Feliz Navidad!!!

Hahah super funny week. First off, I went to a member of the Ward to eat dinner. And everything is all good and stuff, eating some pot roast and salad, when I look at their son, who has his head down a little bit, and I realize I have seen this exact same thing before.....then I started making weird faces and weird noises cause I was getting excited, then the Dad noticed and I look at him all scared and then he nods in assurance that my thoughts are correct....and BAM I ask them, "is your son....the Rainmaker??" And he said, "yeah!" and then I freaked out for like 5 minutes. So, I watched a movie before my mission, called Looper. It had Angels in the Outfield guy, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Bruce Willis. And their son, Pierce Gagnon, was the main kid in it. It was a really funny moment.

I also contacted a guy that I used to watch on YouTube, he ran a website called college humor.. So far, my celebrity count is at 3, I still not have found Whoopi Goldberg, but the search continues.

As for the work, things are hard because finals are going on and these Chinese students are diligent. Great example to me for when I go back. It was a little sad this week though because we had a really good progressing investigator drop us, because she was really sad we couldn't become boyfriend and girlfriend....it was the first time this happened to me on the mission, it was pretty weird.... BUT anyways, Tracy is still moving along towards baptism and we found an investigator who is a pretty old lady, probably 50 or 60, her Chinese name is Fu Jie Mei, but you know, we are in America, so this just won’t do, so she renamed herself Beyoncé. So pretty much I am teaching Jay-Z's wife.

Elder Baxter came to visit it us, it was so funny, he pretty much bashed on puritans and told us to have more fun!!

BUT something awesome he said was in 3 Nephi 26. How when the Spirit fell on the people, they said great things. And then it writes that the things they said were greater than what Jesus had said just barely. He talked about how that truly expresses the character of Christ, lifting others above him, not wanting any of the glory for himself, but always looking to send praise and love outwards. Even Christ, the person that created everything, who had all the power of God the Father, who had the perfect knowledge like God the Father acknowledged that someone said something greater than he. It’s all about becoming more like him. PMG is for LIFE!

I miss you family! I sent a happy birthday package for Mom today!!! Happy Birthday Mom, I love you! Go eat some chicken feet in Hong Kong for me. (I actually like to eat that now.)

Love you guys, Happy Holiday!

Elder Burr

SunSunSun

Family,

I just hope all you know I had an awesome week! I hope all you did too. We had investigators at Church, we had investigators come to the baptism. All these blessings came from obedience to the council of the Mission Leaders. We have to listen to the council of our leaders. Some of happiest moments was when I got to see a long time less-active take the sacrament for the first time in 9 years. It’s such a simple little act, but I don't know, that snap shot in my mind was just so spiritually strong, I could just imagine all the mistakes that person made being swept up in the Grace of Christ. After we make that baptismal promise with God, he never leaves us, we leave him. And it was so cool seeing somebody come back to him, come back to the fold. Her name was Sister Cho and she was Korean, and she was the first LA I have seen come back to Church so I am going to work extra hard on keeping her here.

Remember that guy who heard about the Church in Chinese prison and flew to America with the intent of walking to SLC to find the one true Church, well yeah, his name is Frank and he got baptized this Sunday!! It was one of the funnest baptisms I have been too. In his testimony Frank said something along the lines, “when I was in darkness....prison....the guards always liked to see how tough I was, but now I am in the true Church....AND THEY ARE NOT!!" It was super sweet! Even our Mission President came.

So do you remember Eric Xiao? He got baptized in August I think? Well, he has been working on his girlfriend and now she has a goal for Jan 18th!!! yeah! She is super funny and wears big hats made out of rabbit fur to church!!

I really like the stage of my mission right now, I am just having a lot of fun teaching these people. For sure it is still stressful and tiring and taxing on the emotions, but all good things are that way, right? If everything was handed to us, we would never grow.

I gave a guy a baptismal interview the other day, well actually him and his wife. His wife passed, but he didn't want to, he was still getting hung up on Joseph Smith and his 40 wives. And I don't blame him, that's a pretty weird thing. But when I was in the interview, I realized that in this life, we need to walk by faith, and we need to rely on the things that God has already given us. God won’t give it to us all at once, but he will give us something. It is up to us to remember where these little testimonies came from and to continue to nurture what we have. This man had faith in God and Faith in Jesus Christ and Faith in the Book of Mormon. But because of a historical matter, he was throwing all these things he knew under the bus and stopping himself from joining his wife in baptism. It really was super sad. It makes me think of all the people that trade the things they do know, for something they don't. I think in a talk someone said, “they trade their spiritual birthright, for a mess of pottage." That was hard for me to see him not want to be baptized, but I will continue to pray for him and his family this week, he was such a sincere guy, I just need to trust that God will consecrate my own efforts and make up for what I mess up on.

I love you guys!! Happy Holidays! Merry Christmas Harry! Happy Hanukah Marv!

Elder Burr