Ponca City District

Johnson Family

We will hasten!

Dearest Mother,

Well I will address working out, sorry I didn't follow up. Yes I have been working out every morning until today. Saturday we were helping a non-member move and they were an elderly couple, so guess who got to do all the lifting? Yup, well I don't know if I pulled something or tweaked something, or am just a wimp, but under my left shoulder blade is killing me. I've been doing some stretches you taught me when you learned about your slipped disc or whatever it is that's wrong with your neck, it's been helping a lot so my guess is I'm just a wimp. I'm glad Sara got to grow up a little, I wish I did that :) I still am convinced it's better not to grow up! I mean come on, adults have so much more responsibility! I would rather just play and have fun, make friends then baptize them! But..... I've got to say I did a lot of growing up this past week as well! I was able to receive an opportunity to practice patience and endurance. In ward counsel, it seemed like it was negativity galore!!!! Almost every member had some lack of faith comment about our work and how we were going about working. We literally had the primary president tell us that now that we have had this influx of baptisms we can sit back and relax for a while! ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!!!!!!!! You should be proud of me, I did not explode like I desired. I told the ward mission leader my concerns and let him handle it. Come on, If that ward counsel had been one of my district meetings and a missionary was to say that, I probably would have strung him up like a piñata and beat him with the stick of Joseph and Judah! GAH!!!!! I know I can't do that, but I would want to! I was so very close to standing up and asking where this ward's faith had gone? We were doing soo well, now we are back to the beginning in strengthening the members to desire to do missionary work! I thought success invigorated members. I HATE SATAN!!!!! I had a sneaky way of applying this member-missionary co-op. We ran around getting all members to sign up and feed us! Not only are we going to be fed, we are also going to get to re-light that fire that was so hot! We will overcome this little road bump. The work shall continue! We will not slow, we will hasten! I love being busy! I love my mission!!!!!! I don't know about transfers, all I know is that our Zone Leaders leaked to me that the mission is about to get crazy! I don't know if it is going to change up my area or what, but I would say hold onto snail-mail. I will find out about transfers this coming Sunday. Well I love you and pray for you! I am definitely staying warm! A less active who we just got reactivated made me an afghan. some blanket thingy. It does the trick. So no worries mom. I can't promise about the safe  hehehehe

Not a Second Wasted,

Elder Ryan Burnham

Baptism Pictures

 Elder Faulkner, Dana, Elder Burnham

 Johnson Family

Mendy, Mikaila, Sabrina, Tarant, Aaron, Alana, Ray

 Elder Burnham and Alana

Sunshine

Well Sounds like a good week! We didn't have too bad of one either. We have been able to sit down with a family that we have trying since I first arrived here 4 1/2 months ago. Their granddaughter is 10 and needs to be baptized, we found out the reason they were so flaky is because they were embarrassed of their house. Well we finally got their home teacher to invite them to a FHE and we sat down and taught the restoration and it beautifully! We set a date for the 16th of February and they are all excited for it and they have all kinds of support! Yes I sure did know about MLK day. Elder Radford who is African-American reminded us :) hahaha. I love having him in our district! He brings some "culture" us white boys have been missing! Well tell the jags congrats for me! It's about time they become the lead sports school. Also I'm glad to see the reign of big Oakdale go down! Sorry Jenni, but I never enjoyed playing them! It seemed like they cared a little too much about crushing (literally) their opponents. Well I would love to hear from Leslie especially since she asked me to write Michael and encourage him to put in his papers. She hasn't responded with his address, so I can't. Well I love you and am thankful for all the blessing I have! I had an interview last Friday with President Walkenhorst and found out for sure that this coming transfer (the 5th) Faulkner and I will be splitting up, he left us guessing how though. I think Faulkner will be gone and I will be here one more transfer, but who knows Pres. is a tricky guy! Hey mom, would you be willing to send out a copy of my mission call? I think that's something I should have with me. I would like it to study and remember the excitement and joy of being called as a representative of Christ. I am coming up on the "hump" and I want to make sure I am as focused as a green missionary! I love you!

 

Not a Second Wasted,

Elder Ryan Burnham

Keep working harder

Dearest Mother,

 

HOLY COW!!! That is a long letter. Full of great stories, but long. I enjoyed the stories from Great Grandma's diary. That's so funny! It's cool to have those stories which humanize the prophet. This week has been a tough one. appointments dropped, members canceling, investigators dropping us. All sorts of fun missionary stuff. Our one life line was Dana and her daughter Shelby we had a great lesson on the restoration! Shelby is really progressing and becoming a great strong young lady! She is practically a member already. She goes to all young women activities, church every week, and she has been talking about seminary. (she is only 12!) This gospel is going to impact her life so much! Not only that, but she will impact soo many other lives because of her decision to be baptized! I'm super proud of her! I am definitely surviving the weather. This week was cold, but It's warming up now. I think the coldest we got was -3. That was a smart move with the composition books, where there is written record of learning there is increased retention. That's cool y'all got to go to the temple! A recent convert here in Ponca Cirty has invited me to go when he goes through for the first time! I guess that's a pretty good sign of gaining members trust :) I'm excited! I love our little temple! Man poor Brooklyn. I'm glad she made it to school! That was the best decision! Tell Brooklyn I give her permission to kick Sara in the buns! Then she must give her a big ol' okie hug, and a wet sloppy kiss!!! just remember; don't get mad, get even ;) hahaha I love you all! I'm looking forward to this coming week! I'm not looking forward to realizing how long I've been out. That's scary! It's gone way too fast! Well all the more reason to work harder, I love you the mostest! Stay out of trouble and keep those testimonies burning brightly for all to see!

 

Not a Second Wasted,

Elder Burnham

COLD!

You have an Iphone? Wow working your way up in the world! Watch out for techno mom! haha. This week has been very cold, in fact right now it's -2! My nose hairs are freezing! It's never done that before! I was a little scared when it first happened, but now I think it tickles! ;) hahaha. Well we have had a bad ice storm so we have been grounded for the past week and everyone went into hibernation! We have done our best to stay busy, with shoveling snow for anyone. We studied a lot! We also had a musical night where we just sang out of the hymnal. I don't have any extra blankets besides that old blue and gray flannel one I stole from Jenni before she moved to CA. I sleep very warm and so it's perfect I am getting great use out of those ear muffs though! Thank you so very much for that! I bought another sweater from JCpenny's and so I'm sufficiently warm. Yeah he Elder Faulkner may be my Junior comp, but he is not my junior comp. ;) We are pretty positive this will be our last transfer together so we are trying to make it the best! You need to reprimand Brianne! She has not emailed or contacted me for like over 4-5 months! I don't know anything about her crazy life! What is she even doing? Sara is better at writing then her! Hopefully this next transfer will be a good one in Modesto! I can see some great things happening there. So any news on Dad's 5 year mark coming up? I will look into buying a jump rope for sure. Right now it would be impossible, but in a few weeks I could see it clearing up enough to work out. I am rededicating myself to working out more. I've worked out every day since the phone call, so I'm going in the right direction. Thanks for the encouragement, I will definitely ask about your exercise next week! Well, I've got to wrap it up we are headed down to Stillwater for a zone Training which the Zone leaders have asked me to participate in giving. I think it's because I give to much input when they give training's that they are going to shut me up by having me train on a few certain points. I get to train on effective studies, and spiritual guidance/revelation from the Book of Mormon. It should be fun. I love you all so much! Thank you for all that you do! I am constantly praying for y'all!

Not a Second Wasted,

Elder Burnham