Sunday, October 4, 2009
HE'S COMING HOME!!!!
Saturday, August 8, 2009
About time… May
I know, I know… it’s been way too long since I’ve updated this! I decided to just post the highlights from the past three months, so here is a look back – starting with May!
“I cant believe how fast the weeks go by! I remember at the very beginning of my mission in Poinciana, a returned missionary member told me that each quarter of your mission goes faster and faster and faster! And this last quarter has been starting way to fast already! I am scared at how fast it is going! It seems like i wake up in the morning and i end my prayer, blink once or twice and i am saying my prayers again to get ready for bed! … tomorrow Elder Law and I will be picking up our new companion together! YEP, Elder Law and i are staying together for his last transfer! And President called a third companion, he told us that he wants us to train him to be a zone leader, his name is Elder Bellamy, he is my best friend from the MTC, he is in my original district, we are really excited, it is going to be fun! We just found out from the assistants that they are taking away our corolla and we are getting a dodge minivan:-) i am excited, it will be fun!!!”
“Well, you can probably guess what i am going to say, but it really was the best week ever!
EL BAUTISMO DE LA FAMILIA VACA
...we had a lot left to teach them on Wednesday, so we taught them for 2 hours straight and then they got interviewed the same night, to be ready for Sunday! It was a great baptismal service, everything went perfect, and the meeting was packed, a great number of the Spanish ward was there, but there was a surprising number of English people there as well, President and Sister Darrington were there, and a lot of the senior couples from our mission wanted to be there as well! Since stake conference is next week, we confirmed them there at the meeting, the spirit was very strong, one of the strongest i can remember from my whole mission! A day i will never forget! They are already looking forward to being sealed one year from now…”
“Florida summer is in full swing with high 90's and chuck full off humidity! I can tell that summer is here especially because of the forecasted storms and rain showers every day now! … On Thursday was Florida's Special Olympics at Disney Sports complexes, so we volunteered to help, we were there from 12 to 5, and that was the absolute coolest and most worthwhile service project that i have done on my mission! Service itself brings so much joy and peace, but being surrounded by thousands of Gods special children, seeing all of them so happy, having thousands of people cheer for them, was priceless, i cant even describe the joy i felt as gods beautiful children smiled from ear to ear, one down syndrome girl specifically made my eyes water, as she was running the 100 open with her arms in the air the entire time with a smile bigger than life itself, then afterward she started telling people "i did it, i did it" then some tears came to her eyes as she looked at the crowd that was cheering for her, she was so happy! Geez, makes my eyes water just thinking about it! Our job was to stand at the finish line, to congratulate them, and direct them to the shade and water! It was so awesome!”
“This Sunday we had some awesome investigators at church again, A guy we tracted into named Jose Diaz, came to church, and he loved it, as soon as he came to church, he was a little late, so i waited for him in the foyer, and we walked into the chapel together, and they were singing "yo creo en Cristo" i believe in Christ, and it sounded more angelic than i have ever heard in this ward, and we started crying before we even sat down and as soon as the song was over he leaned over to me and said "there is something different in this place, i feel something soopowerful and peaceful, i don't know what it is, but i want it" He loved church and we challenged him to read and pray and we are going to teach him today! I cant wait! “
Monday, April 27, 2009
Today’s Email
Hey Family,
Thank you soo much for your emails! And for your prayers on our behalf and on the behalf of our investigators! They must be working! Don't Stop:-)
Wednesday night we took the VACA and the MESA families on a temple tour! This night there was an unusual number of spanish people there so they had a professional translator come and translate! The tour started and instantly the spirit came with such power and love! As the guide (bro. herzog) talked about the restoration of the gospel and the knowledge and blessings of the temple, the huge group was completely silent, the only thing you could hear was the light voice of the translator with the group of spanish people! The vaca children speak very good english and sister vaca was a foreign exchange student from mexico years and years ago, so she knows and understands pretty well, but brother vaca doesn't understand english at all! but during the tour for the sake of there children understanding completely they stuck with the english group, instantly Bro herzog felt something as he looked into the eyes of this family of 6, and he directed a lot of his comments directly to them and when he bore testimony he looked them right in the eyes! The spirit was soo strong! Afterward, sis Vaca wanted to feel what it was like in the temple, so we went into the waiting room, and as soon as we crossed the spirit came with even more power and everything was completely silent, you couldn't here the fountains or the passing cars, or anything, we sat down on the couches and we started flipping through temple magazines, then bro Vaca leaned over and asked me when his family could go through the temple and be an eternal family, my heart burst inside of me, i told him that he could 1 year after his baptism, and testified to him and we invited the whole family to pray about baptism and the truthfulness of the gospel! They came to church on Sunday, and there are soo many loud children in our sacrament meeting, this one was probably the loudest i have heard on my mission, but this whole family just stared with full intent at the speakers! They are sooo awesome! The lord definitely knows who he wants in his church and when! Last night we went over there with brother chuqi, and we had a great lesson, and afterward we challenged the whole family, and they accepted! This is one of those once in a lifetime families! They are definitely one of the reasons why i was called to be in this part of the Lords vineyard! They are getting baptized on the 9th of may! And they are already looking forward to going through the temple together! The Mesas are probably going to be baptized on the same day, and we have some other dates to set! It is going to be a beautiful day in white! My cup is overflowing! The Lord is soo Good! I love him with all my heart! He is working Miracles, and i am soo thankful that he lets Elder Law and i be just a small part of it!
On top of everything else, Elder Holland was AMAZING! That was the most moving and inspirational talk i have ever heard in my life! Our whole mission gathered together at 9 am and we took a mission photo with Elder Holland, and afterward we shook his hand personally, told him our name and where we are from! Shaking his hand and looking him eye to eye, was amazing, sooo much peace and love, with soo much pure fire and energy! He was amazing! He walked around in front of the benches and testified and taught! He had soo much power and authority coming from him! I believe that some have it recorded to get it typed out, the things he said, and the overpowering feelings cut to the very depths of the soul! As he started to bear testimony with tears in his eyes of the Savior in Gethsemane, you could hear a pin drop, i don't think anyone even breathed! When he was pointing his finger at each one of us and with the greatest power and authority, almost shaking with soo power, telling each and everyone of us, "Do not go home! Do not return and never become a missionary! This is your chance! This is real life! If you think you are going to find real life once you go home, you are sorely mistaken, You have missed the whole purpose of life!" i cant even describe the fire that burned in my chest!
one of my favorite quotes that he gave was "if you think the mafia is tough, you haven't seen Holland in action! :-) It sufficeth me to say, i was ultimately edified and spiritually uplifted!
I am soo happy, life is soo good! Don't let Satan get to you, this life is to enjoy, to be happy, to have joy,but not to be easy, it will never be easy, if it was easy it wouldn't be worth it, it wasn't easy for the Savior, why should it be easy for us! But we can control our attitudes and our decisions! You can choose to be Happy and you can choose to live the Gospel! They go hand in hand! Don't give up! This is life eternal- to Know God and Jesus Christ (John 17:1-3) How do you do that? You be obedient and you live the Gospel! By doing so you will undoubtedly know who our Savior is and who Our father in heaven is, so that in the next life that will not be a new thing, you will recognize him and his embrace will have a familiar feel to it! I love my Savior and Redeemer, I know he is real, there is not a shadow of a doubt in my mind that he is real! When i see him again and feel the marks in his hands, feet, and side i will not know any better then, than i do know that he is real and that he LIVES!
I love all of you soo much! Thank you for your love and prayers, i am soo blessed to have all of you! You are always in my prayers!
love,
Elder Samuel Paul Burdick
ps this saturday is transfer calls, I really really hope i stay with Elder LAW this third and final transfer of his mission!
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Last four emails…
I hadn’t realized it had been so long since I’d posted… so I'll try to condense the last four emails…
3/30/09 - “First off, a guy that we tracted into in my last area and brought to church a few times and taught a few times that was completely golden, named MARK, i think i wrote something about him in an email like a month and a half ago, anyways he got baptized on saturday and confirmed on sunday and afterwards shared his testimony, i was soo happy, he is such a neat guy, it was awesome to hear him tell us of his life growing up, and it seemed like everything in his life has been preparing him for the church and evangelio de Jesucristo, it was awesome, He is definently a future bishop or stake President! Unshakeable testimony and faith! I love this work!
The next one, there is a companionship in our zone that two weeks ago, tracted into a guatemalan indian that has only been in the states for a few months, one of the first things they asked him was if he knew that Jesus Christ had appeared in the ancient americas before, and he said "yes, i do actually, my grandmother used to tell me and my other little cousins a story that has been passed down in our family for generations and generations of when Jesus Christ appeared to our ancestors" they then taught him about the book of mormon and what it is, and he knew it was true right that instant and they set a baptismal date with him and he got baptized on saturday! I did the baptismal interview for him and he retold me some of the story that his grandmother used to tell him, it was soo amazing, the spirit was soo strong! I love doing baptismal interviews! Anyways, That that build your testimony a lil stronger!
We found out some really exciting news last week at a zone leader council meeting that we are having a mission wide conference next month April 25th, for the first time the whole mission will be in the same conference, because we have a very special guest coming, ELDER JEFFREY R. HOLLAND, is coming to our mission and he is going to enlighten us for about 2 hours, I am SOO excited, he is such a powerhouse speaker, his talk in the mtc was amazing, and now it is just him and like 150 missionaries, i am soo excited! He is such an amazing missionary leader as well, he is one of the Apostle specifically assigned to missionary work because it is in his every fiber of being, and his talks leave you soo fired up and full of the spirit! I cant wait!
I hope that BreeAnna gets called here as well, the world and we need Awesome sister missionaries, and she will be a really awesome missionary!” *side note: BreeAnna has been called to the Florida, Fort Lauderdale mission, English speaking, and enters the MTC on June 10
4/6/09 - “Things are going great here! We set baptismal dates with bro and sis Mesa! It was awesome, a very spiritual lesson! When we first challenged them to be baptized, they said yes........ in 6 months! So then we had a discussion as to why they wanted to wait so long, because they have problems with the word of wisdom, especially bro mesa, we were on exchanges with a fellow cuban member that had to overcome all of these challenges to be baptized as well ( hand of God manifested) And this member testified that he could do it, with faith and help from God! The spirit was soo strong! Then another member testified that the missionaries receive revelation and are literal representatives of Jesus Christ, and we know when they can be ready, (we had been praying fervently for the past week to find out when they could be ready) and we testified that they could be ready in 3 weeks, and they weren't shocked, they received an overwhelming feeling of peace when we said that and they knew that they could do it! They testified that they knew that the lord will help them and that they are going to practice their faith, please remember them in your prayers, especially bro mesa and smoking!
I loved General Conference, i was more excited on friday night than christmas eve night i believe! I absolutely love hearing the words of our beloved prophet and the 12 apostles, i felt soo much peace and happiness listening to them, and i received revelation of answers and things i felt was just for me and our investigators! I am not going to lie though, i will greatly enjoy the day when i can just relax and feel the spirit, instead of giving myself ulcers trying to get all of our investigators to 5 different conference sessions! When they come they always hear exactly what they need! This week was awesome, as we taught investigators and challenged them to come to conference, there was certain sessions that we felt strongly impressed to promise them that if they would come to that certain session they would receive the answers and help they needed, and the ones that did come truly did see and feel that! It was soo awesome to see the hand of the Lord revealed once again! Geez, the CHURCH IS SOO TRUE!”
4/13/09 - “I hope that each of you are Happy, because life is good, and Jesus Christ already went through the sadness, so we don't need to, so why should we! Be happy and smile! Life is good!
Things are going amazing here! This was one of the best weeks of my entire mission, Heavenly Father is blessing us soo richly right now! I will start day by day, Monday night we taught Sergio, he contacted us while we were teaching someone on the street and he wanted a copy of the book of mormon, we taught him and he is soo prepared, we are teaching him again tonight, i cant wait, we left him with a solid commitment to read and pray, he said the prayer at the end of the lesson and thanked heavenly father for a living prophet and more scripture, and for showing him the truth after soo many years of searching!
Tuesday we tracted ALOT, and we had minimal success, then as we were walking back to the car we saw a little family playing on a playground, the hernandez family, we started speaking to Rafael, the father, and we started testifying of the restoration of the gospel, and he invited us into his house and we ended up teaching his family for two hours right there, golden family!
Wednesday, that night we taught a member referral from Sis Lopez, and as we started to teach Betty Vallejo, it didn't take long to realize she was prepared, so even though it was our first appointment with her, we challenged here and she Accepted! she has a date for may 2nd! Afterward we called sis lopez to let her know, and sis lopez wasn't surprised at all, she said" i know, earlier this morning she knelt down and prayed for the true church, she needed hope in her life, and then she came over to my house and i felt impressed to have you teach her" Amazing how God works!
Thursday, we had Zone conference, it was awesome, our zone is doing great right now, we are seeing miracles!
Friday, we weekly planned, went over to the mesas, to give them pictures of christ we bought for their anniversary, she loved them, and she told us that after praying her and her husband were discussing baptism, and they are ready, she said that nothing is going to get in their way, she started to cry as she testified of the truthfulness of the gospel, later that day we taught Rafael again, Amazing lesson!
Saturday the mesas came to the church in the morning to see a baptism for a child of record and loved it, afterwards they stayed for the ward easter party and some of our members brought their food trailers, so we had some empanadas and arepas, it was awesome, the mesas loved it, that night we taught the mesas again and her son and his friends were there and we challenged them for church, and they accepted!
Sunday, we had expected about 6 investigators at church and we ended up with 13! 5 with the mesas, and Maria Bedoya (we are challenging her on tuesday), Alonso, and The most amazing family EVER, The VACA family, they are self referral, meaning they came to us! They showed up at church, because they remember learning of the church in mexico, and they need a solid church for them and their children, and lucky for them, they found the true church! They are a family of 6, Mom, dad, and 4 children, youngest being 8:-) they loved church, before hand we set an appointment for this saturday, and in the middle of the sacrament meeting he leaned over and asked if we could meet sooner, soo we taught them last night! They are soo awesome! They have a home here and one in mexico, he has a successful business dealing with natural vitamins, they are your typical mormon family:-) We are teaching them again tomorrow night! I cant wait!
So it was a great week, and any other free second we had we were knocking doors trying to find the lost sheep!”
4/20/09 - “ I wrote a huge email that got deleted, i am super bumbed!
Highlights, our families here are doing great! WE had an awesome FHE with them and our former branch president, it was amazing! Hopefully they can go on a temple tour this week! Please pray for them,
Abel and Janitsy Mesa
Mauricio and Sefora
David, Brenda, Mauricio jr., and sefora hija, VACA,
they are doing great and they are amazing!
I am super excited for the mission conference with Elder Holland!
I love you soo much and i am praying for each of you!
love, Elder Burdick”
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
March Emails (and a few random pics)
3-2-09 “Things here are going really good! The Zone had another stellar week, they have surpassed ALL of the goals that we set as a zone in week number one of the transfer! They are all doing amazing! Each and every missionary in the zone is doing sooo good right now, and each of them are being richly blessed for that service! It is soo awesome when you can see missionaries that finally are feeling and really getting to know what a mission is all about! Elder Law and i are doing awesome! I love him soo much! He is definitely going to be coming to Bear Lake after the mission! he is soo awesome! I love teaching with him! We had an awesome week again! Things are going soo good right now! LIFE IS GOOD!
We had zone conference this last week, and it was really really good, I love President Darrington, he always says what all of the missionaries need to hear! It was a great zone conference! This week we have presidents interviews, and we are going on exchanges with two different areas in our zone! I am going to be going on one with a former marine that is 25 years old, and the other one i am going to go with Elder Bellamy, My best friend from the MTC, i am way excited! It is going to be a great week! I cant believe how fast the weeks are going by! It seems like i was here doing this same thing just yesterday!”
3-9-09 “Things are going really good here! I absolutely cannot believe that it has been a whole week since i have written you!!!! The weeks are going soo fast right now, the fastest i believe in my whole mission! This week a huge highlight was i got a call in the mid week from a family that i am soo very close with from Apopka, The Montemayors! (they got baptized right before i got to Apopka, so i was really involved in the new member lessons, and starters steps and stuff) I love this family soo much! Anyways, they called me and told me that they are getting sealed for eternity in the temple on that Sat. and they want me to be there, they told me that they already called President Darrington and got permission for me to be there:-) so i had to scramble to find someone to take me, Elder Law stayed and worked with an exchange here, and i was able to go to the temple, That was soo awesome, i got to do the endowment session ( i did a name for sis blackwelder (bishops wife)) i did all of it in spanish too!!! That was my first time ever going to the temple in spanish, and i did the veil in spanish too, it was really good i loved it! I love going to the temple! The peace and spirit there is soo strong! But the best thing ever, was when they got sealed as a family, when they brought the two little kids in all dressed in white and that cute little family were all kneeled around the altar, i started getting all teary eyed, that is what it is all about, that is why we do missionary work, I am soo thankful i was there for it! That was amazing!
We had a good week, and the zone is doing really good too! I am loving serving with Elder Law! He only has 2 transfers left after this one, and we had presidents interviews this week, and we talked about it afterward, and we both ended up asking president if there was any way that we could finish his mission as companions, he said that we will see, i hope so, that would make me soo happy! Everything is going good here, i am loving it! Life is Great!”
3-16-09 “Things are going really good here! We had an awesome week, these weeks here have gone faster than any others in my entire life! I guess it is because everything is going soo good! To tell you a quick story, we were on a busy street contacting everyone, and at this particular moment we were contacting and teaching two young Guatemalan men and a guy walked up to us and tapped me on the shoulder and asked if he could have one of those books, referring to the book of mormon, so we finished teaching the two other guys, and then we started talking to him, and he told us that he has studied numerous different churches and has never studied ours before, we started talking to him about the book of mormon, joseph smith, and prophets, and he told us "all my life i have been looking for a prophet, i know there has to be one somewhere, God has to be speaking to someone, there has to be modern day revelation"!!! It was awesome, as we taught him everything clicked for him, he then begged us to come and teach him on wednesday, and he thanked us soo dearly! It was awesome, that is just one example of the way the lord has been blessing us here, we are finding soo many prepared people! It amazes me the way the lord works! We had awesome meetings this week! Things are just going soo good! Elder Law and i are working really hard, it feels like there is this fire inside of us that is burning soo strongly, i cant really explain it, i just feel soo excited to teach and talk to everyone, this gospel is soo deeply rooted within me, My savior, this gospel, and my family have become my all and my everything! Life is Awesome! And i am soo excited for all of these people that are learning these things right now, that are finally learning what life is all about, what real joy and happiness is! There is nothing better than this!
This week i had the opportunity to go with the elders in poinciana on exchanges, that was awesome to be in my birthplace, teaching and riding bikes on my old stomping grounds! That was really neat, i cant believe how many buildings have shot up in the last year! CRAZY!
On a very random hand, there are whats called "roach coaches", or just food trucks, all along the roads here, and they are food from every spanish country imaginable, and it is there REAL food, they just hang flags from whichever country they are from so people passing can decide between puerto rican food, cuban food, argentinian food, colombian, peruvian, guatemalan, salvadorean, and every where else! i have come to the consensus that my favorite food in the whole world is Venezualen food, It is amazing, when the fam comes to florida we are going to have to stop at one of the trucks and get a bite to eat, AREPAS are the best, sooooo goood! Well i have been random enough! Things are going awesome here! I love it!”
3-23-09 “We had a really good week! Last weekend was Presidents Transfer Calls already, i cannot believe how fast that transfer went by, and to my utter excitment elder law and i are staying together! Maybe we should start praying, because next transfer is his last one and i would love to stay with him! Things are going really well, An awesome family from cuba came to church this week, they are soo cool, they have been indulging themselves in the book of mormon, one of the biggest challenges in missionary work, at least here in spanish work, is getting them to actually read in the book of mormon, if they do read it is difficult to get them to understand, and if they do understand they rarely retain, but this family takes their books of mormon with them everywhere they go, they understand, even if they have to read it 4 or 5 times, and they retain it, they can recount to us everything that happens in 1st nephi, i was way excited about that!
This week we also did a service project for Step up Florida, the same service project i did exactly a year ago! It was fun, we had to get up at 4:30 to be there to set up though, that was a bummer, i was pretty tired most of the day, after being a missionary for more than a year with the exact same schedule every single day, and then change it, even just one day and it kinda messes you up, i am better now though, i think that today, after our usual games of intense NBA basketball games, i am going to take a big nap!!!!
Great news, i am typing this letter here right by our mission office in the unemployment center, and Elder Andersen (coach A's father) just walked over here to let me know that i have a PACKAGE in the office waiting for me! I do greatly enjoy those:-) i better wrap this up! i love you all soo much and thank you again for all that you do! Get better soon, good luck with everything, be strong, be happy, smile, and remember that i love you and i am praying for you! Love always, Elder Samuel Paul Burdick!”
A quick explanation of some of the pics… The one with the mounts he says, “wildlife at the church ranch” – with the alligator, “14’ stuffed gator named Gus that they caught on the ranch” – in the hammock he is studying Spanish – all the men in suits was taken his last Sunday in Viera – the rest are families he knows and loves
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Pictures!!
Along with his email this week, Elder Burdick sent a few pics…
baptism for Keyla Largo
Country Boys, LOL – Elder Green & Elder Burdick
Elder Green & Elder Burdick with Bishop Clark and Family
Last Two Weeks
Email 2/16/09 - We had a really good week here, i felt a little slow at Spanish right at first, but we are back in the full swing of things! Our zone is doing awesome right now! A lot of changes happened in these last transfers, and everyone is so excited to put stuff that happened in the past in the zone behind them and go to work! We had an amazing zone development meeting this week! It was based on zone unity and Elder Eyrings talk of Our hearts knit as one, with Elder Uchdorfs Lift where you stand! We had different examples and things we used, but what was really awesome is struggling missionaries in the past got up and bore their testimonies of how much they love the work, how much they are ready to do their part to be unified! Everyone was so involved in the meeting! The spirit was so strong! We have missionaries in this zone from all parts of the world and all walks of life, but it was amazing to see all of them coming together to be ONE! We have missionaries from Iran, from brazil, from Dominican Republic, Connecticut, California, Nevada, Colorado, Washington, Idaho :-), Utah, Tonga, and some others that i cant remember right now, we have a missionary that served as a marine for 5 years, we have college football and rugby players, missionaries from the poorest of poor families to the wealthiest of families, yet they all are humble and are ready to do the lords will! We also set goals as a zone for some of our key indicators, and this last week we tied the most new investigators found since la zona hispana was created, 56 new gators! Things are looking really good in the zone, everyone is so excited to make things happen! This week should be really good!
I love my new area, members, investigators, and My companion! We get along really good and he is a really good guy, and very funny! I am so excited to be serving with him! we have a lot of good things already happening! There is a recent convert family here that is so awesome the Largo family, missionaries tracted into them and in a matter of months the father and son were baptized, but we just barely set a date for the wife for THIS Sunday morning before church and her husband is going to be baptizing her! Yesterday at church in relief society they were talking about blessings they have received from missionary work, because the majority in there are all converts and sis largo got up and said " it has changed absolutely every aspect of my life, when the missionaries knocked on our door we were in the middle of a divorce, our family was falling apart, both of us had just lost our jobs, and our son was getting into bad stuff, but then the gospel came into our lives and has saved everything! This is the happiest i have ever been in my whole life, our marriage is better than ever, we have great jobs that we love, and our son is so happy and loves going to church! It was awesome to hear her testimony! We have some other good things going on here, and some dates to set asap! The zone leaders have full permission to talk to each other whenever, and so i get to talk to elder green every now and then, and our investigators are doing great there as well, i have already got permission to go back to viera for their baptisms! I am way excited! i am very thankful for this opportunity i have been given to serve here in this ward, in this companionship, and the missionaries in the zone! Please pray for the missionaries in la zona hispana!
i better go, we have a basketball game that was challenged from the English missionaries here, so we need to go and do some schooling :-) jk
Email 2/23/09 - We had an amazing week! I loved it! My Companion’s name is Elder Law, he is from Gilbert Arizona, he played football and volleyball in high school, he is about 6'1", reddish hair, and AWESOME! he only has 3 transfers left on his mission! And we are praying that we stay together for them! I would love that! We get along so good, he has become in just two short weeks, one of my best friends (after the fam, of course;) He is so funny, and we have such a good time! We are always laughing, and when we are finding, planning, or teaching the spirit is so strong! This week has been amazing! The lord is blessing us sooo much! Everything is going great! We had our baptism on Sunday morning and it went awesome! It was so cool seeing the foundation being laid for an awesome eternal family! Throughout the week we found 14 new investigators and we set baptismal dates with 3 of them!! For the sake of time i will give a brief summary of them! We found a less active part member family, and when we knocked on the door the father invited us right in, and before we could even get completely settled in on the couch he told us that we was so thankful that we came to his house, because he has been thinking a lot lately and he would love to get back in the church and also to baptize his son! It was so cool, so right there we set a longitudinal plan and set a date with requirements to be able to baptize his son, we are going to be teaching him twice a week! The next one was Lauren Gonzalez, we tracted into her on Tuesday and as we were doing a regular door contact she started crying, and when we asked her if there was anything that we could do for her, she told us that we already have! She said that she has been wondering if God really loves her enough to answer her prayers, because she had been praying for a few days to have a sign or to open her eyes, because she needs something, she didn’t know what, but she needed something, she knew that there were more out there, and then she testified to us that we were an answer to her prayers, we left her the Book of Mormon to read and we went back on Thursday and set a date for her baptism on the 15th of march! The third one was Gilberto Sanchez! We tracted into him yesterday after church and as soon as he opened the door, he was so friendly, he is a from the Dominican Republic, about late 50s early 60s, had a car accident years ago that left half of his face badly scared a damaged, but when he opened the door he invited us right in, at first we were thinking that he might be just a lonely guy needing someone to talk to, but before we could sit down again, he told us that our Temple in Dominican Republic is beautiful and the church just recently built another "worship building" (chapel) near him that he loved to look at, he told us that the missionaries in D.R. had taught him for a long time and he had received all the lessons, but was never baptized and lost contact with them, but he was still reading in the Book of Mormon, and he was currently in Alma! He was soo friendly and open that we could be completely open with him! We immediately asked him if he believed that the book of mormon is true "of course i do" if he believes Joseph Smith was a Prophet "no doubt in my mind" if he Believed that this church is the true church of God once again here on the earth, "i know it is" so then we asked him, Why aren’t you baptized? he was a little nervous and he told us that he has the desire but that he has always wanted to complete the Book of Mormon first! So we told him that he already knew all he needed to know to be baptized, but that we respect his requests, so we set appts to come every single day to read with him for 45 minutes and in 3 weeks he is going to be baptized when we finish it with him! He was so excited! i am so excited too! It is going to be awesome! We set his date for the 15th of march as well! This week has been so good! We have some pretty awesome goals as a companionship and we are ready to do our part and we know without a shadow of a doubt that the lord will do his! D&C 82:10 -Life is good-
The Zone is doing amazing! Every area is doing awesome in their companionships, we found 70 new investigators as a zone this week and set 11 new dates, with 1331 people contacted! and it is rolling over into all of our other key indicators! Everything is going so well! The lord is definitely blessing the Zone! We just gotta keep them all up and running! They still have so much more potential, they are amazing missionaries! I love all of them so much! They are all excited to go to work even harder this week!
Elder Burdick with Elder Law at the Couples Valentine’s party for our ward, we were invited to be greeters for the non members! (And picture takers)
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Transferred
Things have been going great here! We were so stoked, we had 6 investigators at church, two of which have bap dates, and a couple of them were people we just tracted into! We had an awesome experience with Mark, he is a guy in his mid 30s that we tracted into earlier in the week, and right off the bat we knew that he was Golden, he asked us all the right questions, he has been on a soul search for the truth, and just by studying the bible on his own, he knows that the authority of God is important, so he asked where and how he can find it, and he asked about Prophets in our day, and he even said "this might sound a lil crazy but I believe there is a literal spirit world where our bodies go before resurrection, where we can continue to learn and grow! Anyway he showed up to church yesterday and loved it, he stayed the 3 hours, and then after church it was just him and us in the chapel teaching him for about an hour or so, he said I love all of it, I really do, I just want to know about Baptism! It was awesome!
Another one of our investigators that was at church that has a bap date is Kacy Kemp, she is 18 years old and is living on Patrick air force base, she just entered the air force 6 months ago and is from North Dakota! When one of our members out there (an R.M.:-) invited over to another members place to play board games she asked if there was going to be alcohol, because she wont come if there is, he said, "nope, we are all mormons" and she didn't know what that meant, she had never heard of the church before! Her father and mother raised them going to a number of different churches, mostly presbyterian, and she was very confused about religion growing up, but we have started teaching her, and she is flying through the Book of Mormon, and she LOVES it! She already believes it is true, and she is so excited to be baptized. in her own words "this time the right way and for good" It is awesome, I can totally see this becoming one of those stories where he baptizes her and they get married in the temple! I hope so at least:-)
Our other date is Beth Ryan, she has had a date before, but this time she said that she is ready to "cut the crap" and she is giving up smoking! She is being so stalwart and is doing so good!
My new apartment is about 1/4 mile from Pres and Sis Darrington's home and about 2 miles from the mission office, so as far as mail goes, just use the mission office address, it will get there really quick and I can just pick it up from there when we drive past. I better go because i still have to do alot of packing, I love you all so much and I am praying for you!
Love, Elder Burdick
Monday, February 2, 2009
Today's email
We had another really good week, finding 8 new gators (investigators) having 7 lessons in members homes, setting 1 date with someone for the first time, and having another person at church for the first time besides our "usuals":-)
we have had some really cold days this week, like down to 50 some days, poor me huh:-( Jk, I cant believe how much I have acclimated and my blood has thinned out, some mornings I wake up freezing! it will probably only get warmer from here!
Yesterday we had a cool surprise, our bishopric found out right before our pec meetings that David Archuletta (cant spell his last name, the really popular american idol kid) was in town visiting some members from Palm Bay and that he was going to do a fireside in rockledge at 6;30 that night, it was funny, everyone thought it was a joke to pull people away from the superbowl, but then our bishop called our stake president and it was real, I don't know much about this kid, but he must be a big deal, because there were soo many gasps when they announced it from the pulpit, and we have two high school age investigators that were not going to miss it for the world, so we were allowed to go, because it would be dead trying to do work during the superbowl! It was funny, we got there about 15 minutes prior and the stake center was already getting packed, I think that there was all of floridas young women there, anyway he showed up about 10 minutes late, and when he walked in, everyone stopped talking immediately, I didn't see the big deal, but then he sang a solo, and that was amazing!!! he sang be still my soul, one of my absolute favorite hymns, he was awesome, then he answered questions for about and hour, it wasn't too well organized because it was set up the morning of, but then he sang I know that my redeemer lives, and it was amazing again, it brought such a strong spirit, i love music, especially the hymns!
afterward he was signing and taking pics, and we had to leave to be home on time soo bishop clarks daughters were waiting in the HUGE line, so we gave them our little white books, and he signed one of the blank back pages, i guess he must be pretty popular, because they were making a really big deal out of it, i thought it was cool though that he would take an evening while on vacation to talk to the youth and help them understand what is "important" in life!
This video is from a fireside back in June 08, but I imagine this is what Sam heard. :)
Today's Email
love,Elder Burdick
Monday, January 26, 2009
Today's detail-less email
Hey fam!
Thank you soo much for all of your emails! I definitely have thee coolest family ever!
Well, I know that i have had some great weeks in the past, but this last week definitely surpasses them all! I have just had the most amazing week of my entire mission i believe! The lord has soo richly blessed us! We taught soo many spiritual lessons this week and sooo many amazing people! We taught probably about 7-8 lessons a day, most of which were in members homes, we were being led every step to prepared people! When we would go contacting we would meet the most amazing people one right after another and we had our phone ringing like crazy for more appointments to be set up! We have served with all our heart, might, mind, and strength, and the lord has blessed us for it! It is soo satisfying at the end of the week to look back and know that you did your absolute best, and that you filled the measure of your creation! That you laid it all out on the line for the Lord, and received blessings from on high! I give all credit to him, but i am soo thankful for the opportunity to have him work through me! It seems like when we weren't teaching, we were on our knees thanking the lord and praying to find the next lost sheep! The spirit of God like a fire is Burning!
Thank you soo much for all that you do! I love you soo much! I am praying for you! Love, Elder Burdick ps. The church is soo TRUE!
Now you are as informed as the rest of us! :)
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
January News
Email 1/5/09 - "EEERRRRRR, It deleted my whole email when I tried to send! I don't have time to write it again, I will have to send some snail mail home today! and mom will have to update!!! SUPER BUMMER!"
Snail mail - "So here I am writing some snail mail, I was silently pretty upset at my computer! So I will try and remember everything I had written in the email. :(
Things are going really good here! I already love my new companion, Elder Green. He is from Santaquin, Utah, about 20 minutes south of Provo. He is an awesome missionary with a very powerful testimony! We are already really good friends! I love teaching with him! The Lord has already blessed us with so many new investigators and teaching opportunities. On Saturday we had been tracting for about 1 1/2 hours and we knocked on this one door & they invited us in before we could even say anything! Turns out that they had been to church before in South Carolina and then moved down here. They had two copies of the Book of Mormon, one in English and one in Japanese! What is crazy is the day before we were in Orlando for our zone leader meetings and I was in the supply room looking for things and I came across a Japanese video (that is only in Japanese, Chinese, and Korean) so I thought 'hmmm, this might come in handy', so I picked it up and the very next day we tracted into the very first Japanese person I have met on my mission! It was awesome! We taught the whole first discussion right there and tonight we have a dinner appointment to have sushi and afterwards watch that video I picked up! The Lord works is mysterious ways!
I had a really great Sunday, I loved it, we had so many investigators show up, even ones we found the day before tracting! The Lord is definitely blessing us right now!
...we found out the whole mission is getting cell phones! in two weeks! I am so stoked, I have been on both sides, with and without, and they are definitely an asset to the work! We are even getting rid of all the fax machines, even media referrals from SLC will be by text. There are going to be tight restrictions on the regular cell phones, so there won't be any probs with disobedience! I am really excited!"
Email 1/12/09 - "Things are going great here! We had an awesome week! And had some more amazing experiences with people that the Lord has put in our paths as we have been tracting! At our zone leader meeting President Darrington also introduced a "new" way of contacting people at the door, and just like all things you get out of it what you put into it! Some missionaries that are awesome missionaries in our zone loved it, while others weren't very excited about it! We have been doing it ourselves and it definitely helps find those that have been prepared, so this week we are going to go on ALOT of exchanges with the missionaries in our zone to get them excited about it and show them by example how they can use it, I think that is one of my favorite things about being a zone leader, being able to go and spend a day and a half with another missionary in their area, to learn and grow together, and to get to know them and help them find more joy in the work! I love the missionaries in our zone right now!
We had stake conference this last weekend in Rockledge and I didn't know it until right before that there was going to be two of the 70's there! It was an amazing spiritual stake conference! The spirit was so strong in that room! It was Elder Andersen (area 70) and Elder L. Whitney Clayton of the presidency of the 70! He was an amazing speaker, I loved his talk!
This morning for p-day, we drove out to the church ranch and took their tour! It is amazing that over 300,000 acres of a ranch could have the spirit just as soon as you entered at the gate! It is amazing how the lord has instructed his servants to take care of that land! We got to see thousands of cattle and gators and all the old houses! It was really neat!
In my thoughts and journal I have been thinking a lot about changes I have seen in my own life since coming on my mission! GEEZ, I couldn't imagine not being here, doing this, learning what life is really about, but most of all learning who my Savior is and sharing that with others! I love this work and my Savior with all my heart!"
Email 1/20/09 - "Things are going really good here, we had a great week last Week, we had zone conference last week on Tuesday down in Palm Bay, and Elder green and I were asked to do a training on finding by the spirit! It went really well, lately we have been really focusing on the spirit lately and finding the lords elect, and I love it, we have such an awesome time tracting, sounds crazy I know, but we love it, the spirit has been so strong, it is almost as if we can feel if the person is going to be receptive before they even open the door!
This last Sunday we had our Wards Preach My Gospel Kickoff, where we presented to every single member of the ward during the third hour the study guide that we have been working on for quit a while! It is going to be awesome! I want to send the study guide home to you so that all of you can do it as well! It is to be done as families in family home evening with specific reading sections and commitments, for a span of 10 weeks, and at the end of the 10 weeks we are going to have an awesome Easter Fireside, for them to bring all the people that they have been working with! It is going to be really cool! We got everyone really excited about it! I think it would be so cool for you to do it as well!
This week has been so great! The spirit is so strong, I have never felt so guided and led before in my entire life as I have been here! I am so excited for this week, We have so many appts set up, about 4 or 5 on most days, and the rest of the time we can't wait to go tracting!
On Monday, being a holiday all of the youth had school off, so we set up an ultimate frisbee tournament, for them to bring their non member friends along, it was so fun, so many of even the old guys showed up to play, and we had some great non members there! We played for about 3 hours straight! I loved It!"
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Sunrise at the Beach
The Patrick air force base is in our area, so the other day we went out there to eat with some members that live on base, it was way cool crossing the Indian river to get to the beach side, and I saw the Atlantic ocean for the first time in real person, I love the ocean, I can't wait because the last p-day of every transfer the coastal zones get to go to the beach early in the morning to watch the sunrises, that will be awesome! -Email 10/20/2008
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| November 3, 2008 |
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| November 3, 2008 |
Today was zone p-day, so we had the opportunity to go to a sunrise as a zone on the beach, it was way cool, and I took lots of cool pics to send home! afterward we played beach volleyball, and then went to Melbourne's chapel and watched the Emma Smith Movie, it was way cool to be on the beach, I am def. coming back here to go surfing! - Email 11/3/2008
October 2008 pictures
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| October 2, 2009 |
"In two weeks we will be having a mission tour with Elder Kenneth Johnson, The British 70, he will be attending all the zone conferences, and doing training's, I am really excited, it should be neat!" - Email dated 10/6/2008 "First off, on Wednesday night we had an investigator fireside in Orlando as part of Elder Johnson, of the seventy) (the British one), as part of his mission tour, we were able to go out there with a member and take Beth Ryan to it, it was amazing, it was one straight hour of spiritual power, it was crazy I was actually exhausted afterward, he just laid it all out on the line! Then on Friday we had our zone conference down in Palm Bay, for all of the south missionaries, It was amazing, General authorities are definitely different when they aren't behind the general conference pulpit, Elder Johnson has such a great personality! It was such and spiritual and fun zone conference, he kept calling people at random to do things, and he called me up and said Elder Burdick, bear us your testimony, my heart started to beat, and so i said a little prayer in my heart, and all of a sudden everything was sooo calm, like I was on the beach or something! Words were put in my mouth! After zone conference he met with the zone leaders, there were only four of us for the south, so it was just us and Elder Johnson and President Darrington in a room, that was awesome as well, i got to have a great conversation with him and being a missionary and he gave me some great advice." - Email dated 10/20/2008
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| October 27,2008 |
September 2008 Pictures
Monday night, i went to the spanish get together for mi cumpleano, and my comp somehow ordered a pinata that looks like a missionary with a name tag on it, it was really fun!
-Email dated 9/15/2008
Random Pictures - Summer
-Email dated 5/19/08
Sunday, January 4, 2009
Flashback to Halloween
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In Elder Burdick's words, "Halloween is this week, but last saturday was our fall festival, it was way fun, we have been working with our members like crazy to bring people to it, and probably half of the people there weren't members it was really cool, and also, for our festival, since i had alot of potter stuff we got dressed up for the occassion, it was way to scary to me how much i looked like Harry Potter, I had the tie, glasses, Gryffindor seal, lighting bolt, scrufy hair, and a wand carved out of Orange Tree wood from behind our house, and my companion was Draco Malfoy with all the Slytherin stuff, he is a huge fan, so he knew exactly what we needed to wear, it was funny, the members got a great kick out of it!" - Email dated 10/27/2008
