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