I got to drive!

I am doing really great! We went to a party at one of the member’s house for dinner on Monday, and I sat by a lady in our ward whose husband is in the bishopric. Turns out she went to BYU and majored in Human Development hoping to go into occupational therapy, but changed her mind.  That was pretty cool since that's what I have been wanting to do! Also, she's like super pregnant and I think her baby was due like 2 weeks ago. While we were eating she leaned over to me and told me that she was having contractions, but she didn’t want to tell anyone because it may be a false alarm. And I'm like oh good if she ends up having it tonight then I will be the first one who knew she would. However, she still hasn't had it haha.

We started doing all our planning on our ipads this week. It's been really crazy and confusing, but I am sure it will be fine in a few weeks! We just have to spend a lot of time putting old information onto it for the future missionaries!

Thursday was really fun! On Wednesday night we exchanged companions, so I ended up going with Sister Anderson. She's super fun! I was really nervous, because I would be taking over Hermana Budges and my area for the first time.  This meant I'd have to pretty much decide everything we were doing that day and try to talk to people in Spanish more! It also meant that I finally got to drive! I’ve missed driving! It turned out being a really cool spiritual experience! We weren't really able to visit many of the less actives that we had wanted to, but instead we got to go knocking a lot! I was super excited! We ended up placing 4 Book of Mormons most of which were in English, but it was still really neat. I like how within just a 3 minute visit with someone we are able to discern some of their needs and share something about the gospel that applies to them. We went to one lady’s house and started talking about the restoration.  She wasn't super interested, but as we were about to leave she told us that she was Native American.  We ended up talking to her about the Book of Mormon and how it is a history of her people. The Spirit was super strong and her eyes lit up when we talked about it. She wasn't really interested in our message, but she was really excited about the Book of Mormon we gave her!

That day we also got to teach one of our referrals for the first time! It was a bit of a struggle, but the spirit was still there.  We were able to set up an appointment for next week. She's been to church a few times before and seems really excited about it! It was really great after so much time of not really having many investigators that we finally found someone who is interested! Hopefully it works out! It was a really really great day! I think it was because I stepped out of my comfort zone a lot.  I just need to remember that the Savior is on my side and not to fear!

Also we were able to meet with one of our eternigators, (eternal investigators) and finally got her to agree that next time we see her she would make up her mind about being baptized! She's a really sweet girl, and we keep going back because her family is less active, but she's really afraid to commit so hopefully, we can set a baptism date with her this week!

Friday we did our weekly planning and updated the area book almost all day until dinner time. Then, we went with the Elders to practice a musical number we wanted to do for our branch party on Saturday. We ended up just going back home and doing language study after that because our 8 pm appointment fell through. But that's ok!

Saturday was a big service project that we did for half the day with a bunch of other missionaries and people in the community.  That night we had the branch party which was good, but they forgot about our musical number so that was sad, oh well!

Sunday was cool! We had felt a prompting to visit a lady in our branch who is preparing to get sealed with her family in the temple this December. When we got there she told us she was having a lot of family problems and seemed really distraught, however by the end of our visit she seemed totally happy and hopeful again! It's really cool to see the difference just a little bit of time and following a little prompting can make in someone’s life! I am always so grateful to be an instrument in God's hands!

Oh also we go to the temple tomorrow! I am super excited!!! 2 months is way too long to wait!!

Also for some good conference talks to read this week I suggest President Uchtdorfs, and Elder Hollands from the Sunday morning session of last general conference! They are really cool! I love how Elder Holland’s story really puts into perspective what life would be like without the Atonement! I really love it!

Love you!

Love,

Hermana Burgoyne