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