Aug 26

My dear dear family,

Sounds like it was an exciting week at home. I loved receiving pictures and good news from you.  I feel lifted up by your words and prayers and i feel motivated to keep working and work harder when i know that there are so many praying that i will and needing me to give my all. So we keep keep going. I have come to love this area as well. It is small but the members are good and want to work. We have a new Ward mission leader. He is new in the Ward and actually is just reactivating. He is enthusiastic about the calling and has good ideas to help us. We are kind of in training mode right now to help him understand the organization of the church and his role. His name is Hermano Pulido. We are still working with Frankie and have a lesson tonight with him. He is pretty hung up on the idea of Joseph smith but a member has invited him to watch the video with their family tonight. We are sure it will help him and motivate him to have the courage to pray and read. I mentioned the husband of an investigator in my email to president but i wanted to tell you the story. He is a new investigator this week. Maybe a month ago we received a referral for Evelyn, john's wife. She lives kind of far away so we called. She didn't want anything. We called  another week later and still didn't want anything and made it a little more obvious so we asked if we could just drop off a booklet with her. She agreed. We went and asked if we could come in an explain the booklet to her. She reluctantly agreed because her 3 year old daughter was inviting us in already. We taught her our primary message, the restoration and she still was closed but as we were leaving her husband came in and kindly said they weren't very interested but we were always welcome in their home. Together sister Jeronimo and I decided that we would go back to teach him the restoration to see if there was any way they would open their hearts to really pray about it.  Their phone ended up being shut off. As got in the car at 8 pm we knew we would probably only be able to visit one more person. We prayed with faith and felt to go back to john and Evelyn. When we went back john opened the door and said, "i was really didn't want to lose contact with you please come in." We were kind of confused but as the visit continue because of the example of the members in his group of friends, He decided to read the book of Mormon. He had already read the first 8 chapters along with all the introductory pages beforehand. He had questions and said, "i want to learn from a Mormon, what this is really all about it. I just want to understand the words and will of Christ." Evelyn is in school so she is very busy. She was kinder this time but still unsure about having us in her home. Diligence goes far. When we are diligent we show out faith and we show our testimony to other that we KNOW they want it and need it. It would have been easy to drop her after the first phone call and frankly it is tempting at times to be lazy or slack because of fears of offending or making others uncomfortable but our love for the Lord is stronger. Sister Neider said in a training this week, "why not do what you were sent here to do." it is so simple but it is true. every time we open our mouths, we are really opening ourselves to receive more of the spirit because it is an act of faith and obedience. Why not actually do what i said i would actually do. The blessings are unmeasurably greater than the small and insignificant risk there is. They do not even compare. It is only the intelligent thing to do to be obedient despite our natural selves, desires, selfishness, and pride. I believe the key to discipleship is discipline. I know that this is true. I feel it is true and it makes me happy and it increases my faith. That is the power of the book of mormon, prayer and church attendance combined with a broken heart and a contrite spirit. I love you all. Christian, keep preparing. don't lose your focus and remember your purpose. Preach my gospel teaches us that prospective missionaries should be a source of finding. Let everyone in the whole world know that you are serving the Lord and it will open the doors to missionary opportunities.

All my love

Hermana Burrup

ps- Elder anderson is coming in 2 weeks. Can't wait! 

Dear President Neider,

The Lord blessed us a lot with finding this week but we struggled with our lessons with members. I really want to reach our goal, do my part, be an example, really help and prepare the people, but most of all obey and please the Lord. Elder Johnson offered some suggestions during the call-in report last night that we'll try out. I want to be a more effective missionary and eliminate any excuse or disruption. In regards to the blessings we have received in the finding part of the work, it is a simple blessing of diligence. We were blessed with a family, a couple and now an investigators husband is listening. I know that the Lord is blessing them with the opportunity to hear the fulness of the gospel. Each is already a religious family but has expressed the desire to follow the savior. Also, stake conference was great yesterday. Thank you President and Sister Neider for your words. We love you! To finish off, i went on an exchange with Sister Parkinson this week. I learned from her to be more diligent in street contacts even in a business or store like setting. She's a hard worker with great intentions. I think the main training portion of the exchange was on testifying always. She agreed to work on testifying, even if it is 1 sentence, EVERY street contact. We also worked on using members for finding and although we didn't have splits planned for the exchange, i showed her how to plan splits to get more work done. i do think she is working hard to do her best. We were able to see miracles. and had a very positive experience. Thanks again president, we love you and your wife a lot and appreciate you!  Hurrah for Israel!

Love

Hermana Burrup