Thursday, June 28, 2012

June 25th, 2012

FAMILY!
...I love your emails. i'm always laughing and smiling when i read them but i'm also touched by the things you share with me. thank you! 

...my apartment is west of eastern street on warm springs, it's called avietta i think. it's 2121 warm springs. it's nice but we don't spend a ton of time there. Thank you for telling me more about the Las Vegas temple. I talked to someone here about it. The people here are very involved in missionary work and they use their temple a lot! the room was very full when we went. It is such a blessing to have the blessing of the temple. Sister Cedillo and i talked about the temple during companionship study. It is truly a sacred work that blesses the members. I think that the only way we can successfully "endure to the end" is by attending the temple. it prepares us for eternity!  The Celestial room in the temple here is gorgeous! they are all beautiful but i've never seen one like this one. i'm already excited to go back! Mom, thanks for the weather update for this week. i always wonder how missionaries know about the weather without the radio or TV but now i know: Their parents tell them! :) It is very hot but really not that bad at all. I've noticed that it makes us tired quicker but that people always offer to give us a bottle of water. The water here will give you kidney stones so we have to buy all of our water...


 We are doing an activity with our ward where we meet with each family to give them the lesson of the restoration then commit them to read the book of mormon as a family but highlight every reference to the savior. Then when they are done, they have a copy of the Book of Mormon ready to give to a friend and highlighted to show them that it IS another testament of Christ. Cool idea, right? that's sister cedillo for you. She is brilliant at creativity, using the members, and involving the investigators. I respect her a lot. She had to put a lot of work in to be on a mission.  ...I'm trying hard to keep a good journal. i write about half a page every morning. it is surprisingly hard to make the time but it's worth it. We had 3 investigators at church again but we had 8 commit to coming so we're a little bummed. Lupe and her husband antonio came. Her baptism is scheduled for july 14th but we are trying to teach them together so it might get moved back. we don't get the same enthusiasm from antonio but he is listening and he keeps his commitments so he's progressing. Gladys came as well. we think she might have a mental issue though so we don't know if we are able to teach her or not. Gilberto did not come. i was trying not to look back every 5 minutes in hopes that he had walked in late. That was disappointing. he cancelled his apt with us last week because he went out of town. maybe this week. We did get to teach Hector though. We focused on the gospel blessing families as we taught the restoation. He is praying about the first vision and president monson this week. it was a great lesson with the spirit there. Well, i love you all! thank you for your examples and keeping me updated on things there. It's so fun to hear the latest and greatest! i love you! Hurrah for israel!

Hermana Burrup


Dear President Neider,

It's been a great week. We've been focusing on finding more people to teach. We talk to everyone we can. Serving in Spanish can be a bit tricky. If they speak English we don't get to teach them so we try to specifically find Spanish speaking families. Something I've found though is that a lot of the people that i didn't think spoke Spanish actually do. by talking to everyone, doors open and we are able to find more people. Although it is much more rewarding to teach the people we find, my purpose doesn't say, "to invite others to come to Christ by only meeting with me and my companion." If it's a referral, i hope that it's a good one and i hope that they accept the message of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. We met a man named Alberto this week. He is one that didn't look like he knew Spanish. He was avoiding us. Come to find out that the only reason he was avoiding us was because he was scared we would try to talk to him in English. We talked a lot about families, testimony, and church attendance. We returned on Saturday to invite him to church again and his daughter asked us to leave and not come back. it was abrupt, surprising, and disappointing. As a new missionary in the field, that was my first experience like that. I was excited to talk more with Alberto and i honestly believe he wanted to talk to us. It makes me want to speak with boldness of testimony in even my street contacts because it may be my only chance to share with them. Also, While watching the PMG DVDs, President Holland emphasized that the people we teach are not just baptismal statistics but children of God. I want to maintain that perspective and let it change my attitude as well as the way that i teach. It is a great blessing to be a missionary, President. i'm still enthusiastic and excited to see progress in investigators, yes, but also in my ability to teach by the spirit. I look to your example and thank God often for you and wife. May God bless the Nevada Las Vegas mission! Hoorah for Israel!

Sister Burrup

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