3 hours with Elder Bednar--June 8

Mom and Dad-

This week has been so great. It was so amazing getting trained by Elder Bednar for 3 hours! We got there 2 hours early so we could get front row seats in the chapel. I have seen him speak in different settings before, but it has never been like this. We were 10 ft away from an apostle who had prayed and received specific instruction for us as. Before he said anything, he said for us to not write down anything that he said. He told us that what he said really didn’t even matter, but that each of us would receive specific tailored revelation; a lot of which would would have nothing to do with what he was even saying. It was so true, I found myself sitting there many times watching him, but I didn’t even know what he was saying because there was just a flow of knowledge coming in from somewhere else, it was pretty amazing. The whole training was about how we need to seek learning by faith and how we need to help others do the same. If you read his talk, “Seek learning by Faith,” you will know a lot of what he talked to us about. He talked a lot about how we are all agents to either act, or be acted upon, and that Faith is acting and doing, not just sitting and listening. He taught us how we need to not just act upon our investigators but rather help them to be agents and act for themselves by helping them to make and keep commitments. I think his coolest point was that there are 3 different substances that make up Faith: 1.) Faith as the assuarance of things hoped for 2.) Faith is the eveidence of things not seen which are true. 3.) Faith is the principle of action in all intelligent beings. As we take a few steps into the dark and act, we have an assurance that heavenly Father will illuminate the way, and as we are walking, we look back and see that he has in fact illuminated the way, which is the evidence of things that are not seen, and as we see the evidence, that gives us more assuarance and the cycle just keeps going. You should really read the talk because I probably just murdered everything he said. Anyways, the 3 hours with Elder Bedinar gave me such great perspective on my mission, and in my life. We were all able to shake his hand afterward which was pretty neat. I haven’t washed my hand since, and I probably never will.

The rest of our week went really well. We exceeded all of the goals that we set for ourselves so that was good. Oh yeah, I got hit by a car on Wednesday, so I was pretty stoked about that. We were going pretty fast down the side walk facing the traffic, and this big black truck pulled out trying to turn right, and I could have sworn the lady saw me because it was a cross walk and she stopped before she turned, so I kept going, and so did she. Nothing too bad happened. It knocked me about 5 ft off my back, but I landed on my feet and jogged it off. The Wheel and Chain got knocked out of place on my bike, but we fixed that. So don’t worry, my bike is ok! I just received a couple minor flesh wounds so im ok too. I wish I could see the look on moms face right now. On Sunday we had 3 unexpected investigators show up to church and they actually stayed for the investigators class after sacrament, so we were very excited about that. We are teaching a couple of solid people right now. Cindy Love is still doing really well, and Reed also. We started teaching a part member family recently and the Dad is the non member. He seems to be really interested. He came to Church yesterday wearing nice slackes, a white button down collared shirt and a tie. Things are going really good lately for us.

Im kinda bummed that Elder Gooch is leaving next transfer. Everyone in our apartment is so cool. We have such a good time, but everyone works really hard. This has been the greatest time of my life. But there will be more great companions an experiences in the future so it will be fine.

We got in a pretty good bash towards the beginning of the week. Some guy was just telling us how the book of Mormon is false because there were no horses in the Americas and that DNA tests show that the American Indians don’t have any Israelite blood in them. We sort of tore into this guy and we both felt bad afterward because he really didn’t have a leg to stand on. It is fun to bash for a little bit, because it keeps you polished on the doctrines, but it just doesn’t feel good and the spirit is never there.

I haven’t ever heard of that school either, it sounds pretty interesting. Brett is going there you say? I will have to check it out. He just sent me an email. I cant believe he is already dating again. Crazy. Im excited to hear his homecoming talk. Im probably not allowed to listen to it on the computer, so yeah just send it on a cd or something.

Well that’s pretty much all I have for you guys, I hope I didn’t bore you. The rest of the week was all just tracting and visiting, so I wont bore you with all that. I love you both so much. And I love everyone else too! Thank you so much for everything. Your all in my prayers! I love you Mom, I love you Dad!

Love, Josh

Josh meets with Elder Bednar

Great letter posted on Josh's blog about his meeting with Elder Bednar. A must read! Also new pictures!

Weekend with the Drawes

Had a great visit with Kate and Keegan. They came to the house and Katey met and fell in love with Chili. Then we had a quick weekend at the lake with some great weather and wakeboarding. Just never enough time with our kids, but we had a wonderful time with them.


We found another gift in the desert today. Driving in the jeep, we ran across a small herd of wild horses, just yards away from us. Kept us smiling the rest of the day.

Why we love April at Lake Mead

The magic of April in the desert. Great weather, great family, great friends. It doesn't get much better!

Weekend at Mead with Furgs, Tibbitts and Wallaces

Had a wonderful weekend at Mead with the Tibbitts, the Furgesons, and Wallaces. Eric Lindsey joined us for a day and entertained us with his flips on the wakeboard. Shawna and Andy visited Chad and Em and Parker in their new home in St. George. We had beautiful weather and good time on the boat, and the boys flew and crashed, as usual, Andy's plane. Really got us in the mood for summer. We decided we are adopting the Furgesons!

In Heaven in the hills!

This pictures don't do our ride justice. We finally found the trail up into the hills which are bright green and bursting with color. Who would guess a fire destroyed everything here just 5 mo. ago. We are loving our new equestrian life. Don't think my life will be without a horse from now on. As I say at least twice a day... I LOVE MY HORSE!

"I Drive"- Parker loves driving Boppa's jeep

How can you not fall in love with this little guy! Chad, Em and Parker now live in St. George! We helped them move last weekend, so now they are only 1 1/2 hrs. from the lakehouse, and that is so great. They have a darling house with a great view, and Chad starts his job as pharmacist at Walmart on the 14th. They couldn't be happier!

Another little miracle

Mom and Dad-

It sounds like you had a pretty fun week. I cant wait to see Chili, she sounds like a great pet. I can just imagine Sadie’s reaction from seeing her haha. Has Charlie Murphy seen Chile yet? How long are you going to be at the lake for this week? Im so jealous haha! But at the same time im not really too disappointed because I am having the time of my life out here.

This week has been great! Elder Goch and I both still have mild coughs but its nothing that would keep us in. We found 6 new investigators this week! It was so great. We started doing a lot more tracting and it has really paid off. Not only did we find people from tracting, but we also got a ton of referrals as well. The ward is really starting to open up to us. We have been trying to work with them a lot more to help us with rides to appointments and what not so that’s been pretty cool.

The weirdest thing ever happened to us this week! On Wednesday, we got a super random phone call from this guy who was like,” You don’t know who this is, but don’t hang up. Im a return missionary from Fullerton California and im calling to give you a referral for a girl that I randomely met on myspace who lives in your area. She seems really nice, and I have been talking to her on the phone for about a week now. Can you please go buy a cheese cake and bring it to her?” I was so confused! He even knew our names! So I was like,” how did you get our number and how do you know our names?” And he said,” she gave me her address, so I looked up which mission that it would be in and it happened to be yours, so I called the mission home and got your number and your names.” So at this point I believed the guy, and I told him I would do it, because if anything else, bringing this girl a cheese cake would probably get us in with her and allow us to teach her a little bit. So I got the girls name and address from him, and then I asked what his name was, and he said it was Sean Paul. Then I was like, wait a second, you live in fullerton? I know a Sean Paul that I went to institute with in Fullerton. It turns out that I totally knew this guy! When me and Robby would play ping pong down there we would always see him and he played with us a couple times! Super weird! It turns out that we had all the same friends down at the Fullerton institute haha! Anyways, so we were both wierded out at how random the whole situation was that this girl just happened to live in our area out here. What are the odds? So we went to Walmart and bought a cheese cake and brought it to Emily (the girl) and she was super excited. We taught her a little bit and she totally wants to learn more. Sean Paul ended up calling again and I guess she called him and told him that she was totally excited to meet us and that she was up for learning more. So good! That wasn’t just a coincidence, it was a flat out miracle. So anyways, really good things are happening in our area right now, and we are way excited.

We weren’t able to meet with the Millers this week, he was feeling pretty sick, but other than that, the week was good. I love Elder Gooch. He is hands down my favorite companion so far, and its not just because his name is Gooch, although that does play a big factor. He is so easy to get along with and is hallarious. Im so happy right now, I couldn’t ask for anything more.

I just got Jessicas wedding invitation in the mail! So crazy! I think all of my friends are going to be married when I get home. Its going to be really weird. I know a few of my other friends at BYU that I went to school with have gotten married recently also. Have you heard from Casey, Sean, Eric or any of those guys? Page just wrote me saying she hung out with you guys recently. That sounded like fun.

Anyways, I love you guys. I so happy that you are happy Life is good isn’t it? The Gospel makes everything brighter, I love it. K well im gonna go. Mom- I love you! Dad- I love you!
Love,
Elder Joshua Burnham

Chili meets the kids

Kids all came over for Ryan's 5th birthday. We had a Star Wars kinda' day, and then all went over to meet Chili. The kids had fun riding him, and Chili seemed to love it!

Introducing Chili Pepper Burnham.