15 Elder Burgess Letter

Never have I locked myself out of my house before. Before. This week changed that. Six a.m. Elder Van De G
raaff and I go outside grudgingly to run and neither of us took our keys with us...We went to all the windows to see if they were locked and even tore an entire screen off to see if we could rip the window off. Yup. that didn't work. We didn't have our phone either, so we had no choice but to run all the way to the Severna Park Elders and barge in. Of course Elder Van De Graaff was a hardcore cross country runner back home, so I was huffing and puffing all the waayyyyyy running at least ten mph for i dont even KNOW how far. We made it back and Elder Plumb rode bikes back to our apartment with me and he PICKED THE LOCK. That was awesome.

One of the less-active families I've grown to like has a member who's a Harry Potter FANATIC. Like quotes lines from the book every other sentence. She went ahead and substituted herself for the Sorting Hat for us and pretty much prophesied that Elder VDG is Slitheren (lolololololololololol), and I'm Hufflepuff. Both make total sense xD. Our tiny little Broadneck ward here is solid, although we only have about 45% attendance rate of the members on Sunday. Over half of our efforts in missionary work revolves around visiting less-active and part-member families. It's a different kind of missionary work, but I personally love it. I've found over this past week especially that the key to having love in a conversation is by being yourself. Too often do we feel like we need to be better, or meet a certain expectation to help others. If we are not being true to ourselves in all of our imperfections and goofy characteristics, how do we expect to be true to others? Love is the essential ingredient to happiness, both in conveying it to others and loving who we are. Embrace your faults, embrace your imperfections, and embrace the moment. Lion King here we go, "Remember who you are" 

No matter who we are, we can all improve upon the happiness of our lives. There is no plateau of happiness, nor immovable walls that impede progress. Through the Gospel of our Savior and Redeemer, Jesus Christ, no man, object, or experience can stand in our individual pursuits of happiness. Everyday I live it and everyday I feel myself become more of a human-being than I ever thought I could be. Boy do I face challenges, both mentally and physically, but nothing, absolutely nothing, can compare to the cleansing light of the Atonement. What I've found to be the most miraculous aspect of building our beliefs is how far they progress when we are open and share them with others. Truly the only way we can diagnose our inner-most beliefs, our testimonies, is by sharing them to help one another. That in itself testifies to me of how Christ-like we can become when living how he lived. 

This Holiday season I challenge all of you to be open!! If someone asks you a question about yourself, think thoroughly about who you are and what you believe! Instead of forcing your thoughts onto another, focus on conveying your thoughts out of pure, unconditional love. That's the gift we can all give, no matter what situation we may reside. 

I love you all and look forward to hearing from y'all!

xoxo

Elder Burgess
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