1/12/15

SNOWSNOWSNOWSNOWSNOWSNOW COLDCOLDCOLDCOLDCOLD

Wooooooooeee! Tuesday it snowed buckets and buckets (if that's a phrase that can be used for snow idc) and then the temperature actually got colder as the week went on! Friday was 12 degrees...my Arizona tan is fading :'(

This Wednesday Elder Van De Graaff will be transferring out west and being replaced by Elder Hinkle. I've never met Elder Hinkle before and I hear mixed reviews about him. I just can't wait to say to him, "Hey Elder Hinkle, do you need to tinkle?" LOL I'm mature.

I'm happy to get a new companion! Well, that's what I say now. We'll see next week if Elder Hinkle is as tasty as sprinkles. (What does that even mean?)

Anyways! When the snow fell on Tuesday morning, Elder VDG and I went out into the white-covered neighborhood to shovel all the old folks around. I hadn't been in a real snow storm in I don't even know how many years, so I was a kitten with a laser pointer while Elder Vandemort trudged on saying how horrible the snow is. We are polar opposites. Get it. Polar. Onward we went, digging out one after another, until we came across the cutest old lady you'll ever see, bundled up in a poofy down jacket and a swaddled knit hat gently, slowly shoveling teaspoons of snow out. Naturally we help her out and find out she's 85 years old, like 80 years in Brooklyn, has the voice of an adorable gnome, and had the spiritual caliber of yoda. Honestly I think she may have been the most benevolent, Christ-like person I've ever met. She took us inside her home (don't worry, her son was there :P), sat us down, and told us she'd make us a steamy, homecooked breakfast. Easily the best meal on the mission so far.

After breakfast, she stood us up and lined us shoulder to shoulder. She then commenced some sort of Catholic blessing on us in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, and doing the sacred trinity sign on each of us. We didn't object, of course, for her love personified that which I can't begin to explain. Art in all of it's aspects and complexities has attempted to convey what love is. Song after song, painting after painting, poem after poem, artists commit their entire lives trying to show others what love feels like. What it feels like. If you are feeling down, unloved, or discouraged, seek love by loving! Go out and devote yourself the joy of the world, the bitter winter winds that snap you to life, the rolling lavender clouds spreading across the sky every evening, the smile that grows on another's face. Love is all around us, but waits for us to partake of it! When our Heavenly Father gave his only Begotten Son to the world, he gave him out of love. This is kind of a Christmas theme here, I know, but I mean it because I've found it to be true. There is no way we can receive and hold on to love than to give it ourselves. 

I've been deep to the waist in the New Testament about this topic the past few weeks, and it is clear as day. To quote John, "God is love". When we love another, we are loving God. When we feel love in our hearts, we are feeling God. Pretty deep there, but I think it's a point that gets over-looked in not only the Church, but in the world at large. Search not to get love, but to give love, and all comes into place. Our Father in Heaven's existence is entirely based on his love for us. Unconditional, pure, absolute love is how we can truly come closer to the Lord.

1 john 4:7-11, Luke 17:21, Matthew 5:43-48\

MAN I LOVE YOU! I think of all of you throughout the week, all of us having different adventures, no matter how small or outrageously crazy they may have been. I love you alllll!!!!

Until next week,

xoxo

Elder Burgess

I have this weird gas reflex that has developed over the past two days where I burp every 30 seconds. It stinks. Literally. 

On that attractive note, Yo! 2015 is here ahhh yeeee! It's intimidating, terrifying, and yet exciting when I think I will be a missionary this entire year. O.o

I'm loving it though! My second transfer is almost over, as is my first 12 weeks, which means I will be graduated from a padawan to a jedi knight in a week and a half! Oh boy am I looking forward to not living the trainee life anymore... I am so excited WOOOOOHOOOO! 

burp

This year's New Years was absolutely the most boring New Years of my entire life. A nice boring, but boring nonetheless. I got to go to bed early. That was nice.

The weeks are flying  by now. I'm trying to think back to crazy experiences over the past week and the weeks fade together into months. Elder Plumb, the trailer park hilarious Arizona desert rat that I love, went on exchanges with me in my area for a few days. For some reason the most adventures occur on exchanges. 

We went by a house that honestly looked exactly like the house in the movie Monster House that I felt we really needed to go by. It also didn;t help that the evening fog was so think that we couldn't see more than 20 feet above, behind, or in front of us, so I was fairly creeped out already. After knocking on the door hesitantly, it swung open nearly instantly and a charming 50 year old lady welcomed us with a bright smile. "Hello! Come on in!"

I was creeped.

Smooth jazz and dimmed lights set a strange suave atmosphere in the monster house as she led us past what must have been five giant guinea pig and ferret cages over populated with creatures. We went into the living room where her husband sat on a giant bean bag chair, legs crossed and facing us, and said, "Welcome. Take a seat, my friends. See that star on the Christmas tree? That is the star of Bethlehem." 

By far the goofiest, most surreal home I have ever entered. Tommy and Elizabeth Bowers are our two newest investigators, along with their star of Bethlehem on their Christmas tree that they say will stay up the whole year. They are soooo open to the gospel! It's awesome and inspired that I'm the missionary to meet them because, truthfully, I doubt there's any other missionary out here that would click with their hilarity.

I've learned more than ever the reality of the Lord's love for us. Here I live in Arnold, Maryland, the absolute last place I would ever have imagined myself living, surrounded with people that are only open to being helped by me in all of my flaws and corky characteristics. As I put my faith in his will for me, God directs my paths to meet those in need. The number one thing that I learned before coming out that I wish more missionaries and people everywhere would understand is to STOP WORRYING! Do your best to be the most loving, honest, genuine person you can be, love God, and everything falls into place! Stop worrying about if you're doing enough to follow God's will, or even if God exists! Believe in yourself with sincerity and hope for a better world. Hope and love are the two keys for faith. Faith that will lead to a knowledge of God's love for us. Faith that will lead us to happiness. Faith that will lead us to green pastures and still waters (psalms ftw). Build your faith through love to God by opening up in true, heartfelt love to him. Talk to him! I know I wouldn't be able to continue this journey were it not for the one that's always willing to hear and care for our individual thoughts.

I also could not continue out here if it were not for all of your support! Every one of you have helped me out in life, most when I didn't even deserve it! I love all of you!

burp

Until next week!

xoxo

Elder Burgess