I Love to See the Temple

This week was fun! Tuesday was awesome, because we got to go to the temple! Usually when we go up the elders all ride in the transfer van which fits 12 people in it and then there is a car or two of sisters.  This time the zone leaders decided to mix it up so that we would be with people that we were less likely to talk to, so we could feel the spirit. It was good. Hermana Parker and I ended up taking a car up with 3 of the elders in our zone. We had a good time. One of them is a professional cellist and put out a cello album that he used to pay for most his mission. We listened to it on the way up. The temple was awesome as always. Since we were separated from everyone else we ended up waiting until after the session to go get lunch, so instead we got to go do initiatories. Later that night we went back and had a lesson with a less active member who just moved into our ward who wants to be reactivated!

Wednesday we had district meeting and all went out to lunch together. There's this restaurant in our area that is owned by a member who gives us all half off every time we go. Then we had a lesson with Ana. We talked to her about temples and family history. She was so excited about it! This week we are going to go to the family history center to help her work on hers!

Then Thursday was really fun! I got to go on exchanges with another Hermana down in Nogales. It was cool finally getting out of Tucson for a day! I like it down there a lot. It's actually green and it's super hilly. Also it's right on the border, so you can see the wall and everything. Hermana Lund and I visited a few people, and she introduced me to this lady named Grandma Duke. She's super sweet and has an English accent. It was cool finally meeting her, because she's talked about a lot by other missionaries. She was super sweet and gave us ice cream, soda, and then paid for us to go get lunch! Then we tried to visit a few other people, but ended up going to a member’s house and cleaning for them. They gave us homemade bread and honey.  It was super good! It was a really fun exchange :)

Then on Friday I ended up getting a bit of a cold, so we ended up staying at home for most the day, but I was fine by Saturday! 

Saturday, Hermana Parker and I decided that right before the Elder’s baptism we were going to go out and knock and invite someone to the baptism. So about an hour before it we chose a street and just started inviting people. I don't know why, but for some reason I was super nervous, but it ended up being a really cool experience! We found 3 potential investigators in 30 min and one actually wanted to go, but couldn't because she couldn't drive herself. Then we tried pretty much everyone that we knew, but no one was home, so that was a little rough.  We even knocked for a while and no one answered! But we kept on trying, and finally we decided to go home and reevaluate everything. So we changed our plan and right when we were leaving to go try two less actives I waved at this man, and he pretty much contacted me! Turns out he had gone to church before in Nogales and really liked it. He asked for some information, and then we got his address so we can try him his week!

Then Sunday we had a huge miracle! So there's this family in the ward who has 3 sons. One of the sons is already a member and has a girlfriend named Julie that comes to church with him every week.  One of the sons was the one who got baptized on Saturday, and then the other is still learning about the gospel. Anyways I didn't really know them too well before this week, although I've been here for almost 4 months now. Anyways the first Sunday I got to this ward the elders came up to me and told me that I should go ask Julie if she would be interested in taking the lessons with us, so I tried to talk to her, but she didn't seem super friendly so I kind of gave up. Then at church yesterday one of their family friends who was visiting came up to me in the middle of sacrament meeting and told us that we should try teaching Julie, because she's never taken the lessons before, but she is always at church. She also told me that Julie is super shy which explains why she was scared talking to us. So I told Hermana Parker, and we decided we were going to talk to her. Anyways we got to know her boyfriend and his family a bit during gospel principles and at the end we asked her boyfriend if he thought she would be interested in learning more. He got so excited about it and told us he would ask her and let us know. Anyways he asked her, and she said yes! We ended up setting up an appointment for next Wednesday! We are super excited, because she seems super solid and ready to learn! Also I've been praying for a miracle like this for weeks and here it is!

Anyways something that I noticed this week is how important the temples are. It was kind of crazy, because I felt like every single thing we taught related back to the temples and how we can be with our families forever. I feel like my mission has really taught me how sacred temples are. They are truly a place of peace. I'm so grateful that I have such a wonderful family, and that because we have temples I can be sealed to those I love forever. I'm grateful for my Heavenly Father's love and for the Atonement of Jesus Christ that makes it all possible. I know as we strive to become like them we will be blessed and worthy to receive all the blessings that have waiting for us. I hope you have a good week! I love you lots!

Love,

Hermana Burgoyne 

Exciting News!

I absolutely love Hermana Parker, we get along super well so it's great! Sisters do leave Tucson.  I've just happened to been transferred to the only Spanish areas in Tucson my whole mission. I will probably leave Tucson in July I think..... There is the chance though that I go back to the Eldorado ward again to serve in a different area, but I'm pretty sure that won't happen. Our investigators are doing great!

This week was a bit slow, we had a lot of fun adventures. On Tuesday we went to the food bank.  It was funny because they had a bunch of habaneros there, and so all 8 of us missionaries ate one and we were all crying. Then Hermana Parker jumped a fence and broke her toe.

On Wednesday we had a really awesome lesson with a new investigator that we met while teaching a less active family. She is pretty cool and really has a desire to learn. It was a really cool experience for me though, because I was just super duper tired and didn't really want to teach all too much.  However, then I just prayed quietly to myself and asked God to help me teach and have the spirit with us. Anyways it ended up being one of the most beautiful lessons. The spirit was super strong, and I almost started crying talking about our Savior, and the first vision. It was super awesome! But then it got really awkward, because she decided she had the gift of tongues and started blabbering and the spirit totally left the room. We are working with her still and think we can help her, but it was strange when she tried to speak in tongues.  It really taught me the difference between the spirit and not the spirit.

The really awesome news of the week! For one we are going to the temple tomorrow! I'm super excited! Also next week Elder Holland is coming for a mission conference.  No big deal! I'm only about to scream.   I'm so excited!!!! 😀😀😀

Anyways I love you a lot! I hope you have a really great week!

Love,

Hermana Burgoyne

Transfers

I'm doing good! It's been kind of an exhausting week.   Both me and my companion have been super tired, but it's ok we're getting stuff done!

So this week we had transfers. My new companion is Hermana Parker. She was my stl ( basically the equivalent for a zone leader but for sisters) for the past two transfers, and we are really good friends so it's been really fun! Hermana Munk went up to Marana which is a little farm town in the north part of El Rio. Turns out she was made a STL yesterday which is super funny, because I was telling her last week how she would be one within a transfer of leaving me because all of my comps have either been Stls or were made into them right after they got transferred.  I've had quite a few companions, so it's pretty much a curse haha.  I realized that all of my district leaders have also been made into zone leaders, so basically anyone I serve around is either already a leader or made into one. But yeah I'm in the same area as before! I will most likely be here for the next 3 months because Hermana Parker goes home next transfer so I will stay here a while.

Liz is doing great! We had two lessons with her this week! She's awesome. The other day she was telling us about how all her friends have been making fun of her for studying with us and telling her a bunch of myths about Mormons.  She has been researching all about the things they've been saying on Mormon.org and lds.org and teaching them, so that's been pretty cool. She still hasn't been able to get to church yet which is a little stressful, because she needs to go this Sunday to stay on date. We're just hoping she gets baptized before Hermana Parker leaves.

Tuesday we had transfers which was crazy, but also good. It was kind of cool because all Monday and Tuesday I just kept thinking about this investigator we have named Rosa.  We didn't have an appointment with her until Thursday which she scheduled on accident.  She had an appointment that day, so I wasn't planning on visiting her until Wednesday. But she just kept popping into my head, so we changed our plans and decided to try her. We went and visited her and had another lesson with her on the Restoration. The cool thing was that it turns out she had a doctor’s appointment on Wednesday and Thursday, and if I had waited until Wednesday like I had planned we wouldn't have been able to see her! 

That night we also had dinner with our investigator Ana. It was really cool because her husband introduced her to the church.  The missionaries have been teaching her since October or something like that, and although she goes to church every single Sunday she was really against getting baptized and not really interested, but then we had a lesson with her about baptism, confirmation, and obedience.  It was really cool because at the end of it we found out that she has changed and wants to be baptized! It's been so cool because we have been praying, fasting, and waiting forever for her to feel ready and finally she is!  We are hoping that soon it'll work out, and she will be able to take that step :)

This week has really taught me that through patience and lots of prayer miracles really do happen. I know that God is guiding His work and that He is going to help us do all that he needs us to. We just have to be willing to put in our part and exercise a little bit of faith :).

Thursday Hermana Parker and I went on a little adventure. Usually Thursday's we go and help out at a food bank with our district, but we decided to go try helping out at a soup kitchen with some other missionaries in our zone. It's was ok, and it definitely made me realize how lucky I am to have all that I have, but we also may have gotten kicked out of it.... Let's just say the person in charge was trying to separated companionships and we didn't let him do that. Anyways we ended up going to the food bank after.

We also had a really great lesson with one of our news on Saturday. It was cool because we didn't have an appointment with her, and originally we were trying to take this member to visit another investigator who wasn't home. Anyways we decided to try Linda and at first she said that she didn't have time, but then we taught her the restoration, and it was amazing. She thought the Restoration was so beautiful, and it was cool because our message definitely answered a lot of questions she had.

I love you!

Love,

Hermana Burgoyne

Conference Weekend!

This week has been good! We watched conference at one of the stake centers. We actually watched the Sunday morning session at our little chapel, but it was in Spanish so we decided that we should probably watch the other ones in English, so we understand a bit better. I mean honestly it's surprising how much easier it is to understand things now, but it's definitely a lot easier to receive personal revelation in English haha.

Anyways this week has been awesome! We set a baptism date with our investigator Liz. She is going to be baptized for the 14th of May! She is super awesome and we had a really good lesson with her this week on the Holy Ghost. She is totally willing to commit and we are super excited for her!

We also have found some new investigators who are pretty solid! Ones name is Rodrigo he's a sophomore in high school and we found him while knocking a random trailer park one day. He had so many good questions about the restoration and could relate really well to Joseph Smith so that was really cool! We have another lesson with him tonight!

We also met this man named Carlos one night. He was a miracle because it was about 8pm, and we were looking for a less active on our ward list but could not find her apartment. Anyways we saw him and asked him if he knew her. He said no, but then we decided that we should talk to him and see if he would be interested in our message. Turns out he has like a billion questions about everything, but especially Joseph smith! We ended up having a lesson with him right then and there! He may be a bit hard to teach because he has so many questions and we have yet to get past the first 2 points of the restoration with him although we have already had 2 lessons, but he is super willing to learn and we are going to start visiting him every night.

We also had a little conference out in Benson for the end of the March challenge our mission president gave. I think I told you about it, but basically it was to try and teach the Restoration at least once for the month of March! It was really cool because I'm pretty sure all of the miracles we have seen were because we were always searching for at least one person to teach each day! It was cool to get to review why we do it and why it's so important to teach people the Restoration.

Also Saturday was pretty good! I loved general conference, especially the morning session! I think my favorite talk was by Elder Hallstrom. Something he said really stuck out to me and it was that

"we can have what we want, or we can have something better." I really loved that along with when he talked about how God allows for us to have trials in our lives, so that we can learn to grow. It just really hit me how beautiful it is that God gives us trials. He gives them to us so we can learn and grow, and in return he gives us something even more beautiful than we had been hoping for. I know that our Heavenly Father truly loves us, and that no matter what we go through it's just to give God the chance to bless us. I know our Savior will be carrying us throughout all we go through. I've seen His hand in my life and know at He lives and loves us. I love you! I hope you have a good week!

Love,

Hermana Burgoyne

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