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

God has a perfect plan for us!

We had a bunch of less active lessons this week. Tuesday we had a lesson with a lady named Sister Swallows.  She's been less active for about 6 or more years, but Monday night we asked her if we could go visit her Tuesday and she said yes, and even invited us over for dinner! The funny thing was we already had a dinner for that day, but the member was bringing us pizza, so we ended up just saving the pizza for a day when we didn't have a dinner and going to see her instead. It went pretty well. We got to know her, and she was very open with us about how she felt overstressed with all the responsibilities she had had, so she had stopped going after she moved from Montana. It was a bit sad because she had been super active and strong in the church, and then one day she just stopped going.  Now she's struggling wanting to return. It just shows how important it is for us to keep on the lookout, even if we feel like we are going strong.

Wednesday we finally had a meeting with our new Ward mission leader, Brother Allen. He seems like he'll be pretty good.  He had a really great mission in Mexico and is super ready to help. He's kind of intimidating though, because he's one of those people you feel like could be a general authority.

Then Thursday we went to go try a few less actives, and we ended up teaching this guy named Joseph and it went really well. He had come to church a few weeks ago and wanted to keep coming, so he was super excited to see us!

Later that day, we visited Kimberly and her family. Kimberly is a less active girl we met a few weeks ago. Her, her sister, and dad are members, but her mom and brother aren't. So we had a good lesson with her, her sister and her mom. At the end we asked her mom if she'd be baptized, and she said she would if she found out for herself if the church was true! So we invited her to pray, and she happily set an appointment with us for Wednesday. We were super happy because Kimberly came to church on Sunday, and she hadn't been for almost 5 years!

Then next day we decided to try Claudia, a lady we had knocked into and found out she was a less active member not on our records. It was cool because we got to teach her and her son who is 8 and isn't a member. He was super smart! He knew a bunch of bible stories and knew all the answers to all the questions we asked him! We taught him the restoration and then at the end we invited him to kneel and pray to know if it was true, and he got down and kneeled and prayed to himself and told us how after he felt peace. It was super cool to see how spiritually in tune he was. I know God lead us to his family for a reason.

A few weeks ago Elder Chiñas had suggested we go try a lady named Chrystal Aguilar who is sisters with a lady he had been teaching in Los Reales, and that I had met a few times at church. Anyways we had tried to find her, but her address had been wrong so we didn't know where she lived. We didn't think too much about it until we got huge package at our door addressed for a lady named Chrystal Barraza. We were a little confused about why the lady had put her address as our address, so we decided maybe our neighbors got the apartment number wrong and the named sounded familiar so we thought it was for one of them. We were going to go ask all of them, but decided to put the phone number of the person who ordered into our phone just in case it wasn't our neighbor and we needed to call the person. I put it in and it was funny because it pulled up Chrystal Aguilar, that member we had been looking for!  So when I saw it was her, I got really excited and realized that we were goig to be able to find her. Then I looked at the address on the box and realized it said 1415 Via Halcon instead of 1414, and so they had accidentally delivered it to the wrong house. We walked across the street and dropped off the package at the right house and left a little note asking her to call us, so we could go visit her. On Sunday we felt prompted to go and try her, and we went over and she wasn't home but we met her sister Chrissie who is a less active member too.  We had a really cool lesson with her about God's love for us and the restoration. The Spirit was definitely guiding us through that lesson, because she has gone through a lot of hard trials in her life and we were able to comfort her a little bit. There isn't a doubt in my mind that it wasn't just an accident that her package accidentally got dropped off at our apartment. God has a perfect plan for us and does everything for a reason! I am so grateful for the chance to be part of His plan, and that I can help others along the way!

To end, I found a really cool quote the other day in Our search for Happiness that was an answer to a question I had. It says "if during the course of our time here on earth, we learn to use that wondrous gift of agency in positive ways to bless our own lives and the lives of others, then our journey will have been successful- no matter how long it lasts and how much is accomplished."

I loved that because it just reminded me that our purpose in life to use our agency is not just for our own benefit, but also for the good of others. We are here to learn to be more like Christ and do things to bless ourselves and others. I want to strive to always make decisions that will bless people rather than hurt them.

Anyways I love you lots!

Love,

Hermana Burgoyne