"I Know That God Lives and Loves Us!"

Well I have been thinking and pondering about what I should say in this last email. It's been boggling my mind that this chapter in my life really is coming to an end. I can't believe it. Even my body is beyond worn out.

 

I have come to realize that in this life, there are good people and bad people, but all people are children of God. A loving Heavenly Father, who loves us and sees us as we can truly become. My life before I flew on a plane to leave my family and friends for 18 months was slowly winding down into a hole. Why? Because I was not obeying some of the simplest commandmants that Heavenly Father has given us: praying and reading the scriptures daily. Have you ever noticed that some of the biggest commandments are easier to keep? But the littlest ones are what are hard. Not killing is pretty easy! 

 

I know, that without any doubts, reading our scriptures daily helps. Not only that but we recieve personal revelation. I am so happy to say that I am about to finish the Book of Mormon for the 3rd time in my mission. It really has changed my perspective on life and I know that it is true. Every question that we have, can be found in there. Boyd K. Packer taught us that. I took on Moroni's challenge on reading the Book of Mormon and praying to know if it's true. Every time, I got a pounding in my heart knowing that it was true. I am more than sure you can have the same thing happen to you. 

 

There is a quote that I love. I think that it is from Gordon B. Hinkley. He said that when life gets too hard to stand, kneel. If I were to tell you all of the times that prayer helped, this email would never end! No one will understand us completely, but Heavenly Father. He is so much closer to us than we think. 

 

I know that this is God's true church. It was restored through the Prophet Joseph Smith and it is the only true church on earth that has God's Holy Priesthood. I know that following our church leaders, the prophet, and his apostles, only leads to eternal happiness. In other words, you either recieve eternal happiness or you don't. It's your choice. Not even once, has following the prophet and apostles led me astray or to sadness. I am so grateful I got called to serve with the Chileno people. Their relaxed and loving attitudes have taught me a lot. They don't worry about the future and enjoy the moment that is happening. I do love them with all my heart. I know I knew them before this life. My heart will always be here in Chile and Chile will always be in my heart. 

 

I love you all so much. I am amazed every day at the love I recieve from others. You are all great! And well, I guess this is it. I will see you all in a week! 

 

Hermana Burnham

 

"47 in Church!!!"

Why yes, did we have 47 in the church yesterday? WE SURE DID. That is a newwwwww recorrddddddd! :) Well, for Santa Juana. It was really cool. I couldn't believe it. I play the little electric piano and so I have to count every week the number of people and I couldn't believe. Miracles still exist :) It was great!

And we just had a great week. Nothing TOO exciting but we did finally get some people to church. YAY! We got Maribel and Andres. A couple. Andres is a less active and Maribel is not a member. It was soooo good to get them to church after many years and see that they are progressing a lot. They started doing their prayers together and reading the Book of Mormon together. It's awesome :) 

We found Katherin again. She is going through a lot of hard things that I can't really write here, but I am really happy that finally things have calmed down a bit for her and that we are teaching her again :) 

Besides that, it's SUPER HOT IN SANTA JUANA! I feel like I am in Phoenix in the dead of summer. It's getting hot. The nights are even hot and it's hard to sleep. But hey, I will be fine. 

I just wanted to say that you are all so great. Thanks for always keeping me in your prayers and supporting me. I don't know what I would be doing without the support from back home. I continue seeing blessings and miracles every day out here and I know the mission will never truly end. It's our responsibility to always share the gospel. 

I love you all! Have a great week and I will be writing you all only ONE MORE TIME. Weird.

Hermana Burnham

"Little Miracles"

I just want to say that I am so grateful to be ending my mission with Hermana Castañeda. She is one of my sweetest companions and she is also ending the mission with me. It makes things kind of nice for us because I don't have to worry about making another hermana home sick :) Hahaha! 

 

Anyway, so we had some cool stuff happen this week. It's still hard to get people to come to church, but we are still trying our hardest to work hard and not like a bunch of dead old Hermana grandmas. We did a thing we call "calle inspirada" or inspired street. I pick 5 random streets and so does Hermana Castañeda, then we see if we have a street in common. The one we have in common, we go to and knock the doors. So we did that and had the street Bio Bio in common. We went there and prayed REALLY hard before to find someone. After knocking about 5 to 7 doors, we got into a house. Karen and she is just an adorable 7 month pregnant lady that wants to have more of Heavenly Father in her life. It was great and we told her that we had prayed to find her. In other words, we all ended up crying. Hahaha! Then her husband Alonso came home and he just turns out to know EVERYTHING about the church and have a bunch of member friends. And went to lessons with the elders before! Like, what??? Hahaha it was so good to meet them :) 

 

We have also been teaching Maribel and Andres. Andres is a less active and Maribel is his girlfriend that has been taking the lessons FOREVER. But about a month ago, she opened up and said that she knows the church is true now and wants to be baptized. It was so cute and I know it is going to happen :) 

 

Santa Juana is lookin' up :) Hahaha! But that's just really it. I love this life and I love my compy. Things are going good and I am just denying the fact that I am going home. I will let that settle in later. 

 

Have a great week!!!

Hermana Burnham

 

 

"One Month"

I am so sorry people. I AM SO LAZY AT THIS! I promise to be faithful this last month. Beause I will be HOME in one month...... Weird. 

Anyways, today are transfers. And yes, I am staying in little Santa Juana. Not gonna lie, it kind of killed me. It's so small and ya I already have 4 months here, but I will be okay. I guess the Lord just needs me here. So I am sure there has GOT to be someone out there in this country town :) 

 

The work has been kind of hard here. We get some awesome investigators, but then none of them come to church. It's SUPER hard to get them to come to church. So if you have any advice, that would be great! 

 

No, but it really is such a good sector. Santa Juana is super blessed with great leaders. We had an activity and watched Meet the Mormons. It was so fun and outside with a projector. 

 

Well, I hope all is well and that you all are doing great. Thanks for the prayers and love and support and just EVERYTHING! I love you all so much!

Hermana Burnham

 

 

"This is why I hate dogs.......9 DOGS JUST RIGHT THERE!"

"A dead rat right in the street." YUM!!

"We got to help our Stake with a mini trek activity......we were the angels!!!!!"

"This is how we do weekly planning with Hermana Castaneda dressed up.....like this!"

"Another dead baby bird."

"I Love You All. Enjoy the Pictures!"

I love you all!!!! :) Enjoy the pictures!

"Navajo Tacos!"

"No Smoking!"

"That moment when your comps bed falls on top of you. Yes. That did happen!"

"A dead rotting dog that can be smelled in all of Santa Juana!" :(

"Las Hermanas de Santa Juana"

"Pics"

"Jonathon.....the minion! And....my very strong tan line. That is NOT a white shirt!!!!"

"Killer bunny from Monty Python!"

"Me and my Compy." :) :) :)

"40 Day Fast"

Wow. Well, this week was crazy. But.... THEY STARTED THE CONCEPCION TEMPLE!!!!!!!!!!!! It was my first temple breaking that I have ever been to and it was awesome :) We were in San Pedro which is just like 20 minutes from the temple site and watched it on satellite. It was really cool and really touching. This will be the 2nd temple in all of Chile and I just find that amazing. A huge long country that really needs it! I could really see that the working is moving on :) One of the people that talked said that right before a temple starts, the work gets really hard. I can FOR SURE testify of that. and Presidente Bluth totally was a translator for one speaker. I got so prideful that THAT was my mission president :)

So our mission started something truly amazing today. It's called the 40 day fast. No, I am not going to LITERALLY fast for 40 days. I am not crazy. Hahaha but it's a 40 day  fast from "habits" that we want to break. Presidente Bluth has asked us to choose 5 things to change to be more spiritual and Christlike. I decided not to share them here because they are a bit personal, but I can already see that they are happening and I can see myself already changing. Every morning we need to pray for the help we need to do it and in the night, we give a report to Heavenly Father how it went that day. Of course, we may need to do a bit of repenting. This last week was the week where we chose the 5 things. I got really upset this week and so frustrated with myself that I kind of broke down. I felt like I haven't been the missionary that I wanted to be. But I know that I can change and I am so grateful for these 40 days that I have. 

 

Well, if any of you want to do these 40 days, then just ask and I can send you the stuff for it :) I hope you have a great day! 

Hermana Burnham

 

"Cool lookin' chickens" :)

"Our gangster investigator Felipe and his little sister Carolina. They are so good and so fun!" :) :) :)

"Role play with our stuffed animals.....thanks for the minon Tiff!"