Sacramento - Week 40

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).

“Trick or Tracting”

October 28, 2013

If only we really could go trick or tracting! The only night of the year we know they'll open the door! Alas, we live in a dangerous world, so we'll be spending our Halloween at the Stake Center having a meeting.....I sang the "Every Party Has A Pooper" song to the Assistants, but President could not be swayed. We'll still make it fun though. Sister Kagie and I are going to the Zone Training dressed as each other with switched name tags, just to see how long it takes people to notice. And there will be candy. Lots of candy! 

(Listen to - Every Party Has A Pooper from Father of the Bride part II)

Hope everyone has had a splendid week and has some fun plans for Halloween! Remember if your ward is having an activity, that's a perfect opportunity to invite non-members! 

We had a fun week this week. October for me has always signified the beginning of the Holiday season. Halloween celebrates the death of Summer, Thanksgiving is where we practice for Christmas and give thanks that we didn't die of diabetes on Halloween, and Christmas is Christmas. What more need be said? These are my favorite 3 months of the year, and when you add missionary work on top of that, I'm a happy girl!

We ate at this place called the Sunflower, it's a vegan
restaurant with hippy nutburgers and stuff. It was actually
delicious but I felt so flower child being there :)

Tuesday we had a Zone Service project at the McKay house. The McKay house is where the Assistants and Office Elders live. Whenever Elders enter or leave the mission they stay there as well. It's also the storage facility for all mission furniture, house ware items, and other "stuff". The garage hadn't been cleaned out in a year and so we went to work cleaning, clearing out, and organizing. It was a treasure trove of random treasures. The garage had become the depository for things departing missionaries left behind like plates made for them by the Beehives in their ward, giant oriental fans the size of a human being, a bucket of golf balls, decorative brooms, paintings, so many preach my gospels, bedding, clothes, umbrellas, sticks (?), every type of weird knick knack imaginable, and so much more!

Elder Scott (the housing specialist for the mission) gave us a "take whatever you want" order, so we ended up with a George Foreman grill, zip ties, an exercise ball, stationary, post it notes, hand warmers, a crock pot, brand new white handkerchiefs...you get the picture. I convinced Elder Scott to let me organize his stash of kitchen stuff for the apartments. It was so fun! And we had a whole truck full of things for DI so that people who need it can actually use it! The neighbors were so interested with what we were doing so we got to turn it into a nice missionary opportunity as well. 

We've been challenging all the members that we eat with to pray for our investigators by name. Sister Kagie and I made prayer rolls that we hand out and commit them to pray for at each dinner. It's been so neat to see the excitement that the members have to follow up on commitments from General Conference and to help in the missionary effort. 

I've was so inspired by one member in particular, Sister McDonald. She is a convert to the church and so dedicated! She has several families that are less active that she keeps in regular contact with and keeps trying to Visit teach them even though they aren't always receptive. She knows the power that she can have as just one person reaching out, and she knows her duty as a covenant keeping woman to make sure her brothers and sisters aren't forgotten. One day, I want to be as awesome as her!

We've been working hard to get the recent converts in the ward taught the New Member Lessons. After 3 months we have finally got things rolling and ward missionaries on board. We taught several of these lessons with our ward missionaries this week and it was so great to see the response from these new members. My favorite experience is seeing them hear the story of the first vision again and to see the spirit testify to them again of it's truthfulness. Sometimes, we forget how exciting the gospel is! 

We've been working with the ward to have more activities to invite less actives to. The High Priest's Quorum had a dinner this weekend and had a great less active turn out! It was a party! If you're looking for fun, go hang with the High Priests. They're also the BEST fellow shippers. I think it's because they've had plenty of life to learn patience and love, which investigators need a lot of. 

Our bikes. At night we turned on our bike lights
underneath the spider webs for effect.

I'm going to attach some pictures from the La Sierra Trunk or Treat! We decorated our bikes and passed out 5836985869696 (these numbers brought to you by Elder Bradshaw who stole my ukulele!) anyways, passed out candy from the back of our bikes. The kids loved it and so did we! 

The gospel is true and good and beautiful! Share it! And share some candy too! It's Halloween for goodness sakes! 

Love, Sister Burchett

One of the ward couples dressed up as Phil and Ms. Kay
for Duck Dynasty!

J scared me to death.
First because he's a rocker, and second
because he put his arm around me in the
picture. All innocent. He's 15 but I still
nearly had a heart attack!

Our neighbors Elder Wong and Elder Gray in costume

.............so creepy! But fantastic.

With Gretchin Von-Trapp at Trunk R Treat

Fun picture with Joshy's cousins!

Our ward missionaries the Baggins. Sister Baggins served her
mission in Dallas! How cool is that?!