\(^o^)/

I don't know if it is appropriate but I send that emoticon pretty frequent to my investigators. BUT Familia, thank you so much for the love and the pictures. The family reunion look so sweet, the mineral pool said relaxation only, I really wonder if that is really all it was used for. I am just having so many good memories flash in my mind right now, good times in the cabin!

But the work is good. It is pretty awesome having a companion that is really normal and sound in the doctrine and had awesome ideas. I am super blessed right now and am praying like Job that God doesn't take it away. Bo Yi and Near passed their Baptismal Interviews!! I really am also so blessed for being able to teach those two guys, they were so prepared by the spirit!

Met a guy named Jeremiah DeSpain, and he was way into the church and wanted to join (he wasn't Chinese but we talked to him on the streets) he has read the Book of Mormon and Preach my Gospel and all kinds of other Church books. He asked us the requirements for baptism and we told him, “go to church 3 times, obey all the commandments, repent, endure to the end." And he responds, "So this endure to the end thing, how long is that? Like 3 weeks?" hahah That was pretty funny. People have a really crazy view of religion,(just like Amanda said) but hey, this is the true Church, that's why we live it till we die, and not just for 3 weeks or when it is convenient to us, but every day.

Love you guys!

Elder Burr

P.S. Thanks for the package! Why the flip flops?

PUT ME IN COACH!!! Fall 2014

TRANSFERS Age of Extinction!!!

Familia, I am staying in USC (YES!) which means I will be here for Fall Semester 2014!! Hopefully USC plays Utah at home in football and Grandpa can fly down here....jk don't do that....maybe. But yeah, I am super excited!! My time with Elder Bria is over though.....he will be moving on to UCLA Chinese. My next stop on the mission is probably UCLA Chinese or going English.

BUT I get another blondie companion. I guess because on the outside I look Chinese, President thinks I am a native speaker....nope....so much stress comes from not knowing what the heck people are saying! But I guess that just motivates you to get more members at your lessons. But really, I have had to learn the gospel so simply because I just can’t explain it with any other words. It’s made me appreciate the simple foundation of the doctrine of Christ. Faith in the Savior, Repenting, Baptism, the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end. I love hearing simple talks from members on this subject because these simple truths are what make the Gospel true!

So my new companion will be Elder Cooper! The cool thing about LA Chinese program is I know exactly who my companions will be. We all meet together every Friday at District Meeting, so it’s not that weird switching. He is also on his 3rd or 4th move call so he is very young. He is from Layton Utah so look up his parents or something. I am pretty excited, partly because I will be able to get to sleep on time because no more wrestling with Elder Bria. I will also be here to help Near and Bo Yi continue to progress to their goal of August 3rd!!!!!! haha they are super ready, but Near wore a black tank-top to church on Sunday. So besides the dress code, it’s all good! 

Family I am sorry I have not been sending pictures, I can’t find my camera cord, but I will get one today.

AHH man!! I loved seeing the pictures that Mom sent! Melissa and Tina look so big and grown up. I am so happy you guys are safe and healthy. Melissa!!! Go all the way, follow your dream! Always stay active and always be improving in your talents! You are so cool.

And Tina! You are also so cool! I likes that serious picture of you and the other Flooglehorns ( I think that's what it’s called) that takes a lot of responsibility to do High School marching band! Keep it up!

Rebecca! You seem so mature from the stories Mom and Dad tell me. Save up those big bucks for your mission!! #Chinesespeaking2016

So, Mrs. Wen, the Chinese lady, we met with her again. TURNS OUT she is not human and has been ministered to by angels and she gave me a manifesto of all the things that are wrong with the Church and that it has gone astray and that the Chinese government sends secret agents to join the Church and bring it down. ( I think she also said she was Jesus Christ but I am not sure) anyways, what I had to do was just flat out raise my voice to this little old Chinese lady and tell her no, that's not true. We just talked with her for like 2 hours and she would not back down. I just told her that I don't believe her and that she does not have the authority to receive this kind of stuff.  It was so weird. I never want to do that again. But looking back at that, I thought about how Jesus came to the Jews, and He said "Guys, it’s me, I am the Messiah." and all the Jews and Pharisees were thinking, “is this not Joseph's son?" They totally didn't believe Him. They had a ton of reasons to not believe him. It was just outrageous for them to think that Jesus of Nazareth was The Christ. Just like it was crazy to think Mrs. Wen from downtown LA was a prophetess. What allowed them to believe, what allowed all of Jesus followers to overcome those doubts was the gift that is most precious, the gift that is from God for our salvation, it is the Spirit! When Jesus spoke, the Spirit was with him, and it touched the people’s hearts, and they knew it was true. Without the Spirit, without this personal testifier of truth, we could look upon Jesus Christ with our own eyes, and we would not know of his divinity. When Mrs. Wen talked to me, the Spirit wasn't there, I knew it wasn't true. BUT every day, the Spirit can testify of the message of the restoration, the spirit of God will tell the hearts of all mankind that Jesus is the Christ and that his Gospel is on the Earth. I am so grateful for the power of the spirit and the Gift of the Holy Ghost I received from my father when I was 8 (both earthly and heavenly) this experience for sure gave me a new found gratitude of the spirit, and a gratitude that God wants to help me and everyone else know for ourselves what is true and what is not. Which knowledge will help us eventually return to live with him.

It’s all connected! How awesome is that!! The Church is true guys!!!

Well, sorry this got so long, I love you guys!

Elder Burr

Front row seats to the greatest show on earth!!

I don't know why I am, but I am happy!! I do the same thing almost every day, I am tired all the time, and I don't always get along with my companion and we don't always see success, but I am still so happy. I am not sure for all the reasons, but I know that one of the reasons is that I have the opportunity to see people change, through the atonement of Christ change. And I know I have already talked about it before, but I am really seeing it happen in my investigators Near and Bo Yi.

In the last couple weeks, they have just changed so much. They just have a light about them. They are just trying so hard to prepare for baptism. They are waiting outside the doors at church to welcome people to Sacrament Meeting, they are inviting friends to church, they are fellowshipping our other investigators!! It is so cool. They have changed and that change comes from their love for Christ and his teachings.

So, I had a cool experience teaching a member of the Communist Party the other day. It was pretty cool because she said, “it will be out little secret”. So if you don't know, you can’t be a member of the Party and have a religion. And being in the Party is like super good if you want to be successful in life and never pay taxes ever again. And even just people seeing you with missionaries could lead to rumors being spread and eventually getting kicked out of the Party, which would like ruin your career. So anyways, Lydia is a member of the Party and she is just super smart! She is studying to be a lawyer and her father is actually one of the main prosecutors for the Communist Party. But anyways, we taught her, and she just said our lesson was like spiritual food! She just soaked it all in and we gave her a BOM and she said she would have to read it and take Moroni’s promise, because if she never tried, she would never know. That is just what we ask people to do, is just try. Experiment on the word. Just like Dad was saying, have a desire!! And because this Church is true and is the restored Gospel of Christ, that desire to learn will be answered from God!!

Also, I met this crazy Chinese lady two days ago. She has read the triple combination like five times, and she says she has seen Jesus Christ and that the second coming is near....it was super intense. She came to church and was scaring all the investigators!!  She didn't speak a lick of English, and being senior comp I had to handle that...in Chinese...hahah oh man that was a stressful situation.

AHHH! Pray for Bo Wen, he needs all the help he can get. Technicalities are killer. When the Mission President is telling us to do one thing and the Bishop is telling us to do another, that's when problems start....oh well. It’s all good in the hood!!

Love you all, thanks for all the letters. Send me some pictures of the summer adventures!

Elder Burr

Taste of Democracy

Oh man, I love taking investigators street contacting with us!! So Fang Jun Ji gave us a call at 10:00 one night and said, "something inside my heart tells me I need to preach with you!" So the next day, we do it! But everyone was being pretty "anti" that day and I was super scared that it would be bad for his progression. But we eventually find a 17-year old kid and I corner him at a picnic table and we sit down and talk and our investigator just shares such a strong testimony, something I have never heard him share before in any lesson. And he just felt so happy after.

In his testimony (the kid was Korean so it was in English) he said, "sometimes, I will go to other churches on sundays. And I go even though it breaks the Elders' hearts. But I always come back and they forgive me. I am not sure why I come back, I think its because I know this church is true, yeah, that's it, I know that this is the only true church and I will always go back to it."

So good!! He is getting baptized August 2nd!! 

The 4th was gnar-gnar pow-pow. We had to be in at 6pm and had the most unproductive weekly planning sesh. Then I tried to escape and get on the roof and look at fireworks, but my comp wouldn't let me. Mostly just eating pizza, drinking Jarritos, and watching the testament video. But the ghetto was just so crazy!! The entire neighborhood was shooting of fireworks for like 3 hours! They love the USA.

But the best part was when we threw a BBQ for our investigators. It was their first Day of Independence in the USA and I wanted to show them that democracy tastes like watermelon and hot dogs!! It was super fun, we did it in the church parking lot, set up a bunch of American flags. It was so much fun, I felt like I was being dissobediant! But we ended up teaching them the pledge of allegiance and then we all did it together, and then I felt weird because I just had all these Chinese nationals pledge allegiance to another country. haha! But we had one investigator Gloria, who is just so awesome!! She really liked the Star Spangled Banner and told us it was so lovely and moving she was going to go home and memorize it. haha I cant wait for her to perform it.

Well, thanks so much for your letters and updating me on everything. I love the pictures you guys send. Rebeca looks so old and Melissa looks so much like Amanda. But dang, I want to go hiking with Tina to Timp again, that was so sweet! I can't believe it was almost a year ago. I really do still feel like a small fry, it is hard to gauge change over such a long period of time. 

Goodluck on all the summer activities!! Love you all!!

Elder Burr