Ding fries are done, ding fries are done

Mission Conference - International Zone

 

Mother Superior!!!!!

I experienced like Christmassy-thingy things for the first time this Dec ( well, more like saw them).  We went with the Korean Elder and I went caroling! We didn’t find any Asians but a lot of teenagers wanted to take pictures with us. This reminds me of the time that one of your younger investigators Mia, who is 19, took a selfi photo ( Melissa, you can explain to dad and mom what that is) with me in the middle of the ward thanksgiving activity. Everyone in the branch saw it and was like IIII AAAHH Bu Zhang Lao, Ni shi Chuanjiao shi. Bu XING BU XING ( ahh Elder Burr you are a missionary you can’t, YOU CANT!!) ahh classic. haha gotta love the branch members.

Samson and Tiffany went out with us to dinner with the Brother Chen to get some Japanese food. I am pretty sure he dropped like $400 dollars on them so they better get baptized now!!

Skyp-e skype-e alright, I will do it Christmas Morning, and by morning I mean probably like 1pm-3pm. I bet I can give you a call Christmas and set it up! Ahh I hope you all have so much fun this Christmas AND cherish the time you have together. 

Time flies on the mission. Where the heck did these past 4 months go!! It’s crazy on the missions, and it is crazy when things go exactly like the scriptures say the will go. We were teaching Ji Wu, he is from Shang Hai and we pretty much were the first persons to tell him about Jesus Christ. We were teaching him the restoration and the atonement and I asked him why, why did he feel like Jesus Christ atoned for us. And he thought for a long time, a long time, and he said, “because he loves us." The truth makes sense, the truth is simple, and it is for everyone!! From the oldest of wrinkly Chinese dudes, to the youngest of kids. We took a family to the Visitor’s Center, and we sat in front of the big white statues of Jesus, and we played the recording of  Jesus voice and at that time this family’s son, who is like in first grade, just closed his eyes, bowed his head, and folded his arms and just listened and prayed to Christ. JOY TO THE WORLD!!!! Our creator, the Master of the Universe ( He-man??) wants us to return to Him, so he gave us His only Begotten son to be our Savior, I know this email will get to you guys after Christmas but whatever! I love testifying of Christ!! It’s so lame when we walk down the streets and people yell at us " blah blah I already believe in Jesus, you are wasting your time." He has given us so much!! and people, just like in ancient times, are rejecting Him. It stinks!!

I have been thinking a lot about love and charity. This is the season of giving, it is the time we could help other people, everyone understand this. In Mark 12 it talks about the 2 greatest commandments, love thy God and love thy neighbor, that these are the most important things anyone can do!! Then in Ether 12, it talks about without love, you cannot inherit the kingdom of God, you can have faith, and hope, but without charity, without love, you will not make it. I didn’t understand this, I did not get it. We have a ton of commandments, why this one?? Luke 7:46 (I think) explained it to me ( I love the scriptures. read, believe and obey them family!!) Luke 7 talks about a lady, who was a sinner. But she showed great love to Jesus, even to the point of washing his feet with her tears. And Jesus said " her sins, which are many are forgiving, for she loved much, and to thee that loves little, the same is forgiven." Love saves us because loving another person allowed us to understand the Atonement. Jesus Christ atoned for us because he loved the fathers will more than his own ( thy will, not mine be done) he loved us more than his own well-being. We like wise need to turn out, to think of others, to love others. Only then can we understand the Atonement and allow it to change us and improve us. Eventually making us perfect alongside Heavenly Father!! This Christmas, we are so lucky we can be reminded to help others, to love others. And remember that Heavenly Father loved us so much SO MUCH, he gave us a Savior. I love you all, sorry for the ranting!!!! Merry Christmas!! Sheng Dan Kuai Le!!

Elder Burr

P.S. Amanda, I love away in a manger too! (does Taiwan have Dai So?)

Pres. & Sister Weidman

Ricky and Mia

Lone Peakers!

I did it again!!

Ahhh it's 5:15 and I have a dinner appointment at 5:30!!! I wasted all my time trying to get a referral out of the guy next to me but he kept going back to how Facebook should be easier to use and technology stinks!! ahhh

 

Also, Imagine Dragons should make a Mormon Message, I am teaching a guy who loves them and he doesn't believe me they are Mormon!!

Uuuhh, all I know is we taught 10 lessons this week which was a something I have never done on the mission!! Thank you for the prayers you guys!!T hey keep me going.

We tried to make a Christmas card.

love you!!

I'm in trouble deep ... and I'm keeping my baby

AHH, sorry my subject liner is so wordly!!  But my comp failed the driving test!!!! So, no exchanges for me.  I will stay in my area until, my dreams of pillow fights and scripture-box making up North won’t be accomplished for the next year, or so. (On average, a Chinese Elder will spend a year in his first area) 

IS ERIC TAYLOR HOME??  

MOM - GONG XI - GONG XI - GONG XI !!  I am so happy that you can sleep now!! and in your own bed, not on the couch!  You are so dang smart. All the Chinese people here like to talk about their masters in blah-blah and I always say, “Well my mom has a Masters in Mathematics".  Mom, I have shared your conversion story at a lot of our dinner messages. Thank you so much!! I know it will help inspire members to bring friends to English Class, so we won’t get the ax. Our mission has been trying to focus on Deep Faith and High Expectations.  And I believe that is how you and Dad raised us and I thank Heavenly Father every day that I had a family that taught me the Gospel and made me who I am today and gave me the tools to obtain my own testimony. I think I just miss you guys.  It’s not good for greeny missionaries to come out so near the holidays.  But hey, I am done with my training so I guess I am not greeny anymore. 

So, Mia (the 19-year old from China) and went with us to a YSA activity on Thursday, it was super weird wearing jeans and playing frisbee on a Thursday at 8 o clack in the evening. It is hard, I have noticed, to get young adults into the Church??  Here is how most people think it should go 1yr-18yr high school 19-25yr college and $$$ 25-35yr fun and $$$ 35-death family time. AAAHH but we just have to continue to believe that true doctrine will change people! Bottom line, this is true, that’s it.

HEY my friend Hailey Twede (Hayden’s girlfriend) got her mission call to Russia, could you give her a congrats for me!!!

I told you guys.  I TOLD YOU the visitor’s center is where conversion can happen. We took Samson and Tiffany there yesterday, they watched God’s plan for his family and everyone just started feeling the spirit and it was so wonderful. They have a date for Jan 5th now. Neeto Gang!! Samson said something that really touched my heart. When we were teaching him the Law of Chastity and he accepted to keep it, we asked why?  And he said something on the lines of, “with the gospel, I don’t feel forced with anything, it just comes natural. I look at you guys, and it’s just a part of your life, and I want it to be a part of my life." This is truth. We lived with God in heaven, we know this is what he wants for us, in our heart and in our souls!! The Gospel is who we are, everything else in life is an appendage. I know most of our investigators don’t understand this and I know for pretty much my whole life I didn’t understand this. But it’s a process, understanding and know our Heavenly Father is a process and that’s why I am so happy. God gave us a perfect plan where we have the Atonement of Christ!!  

Have a wonderful Christmas!! Please go skiing as a family for me and send a pic!! The only thing that gets me to sleep at night is thoughts of powder.

I am bummed I won’t be able to watch Mr. Kruger’s Christmas with you all, or put up the lights. I bet Braden will have fun with it!

MOM thanks for the Chinese class Christmas music!

Thank you for the Christmas qian!!

Love you all!!

NFL returns to LA 老鹰

Hi Brother Burr, we just attended Sacrament Meeting with Elder Burr.  What a great missionary.  We spoke some Chinese and he is now teaching a Gospel Essentials class in Chinese with his companion.
-Chad and Michelle Lewis

chu chu mau lu ( 1 1 2 2 )

Funky Fresh Week!!

 

So this week was Thanksgiving, I tried my hardest to make a voice recording, but my mind kept rambling on into nonsense. I will compose myself and send one next week.

 

Wow, Thanksgiving has gone and went on now its Dec...WHAT  THE!! Hey is Eric Taylor home from his mission yet?? (rambling on into nonsense?)

 

So for Thanksgiving, we went to Christopher Tungs house, he is pretty crazy....he is like 45 and the craziest. He gets really depressed and stressed over lttle weird things. His house got struck by lighting and that sent him into months of sadness. BUT he's all good now and he tells us our fortune. So when we went over their, it was the first time that he had used his oven in 10 years. He cooked for us, and he never cooks, and I was so happy I got to spend Thanksgiving with someone that doesn't have anyone else to spend it with. It really was heart warming.

 

So, we found out some awesome news....2 awesome new's. So Liu DX got baptized 3 or 4 weeks ago, and now his wife wants to be bapized! So we have been teaching them together and it has been so good because not only does she understand super well, Liu DX, who has known about the church for maybe 3 or 4 months, is teaching right along with us!! I was talking about the atonement and how it allows us to return to Heavenly Father, and I finsihed talking and Liu DX said " ahh don't forget, it also overcame physical death that we could have ressurected bodies." AHHH I was so pumped on that. 

 

Also, so Samson and Tiffany, also an awesome pair of investigators. We were teaching Samson the law of chastity (this is the one we were scared for because they were co-habitating) TURNS OUT they are already married!! They legally sealed the deal in China at the beggining of the year, but they never had the marriage party with all the friends, and apparently that's when people think you are married in China so that's why they don't tell people they are married. So we just have to clear that with President and they should get baptized too!!

 

ALSO, the teacher we TA for at the Chinese School every Saturday, her daughter moved here from China. And last Saturday the teacher pulled me aside and said, "I think religion is good for my daughter, I want her to be baptized." !! So it's just miracles, it is a work of miracles!!!

 

Wow, I feel so blessed right now, it's weird, during the experience you don't understand how amazing it is. And as I look back it's just so awesome!! I know I haven't done anything to help these people, it has all been the Lord and his Spirit and his true gospel.

 

Also, I have been meaning to tell you, my companion. Elder Bowman, his familly lives in Alpine, maybe you should drop by.

 

Love you all.

 

Dad; sunsets here are pretty good, I'll snap some pics if I'm near the ocean

 

Mom: Wo hui wei ni zuo qidao

 

Tori: ahhhhhh! I don't know!!! Let me think about it !!

 

Love you all,

Elder Burr

xili

(post-dated 11-18-2013)

Ahh, I missed last week!! Veterans Day is shutting down all the libraries. Well we had the Baptism for Liu Batal. He pulled up in his brand new whip ( Kia Soul), we are trying to convince him now to hurry up and have a baby with his wife so he can get residency and a real job so he can come to church on Sunday, but citizenship means taxes so..... DUDE Chad Lewis fireside, he came to our branch and snapped a pic of us together check your smart phones mom and dad and told him to shoot you a picture message. He spoke in Chinese at the Visitors Center, it was a  good one, we had two families come, 1 who are investigating and 1 who we are trying to get started.

 

We are now a companionship, Elder Bergeson's 2 years are up and now it is just Elder Bowman and I. He is so funny, he gets under so much stress and paces with his fist clenched. Real though, I will record a video one time.

 

We got 2 new chinese Elders and they split UCLA and USC into two areas, they said we will have a total of 10 Chinnese elders by Feb.

 

AMANDA thank you so much for the books, I have been slamming Phase 1, my goal is to du wan and du bei by the end of next transfer, your characters looked so good on the package and a rofllolzed at the toothpaste! Hei ren!! so racisit! thanks for the stickers, one of the baptisms in the branch in like 2009, the guy started investigating because he read the sticker on an elders scriptues, I put it on my  Jing wen de he zi and flash it all the time. If you need anything in 'merice just tell me, I will look for a sweet kolby bryans jersey to send you ..BALLIN

 

DAD Sick beard!! dont get kidnapped by the cartel....or lamanites...but if you do get kidnapped by lamanites ( like limhis people) just give them some drugged up wine, they fall for it everytime!!

 

MOM Thank you so much for the conversion story, people always ask me so many questions about you and I never know what to say ( uhhh from hong kong, tun mun, last name lai) but now i can totally go off and brag about you. So many Chinese people say, " you are young, and you have had so much time to believe in God, I am too old and have not believed for so long, I cant change" They can change!!!

 

TORI Good luck w/ the kids at home! thanks for the dear Elder! I eat alot of beef noodle at this place called Sues Kitchen,  its pretty authentic. but i have not gotton to the mighty wings yet!! Did you ever finnish those online classes??

 

Everyday every hour we are doing Mathew 10:7,8 and as you go preach saying The kingdom of heaven is at hand.

Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give.

 

Sometimes I get pretty down on the mission. But like dad said, you have to start everyday like its a new one. I have to always remember that I have been called to do these things!! ^^^^ < those are arrows pointing to the scripture. Not only that, but the Lord wants to give me these blessings too. I love you guys!

 

Elder Burr

Family!!

First things first! We are having Thanksgiving with a 40 something-year-old, millionaire bachelor, who is also A FORTUNE TELLER!!! So I need to know the hour I was born so I can figure out how many gold, metal, water, wood, and fire is in my future (??????) 

Ahh, the first holiday away ( yeah, forget you Halloween). Just like Dad said, I'll be saying " ahh man, what is it like to be out for Thanksgiving? and BAM its here ".  I'll wonder what is it like to be out here 6 months and BAM its here. Time flies. Really, we do not have enough time in the day. Maybe because we are in the car all day. I hate being in the car, it is like an invisibility shield, you can't talk with anyone. BUT I get to listen to Amanda's CDs ( THANK YOU!! SO MUCH. wo hen ganji) 

So, the thing I have to be so impressed with is our investigators Samson and Tiffany. Tiffany was the one that original made them come to a Christian church and Samson was like " yeah whatever, I'll go along with it." But he is totally starting to change, last Sunday, Tiffany was sick so Samson came by himself, and the next time we met, Tiffany was said, "I thought he was joking when he left the house and said he was going to Church, but he came back and he said it felt so good!!" And then that week we taught them "Keep the Sabbath Day Holy" and that jazz. And that Sunday he got slammed with a work emergency and he couldn't go to the first 2 hours of Church. BUT THEY CAME TO THE LAST HOUR and when they got there he told me " yeah, Tiffany didn't want to come because she thought we were too late, but I said WE HAVE TO GO ITS A COMMANDMENT!!! awesome!! It just stinks they are co-habitation.....but they should get married.

That is cool that Mexico was awesome, back to the USA. The government being in the tank has been a strange blessing to us. All the funding got cut from the Adult Schools in the area so they all shut down, now the ESL students there have to come to our free English class!!! I'm scared though, since Los Angeles is always looking for reasons to riot. English Class is probably the best part of the week. Gu TaiTai is straight out of China and she is so sweet and kind, she lost her mind with excitement when she learned the word 'yep' haha but dang, if we don't get more investigators from English Class, Pres is going to shut us down ;' (    

I guess that means more advertisements and more prayer. ALSO we went to the LA temple, that one is sweet. The inside is wild. Whenever we tell people about the temple they will be like " oh, that big building with all that grass" people in LA downtown never see grass. Hey, may I recommend going to the Visitors Center in Salt Lake City. They really are sacred places, people are converted and receive a change of heart from those places. 

Well love you all so much!! 

Elder Burr....out