“Back Up the Hill a Bit”
November 5, 2013
Well, another transfer is
upon us. I got my call last night, and I am headed to.......
Folsom!
I'll be serving in the Folsom 4th ward with Sister
Ward. I was roommates in the MTC with Sister Ward so it will be fun to be
together again. It's a new zone and a new area and a lot of new missionaries so
I'm excited for the adventure. I am not excited to pack or to say goodbye to
all the people I love here in Carmichael .
Maybe I can just sneak out in the dead of night and no one will know.....Nope,
they'd know, and they'd hunt me down.
So…this week in La Sierra. First off, our miracle! We
have been working with a less active part member family for the past couple of
weeks. They live next door to our ward missionaries. Convenient! Well, last
week the mom knocked on our ward missionaries door to tell them her 9 year old
daughter wants to be baptized. We taught them about the Restoration of the
gospel last night and they were so excited! Our goal is to prepare Little
Mermaid (the 9 year old) for baptism and get Ursula (the mom) active again.
Hopefully we can start teaching her dad too. And by we I mean Sister Kagie and
Sister Parkinson. I'll be shooting prayers their way!
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| Our Halloween Costumes |
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| The rebellious house who refused to decorate for Halloween and decorated for Christmas instead. |
We got paid the best compliment this week. We had dinner
with Brother and Sister Mater, the most amazing older couple. They have served
5 missions between them. They're just the coolest. They told us that after
being out of town for a few weeks, they came home and didn't recognize half of
the ward! "There were so many families there we didn't know anymore, and
we've been here almost 50 years!"
That means we are doing our job.
We were out trying to visit people on Wednesday and we
were catching absolutely nobody at home. The Lord sent us a tender mercy in the
form of 3 kids from our ward biking home from school. They saw us and yelled,
"MISSIONARIES!!!!!!" like we were the most important people they had
ever seen. I told them we were just heading down to their street and we would
follow them. We must have been quite the sight - 5 bikers all in a line - and
they were so proud to escort us. We got to their street and said goodbye and
went to try and see a less active. And they were.....not home! So we said a
prayer to know what we should do because something was not working. And God
said....NOTHING. I'll attach the pictures of the experience below. So, we
carried on with our plans hoping at some point God would lead us to where we
needed to be.
And then I got us lost. I turned down the wrong street.
When I noticed we weren't in the right place, I stopped in front of a house to
pull out our map. I read the name of the street we were on, and vaguely
remembered reading that someone on the ward list lived on that street. I
grabbed the list and found the name I had thought of, and guess where we were
parked? Right outside their house. I took that to be a sign, and so we knocked.
We discovered the nicest part member family and they talked with us for nearly
an hour. We left with a return appointment and a request for home teachers. It
was a miracle, and we prayed a mighty prayer of thanks to Heavenly Father for
directing us even when we didn't know He was.
Another tender mercy this week. One of our members
called us and just left a voicemail thanking us for all that we had done for
the ward. It was beautiful. Gratitude is one of God's greatest miracles.
We had a 5th roommate this week! Sister Sharp came back
from having a surgery and she needed some recovery time so she worked at the
mission office and stayed with us. She is the sweetest thing and has taught me
a lot about overcoming challenges just in her short time here. When President
Skywalker found out we had 5 single beds all crammed into one room, he nearly
died. But we explained that we loved it!
A member nicknamed me "Sister Sunshine" this
week. It was the nicest thing anyone had ever said to me. A smile is truly the
most beautiful thing you can wear!
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| The Great Wall of Carmichael |
I also grew in my testimony of the power of music this
week. There's a brother in the ward who is a composer and all around music
guru. I was absolutely flattered when he asked us to stay after church for a
few minutes so he could talk to us about music and I could sing a few hymns. He
told us the story behind the hymns before we sang them and they meant so much
more. Nothing brings the spirit and testifies like music, especially the
hymns!
This week, my deaf roommate told me "You're so
loud that even I can hear you, and I'm DEAF!!!!" It was sadly true. I woke
her up. She was deaf and sleeping, and I woke her up. How is that even
possible?!
Well y'all, I think that's about it for this week. As
usual, I feel like I'm leaving here just as all the work we have put in is
paying off, but I know that I'm going where the Lord needs me and wants me and
there are people waiting for me there. The Lord has a very real work for all of
us to do. Our job is simply to listen to what He tells us, and do it. Do great
things this week!
Love,
Sister Burchett
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| Our lovely zone! |
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