July 29, 2013
I am sitting here writing you
without a voice, haha. My life in so
unfortunate (actually, my life is super fortunate; I just like being dramatic).
I got a cold that quickly turned into a
crazy cough, in true Alivia fashion, and now I don't have a voice! So, that makes missionary work nice and
difficult! :) haha!
My mom might have already written
something on the blog, but just so you know the address that has been on my
blog for the past 3 months of my mission has been incorrect. (So, I haven't been getting mail. Isn't that so sad? I’m telling you – UNFORTUNATE). So, if you
have written me in the last 3 months and you were wondering why I never
responded, it is because my kind, upstairs neighbor threw all my letters in the
garbage. Isn’t that the darnedest thing?
Haha! Hi, my name is Alivia and this
WOULD happen to me. It makes me laugh
every time I think about it. However,
the address has been corrected, so if you sent me a letter in the last 3 months
and I didn't respond, I encourage you to write me again. :)
This week was awesome. We had one
day in particular that was just miracle upon miracle upon miracle. I want to specifically talk about Alex. I have
talked a little bit about him in past emails. He is a kid we knocked into one
night and have been teaching for a few weeks now. He is the weirdest person I
have ever met. He is SO unique and just 100% himself. This week he told us that
when he cuts his hair, he spreads the cut hair around his yard for birds to use
to build nests. That gives you an idea of the kind of person Alex is. He is so quirky and I LOVEEEE it. Don't you just love people who aren't afraid
to be 1000% themselves? I hope to be as
confident as Alex one day.
Anyway, he has been prepared in
the strangest way to receive the gospel. We taught him the Plan of Salvation. He ATE IT UP and has been sharing it with all
his friends and family. But, the lesson
I wanted to tell ya’ll about is when we taught him the Restoration. It was the coolest experience of my life. We
started teaching and his eyes just lit up. It was so powerful and every single
time we asked him a question, he would respond with a question that was 100%
answered by the next section of the lesson we taught. Like, the 1st lesson has several sections: God is Our Loving Heavenly Father, God Blesses
Families, Prophets, Dispensations, Christ's Ministry, etc., etc. Every time we
would ask a question about one section, his question was completely answered by
the next section that was in the lesson. I don't know if that makes sense, but
let me give you an example. We get through the First Vision and it is really
quiet; the Spirit is there so strong; we are just sitting in silence soaking in
the Spirit and then we ask him how he is feeling. He says . . . wait for it . . . "I just
wish . . . there was like a book or something." ARE YOU JOKING? DID THAT JUST HAPPEN!? And
then we got to teach him about The Book of Mormon and it was AWESOME!
I love you all!
WOAH! I just remembered like the
biggest part of this week and needed to write you about it. Ahhh!
This week I had one of those, "You
will never forget this moment ever, ever never in your life", moments. My first transfer Hna Parry and I met Ezekial.
We talked to him in his yard one day and haven't seen him since. Last week, on Thursday, we were driving past
his house and decided to knock. We didn't know anything about Ezekial except he
had faith and his wife had cancer.
We knock on the door and his wife
is sitting in the dining room, a ways away from where her sister opened the
door for us, in a wheel chair. She tells us to come in. We went in and sat and
talked with her and her sister. She has
been battling cancer for 7 years, she told us. We told them about the Book of
Mormon and the comfort it can bring and invited them to read it until we could
come by again next week. Before we left Juana started to cry and told us she
wanted us to meet with her daughter because her daughter was having a really
hard time with her (Juana’s) cancer and was the same age as us. She gave us her phone number and then we left.
We called Cristina a few times but kept missing her whenever we tried to meet.
Then Thursday came and we went back to Juana's house for our lesson. When Cristina answered the door we were
pleasantly surprised to finally meet her. We then said we were looking for Juana to
which she replied, "Oh, that's actually why I haven't been calling you
back. I've been really busy with funeral arrangements. My mom died on Tuesday."
We were taken for a loop. We had
absolutely no idea. We asked if we could come in and talk to her. We asked her
about her faith and noticed the Book of Mormon we had given Juana was sitting
on their dining room table. We were like, "Can we read a verse out of –
well actually the Book sitting on your table right there?" She then goes, "Oh, did you give this to
her?" We told her that yes we had, to
which she said: "She brought it with her to the hospital. Right before she died, she handed it to me
and said, 'This is your Book now.'" I could not hold in my tears as I thought of
this lady who in 5 days had read the Book of Mormon and knew of it's worth
enough to give it to her daughter, on her death bed, as her final token.
I testify, as a representative of
Jesus Christ, that the Book of Mormon is the word of God and that this is the
Kingdom of God on earth. God be thanked for this knowledge that we have.
Love, Hermana Burnham
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