gburnham.blog

Sorry I was so behind on updating Greg’s blog.  Leave a comment on the most recent post if you are reading these and would like me to continue to update his blog.

Better Late then Never February 9, 2010

Well everyone, sorry for probably scaring you into thinking there was no email this week. I promise, I will never have to miss two weeks in a row. Sorry about last week - the mission home broke another Excel Macro they are using for the mission-wide key indicators and had me actually come down by bullet-train to fix it. The church runs some pretty sweet filtering that wouldn’t allow us to screen share in or anything… bummer. 

But after that… Sister Traveller bought us Outback! There are only one or three or so in Japan, from what I hear, and one is in Sakae pretty close to the mission home. I had a full rack of baby back ribs, and it was possibly one of the best American-ish meals I have had so far in Japan.

After that, we came back to Shizuoka with President and Sister Traveller by car, since the next day was interviews. We then did interviews, and I will admit that being a zone leader for interviews is not fun. We are in the church all day long! I don’t know whether or not I will stay in Shizuoka, transfers are coming up next Tuesday. That means that next time I email I will definitely know, so I will make sure to tell you guys. My guess is I will stay one more here, then spend the last two transfers somewhere else, maybe Gokiso (downtown Nagoya) or head back to Nagano Prefecture and work in Matsumoto. I’m not sure, but I’ll let you know when I know. 

In terms of investigators, we are seeing a lot of success here. Unfortunately, they aren’t quite to the point of baptism. For some reason, Japanese people seem to have a harder time committing to baptism. Nonetheless, we have three investigators who are currently ‘thinking’ about baptism, but are still a little scared to make the jump. Hopefully they can find the courage in the next week and get ready to go. We are also prepping up for March Madness, like we did last year. We are going to have a good month of March I think. 

As for me, I’m feeling really good. I have been focusing on eating healthy and staying energetic all the time. Unfortunately I ruined my back for a day during morning exercise though, doing deadlifts. It was way hard to be out all day, but I made it. It feels a lot better now, but I’m being a whole lot more careful in morning exercise. I dropped a kilo this week, but I’m still up to 63-64, so I’m doing well health wise. 

My testimony is growing faster and faster as well. I have finally gotten to the point on my mission where I can basically feel the spirit whenever I want to, in whatever situation. Just by calming my mind, remembering Christ, and essentially testing myself to see if I can feel it. I have learned how to actually bring and use the spirit into lessons, and how to let it teach instead of me. As a missionary, you gain these skills toward the end of your mission, and then realize how valuable they would have been if you could have had them all along. Either way, the things I have learned and developed on my mission are things I don’t want to let go to waste when I get back. I hope it can help fulfill whatever callings I have in the church, and especially hope it will help me teach and train my children to be strong and active in the gospel.

Another thing I have learned on my mission is how much I probably worried all of you when I wasn’t exactly the most obedient kid. I look around Japan at the parents who have kids who are less-active or rebellious or a little careless and I notice the way they suffer. I have apologized before, but sorry again. I’m different now! Ha. It must be so tough to be parents and see kids either going down the wrong path or even just starting to move that way.

Well, I’m pretty much out of time, but I will write again next week for sure. Sorry the investigator update was short this week, I had a lot of other rambling to do I guess. Hope you all have a great week, and Happy Valentine’s Day!

Love you all!
Greg Burnham
gregburnham@myldsmail.net
1-304 Itakadai
Meito-ku Nagoya-shi Aichi-ken
465-0028 Japan

Short but Direct January 24, 2010

Well, sorry everyone for the lack of email last week. We were in Yaizu doing a beach barbecue for our zone activity! I have attached a picture or two. Don’t be too jealous. Oh and LeeAnne, thanks for the letters and stuff again. Your stuff is going off this week, sometime. Maybe.

I had an excellent week, though, and we had an excellent zone conference just a few days ago to top it off. I heard all about the earthquake in Haiti, and about Apple’s tablet rumors. Even people in Japan are starting to get antsy for the event in the next couple days. I found a few potential investigators just by asking people if they liked their iPhone or not, and showing them some secrets… haha. It works well. 

We have been working so hard. I feel like dying instead of sleeping some nights, but it feels good to see the work moving forward and to have some of my missionary fire replenished. Two transfers ago it was a bit weak, but it is back in full force again. I figure the harder I work, the better the experience, and the faster the time goes (although that is just a side benefit, of course). I’m not trunky, but I’m also not one of those missionaries who wants to stay on a mission forever. I don’t know if that is a good thing or a bad thing… haha.

So I figured today I got a ton of questions from you guys so I figure I’ll just answer them all one by one, and call it a week since I have already spent three hours on this computer today fixing the mission home’s mistakes.

Mom’s Questions:

Hi Greg,
Does that mean you are at the mission home right now? 
Nope, I’m still in Shizuoka. They had me use remote desktop to fix their issues.  They originally wanted me to come down by bullet train but it would have been a waste of money, so we worked it out this way. It has been three hours in front of the computer - reminds me of before my mission, haha.

How are you doing? 
Well! Though sometimes I feel like I’m going a little crazy with all the different things I have to juggle around in my head. Overall though, besides being tired and a bit cloudy sometimes, I’m having a blast.

Did you do something fun for the zone activity?  
Yeah, we went to this area called Yaizu, and had a beach barbecue with tons of meat, then played football and took some sweet sunset photos as a zone. Then after that we did a mass zone companionship exchange and we each worked with a different companion until 9:00, when we all went back and crashed at the same apartment, in Fuji City. Then the next morning we split back to our areas. It was way fun.

How is the work going?  Do you still have investigators that are progressing? 
It is going really well, actually. Unfortunately all of our recent baptismal candidates fell through because of lack of parental permission or moving suddenly to a different prefecture. Luckily though, the kids have new dates and there are a number of other investigators that could go really well. This week we counted up 10 investigators that are actually keeping commitments and progressing towards baptism. It isn’t a bad number at all.

How is the companionship?  I didn’t ask if you are still a zone leader and if your new companion is also? 
Yes, we are both still zone leaders. I should be until the end of my mission - I am hoping I don’t get taken into the mission home. It is just a bit too much menial work and not enough action out and about. I love President and Sister Traveller but…

How has the weather been?
It has been cold for Shizuoka, but that is still relatively warm. Especially compared to some other parts of the mission. I can usually ride my bike without gloves and be generally ok. I have been using my big coat (thanks LeeAnne) and a loose beanie and that seems to be good enough.

Derek is part of an honor choir.  It will be fun to hear you and Derek sing together when you get home. Are you a bass or a tenor? 
Bass, but I wouldn’t be too excited. I still can’t sing all that well, but I’m working on it. If the song is in my range and I can get the first pitch ok, then it is no problem. Unfortunately my range is pretty small which is proving to be a problem for singing with my guitar. I don’t know who decided all rock/pop songs should only have high vocals, but they should be found and killed.

Did I tell you that Kyle Beswick was engaged?
Yes! And someone told me I was going to get an email from him… but it never came. If you can, tell him to email me asap with the good news! And I definitely want an invitation. I’m so happy for him - is there a date set for the wedding?

Thanks again for emails this week. I love you all, and wish I had more time to write. Love you!
Greg Burnham
gregburnham@myldsmail.net
1-304 Itakadai
Meito-ku Nagoya-shi Aichi-ken
465-0028 Japan

A Small Update January 10, 2010

Hey everyone! Thanks for the emails this week, it was good to read nice long emails!

Unfortunately, you’ll have to forgive me, we have a short pday again this week, so I will make the emails pretty quick and concise I guess.

First - BYU has officially sent out the letter to my email that I will be able to register classes, so everything is 100% cleared up and done. I think that I will probably decide to live in the Colony, but I still haven’t decided. My companion Elder Kusume and I are getting along so well in just this first week that if he makes it into BYU he wants to live close to me, so we will probably figure that all out later. He is working on his English right now, but it is good enough to get in I think. He finishes one month before me. When should I decide all of that stuff? I know it is good to kinda get into those places early…

In terms of the work, everything is going really well. We have two people planning to be baptized this month, kind of leftovers from last month but it should be good. Today we had a Mochitsuki party, where you pound rice with a big hammer until it turns into mochi, the sticky rice dough stuff. It was pretty fun, plus we had a few investigators there to enjoy it with us. We have been working really closely with the members, and so our mission saw a huge increase in baptisms last year. It really makes a big difference.

I’ll try to send Kathryn the stuff as soon as possible.

I got the package, and we threw the tacos party with a couple of investigators. It went well. I haven’t opened the nacho cheese yet though… I’ll let you know how it goes.

Life is good, busy, but not a lot of time to do any of the small things.

I’ll write a longer email next week, like I have been saying the last few weeks. Sorry!

Thanks for the updates! Love you all, bye!
Greg Burnham
gregburnham@myldsmail.net
1-304 Itakadai
Meito-ku Nagoya-shi Aichi-ken
465-0028 Japan

Hey Everyone January 4, 2010

Don’t have a ton of time this week, and I didn’t get any emails so I am going to keep it pretty short. Transfer calls were this morning, and I am going to be getting Elder Kusume, a Japanese Elder who will become a new Zone Leader this transfer. He is absolutely hilarious, and our personalities will match pretty well I think. He is actually the missionary who broke his collarbone, which is when I went to Gifu for those three days. I’m really excited.

Just a side note, Elder Eitel just got transferred to Nanao - the second smallest branch in our mission (only Ina beats it), and possibly the coldest area in the mission, haha. Thought you might find that funny…

Let’s see, other news… I guess there isn’t much else. Our investigators are all doing well. Our Nigerian, Davis, has officially started the quit smoking program, and should be done smoking in a couple weeks. We still haven’t gotten permission for Tatsuhito-kun, unfortunately. We did have five less actives at church, and four investigators, so we felt pretty good.

Kathryn - I still need your Provo address if you want the art I got you for your wedding. Send it to me when you get a chance.

Oh, and the BYU stuff is all cleared up, and in a few weeks I should be 100% readmitted and prepped to register for classes. Exciting huh? Now I just have to think about where I want to stay… I will think about that sometime later. I’ll let you know when I’m 100% ready to go.

How did the Idaho reception go? I bet it was an interesting experience. Wish I could have been there. Anyway, my attention span is really short right now, I have to coordinate transferring missionaries and everything alone this time, and we are a 3.5-4 hour train ride from the mission home. Everything is kind of flying around in my head. If you get this and respond, I’ll be here for the next 20mins or so, I’ll check the inbox every few minutes.

Hope you all had a good week! Talk to you later.
Greg Burnham
gregburnham@myldsmail.net
1-304 Itakadai
Meito-ku Nagoya-shi Aichi-ken
465-0028 Japan

Another One Bites the Dust December 28, 2009

I’m extremely tired after a very late night last night involving almost no sleep and am getting sick, so sorry if this email is all over the place and/or weird.

So. I just sent my companion home this morning. Weird. I have to admit, it was not as excited or monumental as I thought it would be. And it didn’t make me trunky either, so that’s good. It is just weird that he isn’t in the mission any more. It actually makes me want to come home less, but maybe that will fade off over time.

So, things that didn’t make it in the phone call last week and things that have happened since then…

Christmas Dinner
We had by far the most awkward Christmas dinner that I have had and probably will ever have in my life. It involved eight members and a former investigator. We ate pizza and soup for dinner, and then we went around introducing ourselves. The group of people we had gathered together were probably the quietest and weirdest people in the ward, which made it extra awkward when they decided we would show the investigator the Restoration DVD (on Christmas, mind you - no direct relationship) and then have a testimony meeting afterward. After the movie finished, the members got into a discussion about how they like the old DVD better because they liked when Satan comes and is then cast away, and they were debating why it got taken out of the new DVD. During the testimony meeting, every member’s eyes were boring into this poor former investigator, and my companion and I were squirming in our seats. Then it got to Brother Sasaki, who is 70-years old and going a bit senile. He testified that Joseph Smith died as follows, and I quote, “I know that Joseph Smith died. Amen.” Then, he proceeded to flatulate loudly as others gave their testimonies. After the testimonies, they invited this former investigator to hear the missionary discussions. Unsurprisingly, she did not accept. The biggest help and hindrance in missionary work are the members. It was easily the most awkward and painful, yet one of the funniest and most memorable Christmases I will ever experience, I’m sure. I wish I had a video.

But, Davis, our Nigerian is doing amazing. He had a dream and felt God telling him that he needs to clean up his life and quit smoking and quit drinking, and come closer to God. He is basically already ankle-deep in the water, we just need to get him off his addictions.

We also have good progress with our other investigators too, and we are excited. There should be a few baptisms this transfer. I have also eaten seven meals in the past 36 hours, so I feel like I am about to vomit. I kind of want a nap, but there is not time.

Anyway, don’t have much time today, but I just wanted to send something off to respond. Thanks for the emails, and thanks for the good Christmas phone calls. Everybody hang in there. Love you all!

Greg
Greg Burnham
gregburnham@myldsmail.net
1-304 Itakadai
Meito-ku Nagoya-shi Aichi-ken
465-0028 Japan


N

An Interesting Birthday December 21, 2009

Well, it has been an interesting week, full of ups and downs. We had interviews, which went well, but went long. That always happens though. I’ll tell you most of the interesting stuff in our phone call that is just a few days away, but I will tell you that my birthday was kind of lame.

In the middle of the birthday, my bike straight up broke - the smaller gear next to the de-railer jammed into my spoke and bent both the spokes and bent the derailer to the point where I had to take off the back wheel and walk it 20mins or so to the nearest bike shop. They then proceeded to charge me $50 to fix it (plus $20 later to fix another thing they didn’t have parts for), even though I brought it in two weeks ago for the little free tune-up they do for anyone who bought bikes at that company. That sucked.

Then, I get the package slip informing me I have a package waiting for me. I get excited. We go to the Post Office to pick it up. They say it is already on a truck for delivery. We are at home for the delivery time. They call and say they can’t find my package. I get sad. We then visit one of our investigators who is ready for baptism, and conveniently meet his dad for the first time. His dad says he is not ready to give permission for his son to be baptized yet. We go to dinner at this place that has all-you-can-eat fresh baked bread, paid $6 for a salad so that we could eat all you can eat bread, then realized they bring the bread to you. Very slowly. Get back home, plan, go to sleep. That was my birthday.

Today was much better though. I woke up, and the post office brought my package after calling and saying they found it. I am now drinking delicious American hot cocoa that I haven’t had in a long time. I am happy. And we are going to have real tacos with real taco bell sauce on Saturday night with another investigator who will be baptized soon, thanks to your package.

And at the same time, the package from Sister Lowry (the only slightly elder) came, and I love the BYU pen/pencil set. I am carrying the pen now, and it is serving me well. Thanks so much!

Be sure to thank Grandma and Grandpa for the Harry&David popcorn. It is still in the process of being eaten, it is delicious. I got it about a week ago, just after email day.

Well, I will talk to you soon enough, so I’ll hold the happy stuff for the phone conversation. By the way, my companions phone call is at 7:30am ish our time (our Christmas day). He is going home in 8days, so he only plans to be on the phone for 30mins or so. I would say safe bet would be 8:30am-ish our time. That would be your Christmas Eve at like 5:00ish I think…

Let me know if that needs to be changed or anything. I love you all, and hope you have a fun next few days. Say congratulations to Kathryn for me when she gets back. I’m looking forward to talking to her soon after that.

Talk to you soon!
Greg Burnham
gregburnham@myldsmail.net
1-304 Itakadai
Meito-ku Nagoya-shi Aichi-ken
465-0028 Japan

Still Not Cold, December 13, 2009

Hey everyone. Thanks for getting the emails to me this week again, even though I am a day early once more. This missionary schedule only gets weirder the longer you are out. I was up at 3:50 this morning in order to make it back to my own area (we were in a different area last night) in time for an appointment. More on that later.

I got the birthday/Christmas stuff from Grandma and Grandpa Burnham - my companion and I are loving the popcorn. They sent that way good Harry and David flavored popcorn stuff… So far we have only eaten just a part of the black raspberry kind, but it is delicious. Tell them thank you for me!

Sounds like things are getting crazy for Kathryn’s wedding. I have something for the two of them that will make it in the mail in the next few days (so it might be quite a few days late, unfortunately, sorry!). It is something small in size, but I hope it makes up a little bit for not being there. Don’t get too stressed about preparation and all that stuff, I’m sure it will go well. Just enjoy it while it lasts. I’m sure it will be a special day. I guess I won’t be emailing you again before the wedding, so good luck and let me know how it goes. Lots of pictures please!

Sounds like everything else is going fine at home. I haven’t been able to send off any gifts or packages for anybody this year, so don’t be offended if you don’t get anything. I just haven’t had time, money, or ideas. I’ll make up for it next Christmas - sorry I’m a terrible son/friend/brother.

Thanks for getting the packages in the mail to me though, those will make Christmas a lot nicer for me at least. I don’t have any requests or anything. Just whatever makes it in I will be grateful for. The packages and stuff mean a lot to us. Especially in the last quarter of the mission, when it starts to turn into enduring to the end. I’m having a lot of fun, seeing a lot of success, and working harder than I ever have in my mission, but I’m starting to get pretty tired too. We just need a two day missionary holiday where we can sleep in past 6:30am and then I think I would be back in action. It doesn’t help that we haven’t been able to get to bed on time in a week or so either, with various emergencies and phone calls and such. Lame.

But yeah, I’m doing well otherwise. No flu, and no cold so far. I think I will be able to avoid it this year. Special missionary protection or something.

We have interviews with president tomorrow, which is pretty exciting. They are early this transfer, so we can have our zone conference closer to Christmas. It will be on the 23rd.

Our baptisms are set for the 24th and the 25th, but the one on Christmas is still having a tough time getting permission from his dad. We will be trying to find different ways to serve him etc so he will give us the permission, but we are worried it might just come down to actually filling out the record and everything and just going over there and asking him to sign it. A little persuasion might be necessary as well. We also have two or three others who are just about set up with a date, we just need to sit down with them and set it together. Those could happen around Christmas, but more likely the week or two after.

The ward is great. I haven’t eaten so much in my life, yet I have only added another couple kilos. After losing again in Okazaki where we never ate, right now I’m hanging at around 140lbs (unnecessary info maybe, I don’t know) but it is slowly rising. I think I might actually come home from my mission healthy.

Well, I am putting up a few pictures here in a second, I will send the email links to you all also. I don’t have much time left, but thanks again for the emails and everything. Let me know how the wedding goes. I’ll let you know about phone calls when I know - probably tomorrow at interviews.

Talk to you soon!
Greg Burnham
gregburnham@myldsmail.net
1-304 Itakadai
Meito-ku Nagoya-shi Aichi-ken
465-0028 Japan

Krispy Kreme... December 7, 2009

Yes, this week was a pretty intense week… We took the bullet train into Nagoya a day early to spend our preparation day wandering around the city, and then ate dinner with President and Sister Traveller at a way good tacos place. The first time I have had authentic Mexican food on my mission… and it was so good. I had two fish tacos plus a couple burritos, and it was excellent. A good start to the week. And then just yesterday, a way good sister in the Ward brought us Krispy Kreme from the only Krispy Kreme in Japan - Tokyo after she went to the temple. They were pretty good too… haha.

We then had zone leader council, which was good. I got my BYU stuff all worked out the night before it, I’m just waiting on President to email someone and then it should be all good.

The real good news of the week, however, is that we have two new people ready to be baptized! One is Tatsuhito-kun, who is an 11-year-old boy, and one is Waku-san who is 22-year-old college girl. She will be on the 24th, and Tatsuhito will be on the 25th! We also have three more people we are planning to commit in the next few days/week, so we are pretty excited. They both look pretty good, but Tatsuhito-kun needs permission from his dad. His mom is a less-active who has 80% returned to church, so she is all about trying to get him baptized, but the dad is being a bit of a roadblock. We will get him there though.

We have also been working with a lot of Nigerians around Shizuoka who own hip-hop clothing shops. They are all so humble and have way strong faith, so it has been pretty easy to teach them. The only problem is, most of them have already been baptized into another church, and are kinda hesitant to leave their own church. We are working with two in particular who are making good progress, Davis and Emie. Emie sold me a sweet zip-up hoodie for 75% off, about $20, so I got it. It is grey/black/light grey plaid and doesn’t really look hip-hop at all. It fits way nice too, not big at all. I was pretty happy, and he promised to read and pray about baptism, so I was extra happy.

Oh, and we decided on our zone theme - “Fé. It is in you?” Fé is Portuguese for faith, so we used the Gatorade logo and made a pretty cool sticker for everyone to have. I’ll attach the sticker image to the email so you can see it - it is way sweet. 

Hmmm, what else. Last week I think you asked about flying pig and if I needed any food. Right now, not really, but I wouldn’t complain if there was a surprise package or anything. I don’t really need anything though. The raspberry jam is running low though, I tried not to open it until Thanksgiving and it is already almost gone! It is so good! I kinda forgot how good your homemade stuff is, mom.

Oh, I heard about BYUs big win against Utah! That was pretty exciting. President actually showed us the video highlights at ZL conference (shh… don’t tell anyone!). I wish I could have been there.

The snow in the backyard looks pretty crazy - that is alot of snow! Did it melt basically right when the sun came up? You should look up the temperature for Shizuoka right now, I don’t even have to wear gloves or a scarf or even my big coat when I am outside working! It is way nice here.

Well, I don’t know what else to say. Oh, we are working with this way cool American member from Nebraska named Alex who is 17 and graduated early - he is here on homestay. He is the man, does Judo and is a way stylish kid. We were streeting around Shizuoka last night and he was telling everyone he wants to be a missionary, and that he is coming back to Japan in two years to be one, haha. I hope he gets his call here. He will be starting BYU the same semester I go back, so we will probably hang out a bit. You might get to meet him even.

Well, I think that is about it. I will be here a bit longer, we are making some stuff for Zone Conference, so feel free to respond/answer/ask questions for the next little bit. Don’t get too stressed with wedding stuff! Talk to you all soon.

PS: I don’t know anything about Christmas calls, but I will let you know when I do.

Love you!
Greg Burnham
gregburnham@myldsmail.net
1-304 Itakadai
Meito-ku Nagoya-shi Aichi-ken
465-0028 Japan

Shizuoka November 23, 2009

Well, I made it safely to Shizuoka here with Elder Ward. Turns out Elder Eubanks is not in our companionship - he went over with a regular missionary in an area right next to us. So he is close, but not together.

The area is great so far. One of the larger cities in the mission aside from Nagoya of course, but difficult to get to without the bullet train. Unfortunately we didn’t get to take the bullet since we had to pick up another missionary along the way, and it doesn’t stop at that station. That means our train trip to Shizuoka took about four hours. No fun. The bullet train takes about 40m-1hr total. We will be taking it next week to get to Zone Leader Council in Nagoya.

Gifu was great. Most everyone remembered my name without even looking at the name tag, and some even brought me food. I got to meet with Imai-san (you might remember her) who moved back to Gifu the same day I started my three-day visit (God times these things pretty well, I would say). She is now recommitted to baptism, and should be baptized soon I’m sure. A pretty exciting result for a three-day companionship exchange.

Thanks for the BYU stuff, I’ll get on that right away.

Anyway, again, I don’t have much time this week, since our pday ends in just a little bit (we have some appointments in a few minutes also), but thank you so much for the emails. It should be a blast to have everyone around the house, but don’t let it stress you out too much. PLEASE TAKE AND SEND PICTURES! Emailing them is even ok. I know I have asked like a million times, but I really do need pictures to show people. The only family pictures I have are from my farewell the first time forever ago. You all look different now…

Also, Dad, I won’t make you spill any information, but it sounds like that 50 man conference was probably pretty interesting. If you have any sudden urges to detail some stuff, you know where to go! Ha. Just kidding. Kinda.

Well, hope you all have a good week. Love you all and talk to you soon (even by phone!).

Greg Burnham
gregburnham@myldsmail.net
1-304 Itakadai
Meito-ku Nagoya-shi Aichi-ken
465-0028 Japan