🥳🤯

This week was so awesome. 

NoHo is keeping us SUPER busy.

It's been so much fun! 

The valley is completely different from the city. It's a whole 'nother world up here. It feels so weird. There are still a lot of people but it's soooo quiet! And there are mountains. I'm still not used to it yet. 

My new apartment is the nicest one I've been in yet and we have a washer and dryer. I think I've died and gone to heaven. It's so sweet. My companion is super awesome too! He's another one of those killer trainees with the fire and enthusiasm that brings miracles! He is from Henderson Nevada and Bryce Harper lives in his ward during the off season. He said Bryce Harper taught his Elders quorum a couple times before he left on his mission. I'm jealous. 

Its amazing up here in NoHo. There are lots of interesting people for lots of different reasons. For example the ward mission leader of the Burbank ward just east of here is the coach from high school musical, our bishop makes movies and TV shows, a member works for Nabisco and has given away $80,000 worth of Oreos and Nabisco products to the ward this year, and we have a bunch of old retired singers and actors in the ward. 

And another thing that is really different is that the people up here really love animals. And they are a little more creative than just cats and dogs. We knocked on this one ladies door and when she opened it an entire zoo flooded out. Bunnies, cats, Guinea pigs, you name it, it ran out the door. Hijole. But that's nothing. Our ward mission leader was telling us that a while ago his wife bought two rabbits as pets. Yesterday at church she announced they now have 111 rabbits destroying their yard and house. Nice. 

Well Saturday was one of the best days ever! We had a baptism in our area for an awesome 9 year old kid named J__. He and his mom have been meeting with missionaries for about a year. His mom is getting pretty close to getting baptized too. After we had that baptism we took off and drove down to Inglewood to go to the S__'S BAPTISM!!! Wahooooooo it was so awesome! They finally made it!  Two of the five weren't quite ready to be baptized yet but hopefully soon! The baptismal service was super cool. I got to see a lot of the members from my Inglewood area and holy cow there were tons of missionaries there. It was just a big party. I'm so happy for them. The gospel is the greatest. 

Moroni 10:32 Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise deny the power of God.

Merry Christmas! Have a great week! 

-Elder Burgon 

Pics:

- S__'s baptism

- All the missionaries who taught the S__'s who are still on their mission and could make it to the baptism. 

- Elder Durham and I with the S__'s

- Elder Leishman and I with J__ at his baptism 

🏝️🎄Mele Kalikimaka🎄🏝️

Hello again!! 

It's been a while since I've sent out a group email

 so I hope you are ready for a few weeks 

worth of news squished into one email! 

We got our transfer calls on Sunday and I'm leaving pv. I'm going to N__ up in the S__ Valley. The land of Feliz Navidad. There's supposed to be lots of Spanish speakers up there so that should be fun! I'm follow up training an Elder from Henderson Nevada named Elder Leishman. Should be awesome! N__ is going to be great! 

Being in Palos Verdes has been lots of fun for many reasons. Obviously the view is one of my favorite reasons. It's so cool to be up on the hill and to be able to look out in one direction and see the whole city and then look in the opposite direction and have an amazing view of the ocean. A member related the view here to life and I really liked it. This is what she said. 

In LA there are a ton of things always polluting the air. So over time the pollution builds up and the air gets smoggy. 

The smog blocks the view and makes it hard or even impossible to see what's really there. The only thing that clears the smog and brings back the incredible view is a storm. The storm and the wind it brings clears out the smog and fresh air fills its place. After the storm is gone we are left once again with the incredible and clear view. 

In life the gospel brings us an amazing view of the bigger picture or an eternal perspective. But there are always things that are trying to distract us from what truly matters and there are voices that are trying to make us doubt what we believe. These things can make it hard for us to see what really matters in the long run and why we are really here. They make us lose our eternal perspective. But as the storms of life roll in, if we handle them with faith, they will clear what was blocking our view and stopping us from having an eternal perspective. We can always come out of trials stronger and a better disciple of Jesus Christ with a clearer and refreshed view on life. Trials are how we learn, grow, and become more like our savior.

President John Taylor said, 

"What if we have to suffer affliction? We came here for that purpose; we came in order that we might be purified; and this is intended to give us a knowledge of God, ...to give us a knowledge of eternal life, that we may be enabled to overcome all evil and be exalted to thrones of power and glory.

We call it suffering. I call it a school of experience. What are these things for? Why is it that good men should be tried? … I have never looked at these things in any other light than trials for the purpose of purifying the Saints of God that they may be, as the scriptures say, as gold that has been seven times purified by the fire."

I just really like that. I thinks it's really cool to understand why we are given trials in this life. With faith we can not only move mountains, but we can get on top of them and have a better perspective. 

Another thing that I have really liked about being in Palos Verdes is the fact that it gave me the opportunity to figure out how to do things I haven't done before like teaching English class. It went super good this past transfer! I started to really enjoying teaching it. We were able to find some new students that are just so hilarious and so much fun to teach. I've loved it. 

We had our mission Christmas devotional and it was so great. We watched the movie Coco as a mission so that was a party. I love this time of year so much. It's such a great time to be a missionary. More people are focused on their families and Jesus Christ which is what the Gospel is all about. So it's great to see how everyone is a little happier and kinder during the Christmas season. It just goes to show that focusing on the things that are most important is what will bring us lasting happiness. 

Have a great week and merry Christmas! 

-Elder Burgon

Pics:

- the Hawaiian Christmas wedding 

-the gang

- the thanksgiving dinner crew

- the soccer squad 

Da hood is doing GOOD!

Wazzup y'all?

I just got some super sweet news from Elder Durham. He is still in my last area in Inglewood and he is absolutely killing it! I'm so pumped! The S__'s are now on date for December 8th. I can't even tell you how excited I am for them. I'm honestly dying. I love those guys. And I'm not sure if I talked about C__ very much in my emails but she is now on date too!! She's aiming for December 1st! Wahoooooo! I'm so happy!

Around here it's been good too! We had some good success finding people this week so that was pretty fun. Nothing too noteworthy other than that has happened. We've been doing lots of sevice this week. We helped some Korean members move. We have been painting another members house about every other day this week so we are basically professionals now. Well, Elder Cheon is. I'm just really good at watching paint dry now.  And we just found out that they don't like the color so we are going to re paint all of it. We are getting lots of practice :)

But yeah. Life's good! 

Have a great week! 

-Elder Burgon

Pics:

-service #1. Moving

-the zone (this took a million tries to get right  ) 

-service #2. Painting

-the weekly views

🤡🎃💀

We had a crazy fun p day Morning! We woke up extra early to go on a hike with a member. Then went to go do laundry. We started doing our laundry and then people in the laundromat started fighting. Then 5 cop cars pulled up and arrested some other dude completely unrelated to the fight. Then while our laundry was still going a Korean member texted us and told us to come quick! So we left our laundry in the dryer and rushed over to help move some boxes. Then before we could go pick up our laundry we had to rush off to another appointment we had with a member. Then we were able to go back and pick up our laundry. Wowza that was a fun morning! 

We've had a great week. We've been working with less actives a lot and it's so much fun to see them remember how much the Gospel means to them. I love it when they read from the Book of Mormon and they just can't help but smile because of how they feel. 

Yesterday we had transfer calls so I have news! 

Transfer news:

I'm getting my 11th companion! I'm staying here in pv but Elder Kim is leaving me. He is heading up to the valley. My new companion is Elder Cheon who is also from Korea. Should be fun! 

Yesterday Elder Kim and I got to speak in our Korean branch on the blessings that come from living the Gospel. While I was preparing for the talk I thought of a story that was shared in the April 2016 general conference by Bonnie L. Oscarson. I really like it because I feel like it highlights a lot of blessings that come from the Gospel. Here's the story.

On March 30, just one year ago, little two-year-old Ethan Carnesecca, from American Fork, Utah, was admitted to the hospital with pneumonia and fluid around his lungs. Two days later, his condition had become so serious that he needed to be flown by helicopter to Primary Children’s Hospital in Salt Lake City. His worried mother, Michele, was allowed to ride in the front seat and accompany her son. She was given a headset so she could communicate with the others in the helicopter. She could hear the medics working on her sick little boy, and being a pediatric nurse herself, Michele knew enough to understand that Ethan was in serious trouble.

In this critical moment, Michele noticed they were flying directly over the Draper Utah Temple. From the air, she looked out across the valley and could also see the Jordan River Temple, the Oquirrh Mountain Temple, and even the Salt Lake Temple in the distance. The thought came into her mind: “Do you believe it or not?”

She says of this experience:

“I had learned about the blessings of the temple and [that] ‘families are forever’ in Primary and in Young Women. I shared the message on families to the good people of Mexico on my mission. I was sealed to my eternal companion for time and all eternity in the temple. I taught lessons about families as a Young Women leader, and I shared stories about forever families with my children in family home evening. I KNEW it, but DID I BELIEVE it? My answer came as quickly as the question popped into my head: the Spirit confirmed to my heart and mind the answer I already knew—I DID believe it!

“At that moment I poured out my heart in prayer to my Heavenly Father, thanking Him for the knowledge and belief I had that families truly are forever. I thanked Him for His Son, Jesus Christ, who made it all possible. I thanked Him for my son, and I let my Heavenly Father know if He needed to bring my little Ethan to His heavenly home, it was OK. I trusted in my Heavenly Father completely, and I knew I would see Ethan again. I was so grateful that in a crisis moment, I had the knowledge AND the belief that the gospel was true. I had peace.”

Ethan spent many weeks in the hospital, receiving expert medical care. The prayers, fasting, and faith of loved ones, combined with that care, allowed him to leave the hospital and return home to be with his family. He is healthy and well today.

I can see so many ways this mom was blessed because she was living the Gospel. She was blessed with the knowledge of the Plan of Salvation, temples, eternal families, and a loving Heavenly Father and she was able to have peace and comfort because she believed what she knew. 

I'm so grateful for the Gospel in my life and for all of the countless blessings that come from living it.

Have a great week!

-Elder Burgon

Pics:

-Happy Halloween!  

-Elder Kim having fun cutting bushes. Don't worry he survived. 

-Happy Halloween! part 2

-Workin

-The District 

Hello From The Hill

Hellooooooo! 

We had a great week here in pv. It's been fun. We had zone conference which is always super great. And we were able to find some new people to work with so that's been awesome! 

We had dinner with a really awesome sister from the ward and she has an amazing conversion story so I have to share it! She has been really athletic and very injury prone her whole life. When she was 5 years old she was sliding down a medal slide at a park and somewhere on the slide there was a sharp edge and it cut her finger right off. Her parents rushed her to the hospital and they were able to reattach her finger there. It's not perfectly normal now but it's pretty good for getting it sliced off and sewn back on.

Then when she was 10 she was competing in a BMX race and flew off the track. She face planted into and slid across cement until her entire face was just roadrash. That doesn't sound too enjoyable. 

 

Then when she was 17 she was swinging at a park that had huge swings. She and her friends were trying to get as high as they could and then jump off. So she was swinging and when she was as high as she could go she jumped off. She flew so far that she flew over a wall and landed head first right on a cement walkway. She had a concussion that put her in a coma for 2 weeks. And she also broke her arm in multiple places and shattered her elbow. She said it took her a long time to recover from that one. 

Then when she was 30 she was competing in triathlons so she was constantly training for those. One day when she was out riding her bycicle she was hit by a car and shattered her knee cap. 

Then after she recovered from getting hit by a car she got into rock climbing. One day she was doing a climb in a slot canyon and she was doing it without any ropes. She got 50 feet up and then lost her grip. She fell down the canyon bouncing back and forth off the walls before slamming into the ground. She says she died three times from this accident. Once when a first responder was getting her stabilized and ready to be transported out of the canyon. She went unconscious and stopped breathing. A second time when they got her into a helicopter to get her to a hospital. She stopped breathing again and her heart stopped. Then the third time when she was in the hospital in the middle of a surgery her heart stopped again. But miraculously she came back all three times. 

After this experience and all of her other accidents she had lots of questions. She wondered why she was able to survive her fall even though it was serious enough to make her 'die' three times. She also wondered what would have happened to her if she wouldn't have survived. Where would she have gone? A few months later once she had recovered for a little bit she started exploring churches and would always ask the people at the churches her questions. She said none of the answers she got seemed right to her and she just wasn't satisfied. Months later when she was at a physical therapy appointment she started talking to a lady there who is a member of our church! She said she felt really comfortable talking to her and sharing her experiences with her even though they weren't in a church setting. So she asked the sister the questions she had and the sister invited her to meet with the missionaries. So they all had a dinner together and afterwards she asked the missionaries her questions and they taught her the Plan of Salvation. She said it seemed really familiar to her. It all made sense and she felt like she already knew all the things that they were telling her she just hadn't ever heard it before. And the best part was that it answered all the questions she had and the answers just felt right. So she continued to meet with the missionaries and quickly gained a testimony of the Gospel and was baptized as quickly as she could. Now she is an awesome active member of the Church! 

I just loved hearing her conversion story. And it was cool to hear how she was searching for the truth and knew it when she found it. 

D&C 123:12 "For there are many yet on the earth among all sects, parties, and denominations, who are blinded by the subtle craftiness of men, whereby they lie in wait to deceive, and who are only kept from the truth because they know not where to find it." 

Have a great week! 

-Elder Burgon

Pics :

-Look who I found at zone conference

-From Palos Verdes downtown LA looks like it's in the mountains. Kinda cool.

-We had a trunk or treat with our Korean Branch and had lots of fun. This was the view from inside the trunk.

-The view. 

-Another cool view. You can see the coast from Santa Monica all the way down to pv. 

-We found heaven. A hot churro in ice cream. Yummmmmmmmm

Insa Hae. Hi!

Guess what!! 

I got some good news about the S__'s!
(An awesome family from my last area) 

Things are working out and it looks like 
they're going to get baptized soon!! 

Wahooooo! They are so awesome. 

I'm super excited.

General Conference was super good and I love going back and reading the talks after. I really liked this from Elder Rasband. He said, 

"Take heart, brothers and sisters. Yes, we live in perilous times, but as we stay on the covenant path, we need not fear. As you do so, you will not be troubled by the times in which we live or the troubles that come your way." 

That is just super true. If we are doing what's right by staying on the straight and narrow we don't need to worry about the craziness around us. I love it. 

This week I got to go on exchanges in Hollywood with Elder Killian who is now a Russian speaking Elder! He is awesome and spending some time in Hollywood was fun too. Hollywood is a strange place lemme tell ya. Hijole. It was fun to be there for a day but I think I'll stick to nice and peaceful Palos Verdes for now. One thing that was fun about the exchange was actually English class. E Killian has been teaching English class for over 6 months so he's got it down. I took notes. It was so hilarious tho. Russians like their alcohol you know? So literally every time the students had to practice using a word in a sentence their sentence was about drinking.

E Killian: "Use the word Melancholy in a sentence."

Student: "ok. Last night I got way too drunk so today I feel melancholy." 

E Killian: "Alright now use the word ecstatic in a sentence."

Student: "ok. Tonight I'm going to get drunk so I'm ecstatic."

Solid. Nicely done. Nicely done. 

It was pretty hilarious. 

Another fun experience this week happened in Elders quorum. The person teaching the lesson started off by sharing an experience he had with ministering. He said he has gotten to know his assigned families really well and they've devolved really close relationships. He said that because of that his families feel comfortable calling him and asking him for help any time they need it. And an experience with that happened this past week so he had to share it. He said one couple he ministers too is a bit elderly and can't move around too easily. One night the elderly brother was having back pain so his wife told him to take a hot bath. He did and his back was feeling better but when he finished his bath he realized his elderly body could no longer pick itself up and get out of the tub. So his wife called his ministering brother! He went went over and said he had a whale of a time trying to help this brother get out of the tub. I'm sure you can picture it. He said a slippery flabby dead weight is harder to move than you think. After multiple failed attempts they realized he was pretty well stuck in the tub. So the ministering brother called his son who is an EMT or something like that and he said he deals with this all the time. So he taught him the proper technique for getting a slippery flabby dead weight out of the tub. So they finally managed to get the elderly brother out of the tub. Yay! Go team. But that's not the fun part. With that story told the Elders quorum decided they needed to learn the proper technique for getting a slippery flabby dead weight out of a tub just in case this ever happened to them. So they needed someone to volunteer to be the slippery flabby dead weight. And I was voluntold to do it hahaha. Lucky me!  A member snapped a pick so you can see this wonderful experience. 

Good times!

Have a great week!

-Elder Burgon

Pics:

-Want another sunset pic? Cuz here's another sunset pic.

-Went to the Korean Fair and did the Social Experiment

-Da views 

-The reenactment of the tub experience from above

-Some young men that we took out to do visits with us. They are crazy. They have their own band called S.n.a.k. (super [g] Narly Asian Kids) and apperently they are pretty good. They're on YouTube as Aidan Lam so you'll have to check them out and tell me how good they are.

-From our photo shoot this week

-we found a dead body

-another one from our photo shoot 

SUP CHINGUDEUL?

Konnichiwa! 

Talofa lava!

Malo Lei Lei!

Ni Hao! 

Hola! 

Annyeonghaseyo!  

Hello! How's it going friends and fam? 

Twas another week in paradise here! 

Here is a good quote I heard this week. D&C 88:118

"Our Creator expects His children everywhere to gain knowledge as a personal endeavor. He issued this commandment: Seek ye diligently and teach one another words of wisdom; yea, seek ye out of the best books words of wisdom; seek learning, even by study and also by faith." 

Things I learned this week:

-teaching English is very hard

-teaching mission prep is awesome

-teaching someone who is studying to be a pastor is hard 

-teaching Elder Kim what it feels like to do the bww blazin challenge (and get the sauce in your eye) is awesome

-teaching a Korean the restoration in English and having them understand it is hard 

-teaching Elder Kim that pepper spray is a flavor of breath spray is awesome!! 

So yeah. We had a good English class this week but it is tricky! Picture this. We are teaching them English, which means they don't know English, but because I only really know English, I can only explain things to them in English. So Elder Kim is basically a miracle worker at these classes. I'll explain something to the people we are teaching and then Elder Kim translates for them. Then they have a question and Elder Kim translates for me. Then I answer the question and Elder Kim translates for them...and so on and so on for over an hour. So Elder Kim is translating a lot and he is basically a beast! He just started learning English 6 months ago so he is a genius. Thank goodness for good companions am I right? 

We've also been able to help teach mission prep which has been lots of fun! They only do 3 mission prep classes a year here and they just had their 3rd one so it was fun to be a part of it. 

We are teaching this awesome guy named T__. His parents are Korean and American so he speaks perfect Korean and English. Which is awesome. He is studying to be a pastor and he has this really cool roommate named Forrest who is a member that recently returned from his mission in Russia. So he kinda has these two different perspectives coming at him right now and he is trying to decide which path he wants to take. It's a lot of fun! More updates to come for sure. 

Today we did the Buffalo Wild Wings blazin challenge again and I talked Elder Kim into doing it. Yeah he's a beast and got the ghost pepper sauce in his eye. On his first wing. Went blind. Started eye sweating. But even tho the waitress told him to go rinse his eye out he somehow stuck it out and blindly found the remaining 11 wings and pounded them down in under 6 minutes. Elder Kimchi is a BEAST! Blind now, but still A BEAST! Me on the other hand didn't do so well this time. I got 4 wings into it and started gagging so hard the entire restaurant started staring. :) I think we are retiring from spicy food eating challenges :) :) :) but hey Elder Kim got a 5xl t-shirt out of it so it was all worth it. Now he has a new favorite dress. 

Later today while we were eating dinner and panda express E. Kim found my pepper spray in my bag and asked, "what's this?" I said, "pepper spray!" he said, "what's that?" I said, "pepper flavored breath spray!" he decided that sounded delicious and lifted it up to his mouth to try it out. The entire restaurant turned to watch. Before I could snatch it from his hands he pressed down the button and got a cloud full of pepper spray right in his already blind eyes. 

RIP

☠️☠️

Jk jk 

*pfew*

By some miracle Elder Kim had it pointed the wrong way and sprayed it away from his face. And luckily no one was sitting next to us. I bet you can imagine how quickly I put the spay away after that. Haha that was a close one. Maybe I shouldn't joke around about those sort of things with someone who is still learning how to pick up on sarcasm. Maybe. Just maybe. 

Well that was a good end to my eventful week!

 Have a great one! 

-Elder Burgon

Pics:

-Elder Kim with his well deserved 5xl dress.

-I got the pic with the silvas from the dodgers Mormon night from a couple months ago ago.

-We got to do the Book of Mormon social experiment and had to steal some of our zone leaders normal clothes to do it in. Doing the social experiment was tons of fun!

-Elder Kim right before blazin and right after. Hehehe