I am a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and have been called to serve in the Sacramento California Mission! This is my blog where you can follow my adventures for the next 18 months (January, 2013-June, 2014)
Did you know that Sacramento was the original place of the California Gold Rush? I'm so excited! See ya'll in 18 months, I'm going for spiritual Gold!

Friday, April 5, 2013

Sacramento - Week 9

Due to the new security measures requested by the Mission leaders, the names of all investigators and people that Sarah comes into contact with will be replaced with the name of a well-known character from a children’s movie. This will keep the identities of people safe as well as make it easier to keep everyone straight. The name given is in NO WAY intended to reflect the personality, looks, or circumstances of the individual(s).



“Mountains and Mira Loma”
Monday, March 25, 2013


Hello Family, Friends, and Secret Admirers (jk) 
First off, I did indeed get my Easter package and everyone loved their candy! The Gomms say thanks y'all! (I am slowly converting them to the truth) 

Ice House Lake
Last P-day we went to Ice House lake in the Sierras and had a picnic as a zone. It was AWESOME! The area was beautiful, the company was excellent, and we even placed a Book of Mormon with a man who was fishing. Sister Loli got to play in the snow for the first time. We had a huge snowball fight and even built a missionary snowman. The Doolittles, the Family we are staying with, drove us up there and another member from the Cameron Park ward brought his 15 passenger van and drove the Elders. We took Jody (the Doolittle's dog) too! 
Me and our missionary snowman who happened to wear
my name tag because I was the only one wearing a clippy
tag instead of a magnetic one haha.
Sister Hale and I with our awesome District Leader!
The zone in front of the waterfall
Me hugging a giant tree in the forest!
The whole zone at the lake!
Our Zone leaders truck


We also pranked the Zone Leaders car. We covered it in chocolate. At least it tasted good!
 That night, we went to "Mr. Ponderosa" at the high school. Two of the priests were in it. It's basically a pageant, but for the boys, and it's a fundraiser for Breast Cancer. We wanted to go and support our youth and they really wanted us to come so we did. It was a hoot! The awesome thing was though, that as we walked into the gym everyone was looking and pointing and the members were waving. It was so good for the youth to see that the missionaries support them and that we have FUN! They were pointing us out to their friends and both of the Priests in the pageant were so glad we were there. The youth in this stake are AMAZING! 

At Mr. Panderosa, one of the boys did a
Trombone jazz version of Carry on My
Wayward son for his talent!
One of the boys taught trick roping for his talent at
Mr. Panderosa and then his friend ran out dressed as a cow
with Cotton Eyed Joe playing over the speaker and he
lassoed him. It was so funny!







This week we have been continuing getting creative with our contacting. When you become desperate enough for investigators, you begin to stalk (in a very missionary like way) your part member families. The O family (because I can't spell their last name) owns a little cafe called the Cafe Mira Loma. The mom is less active and the dad isn't a member. After not being able to get a hold of them on the phone, we decided we were just going to stop by for lunch. We walked in and starting chatting with them. Thanks to these lovely things called missionary tags, they knew who we were. We were able to set up a return appointment with them and the food was great! We are going over to their house for dinner on my birthday, so hopefully Sister Burchett will get a new investigator to celebrate two decades of life. 
The mural at Mira Loma Cafe. AKA the closest I will get to
a beach on my mission.
We enjoyed the food there so much that we drug our whole district and the zone leaders there for lunch Thursday after district meeting. Talk about flooding the place with missionaries! After lunch all the missionaries came to our place to do service for the Doolittle’s neighbor. Our silly and unsuspecting zone leaders left their proselyting clothes laying out in our living room. A few days before they had toilet papered our car in the rain, which made such a mess. Sister Loli and I sensed an opportune moment to prank them back. Within a few minutes, each of the Elder's shirts was smelling lovely and overbearingly like my perfume and there was a smashed hardboiled egg in each of their pockets. When service was over, they went inside to change. We heard some gasps and then fled as they took the smashed hardboiled eggs out of their pockets and threw them at us. They couldn't really avoid smelling like a woman for the rest of the day though! I'm sure their retaliation will be swift, but transfers are coming soon and we wanted to go out with a bang. 
Our poor TP-ed Car
On that note, transfer call day is April 8th so I won't have P-Day then but I will have it on Tuesday the 9th. 
Wednesday some recent converts took us to the buffet at Red Hawk Casino for dinner. The food was great, but you should have seen the looks people gave us from the casino. Utter astonishment haha! Hopefully some of them rethought their decision to gamble! 

This week we also went a visited the Hop’s, a less active/part member family. They have 2 little girls. They married young after Sister Hop had their first daughter and haven't really been to church sense. Sister Hop has a strong testimony, but I think she is afraid to come to church because she thinks people will judge her for her mistakes. Our goal is to help her understand that A. that's what repentance and the atonement are for and B. everyone wants her back and church because they love her and she doesn't have to be afraid that people will judge her. We are coordinating with some other young families to fellowship them. They really need some friends and who better to become life long friends with than members of the church! 
Last night we went to dinner in Polluck Pines, a little town up in the mountains, for dinner with another part member family. They aren't in our area, but the wife (a member) requested sisters to come and visit her because she is from Australia, like sister Loli, and she felt like her husband (not a member) would connect better with sisters than he had with the Elders. If a member in your zone requests to be taught by sisters, the Zone leaders can give permission for you to teach them. So we went to their house and had ribs and bread pudding and chatted with them. It was a great visit and he really opened up to us. We are going to try and get up there again before transfers. (I hate transfers by the way. Just though y'all should know.) The best part was when we were leaving and the wife said, "Thank you for bringing the spirit into my home." 
Daphne came to church again yesterday and this time she stayed for most of Sunday school before she had to leave to go run errands and take care of her sick cat. She really enjoyed Sunday School and sang in sacrament meeting. Normally she just reads along with the hymns but doesn't sing aloud but this week she did! It sounds silly, but this is a milestone for her! She is really truly progressing and that makes us SO happy! We are going to try and commit her to a baptismal date this week and take her on a temple tour on Saturday. 
This morning we found out that Sister Doolittle's daughter who just had the baby is in the hospital. She drove herself to the ER and left her husband and their little boy and the baby at home. They think she needs gall bladder surgery (yuck). So Sister Doolittle is flying out to Minnesota to help out with the kids while she has surgery. She is supposed to be gone 10 days so we are hoping the mission won't make us move out while she is gone. THAT WOULD BE THE BIGGEST PAIN IN THE HISTORY OF PAINS. Especially to make us leave home right before transfers. So pray for her daughter and pray for us. 
On Sunday we got to teach the Young Women about the Atonement. With the new curriculum, we really aren't teaching a lesson as much as we are leading a discussion. It was awesome! Come Follow Me is really preparing the youth to missionaries, whether full time or as a member. It is inspired! 
As Easter approaches, we should all remember the glorious gift that our Heavenly Father gave us in the atonement of His Son. Everything we believe as members of the church eventually comes back to the atonement, to the sacrifice our Savior made for each and every one of us. He died so that we could be forgiven and empowered and He lives to forgive and empower us each day of our lives. I know the atonement is real, and I am so grateful for it in my life! 
Have a wonderful week!                

Love, 
Sister Burchett



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