"Climbing Volcanos and a New Companion"

Ya folks. I climbed a stinkin´ volcano today!!!! It was sooo cool. It was our activity for our zone and it was at Mount Lonquimay. So fun. It was hot, but we had snow and also one hermana had never seen snow. So yay! It was super fun. Oh Chile. You are awesome. 

So I have a new companion!!!! Sorry I didn't write last week, but my new companion is awesome! Hermana Rimmasch from Sandy Utah! It is crazy because we were in the CCM together, but we didn't remember each other so that was cool. She is super sweet and awesome. She can understand the Chilenos like none other so that is nice. I was super scarred to get an American companion but she is doing just fine. 

We have been doing pretty good! We have one awesome investigator, Judith. Man that woman is hilarious. She asked if we could date the elders and if we lived with them. Hahahahaha! We were trying so hard not to just bust up laughing. But she is so sweet. She is 25 and has 2 kids and her boyfriend. She is always so correct when answering our questions and is reading The Book of Mormon faithfully. It is super cool. I love it. We taught her about keeping the sabbath day holy and she fully understood why we don't shop and why we need to go to church. She really wants to go, but her boyfriend is not a big fan of us. We have never met him  but he told her she can visit with us but can't go to church. So we continue to pray for her and that her boyfriend will soften his heart more. She is the best and super funny. 

Also, we have Ramon. Poory guy :( He is having a rough time right now. He hasn't really been progressing ever since we had out law of tithing lesson with him. He said he is struggling for money right now, but that he really wants to be baptized. But also that he doesn't want to be baptized and then not be able to pay tithing. So he has some really good intentions, just scared of what might happen. He is super sweet though and I sure love him. He is super chill and always reads everything we give him and then studies it. He is super awesome. LOVE HIM.

Besides that things have been just the same. Having a new companion is super cool, but I still miss my mom Hermana Lozano. She was the best mom ever. But it's good to get a change and also have Hermana Rimmasch. She is super funny. And she loves the office so where can I go wrong? :) We quote it all the time in the street. Hahahaha! And all my zone leaders and the other elders love Nacho Libre, Napolian Dynamite, and Hot Rod. So we always have a good time quoting movies in meetings and such :) 

OH! We totally had the best experience yesterday! Well, on Thursday we were contacting and found this one lady in the street, Katia. She was with her son who had just broken his arm and had a cast. We talked and she told us that she went to a Mormon church once a long time ago when she was a kid and that she really liked it. So we got her address and then had a lesson with her yesterday. SHE IS SO AWESOME!!!!!! We showed her the picture of José Smith during the lesson and she was like hey! I have seen that picture! And I have heard his name before. He was a prophet, right? YES! HE WAS! It was so cool. She accepted a baptism for 20 de Diciembre and so that was just awesome. She also has a daugher, Ignacia who was there but she was kind of quiet throughout the lesson. But how cool! Then she told us at the end, it wasn't an accident that we ran into each other in the street. That we met for a reason. AHHHH!!!! :) 

So ya. Thats it for now folks, Oh we also had branch council this week so a bunch of members from Victoria came and gave the best talks ever One quote I liked was one that I'll post down below. But thanks for everything!!! Chile is super hot and I get sunburned everyday, even with sunscreen. But I love it!! Have a great week :) 

Con amor,

Hermana Burnham

We dont go to church to please other people. We go to church to renew our covenants and to please the Lord. 

 

"Saying goodbye at the bus station with Elder Ruiz"

 

"Goodbye Hermana Lozano"

"Our goal in this comabio"

"Guess who has fleas.....again?!"

"Preaching the good word to all animals"

"Mari....she is the cutest girl ever!"

"My favorite store in all of Curacautin!"

"The dog that bit me!"

"Hermana Rimmasch's birthday"

"Office quote that her family sent....so cool!"

"Hermana Rimmasch"

"Making sopapillas"

"Bastian and Hermana Bertides.....LOVE THEM!"

"Flying kites with Roberto, Carlos, & Bastian"

"Branch Counsel food after church"

"Mount Lonquimay"

 

"I love volcanos!!"

 

Hermana's Conference

Sorry.....no letter this week. Hermana Burnham said she is too busy!!

That's Good!

 

 

 

"Day of the Dead"

Halloween in Chile man. ¡NO ME GUSTA! Hahahaha! It is so different here. Well, first off. Chile has the day of the dead thing here. So on the 1st and 2nd of November everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, goes to the cemetery and they decorate their familes/friends graves. Hahahaha! Dad the head stones here are so weird. I will take a picture some other time and send it to you. It's actually kind of like the ones in the pictures Holly sent. But ya! So we spent 3 hours in the cemetery talking about the plan of salvation. That was fun! Hahaha not really. I was being sarcastic. None of the people wanted to talk to us or they were all from out of town, so it was kind of hard to have success. But we did talk with 2 different ladies and they accepted right away for us to visit them in their homes. So fingers crossed that we can go visit them! :) But Halloween in the night. Oh my gosh. They were teaching throwing eggs at random people in the street (and I prayed my little heart out that I wouldn't get hit by one. Thank goodness I didn't) then a church here is totally against Halloween and sang weird hymns on the side of the road, and no ONE answered their door for us because they thought we were trick or treaters, and almost everyone had family over so we couldn't visit with them. It was crazy. The missionary handbook is TOTALLY lying when it says holidays are better for teaching. ¿A DONDE? 

Anyway, today I found out that I will be getting a new companion tomorrow. It is actaully something that never really happens in the mission. I will be getting an American companion who has the same time as me in the mission. So I am just a little bit nervous. Okay. I am VERY nervous. It scares me to leave my mission mom, Hermana Lozano. She has been the best mission mom I could have asked for. She is so much like Christ. I don't want to say goodbye to her because I know there will be tears. There were already tears this morning when our district leader told us our cambios! But I can do it. I will have to wait in Victoria for 5 hours though in the bus station for my new companion and with about 4 elders. That won't be awkward AT ALL:........

Anyway, this week was good! We taught a lot of new people and contacted a  LOT this week. Curacautin is kind of hard to work in because it is such a small city and I feel as if we have knocked every door in Curacautin. But it is good. Little miracles happen to where I know that we still have more doors to knock and more people to meet. I was reading a talk this week form Elder Cornbridge and something really stuck out to me. It was so cool. Its a quote from him and he said, "Life is hard. Not the Gospel". How simple but yet so awesome! Ya. Life is beyond difficult, but the gospel is not. All that we are asked to do is follow Jesus Christ. That is it. It was really cool to read that. Life is hard and that is why we need the Gospel. 

Also, I was supposed to teach the Principles of the Gospel class this week, but we didn't have it because none of our investigators came to church and none of the recent converts either. Ya. That was stinky. But I learned so much from preparing this lesson. It was about repentence. One thing in the manual that really stuck out to me is that every morning we should wake up and ask ourselves, do I have the spirit with me? And then strive all day to keep the spirit with us. And at night, we need to repent of all the mistakes we made that day. And also, to repent everyday. EVERYDAY? Ya that was so different for me to read, but it makes sense. We are all human and we all make mistakes everyday. That's why the Atonement is so vital for us. Without it, we can't become perfect or be forgiven. 

I am so grateful for the Atonement and what Jesus did for me. I know he suffered for all of us individually and He did because He loves us all so much. We knew him before this life and we will see Him again after this life. I know that is true. 

DISFRUTEN SU SEMANA :) 

Con amor, 

Hermana Burnham

 

"Our last Sunday together. I am going to miss Hermana Lozano so much!"

 

"Eduardo's birthday.....14 never looked so good!"

"TORTA! Me encanta torta :)"

"Elder Contrerras pranked us with a fake cambio. I was in the shower and Hermana Lozano yelled at me to get out because Elder Contrerras was calling for cambios What a turkey! I got the floor all wet for a prank call!"

 

"Prayers are Answered!"

Not too much happened this week. Hahahaha! It was just kind of like a flat line. 

We had some cool stuff happen though! We had 2 investigators in church!!! WOOO!!! Orobia and Ramòn. They are so cool. Orobia is kind of older and is the sweetest thing ever! I love her. We called her yesterday morning and said we would walk with her and then we got to her house and she wasn't home. So we called her and she was all, oh I am in the church. What? Orobia. Hahaha we said we would walk with you! Oh goodness. It was crazy. Then Ramòn is about 50.... I think. On Friday he said he would come but didn't want to wear a tie because he doesn't like them. But, he showed up to church super early and wore a tie! And a full on suit! It was so sweet. They both instantly made friends in the branch and loved church. It was so cool. 

We  have been struggling a bit in our branch here. We have a LOT of inactives. A lot. We only have about 18 or 20 people each week in church. Then yesteday, we had 29! 29 PEOPLE! That is so cool. For about 12 weeks now, in all of my prayers, I have prayed for the members who are inactive to start coming to church again. For 12 weeks, this has been a huge worry for me. Then yesterday, my prayer was answered. It just goes to show that we need to be patient when we pray and ask for things. Because the Lord has perfect timing and we don't. It was so cool to see these members in the branch. I loved meeting them and also just seeing all the chairs filled. I know it is not about numbers in the branch, but about these members keeping their covenants and being happy. It was nice to see that prayers really are anwered. It was a testimony to me that if we pray with real intent and have patience, our prayers will be answered

I testify that Heavenly Father really does hear our prayers and will answer them. No matter who we are. He will answer and he listens. He WANTS to answer our prayers. We just have to do our part, and that is to act. Pray and act, then He will do his part. 

I hope you all have a great week! Remember, pray is the way! There is no other way :) 

Con amor

Hermana Burnham

 

"Sopapillas and Manjar........beyond delicious! It's like caramel."

"Exchanges with Hermana Contrerras"

"Hermana Degroff......the Arizona Hermana's"

"The Hermana Conference"

"

"Family Home Evening with Hermana Paola and Coni"



"Family Home Evening with Roberto Carlos.....so fun!"

 

"Hermana Matias.....Mi mejor amiga :)"