Sorry, June 13, 2009
Well, looks like I’ll go another week without hearing from anyone - we didn’t know until yesterday that the library would be closed on PDay, and I left it up to my new missionary to decide if he wanted to email early or late, knowing he would say early because he missed email completely last week. So, unfortunately, I am here two days early, emailing with nothing in my inbox. I know this probably is as hard for you as it is for me, but this will mean three weeks with no contact whatsoever from family. No fun, but whatever, I’ll hang in here. The work makes up for that I guess.
Well, my fresh, new, green missionary is named Elder Brett Warner, and I don’t think we could be more opposite in terms of personalities, but we are getting along very well. He is a drama-geek (no offense LeeAnne, you aren’t geeky - but he really is) and talks with an EXTREMELY feminine accent and intonation. It is mostly funny, for now, but it feels like it might wear on me a bit if I don’t help him man him up a little. He wanted to have our dinner candlelight style with me as the butler named Steve. And I’m not kidding for even a second. Neither was he. He then told me I needed to open my mind a little - as if I’m a closed thinker. I politely laughed and pretended like it never happened. He is from Alpine, Utah (yes, another companion from Utah) and went to Lone Peak High, then came straight out on his mission. He has never kissed a girl (he says he made a goal not to kiss anyone until after his mission - respectable in most ways) and worked at a Space Simulation camp for Elementary School students. Oh, and he is obsessed with bugs and calling small children/pets cute. I think I have a lot of work to do as a trainer… just kidding. Kind of.
But seriously, that is partly exaggerated and unrelated to the work (mostly). He has a very strong testimony and a desire to spread the gospel. His work ethic looks good, with some pushing from me, and his language skills are better than the average new missionary. We get along well, and have already built a decent friendship, so I think this transfer will be a great six weeks. He is a really genuine and motivated missionary, so I couldn’t have asked for a better companion to train. I think he will progress and grow so well during this transfer.
When I went to the little training counsel for all missionaries who would be training new missionaries this transfer, President really drilled into us the importance of this calling. He read from the Mission President’s handbook telling us that ‘the responsibility of training a new missionary is one of the greatest ways of showing trust that a Mission President has’ or something like that. He forwarded the letter to family, bishop and stake president, so you will read it soon. He mentioned that we would not only be affecting their two years as a missionary, but we would be setting the tone for the rest of their lives in some ways. He then used an example, saying that one of the missionaries coming in experienced the passing of his mother only 4-6 months before coming on their mission. He then emphasized how great the responsibility to help him stay motivated and to make his mother proud as she watches him from above. Then he gave me that new missionary. Elder Warner’s mother passed away late last year, and I am feeling a TON of responsibility to make this next six weeks the best that any missionary has ever experienced. He wants to make his mother proud, and I have been assigned to be the one who helps him do it. I have never been so nervous for an extended period of time in my entire life, I don’t think. We have already picked up the work hard, and I wore him out pretty good yesterday and found a couple of new investigators, so I think we are doing well, but that doesn’t ease my nerves. I still feel like I have a huge weight on my shoulders, and I’m not sure how well I can handle it. We are relying on the Lord and working our best though, and that is all that matters.
Unfortunately our baptismal candidate backed off a little and needs some more time. We are, however, working with a part member family to see their 12-year old son baptized sometime during this transfer. We hope that will happen soon. We also have goals for two more of our investigators to be baptized this transfer. I fully believe we can do it, so I’ll let you know how it goes.
Let’s see, it is really hard to write an email out without anything to respond to… Umm… Oh! Karen, thanks for Dear Elder’ing the talk to me. I realized I forgot to tell you that a Dear Elder gets to Japan the same speed a normal letter does - there is no printing facility in Japan yet. Bummer. But I enjoy getting them, it is great. And also thanks LeeAnne for your letter. Your buddy who tried to write a letter with kanji and kana just isn’t quite there yet with the language, but I think I understood half or so of it. Tell him thanks for trying, and to keep studying - he’ll get there someday. I’ll write back to you/him in some Japanese so you two can see what it really looks like. I don’t want you thinking Japanese looks anything like that - it actually looks really beautiful when written\spelled correctly. I’m glad to hear Redwood City is doing well, I’ll probably write you a little email if I have time. I also hope you got my mini-package as well.
Well, let’s see… other things. Oh, I had an excellent week in Matsumoto last week with the zone leaders before going trainer - unfortunately that means I didn’t get any letters sent off because they were all left behind in Ina, but I plan on mailing them off on Tuesday ASAP. Some were prepared from last Tuesday, so those will be sent off for sure. I’ll do what I can.
Well, I know this work is God’s work, and I know he is helping me do it. I was now assigned as the temple prep teacher for the Branch as well, and I know the Lord blesses his missionaries with language skills (and spiritual sensitivity/strength) or I would never be able to do this. Know that I’m doing well, healthy, tan-ish, still skinny, and thanks to the dance party in Matsumoto that we hosted for some investigators and the Branch, I can now do the Soulja Boy dance from beginning to end with our stunna shades we bought that are soon going to be donated to President as part of our Zone training. I’ll send pictures someday when I’m not busy working. Who said missionary work has to be boring? We got three new investigators out of that dance party, and one is already committed to be baptized (in Matsumoto)!
Well, I had best be headed off. This is already far too long and full of rambling and things you probably didn’t care to know. And LeeAnne probably wasted five minutes of her email time reading it, if she even read it at all. I should shorten these things I think. Ah well.
Miss you all, love you, talk to you next week (I hope…).
Elder Burnham
Greg Burnham
gregburnham@myldsmail.net
1-304 Itakadai
Meito-ku Nagoya-shi Aichi-ken
465-0028 Japan
