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Back in Gifu, November 20, 2009

For three days! Turns out I get to spend some time in my first area. An Elder here had to have surgery on his collarbone, and since my companionship was the only threesome in the mission, I was asked to come here for the weekend to work with his companion until Sunday night. It is so cool to be back in my old area.

But, it will likely stay short, and we had transfer calls yesterday. (Which is why our Pday is so late this week). I will be transferring out to Shizuoka City in Shizuoka Prefecture - the green tea capital of Japan! It should be fun. And to get there, I will likely get to ride the shinkansen, the bullet-train. I pretty stoked about that. My companions are Elder Ward and Elder Eubanks, another three-man companionship, only this time we are all zone leaders. I’m pretty excited, but Elder Eubanks is a bit strict and no fun, so Elder Ward and I will have to loosen him up a bit.

The rest of the week has been crazy, taking trains back and forth between Okazaki and Toyohashi to cover both areas. We had a baptism in Toyohashi, but the second baptism was moved to 12/20, and I won’t be there to see it. Shizuoka seems to have a good number of progressing investigators too, so I am not too disappointed.

About the BYU stuff - thanks for talking to him. Let me know how it goes. I have been talking to someone completely different about it, through honor code office instead of through admissions. Blair Reynolds I think is the name.

Hmm, the details this week are kind of few and far between since I have been rushing around everywhere. Oh, an investigator played the new John Mayer CD while driving us home from Ward Conference on Saturday night last week, and no matter how hard we tried to convince him to turn it off (we actually didn’t try that hard, but hard enough that we didn’t feel guilty), he still left it on. And then yesterday Sister Traveller played the new-ish Beyonce CD while driving us to Gifu. I am currently fighting to chase the songs out of my mind. I understand why missionaries have rules.

All the problems seem worked out in the mission, and everything is going smooth again. We are going to break our yearly goal for baptisms without a problem, and probably get quite a few extras. The goal was about 25% higher than last year, so the work is progressing!

I think that is all I have for this week. Yes, Dad, Derek, Jacob, etc, you can put the Weezer CD on your iPod(s). And no, please DONT send it to me, haha. I would have a hard time resisting that temptation…

Well, thanks again for all your emails and such. It makes a huge difference to me. It is weird to think Thanksgiving is this week. Happy Thanksgiving! We will be working here - there is no holiday.

I will write a better email next week from Shizuoka, I promise! Have a good week!

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

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about 2 weeks ago

Another Busy Week November 10, 2009

So. This week has been nuts. I am in Toyohashi right now, and have been on and off for the last few days. It turns out one of the ‘problem missionaries’ in my zone decided it was time for him to pull his last big stunt, and confess all the other stuff he has done along the way. It was pretty bad. He ran off with a girl he baptized about a year ago and we ended up running around Toyohashi all night with members checking every possible place he could be and talking to everyone who might have any idea where he went. When that all cooled down and he made it into the mission home to prepare to go home, the girl called up and threaten to attack the mission home if she didn’t get to talk to him on the phone each night before he went home. It was probably the weirdest thing I have experienced in my mission this far… including the balut.

Anyway, the point of this story that I have shortened a ton to fit in one paragraph is that I will now be in a three person companionship for the next two and a half weeks, and be balancing two different areas so that investigators don’t get lost in this whole mess. It is really stressful! And on top of that, there have been all sorts of crazy things happening - district leaders in my zone losing their cell phone, an area being closed at the end of this transfer, it is all crazy, and all in one week! I am so tired, and we didn’t even have time to sleep today on preparation day. I’m not sure how I am going to survive.

Anyway - good things that happened this week… I won’t lie - there aren’t many. The Toyota factory fell through (thanks to this whole thing) and we had to cancel a lot of appointments. There was a baptism though this Sunday, and I performed it. I would attach a picture but I can’t from here. Maybe if we are in Okazaki for pday next week then I will be able to attach it. It was a good baptismal service, and she is being fellowshipped really well, so I am happy. We also have two baptisms to do this Sunday here in Toyohashi - one passed his interview today. I guess if you just hang in there when Satan throws his best at you, God also gives his best blessings. But it is really tough right now.

I honestly think that is about all I have for this week. Sorry it isnt more spiritual or more extensive. I think I have gotten to the point this last week where I am literally burned out. I can tell you the whole story when I get home I’m sure. I am pretty tired spiritually and physically, so hopefully these next few baptisms we have will help get me going again.

Thanks for all the news in the Stake and all that stuff. It is good to hear what is happening sometimes at home too. I hope Jacob is healing, and I hope Kathryn is getting all the preparation done easily and quickly.

Well, love you all. Talk to you again next week!
Greg Burnham
gregburnham@myldsmail.net
1-304 Itakadai
Meito-ku Nagoya-shi Aichi-ken
465-0028 Japan

I now have the strength of a grown man and a little baby duck.

Dwight has nothing on me. This week I had the experience of eating balut, a Filipino specialty. Balut, for those who aren’t aware, is a 15-21 day old duck fetus inside the egg, that you then boil and eat like a hard-boiled egg. Only there is also a duck fetus inside your hard boiled egg. Complete with eyes and feet and other neat things. I have attached a picture of the balut. All said and done, I feel like a man. And it actually wasn’t all that bad. I ended up eating two, as did my companion. Now we are going to take the sister missionaries there (hopefully this Saturday) and have them eat it. We will see how it goes…

Well, on the less gross and more spiritual side of my life - there is a baptismal interview tonight for Miyata-san, another one of the investigators in Okazaki that the Elders and Sisters kind of share. I will be doing both the interview and the baptism, since President needs to do the interview and he can’t make it tonight. The baptism is set on Saturday, so I will take pictures and such. It should be great.

We had our zone conference this past week, and the zone leader training we gave went really well. I learned in the past few weeks how to really gain the trust of a few missionaries in our zone who are kind of problem missionaries, and everything seems to be going fairly well. Our stats (although not important, I know) are now the highest zone in the mission, so something seems to be going right. Everyone seems to be keeping up with our area pretty well, and President is happy.

Also for our zone, I got permission to use Bon Jovi’s Livin’ on a Prayer in our training. It turned out way nice, and we got it to transition into some conference talks and some clips from the Restoration DVD. It was awesome, and it really got the zone pumped up I think. I am pretty excited about that.

A week from today we will also have a zone activity, hopefully with Sister Traveller coming too, up to the Toyota factory in the city of Toyota. Apparently it is pretty sweet, with the robot arms and all that cool stuff. Unfortunately, you can’t take pictures while they are working I guess, So I don’t know if I will get anything to show you.

Our investigators are good but a little low in number right now. Everyone is a recent convert - not a bad thing but a little but frustrating when you are trying to baptize more people. The good news is of the ten people that have been baptized in the last two and a half transfers, all but one are still active and only two of those don’t have the priesthood yet. It seems to be going so well here. I’m pretty excited about everything.

Good to hear everyone is well. The engagement photos look great - have you sent them to LeeAnne? I think she would maybe enjoy them. Jacob - hang in there with the broken bone. I’m sure there are plenty of things you can make Mom do for you while you are stuck on the couch… haha. Sounds like everything is still as normal. Sad to hear about Sister Focha Ricks passing away - I think it would definitely be mixed feelings as you said. At 91 and with her quality of life it was probably a good thing for her as well as sad for the family. Tell Eric McCaffree I say hello, I’m doing well, and congratulations on finishing his mission well. It will be interesting to see if I get the ‘deer in the headlights’ look or not. I’m going to go more on the probably not side, but who knows.

Well, I don’t have much more time. I just have one final favor to ask of you - and it is a very important one. This may sound very odd, but it is a limited time deal, so I need to get it done. Weezer has apparently released a new album called Raditude. There is a special deal going around that is seeming to be of great excellence, involving a zebra print snuggie that you get with the CD. My question is - would you be so kind as to purchase the CD in the deluxe package from http://www.weezer.com/raditude/ and then mail me the zebra print snuggie for the winter? I feel it would be a perfect study tool for the mornings when it is cold in missionary apartments with no central air/heating. I heard it is $50 for the CD and the snuggie, but I am willing to do it. Onegai!

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

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about 2 weeks ago

October 27, 2009

Hey everyone.

Well, I’ll be honest - this week was both one of the best and one of the worst/weirdest of my mission so far.

First things first - Ishikawa-san officially became Ishikawa Kyodai this Saturday when he was finally able to be baptized. I have attached a picture, hopefully it gets through to everyone ok. It sounded like last week’s picture didn’t make it to some people. Let me know if it doesn’t work out this week. Anyway, after the baptism he gave a pretty impressive testimony considering he is 69 years old, Japanese, and a only investigated the church for two months before being baptized… His conversion was really a miracle. I think I mentioned it last week, but he went from 40 cigarettes a day to zero in about a month or so. Pretty insane huh? I’m proud of him. Unfortunately last week was Stake Conference so we couldn’t confirm him (it wasn’t held in a church building, it was held in a community center - weird) but he will be confirmed on Sunday. The sisters here also have a baptism on Sunday that I will likely perform. I never thought I would say this in Japan, but I feel like a successful missionary in a successful mission.

Oh, and speaking of Stake Conference - the assistants gave us the last second responsibility of translating for the whole conference, Saturday night and Sunday sessions. It was all professional-like, with microphones for us and earpieces for them, and a wireless earpiece for Sister Traveller who was sitting up on the stage (ie: pulpit, but stage since we were in a community center). I realized that I actually really enjoy translating. Not enough to do it as a job, but it is challenging and I feel like I can do pretty well with it. It also reminds me of how much more I can improve my vocab whenever a word comes up that I don’t know. It is both humbling and motivating, which is good I guess.

What else. Oh yeah, the not so fun part. Just problem missionaries are causing my stress level to increase, and everyone who knows me knows there are really no stress levels in my life normally. In fact, I think a lack of stress was my problem before the mission. Now I have extra stress. We almost had to do another emergency dealio, this time involving an eight-day-long companionship exchange. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it) they refused to do the exchange, and instead made some deals with President Traveller. The good news is that they don’t hate us or President. In fact, I am good friends with all of them, they just don’t follow the rules. I was hoping by gaining their respect they would begin to obey rules, but gaining their respect just resulted in them being kinder to me. The good news is that they work hard and baptize, so I guess there is a silver lining.

Anyway - LeeAnne wrote in her email a transfer and a half ago that all her zone leaders hated the responsibility, but I responded that I kind of like it. I am changing my mind. I don’t like it. But the good does outweigh the bad, the bad just gets focused on a little bit more. I have made so many more friends in the mission since being a zone leader, since everybody knows you. That is good. I don’t want to deal with the problems. Anyway, enough mission politics.

How is everyone doing back home. Good to hear that Dad got at least some of his allergy stuff figured out. I wonder why Kaiser didn’t get the stuff figured out in the first place. I guess that is why they call them ‘allergy specialists’ eh?

Jacob! Crutches!? That is way bummer. I hope it heals fast. I don’t know how you feel since I have never had to use crutches, but I can guess it isn’t fun. Hang in there, and write me a letter sometime.

That goes for you too, Derek. You haven’t sent me a letter in a long time! But it is ok, I know you are busy, and I have had no time to write any letters. You can ask LeeAnne - she probably hates me by now! Speaking of girls, how are all of your girlfriends? I know you aren’t 16 yet, but it doesn’t say in For Strength of Youth that you can’t flirt before you are 16… you just can’t date… haha. Just kidding. Stay away from girls - they aren’t that fun anyway.

Bummer about BYU football, I thought maybe this was the year. But I guess we say that every year and then something always happens. Maybe we just assume they will choke from the beginning, and they will surprise us and actually stick out a whole season successfully. How is Austin Collie doing by the way? Are the Colts still undefeated?

Anyway, enough trunky talk. President usually gives us sports news and stuff anyway. The perks of being a zone leader… haha.

I heard about Apple’s recent earnings because pretty good and the new mouse and stuff. Pretty good stuff.

Anyway, thanks for the package again. There is nothing a really need right now besides family pictures. They only one I have is from forever ago, before I left the first time for Japan. It is kind of awkward to not have pictures… Onegai! (that is a short way of saying please in Japanese). Oh and if you have any songs you want me to learn on the guitar, just send it in the form of tabs, and try to make it something I have heard before since I can’t listen to it while I learn. It is becoming a good morning relaxation. Finally, I have some good news. I am gaining weight! And it is muscle! I have been lifting in our apartment each morning and night and been taking a protein supplement that is actually helping a lot. In the past three weeks I have gained like 4kg of muscle and it is starting to increase faster now. I am still definitely skinny, but I might actually come back in shape and not underweight. I even have a six-pack right now! Unbelievable, I know. I guess I just want to warn you that I will be making a $50~ purchase for protein supplement on my card. I know you said you were going to pay for any of the extra money spent on trains and stuff here, but just be aware you don’t have to replace any money I spend. I kind of feel guilty - that is why if you haven’t noticed I have tried to use my card less since you told me you would replace when I had to go into personal funds for mission stuff. I made money at Apple, so I can use it for some of the personal stuff I buy.

Oh and also, do you have any idea of any type of food or vitamin I should get more of to help cuts heal quicker? I seem to have a lot of small cuts on my hands and stuff that are not healing quickly… Instead of scabbing like normal they are kind of swelling. Anyway, if you could figure that out for me, that would be great. Kind of a weird question, I guess.

Well, I guess that takes care of everything. Sorry this week was kind of business-like. I guess that happens sometimes. My testimony really is increasing every day, especially of the atonement as I see the Lord’s investigators getting to know him and his sacrifice. It is amazing to see the changes people make as the come to Christ. I used to think missionary work would be so awkward for me because I had such respect for people who have different opinions, and I was scared to intrude on their own thought processes. Then I realized I’m not here to convince or force people, I am here to teach those who are already prepared all around us. It has made my missionary work a lot more fun, and a lot more comfortable.

Hope you all have an excellent week. Oh, and PS: aside from the package from family (thanks!) I haven’t gotten a single letter in two months. I know I don’t write often, but come on! Hook an Elder up! And since LeeAnne hasn’t sent me anything either, I am really dying for some outside world contact. At this point anything is ok - Primary children, future-brother-in-laws, second-cousins, random people you find on facebook, I’ll take just about anything right now. I promise that from here on I will at least send something in response to every letter I receive, even if it is short and boring.

Love you all!

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

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about 2 weeks ago

Its already almost November October 18, 2009

It is crazy to thin that the month is more than halfway done… I am not sure what is going on in my life. Time isn’t even an object anymore. Way weird.

Anyway, Elder Grimmer made it safely to Okazaki, and we are pickin up and working hard here. One of our investigators, Ishikawa-san, will be receiving his baptismal interview today. It is a little later than we planned, but better late than never. We are also working with a 15-year old named Hiroki-kun - he just needs permission from his mother, who is Catholic and not the biggest fan of Joseph Smith. Hopefully her heart will be softened soon.

We have had a lot of issues in our zone too. I mentioned I was in Kariya for three days this week - that was because of an emergency transfer in that companionship. Maybe I will share that experience someday when I get home, but it isn’t really appropriate to share over email. Let’s just say it was one of the most awkward discussions of my life…

Anyway, that said, life is good. The work seems to be going well. Elder Miller (my previous companion) is suffering pretty good in the mission home (haha). It is a way tough job, but he is doing great. I miss the guy.

Church this week was good too. We found out that our ward will be joining with Mikawa, a Brazilian branch. That means we will see a good number of Brazilians come into our branch, which means more baptisms! The Brazilians in Japan are great at bringing friends to church and activities, both Japanese friends and more Brazilian friends. We are pretty excited about that. It pretty guarantees I’m going to transfer though, so a Portuguese speaker can transfer in. Luckily I have five weeks to worry about that.

Elder Eitel made it into the mission safely, and he is getting trained up in Nagano Prefecture, about 1.5hrs away from Ina. His trainer is kind of a goof, but a good missionary now. Should be a interesting experience for him.

I didn’t get much time to say it the last two weeks so I’ll say it this week. I am happy for you to get married Kathryn. It was really tough at first, but I’m past that and understand life goes on. I’m sure you and Karl are going to be happy together, and tell him that there will be BYU football watching parties Fall of 2010, preferably at LaVell Edwards stadium. As we say in Japanese, omedetou gozaimasu! Congratulations!

I am glad you got the package. The bride with guns being held to her head was all the way back from Gifu - a quiz skit that they did for a wedding reception there. It was the Second Counselor in the Mission Presidency’s daughter and an Area Seventy’s son (who was our Ward Mission Leader). It was hilarious, there is a video on there of another part of the skit, I will translate that for you when I get back. I realized that there was another 2gig memory card I haven’t sent home yet so I will do it soon. I also need to get LeeAnne a birthday package mailed off in the next few days, so I will get it off at the same time.

Other news… ummm, I am not sure. I am running low on things to say. We had a PEC on Thursday night for the Ward which went really well. I feel now 95% comfortable in speaking Japanese. My vocabulary could be better, but I definitely feel really good about the level I am at. I have 7 more months to finish improving it too! I am promising myself not to lose it when I get home. I think it might be tough, but I’m going to get the Liahona in Japanese and some other stuff to really help me out. Plus reading news like Grandpa Anderson does.

Everyone here is asking for me to come back with my family - to Gifu, Ina, and Okazaki. Looks like if we do decide to visit Japan we are going to have a full schedule! Hope you are ready for it.

Well, that is all I can really think of for now. Hope to hear for you soon!

(PS: It has been two months since I have gotten a letter from LeeAnne: Sister Lowry the Elder but Still Young, please kick her butt for me. Thanks! Even though I’m not doing much better about writing…)

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

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about 2 weeks ago

Another One Bites the Dust October 12, 2009

Well, I have shipped another companion off to the mission home… I don’t what it is but everything I touch goes to the mission home. I told President that just a few days ago and all he said was ‘That seems to be the case…’ and then he winked at me. Nice.

Anyway, he went to the mission home a few days early, so I came to Kariya (an area in my zone) so that I wouldn’t be alone. I am here with Elder Palmer right now, who came to the mission at the same time as Elder Warner (my new missionary I trained). He is hilarious and an excellent missionary. Has a perfect Jim Carrey impression and loves to make movies. You should look up ‘Matt Palmer Utah’ on Youtube and see what you can find… haha. President showed them to us.

Anyway, my new companion with be Elder Grimmer, who came to Japan the same time I came back. He is also a pretty intense missionary. He and I have some of the same personality traits and everything, so it should work out well. He is a new zone leader this transfer, so I will be teaching him the ropes. I don’t know how much there is to teach, but I will do my best. I think I will end up learning more from him.

Well, because Elder Miller left Okazaki early, our baptism got pushed back one more week. Bummer. But it is 100% good to go, so it should be no problem. We just need to get his schedule to match up with ours. We also have another investigator with a date planned - Hiroki-kun. We need permission from his mom, who thinks he is still not understanding enough of the lessons. He is 15.

General Conference was really good. I especially enjoyed Elder Holland’s talk, like everyone else, but I also enjoyed Priesthood session alot. I can’t wait for the Liahona to reread over the talks, and to look at the beautiful photography (one of my favorite things, there are always good photos in the conference edition).

Thanks so much for the update on how everything is going. I again, don’t have time this week because Elder Palmer needs to get all packed up and his stuff sent off, and I have to contact everyone in the zone about when to meet at the train station and everything. It is too bad everyone is getting sick - I’m still healthy other than a weird breakout on my chin, but it is already almost gone. I think we just weren’t eating healthy enough since it was a busy week. Thank you so much for the package, but I have one more favor to ask of you. I need pictures of the family! Preferably printed ones. I always have to introduce my family with a picture from two years ago when I left the first time! Everyone looks different now I’m sure!

Has my packaged arrived yet? I hope it gets there safely, and soon. If it doesn’t come within the next two weeks, we should start to worry. Next time I will send it by air.

Well, I love you all. The work is moving forward, and I threw my companion under the bus into the mission home so I could avoid office work and stay in the field. I dodged it for one transfer, only 5 more to go! Not that I’m counting. Oh, and lastly, the CDs you sent me are much appreciated. Elder Miller just gave me his iPod since he is buying a new one before he goes home, and I was able to get them on there. Unfortunately, he took his iPod dock with him, so as of right now we have no way to listen to music in the apartment. I might buy one here soon, what do you think? Let me know and I’ll wait til next week to buy one.

Well, I love you so much, and I will talk to you next week!

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

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about 2 weeks ago

Sou Batista October 5, 2009

Well, I’m pretty sure that says ‘Let’s Baptize’ in Portuguese. Maybe the wrong spelling. Anyway, we had another baptism last week, but it was technically the sister missionaries investigator. Our investigator should be good for in between conference sessions, and confirmed after t he Sunday session. I’m pretty excited for that. The good news is that General Conference will be rebroadcast in our own ward building on Sat/Sun. There are a few benefits to being a zone leader… one is the area.

Other things… The transfer ends in one week, so I will know what is happening with my companionship then. I’ll make sure I include that in the next email…

I guess not much else than that. Our email time just got interrupted by some emergency phone calls, so I don’t have much time… Things are going well. I got your package, thanks so much for the stuff! I will write more next week!

Love you all!

Congrats Kathryn!

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

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about 2 weeks ago

More Busy Weeks September 22, 2009

Well, it has been another crazy week in Okazaki… I spoke in Sacrament Meeting on Repentance, which was good fun. It is much different speaking in a ward of 100 than in a branch of 12, though I think it went very well. We also had a good number of investigators at church, and have another baptism lined up for next week on Sunday morning.

I also have made a promise with our Filipino recent converts to eat balut… I think that is how it is spelled. It is basically an 18-21 day old fertilized duck egg… you suck out the juice first and then basically slurp out the yolk with a little baby duck inside… sounds delicious eh? Apparently the best kind is 21 days old, because then there are even little feathers, and the beak is a little more firm. All I can say is that I am scared half to death, but the sister missionaries in our area are way excited. I don’t have any idea why, don’t even ask.

Yesterday we missed our preparation day to participate in J-Mission, an Institute activity for the whole Nagoya area. There were 50+ institute kids who were going to spend about four hours finding new investigators with our zone in Anjo City. It was 12 investigators and 50+ kids, though some of them were return missionaries as well. We, being the only zone leaders there, had to plan and coordinate the whole thing. It turned out pretty well actually, we found lots of people and it might have stoked some of the youth to serve missions. I hope so, at least.

Tomorrow is Zone Conference and I am conducting the morning session. I’m kind of nervous, but it should be fun. Conducting actually consists of welcoming people, leading D&C 4 and Our Purpose, and starting the conference. Shouldn’t be too bad. The biggest fear is who is going to be able to dodge the call to be assistant to President - both spots are vacant at the end of this transfer, and my companion and I are both in a dangerous spot. I hope we both dodge it, being out in the field is where I want to be.

Let’s see… what else. Um, I haven’t heard from Kathryn in another month again almost, I assume everything is going well? Dad mentioned something about you having already ordered a ring or something? It would be nice to be in the know on this kind of stuff…

I’m glad Derek and Jacob had a good time on their campout. I can’t wait to see how different they are from when I left. One of the missionaries just mentioned the other day how he used to always play Guitar Hero with his younger brothers, and it reminded me of those times. It was pretty funny.

Well, I think that is about it for this week. All is well. I’m healthy and busy, which is about all I can ask for. Glad everything is going well there…

Love you all.

PS: LeeAnne - you totally one-upped me this week on baptisms. This is war.
Greg Burnham
gregburnham@myldsmail.net
1-304 Itakadai
Meito-ku Nagoya-shi Aichi-ken
465-0028 Japan

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about 2 weeks ago

Baptize September 15, 2009

Well, we had the baptism of Toyama-san this week. He is now Toyama Kyodai. It was a pretty amazing baptism, and his testimony was pretty unbelievable for a convert. He forgot to say ‘In the name of Jesus Christ’ at the end of his testimony, but that was about it. He testified of temples and work for the dead, and of the Restoration. I was pretty impressed.

Well, anyway, I will send pictures of the baptism home soon. Have you gotten my giant box yet? I guess it isn’t that giant, but it should be coming anytime now. I sent it right before I transferred… It has some pictures and some puzzles and some various other things. It might be a bit boring, but I figure you will be happy with the three memory cards full of pictures.

Yes, the ward is huge - 100+ people at Sacrament Meeting. Right now I’m doing translating into English every week - I still don’t get a break just to sit with investigators at Sacrament Meeting. That will be one nice thing about coming home - getting at least one Sunday to just relax!

Right now we also are a little low on strong investigators - this area saw 6 baptisms last transfer, we had one last week, and have two more planned before the end of the transfer, so our teaching pool is turning from investigators to recent converts. I am not going to complain, since I spent so long in Ina, but it is kind of busy around here.

We also had an exchange with the assistants this week - they are whitewashing (switching out both of) the assistants to President Traveller at the end of this transfer, so they are exchanging around the mission to see who might go in next. I think I don’t have a chance cause I’m still a little young, but it is still scary. I don’t really want to work in the mission home, because it takes you away from proselyting and helping real people. I think I may be doomed though, before the end of my mission - President has already warned me a little.

Let’s see, other things… The mission is buzzing about BYU football. President talks about it all the time. I didn’t know they committed the number quarterback in the nation though. Pretty unbelievable. This should mean it will be fun to watch when I get back also…

Sounds like LeeAnne is having some exciting experiences - people fainting, baptisms, and companion changes. Hang in there, you sound like you are doing well! And, you were right, I already am not a huge fan of being a zone leader - it is busy and a ton of pressure. I already cracked once under pressure in front of everyone, but everyone does it. I have to conduct the next zone conference too. It is very difficult to balance your own area and all the extra stuff. Ah well. I’ll hang in there if you do.

I hope Derek and Jacob have a fun time at the beach. I’ll write more later! I’m running out of time - we have to visit a couple of referrals tonight. Hope all goes well this week. Let me know when Kathryn is officially engaged (the longer it takes the better).

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

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