All Welcome the Year of the Lamb!!

Family!! Your prayers worked, Wu Si Yuan got baptized!! It was so awesome! At his baptism I could feel he was so ready. Ahh!! The Lord knows these people way better than I ever could!

I am back at USC, this Ward is so much fun!! It feels a little weird though. You know when you leave a really good image of yourself and then you leave really dramatically, and then you come back and you can't quite live up to that image, that's what it is like right now. BUT its all good!! Because so many Chinese people live here. I am with another native so a great opportunity to improve on Chinese. 

We had a Chinese New Year party!! It was super fun, full of ribbon dancing and hung bao!! I will send you pictures of the good stuff!!

love you guys!!

A little Idyll…a little wild

Saw that on a license plate, I feel like it describes my mission very well. 

TRANSFERS!!! I am leaving Santa Monica and heading back to USC and am back with my trainee Elder Yang. Put my life on repeat!! 

The 6 months in Santa Monica was probably the busiest time in my mission. It was super fun just doing work! Just preaching and finding and teaching. Even a little baptizing thrown in there. It was a happy time. This last Sunday was just super joy filled. Investigators at Church, everyone just having a good time. I will miss it for sure. 

Thank you for your prayers for Wu Si Yuan. I am sure he feels them. 

OH MAN!!!!! How did I not talk about this first! On Saturday, I had the huge honor of going through the Temple with Darren and Wenqi and to attend their sealing. It was just one of those 'I could die right now and my life would be complete' moments. Just seeing them both there and all the old members from the Palos Verdes Branch in the Temple together was just glorious! The only thing that could describe it was happiness! Darren and Wenqi looked super tired, but very very happy. They are just some of the most prepared most kind souls I have met on my entire mission. Also, just sitting in the sealing room with the Branch Members and President Lam ( he did the sealing) I just realized how much I love these people and how excited I am to see them and everyone else that I have met and seen join the Church, in Heaven one day! I know it seems a little cheesy, but it is a day that I truly believe will happen. It is a day we can all look forward to. This hope can get us through anything! Oh man, just seeing Darren and Wenqi progress this past year and half has changed me so much. It has truly made me realize that people are ready to receive the Gospel, and God will guide us to them. Darren and Wenqi also said they will have a baby soon! A baby that is born into the covenant is the best kind of baby!!

Mom, could you send me 2 temple recommend holders? That would be awesome!!

haha Tracy said the closing prayer in Sacrament on Sunday. She did it with her eyes open and thanked Heavenly Father for the year of Lamb and good stuff like that. She is awesome

I am excited to go back to USC, I never got to buy a souvenir last time, this is probably the main reason God guided me back here.

Love you guys!! 

Elder Burr

Chinese District

Stay Focused!!

Oh no!! Just went on an exchange with an Elder that is going home at the end of the week and Andrew (Shermer) and Matt (Goudy) get back this Wed. YOU SHOULD ALL GO TO THEIR HOMECOMINGS!!!! And now I am just getting distracted out the whizzoo. BUT we made a goal in comp study to not talk or think about any home stuff from 6:30am-10:30pm, and then as I lay in bed I can wind down and daydream about that stuff.  But really though, if you think about home while you work it just makes you so sad in the end!!! It is exactly like sin, that instant gratification. Satan really wants us to lose that eternal perspective.

We have just been seeing amazing changes and miracles in this area. It has been so busy!!! It’s really on fire.  Pray for Wu Si Yuan please, he has a baptismal date for the 22nd, but he didn't come to Church yesterday. He is such a good guy. He is young and super handsome and super humble. He has the style of Ryan Gosling!! The Church needs him!! He also does not like using smart phones! He is awesome and he tears apart the Book of Mormon, very rarely have I had investigators that try to dissect and read the Book of Mormon like they should, I know it took me almost 20 years to do it. And he does it so well!!! Pray for him!!

Other than that, still trying to become better.  To better understand Preach My Gospel, the scriptures, Chinese, my own testimony!!!  Every day is a chance to become better. I am so grateful for Christ and how he helps everyday with this.  I love the song "How great though art".  Originally it was a Baptist hymnal, and I think it is one of the few hymns were we directly praise Christ. I don't want to sound like a wild non-denominational Christian pounding my chest and yelling at heaven, but Christ really is so great!! Not great in the sense we use it now (these Frosted Flakes are Greeeeat) but in the sense that He is Great. He transcends all, His infinite saving power is available to every man, woman, and child that ever came to this earth, "Thus saith the Lord your God, even Jesus Christ the Great I Am, Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the same which looked upon the wide expanse of eternity, and all the seraphic hosts of heaven, before the world was made"

Thanks family!! Love you all!! Thanks so much for the package mom! I really appreciate it!

Elder Burr

half asleep half woke

So I went on exchanges down into Watts again, and I guy said something like, " and my boy knocks at my door asking for a Bible study, and I am half asleep half woke..etc etc", it was a really good time!!

It is crazy, and also pretty trunky, to think that if I were double x chromosomes, I would be going home at the end of the week. BUT I am super grateful that my DNA make up is not as such because 1. Childbirth (no disrespect Tori) and 2. I am not even ready to go home yet. I just have all this stuff to do, all these goal that have not been achieved. It is a little overwhelming to think about how much I need to do. aaahhh and I still need to learn how to speak/read Chinese. BUT don't worry, I will make a plan. As my billionaire Mission President says, "planning is the key to success." Through planning and goal setting we make manifest our hopes and dreams ( yeah, I have been watching The District Amanda!!)

Speaking of the Mission President and planning, he shared with the leadership council his super secret method of planning and deciding what to do. He said he came up with it as he was being mentored and watching fortune 500 CEO's. Its pretty cool.

Something President also said that was really cool was the equation to never go inactive. 

1. read and pray everyday 

2. go to church every week 

3. 100% Home Teaching...I thought that was pretty cool

YEAHHH Eric and Tracy shared their testimonies in Church!! It was super good, and Eric shared his in Chinese so that all our investigators could truly understand. aahhh!!! I am so appreciative of the English Ward and all they do, but this work would just go so much faster if everything was in Chinese. Seriously, a Chinese Sacrament Meeting is so powerful!!! ahhhh, but we just need to work with what we got and trust in the Lord. It doesn't matter if they don't understand any of the sacrament meeting, if they are elect, they will get baptized anyways.

It is just so cool seeing recent converts share their testimony of the Gospel. The change is so apparent. Its just so good, because I can remember when they were struggling to even accept Jesus Christ, and now you can see them bare witness of His divinity. Once we make that leap of faith, and try our best to follow Christ, it WILL change us. That is the enabling power of the Atonement.

I taught the Gospel Principles class on Sunday, it was on the Saviors life, and the whole time I was just thinking about the witness that the Prophet gave on Him. Thomas S. Monson said, "I pray that all of us will reflect gratitude for our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, He taught us how to pray. He taught us how to serve. He taught us how to live. His life is a legacy of love. The sick He healed; the downtrodden He lifted; the sinner He saved."

Every time I think of Him, I just feel so loved. It's so hard though, like the Sacrament song says, he would sacrifice himself for someone as rebellious and proud as I. I am so far from being like Him, but I am so happy I have the rest of my life to do emulate and Him and change, and I am grateful for the restored gospel to help me along the way. Just like my Mission in Los Angeles isn't quite done yet, my mission on this earth isn't even nearly over yet.

I will keep it up!! Don't you guys worry about me!!

I love you guys so much! Stay strong! Be smart, say your prayers every day, open the scriptures and the Book of Mormon everyday. Lets work for the Celestial Kingdom together!!

Elder Burr