09-29-2010

Well its been a pretty awesome week. you remember Albert the kid i told you about that we were working with we we set a baptismal date with him on oct 24. Before we set the date we had asked if he would pray with us for a resonable date for his baptism and we asked him to keep praying until we met again so. there we were in our weekly planning session and we felt impressed to pray for albert so we could know when he should and could be baptised. while i was asking i stopped and felt impressed by the the date oct 24 and so i asked if this was to be i then ended the prayer and my companion elder wood looked at me and asked why i chose oct24 i said i just felt impressed to do so. he said that durring the prayer in a moment of silence he felt impressed by oct 24 and when he said that we knew that we had our answer so we got back down on our knees and thanked god for our answer. The next meeting we had with albert we told him this story and he thought we were crazy I bore my testimony about the way the gospel has given me the oppertunity to not just help my self but to help others i told him about some sacrifices that looking back are easy to make if we show faith and just do it. after that we watched Joeseph Smith Prophet of the restoration. thats the one they show at the visitors center that you cant get ahold of. a couple of weeks ago this girl gave me a copy of it and i dont really know how she got it but when we watched it with albert it was such an awesome spiritual event. and then after the movie which we watched at the church for increased spiritual influence steve the member we brought with us who has had major addictions in his life with meth and other things bore a sweet testimony to albert and told him that he shouldnt worry about being baptised he said " when you are feeling like this cant be done or its impossible or even that you need to wait that that little voice is satan working against what you already know and have felt". how cool is that so then i asked albert how he felt about be baptised on oct 24. He knoded his head and said lets do it. we then promised him that we wouldnt baptise hime if he wasnt ready and that he will always have support in this huge commitment he is making. so that was awesome. And just before we had our meeting with him we had a meeting with a brand new investigator named melissa who is living at a shelter but just decided to come to church one day in our lesson with her we set a date for her to be baptised. and she said yes it pretty awesome.

well my new companion is pretty great. and he seems to like me the only thing i have a little trouble with is how he wears his emotions on his sleeves its all just a little to dramatic for me but im doing my best to communicate every thing i feel to him so we are on the same page its an adventure for sure.

Im glad to hear ducati is still waiting for me i miss her a ton tell her i love her. I was glad to receive your package thank you for the cookies they are wonderful and also the toothbrushes and toothpaste they were needed.oh and for the helmet. so the other day i was at our zone leaders apartment sleeping over because we were bug bombing our apartment. and i noticed there was this bike in the courner in sad contition in definate need of some TLC i asked if it work every one said know i asked whos it was they told me i called him up found out the prblem and asked if i could have it he said yes but it wasnt worth the trouble. COME ON i thought to myself im Jesse Flippin Wayne so i took it home took it apart on our apartment floor found the problem and it just so happened that we had a Bin of spare bike parts that i had put together while cleaning the apartment and i found the parts i needed that fit everything works out and bam bike for free. its a Trek 3700 a very nice piece of equiptment. All it needs now is some tire liners and some WD-40 Im pretty excited.

so nicole and brydon are making the move to oklahoma wow who would have thought. well anything is better than roosevelt I personally beleive. well i love and misss you guys i feel your prayers everyday.
love ELder Burbidge

9-22-2010

Well guess who went senior companion this transfer. yep yours truly. wow i cant barely handle it but it will be fun my companions name is elder wood andhe seems pretty cool. so this morning I had a pretty cool experience a real miracle. I got a phone call from a less active member and he was pretty angery at me/us mostly me since im the guy who has been here longer. I guess he called yesterday and left a message I never saw it or knew that it happened but he was pretty upset that we were "ignoring him" and he was saying stuff like "if you see me on sunday you better walk the other way". anyways i just sat there and took it and was just thinking man if i say anything he is gonna freak out anyways we ended up resoving the bad feelings with apologese and explanations. but after the phone call i was just like flip im incharge this transfer i dont think i can handle this so i was particularly ditraught at this point so i went into the bathroom with my scriptures and really wanted to feel the love. ifelt pretty alone and real nervous about this transfer so i just opened the scriptures hopeing and praying to find the lords lof for me. so BAM!!! open up to D/C section 7 where the lord is talking to oliver cowdrey and helping him pick himself up and see what he was ordaind unto. anyways i knew the lord was talking to me. "Fear not little flock"

well im hopin that i will live this transfer and that i will be a good senior comp. im glad to hear that cati enjoyed her bath and that tell her i miss her alot i wish she was here with me to be my seeing eye dog. but i know she will wait.

my address is the same good old victory Blvd

well thanks for the prayers i know that you are sending i feel them everyday.

we are getting close to another baptismal date so things are going good in the area still.

oh another really cool experience. last saterday we got to baptize an ex communicated member we had been working with her for a little while. she is at the hospital and is diagnesed with termanal lung cancer with only a littl time left here on earth. anyways she got moved to the hospital here in california and and called to have missionary visits and what not so we were working with her for a while and the the bishop ask the bretheren if she could be baptised and the permission came the only problem was that she had a trach or hole in her throught and the docter said that if she got any water in her longs that that would be it so sho put her faith in the lord and her life in the hands of two missionaries i performed the ordinace and was very nervous bet she was baptised without a sigal problem another miricale well i really have to go my times up but i love and miss you guys and give cati a kiss for me also sorry i didnt send you any thing for your birthday Mom i promise i was thinking of you and i love you

Elder
Jesse Wayne
v

Just got this one today!

so things are going more than great here we just had a zone conference and we had elder johnson form the 70 there it was a ton of fun. we got new phones pretty exciting and we are still walking iam gonna buy a bike soon i think im just lookin for on thats cheap im pretty confident that i can keep it working good for at least a year and 5 months. Im glad to hear that you guys are including catti in you adventures i dont want her to start gaining wait while im gone. I did get the letter with catis paw print and at night i put it under my pillow i will send you pictures soon im sorry everything is just a little harder without a car.
this last P-day we decided to go to the zoo because it was my companions first time to ever go to the zoo and i have to say that i was pretty dissapointed in the La zoo experience all the animals were desiesed and look really sad even the monkies didnt look happy i dont think i heard one animal sound the whole time i was there it was pretty sad i took lots of pictures so i will send those to you soon.
so transfers are this monday and this friday and saterday are transfer calls so its pretty intense because im gonna for sure get a different companion who could it be? well my companion is pretty sick right now he has had a really bad sore throat and cough and hes got joint pain and what not so i have been slammin the vitamin c packets that you put in your drink if you could maybe send some more of those and my bike helmet looks like i could use that soon. and toothpaste toothbrushes and hair gel would be fantastic.
I just got a letter from ayris in omaha last week it sounds like she is haveing a hard time geting used to things but i guess thats just how life goes.we had our baptisim 2 sundays ago and last sunday we confirmed her so thats pretty exciting. The kid i was telling you guys about albert who just got out of rehab has been clean from crystal meth for a solid month and 7 days and we just got this new guy who moved to our ward and he was a meth addict but he got clean about 9 months ago so we have been taking him with us to alberts house our last lesson with albert he commited to being baptized its been really exciting here some of these people i never thought even could change but there doin it.
well love and miss you guys and im havein a ball down here i hope all is well back home. i know i need to send you guys pictures but maybe in you nest package you guys send me maybe you could send me some pictures. I promise to get you some pictures. love you guys much/.

love your son
Elder Burbidge

A Zone Conferance

Letter from the Mission President

Good Morning! I hope you are all having a great day. I hope each of you felt as richly rewarded as I did in attending Zone Conference this past week with Elder and Sister Johnson. I would like to thank all who participated; in the role plays, the beautiful music, the food and set up, prayers, etc. Thank you. I have attached photos Sister Anderson took at the San Fernando Valley Zone Conference so that you can forward them home as a keepsake. I will try to get the pictures taken at Palmdale Zone Conference on the email next week.

A few notes from the Conference: (Elder Johnson)
1) In connecting the role of the Holy Ghost in Conversion and We Invite, They Commit, We follow-up; an investigator must exercise faith by doing. John 7:17 "If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself." That is how they gain a witness of the doctrine, by doing it.
2) Don't get too far ahead of investigators where we can only see them in the rear view mirror. We must pace with how they are keeping their commitments.
3) We can manipulate people to baptism...but that is not our purpose. Our purpose is to bring them unto Christ. To do that, they must exercise faith in Christ by keeping commitments, including repentance.
4) If we teach people, they can sense our love. If we teach lessons, it is more difficult to feel that love.
5) Progress isn't related to how many lessons a person has been given but by commitments kept.
6) Strive to be high yielding, low maintenance missionaries.

(Sister Johnson)
1) It's not about me.
2) If the spirit can be with you, you have something the rest of the world doesn't have. (D&C 50:41,43,44)

From my Book of Mormon reading this week, I would like to share two highlighted areas of doctrine that really impacted me:
1 Nephi 15:8,11 "Have you inquired of the Lord?" If ye will not harden your hearts, and ask me in faith, believing that ye shall receive, with diligence in keeping my commandments, surely these things shall be made known unto you." (pray continually)
2 Nephi 2:25-28. "Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy. (Our eternal purpose) And the Messiah cometh in the fullness of time, that he may redeem the children of men from the fall. And because that they are redeemed from the fall they have become free forever, knowing good from evil, to act for themselves and not to be acted upon (free agency). Wherefore, men are free according to the flesh; and all things are given unto them which are expedient unto men. (Our probation and opportunity on earth). And they are free to choose liberty and eternal life, through the great mediation of all men (Atonement), or to choose captivity and death, according to the captivity and power of the devil; for he seeketh that all men might be miserable like unto himself (opposite of joy). And now my sons (missionaries, liken the scriptures unto ourselves), I would that ye should look to the great Mediator, and hearken unto his great commandments, and be faithful unto his words, and choose eternal life. (the greatest of the gifts of God)

Next week I will be reading through 2 Nephi 27.

Last week the mission had 14 baptisms, bringing our total for the year to 323. I am grateful for that harvest. It is late Elders and Sisters so I think I will stop here. May I just say how much Sister Martin and I admire and love each one of you. How much we appreciate you 'thrusting in the sickle" to gather Israel. The gospel is true. It is Heaven or nothing! May the Lord bless each of you to accomplish all of your righteous desires.

President Martin