"These things will change. Can you see it now?"

Welcome to transfer number three in Buffalo, Wyoming, and transfer
number one with Elder Malcom Campbell. Before you ask, yes, he falls
in the middle.

        The last few days with Elder Ferrara were good, though a little sad.
He was leaving his first area, a place where he'd been for a solid
four and a half months, so I don't blame him. He is now off to the
land of Thermopolis, home of the world's largest natural hot springs.
Too bad missionaries can't go swimming! I told him to just have a
baptism and do it in the springs. That'd work!

        Transfer days are always really weird. Elder Emms, Elder Christensen,
and I were in a trio in Sheridan for the day until the transfer van
showed up with Elder Campbell, my new companion, in tow. Elder
Campbell is an author and a world-builder, and his constant cynicism
is both entertaining and occasionally worthy of an eye-roll. Elder
Campbell and I have been doing quite well! We get along and all that,
and all that. We've been making too many references to Homestar
Runner, an internet site of our youth. "Yous was tryin to jank me!"
and "Yeah, *shaped* like there's a bite taken out of it!" have become
popular phrases in the apartment. It's been good.

        As far as investigators go, things are pretty much going as well as
they have been. Not many new developments to mention as of now, but
that will change! See, I've entered that stage of district leadering
where I have decided to talk with each companionship in the district,
have them set a goal or two for the transfer, and that I will attempt
to match their goal if at all possible. The idea being that this might
create more unity and be a good way to encourage all in the district,
as well as make it easier to keep each other accountable. So, the
Sheridan 3rd elders set the goal to give away an entire box worth of
copies of the Book of Mormon in the transfer, which translates into
about forty books. That is a difficult goal, I think, but I'm
committed if they are. So, here we go! The missionary work in the
Sheridan district is going to be the hottest in the entire mission!
Here's to a brand new vision!

        Spiritual thought: Israel can't seem to get it right. They're wicked,
are put into bondage, repent, and are delivered, and then it happens
again. In reading this, I get really frustrated with Israel and how
quick they are to forget, but then I think about us. We hear a general
conference talk that touches us deeply, but how long do we let the
ideas and teachings become part of our everyday lives? The talk on
refugees, Holland's talk on home teaching, or others - how quick are
we to forget these things? Let us not be like Israel, and let us
remember and observe the things we are taught.

        Keep rocking and rolling.

-Elder Burch π

        "... The walls that they put up to hold us back will fall down..."

Bette at the care center! We just finished a game of Scrabble and
she won, making the record 6-3 in favor of Elder Burch π.

Off in the distance...

Elder Campbell and I

"All he kept talking about was glory days..."

Good day to everyone!

        Transfer news is in, and I will be remaining in Buffalo, Wyoming, but
Elder Ferrara is heading off. To where, you ask? He is off to
Thermopolis! Elder Ferrara is a fantastic missionary, and I am excited
to hear of all the good work that he'll do on the west of the Big Horn
Mountains. We'll be dropping him off Tuesday night. It's been a good
run, Elder Ferrara. Thank you for all the good times and the things
I've learned from you.

        The other night, our friend John fed us escargot! It was a first for
both Elder Ferrara and I. I liked it a good bit, actually! I mean, I
probably wouldn't go out of my way to purchase and cook it for myself,
but if I came across it at a party or restaurant or something, I'm all
over that! Elder Ferrara, on the other hand, described his experience
like this, "It wasn't horrible, but I don't exactly like the taste of
dirt." John is cool. He's the French guy that has been mentioned in
emails past. (So, if Tinley is reading this, yes, his name is spelt
"Jean." Like Jean-Luc Picard, I think.) He isn't interested in
changing, so we don't spend much time with him, but we drop by here
and there to let him know that we think he's cool and that we're his
friends. Maybe in a future life he'll be able to take the seed we've
planted and grow it into a testimony.

        Also on the topic of new foods, I had crab legs with Bishop the other
day. That was actually way more fun and tasty than I had expected.
Kind of a weird dining experience, but worth it.

        So, these investigators we're working with? One of the big things
that we were going to hit in a lesson with them is chastity - they're
not married. Guess freaking what? They showed up at church the second
time, and had rings on. They've got the papers and are aiming to tie
the knot soon! That makes everything so much easier for us. Phew.
Also, super exciting! They're progressing so well, and we love
visiting with them. Apparently we make good cookies (just add water
cookie mix, man), so we brought them cookies with the Restoration
movie the other day. More updates on them to come!

        Elder Ferrara is going to change the world with his inventions one
day. That's all.

        In the Old Testament, there are chapters upon chapters emphasizing
this simple truth: "And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken
diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe and to do
all his commandments which I command thee this day, that the Lord thy
God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth: And all
these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt
hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God." -Joshua 28: 1-2
It really is that simple. If we are obedient, we will be blessed. The
Lord is bound when we follow His commandments (D&C 82:10). Look for
ways you can improve and follow God more closely!

        Rock and roll ~

-Elder Burch π

        "... Oh, they'll pass you by..."

The District. RIP

Puppies!

A child! (That I am definitely not holding
in accordance with missionary rules.)

The best investigators on this side of the Big Horns.

The Escargot Adventure

Happy Birthday Elder Burch!

"Son of man, look to the sky. Lift your spirits and be free..."

Hello everyone! 

   This week was full of good things mingled with disappointment. Even the disappointment has its up side, though, so no worries there. Allow us to venture deeper into the world of this week...

   First, an appreciation: Elder Ferrara is a beast at the work, and we've been having awesome times together, and I just felt like now was a good time to tell everyone how grateful I am to have him as my companion. Could one ask for anything better? I don't think so. You rock, dood. Thank you for all the hard work, the laughs, and the unity. (This is not a goodbye; we still have a minimum of a week left together. He's just a stud. That is all.)

   Okay, disappointment first. Keith, the guy who was going to be baptized, was not able to be. We got a call from a member who works at the Vets Home. He was super apologetic, and explained that Keith's sister, who is his legal guardian, was not super on board when Keith told her about the baptism. As his legal guardian, we have to respect that. We talked to Keith for a while, and he expressed frustration that she doesn't see that this is the path he wants to take. We're going to keep visiting with Keith and all, and hopefully something in the future will happen to soften the heart of his sister so that Keith can take this step that he desires. Pray for that!

   Onward and upward! The new family that we've been teaching is super rad! Things are going splendidly - we've been able to teach the first three lessons so far (The Restoration, The Plan of Salvation, and The Gospel of Jesus Christ), and they showed up to church this last week! This family is so fun to visit and to teach, and they recognize the Spirit like no one I've ever taught before. We've got some things to work through before we put them on date, but we'll take it at the pace we need to, and we know that God will bless them for their diligence and eagerness to learn more. 

   The snow is melting. It was 34 and sunny yesterday. 

   Spiritual thought: After the children of Israel wander in the wilderness for forty years, the finally get to the place and are at the time where the Lord desires them to settle. Moses gets up and speaks to the people, recounting their trails, travels, and the miracles that God has shown to them. As part of that, Moses tells the people, "And now, Israel, what doth the Lord thy God require of thee, but to fear the Lord they God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the Lord thy God with all they heart and with all thy soul?" (Deuteronomy 10:12) This sounds funny after chapter upon chapter of rules and statutes that the children of Israel have been commanded to follow, but it brings it all back to the simple truth: "Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." (Matthew 22:37-40) Think about that.

   I think that's all I have for now. Thank you for reading my emails, and keep being excellent out there. Rock and roll ~

-Elder Burch π

   "... Some day you'll walk tall with pride. Son of man, a man in time you'll be."

Snow shoveling to the max.

The District!

Action shots

At the care center

Men shall not live by bread alone.

Nighthawk

Snow

"I'm on my feet, I'm on the floor, I'm good to go..."

Good morning (maybe), everyone!

Oh, man, this week. Oh, man, this week. Here we go.

On Tuesday, we went on exchanges with the Zone Leaders. Elder
Christensen came up to Buffalo with me while Elder Ferrara took the
van down to Gillette to spend some time with Elder Hendricks. They had
a blast, but Elder Christensen and I had some experiences that were a
little crazy. So crazy, in fact, that I think for the sake of
information sensitivity, I'm going to have to gloss over some of the
craziest parts. Ah, well.

Alright, first off, on Wednesday morning, Elder Christensen and I went
running. Yes, running. We put on some clothes, threw on a jacket, and
proceeded to run almost a mile in the freezing temperatures of the
early morning. Was it miserable? Yes. Did my lungs hurt from
breathing? Yes. Will I ever do it again? No, but it was worth it for
the story! I can now tell people that I went jogging in the morning in
the middle of winter in Wyoming when the temperature was somewhere
like -15 outside. (Sister Wadsworth heard about it and scolded us.
Still worth it for the story!)

Hey, remember how it was -16 outside two days ago? It's 46 and cloudy
today. Nuts. Okay, back to the story.

During lunch, we get a call from an unknown number. "Hello, it's the
missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints."
"Hey, it's Les!"
"Wh- wait, Les Babin?" Les is a very less active member who I hadn't
met yet, so this was exciting.
"Yeah, that's me! Hey, I need a Book of Mormon. A hard back one. With
the thick pages; none of the thin page stuff."
"Um, alright. Sounds good. We can do that for you. Where do you live?"
"You know where I live! Just down the street in those apartments; you
know the drill."
"Um, alright, rad. I guess we'll see you in an hour or so?"
"Good plan. See you then!" *click*

Turns out that Les has desires to return to church, and wanted a new
Book of Mormon because he just gave his last one to Keith, who will be
mentioned later in this email. How rad is that? Les was talking about
how he has just felt the Spirit recently in his life, and he says that
he knows it is time for him to come back. Rad, Les! More power to you.
He has to be out of town this coming Sunday, but he says to expect him
on the 22nd.

After that, as we're about to pull out onto the main road, I get a
prompting to take a short detour and give Alex* a visit. Alex is an
investigator that we had taught the first lesson, but had not been
able to set a return appointment yet. Alex answers the door and looks
disheartened and disheveled. After some initial hesitation, he opened
up to us and told us about some really rough stuff that had been
happening in his life, and how he felt alone, and had turned to
drinking. The drinking was putting stress on his family and he felt
like a failure. We testified that God had a plan for him and that he
can get through this with His help. He looked us straight in the face
and asked us to tell him honestly what brought us to his door. I told
him the truth: I believe God gave me a prompting to visit you. It was
a highly spiritual experience, and it confirmed my testimony that
promptings from the Spirit are things to always be followed.
*Name changed for reasons.

That same day, the bishop referred us to a family that had come to him
for a little financial help. He asked if they'd be down for visiting
with the missionaries, and they agreed! It is a young couple, early
thirties, and they have one sixteen-month-old boy. They expressed to
us in the first lesson that we had that they are looking to get to a
better place spiritually. Holy freaking perfect. We taught them the
restoration with bishop present, and they mentioned a couple times how
they felt the Spirit during certain parts of the message. A peace and
familiarity, they described it as. We left them with a commitment to
read the Book of Mormon, pray about it, and come to church. They did
not show up to church, but only because their kid got really sick (ER
sick) Saturday night. We decided we'd make them cookies and give them
some space. After all, that sounds pretty gnarly for their kid. Around
3 Sunday, we get a call, and it is the mother asking if we were still
coming by that day! "Um, yea! Yes, of course!" So, we went over again,
with Brother Thomas this time. (He knows her from work. I swear,
Brother Thomas knows everybody in the town of Buffalo.) We learned
that they'd been reading a chapter of the Book of Mormon every night
since we taught them the first lesson, and that they were still
feeling that same spirit of peace when they do. AHHHHH, THE LORD
PREPARES PEOPLE AND IT'S THE BEST THING THAT HAS EVER BEEN EVER. We
taught them the Plan of Salvation, invited them to continue reading,
and set an appointment for Thursday. Honestly, the lessons are kind of
difficult because they just accept everything so readily and joyfully.
I just... it usually isn't that easy. Going back to how prepared they
are, the father had decided to stop drinking literally two days before
our first lesson because it had been hurting the family. (He's been
going strong since then.) How freaking rad is that?! I'm so excited
for this. Pray for them. (Emily and Branden.)

Keith passed his interview and is on his way to the waters of baptism
this Saturday! We are seeing miracles. We are seeing the Lord's hand
everywhere. Keith is awesome, excited, and I couldn't be prouder of
him. Pray for him, because Satan likes to screw things up at the last
minute. (Knock on wood.)

Real quick last funny thing: Yesterday's talks in sacrament meeting
were all by high priests, and there was one that went on a little
tangent. I can't exactly refer to it as "false," but it is definitely
speculative, and not super important to our everyday salvation. He was
talking about Kolob and its length of rotation around its star and how
that relates to the time periods involved in the creation and it was
kind of funny. Maybe it was good that the new investigators couldn't
make it that day...

That is all for now! I love you all, and I hope you're seeing God's
hand in your life, too. Keep on keeping on!

-Elder Burch π

"... So come on, Davy! Sing me something that I know!"

Wyoming East Zone

A humble supplication

 

Icicles

Karma & KJ

"Make me some ramen!"

Sunday selfie

What does that even mean?

"So, this is the New Year..."

Welcome to 2017, everyone!

This week had a few key events that were pretty sweet. Here we go.

So, first with Kieth. We had a lesson with him in Sister Blackburn's home. In the lesson, we laid footsteps on the floor, leading to a picture of Jesus Christ. We detailed the footsteps as the parts of the gospel of Jesus Christ: faith, repentance, baptism, receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. Kieth took the floor as he stood up and placed his foot on the first step. "Kieth, do you have faith?" And so forth. We discussed repentance and the steps to that, and then we got to the third step. "Kieth, this is an important step, but you can't step there yet. That step is baptism. We know that you have great faith, and you've made great effort in your life to repent and come closer to God, and so we invite you to be baptized by someone holding the priesthood authority of God. Will you prepare yourself to be baptized by the 14th of January?" Kieth accepted, and we started talking more about baptism. Kieth was struggling with the Word of Wisdom (not bad, just a coffee and a beer here or there), and we told him, "Kieth, following the Word of Wisdom is a requirement for baptism. And, per the standards of the mission, you need to be Word of Wisdom clean for a week before your interview (January 7th). That means that this goal that we've set of baptism for the 14th is attainable, but you have to be willing to commit today, right now. Kieth, will you give up coffee and alcohol today to prepare yourself to be baptized by our goal date?" Kieth was down for that. We put our hands together and gave a little cheer, and we reassured him that we are there to help him every step of the way in whatever way we can, not to condemn him if he messes up. We let him know that we know he can be ready by the 14th, but if he slips and we need to push it back, that it isn't the end of the world. We will keep working until we're golden. I'm so proud of and excited for Kieth and his desire to follow Jesus Christ! With faith, trust, and some divine help, I know that Kieth will be able to enter into the fold of our Father in no time, and he will be blessed in his life from having the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost. Send some prayers this way for Kieth!

The other night, we had an experience that bewildered me as much as any time before. The results are positive, though, so stay tuned. A woman named Jill was dressing the hair of Brother Thomas (something I will never have because of my ethnicity: sweet hair). We showed up, and a conversation about religion ensued (I mean, how could it not?) She expressed some of her beliefs (non-denominational Christian, at this time). Along the line, she mentioned, "And, I'm sorry, but I do not believe in the Book of Mormon." 

That's fine; I wouldn't expect you to, considering that you're not a member of the Church of Jesus-Christ of Latter-Day Saints. 

"Why is that?" I inquired. 

She looked at me with a wry smile and said, "Because I believe that anyone can paraphrase the Bible." 

Oh no, not one of these people. "And that's what you believe the Book of Mormon to be? A paraphrase of the Bible?"

"Yes, and that's why I don't read it," she said confidently.

"Have you ever read it?" I asked, trying my best to not let my eye-roll enter into my voice.

"No, I've talked with missionaries before and told them that I respect their faith and what they do, but I will not read the Book of Mormon."

Here we go. "If you've never read the Book of Mormon, how do you know it is a paraphrase of the Bible?"

"That's-"

I usually do my best to not talk over others, but I continued at this point. "How can you claim to know what is in the book if you've never bothered to crack the pages? You have to try the Kit-Kat before you decide that you don't like the Kit-Kat."

Long story shorter, she accepted a copy of the Book of Mormon and said she'd be down for Elder Ferrara and I to drop by and talk with her and her boyfriend. Score.

Cody is doing super well! He is on track to get the priesthood within the month, and he is doing so well at committing to follow the Word of Wisdom, even when his brother offers him a hit on a cigarette or something. I am super proud of Cody, and I am excited to see where he goes from here.

That's all I got for today, I think. Thank you all for your continued love, prayers, and support! Keep on rocking. 

Much love,

Elder Burch π

"And I don't feel any different..."

The Sheridan District

One of the best meals yet! Thank you, Divine family!

New Year's Eve

Snowing Selfie

Helping the Petersons move into their new house on the hill