"When the change was made up town and the Big Man joined the band..."

Citizens,

        The weeks seem more and more to just fly by. I need to keep a better
journal, and by that I mean that I need to start writing a journal at
all. I really should, considering how easy I have it in this iPad
mission and all. I will start doing that more.

        So, I may be the worst person that has ever lived. I lose everything.
If it isn't attached to me, or can be detached somehow, I will lose
it. Yes, the car keys got lost, and yes, they were in a fairly obvious
place that I wasn't able to find for at least four hours. What an
efficient use of time! Elder Campbell now holds most of the valuables
most of the time.

        The other night, we were walking around 8:30, and I had a strong
prompting to knock on a door. The prompting was so strong, in fact,
that I just kind of froze in my boots and stared at the door for a
while before Elder Campbell asked what was up. We knocked, and now we
have a potential investigator! We will be returning tomorrow,
probably. Here's to hoping that they are looking for something better
and that this can be the answer!

        Meagan and Branden are looking to get married, which made teaching
the Law of Chastity lesson so much easier. They're in Minnesota right
now, but should be back before too long. They are awesome, and we are
excited for them. Next up is the Word of Wisdom lesson, and putting
them on date for baptism! Pray for our efforts there.

        Saturday, we hit the pavement. At our zone training on Friday, much
was said on the topic of finding, and developing the faith to find.
So, we put the teachings into practice and spent almost the entire day
on Saturday tracting out the town. We cleared two trailer parks and
some houses in between. Nothing obvious directly came of it, but the
Lord will bless us as we work and exercise our faith. We receive a
witness after the trail of our faith. (Ether 12:6)

        That is all for now. Elder Campbell's humor is dry and I love it. We
get along well.

        Rock and roll~

-Elder Burch π

        "... from the coastline to the city, all the little pretties raise
their hands..."

Ice Sword

Scary...

I'll be in Bub's Fallout Shelter if you need anything.

Holy Juxtaposition

I'm a cowboy. Am I cool now?

Wyoming East Zone

"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?

"It was one hundred degrees as we sat beneath a willow tree..."

Hello again, and welcome to another exciting installment of The Many
Adventures of Elder Burch!

  We'll get right into the nitty-gritty. Like I've said before, these
wards have a very large amount of less active and part member
families. Due to that, and the fact that few people we meet have
accepted to hear our message, we spend a lot of time on reactivation.

  Specifically this week, we met with a less active named Frank. Frank
thinks a lot - he's well educated and analytical (he was the librarian
for the high school here for years). As we've met with him these
couple times, we've come to know of his incredible factual knowledge
of the scriptures and of other things.
  Well, as we were preparing to visit him one morning, I asked Elder
Berrett what exactly were Frank's needs, and how we can help him.
Elder Berrett told me that a major thing, he thought, was that Frank
just didn't have a testimony, and needed to come to church. Well, me
being the new missionary that I am said, "Let's read with him from the
Book of Mormon, testify of Moroni's promise, and ask him to pray to
ask if it is true, right there." And so, that's what we did.
  After reading aloud in a circle 3rd Nephi 11, which describes the
visit of the Savior to the Nephites, Elder Berrett extended the
invitation. "Frank, will you, right now, pray to God and ask him if
the Book of Mormon is true?" With some hesitation, Frank agreed and
offered what seemed to be a sincere, searching prayer. After the amen,
and the silence that followed, Frank opened up to us. I firmly believe
that the Spirit that was present because of the prayer and the
question was the catalyst. Frank described to us how he knows that it
is true, and wants to follow it, but finds himself unable to bring
himself to do it.
  After we listened to him, I offered, "Frank, we all feel that way.
We do stupid things and wonder why we did that again and then commit
to not do it again, and then we do it again and we think 'well, crap; I
did it again.' But we can overcome. With Christ's help, relying on Him
and His Word and His Grace, doing all we can, He will help us. We'd
like to invite you to take the first step on the path back to Christ.
Frank, will you come to church this Sunday?" And, he accepted.
  After a reminder Saturday evening and fretting the minutes before
church wondering if he'd come, we saw him walk in just a minute late,
and waved over to him to sit with us. And so, for the first time in
thirty years, Frank participated in three hours of church and partook
of the Lord's sacrament.
  Sometimes, we need to be bold, and trust that the Lord will put
power behind our words. After all, as missionaries, we are called of
God to represent Jesus Christ - we represent the Savior! He will give
us power in our words if we say them by the Spirit.

  On Saturday, Elder Berrett and I got a call that the Sister
Missionaries in Worland had an investigator ready for a baptismal
interview. Elder Berrett being the district leader and the one to
handle such a thing, we loaded up the car, turned on a talk from a
General Authority, and proceeded to head out there. After the
interview, it was determined that the baptism would have to be
postponed from next Saturday to an indefinite date, because the young
mother needed to head to Chicago to deal with a family problem. This
investigator, years before, had a similar thing happen, and the
baptism never took place. With that in mind, combined with the
knowledge that the Holy Ghost would be a powerful tool for the
investigator during this time of trial, combined with the fact that
the font was being filled as we spoke for another baptism that day,
the Sisters invited her to be baptized right there. After a Priesthood
blessing and some thought, it was agreed. And so, an hour and a half
later, Elder Berrett baptized this woman into the Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints.

  The lesson I'm finding here is that the Lord's timing is beyond our
capability to realize or understand. Sometimes He has us wait because
we need to be patient or someone needs to be prepared, and sometimes
He lets our efforts seem to be fruitless until some time down the
line, perhaps a time we will never see ourselves. But no matter what
He does, whether it is trying our patience or having us drastically
switch plans to perform a baptism right there, it is right. God knows
what's up. We are the tools in His hands to bring to pass His Work.
His Work, not ours.
  "How long can rolling waters remain impure? What power shall stay
the heavens? As well might man stretch forth his puny arm to stop the
Missouri river in its decreed course, or to turn it up stream, as to
hinder the Almighty from pouring down knowledge from heaven..." -D&C
121:33

  I have been blessed to see a fruit of my labor, and the labor of my
companion, and the power of the Holy Ghost when we have listened to
the promptings of God. It is my invitation that we can all listen for
God's council, and then act on it. If we do not act on promptings from
the Holy Spirit, we will stop receiving them. Why would a member of
the Godhead waste their time trying to speak to someone who time and
time again doesn't act on what they receive? On the other hand, if we
do follow the guidance that we receive, we will be led to do great
works, and do things that we wouldn't be able to do ourselves. We will
be led to glorify God, and we will find happiness for ourselves and
for those we serve. That is my testimony which I give in the name of
Jesus Christ, amen.

  Thank you for reading all of that. I hope you're all doing well!
Keep being awesome, all of you. I love you.

  Rock and roll ~

-Elder Burch π

  P.S. I love sending and receiving physical letters just as much or
more than I love sending emails! If you want me to send you a letter,
send me your address. I promise that I will send you at least one
letter. Thanks!

  P.P.S. All of your emails and letters are a great encouragement.
Thank you all so much for your kind thoughts and words.

"... I'm a war of head versus heart, and it's always this way ..."

The high school in Worland has the Warrior as their mascot.
I feel obligated to support their sports teams.

Elder Berrett and the newest member of the
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Nothing but the best for the Primary kids.

Beautiful, ain't it? Someone should take a picture.

Lunch!