“But come July, we’ll ride the ferris wheel...”

Preparation day in Havre:

“Hey, what do you wanna do today Elder?”

“... What even is in Havre?”

It’s good, though. Nice to not have the stress of having to be super fast at doing stuff so you can meet up at the church. Sometimes I miss people, though. Only sometimes.

This week had some highs and lows. Let me lay it out for you:

Monday, we packed our things and headed up to Great Falls where we got Jimmy Johns (love Jimmy Johns) and then loaded up with our zone leaders for a trek down to Helena. It was in Helena that we stayed with many other missionaries until the next morning, where we loaded up again and began the trek down to the my old stomping grounds, the zoo that is Missoula, Montana. There, at the stake center at 3201 Bancroft Street, we met with missionaries from the western half of the mission, including the Kalispell, Missoula, Stevensville, Helena, Butte, Great Falls, and Great Falls East Zones. I know significantly less missionaries than I should at this point, because they’re all so young, but there were still a good amount of people I was thrilled to see, including past companions Elder Brown, Elder Ferrara, and Elder Ray. This was the last zone conference with President and Sister Wadsworth, and it was harder than I was thinking it was going to be. After some addresses from the Wadsworths, we had lunch, and then we all lined up in a circle around the chapel and, one by one, hugged President and Sister Wadsworth. As President came in for a hug with me, I muttered out a wholly inadequate “Thank you,” and he says, “Hey, Elder Burch. Rock and roll.” At that point, the breaking of my heart was complete. 

See, there is something to know about mission presidents. Bill Carpenter once described it like this: It must be a requirement to be a mission president to have gargantuan hands with which to shake your hand, but the only thing bigger than a mission president’s hands is his heart. Of all the teachings of President Wadsworth, of all the good times and leadership meetings and interviews, the one thing that I will remember above all is that he loved me in an incomprehensible way every single day. The love, trust, and expectation I received from President Wadsworth made me have trust in myself, a grander vision of what I can achieve, and a knowledge that, no matter what, I was loved and supported. You know, we find types of Christ everywhere in the gospel, and I think it isn’t too far too say that I felt a type of Christ’s love for me in the love demonstrated to me by President and Sister Wadsworth. It is inadequate to say that I will miss the experience of them being my mission leaders, but I know that they will always love me and technology makes this world so small, so I know we’ll keep in touch. And so, here is to the adventure! “The future is as bright as your faith.” - President Thomas S. Monson

Some takeaways from the final addresses of President and Sister Wadsworth:

President Wadsworth’s Six Lessons He Has Learned

1. “The worth of souls is great in the sight of God.”

2. We all live below our capacity.

3. When swimming in the pool of life, we sometimes have to deal with a ‘code brown.’

4. In overcoming obstacles and trials, effort will always triumph over talent.

5. Spiritual immersion is as important to our eternal lives as oxygen is to the SCUBA diver.

6. Satan is tenacious, but Christ is all powerful and will triumph.

President Wadsworth’s favorite scripture is John 7:17. “If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself.”

“You may feel lost, and you may even get lost, but you will never be lost to God.” -President Wadsworth

The big takeaway I had from Sister Wadsworth’s discussion was to always be ready and willing to follow a call from God. No hesitation, no thinking twice, just do it. When the Spirit calls or when someone with keys tells you that God has a work for you to do, leave your nets and do it. 

___________________________________________________

After zone conference, we headed back to Great Falls, where we spent the night with our zone leaders, Elder Donaldson and Elder Peterson. I love those two. They’re great examples of zone leaders and I am glad to have them. I feel their love and their support. It’s rad to have rockin’ leaders.

This is, unfortunately, where things began to go south. 

Elder Taylor began to get sick Wednesday, and that sickness hit its apex (it seemed) on Saturday. Well, Sunday is when I started to feel sick, and this morning I woke up with nothing short of a gnarly sore throat. Sickness is the bane of work, but we were still able to make some good visits, including going to the Rocky Boy Reservation to do some work, and we ended up with two new investigators. 

Sunday, Brother Brown took us to church at the Malta branch. He is a high councilor, and visits there once a month. The Malta branch is a wonderful group of saints. I felt welcomed, they let me bear a testimony, and they held potluck afterwards. Glory be to God for the wonderful saints that do so much for us missionaries. 

I think that is about all. We will still have to figure out what today holds for us, but I guess that is all part of the fun. Thank you all or reading. Thank you for your love and support. As always, rock and roll ~

-Elder Stephen Burch π

“... Go ‘round and ‘round and ‘round. If you never let me go, I will never let you down...”

Both almost made the cut as a profile picture

Last zone conference with President & Sister Wadsworth

Reunited with Sister Miner

Humor (hopefully not true)

Elder Taylor and I at the Malta Branch

At the Call Family's home for dinner

“These nights are still ours...”

Transfers, oh transfers. 

Transfers were long. I got to see a lot of people I love though, which was cool. We spent the night with Elder Elison, Elder Carter and Elder Wilcox. Good times. Saw many many people I love on the way to Great Falls. In Great Falls, we got to go on a five-hour split with the zone leaders there, so I got to spend most of the day with Elder Peterson. We did mostly finding (because everything fell through!) and had Jimmy Johns. Some solid contacts, gave out two copies of the Book of Mormon, and made one return appointment. I love Elder Peterson. He’s a good guy.

Elder Taylor is a good man. He’s from North Carolina, and his family has done/does shrimping. Like, Bubba Gump shrimp IRL. Well played. We’ve been working mostly on finding. The teaching pool needs a little bit of TLC, and we are eager to give it what it needs. We have been trying to talk with everyone we see as much as we can with the rain that we have been getting, and have seen some cool things. Nothing huge yet, but it will happen. 

We are headed to Helena tonight, and on to Missoula Zone Conference tomorrow. We will see how that goes...

Until next week! Onward and upward. Rock and roll! ~

-Elder Stephen Burch π

Cody Wyoming District, minus Elder Carter

Amber and I

With Sister Miller and Elder Maynard

Elder Ash and I

Elder Taylor and I

Big Sky Country, Big Sky Construction Vehicles

“...I will follow you into the dark.”

You only get five more weekly emails from me after this point. That’s kinda sad, don’t you think? The last one will probably hardly be an email at all, just pictures commemorating all the time in glorious Montana and Wyoming. Oh, yeah, transfers. You probably want to know about that.

I won’t tell you.

Just kidding. I can’t not give you my address. I like mail too much. The assistants to the president called Sunday morning to give us all the inside scoop on who is going where and with whom they are going to be. Elder Ash will be taking my spot as Zone Leader here in the great land of Powell, Wyoming. I’m going to miss this place. There are a lot of people here who have made a major impact on me, for which I will be eternally grateful. Also, Elder Craig has been a great companion, and I am grateful for the things he has taught me, specifically involving how to talk with people more, and more effectively. So, thank you Elder Craig for this transfer. Enjoy the next one with my old counterpart, the Ashman. 

My new address will be:
820 4th Street #405 
Havre, MT 59501

Don’t know where Havre is? Don’t worry; most people don’t. It’s about two hours northeast of Great Falls. I will not, however, be in the same zone as I was when I was in Great Falls. I’ll actually be in the Great Falls East Zone. Technicalities. And, chances are I’ll only see the light (?) of the city of Great Falls maybe twice in my whole stay there. When you get banished on the mission, you are super banished.

But I’m not banished without good company! Or, I don’t think so. My new companion will be Elder Taylor from North Carolina. He hasn’t been out too long and seems like a really swell person from what I have been told. Here’s to the adventure!
_______

This week was quite good. On Tuesday, it was a nice, warm day, so we elected to have our companionship study at a park in town. After doing companionship study, and Elder Craig helping me to learn how to better help other missionaries that might be struggling, we felt like we should hang out at the park for a little bit. So, we started kicking around a soccer ball, and talked to a few people that walked by here and there, but not much. Before too long, this eighteen year old boy joins us and starts kicking the ball around. We get to talking, and it turns out that he actually grew up in a member home, not been baptized, but things went sour there and he ended up here in Powell. He still holds many of the same morals, and has a belief in God and said he’d like to learn more! We invited him to the Ultimate Frisbee activity with the YSA and Elders Quorums, and he came! Looking forward to more from that. 

Miracle 2: We were pulling into the church to have a new-member lesson with Kaili Sondrup, the YSA (well, not anymore - marriage) member that was baptized my first week in Powell. As we pull up, we notice this girl sitting in one of the trees on the church yard, and she looks like she was having not a great day. As we sit down with Kaili for the lesson, the girl in the tree came to mind again, so we asked Kaili if she could go see if the girl was okay. Kaili, being the most friendly and excited person I have ever met (there is no exaggeration there) leaves, and twenty minutes later comes back with this girl in tow. We visit with her, and end up teaching the first discussion to her! She is young women’s age, and her name is Sonya. After the lesson, she expressed that it made her feel better, and she took a Book of Mormon, a Restoration pamphlet, and a For The Strength Of Youth. Later that night, she made a post on Facebook (picture below) that made us so excited! Sonya is awesome. Kaili has been wonderful at being a fellowshipper, and helped her get to both a YSA activity (even though Sonya is a little young for the YSA) and to church for 2nd Ward. There, Kaili and her husband Logan gave talks, and after sacrament, the Young Women welcomed Sonya right in. I’m sure it was a little overwhelming (Mormons can do that sometimes), but she said that she felt good. I’m so excited for Sonya and to see where she goes! 

Last miracle: Cancelled lessons lead to finding two new investigators. How about that? We talked with a really nice lady, then met a Seventh Day Adventist that shared with us some of her faith building experiences and invited us back to teach her, and then met a nice YSA aged gentleman that was excited to go to family home evening with the YSA. Here’s to hoping!

This all reminds me of the scripture in Moroni Chapter 7, verses 35 and 37, which read:

“... Has the day of miracles ceased? ... Behold I say unto you, Nay; for it is by faith that miracles are wrought; and it is by faith that angels appear and minister unto men; wherefore, if these things have ceased wo be unto the children of men, for it is because of unbelief, and all is vain.”

Today is a day of miracles. Or, it can be if we have faith. If you don’t see miracles in your life, I would exhort you to turn to God and spend a little more time doing the things that He has asked of us. Doing so will increase our faith, and faith is the means by which God can work miracles among the children of men. 

Thank you for all you guys have done in supporting me on the mission and helping me to do my best. Hurrah for Israel!

Oh, and rock and roll ~

-Elder Stephen Burch π

My New Area

Determined bike thieves are determined

Sonya’s Facebook post

“I don’t know about you, but I’m feeling 22...”

This week was easily one of the busiest of weeks, at least since the last two weeks of my ninth transfer. But, that doesn’t mean it was bad. To the contrary, there were plentiful wonderful experiences about which I will now tell you.

On Tuesday, Elder Craig and I packed up the Frontier and headed up the road to the mission headquarters in Billings, Montana. We pulled into the biggest city in the mission (still not even half of Mesa), and ventured up to the temple off of Rimrock Road. There, we met with President Wadsworth and the rest of the MLC (zone leaders, sister training leaders, and the assistants). Going through the temple with the entirety of the MLC, including many past companions and many more dear friends, is easily one of the best experiences I have ever had. Seeing everyone in white, and knowing that, despite anything, we all had our sights on the Father and the Son, was powerful. I happened to be the final missionary to finish the session, and walking into the Celestial Room to see all the people that I have come to love so much was a powerful and glorious experience.

10/10, would do it again.

 Wednesday was MLC in Billings (which featured Jimmy Johns instead of Pizza Hut for lunch, thank heavens ), and it was one of the better ones, I think. Things are coming down to the wire. President and Sister Wadsworth will conclude their missions at the end of this month, and President and Sister Larson of Queen Creek, Arizona will come to lead the Montana Billings Mission. Anyway, one of the things we discussed as an MLC was what our goal for convert baptisms as a mission would be for the month of June. After prayer and pondering, people began to offer their feelings. 

I’m normally reverent, I swear.

After some numbers tossed around, “Twenty five,” and “nineteen,” and “twenty three,” and more, someone asked President, the key holder for the mission, what impressions came to him. He looked up and offered, “The number that came to me was twenty two.” There was a short time of silence, which was concluded by me announcing to the MLC and motioning to President Wadsworth, “I don’t know about you, but he’s feeling 22.”

Like I said, normally reverent.

Maybe that isn’t true. Last MLC, I made reference to Star Trek. *shrug* Happens.

After MLC, we drove back, a new dresser for our apartment in tow. But that wasn’t the end of our driving for the week.

Thursday we packed up and headed over to Byron to conduct a baptismal interview there, and then took off from there and went south to Worland, where we conducted another baptismal interview. The candidate for baptism is a native Spanish speaker, and so, despite five or more years of Spanish class in the public education system, I had Elder Loran with me to translate. I did get to add in a few phrases of my own, probably highly butchered (“¿Podemos hacer un oracion final?”), and it went well. And then we packed up and came back home.

Friday was in our area. Good times. Lessons and all.

Saturday we gave some service at the community garden before cleaning up and going back to Worland for the baptismal service. It was one of the coolest ones I’ve ever been to. The woman being baptized spoke only marginal English, with Spanish being her first language. The majority of the baptismal service, including the songs, were in Spanish. The Spirit was very strong, even though I understood about half of what was said, at most.

I will close this email with a short testimony. I testify that the priesthood authority has been restored to the earth through the Prophet Joseph Smith, and that because of it we have access to the ordinances of the gospel with which God seeks to bless us. The gospel is all about love, progression, and service. We gain access to all that God has for us when we follow the path He has shown. More happiness than we have ever experienced awaits us as we labor in the Lord’s vineyard.

Keep the faith. Rock and roll ~

-Elder Stephen Burch π

At the baptism, JJ thought we
were the coolest. Happens.

MLC

Billings, MT Temple

Dinner after the temple, feat.
Elders Craig, Madden, Wheeler, Donaldson,
Wadsworth, Wright, Peterson, and Burch

Bro. Cheatham and I

Airplanes in Greybull 

Shell Falls, WY