From the Top; You're Welcome, Sisters; and Everybody Move!

Some time off for the Elders

Happy Saturday, world! Honestly I can't believe it's already been a week...it's been really ridiculously fast. Not quite as much excitement occurred as last week, but it was still great. Well, I take that back. There wasn't as much outside-of-the-office action, but dealing with stuff in the office has been kind of nuts.

1) From the Top- So we started the week off with an excellent Sunday. Eric and his sister came to church, and we're still working on visiting them again. Afterwards we paid a visit to one of our ancient, eternal investigators. The one I talked about like two months ago who had problems with coffee. Well, with this lesson we decided that we needed to start over. She hasn't heard the message of the Restoration in forever, so we taught that again. She understood very well, and I'm hoping that this approach works. Especially because she officially doesn't drink coffee anymore, so none of the commandments should be impeding her baptism! It gave me a lot of hope when she said that. She works like crazy as a doctor, and hardly sleeps. I dunno how coffee works, exactly, but I hear people use it to wake up in the mornings. I imagine that could help her at the moment. But she has decided to stop, something that she previously said was impossible. Nothing is impossible with God, that's definitely a fact I've come to learn on the mission.

2) You're Welcome, Sisters- This week we also met with one of the miracle references I mentioned a couple weeks ago. She is kind of crazy. She talks like a million miles an hour, always about the same things, and it can be hard to get a word in edgewise. She showed up at the church for our appointment, and it took us nearly ten minutes to get her in as she almost didn't stop to breathe while talking about problems in work, thoughts about the Book of Mormon, how we all have guardian angels...and more. Fortunately after the prayer and in the lesson, we kept definite control. We read Alma 34 with her, with lots of commentary. As she talked, she explained her understanding of faith and repentance. I began to see that she really did understand the feelings that come with forgiveness, the alleviation of guilt. I explained to her how she could receive this feeling on a greater level with Heavenly Father through prayer and, more importantly, baptism. We marked the baptismal date for two weeks from now, and she said that with enough preparation, she would. She's open to learning and we marked a return lesson for next Monday.

Just one catch. She technically doesn't live in our area. She attends church in a city like five hours to the north, she just works here during the week. She said she'd love to come here and has already invited her co-workers here as well, but on the fifteenth she will be at church in the other city, where she's already attended. So basically we get to be the missionaries who make killer stories for other people by calling and saying "all right Sisters, you have a baptism this Sunday. Make sure you have someone to do it."

3)  Everybody Move!- So the excitement in the office this week is based off of the fact that more than five different houses are in the midst of changing, so I've been on the phone constantly trying to close some houses while simultaneously working out the contracts with the new ones. It's been a lot of work, and things are just now starting to calm down a bit. The other piece of excitement was with a rental agency that was calling constantly, wanting to come visit me in the office. But they kept not showing up. I was a little sick at the beginning of the week and started to get a little grumpy with this woman who sends e-mails only in caps, expulsion notices, and gets mad when I don't give her documents that she doesn't even understand. Finally a different guy came and explained what was up--that they needed something completely different, a declaration of the payments we'd made to the landlord of a particular house in 2011. Because she hadn't declared it and was now in trouble with the government. I honestly can't explain it in English, but I was relieved at the end of it that I wasn't the person in trouble.

So, with that, I'll sign off for the week. I love this work. I don't love being sick, but I do love getting to serve others and the Lord. I love the scriptures. I always find something in them that applies to me and my life, and helps me to be a better person. It's amazing.

You are all fantastic. You are all children of God. This is the true church. Joseph Smith was a prophet. I know it.

Never say die, live every day to it's fullest, and make me proud!

Much love,

Elder Burt