More Miracles!

Things have been really busy and lots of crazy stuff going on. Good news is we finally got Priscilla back to church after about 4 weeks! It was crazy because we went to go see her and her mom Saturday night, and she told us that they wouldn't be able to go because they needed to go shopping on Sunday. We tried to explain the importance of going to church, but it just didn't seem to be going through. So we went to church on Sunday for Ward council and got there a little early. When we got there we realized we had left our phone at home, and we were debating if we should go back home or not to get it even though it's a 15 minute drive back up to Rio Rico.  We decided to just in case, and we ended up having a missed call from Priscilla telling us she wanted to go to church, but she needed a ride. So we found her a ride and then an hour later her whole family besides two of her brothers had showed up to church! It was a miracle!

We've also been working on finding this week because we are all out of people to teach since Liz got baptized last week. Anyways we've been really wanting to find some more people to teach that we could bring to the Spanish Ward because surprisingly there is no Spanish work in our area. So we went out to a lesson with our Ward mission leader and the lady who we wanted to see wasn't there, but one of his old students lived across the street so we went to visit them and they speak English and the lady gave us her phone number and told us to call her if we ever need anything. Turns out her son is really good friends with a member in the Spanish Ward and he's going to take him to church this following Sunday! 

Then after church on Sunday we were about to leave when this sister in the Spanish Ward told us that she had a friend who has been asking her a lot about life after death and things like that. She was telling us that she doesn't know how to answer everything she asks and we're like that's what we are here for! We are going to go and visit with her on Tuesday!

Otherwise this week a dragon fly flew into our apartment and we have a really great video of me screaming and running away from it. Haha

On a spiritual note whenever I've had a question this week in my mind, and I've prayed about it and opened up to a random page in the Book of Mormon every time I've opened up to Moroni 7 not trying to. Anyways I really like verses 3-5 that talk about how we can be peaceable followers of Christ. Anyways I've been thinking about his a lot and how I can be a better follower of Christ through my actions and my words.

"3 Wherefore, I would speak unto you that are of the church, that are the peaceable followers of Christ, and that have obtained a sufficient hope by which ye can enter into the rest of the Lord, from this time henceforth until ye shall rest with him in heaven.

4 And now my brethren, I judge these things of you because of your peaceable walk with the children of men.

5 For I remember the word of God which saith by their works ye shall know them; for if their works be good, then they are good also."

I like these verses because they remind me that if I'm doing what I'm supposed to and living worthily I will be able to return to live with my Heavenly Father again. So I want to choose each day to become better and cleaner so I can obtain a sufficient hope to return to Him. Then as I do this I will be more worthy of the Spirit and able to guide others to make right choices too. I'm so grateful that because of our Savior Jesus Christ we are able to change. The gospel is all about change. I think something my missions taught me is that no matter who we are or where we been each of us has the potential to turn around and follow our Savior.

Love,

Hermana Burgoyne

Liz's Baptism

This week has been really good! Lots of blessings as always. Liz's baptism went really great! It was a bit of a crazy day beforehand, but you should have seen how happy she looked afterwards. It was also really cool because Hermana Lund (the sister here before me) and also Hermana Hubert (one of Liz' other missionaries) was able to come down for it. The baptism went pretty much perfectly. Everyone was super surprised to see Sister Lund and Sister Hubert, but it made it even more special, plus they did a beautiful musical number with Sister Passey. Then Liz was baptized, and when she got out she told us that she felt like a completely different person. She was just glowing after. The next day we went over to see her, and she told us how that morning she didn't want to shower, because she already felt so clean from her baptism haha. She's a really sweet lady, and I've really learned to love her. It's so amazing to me because her family has a lot of trials and is always struggling with something, but she was brave and took the steps she needed even if it means sacrifice and having a lot of faith. I remember meeting her a few months ago, and she was so terrified to pray in front of us, and now she is the shining example in her family. She just teaches me that no matter how hard it may seem, Inconvenient, or even how alone we may feel as we chose the harder right God will bless us and strengthen us to do all that is required of us. It reminds me of the scripture in Mosiah 2:41

"And moreover, I would desire that ye should consider on the blessed and happy state of those that keep the commandments of God. For behold, they are blessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual; and if they hold out faithful to the end they are received into heaven, that thereby they may dwell with God in a state of never-ending happiness. O remember, remember that these things are true; for the Lord God hath spoken it."

I've seen this in my life and I know Liz is now seeing it in hers!

Another miracle that happens this week is we were able to start teaching Liz’s 2nd youngest son. It was funny because they had taught him before, but he became uninterested so we haven't focus d much on him, but when we went to their house of Friday we pulled up and like always her son Danny was right there to greet us. He then asked us what we wanted and we told him that we came to help him get ready to be baptized and he got super excited and said that he was hoping we'd come to teach him, so we set a baptism date right then and there! So we are working with him to get baptized the first week of March. The only problem is sometimes he is interested and sometimes he isn't (like any 14 year old boy) so we have to catch him on his good days. It may take a bit of work but I think he should be baptized by the end of the transfer or beginning of next.

Anyways this week we also started teaching a man named Juan Pedro Limon. He just got married to this really awesome member in our Ward and they are super sweet. Apparently he's gone to church with her a few times, but I didn't meet him until Friday. Anyways it was super funny because after the lesson he was talking us how he has a brother and a nephew who are members and how the nephew was on a mission in Chicago and then all of a sudden I remembered that there is a family in El Rio (my first area) with the last name Limon and who had a son serving in Chicago so I asked him if it was him and he said yes! Super small world! I told him about how we used to have dinner with them every Saturday and it was funny because he seemed a lot more comfortable talking to us after that.

Anyways this week I was reading about prophets and I came across a scripture in Mosish 15 that I really like 

"11 Behold I say unto you, that whosoever has heard the words of the prophets, yea, all the holy prophets who have prophesied concerning the coming of the Lord--I say unto you, that all those who have hearkened unto their words, and believed that the Lord would redeem his people, and have looked forward to that day for a remission of their sins, I say unto you, that these are his seed, or they are the heirs of the kingdom of God.

12 For these are they whose sins he has borne; these are they for whom he has died, to redeem them from their transgressions. And now, are they not his seed?"

I like this one because sometimes I think it's easy for us to forget that we really need to pay attention to and follow the counsel the prophets and apostles give, but it's really important because they are speaking the words of God. I love this scripture because it reminds me that as we heed the prophets counsel and follow them then we will be worthy of the Atonement and those who choose to apply it in their lives are those who the Savior died for. 

I love you lots! 

Love,

Hermana Burgoyne

Keep the Sabbath Day Holy!

My weeks been amazing! It's been tiring, but we've worked super hard and have seen lots of miracles. It's in the 80's/ 90's here and the first week it rained every day, so I was freezing. It's a lot cooler than Tucson!

This week we had a lot of crazy stuff happen. We spent a good chunk of the week knocking and not having too much success, but God definitely blessed us for our efforts.

There’s this part member family that we've been working with named the Montijos. They are super sweet. There are 7 people in their family. The mom Liz, her oldest son Angel who lives in Tucson, Adrian who is a member, Priscilla who's a recent convert, then Danny, Isaac, and Julissa. Anyways, this week Priscilla had to make a really hard choice. She had to choose between going over the weekends to spend time with her daughter, or going to church on Sunday's. It was really hard for her, because she doesn't get to see her daughter very often and everyone was pressuring her to go visit her daughter, but she also felt super bad missing church on Sunday's.  She decided to miss church for 6 weeks so she could see her daughter. We were really worried, especially since she got baptized just a few months ago, and we could see the difference in her family between when she was and wasn't going church and reading her scriptures. The night she decided to go we had a lesson with her about keeping the Sabbath day holy. We were really bold and promised her that if she chose to go to church on Sunday's that God would provide a way for her to spend time with her daughter. We invited her to think about it, and about a minute later she told us she felt terrible about choosing not to go to church and decided that she needed to call the people back and tell them she needs to go to church on Sundays. Right after that we could feel the Spirit so strong and feel the love God has for her and her family.  Right after she called and left a message her mom ran in all stressed out because their ride to a really important meeting the next day fell through, and they didn't know how they were going to get there. Then her phone rang, and it was the people calling back about her daughter. They told her that she could go visit with her on Fridays and Saturdays instead, so that she could go to church on Sunday. They also told her that the meeting was actually over the phone, so she didn’t need a ride there.  It was a miracle! I don't think I've ever seen God bless someone for choosing the right so quickly! It just shows that when we make good choices God will provide a way for everything else to work out!

Second miracle of the week:

 On Saturday we were over at the Montijo's teaching Liz because they have been teaching her for about 3 months, but her baptism date has fallen through about 2 times. We had just set another date with her for the 23^rd, and we were asking her how she felt about it. Then out of the blue she asked us if she could change her date, and we said yes kind of worried she'd push it back again, but to our surprise she asked for it to be changed to this Tuesday! We told her that it might be a little soon, but we decided that we could do it on Thursday just to give us enough time to prepare. It's crazy because last week she wasn't keeping commitments and had stopped reading and going to church and she wasn't really interested in having us teach her anymore, because she missed the sister that was here beforehand. However, her heart softened and she has started reading again and even went to church last Sunday although she got up late and only had 15 min to get ready and Priscilla didn't come! It was so crazy!! Anyways we are super excited for her. And the best part of all is that all of a sudden her son Adrian who is less active wants to start coming back to church and fix everything, so he can be there with his family and they all can eventually be sealed together in the temple! I'm super excited for them!

Besides that not much else has happened. We got to go mining on Friday. There's a man in one of the wards here who is digging up an old mine and so we got to help him dig for a few hours. My shoulders were super soar afterwards! But it was fun! Also it was in Patagonia which is absolutely beautiful!

Anyways I love you a lot! Thanks for everything! I miss you! Only 5 more months ;) haha everyone here is starting to ask me how it feels to almost be done with my mission, and I'm like wait I'm not almost done what are you talking about?!

Love,

Hermana Burgoyne

Nogales!

This week has been good, really weird, but good! Nogales is sooooo green and it's l so different from Tucson, but I think I'm going to like it. It's a little weird serving in both a Spanish and English Ward. Don't tell anyone, but I think I like the Spanish Ward better, but that's probably just because that's what I'm used to haha. Anyways, I love Hermana Sands.  She's super awesome! It's great because she wants to work hard and is obedient, so that makes me happy :). It's a little weird being senior comp, but only because when people ask me how much time I have left in my mission and I say a little more than 5 months they're like oh you're almost going home! Luckily I still have a little while left. The work here is good. The elders have the town on the border, so they have most of the Spanish works.  We just mostly work with English people. We are going to start looking for some more Spanish work though! Our apartment is pretty nice, we actually have a washer and dryer in our apartment and then we have 2 stories, it's a bit awkward because we can't have couches and stuff in our apartment so we have a really empty living room, but it's nice. We even have two bathrooms, but the toilet isn't working in one of them. My new address is 1414 Via Halcon #2, Rio Rico, Arizona 85648.

Anyways this week we've been going around trying to get to know people in the area. It's really weird because there is only one other set of missionaries down here, so we spend a lot of time with the elders. The people here are all really nice though. We've been working a lot with recent converts in the area. We have one named Priscilla. She just got baptized a few months ago, but she's super nice. We are also teaching her mom who was on date for baptism, but she got scared, so hopefully we can help her get back on track for it. We also have another recent convert named cowboy Bob. He lives about an hour away in Patagonia. It's super pretty out there! It's super green and there are basically a bunch of farms out there. Apparently his horses approve of me, so they are ok with me switching places with Hermana Lund for right now. 

This week we've had lots of adventures. One of my first dinners here we drove up a really steep hill, and it got super rocky and sketchy, and we had to drive about a mile before we could turn around. Then as we were coming back down we got attacked by 3 German shepherds. It was kind of crazy. 

Not too much else has happened. There's a lot of work to do here, but we are still working on getting it moving, so we will see how this transfer goes!

Something that impacted me this week is that although each ward is a little different we can still feel the spirit testifying of Jesus Christ in each one of them. There was a sister in fast and testimony meeting yesterday that shared her testimony on how we worship Jesus Christ, and although she didn't take too much time we could feel the spirit super strong because she was testifying of our Savior. This week I decided that I want to focus on helping others come to know Christ this transfer and for the remainder of my mission. Like it says in 2 Nephi 25:26 "And we talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies, that our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins." I really want to help others come to know to who Jesus Christ is, and that through him we can receive forgiveness in this life. Through Him our lives can change. My goal is to change my life a little each week so that I can become a little more like Him and so that others will see that and have the desire to change too. I’m grateful that I have the chance to share my testimony of Him and His life each day. I only hope that I can be an instrument in His hands to help others know for themselves the same things I do. I love you! I hope you are having a great week!

Love,

Hermana Burgoyne