Family and Friends,
So great to hear how you are all doing, I love getting those emails and letters from you all back home, it means the world to me that all us missionaries are in your prayers and that I have so much support from back home. This week Sister Weight and I rediscovered Joseph and the Technicolor Dream Coat songs, we don't have the cd so we've been trying to remember all the songs-- thus my subject being what it is. I remember LOVING that CD and musical. We've been singing them all week, singing them to people we know, people love those bible stories here it is the "bible belt" after all. I love it here more than anything.
Well everyone my time in Chilhowee has come to an end. It is amazing how quickly time flies, these past two transfers don't even seem real. I have been here for five transfers and I am so attached to the people here. They all mean so much to me. I'm so grateful for the time I have had to serve, I am still currently (until Wednesday) a Sister Training Leader and have been doing that for about nine months now, But President Irion called me and told me that I will not be doing that anymore, so no more exchanges can you believe it? Seems like a dream. But, I am excited for the new area and the new companion, I can't wait to get there Wednesday and see what we can do to help the work progress there. The sad news is that Sister Weight is like my hero and the sister I never had and now I have to leave her. I have learned so much from her about diligence and hard work and how to always have fun and always love being a missionary. All these missionaries I've been blessed to come in contact with have meant so much to me, they all teach me different things and all emulate different attributes of the Savior, we have to look for the good in everyone and then try to emulate the attributes that they do, even though it may be a weakness of ours, we can choose to be inspired by them and do better.
As for the work, the miracles are happening. So Analee is getting baptized on Easter weekend in April now so that her son Adam who will be 8 in a couple weeks can get baptized with her. This woman came from a member of ours, both of which are from the Philippines who just kept inviting her to church and wouldn't take no for an answer, haha, but Analee is so grateful for Aida and her willingness to share her testimony it will bless their lives forever. We have another investigator named Joseph who is friends with a less-active who is reactivating. He is reading the Book of Mormon and is already in Jacob! and it's been like a week, I told him Jacob 5 is my absolute favorite chapter and he is loving it, he'll come to church this week, Sister Weight will update me I'm sure. We had stake conference this weekend which was amazing and of course it was all about the "hastening of the work," I believe it's pretty important and that we must all get started or keep going strong so that we can help save souls.
This week I have been thinking about the importance of hope, faith and goal setting with plans of course. And in stake conference they mentioned that just because all of our plans don't follow through doesn't mean we stop making plans. I was thinking about each of us and how we all have to strive to become better than we were yesterday. I love this quote:
"Our business in life is not to get ahead of others but to get ahead of ourselves; to break our own records; to outstrip our yesterdays by our todays; to bear our trials more beautifully than we ever dreamed we could; to give as we never have given, to do our work with more force and a finer finish than ever. This is the true goal: to get ahead of ourselves." -Carl Holmes.
It has always amazed me that as we lose ourselves in this great work and just immerse ourselves in the Gospel of Jesus Christ and study it, live it and love it we change and we grow sometimes without even realizing it. Line upon line, he helps us every step of the way. We can change in fact we're meant to change, every single day.
I hope your week is great, thank you for the prayers and support.
I also can't believe that Dawson and Chuck are sixteen years old. Mind. Blown.
I love you all!
Sister Burningham
This is Bryan one of our recent converts, he was baptized back in January, he is so incredible, bore his testimony in Stake Conference.
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