October 12, 2010
Hey family, on Saturday we got our transfer calls and I found out that my lucky streak in Forks was coming to an end. So here I am in Tacoma, well, actually we're in Lakewood right now because thats where the best library is. I am very sad to leave Forks and I will miss all of the wonderful people there. President Bowen has asked me to be a zone leader in the largest zone in the mission, with 28 missionaries, which is quite a big difference from the little Forks district of only 5 missionaries. So I am a little nervous to take on the responsibility, but I am excited for what the Lord has in store for me. I've heard that Tacoma zone is the heartbeat of the mission - if it's doing well, then the mission is doing well. The area that I'm in has seen a lot of success in the past, lately they've had a little dryspell but things are gonna pick up soon. We are in the Wapato Park/Allenmore wards. Wapato Park is a good area with a good Bishop, and Allenmore is actually the only Samoan Ward in the mission. So I will be getting a Samoan nametag, and I hear the Samoans will feed us... a lot. In fact they fed us a large stir-fry dinner yesterday. And the Samoans are crazy about getting people baptized, so i'm excited. Elder McDowell is the other zone leader and we are training a greeny, Elder Houston from New York City. Elder Houston went to MIT before coming out on a mission so he's got the brains, we just need to teach him a few things about missionary work. We also have Elder Bouchard, which I dont know if you remember him but I actually trained him in Forks with Elder Miles about 6 months ago. McDowell used to be my zone leader in PA, so we are gonna get along great, the greeny is humble and ready to learn, and Elder Bouchard is good too so we will have unity and see a lot of work get done together. We have a pretty cool house for the 4 of us, and one of the mission's Chevy Malibus so that will be good.
I loved Forks. I will have spent time there probably longer than any other area, 7 1/2 months, which is tied for the longest elder in Forks. Bishop Winters understood what we had to do to build up the Kingdom of God in Forks, and he had the faith to do it. Brother Romney, the ward mission leader, was a invaluable resource to mission work and a great example to me of how to be a more Christ-like person. The missionaries and the ward had the unity it needs to see a lot of work get done. The Bishops goal was to get enough baptize weekly for the year, thats 52 baptisms. And when I left there had been 44 converts so far, so we are 2 ahead of schedule! I will never forget the converts and the experiences I have had in Forks. So I wanted to write this little tribute to Forks to show how much I loved it there, but I'm sure that there are great things ahead in Tacoma. Elder Isham will be able to take over the area and he's got a new companion and a greeny, they will keep the fire going.
So far, things have been pretty weird here in Tacoma. Theres so many streets and cars and so many people, and I dont know any of them! I could drive around Forks and know most of the people walking around, and I knew exactly where I was all the time. The people here dont really wave and say hi as easily as the people in Forks do, and there is quite a variety of people here. It's totally different than Forks in pretty much every way. I'm sure soon enough and with the Lord's help, I will be able to grapple how missionary work is done here in Tacoma, and I will learn to love the people here.
My new address is:
5214 South Fife St.
Tacoma, WA 98409
Write soon and let me know how things are going. Well, I'm out of time, love you guys!
Elder Burgess
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
What Matters Most
October 4, 2010
So happy birthday Josh, congratulations on being ordained to the Priesthood. Yesterday, a recent convert here in Forks was very excited to recieve the aaronic priesthood and be ordained by another recent convert, in Spanish. Another recent convert will be ordained next Sunday and another convert will probably recieve the Melchezidek priesthood and be ordained an Elder soon, he has made remarkable improvements. In fact, the Stake President came down a last week for ward conference and talked to us missionaries about working on building up the Priesthood in the Forks ward, due to several key families that have moved. We are already starting to see that happen, as if the Lord was preparing for the loss of those priesthood holders. Of course we will still do everything we can to help the women and children be baptized as well. A 15 year old girl named Mariah from La Push was baptized yesterday, we were surprised to see about 15 non-member friends and family show up to support her. We will soon be networking into her family to help them recieve the gospel and it seems like she will be a goldmine of referrals. A long time ago the missionaries used to go down to La Push quite often and built a lot of solid relationships with the people there, but they werent doing a lot of actual work, so the President told the missionaries that replaced them to just focus on Forks. But about a month ago, me and Isham recieved a prompting to go down to La Push again and we found a lot of people to start working with, Mariah is the first of many that will be baptized. When we go down there all the kids just run up to us and start talking to us and all the adults see us as a positive influence on the community, which is quite the opposite down on the Chehalis Reservation by Rochester, those Lamanites did not like us at all. Dawn Greene from Neah Bay will be baptized this week, and we have another one of Eleanor's friends, Kelly, on date for Sunday. The Bishop asked me when was transfers and I told him next Monday, so he said, "well, you better baptize everyone before that then," so I will try to do that. There's a very small chance that I will stay in Forks this time, and I think everybody knows that. My companion got a ticket driving around the lake today and will be losing his blue card(needed to drive a mission vehicle) for a couple months, but I still think that I will be transferred.
Anyways, I loved conference last weekend. I feel like I can finally sit through all 10 hours of modern revelation without falling asleep. I am looking forward to reviewing my notes and the conference Ensign and then teaching with all this new scripture. What was your favorite talk? Pres. Monson's Sunday morning was really good, I also liked Uchtdorfs talk on slowing down and focusing on the things that matter. He said only a few things really matter, and the first is our relationship with God, then family, fellow men, and then ourself. I totally agree with that, I think many people try to fill their days with all sorts of nonsense and they care too much about what other people think about them when all that really matters is our relationship to God, and where we are at in our eternal progression. A Bishop from Centralia said something early on my mission, he was talking about some less-actives and why they were less-active, he said something like, "what do all these things matter, this is eternal life! tha'ts all that really matters." Brigham Young had a similar motto for his life, "the kingdom of God or nothing," which kept him strong throughout the most serious period of persecution in the history of the church. I believe that if people would focus on what really matters in this life then life would not be so hard for them, after all the gospel is quite simple: faith, repentance, baptism, the gift of the Holy Ghost, and endure to the end, or as Elder Jenkins, a Samoan missionary in my district, says, "enjoy to the end." Every once in a while you may have speed bumbs or turbulence, like Elder Ishams $150 ticket, but as long as the most important things are in tact, life in general will be good. If they are not in tact, then the fix is fairly simple as well, turn back to the Lord and rely upon the infinite atonement to become clean again. I have had my share of mistakes, in fact Elder Kearon's Priesthood talk on exact obedience was good too, I realize I could be a little more obedient in a few things.
Well, thank you for that letter, as of next Monday I will probably have a new address so you might want to send the next letter either sooner or later.. I hope I go to a humble area like Tacoma or Aberdeen, but I'm sure I'll go where the Lord needs me most. Forks has been a wonderful experience that I wont forget, this would be the area that I might come back up to visit after my mission. Well, Love you guys!
Elder Burgess
So happy birthday Josh, congratulations on being ordained to the Priesthood. Yesterday, a recent convert here in Forks was very excited to recieve the aaronic priesthood and be ordained by another recent convert, in Spanish. Another recent convert will be ordained next Sunday and another convert will probably recieve the Melchezidek priesthood and be ordained an Elder soon, he has made remarkable improvements. In fact, the Stake President came down a last week for ward conference and talked to us missionaries about working on building up the Priesthood in the Forks ward, due to several key families that have moved. We are already starting to see that happen, as if the Lord was preparing for the loss of those priesthood holders. Of course we will still do everything we can to help the women and children be baptized as well. A 15 year old girl named Mariah from La Push was baptized yesterday, we were surprised to see about 15 non-member friends and family show up to support her. We will soon be networking into her family to help them recieve the gospel and it seems like she will be a goldmine of referrals. A long time ago the missionaries used to go down to La Push quite often and built a lot of solid relationships with the people there, but they werent doing a lot of actual work, so the President told the missionaries that replaced them to just focus on Forks. But about a month ago, me and Isham recieved a prompting to go down to La Push again and we found a lot of people to start working with, Mariah is the first of many that will be baptized. When we go down there all the kids just run up to us and start talking to us and all the adults see us as a positive influence on the community, which is quite the opposite down on the Chehalis Reservation by Rochester, those Lamanites did not like us at all. Dawn Greene from Neah Bay will be baptized this week, and we have another one of Eleanor's friends, Kelly, on date for Sunday. The Bishop asked me when was transfers and I told him next Monday, so he said, "well, you better baptize everyone before that then," so I will try to do that. There's a very small chance that I will stay in Forks this time, and I think everybody knows that. My companion got a ticket driving around the lake today and will be losing his blue card(needed to drive a mission vehicle) for a couple months, but I still think that I will be transferred.
Anyways, I loved conference last weekend. I feel like I can finally sit through all 10 hours of modern revelation without falling asleep. I am looking forward to reviewing my notes and the conference Ensign and then teaching with all this new scripture. What was your favorite talk? Pres. Monson's Sunday morning was really good, I also liked Uchtdorfs talk on slowing down and focusing on the things that matter. He said only a few things really matter, and the first is our relationship with God, then family, fellow men, and then ourself. I totally agree with that, I think many people try to fill their days with all sorts of nonsense and they care too much about what other people think about them when all that really matters is our relationship to God, and where we are at in our eternal progression. A Bishop from Centralia said something early on my mission, he was talking about some less-actives and why they were less-active, he said something like, "what do all these things matter, this is eternal life! tha'ts all that really matters." Brigham Young had a similar motto for his life, "the kingdom of God or nothing," which kept him strong throughout the most serious period of persecution in the history of the church. I believe that if people would focus on what really matters in this life then life would not be so hard for them, after all the gospel is quite simple: faith, repentance, baptism, the gift of the Holy Ghost, and endure to the end, or as Elder Jenkins, a Samoan missionary in my district, says, "enjoy to the end." Every once in a while you may have speed bumbs or turbulence, like Elder Ishams $150 ticket, but as long as the most important things are in tact, life in general will be good. If they are not in tact, then the fix is fairly simple as well, turn back to the Lord and rely upon the infinite atonement to become clean again. I have had my share of mistakes, in fact Elder Kearon's Priesthood talk on exact obedience was good too, I realize I could be a little more obedient in a few things.
Well, thank you for that letter, as of next Monday I will probably have a new address so you might want to send the next letter either sooner or later.. I hope I go to a humble area like Tacoma or Aberdeen, but I'm sure I'll go where the Lord needs me most. Forks has been a wonderful experience that I wont forget, this would be the area that I might come back up to visit after my mission. Well, Love you guys!
Elder Burgess
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