Week #106

11-24-14

 OH.....MY..... GOSH i really cant belive that htis is my last week. i really cant belive that i will never be Elder Burleson again. i can not belive that i will be there in such a short time..... is this ever real!? oh my i am going crazy thinking about it right now! 

I don't even know what to say... I just like want this week to pass by super fast!!!!! 

My week was great but I would way rather just tell you next week when I can look at you! hahaha

hmmmm do I want anything special when I get home? no! I dont think so! i just want to see everyone!!!!! i just want to have like a normal relaxed night and catch up with everyone. hahaha really dont want anything big.

the only thing that would be cool is to be able to like see all of my pictures. and you have pretty much all of them. maybe you could put them somewhere so we can look at them at night!

I really dont know what else to say....... see you soon!

This is district!

Traveling 3 hours to the zone meeting....

This is the cool guy who is always presenting us to his friends!

My sexy stance....

I have not grown up THAT much hahaha

Week #105

November 17th, 2014!!!

Hey there!!!!!

I hope you are excited I am coming home, because I am!!!! But I am sooo freaking scared!!! It’s going to be like going into a new world! hahahah nothing will ever be the same again!!!! Life will be super different and I will be all like used to South America and not at all to the states and I wont be able to talk to the people about the gospel the same way I used to do and I will just be like working and doing school! Crazy! I am super excited!!!!

Oh yeah and my week!!!!

hahahahaha I have freaking killed myself working this week! I have been walking everywhere and talking to literally every single family I see!!!!! This week I have talked to 35 different families, which is way more than I have done and than most missionaries usually do.  I have been talking a lot! haha. Yeah I feel really good about it! I also talked in sacrament meeting about the members and how they have to help the missionaries be obedient to have blessings and if they keep tempting them then they were not going to have missionaries here anymore. And yeah they seemed like they were all super receptive.

So Monday. We finished writing and then we went on divisions to visit two different families and it was really good! I got to teach this older couple and they were really funny because they always fight!!!!! And they just like bicker and then they would kiss each other on the lips!!!! I love old people love!!!! It’s sooooo cute!!!! and yeah that is how we ended the night!

Tuesday: a good long day of work! I did divisions with a missionary named Elder Williams who was one of the missionaries who went to Colombia and it was really good! I could see that he is trying really hard to do well. The sad part is that while we were there some 13 year old girl called me saying that her cozen had died and that we needed to go help and so we went over there and it was true. They were doing the funeral for her and let me say that catholic funerals are horrible!!!! They have like this huge bloody Christ on a cross and everyone just like screams. And the saddest part was seeing the mom who they took us straight to and I tried to talk to her and she just screamed and screamed and I couldn’t say anything and she was screaming and begging for me to kill her.... she said that she just wanted to die. I couldn’t help but cry too Em I felt soooooo bad for her. I just wanted to fix it all but I couldn’t do anything. I HATE when I can’t do anything to help people. hahaha I have gotten better on my mission with accepting that I can’t always do everything for everyone, but I still try and yeah I just had to leave after like 30 min but we did calm her down reading her scriptures, which helped.

Wednesday: hahahah another day of hard freaking work!!!! hahaha I guess the most exciting is that we were able to talk to the montilla family, who are going to be baptized soon.  They just need to be married and they will be good! But they were lame because they did not come to church this week.

Thursday: We had to get up at 5 in the morning to go to Ibarra for the district meeting!!! Then we got home at 7 at night! It’s a long freaking trip! but the cool part is that on the bus we are allowed to see movies and yeah that is pretty cool until they put on bad movies, then it freaking sucks!!!!! At night we just ended up contacting (talking to people in the street) and we did well. hahaha that was it.

Friday: we went back to teach the family who their daughter had died and it was super sad because the mom was like just sitting there like a zombie not saying anything at all this time. and yeah then we did a service with that same family that I taught Monday, who are old and yeah we build ruff (roof hahahahahahaahah I have to leave that typo because it’s funny) on their bathroom which they did not have before.  I don’t know how they lived because it’s super freaking cold here all the time!!!! but yeah that was fun. The only bad part is that the was they make ruffes here is by using these really heavy ceramic shingles and they are heavy, but not strong because while I was trying to also fix a hole they had in the ruff I was like walking out on the ruff and one broke and I fell a little through and then another one broke and then I fell a little more through and then I got out and broke a few more and so while we fixed the ruff of the bathroom, I wrecked the ruff of the house and I had to fix it all after!!!! hahah it was pretty funny!!!!! hahaha but yeah that we the most exciting of the day!

Saturday: we worked a lot with little outcome! hahaha but we did have a blessing in the night time finding a family called the Roser Maldonado family, who are super cool. They live one floor under us in the same building and we taught them and then they went to church on Sunday! Really cool family!!!!

Sunday: I gave a talk in sacrament meeting and I talked about the missionary rules and it was really good! I felt like it helped to have them know what our rules are so they can help the missionaries be obedient. That was my talk and then we had lunch and then went top work, but with little success. But we worked our butts off!!! I feel like I have been doing everything possible and I feel good about it!

That was my week! hahaha it was a good one and like I said I am super happy! and it is freaking crazy to think that I will only have 2 more Sundays officially with a name tag. Isn’t that weird!? It is for me!!! but I am super happy!!!!

Oh by the way even though I probably have tons of parasites, nobody needs to worry because there isn’t any Ebola in Ecuador! So you are safe! Haha

Love,

Christian

P.S. Yeah those aren’t my jeans in that picture you are right! That’s why they are baggy! I don’t have any jeans anymore because I gave them away!!! I think you will actually be kind of surprised about all the stuff that I have given away!!!! hahahaha I know its bad but I just know that there are other people who need it more!!!! I love you!

 My companion took this while I was waiting for someone to come out of their house haha.  He said that I smile ALL THE TIME even when people reject me it's funny haha.

 P-Day Again!

Week #104

November 10th, 2014 (Back to Monday P-days)

I miss you so much!!! I can't believe that I will be home in less than a month seriously that seems sooooo fast!!! And it will go even faster for me because this Tuesday I got changed!!!! hahahaha Can you believe it?! 

I am now in Tulcán, which is this little city in the north most part of Ecuador and I am about 5 minutes away from the Columbian border!! Remember where I had to pick up that missionary up from last week? When I got robbed?That is my sector now! This is a pretty corrupt area in the mission, like the members always end up trying to get us to bad things!!! It's an experience that's for sure.  

My new companion is Elder Perez and he is pretty cool.  I am really happy!!! This week has been full of teaching and talking to familias and meeting new people and yeah I am going to baptize a family in two weeks and I am super excited!! I couldn't have chosen a better place to finish!!! The only problem is that it is freaking cold!!!! hahaha I have to wear a jacket like all the time here because it is freezing sometimes!!! But I like it!!!! I wish it would snow!!!! but they say it never does here!!!! and yeah hmmm what else can I tell you about my change!!!!! It's just super cool!!!!!!!! hahahahaha I am working sooo freaking hard!!!! I have been getting to the house like dead tired every night this week!!! oh yeah and this last week was the last mission  council that I will ever go to!! and yeah I had to give my last testimney and I cried like a little girl and then I felt super good because some of the zone leaders came up to me after and told me all the things I had done for them and I took pictures with everyone!!!! but yeah it was super cool!!!!!!

I will soon be home!!! and I don't know yet the flight plans, but I think next week I will get them!!!! and I will let you know!!!! 

Love, Christian

I look kind of weird in this picture!!!! Oh well! haha

Week #103!

November 1st, 2014 

Hey there!!!! 
So you said I need to tell you about me every week so I will write about my week for you! It was a crazy one! It was almost a really really bad week, becuase I almost died.  But we will get to that!!!

Monday: Well it was just a normal Monday, but we didn't get to leave to offices because we were getting everything ready for the week and the President wanted to plan for the next month and all of that stuff.  We got all done and it was a really productive day.  I still HATE being stuck inside workign though.  It is TERRIBLE! haha 

Tuesday: We went to Otavalo and trained 3 of the zones!! It was a good meeting and I had a blast training.  I really like to try to help motivate people.  I could probably be a motivational speaker if I wanted since i love it! But I don't want to haha. Then in the night time we went and looked at the houses of missionaries which was good and I went to look at the house of Elder Huber, a  missionary from Idaho who is super cool! he lives like 20 minutes from Rexburg he said and his family has property there.  He was showing me pictures and it is SO beautiful there!!! No wonder you love it there so much.  He said if I go to school there ever he could probably help me out with cheap horse board there so that is sweet! Yeah then I went to work with a few missionaries in their sector and we found a really cool famil and then we went to their house to sleep!

Wednesday: we had trainings in the other two zones in the campo and that went raelly well!!!! we were able to visit more houses (every 3 months in is our job to see the houses of all the missionarys) and yeah they were all good! and then after that we met back up with the president and he told us there there where a few problñems there with some Elderes. so insted of goin gto sleep we went to go hunting missionarys!  and yeah we got to the hotel at like 1 in the morning and slept until 7! haha the president told us to sleep in but we couldnt do it more then 30 min because our braines are all set to get up at 6:30

Thursday: well this was for te sure the scariest day in my whole mission. we wehre interviewing until about 3 in the afternoon and then the president told me that i would have to go just me and this missionary to his house that is in a place called Tulcán (i think i told you i had been there once before) and yeah it is 3 house from the church we where in and so yeah we went fast! We had to go get his things from his house.   i love the drive out there and i was just looking out the window the whole time! and yeah it started reaining and so it took longer and we go thtere at 7 at night and so we got a taxia nd went to his house and yeah we got in the buss to Quito at about8:00 ad left! now this is a 5  to 6 hour buss ride and yeah this was the scary part! i learned that travaling at night leaving from a place that in 10 min away from the colombian border is not a safe thing! we ended up on the buss with many iligal colombian imagrants and yeah they where not nice people at all! and te other bad thing is that we got on late so there where not enough seats for me and the other Elder to sit together so we where sparated and it started out fine but then like after a few hours they saw me and started talking about me! (there where a few seats behind me) saying how they where goin gto kill me and rob me an saying who was going to do what to me! and yeah i was pretty woried there for a second! and then the people who where right bihind me got off the buss and so the badcolombians came up right behind me and started telling me to give them my money! i told them i didnt have any and they told me they knew i was lying! and then one of them grabed me onm the sholder by my shirt and told me he didnt want to have to hurt me so i did what i know i had to do and i gave him all the change i had. which was like 5 bucks but the next bad thing is that when i opend up my little money thing that i use he saw i had a 20$ bill and then he told me to give it to him and i told him no! haha then i strted to do what i do best and i started to contact him and i told him i was a missionary and he said " i am kind of liek god. i am his brother but not the good one" like trying to tell me he was satan which scared to crazp out of me and then he shouted to all of him buddies behind him telling them to come over and then there where like 4 of them and he grabed me and told me to give him everyting i had or he was really going to hurt me and as soon as i was going to give it to him no just  i think a angle saved me Em because there where all of the sudden police in the buss and i didnt even notice that we had stopped  and the police took them all off and only a few of them got back on. and then they didnt bother me! but there still talked abou tme and yeah i was pretty scared and super greafull for the protecion that i felt like it was no joke come straight from god.

Friday: We got up early and we to a training in quito! we had to two it once with the zones from Ofelia and OFlia Noth an hten with Quito and Quio Este. and that finished at liek 7:30 and then we went to the prsidents house and planed the mission coulce! it was a goot night! i got home just beat and ready to sleep!!!! no joke i was so tired but today i got to rest!!!!!
so yeah that was my week!!!! and as far as how i feel.... i feel soo freaking happy to be finishing my mission and knowing that i did the very best i could! i still have a month left and i will kill myself working for the next month but I am super happy with my work and effort so far! hahaha i am super happy with my new comp and Elder Miranda has also been a lot better ever sence we talked which was good!!! i hope i can find somone today to baptise so that i can finish baptising and have one more family converted! haha oh yeah and speaking of that! the president told me that he has the rull that the misionarys from his mission (my mision) can never tell anyone how many people they have baptised because he does not want the missionarys to think that it is all about that so I guess I won't be able to tell anyone my real number! haha
That's all though! 

love,
Christian 

Week #102!

October 25, 2014

Yes I stayed as the assistant for the last change and I got a new companion.  How did you know that?!
His name is Elder Lindeman.  He is he buffest person I have ever met in my life! He is a stud! We get along really well. I had to stay as the assistant to help train the Elder who will replace me.

 I got into it this week with Elder Miranda on Sunday.
Our fight ended with him telling me he didn't care about me basically and that it would be better if we both just stayed quiet and focused on work until the end since I was almost done and he hates me that much.  I wanted to be mad and tell him off but I just got super sad and started crying like a little girl becuase I have been having such a hard time getting along with him lately and I don't want to end my mission like that.  So I told him how I thought it was sad that he had been serving so long and learned so much but that he had forgotten the most important thing is to love the people around you.  So then I just manned up and let it go and we went to class and then after lunch he said he wanted to talk.
He got really emotional when he talked and told me that he hadn't thought of it that way and he wanted me to forgive him and that he would try harder with me.  I forgave him for sure! So now it has been better between us finally.

As far as my week goes, there isn't much to say.  We had a crazy week with all of the changes and new missionaries and all that and it worked out well.  We had a good week! The new missionaries are cool.  There is another one here from MI now.

My feelings these days have been all over the place!!! Sometimes I am super happy thinking about going home and being with everyone especially you! Then other times I just start to cry thinking I am not going to be a missionary anymore.  It is super weird to think that it will be over in 5 weeks! Crazy right?! hahaha

I have been spending a lot of time recently trying to improve my prayers.  The wife of the mission President told me it is a good idea to meditate before and to keep a prayer journal where you write the things you are asking for and then slowly write the things that the Lord gives you and you will see how he answers and blesses you! I want to keep doing that with you when I get home I thought it was a good idea!
Anything else I say not will just be rambling so is there anything else you want to know about?!

Love,
Christian

Week #101

October 18th, 2014

I was going to write about my week and the truth is that in these days I have been having a really hard time on my mission!! My companion and I don't talk at all unless it is related to work, he has no interest in talking to me, so that makes it really hard for me.  I have been with him for 6 months now too.  I know I am doing what the Lord commanded though and that is what keeps me going strong! I am working my hardest and doing my best!!! Tomorrow I will know where my last sector will be (stay here or be changed) because it is my last change before I go home in 6 WEEKS! That's crazy.  I am sooo excited, but also bummed to lose my nametag.  
Also, out of all of the days I wanted some time to write today the President did an inspection of our house and it took away a lot of our writing time, so now I only have about 10 minutes to write.  Oh well, I will write more next week!!! 

Love, 
Christian  

I got some letters in the mail this week and here are a couple parts: 

9-12-14

Good Morning! I am starting to actually feel like I have a long time in the mission.  Everyone is asking me how much time I have and in the mission we have a rule that you can only say “a little more/less than a year.”  So I always say “a little more than a year,” then my companion says 22 months and everyone goes crazy saying how little time I have left to serve.  The truth is that I really want to go home to see you and be a cowboy again and stuff but the funny thing is that even though I want that, everytime I imagine not having a nametag I start to cry.  I know that the name tag has no power or anything like that, but it is something pretty amazing to have the name of the savior of the world and all mankind stuck to your chest, knowing that you represent him.  But at the same time I plan on still serving when I get home and doing missions later in life too.  I know you can still help people come to Christ all the time, even without a nametag.  Sorry the missionary part of me had to come out in that paragraph!! (: 

9-14-14 Week:

Sunday: We had a normal Sunday at church then after church we went to the President’s house for dinner and then were there until 11:45 calling out changes and then the President wanted to say Goodbye to Elder Hess who was leaving the offices to work in another sector after serving in the offices for 8 months.  When the President came to our house he was shocked to see how messy it was he said and he had to give us a talk.  I am not the cleanest, but the kitchen which is my part wasn’t THAT bad so I didn’t feel too bad (:

Monday: Well it started out normal but at night we had the going away dinner.  There were 6 that went home which was kind of sad because one is an ex assistant who was super good.  We always serve the food to those wo leave which I always like to do.  That finished at about 10:00 and then at about 1 in the morning the bus came to pick them up. 

Tuesday: At 7:30 we were in the hosue of the President to go to the airport to pick up the new missionaries.  There were 23 of them, which is a TON! 10 of them were from the states!

9-19-14

Haha looks like I didn’t finish writing about my week, sorry.

Week #100

October 11, 2014

Hey there!!!!!!! ooooooooh myyyyyyy i miss you soooo much!!!!

 So i will start out by answering your questions because you always say I don't answer anything... 

1. My week was pretty good. but pretty boring to talk about!!!!!! I didn't travel. We had the mission council, which turned out really good!!!!!! We trained about leaving legends. As far as my change that is coming up the President has not told me anything.  I was hoping he would say something to me in my weekly letter but he didn't even write me that sorry sucker!!!! 

2.  Well my knee is pretty much the same!!! I have not been running just jumping rope so I have had not problems with it recently. and my other health problems are great!!!! as good as ever!!!! the stuff the nurse gave me helped a lot. 

3. Elder Miranda does not go home for a long time!!!!! So he will still be here even if I get changed.  I have been having a hard time with him.  We are going about two weeks where we only talk about the work, nothing else.  I know that I am kind of fighting fire with fire, but it is really hard to talk about anything else between us.  It is hard for me not to talk, but he doesn't want to and I go crazy and end up talking outloud just to myself! haha 

4.  Tell Allison that if she cuts all of her hair off I will KILL her!

5. Tell my Dad that I have been learning that song already!! Tell him "cuando cuando cuando yo llege a la casa le voy a cantar las canciones de amor mas dulces que jamas han habio"

6.  Overall, I am good! I am trying so hard to focus on the work and I have done pretty well! 

This week I had to see the last testimony of Elder Pinta who is like my best friend in the mission. That was the first time that I had cried with tears for a long time!!!! It was super sad! But he said to will go to the states to live. and I think he is telling the truth!!!! but yeah that was sad!!!! 

Today I got the papers from our Mission Secretary that I have to fill out so she can buy me a ticket to go home!!!! That's soo freaking crazy!!!!! I can't believe that in 7 weeks I will be there!!!

Ok my week,

Monday: I did all the verificasions with the zoneleaders and then started on the councle!!!! we have a ton of things we have to figure out every month!!!!! it always takes us forever!!!!!! so yeah from like 4 in the afternoon untill 12:30 in the morning we were at the computer figuring those things out!!!! oh and just to let you know i am way better with the computer! but i still suck compared to other people but yeah i know a lot more now!!!!! and yeah that was what we did allll day!! just getting ready for the councle.

Tuesday: started the day out early with the mission coucle wich turned out really well!!!!! i feel weird to know that in the next one i will be giving my testimony! it is crazy to think that it is almost over!!!! but anyways if i get the change that i want i wont even go the the missin councle because i wont be a zone leader, just a trainer!!!! but we will see!!!!! then that finished at around 8:00 at night and we cleaned up the building and then went home! i have been pretty tired ever since then.

Wednesday: i was in the offices even though i didnt have much to do but i have to be there until at least 6 and then i left to work and had no visits all night!!!!!! hahaha just walked in the rain!!!! oh yeah it has been raining a lot these days!!!!!! and it has been pretty cold!!!!! and yeah we talked to a bunch of people but no one was really ready to listen yet and that is how we finished the day!

Thursday: we went to the district meeting of the misisonarys in the Ofelia zone! i just went to watch to make sure they are doing alright! and i could tell that they were doing a good job!! i also went because some of the missionaries from there zone told on the zone leaders for breaking the rule on playing soccer and yeah i talked to them and they had to ask forgivness in frond of all 35 missinoarys in there zone. they didnt like it much but it was good.

Friday: we were in the offices until 6 getting ready for the next month with all of our trainings and all that stuff. then at night we had a visit with a guy named Bolivar and it was pretty good but the bad thing is that there were some Ex-members of the church there and they where pretty nice, but they were for sure jacked up in their brains!! they joined some group called John 23 which is named after a pope and yeah they are crazy!!!!! hahaha anyways i wrecked the guy with his own bible!!!!! and i did with love and by the end he was just pissed because i made him look dumb and he left. oops! but yeah it was good!!!

Today: got up and washed my clothes and then studied!!!! and then we went to buy food!!!! and then we cleaned the house really good!!!!!! then we made lunch and then came here to write!!!!!!!!

I am so happy to hear from home but I am nervous to come home!!! 

Love, 

Elder Burleson 

Week #99

10-4-14:

One of the things that I have learned in my mission is that I don't know a lot of things and one of the things I least know is why God sometimes responds right away and sometimes he waits. What I have learned is that he ALWAYS responds... I promise! 

I only have 10 minutes to write, because I have to go watch the priesthood session!!!! hahaha 

I know you want to know about my week, but I didn't really do anything this week!!!! I have just been working like freaking crazy and thinking a ton about my last change!! The pte. asked me what I wanted to do for my last change and I told him I wanted to train a new missionary and do it in the jungle!!!!! So we will see what happens there!!!! hahaha and other than that I visited a lot of missionaries in divisions and stuff like that, but no trainings!!!! 

Now I'm getting readdy for the mission council! But that's about all! Watch Conference and really try to have a question and get revelation from it! It has been really good! 

Love,

Christian!!!! 

Don't Forget About Me!

Week #98!

September 27, 2014 

I had no idea it was going to be so hard! TO think about coming home! Elder CAlderón who is an area 70 came and talked to us in a zone conference and he talked about the missionaries and finishing and I cried like a little girl. haha no joke I was so proud to have served and to still be serving but it makes me soooo sad to think about not having this same calling as a missionary. hahah but I know it’s not the end of me being a missionary at all  haha so yeah um this week….

I had a good week!!!! I won’t tell you what happened everyday because it will be kind of boring, but I will say that we went to Otavalo pretty much all week and we where training the missionaries there. And also we had a big zone conference here in Quito!!! I am like a pro at training now! At least in Spanish!! I don’t know how I would do in English. haha but I will get better when I get back!! I will have to be taught how to speak again! Haha just kidding I do speak a little English when I am with the President. 

Love, Elder Burleson 

 Some Sweet Hats, With Elder Miranda

 Elder Miranda, President Richardson and I

Us again at the hotel we stay at by the Imbabura volcano.