Christmas Eve Miracle

Christmas was really good! For lunch we had tamales and a lot of really spicy beans and chicken. We spent the rest of the day visiting families in our ward.   This week is Hermana Dominguez last week so we are going to work really hard.   Then hopefully Friday, I am going to know if I'm staying here or if they are shutting down our area.

I'm kind of happy to be done with all the holiday stuff from last week.  It was getting a little crazy and busy. We had a lot of lessons though, so that was fun! I also got to help Hermana Dominguez dye and highlight a lady in our wards hair for service.  She also cut her hair, but I just did dishes while she did that. All the members here are super sweet, and I kept getting random presents from people I barely even know.

I think my favorite part of last week was the time I got to spend thinking about our Savior and his birth. Something that really hit me is that He truly did suffer for everything we have and will go through, and the amazing thing is He went through a lot of things just so that we would be able to learn and grow. I just think it's amazing that He came to the world knowing that He would have to suffer for all of the trials that we have to go through in order to help us become more like Him. I'm just so grateful for that.

This past week we had a really cool experience. The night before Christmas Eve Hermana Dominguez and I decided we needed to visit a less active girl in our ward.  Usually we don't leave the house until 12 because of studies and lunch, but for some reason Hermana Dominguez really felt like we needed to be there at 11.  We planned to visit her and then do the rest of our studies after, then that morning we got up and started studies, and I just had a really strong impression that sometime throughout the day we would find a young man that we needed to teach. We left to go visit the less active member at 11 and when we got there her older brother answered the door and turns out the girls was just about to go to work at 12, but she had enough time for a lesson.  We were able to share a lesson on the Sabbath day with her and her brother who turns out isn't a member, but wants to learn more about the gospel! It was really amazing because God guided us to exactly where we needed to be right when we needed to!

On Sunday we had a fireside that all the missionaries put on for our ward, so of course it was on missionary work. It was a little awkward because we were trying to teach them how it's our responsibility to teach the gospel and theirs to help with the social conversion, because it's really easy to smudge that line, but it ended up being really spiritual, then we ended it with Hna. Dominguez, me and another Hermana in the ward singing the efy version of I Know that My Redeemer Lives. We had barely practiced, and I was just kinda making up an alto part to it, and it actually turned out ok! So that's a miracle!

I hope you all have a really great week! Thanks for all you do and for all the gifts! I really loved all of them.  I love you!

Love,

Hermana Burgoyne 

Merry Merry Christmas!

Hi!

I'm good! This week has been good. We've been able to find lots of new people to teach and have been dropping a lot of investigators. The problem is that we have people to teach, but none of them progress, or they stop answering so that's always fun! But it's all good! Saul is still progressing! He is really excited about learning more and just has a strong desire to know for himself if the church is true! 

This week we also had exchanges again, so I got to go visit people with Hermana Parker who is Hermana Child's comp. She's really awesome and taught me a lot about testifying right when we begin a contact. They just dropped or gave the elders all of their investigators this past week so we ended up doing some finding and found a few potentials.

On Friday we had a ward party! It was really really cool because I think there were more people at it then show up to our ward parties at home, which is amazing! The best part about it was probably that they had the primary children act out the nativity, and they had an actual sheep on stage with them! It was really funny because they had members singing these really beautiful solos during it, and all you could hear was a little black sheep bleating haha.

Saturday we did some more tracting. We actually ended up walking into a less active member from one of the English wards around here, and she let us share the Christmas message with her. It was really beautiful because after she said maybe this is a sign I need to start going back to church. 

It was also great because there aren't very many service opportunities here because most people just stay inside or work, but Hermana Domignuez prayed specifically for service opportunities, and God answered by placing about 7 different opportunities in our path. It just shows that when we pray for something good in order to help others God will provide. Then on Sunday, I decided to pray for us to find someone who was ready to be taught that would be a referral from a member. Later that night some sisters in another area texted us to tell us a member in their branch had a referral for us! Anyways God has definitely been blessing us with work here.

Yesterday, we found out how difficult it is to plan a fireside for your ward with 8 other missionaries, not very productive, luckily though in 2 weeks they will probably take out 2 sets. I'm just really grateful I only have to work things out with one companion usually rather than 9! Yesterday we also took some members out caroling with us to less actives in our ward. I think it was one of the greatest experiences I have ever had! There were about 10 of us, and it was so fun! We ended up getting in contact with a less active we had never even met. It was funny because she opened up the door and she was in a bath robe and had a towel in her hair, but by the end of it her and her little boy were smiling so big! It was so beautiful to see the joy that just simple acts like bringing members with us to go caroling can bring such joy into other people's lives. Also our members helped us find a potential investigator, and they wanted to keep going all night! It's seriously too bad we have a curfew. Anyways, we ended the night by going to visit a family who was supposed to come with, but never showed up, so we just rang their door and sang and then we went into their house and made hot chocolate and ate some Mexican pastries that our mission leader had brought! It was super fun!

This week I finished the little packet our mission president gave us to study about the Savior. I think my favorite thing that I learned from it is that what God promises will be fulfilled will be. During the Savior's ministry he taught the people how he was there to fulfill the prophecies of the prophets and scriptures. I especially love how that applies to us in little ways like when we feel peace that something is going to work out or we are promised something in a blessing we receive. We need to have faith that all things will be fulfilled. I really like how it talks about that in 3rd Nephi 1 when it talks about the Nephites waiting for the signs of the Savior's birth. Sometimes it takes time, but all that God promises us will be fulfilled as long as we do our part, I'm so grateful for the Gospel and the knowledge I have that Christ did live and still does live and that He provided the way for us to come to earth, learn, grow, and to become clean from all the mistakes we've made. I know he lives and loves us! I love you! And I hope you have a very merry Christmas!

Love,

Hermana Burgoyne

Wishing for trailer parks and a new address

I like my new companion she's really nice .   Also she's a good missionary. The area is a little rough though. There are no trailer parks here, so that kind of stinks.  It is predominately white people, so the work here is a bit slow :P. Hopefully we can get some stuff going. It's just a little hard going from a really productive area that we've been working so hard to finally get going to an area where I basically have to start over! I am sure it will be good though.  On the bright side, we are in a ward and share it with 4 other sets of missionaries because they just combined our branch with the branch that was in the middle of Tucson so now it's the El Dorado ward :). We are the first Spanish ward in Tucson! Well at least recently.  We have 10 missionaries to one ward which is a lot, but probably next transfer 2 sets will be taken out, so I may only be here for a transfer, but we will see! I really love the ward a lot though and the missionaries I serve around are all super awesome.  I was already good friends with all of them before, so it's fun!

Thanksgiving was insane. The El Rio sisters had 3 dinners to go to, then one of the recent converts here wanted Hermana Anderson to be here for her dinner also, so they tried to fit in 4 dinners.  It didn't happen though. Instead, I went with Hermana Flake to have dinner with the Gonzales family in El Rio while Hermana Dominguez and Hermana Anderson ate with Nery. I was happy about it though because I was really missing El Rio, so it was good to go back and visit 2 days after I got transferred out haha.

About the people I was teaching in El Rio, I think Juana is still on track to be baptized on the 18th of December which is super exciting, and I should be able to go to that! Then I'm not exactly sure about anyone else. Diana Cruz is still going to church which is good and in a few more Sundays she should be fully reactivated! We are going to start working with her sister who lives in my new area who is less active too, so that will be fun! I will check up on all the other people we were teaching when I see Hermana Flake in a few hours!

We have a few investigators here, although most of them aren't progressing which is rough. One of our investigators is from Africa, her name is Marie, she's super sweet and told us that she is going to read the whole Book of Mormon by the next time we come back.  She just wants us to give her a few weeks. So hopefully she does! We do have one investigator who we just started teaching this week. They had met her the week before, but we went to go teach her last Friday and we tried to share the restoration with her, but the whole entire time it just did not feel right to me or Hermana Dominguez, and I was really struggling with my Spanish. The only time it felt right was when Hermana Dominguez started talking about the importance of families and the plan of salvation in the middle. The lady we were teaching seemed sorta uncomfortable. But we finished the lesson and invited her to read Moroni 10. We realized afterwards that we should have taught the plan of salvation because we both felt prompted to, but we didn't want to confuse her.  We ended up going back apologizing, and giving her a plan of salvation pamphlet. We have another appointment with her tomorrow! Luckily although we make dumb mistakes God is still watching out for us and making sure that his children are taken care of although His servants are imperfect! Just knowing how much the spirit really guides us strengthens my testimony so much though! I don't know what I'd do without it!

Other than that, we are working on finding and getting members involved with less active work! Today I was thinking a lot about less active work during my studies while I was reading Luke 15 which is about the parable of the sheep, coin, and the the prodigal son.  I thought about how each parable represents a different reason people fall away from the church. But I love how President Hinckley taught that what recent converts and less actives need is a friend, a calling, and to be nourished by the word of God. This week we are going to work on inviting members to help us fellowship and reactive specific less actives in our ward, so that hopefully we can get them more involved. I am super excited!  Hopefully with lots of faith we will have a lot of success this transfer!

I really missed spending thanksgiving with you all! I really wish I could have been there! Oh well! It's ok at least I am only missing one Christmas at home! But I am really grateful to be here serving people.  It's hard at times, but God is guiding us so much and I've just learned to love so many people and have grown so much. I wouldn't replace it for anything!

My new address is : 1800 S Pantano Rd #2164, Tucson, AZ 85710. 

Anyways thanks for everything! I love you lots!

Love,

Hermana Burgoyne

Transfers

Hi!!

I am doing awesome! I am a little sad because we have transfers tomorrow, and it's time for me to leave El Rio :(. It's really hard saying goodbye to so many people I know and love so much!! But change is good, and I am excited! I am going to be transferred to the eastern part of Tucson and will be with 4 other sets of missionaries in the El Dorado ward. Usually there are not that many sets of missionaries in a ward, but a lot is changing to prepare Tucson for a new temple, so they are changing around a bunch of stake boundaries. It's really exciting and a bit stressful though because we have way too many Spanish missionaries right now for the amount of areas we have! In a few months things will change because a huge group of Spanish missionaries is leaving in January!

I am getting a new companion tomorrow! Her name is Hermana Dominguez! She's super awesome, and I have already been on exchanges with her since she was my STL last transfer. Hermana Anderson and I are just switching places which doesn't usually happen. That also means that I will be companions with another STL this transfer which is great, because I will get to go on exchanges and spend time with a bunch of the hermanas in my Zone! Also Hermana Budge just got made into an STL, so that's exciting for her! Hermana Dominguez is super hard working and really great missionary, so I am sure we are going to have a great time together. I am a bit sad though because she leaves in January, so I get to kill her (send her home)! I am going to really miss Hermana Flake a lot, but that's ok because most likely we are still in the same district!

This week we have been doing a lot of finding and just kind of organizing everything before I leave and Hermana Flake takes over the area. This week we found 8 new investigators and we only were able to keep one because the rest were either English or in the biking elders area. That’s ok work is work and at least we are helping others out!

We have also found some really amazing families to teach these last couple of weeks, and it is really exciting because the Spirit has been really strong in all of our lessons. One of the families we are teaching is very strongly Pentecostal, but they've let us in a few times because we helped them clean out their house when they were moving in a few weeks ago on the way to try visiting some formers. It's crazy what just little acts of service do, because a few weeks later we were able to start teaching them a little bit. Then yesterday we taught them the restoration, and I don't think I have ever felt the Spirit so strongly during the restoration as it was yesterday in their home. It was really beautiful, and I was almost in tears. They all thought it was very beautiful and could feel the Spirit teaching them.  We invited them to pray to know if it is true and even the son who we thought wasn't really paying attention told us he would pray and knew that he would know it was true through the Holy Ghost which is awesome! Hopefully Hermana Flake and Hermana Anderson will be able to stop by tomorrow or Wednesday to see how it went!

Our other progressing investigator Juana who has a baptism date for the 18th of December was able to come to church yesterday! She really loved it and had a lot of good questions. We are also excited because she is starting to let us come and visit her during the weekdays rather just on Sundays. It's an answer to our prayers! We are super excited for her and her progress. I am super grateful I will be close enough to go to her baptism this coming month! We were also finally able to meet her son yesterday. She absolutely adores him and is always telling us how sweet and amazing he is, so it was good to finally meet him ourselves. He definitely radiates with the light of Christ, and I am super excited that they are going to be able to start teaching him. We don't know how interested he is right now, but hopefully as his mom gets closer to baptism he will be! I am really sad to be saying bye to Juana. She is just super amazing and so in tune with the Spirit. I don't think we go one lesson without one of us crying, because we feel it so strong. She's super sweet, and I will send a picture of her next week.  We are going over their tonight to say goodbye.

This past transfer has been super awesome because I have been focusing a lot on learning how to recognize the Spirit and teaching more like the Savior taught. It's been really fun because right now we are working on using silence as a way to help our investigators feel the Spirit stronger along with asking inspired questions. It just kind of hit me this week that usually when Jesus is teaching someone and they ask Him a question He almost always responds with a question back. I love that, because it really gives the people you are teaching a chance to think and ponder for themselves. Today I was studying the story of the Samaritan Women at the well and how after she had met Christ she went to the city and called all of the people to come and see the Savior. My favorite part is in John 4:42 I think, where it says that they all knew for themselves that He was the Christ and not just because the women told them who is was. I really like that because it reminds me that I can teach people and answer their questions myself, but I can't gain a testimony for those I am teaching. That's their agency and they have to use it to come and know for themselves if it's true!

I am not sure what I am doing for Thanksgiving. Hermana Flake and Anderson have like 4 dinners to go to that day, but since I am leaving who knows! I wish I could be there with you all and to be completely honest I am a little worried to see how Hispanics do Thanksgiving haha, but I am sure it will be fine!

I love you all a lot! I hope you have a good week!

Love,

Hermana Burgoyne