Hanging out in Tucson!

Have you noticed that Sarah's emails have been getting a lot shorter?  I think it has something to do with the fact that she returns home next week!   If you would like to hear more about her mission, you are invited to listen to her speak on Sunday, December 18th at 9am.  She will be speaking at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 4195 East Wildcat Reserve Parkway, HIGHLANDS RANCH, Colorado 80126.  Everyone is invited to attend!

Hi! 

This week was good! It was a little slow, but we got to go to Tucson for 2 days so that was fun! I'll be back in Tucson Monday night and then Tuesday we got to the temple and then Wednesday we fly home! So yeah! I may try to visit a few people in Tucson Monday night.

 

Tucson was really really fun! We ended up driving out to Wilcox on Wednesday night and staying there with the hermanas. It was a little crazy that night we had to wait for an elder from Silver City to drive down, so that we could carpool with our elders and him, but his car broke down so we had to wait a while longer and ended up getting in a lot later than normal. Then the sisters didn't have heating at their apartment. I think I slept like 3 hours, but it made me very grateful for my bed and heating! Then the next morning we met up with our elders and the Wilcox elders to go to breakfast before Spanish conference.

I loved Spanish conference a lot! We ended up listening to some talks and talking about how we can better our Spanish. I think the thing that stuck out to me most was when Hermana Child talked about how the main reason she studies Spanish is because she loves the people and loves the culture. That totally changed my perspective and although I don't have much time left I'm going to continue to study hard so that I can speak with all of these people that I love. I'm so grateful for the chance I've been given to serve a Spanish speaking mission and that I have come to love a group of people I wasn't able to even talk to before. We also got to listen to some Latin music and it was super great because everyone who was a native speaker got up and took turns dancing. 

Friday we had MLC and since all the district leaders were there it was a lot busier than normal. We had some great trainings on how to practice better to teach. We also talked s bit more about convert retention. It was good. At the end I started crying during the prayer because a good chunk of the people there are finishing their missions in the next week and we were all a bit emotional thinking about how close we are to the end.

Anyways not much else has happened this week, but even in the slow weeks I am so grateful that I am able to be a missionary and share the gospel with people that I don't even know, but am growing to love.

I love you lots!

Con amor,

Hermana Burgoyne 

Always Pray First!

Thanksgiving was good! We ate with a family in the Ward and it tasted good. Lots of turkey! I was a bit sad though because I didn't get any pumpkin pie :( but it's ok because we got some later in the week! 

Something I'm working on right now is to show more love for those around me. I'm also trying my very best to keep busy and give it my all since I don't have much time left!

This week was awesome! On Tuesday we went on exchanges with the Silver city sisters. I went with Sister Nuttall, who is friends with Lexi and a lot of my friends from high school, so that was fun! Also we had a really crazy day! We went to go do service for this lady named Carol Smith who they had recently reactivated. Anyways turns out the first time they went over she was not so nice to them and yelled a bit and lit a cigarette to scare them away. Then a few days later, she showed back up at church and has been going ever since. We went to go teach her after helping her move her couch, and we had forgotten to say a prayer which is never a good thing. We tried to teach her about the Restoration starting from the middle, and she just kept arguing with us and saying how all churches have the priesthood authority and complaining about how we use the Book of Mormon too much and how she doesn't think it's the word of God.  I was about to argue with her, and it was not going so well. Anyways just at the right moment Sister Nuttall asked a very inspired question which was basically if she had felt the spirit before and what it felt like. So carol responded and said yes 30 years ago and that it felt peaceful and warm. All of a sudden the spirit was back in the room, we asked if we could start over and say a prayer with her. So we did, and I was able to testify to her about the importance of the Book of Mormon and the Spirit entered into the room stronger than it had in any lesson I had been in before, and we were able to testify to her about the restoration and help clear up some misconceptions she had about the priesthood and the atonement. It was a beautiful lesson. She changed from being super argumentative one moment to being super humble! It's amazing what a simple prayer, our testimonies and the Spirit can do, because in reality the Spirit is the best teacher, not us. I love the verses in D&C 50 that say;

 "13 Wherefore, I the Lord ask you this question--unto what were ye ordained?

14 To preach my gospel by the Spirit, even the Comforter which was sent forth to teach the truth.

15 And then received ye spirits which ye could not understand, and received them to be of God; and in this are ye justified?

16 Behold ye shall answer this question yourselves; nevertheless, I will be merciful unto you; he that is weak among you hereafter shall be made strong.

17 Verily I say unto you, he that is ordained of me and sent forth to preach the word of truth by the Comforter, in the Spirit of truth, doth he preach it by the Spirit of truth or some other way?

18 And if it be by some other way it is not of God.

19 And again, he that receiveth the word of truth, doth he receive it by the Spirit of truth or some other way?

20 If it be some other way it is not of God.

21 Therefore, why is it that ye cannot understand and know, that he that receiveth the word by the Spirit of truth receiveth it as it is preached by the Spirit of truth?

22 Wherefore, he that preacheth and he that receiveth, understand one another, and both are edified and rejoice together."

The Holy Ghost really made the difference in that lesson and I don't think I want to ever take that for granted again!

The rest of our week was pretty good! We had a lot of less active recent convert lessons. We also realized that although most of our branch was gone on Sunday we had all of our recent converts there and that all of them are basically active which is super rare! I have definitely seen lots of miracles here in Deming and hope to see more in these last couple of weeks!

I love you lots!

Love,

Hermana Burgoyne

Locked in a closet

So this weeks been pretty good! Lots of miracles and a few disappointments. Right now we are teaching lots of people especially less actives. The ward gave us a huge list of people they wanted us to visit which is super convenient, but also a lot of work sorting through those who are ready to listen and those who aren't!

Anyways this week we have found a lot of new investigators. One of them is an elderly man named Gennovo. We contacted him and his friend one day, and they seemed pretty interested, so we went back to Gennovo's house the other day for our appointment and his friend wasn't there, so we went on a little walk to go and see if his friend was home and Gennovo was nice and came with us haha. It probably looked pretty funny because here we are two 20 year old white girls walking down the street slowly with this nice little Mexican man. He's super nice and has invited us over almost every day, but his friend hasn't been there yet. We will see what happens with him!

Tuesday we ended up doing service at the healing house and started sorting and folding bedding and at some point the elders decided it would be really funny to shove me into the closet and lock me in. So that was nice of them, but it's ok because the next time we went I locked one of the elders in!

Wednesday we went to this really good Chinese place for lunch and it was super cheap and they gave us a lot! I ended up having my left overs for lunch for 3 days this week! After we ended up going to see Lisa with our Ward mission leader. We had a super awesome lesson with her and she told us she would be baptized as soon as she knew for herself if it was true! It was kind of cool because earlier that day while preparing to teach her the gospel of Jesus Christ I felt like we really needed to see if she had prayed to know if Joseph Smith was a prophet, and I realized that that's what the elders had invited her to do right before we got here and so we hadn't ever followed up with her! So we invited her to do that and hopefully we will have her on date soon!

Another cool thing that happened this week is we went to see a less active member the other day and ended up having a lesson with her very active daughter Dalia (Dalia has 2 other sisters in the branch along with a few other members of her family, so basically their family makes up half the branch!) She asked us to go try her neighbor Juana because she knew she was going through a rough patch in her life. So the next day we visited her, and she let us right in and even though we were only there long enough to get to know her a bit I felt so much love for her. We were able to testify to her about how the Book of Mormon would be able to help her, and at the very end I felt prompted to tell her how much God loves her and wants to help her. She seemed to be full of hope afterwards even though she is going through some really hard things right now. I know God sent us to her for a reason, and that He is really conscious of our needs! I'm so grateful for the opportunity to help others feel of His love for us daily! I love you lots and hope you have an amazing week!

 

Con amor,

Hermana Burgoyne 

Freezing in Deming

This week has been good, it's been super super super busy, and a little confusing, but overall good. My new companion is great! We get along pretty well and we are getting stuff done, so that's good. Deming is interesting, I'm not going to lie I still miss Nogales a lot, but hopefully I'll like it here in a few weeks. Deming is just a super small town where the cars all drive super slow and half the people are cowboys. It’s pretty quiet out here, but it's not too bad because we have a set of Spanish elders and a set of English elders, so we spend time with them. Right now it's in the 70's/60's which is freezing compared to Tucson. I've been wearing sweaters every single day, so I'm not sure what I'll do when it actually gets cold here. I still am a little confused and feel like I don't know everyone, but it's good! I know God has something for me to do here, and so I'm just going to press on and trust him!

I'll start out with Monday night. We tried to go visit some people so that I could say bye to them, but no one was home sadly. So we ended up last minute going to go see Liz and Priscilla. The good news is Priscilla actually sat in on our lesson, and even though she's been pretty rebellious lately she can still feel the spirit trying to tell her to go back. We were super excited, because she actually said the closing prayer at the end of the lesson since I was leaving and she hadn't prayed for month!

Then Tuesday we got up at 5 and quickly stopped by Isabella'a, so that I could say bye to her before we headed up. Then we drove up and Elder Paxman gave us a rundown of our area, and then we started the 4 hour drive out to the middle of nowhere.  I was so tired by the end of it, but that's ok! Hermana Hoffman and I were a little worried, because we had no clue what we would do that first day, but half way through the trip we got a call from the elders telling us that we had a dinner appointment at 5, and then they were going to take us to go and see our investigator with a baptism date at 6, and then to go and have correlation with our Ward mission leader right after. I felt so much peace when they told us that and felt like it was a tender mercy from God that we wouldn't be searching around for things to do. That night we met up with the elders and met Ivonne a less active recent covert who just moved up here from Mexico, and then we also met Carmen Rincón who has a baptism date for this Thursday. It seems like the other elders had been doing lots of good work here!

Then not too much happened until Thursday. We've done service almost every single day this week. Wednesday morning we got up and went straight to a field of pumpkins to help load up the pumpkins into the branch president’s truck for his animals on the ranch. Thursday we went to go volunteer at a shelter for abused women and men. It seems like it'll be cool, we get to do some yard work and some office work, so that's fun! Also the Spanish elders here are super awesome and are willing to come and get us so we can follow them to half of our appointments. Right now we have Elder Pangerl ( sounds like pan+ girl) who just started his mission 5 months ago, is district leader, and currently training Elder Brozalez who is in his 2nd transfer here and learning English because he is from Chile. So that's fun! Also the zone leaders are in our district too. Anyways later Thursday after service we hopped into the zone leader’s truck (we got special permission to ride in the same car as the elders) and carpooled to Wilcox where we switched with the Gila valley zone leaders for their STL's and drove to Tucson to pick up Hermana Kerr and go to the mission home to stay the night for MLC the next day. It took a really really long time to get there, but we had fun and bonded a lot with our zone leaders.

Friday was super awesome! I loved MLC! We ended up talking about how to invite our investigators to pray with us. We also talked about how to help other missionaries be leaders and asking spirit driven questions. I learned a lot of great new ideas and I'm super excited to apply them in our teaching. Anyways we didn't get back to Deming until 9:30pm that night.

Saturday was pretty good. We did some more service, and we ended up going to visit Ivonne and she told us how she has done some thinking and that she feels like her life isn't the same when she isn't going to church. She told us she had already been sending her children each week even though she hasn't been able to go herself because of work, but she told us she would be there on Sunday. Anyways Sunday came around and she was there! It was a miracle and super cool to see the dedication she has even as a new member to church. Sunday we were also able to meet Margie Castro. She's a less active member who has been on and off active for a while, but she's pretty cool and really funny. I'm excited to get to know her more. Anyways we had a really good lesson with her about the restoration and could feel the spirit so strong as she bore testimony of how her knowledge of Joseph Smith’s experience has truly blessed her life. Then for the last miracle of the week we went over to read with one of the Elders investigators and his family and were able to get their less active daughter Daisy to sit in on the lesson which has not happened in forever! 

There seems to be lots of work to do here and not a lot of time to do all of it!

Something that hit me this week while we were in church was that a lot of time the reason people choose not to follow God's commandments is because they lack the understanding of why he asks things of us. Once we are able to understand the doctrine behind the principles we are more likely to follow it, because we know it will bless us in the long run. I'm so grateful to be a member of this gospel that we have the chance to learn more and more each day so that we can understand and apply the commandments God has given us!

I hope that you are all doing well! I love you so much!

 

Con amor,

Hermana Burgoyne 

Moving!

This week we have transfers! I am kind of freaking out right now! I'm going to be pink washing Deming, New Mexico with Sister Hoffman and going STL for my last transfer which is pretty much the last thing I expected! They are taking out a set of elders and putting the two of us in, and neither of us have served there before so it's definitely going to be an adventure! I'm excited and super nervous! It'll be good, because it'll help me work hard until the end! Sister Delgado is going to be training a new missionary! She's freaking out too haha.

This week was awesome! We had tons of lessons and tons of miracles! Tuesday I got to go on exchanges with Sister Hernandez up to Los Reales! I was so happy! I got to go have dinner with the Sardinas who are one of my favorite families up there! They are such a great family! Then later that night I got to go see Liz! I've missed her a lot. She seems to be doing really awesome and progressing really well. It's amazing to me to see how much she has changed these last few months, and all because she has been applying the teachings of the gospel in her life!

While I was gone Sister Delgado and Sister Kerr got to visit with lots of our investigators and even were able to set a baptism date with Isabella's cousin, Ashley, and change out baptism date with Juan Limón!

Most of this week we have spent finding new people to teach, and we've found lots of people who seem pretty interested so that's good!

On Friday we had the trunk or treat which was fun! There were lots of games and lots of little kids. We took pictures with everyone!

Saturday we had two lessons in the morning and both of them went pretty well. Then on our way home from them we got a call from President Passey telling us about transfer news, and after that I couldn't focus for the rest of the day! That night we went to a huge Disney themed birthday party for a one year old boy in our Ward. I love the birthday parties here! We ended up leaving with Minnie mouse ears and a bunch of desserts! Then later that night we tried some other people, but just ended up planning because we were so stressed!

Sunday was a bit bitter sweet, because I had to go and say good bye to lots of people here that I love. Juan Limón is doing really great right now. Earlier this week we found out he was struggling a bit with some of the commandments, but we talked to him and taught him and now he is working on it! He has lots of faith, and I'm so excited for him to get baptized at the end of this month! The whole time we were there him and his wife kept complaining about how I'm leaving, and they told me that I need to come back to stay with them the night before I go haha. I couldn't make any promises, but I told them I will try to be at their sealing in the temple next November!

We were also able to go visit with Rena, and she seems to be doing well. We stopped visiting her for a month to see if it would help her have the desire to learn more, and it worked! Turns out she has been reading and feels like it's helping her a lot! Earlier in the day our Relief Society president who is good friends with her told us that Rena had been talking to another member of our Ward who was really sick, and so she called her knowing she was the Relief Society president to let her know that the other sister was sick. We were all laughing because she already acts like a member of the ward.

 

Yesterday, the Spanish wards bishop’s son gave his homecoming talk, and he shared a scripture that I've maybe shared with you before, but it was a good reminder for me. It's in 2 Nephi 4:19-21, 28

"19 And when I desire to rejoice, my heart groaneth because of my sins; nevertheless, I know in whom I have trusted.

20 My God hath been my support; he hath led me through mine afflictions in the wilderness; and he hath preserved me upon the waters of the great deep.

21 He hath filled me with his love, even unto the consuming of my flesh.

28 Awake, my soul! No longer droop in sin. Rejoice, O my heart, and give place no more for the enemy of my soul."

I feel like my entire mission I've really related to this scripture because I feel like even though as a missionary I'm always trying to be my best, I always feel like I'm not doing good enough. But I know that God is always there to help me, and that he doesn't expect more out of me than my best. Then I love how it continues in verse 28 to say how the only reason we feel down when we are doing our best is because Satan is trying to make us feel bad and forget that God loves us no matter how imperfect we are. We just need to shake that off and keep going and trust that because of the sacrifice of our Savior Jesus Christ. I'm so grateful for all the peace that that knowledge brings me in my life and that I can share that with others! I love you lots!

 

Con amor,

Hermana Burgoyne 

 

Praying for food

This week had some ups and downs and overall was a bit slow, but that's ok.

We were able to visit with Juan Limón twice this week two nights in a row! The first night we had had dinner earlier, and I was still super hungry, so I kept praying that someone would give us food.  Then we got to the Limon's and Hermana Limón asked us if we were hungry and made us some carne asada! It was so good! We didn't sleep that well that night though, because we had eaten super late. Then the next night we went over again and this time one of her sisters and other family friend were over eating, and they gave us chicharrones and more carne and it was super good! It was funny, because we had invited one of Hermana Limon's other brother in-laws over to teach Juan the law of chastity and so we felt a little awkward when we got there and they were having a dinner get together and we had invited someone else to come, but it worked out ok! I've just never had six members with us to teach a law of chastity lesson before haha. Juan didn't seem too uncomfortable like he sometimes does though!

This week we decided to knock around where our investigator Natalie lives. We found 3 new potentials right by her, but haven't been able to contact them yet! Also we were able to visit with Eric, but we will probably drop him because he's only interested in understanding people, and not in finding out if the church is true. So that's a bit sad :(.

A few weeks ago we had a group call with all the Spanish missionaries to talk about our language learning, and I got made one of the Spanish training leaders. That means I have to call all 3 other people in our district each Friday to make sure they are studying Spanish and then report back to another elder who is over us all! It's pretty easy I guess, besides that all I have to do is ask people to give language trainings every Wednesday and make the calls.

On Saturday we went to Patagonia to help a member of our Ward with his mud house. We helped mix concrete and cut some wire and random stuff like that. I got super sun burnt so when we went to our Ward talent show that night everyone kept asking what happened to me haha. The Ward talent show was also good! The bishop of the Spanish Ward paid $30 for us to get cupcakes from the auction they had. They were pretty good! They were salted caramel flavored and the frosting kind of tastes like the Carmel you make mom, it reminded me that I will be home for you to make all of your Christmas treats and I'm super excited for that :)! Later that night we got a call from Sister Kerr who is serving in Los Reales! She's our STL and I don't know if you remember this, but the transfer Hermana Garcia were together we contacted this man sitting in the back of his truck and ended up having a lesson with his brother and 6 children! We only got to teach them one other time while I was there, but turns out Hermana Kerr and Hernandez started teaching them again, and they are super ready for the gospel! So that's cool! Also Hermana Kerr also told me that Liz is doing super well and that they are hoping that in 2 weeks I can go on exchanges up there to go and see her! That would literally make my life, so hopefully it happens! I just think it's so cool to see that work I did 5 months ago is helping the sisters there now! I'm so grateful for how God works!

Sunday was pretty good! We had a few less active members come to church which was good! Hopefully this coming week the work will pick up a bit!

Anyways I'm so grateful for the chance God has given me to serve a mission! I've made a lot of mistakes, but I also have grown a whole bunch. Sometimes I wish I would grow a bit faster, but I know that I will keep learning when I get home too! I'm just so happy that I had the chance to share the gospel with others and help others take the steps, so that they can return to live with our loving Heavenly Father. I love the verse that Mormon uses in 3 Nephi 5:13 " Behold, I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. I have been called of him to declare his word among his people, that they might have everlasting life." I'm so grateful for a Savior who makes this all possible and hope that I can become even more like Him each in every day! I love you lots!

Con amor,

Hermana Burgoyne 

Dylan's baptism was fantastic, and we didn't even have to do anything so that was awesome!

This week we didn't end up having too many lessons, but that's ok! We finished up all of our lessons with Dylan, so that she was ready to be baptized on Friday! We also got to visit with Natalie a few times. She's so sweet and I love teaching her.  We are just having a hard time finding fellow-shippers for her, but we will figure that out hopefully soon!

Wednesday was good, we had our zone meeting, so we drove up to Sahuarita and learned about how to teach repentance to our investigators. It was a good reminder that our purpose as missionaries is to invite others to repent and change, so they can have greater access to the Atonement in their lives! They also fed us Panda Express afterword, so we were all happy! 

Then not much else happened until Friday. Friday we had interviews with our mission president. They went well! It was funny because that morning I had felt prompted to bring my Book of Mormon with me to the church instead of just using my iPad and then as soon as I got into my interview I was so grateful to have it because he asked me if I had learned anything lately from reading the Book of Mormon.  I was able to open it up and find something to share rather than just trying to make something up on the spot haha. Anyways he gave me lots of great advice about less active work because a lot of our work is with less active members which is good, but it also keeps us from finding those who are ready to be baptized. Anyhow, it was cool because he helped me realize that well it is good to be teaching less active members who really need us we also need to remember that members are also able to help reactive less actives whereas missionaries are the only ones who are able to have convert baptisms. Our purpose is to help people accept the gospel and receive ordinances necessary for salvation.

Afterwards we had a pass off lesson with the Sahaurita sisters and we're finally able to teach Eric for the first time! He is a very interesting person, I like teaching him though because he takes time to think before he answers questions so it allows the Spirit to be there more strongly. Right now we are trying to help him understand why it's so important to know for ourselves that the church is true.

Later that night we were rushing all over the place to get to Dylan's baptism on time and turns out they didn't even really need us there early because when we got there Brother Allen ( our Ward mission leader) had already started filling the font and all we had to do was set up chairs and take pictures :). It was a beautiful baptism! It was cool to see all her family there for it, especially her dad who isn't a member and hasn't gone to any of his other daughter’s baptisms. We were also happy because her mom was able to give the talk on baptism although before a few weeks ago she wanted pretty much nothing to do with the church because she was pretty inactive, but with lots of events that have happened lately, prayers, and hardworking members we have seen miracles happen and her heart be softened. Then some of the young women had a special musical number in the middle and as they were singing a few more families in the Spanish and English Ward walked in so we had to set up some more chairs. It was so beautiful and I could feel the Spirit so strong :). Her family looked so happy after the service, and I know they could feel the love all of us have for them!

Anyways that is about it for this week. Yesterday I was able to study a little about prayer and the Holy Ghost and I loved a scripture in Romans 8:26-27 that says: 

"26 Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.

27 And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God."

I just thought that scripture was very interesting because it says right there that the Spirit makes intercession for us which is something that we usually think of when we think of Christ and so I was thinking about what that meant. Anyways I think that it's cool to think that the Holy Ghost makes it possible for us to access the Atonement. Like Jesus Christ made intercession for us by suffering and paying the price for us so we can repent, the Holy Ghost is what cleanses us and makes it possible for us to understand God's will and to have the will power to follow Christ. I hope to always live worthy of the Holy Ghost and the healing power of the Atonement in my life. I love what Brian K. Ashton said in conference ;"Repentance is not a backup plan just in case our plan to live perfectly fails. Continual repentance is the only path that can bring us lasting joy and enable us to return to live with our Heavenly Father." I know that in this life we are supposed to make mistakes, that's why we have the Atonement, because none of us are perfect or will be perfect. We will only be made perfect through Christ and that only comes as we repent and strive to live worthy of the Holy Ghost in our lives because "Receiving the Holy Ghost to a greater degree further moves us along the path of being born again." I know this church is true and I am so grateful for a loving Heavenly Father who never gives up on me or any of us when we make mistakes! I love you and hope you have a good week!

 

Con amor,

Hermana Burgoyne 

Conference was great!

This week has been super busy, yet I feel like we had a lot of free time so I'm not sure how that works! This week we taught Dylan pretty much the rest of the lessons, and she should be good to go for her baptism this Friday! I'm super excited for her! I've absolutely loved teaching both her and Isabella.  They're like my little sisters, except not quite as great! Dylan is super funny. Earlier this week we had to teach her about the law of chastity, and she was just blushing the whole time haha. We kept teasing her because there is a little boy in our Ward that she talked about a lot. Anyways she's super sassy and likes to talk a lot! But we love her! Also it's been super awesome to be able to go over to her actual house to teach her every day, because her mom is getting more and more friendly with us! She still hasn't sat in on any of the lessons, buts she's been listening and her heart is definitely softening!

 

Other good news is that we were able to visit with Liz this week and share a little message with her. The good things was that Priscilla actually talked to us, and she told me that every time we visit she starts to doubt her decision to stop going to church. Right there I testified to her of the blessings of the gospel and invited her to read her patriarchal blessing and come back to church. She said she'd be willing to listen to a message from us at some point! The Spirit was super strong, and I know her heart will soften more with time!

 

Then our last miracle was when we went to go see the Ruvalcaba family and the father who sometimes pretends to be too sick to come see us finally came out, and we had a lesson with him and his son. He has some things keeping him from going to church, but I'm sure with time we will be able to help him and his family come back!

 

Also this week we had a billion dinner and lunch appointments which was good, but I don't think we've cooked at our apartment for 2 weeks and our food there is going bad haha. A lady in our Ward that the elders visit took us all out to get sushi since elder Brian is going home Wednesday. It was good! It just think it's funny that I think I only had sushi once before my mission, and on my mission I can't even count how many times I've had it haha, but I'm starting to like it!

 

Conference was super awesome! I really loved the talk by Elder Cornish about how we shouldn't compare ourselves to others whether it's thinking less or more of our selves! It really changed my perspective of how I should think of myself and those I associate with! Also I loved the talk about the Book of Mormon. The whole time I kept thinking about how grateful I am that my parents have raised me reading it daily as a family, and I've definitely seen it change my life and bless me! I love you lots! I hope you have a great week!

Con amor,

Hermana Burgoyne 

Prayer Works!

This week has probably been the most stressful, crazy, but most amazing week of my mission!

 

This week I think I've been a bit stressed about going home. Sometimes I'm super excited because I can't wait to see all of you, but other times I have a mini heart attack because it's only a few months away! I'm honestly going to miss my mission so much and I think it will be strange to go back to normal life!

 

This week we started it out with our elders getting a new missionary. His name is Elder Cook.  He's pretty nice, and he likes to tell lots of jokes so that's fun. It's also nice because it makes it a lot easier to do things with the elders now, because it doesn't look like we are on an awkward double date anytime we go anywhere together!

 

We spent most of the week stressing out about Isabella's baptism. Satan was working really really hard this week to keep it from happening which is funny, because she had already been baptized a few years ago.  It's just they lost her records, so she had to get rebaptized and we thought it would be pretty easy to get done, but it was probably the hardest I've ever worked for a baptism my whole entire mission! All the craziness this week started Tuesday night when we went over for our usual Tuesday lesson with her and found out that she had passed out at a football game that day and had been rushed to the hospital in Green Valley to make sure she was ok! We were super worried because her grandma told us she had gotten a concussion and besides that had no idea what was going on! So that night for our dinner message with a part member family in our ward we talked about prayer and specifically invited them to pray for Isabella that she would be ok and be able to get baptized this week. And let me tell you prayer works, because the next day we went to try and see her and turns out she was feeling totally better and was even able to go to school the next day!

Then our next adventure with that came on Thursday when we conveniently accidentally broke our cell phone in half and weren't able to get in contact with anyone! It ended up being a blessing in disguise because we were able to have a lesson with one of our new investigators  (I'll talk more about her later), but it's a little hard to communicate with people when you don't have anyway to call them. Luckily for us our phone is connected to our car, and so when we were in it we were able to call people if we had the half of the phone with the keyboard with us. It was a little funny using our car as our phone, but thank goodness for technology! 

Then Friday, I was a bit stressed because we had a lot that we needed to get done and with the whole phone thing and not being able to easily receive calls from people it was a bit rough. But anyways on the way up to Amado to meet up with our zone leaders to get a new phone we got a call on our car from Hermana Salgado, and she asked us if we could move Isabella’s baptism date back another 2 weeks because none of her family was going to be available because they were going shopping or something. I was a bit stressed since we have probably already changed her baptism date about 5 times since I got here. So I explained to her how it would be a bit hard since everyone was already planning on coming, and we had everything planned out and luckily she told us it was ok and agreed to keep it on Saturday!

Then Saturday everything was pretty good. The only rough part was Isabella was struggling because she didn't feel ready to be baptized, and so we pulled her off to the side and explained to her that if she wasn't ready we wouldn't be letting her get baptized yet.  We talked to her about how she doesn't need to be perfect to be baptized, but she needs to be trying. We then said a prayer with her and after we could feel the spirit and she started to feel a lot more peace!

Anyways in the end it ended up being a beautiful baptism and Isabella was super happy and excited afterwards! I absolutely adore her and am so grateful I got to meet her and teach her on my mission! Also it might help that she reminds me of Natalie because they are the same age :)

 

Anyways our other huge miracle of the week came on Tuesday when we were looking for a former investigator who wasn't home. So we decided to knock their neighbors and both me and Hermana Delgado almost hesitated knocking on the 2nd door because we had just seen a little boy and a mom and a daughter walk in and they all had looked a bit frazzled, but we decided to knock it anyways because usually when we don't want to do something that's when miracles come! As soon as we knocked a 15 year old girl named Natalie answered the door, and she came out and we shared the first lesson with her. She was so interested and told us how she had always wondered which Church was true and shared some experiences of how she has had her prayers answered. So we set up a return appointment and went over Thursday too and she had actually read and prayed about the church and told us she felt a lot of peace! So we talked about the Holy Ghost and asked her if we could come over the next day. She said probably, but that she would let us know if she couldn't. Anyways at that point our phone had just broken so we gave her the elder’s number and told her to text them if she couldn't and they'd let us know! The next day we went over and she answered the door and we had another great lesson about the plan of salvation. It started out a bit awkward, but by the end of it the Spirit was super strong and we invited her to be baptized for November 5th and she said yes! After I felt prompted to ask her why she wanted to be baptized and right there she bore testimony and told us of her desire to be completely clean and to start over! It was a neat experience. Right after we went to dinner and found out from the elders that she had text them to tell us she wouldn't be home, but it ended up perfect because she was home and we got to set a baptism date! I'm not exactly sure why it worked out that way, but it did!

 

Then last miracle of the week came from the Primary program! For the past transfer and a half we have been teaching a little girl named Dylan.  Both of her sisters are members, and her mom, but her mom is less active and didn't really want anything to do with us, so we had been teaching the girls at Sister DeWitt's house ( the yw president and one of their really close friends).  It's been hard to teach her because we've only been able to see her once a week because they didn't want to trying to go to Dylan's house because of her mom not wanting us so we had to work around 5 different people's schedules which usually only line up on Sunday.

On Wednesday we were a little surprised when Dylan told us that her mom was going to come to the primary program on Sunday! Sunday came around and there she was! It was a miracle! We had been hoping to be able to talk to her afterwards to try and ask her about setting a baptism date with Dylan, but she basically ran out the door.  We decided instead to text her older sister and ask her to ask her mom if the 15th would be ok for a baptism date. Sister Lunderville said yes! Later that night though we had dinner with our bishop, and he told us he had talked to Dylan's mom and she had said we have permission to baptize her daughter which is probably why she so willingly agreed to the baptism date! That night we got home and Peyton ( Dylan's sister) had texted us telling us that it would work better for Dylan to be baptized on the 7th of October and we said we could, but that we'd have to go and teach her at least 4 times within the week. Peyton replied and gave us her mom’s phone number to talk to her and we were surprisingly able to plan 4 days to visit her this week! And to make it even better Sister Lunderville gave us permission to go over to their house to teach her daughters, and she's going to be there for the lessons! It was insane! Both Hermana Delgado and I decided that it's due to all of our prayers, fasting, obedience, and the Spirit touching Sister Lunderville's heart at the primary program! And to add onto that God has really been preparing this family for the gospel as we have worked together with the Ward council and focused on serving and loving this family! Anyways we are super pumped to see her get baptized this week and feel like we have been blessed more that we deserve!

Anyways that's it for the week! I'm so grateful for all God does for us and that even though I'm not perfect, God's still able to work through me to perform miracles! I love you lots! Thanks for everything

Con amor,

Hermana Burgoyne 

God blesses us every single day

Not much new is happening tomorrow. Hermana Delgado and I are going to stay together this transfer, so I can finish training her and I guess we'll see if I stay here or go somewhere else for my last transfer. I'm excited to finally get to stay with a companion for more than one transfer though! Also the elders are both staying, but they are getting a new missionary tomorrow so they will trio train until Elder Brian leaves on the 5th. It'll be nice to have another missionary down here besides us four!

We had some really cool miracles this week! So originally Isabella was scheduled to be baptized this Saturday on the 24th, but we had been debating all week whether or not to delay it because she hadn't been reading all week. We were a bit stressed because come Thursday night she still hadn't read and I had pretty much given up on the idea of her getting baptized this week, but a little thought in the back of my mind just told me to keep having faith and that somehow some miracle would happen and God would help her be prepared for next week. It's funny because I think this has happened with every baptism on my mission, so I figured it could happen again. So late Saturday night we got a text from her finally telling us she had been reading, and then she did again on Sunday! Then we talked to our Ward mission leader and he told us he thinks she's ready! Soooooo she's getting baptized this Saturday at 12 with one of the elder’s investigators named Angelica! We're super excited and hopefully everything goes as planned!

Also this week we also had a cool lesson with Claudia and her son Angel. We were teaching them and all of a sudden her son was just like I want to get baptized and we were like oh ok cool! So we set a date with him. The only thing is he is 8 so he's not going to be a convert baptism, but it's still pretty cool that although his mom has been less active since before he was born he still has that desire!

Then Wednesday we finally got to see Monica again and we talked a little bit about the Plan of Salvation and read Moroni 8 with her. I just love teaching her, because she has so many good questions and can relate so well to the gospel! Right now she's still debating between us and a Christian church in the area.  Hopefully, we will help her to pray and get an answer! I just know the gospel will bless her life so much!

Then last of all Sunday was good! We had a few people at church! This man named Eric came who is taking lessons from some sisters up in Green Valley, but they have been telling us to keep a look out for him. We got to sit by him and explain a lot to him. He seems super ready to accept the gospel. He had so many questions and had a journal with him and was asking about how people prepare to give talks and in priesthood he even pulled the elders aside and had them answer a bunch of questions for him! Also guess what?  He lives in our area! The only awkward thing is that he works in the area of the other sisters, so they have been meeting with him there and I'm not so sure if they want to pass him off to us.... sooo we will have to find a way to convince them that since he lives in our area and is going to our ward we should probably be the ones visiting him, so we can bring members to fellowship him. So hopefully that works out! 

Anyways that's about it for this week! I'm super grateful for the how God blesses us every single day and that if we will look for it we will always see His hand in our lives! I love you lots!

 

Love,

Hermana Burgoyne 

Temple Blessings

We started off the week with a few lessons. Tuesday sister Delgado and I went on exchanges with some sisters in our ward. I went with a 90 Year old lady named Mary Lou to go try some people. She thought it was the best thing ever and she made us lunch beforehand. It was super fun! Then Hermana Delgado went with Sister Castleton and saw Rena. It was funny because for a while I had been getting promptings to ask Sister Castleton to go with us to see her.    However, we didn't have any chances to and then on Tuesday originally I was going to go see her with Mary Lou and Hna Delgado and Sister Castleton where going to try some other people, but we last minute changed it and it went perfectly! They had so much in common and they are both from the same area of Nevada!

Then Wednesday we had zone meeting. It was good.  We have a new goal as a mission to have at least one reactivating and one baptism by this November. I think we'll do pretty good at meeting that since we have a few people on date and they're pretty solid! I also realized that I'm getting old in my mission, because all the elders who just got here are Zach's age or even a little younger. Anyways the rest of that day we spent trying people, and we finally were able to see Liz after a few weeks! She's doing pretty well, but hopefully we can start to see her more often again. She seems to have a few doubts.

Thursday we were sooooo busy. We ended up having I think 3 member present lessons that day which was seriously a miracle, because we are lucky to get that many in a week! Anyways that night we set a new baptism date with Juan Limon for the 29th of October. He's so ready and excited to get baptized! The whole time he kept asking us how long he would have to wait before he could go get sealed to his wife! I'm so happy for them and know this step will bless his life so much!

Then Friday was a cool day! We ended up going to the temple and I got to take one of my family names through. It was such a neat experience for me. The Spirit was super strong during the whole thing, and I learned so much. The whole time I just kept thinking of the song the Spirit of God where it says "like a fire is burning" and that's what it felt like. I felt so much gratitude for the love that God gives us and the promise that as we live worthy of it we can have the Holy Ghost in our life always.

 

Then Saturday was fun! Right after the temple Friday we went on exchanges, and I got to stay in Nogales with Sister Hoffman and Hermana Delgado went with Sister Beatty to El Rio ( I was a bit jealous because that was my first area). Anyways it was super fun! We ended up having a Ward party to go to that day so Hermana Hoffman got to know a bunch of people in both of the wards we cover. Maybe she'll get to serve here one day! That day we also went back to go see Kassandra, because we got another one of her packages at the door. We had a good lesson with her about how prophets can help us guide our families. It was cool to be reminded of how the Restoration can relate back to anyone's situation! Later that night we went to see Isabella and had a good lesson on the importance of keeping commitments. It was nice because her mom finally joined in and said she would start working on the same things Isabella needs to so that she has more support!

Then Sunday we had a bunch of our investigators show up for sacrament meeting! Isabella came which was super good, because as long as she comes this next Sunday and is reading and praying she should be able to get baptized next week! We are keeping our fingers crossed that she does what she needs to! Her mom also brought her friend David to church with her. He's actually our next door neighbor and we have taught him a few times, but it didn't go too far. He showed up yesterday with her, so we are happy! Then this lady named Prema who a member in our stake presidency contacted and referred to us showed up to church. She's Hindu and has some pretty interesting background, but we are going to go teach her this Tuesday hopefully! Then later that night we finally got to go see Dylan again! She's doing great, and hopefully will be ready to be baptized soon! I'm just grateful that she has been reading the Book of Mormon each day with her sisters and she is only 9! I wish we could get all of our investigators to do that!

Anyways I love you lots and hope you have a great week!

 

Love,

Hermana Burgoyne 

There must be opposition in all things

This week we had some really cool experiences and a few not so awesome ones, but it's ok! I've been reading in Doctrine and Covenants every day, and I was reading D&C 122:7-9

7 And if thou shouldst be cast into the pit, or into the hands of murderers, and the sentence of death passed upon thee; if thou be cast into the deep; if the billowing surge conspire against thee; if fierce winds become thine enemy; if the heavens gather blackness, and all the elements combine to hedge up the way; and above all, if the very jaws of hell shall gape open the mouth wide after thee, know thou, my son, that all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good.

8 The Son of Man hath descended below them all. Art thou greater than he?

9 Therefore, hold on thy way, and the priesthood shall remain with thee; for their bounds are set, they cannot pass. Thy days are known, and thy years shall not be numbered less; therefore, fear not what man can do, for God shall be with you forever and ever.

 

I just love this scriptures because every time something bad happens I think about that, and it reminds me that every trial in this life is for our good and to help us to grow. 

Anyways this past Saturday was one of those days where we had a super awesome day planned and nothing really worked out. One of our recent converts decided she doesn't want to listen to us anymore which was heart breaking. Then another member kind of got after us for being too bold with her daughter in law and inviting her to be baptized. Then later that night we invited another one of our investigators to be baptized, and he said no. Anyways we were both a little discouraged, but I think it hit sister Delgado the most since she's not used to that yet. As we were driving that scripture popped into my mind, and I was reminded of how much God loves us and although not everything was going the way we hoped we have to trust that God lets us go through bad days so we can appreciate the good ones even more. So we decided to look at the good parts of the day and realized we had a really awesome restoration lesson with the one of our new investigators named Janae. She is a 17 year old girl who was referred to us by one of the young women in the ward. It was funny because the girl who referred her to us just kept telling us how she wasn't sure why, but she just kept getting this feeling that her friend was ready for the gospel. Anyways when we visited with her Saturday we could just feel that! We are super excited to start visiting her and hope to be able to set a baptism date with her tomorrow!

 

Anyways back to earlier in the week... Wednesday we finally had a lesson with a lady named Monica that Sister Delgado had contacted her very first day here while in line at the store. It was an awesome lesson! We taught the restoration and she had so many questions about prophets! She even asked us if we have a modern day prophet. We told her yes and were share a little bit about the family proclamation with her. She loved it! The spirit was really strong especially as Sister Delgado testified to her that God sent us to her for a reason, and that she was ready to hear and accept our message. She even agreed to be baptized once she found out for herself that it's true. We are super excited about her!

 

Then Friday we had zone conference, and it was super awesome! I was so happy to see all my friends. I mean I love our area down here and sometimes it's nice not being around everyone, but I'm starting to miss Tucson a bit! Anyways Sister Delgado and I were asked to join with the Spanish zone to do a musical number. It was super cool. Pretty much every one in the zone was there and then us two. We sang El Espiritu de Dios (the Spirit of God) and the spirit was so strong. Afterwards President Passey got up and started talking, and he got all choked up about it and talked to us about the importance of church and how it helps those we teach feel the spirit. Then he talked to us about how someday we will all be parents and either be watching our children being blessed by our husbands (or for the elders blessing their children). Then how eventually we will watch them be sustained to receive the priesthood or to move up in young women's and basically how we just watch life cycles in the chapel. I'm not super good at explaining it, but it was super cool. It just kind of hit me how true it is that our purpose as missionaries is to help others be together with their families for eternity and how at the same time we are learning and preparing ourselves to have our own families.

 

We also got trained on a lot of stuff we've learned throughout my mission, but that we still weren't so clear on. It was super helpful! Overall that whole day was awesome. The only part that was sort of bad was when one of the elders that I'm friends with asked me how much longer I had left and told me I was getting old and going home soon haha I think I still have a while though. Oh we also stopped by my favorite Raspados place in Los Reales because they don't know how to make them down here, which I think is funny because we're on the border.

 

Anyways that's pretty much what happened his week! I hope that you are all doing well! Thanks for everything you do for me! I love you lots!

Love,

Hermana Burgoyne