Sister Sydney Burningham

Turns out Sister Whitehead and I are turkeys!  We had a great Thanksgiving! I love my companion!

Family and Friends,

Where do I even begin this week?  It was a bit different being away from my family for Thanksgiving but luckily we had a lot of people who were willing to take us strays in.  Haha, our Thanksgiving consisted of playing in a Turkey Bowl in the morning, which was so much fun, I mean seriously such a good turn out we just played at this school called Gresham Middle School and got to play some football, it was bitter cold though let me tell ya.  Then we went and ate at Fran Turpin's, she is a less active member and her husband is not a member, we are teaching him, his name is Billie and he is amazing.  Fran retires December 13th and then they will both start coming, so looking forward to that . We ate with the Marler's they have a daughter named Tori who is basically the coolest, she is 19 and thinking about serving a mission so she goes out with us a lot.  We also ate with the Methodists!  I love those people such good food.  This is three Thanksgiving dinners now just keep that in mind.  Then we went to the Kronick's which is always amazing, I truly love these people so much.  The South is amazing.  So if any of you thought I wasn't going to get enough to eat, well, you were wrong.  Haha.

Funny story for this week which ties into my subject of the email today is we got a new investigator and his name is Brian, can't remember if I've mentioned him yet but he is so great.  He's got a great voice and is going to sing at our Nativity Festival this Friday night.  We're really looking forward to that.  He is an older guy and he sort of looks homeless but we invited him to dinner at a members the other night and oh my goodness it was hilarious he just set himself up in the corner and sang Christmas songs to us the whole night.  That man really loves to sing.  We are teaching him about the Gospel but he's not sure about God or Christ or what they mean to him yet so we are working on building his faith and hopefully we can get some youth to come help him as a service project clean his house and get some of his old stuff out of there, he just isn't able but luckily we have incredible youth.  The ward went on a temple trip on Saturday and of course we couldn't go because it's out of our mission boundaries but we got to hear the sweetest heartfelt testimonies yesterday of the temple.  I do miss the temple and the spirit felt there but I'm excited to go again someday! 

As most of us my thoughts were directed toward gratitude this past week.  I have reflected on my life and my mission and have really come to appreciate more fully the Gospel of Jesus Christ in all it's simplicity.  The gospel is simple, there are a few steps, we do our best to be obedient to the commandments of God and we repent and use the Atonement when we fall short.  The Lord loves each of us to much and is just waiting to bless us.  What a blessing to be able to see the Atonement working in the lives of those we teach.  I know I don't update you on all of our investigators and people we see but I have them recorded in my journal and someday I will be able to tell you about all of them. 

"We should thank God for our adversities and pray for guidance in meeting them, it is all part of the plan... when we understand that God offers us opportunities for blessings and blesses us through our own adversities and the adversities of others we can understand why he has commanded us again and again to "Thank the Lord thy God in all things." -Elder Dallin H. Oaks

We are all here for a reason, we have a purpose to fulfill and we are here to become something.  There are great things happening here in Chilhowee I hope all is well back home!

Love you all,

Sister Burningham