find a few new people to teach so that was good. One guy named milt.. I can't tell if he is a Jehova's Witness or just has studied a lot with them. But anyways, we're going back over there tomorrow night so that will be good. we were also able to find a new family named the Comptons, he's a diest and shes a messianic jew. Pretty interesting conversation with both of them. But they both agreed to read from the Book of Mormon and invited us over for some kosher hot dogs! So the update on the Stolley family.. we keep going by there and her car hasn't been there and their driveway was never plowed or had tire tracks and her house sits pretty far back from the road. So we decided to go ahead and hike in (thankfully I've got my nice sorrel boots!) and when we got up to the house, everything inside was gone. So they suddenly moved out and disappeared. but that's OK because this is the second time that this has happened and if the Lord can lead us to her twice, I'm pretty positive that He can do it again!! Well, I suppose that's all I got for this week. Love ya!