Sister Sydney Burningham

Sister Whitehead took this lovely one when I was giving a training, so that'll be a fun one for ya, haha. Embarrassing a little bit.

Mon, Feb 3, 2014 at 10:27 AM

Hey Everybody!

First I just have to say that Elder L. Tom Perry is the cutest, I mean really!! and he's SO tall.  He came to see us this week as a mission and leaderships of the wards in the area and addressed us about the work of salvation, and the hastening of the Lord's work.  It was so amazing to be able to go to the meeting with members of the ward council and to be able to link arms with them.  I am so grateful for our ward council and our Bishop, Bishop Cruze, they are all taking this meeting we had so seriously.  Let me share a couple of our miracles.

L. Tom Perry addressed us and made sure we understood that the Lord's work is hastening and challenged the members to be better missionaries, to invite their friends to take the lessons in their homes and a lot of other stuff that I'll address later.  Well our ward really took it to heart and some miracles occurred.  So first of all a less-active brother, Daniel Willis, came back to church for the first time in years, his wife is not a member and they've been married for about a year.  She came with him and really felt the spirit, she wants to know more, so of course a member of the bishopbric says "Hey, why don't you and your wife come over for dinner Tuesday and us and the missionaries can teach you more about the church."  the wife was absolutely thrilled and we will meet with them soon. Incredible!!  Then Sister Ida Manuel, from the Philippines brought her friend Analee to church, Analee has a little boy, seven years old and she had been coming to some activities, we asked her if she wanted to take the lessons at Ida's and she said yes!  She loves what she's learning and is excited to see if this is where God wants her to go.

I just have to say, we are so blessed, the ward is on fire and the work is progressing it reminds me of the quote we say every week by Joseph Smith that says:

"The standard of truth has been erected, no unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing, persecutions may rage, mobs may combine, armies may assemble, calumny may defame, but the truth of God will go forth boldy, nobly and independent, until it has penetrated every continent, visited every climb and swept every country and sounded in every ear, till the purposes of God shall be accomplished and the great Jehovah shall say the work is done."

Elder Zwick of the seventy said this in our meeting:

"Elder Perry is not patient when it comes to the work of salvation because he knows the Lord's timetable." 

The time is now.  The Lord is hastening his work, and we get to be a part of it.  We are all needed and we all have work to do to build his kingdom!  How blessed we are to be members of Christ's church. I hope we can all say as Paul did in 2 Timothy 4:7 I have fought a good fight, I have kept the faith.  We have so much to look forward to and so much hope found in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, trust him, believe that he can heal you and help you overcome challenges and weaknesses, he has been with me every step of the way. 

I love you all so much, you are always in my thoughts and prayers, have a blessed week/day as the people here in the south would say, I just love it.

Love,

Sister Burningham

This is my companion, poor girl just couldn't do it some night this week, Jesus The Christ is the book, which by the way is incredible.

This is Darrell he has a fake leg, he was trying to save someone else that had been in a car accident and another car came and hit him too, he is the boyfriend of the roommate of a less active haha if that makes any sense.  We ate dinner with them!

 Mon, Feb 10, 2014 at 8:56 AM

Greetings from Tennessee!

What a week, I mean really it's just been the best.  It's always the best.  I can't adequately express myself in words what my mission means to me.  Suffice it to say it's the best decision I have ever made in my life.

This week I was able to go on our last two exchanges for the transfer, I am learning so much from the other missionaries I am blessed to come in contact with.  They all are so talented and have so many strengths and such a special spirit, the most beautiful thing is that they are all so different.  This week I have been thinking about how individual and different we are, and that that's what makes the world so beautiful. 

SO MANY MIRACLES.  The ward council is just setting the example we have team ups with members everyday, sometimes twice a day, they all have given us one referral and our teaching pool is increasing daily.  We've never had this much to do so juggling it all is a challenge but it's a good problem to have.  One woman in particular I'm excited about is Tracy Willis her husband is reactivating and she has signed up to feed us and go out with us on team-ups.. she's not even a member yet!  She will be soon though, I will keep you updated and then they can get sealed in the temple forever, that's ultimately the goal, to continue to make and keep covenants, that's what lacks everywhere else is those two way promises and ordinances, this church is so true.

Funny story of the week I just have to tell you how much I cannot stand stink bugs, they are creepy and you can't kill them because they leave this odor which is horrible and they are everywhere, there's a lot of bugs here but these ones are just, I can't do it, haha.  So we went up to Lakeway and everyone told me good luck in their apartment but they didn't tell me why.  So I walk in and my bed is COVERED in these bugs, Sister Horckley just goes and puts them in this jar thing like it's not big deal, we'll just get them and catch them, don't mind the ones that walk on you all night.  Needless to say I slept maybe one hour that night.  I was legitimately scared to go to bed.  Their district says district prayer every night over a conference call and they asked me to say it, I prayed the bugs would stay away and just felt really peaceful, it's just always a testimony to me that I can just have a conversation with Heavenly Father, he's my father and he loves me so much, everything that is important and significant to me is important and significant to him.  He is helping me change and remember everything I need to to return to him because that is his whole purpose.  [Moses 1:39] Everyday my testimony is strengthened and my conversion is deepened, the amazing thing is at I look outward and help others in their conversion mine deepens, that's the way it works, that's the way he intended for it to work.

"There is not one of us but what God's love has been extended upon.  There is not one of us that He has not cared for and caressed.  There is not one of us that He has not desired to save, and that He has not devised means to save.  There is not one of us that He has not given his angels charge concerning.  We may be insignificant and contemptible in our own eyes and in the eyes of others, but the truth remains that we are the children of God, and that he has actually given his angels-- invisible beings of power and might--charge concerning us and they watch over us and have us in their keeping." -George Q. Cannon

I love you all so much, wherever you are whatever you're doing, keep close to the Lord, he is so much a part of all our lives if we open our eyes to see it.

Have a wonderful week!

Love,

Sister Burningham