“Does anything still move you since you’re educated now?”

Attention, everyone!

What a week. So much stuff, so little time. You know how it goes.

The week really began with us preparing to drive to Billings. See, when you’re a zone leader, the mission thinks that they need to keep close watch on you so that you don’t abuse the great cosmic power you have. So they send you on exchanges with the Assistants so they can monitor how corrupt you’ve become, and then they send you to the temple before you leave so you can have a nice dose of concentrated spirituality to humble you back to the dust. And so, we departed. We had to get dinner in Bozeman, the college town (that isn’t as charming as Missoula), on the way there. I’ve been dying for sushi, and after much coercion, I got Elder Lester to agree to go to Seven, one of the local sushi joints. It was disappointing. Not nearly good enough for how much it cost. But, it more or less quelled my craving for sushi, so we’re good now. For at least another month. Maybe. I really like squid. (See picture 1.) ((For further clarification, the first part of this paragraph was highly in jest. We don’t have any extra power or priesthoods from being Zone Leaders. (... Or do we? (See? I just can’t keep serious for too long!)) Okay, moving on!))

We completed our treacherous drive, and arrived in the assistant’s mansion-of-an-apartment. While on exchanges, which I was privileged to spend my exchange with Elder Tucker, the missionary with whom I spent a week and a half before I took over the Missoula 4th Ward, I took away a few things. First, it is okay to not have good days every day. Even assistants to the president have bad days where nothing happens. Second, you can always find a little more time to find. Just look for those little, awkward ten-minute gaps in your day and hit a door or three. Everything counts! Lastly, I am good at Bananagrams, but I’m going to have to work hard to be the best. And, I feel like Elder Peyton Jones will give me a run for my money. He would always win in Scrabble. (See pictures 2 and 3, even though neither of those people are Elder Tucker. I saw Elder Griffin again! That was cool. I love him!)

The temple was great! Not much more to say on that, I suppose.

After visiting with Elder Baird, our vehicle coordinator, and picking up some supplies, we started off on our return journey. We took the same route back as we did there, which means we went back through Bozeman. A thing to know about Elder Lester is that he loves Bozeman more than he loves breathing, and so I heard nothing but ecstatic cheers and praise of Bozeman, and subsequent downing on Missoula. I’ve learned to keep my mouth shut about Missoula here much of the time. It seems like half the time I exclaim, “I love Missoula! I was there for nine months!” I get this look like, “Oh, you’re one of them.” Anyway, we visited a burger truck (really more of a converted bus?) called Heap Burger, and that was a good experience. (See picture 4.) We also visited one of the recent converts that Elder Lester had taught, and that was a good time. On the way back from that, we were on the phone and missed the turnoff to Townsend to put us on the road back to Helena, and didn’t realize it until we got to Butte. I guess we took the scenic route. If you can consider Butte “scenic.”

Zone Conference was the next day. It was inspiring and everything, but the only thing I had in my mind was the last hour. We had gotten an email from HQ letting us know that the last hour of Zone Conference would be a Christ-centered talent show, and that “all musical instruments are allowed with the exception of drums.” Using my superior people skills, I had wrangled a bass guitar and an amp (from two different sources, I might add), and devised a few parts I could play for the song “I Feel My Savior’s Love” alongside a piano and the accompaniment of our zone’s voices. (For those who care, the three parts I used were 1. just the root chords played and held, 2. a near- mimic of the piano’s left hand part, and 3. a part that I wrote myself on the drive to Billings. The weird part was I wrote it without an instrument, so I was essentially imagining what it would sound like and hoping that what I wrote would go well with the printed piano part. It turned out pretty well with just a few adjustments after playing it through.) Turning on the amp and hearing the low E ring out was a good time. (See pictures 5-8. Please ignore the fake music language of Tab in which I wrote the parts.)

For the weekend, we had four other missionaries in our apartment. Not worth. Glad to be back to two.

We had interviews with our mission president. President Wadsworth is the best. 

Stake Conference was excellent! There were a few talks that really connected with me. Our Stake President said that he was going to talk about something, but that the adult session of conference the night before had changed his thoughts, and he talked on something totally different. He related to us how we are to love God first, then our spouse, and then ourselves and our neighbors. That resonated with something I’ve been finding, which is that this life is really all about being selfless. We find the most happiness that way. Conference was great.

Last story, for your enjoyment. After conference, one of the councilors in the stake presidency took much of the youth, the Sister missionaries, and us caroling at a care center. Care centers are so funny. If you’ve been following my adventures, you know that I’ve given service in quite a few care centers in the last seventeen months. Anyway, we are caroling, and we pass this old guy with a walker. “Hi!” I say. “Merry Christmas!” He gives a contemptible look and says, “[Crap]heads,” and keeps walking. I laughed. It was a good time.

Thanks for reading and supporting! You are cool. Yes, you are cool.

Rock and roll ~

-Elder Stephen Burch π


“Do you believe there’s still some magic left somewhere inside our souls?”

I feel like a Beatle. Your thoughts?