Thursday, December 19, 2013

December's emails so far....


12-16-13

Hey ya'll!

So this week wasn't very eventful at all. The only exciting thing that happened, was that Sister Cady's parents got Chelsea and Jody scriptures for Christmas. They LOVED it. They were overjoyed. It was so awesome to see their faces and that they have their own scriptures now! We joke with them that they are "real Mormons" now.  We had a mission Christmas meeting this week and it was so much fun! We had to do a skit and we did ours and we got the only standing ovation. Ours was super awesome, legit and hilarious if I do say so myself.  So it was really fun. 




Sister Cady was sick again this week so we didn't do much teaching, but we still had a good week! Jody got the preisthood this Sunday and Chelsea got a calling as Young Womens 2nd counselor! She was soo happy to have a calling! They are seriously so great!

We had my Mission President and his wife, President and Sister Irion come to our church yesterday and it was just a great day yesterday!
Literally that is all that happened. Not much, it's still good and I'm still growing lots. Like I said before, I'm just trying to grow in my capabilities. I know as I realize my strengths, and weaknesses, and gifts, I will be able to be the missionary I'm supposed to be and the missionary the Lord wants me to be.

Anyways, I love ya'll so much! Can't wait to skype you! have a great week! Talk to you next week!

Love always,
Sister Burr.


12-9-13

How are ya'll doing? I miss ya'll so much! I can't even tell you!

I got the letter today with the boys' letters. I loved them so much! It made me miss them even more! They are so cute! and I love beetee, she's the cutest.

I got a package from Brandee and Dave, well from Darren actually. It was my Christmas present! I haven't opened it yet! Waiting until Christmas! haha Tell Darren I said thank you so much! But I'll write him a letter too.

This week was a great success! Chelsea and Jody got baptized!! It was the best baptism I've ever been to! The spirit was almost comparable to the temple spirit. It was powerful.  We had Chelsea's parents, grandparents and family friend. There were lots of members and non-members at the baptism! We had Jay Osborne baptize them and he was baptized in August! He was on fire and performed so well! He had to dunk Chelsea 3 times but did Jody flawless! He wasn't disappointed at all and he just knew that baptizing was such an honor and did his best! Me, Sister Cady and the Harlan Elders sang How Great Thou Art in all different parts. It was SO powerful! the spirit was speaking to all, especially Jody. He really felt the spirit and knew that this was right for him. It was an incredible experience. :) 



We also met with Mary, who we haven't seen for a while, and we taught the Plan of Salvation. She loved it and ate it right up.  We are going to teach her the rest of the POS and commit her for baptism. I know I say that every week, but I really feel like it's gonna happen this next week :)

We also sang at a baptist funeral. It was interesting. I've never experienced what they call here, "speaking in tongues". When a man was speaking, he started singing a baptist song, and this woman started LITERALLY screaming and wailing, at the top of her lungs saying, "OH JESUS, PRAISE THE LORD, OOOOOOHHHH WHY!! WHY! DEAR LORD JESUS TAKE ME INSTEAD, OOOHHH NOO, NO LORD JESUS, FATHER OH FATHER, JESUS, LORD OOOOHHH, AHHH!"
I literally thought the woman that had died was coming out of her coffin. It scared me to DEATH. Sister Cady said my face went WHITE. It was definitely an experience :)  We sang 8 songs at the funeral, all a capella, it was good, we messed up a couple times, but we stood strong! I've gotten a lot more confidence in my singing voice and am now pretty strong at just singing by myself with no piano or nothing. We sing to people A LOT!

Me and Sister Cady are doing so great! She has taught me a lot about being myself, opening my mouth, learning how to love others more fully and being selfless! She has all of these qualities.  She's just a big ray of sunshine :) I love her so much! We are still working on teaching in unity.  We are growing and progressing together very well.
As for me, I'm doing well.  Still just working through trying to find my strengths and use them in my teaching and bettering myself.  It's amazing what you can do if you just trust in the Lord. I've found a greater strength within myself to do what the Lord wants done.  I love it so much!  The real message of Christmas is the pure love of Christ, His infinite sacrifice, His eternal love for us, and the great message of humility, selflessness, courage, and submissive love. These are qualities I wish to strengthen in myself.  We are so blessed here, me and Sis. Cady.  The Lord has a plan for us in this area, and I hope we can follow His plan with all that we have.

Anyways, It was a great week! haha. I miss ya'll so much though. and I love you guys more than you know! I hope ya'll have a great week! love ya'll to death!

Love always,
Sister Burr

12-2-13

Hey ya'll! Awww those pictures seriously make me miss ya'll so much!! I can't even tell you how much I miss you guys!! It kills me! It doesn't help around the holidays! But I'll be okay. Now I really wish I quit my job last year so I didn't have to miss last Christmas with you guys! So that is 3 Christmas' I won't spend with you guys. ahh, so sad. But don't worry, i'm doing fine out here! I LOVE all those pictures :) they are so cute!

I don't know when I'll be on 60 minutes. Just keep a look out, maybe google it? haha i don't know. Norton, VA food bank? Something like that.

Thanksgiving was good, we spent it at the Bishop's house. There was us, the Miners (senior missionary couple) and another recent convert. It was good food and good time. Then we went black friday shopping after! It was crazy!! I got some footie pajamas! They are so cute, red with cheetah hearts! i've come to find that I really love cheetah. haha. We got those really nice, expensive pillows that are like $30 for $4! and we got some other stuff. I have ya'll's Christmas presents, so I'll be sending those soon :) Can't open them until Christmas!

Well it finally snowed here! and it's really cold! but the snow actually melted away and it's just cold here. It's like in the 30's about. sometimes 40's.

Well this week was great! We had the best lesson with Chelsea and Jody last Monday. It was probably the best lesson I have done thus far on my mission. It was so powerful. We had members there, one who had been baptized in August, and he basically taught half the lesson. His testimony was so strong, this is James, and he is actually going to baptize both Chelsea and Jody! We are so excited! We just had Chelsea's interview this morning and it went very well. She is all set. Jody's interview is tomorrow with Elder Waring. We met with them last night and they both got answers from church, they both came with a question to church, and Jody's testimony has strengthened and he now believes more fully in this gospel and isn't struggling or fighting it anymore. We told him he didn't have to know that these things were true, just that he believed if they were true. They are going strong towards baptism! They are getting baptized this next Saturday! There will be pictures next monday! We are so excited for them! They are both so great! We also just working with less actives and with our other investigator, Mary. We are seeing her tomorrow and we hope to commit her for baptism.

Me and Sister Cady are doing just a great as ever. Last Sunday we had a really good talk about just trying to figure out who we are. She has helped me realize a lot about myself. I think the world of her. She is such a great missionary. She really is exemplar. She teaches with sincerity, love, compassion, boldness and with the spirit. She is one of the best people I've ever met in my life. I know I can't and won't teach like her, but I can see how she does things and try to do them my own way, how the Lord wants me to do it.

I'm getting better at this. I think the thing I have learned this week is to follow each and every prompting I get. To just open my mouth and let the spirit fill my mouth.  I still struggle, because I feel like I get stuck and don't know what to say or what's coming out of my mouth. I'm learning how to just do it. Just trust in the Lord. I'm trying my best. Sometimes I don't feel like i'm trying my hardest, but I am working so hard. Because I want to get there more than anything. I want to touch people's hearts so that they can know the truth of this gospel, the joy and happiness it brings to the lives of everyone apart of this church. Satan really works on me every hour. It's a constant battle I feel that I am fighting, but I'm not going to let it get me down. I care way too much about my Investigators, and the ward members. I want to bring my all, and I'm not exactly sure how to do that fully yet. I want to so bad. and I feel like i just have to do it. So that is my goal this week. To give all I have, to learn how to teach more fully with the spirit and listen to Heavenly Father's promptings. Because this is His work. I know I can do great, hard things.

I'm just trying to do my best! and I know that is all the Lord asks of me. It's a slow progression, but it enables me to grow and learn the things I need to gain here.
I miss ya'll so much. I can't even tell you. I miss sweet beetee, dorky nyborg, fun, sweet trenters, and sweet cute little catsu :) haha. and I miss you mommy. SOO MUCH. But i've been our 3 1/2 months now! isn't that crazy? Jeez. it's really flying by. I am loving it! i am just learning still. It's hard but completely worth every second. I love ya'll so much. more than anything! I miss ya'll even more! I hope ya'll have a good week! i pray for ya'll every night! ya'll are always in my heart!
I love ya'll so much!
Love always,
Sister Burr :)

Sunday, December 1, 2013

11/25/13


We had a great week! We saw Chelsea and Jody on Monday and Thursday.  We had a very powerful lesson with them on Thursday about recognizing the spirit and recognizing how the spirit answers us.  And they both came to church yesterday and we asked him to come to church with a question and reaffirmed him that he would receive an answer.  He did! he says that he sort of received an answer, but we we're like, "No! You so did!" He has come a long way and we told him he won't have a perfect knowledge of everything, he doesn't have to, all it takes is faith. He is progressing well. Chelsea would run to the waters of baptism if she could tomorrow! She is so great!

We have lots of other investigators progressing, Noah, Mary, Debbie and Hunte (they actually live in Kingsport but Irvan is Debbie's father-in-law, who is in the bishopric in my ward, and they have been coming to church up here). We had a very intensely powerful lesson with them after church yesterday about the Plan of Salvation.  It was a very simple, yet powerful lesson.  The spirit touched everyone in the room SO much! It was great! We plan to meet with Mary this next week and commit her for baptism. Debbie and Hunter were committed for baptism by the Kingsport Sisters so they are progressing well!

As far as Joe, he has been out of town for 2 weeks now in Atlanta, and we aren't sure when he's getting back but he should be back within this next week.  We are going to set a new date for him and help him with the Word of Wisdom.

Me and Sister Cady are doing great.  We did weekly planning and we had a good companionship inventory.  We were able to talk about how we can strengthen our teaching with unity and power of the spirit and teaching by the spirit.

I know I've come a very long way from when I got here, I've got lots more growing to do.  This week I was able to realize that I'm just teaching the same way to everyone.  I'm not teaching people instead of lessons.  If I want the spirit to be in my lessons and be led by the spirit, I can't just throw the lessons in their face.  I need to teach them, and their personal needs and concerns. Even though it still scares me to teach, I need to be thinking about my investigators, how I can help them, and the way I teach them, instead of just shoving doctrine down their throats. 

I can't even explain to you how glad I am that I came on a mission. I've grown in ways that I didn't know I needed to grow.  There isn't any other way I would have it. I love being in this mission, with all of these wonderful missionaries that are such unreal examples to me.

Umm other random things..We went jogging in a graveyard, we went to a baptism in Harlan, KY (they haven't baptized for a while so it was great! one of the most powerful baptisms I've ever been to!) So other than that...nothing else has happened.  It's getting freezing here!! Yesterday was sooo cold! and with humidity...it's like 4x colder.

We are going over to the bishop's house and 2 other houses for Thanksgiving...pretty sure I will gain like 17 lbs. No big deal or anything.

This week I received a letter from Dad's ward, and all the Young Men and Young Women wrote me their testimonies. It made me cry so much!

Mom if you could just forward the following to Sister Terry so she can read it off to the young women in church or something like that:

Sister Terry and young women and young men,
Thank you SO much for your testimonies and your signatures and that picture!!! It made me cry so bad! I LOVED it :) Thank you so much for all of your uplifting words. You ALL are SO much more prepared than I ever was to go on this mission. You all have such strong testimonies which is so inspiring to me.  Thank you for your words of love, joy and words that come from God.  I'm not kidding when I say I believe, no, I KNOW, that every single young women needs to go on a mission.  Young Women, If you are having thoughts about preparing for a mission, DO IT!! GO. I know from your testimonies that you would make such great missionaries. You faith and diligence in God is just remarkable.  Being on a mission is hard. I've learned so much about this church, Jesus Christ and about myself more than I ever have in my life.  I know with every thing I have in my soul that this church is true. Going on a mission is hard, but that's with everything that is worth anything. I didn't say it'd be easy, but i can tell you with 140%, that it is completely worth it. I've learned so much about love, self confidence, self-respect, trusting in our Savior, Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father. I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God and that it is another testament of Jesus Christ.  I know that the Lord is hastening his work, that is why the age changed. All Young men AND young women need to go on missions. That is my testimony.  This is the greatest thing I have ever done in my life so far.  The only time that it talks about happiness in the bible is John 13:17. This is when Jesus Christ is washing the feet of his disciples and it says, happy are ye if ye do them.
"If we have desires to serve God, ye are called to the work."
D&C 4
If we serve God and others, that is when we are really happy. I've never been happier in my life than I have being on a mission. PLEASE. GO. PREPARE. :) I know ALL of you can do it. It doesn't matter what you've done in your life, you can be forgiven of ALL your sins, you can be endowed with power on high from the Holy Ghost and you are able to have eternal life.
I love you all SO much. Thank you for your testimonies and faith. You guys are the rising generation and I know that you have so much power and would make excellent missionaries. all of you. :) I love you all and don't think that I have forgotten about you guys! You guys are in my prayers daily! Don't let your testimony waiver. All you gotta do is the simple things. Read. Pray. Church. Primary answers right?? Exactly. That is all that there is to it. But do it with a sincere heart, and God will answer EVERY question, doubt, fear you have. I love you all! Thank you for your diligence and prayers :)
Love always,
Sister Burr.

Thanks mom :) you can put what I said to Sister Terry on the blog too. Whatever works.
I love you and miss you SO much! I hope you guys have a great week!
Love always,
Sister Burr.