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
