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Hey everyone! 

Happy memorial day! 

It's already that time again? Wowza  

This week was packed with some pretty awesome stuff! On p-day I finally hiked the Hollywood sign! The view was pretty cool! We were at the peak of the mountain so you could look south and see all of LA and you could look North and see the San Fernando Valley. One more month and that'll be part of the mish! 

I realize that I haven't said too much about my new companion yet. Elder Cook is awesome! He is from Salem, Oregon and he is SUPER TALL! I think president Haynie has a sense of humor putting the tallest missionary in the mission with the shortest  It's a lot of fun! 

I also got to go to the temple this week! It was so awesome to go to the temple! I love driving up to Santa Monica and see the Temple sticking out in the middle of the city. The peace that comes from going to the temple is just so amazing! LA is a pretty crazy place and it seems like wherever you go you can't get out of the craziness. But the second I'm on temple grounds the spirit is always so strong. I truly do love to see the temple. 

This week our apartment got a much needed carpet cleaning. So I recruited Elder "Pack mule" Dehlin and his companion Elder Albuquerque to come over and help us squeeze all of our furniture into our kitchen to get it off the carpet. While we were moving the furniture someone suggested we take before and after pics because it would make a great object lesson for the atonement and repentance. So we did! 

"Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as [dirty carpet], they shall be as [clean as freshly washed carpets]; though they be red like [juice stains], they shall be as wool." ~Isaiah 1:18

BEFORE...

...AFTER

I am so grateful for the Atonement of Jesus Christ and the opportunity that we have to repent and become better each day. It really is a miracle that when we repent our sins can be washed away and we can learn from our mistakes and move on. To me this shows just how much our Heavenly Father loves us. He wants us to have joy and wants us to become the best we can become and that is all possible because He sent His son to atone for our sins and make it possible for us to change and continually improve. 

Have a great week! 

-Elder Burgon

A few more pics from our Hollywood Sign hike...

HOLA AMIGOS

Hey friends and fam! 

Today is transfer P day and it's been crazy so it'll be a short one this week. 

As far as transfer news goes I'm staying! I'm still district leader here in my area and my new companion is Elder Cook. Elder Cook is a Spanish missionary that it switching over to English for this transfer. I'll have to have him teach me! Elder Lam is heading out tho. He is going to USC and joining the Chinese program!

In other news our mission is no longer going to be split! We will still get some new stakes from the San Fernando Mission but we will keep all the stakes that we were supposed to lose.

Have a great week!

-Elder Burgon 

pics...

PDay fun!!!

Elder Lam caught me nodding off...add it to the exhausted missionary series!

大食會

Hello again! 

It was an AMAZING week! 

We had zone conference on Wednesday and it was the BEST! We got some super fun news! Even though Dodger stadium is out of our mission, President Haynie got first presidency permission for all of us missionaries to go to Mormon Night! So we all get to go to a Dodger game on June 9th! So cool! The rest of zone conference was so incredible. President and Sister Haynie recently had a mission president training and came back with lots of great info and even better stories that got us all super pumped! Normally zone conferences are run by all the zone leaders and the assistants but because President had so much to talk about he spoke for almost all of it. It was soooooooo good! President Haynie is amazing! 

Yesterday was a farewell for Robert, a guy from the Tongan ward, and it was crazy! A lot of family flew out from Tonga! Just for the farewell! And he's going to Tonga! There were so many people in sacrament meeting and they have more kids than Utah Mormons so it was crazy! There were kids running around on the stand as Robert gave his talk. It was really entertaining. They also did what they call a 'big eat' the night before and that was even crazier! I've never seen so much food in my entire life! They had an entire pig and to get some on your plate you literally just used your hand, broke through the skin, dug around inside the pig, and yanked out the meat you wanted. But hey it tasted good so that's what really matters right? 

The Feast Beast!

After the grub club!

Last week I got some news from Elder Dehlin that was pretty sad but really inspiring as well. In the Samoan ward where I was serving last transfer I had an amazing ward mission leader named Brother Lui. While I served there he was fighting cancer and had to go through chemotherapy every week. The treatments were really rough and on top of all of that his house flooded and he had to deal with trying to get that all fixed up. He was extremely tough though and continued to come to church just about every week and continued to help us with our missionary work. All with a smile on his face too! He was an amazing example of how to live the gospel and do what's right even when it's hard. The most incredible part is that just over a week ago, even though he was very weak, he wanted to go out with some members in the ward and visit some people that were in need of a message. He went out and visited some people. Shared a message and helped them with what they were going through and then came home, went to bed, then peacefully passed away the next morning. He was faithfully following the example of our Savior until the very last moments of his life. He used all the energy he had to serve and help others. A talk I recently listened to said that our Christ like actions shouldn't be done to get praise or to get recognition by others but that they should be done with sincerity and with the purpose of pointing others to Christ. That is exactly what Brother Lui did. He humbly did what he knew was right and asked for nothing in return. He is an amazing example to me and always reminded me what it truly means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. 

The Great Brother Lui...
till we meet again my brother! 

3 Nephi 5:13 - "Behold, I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. I have been called of him to declare his word among his people, that they might have everlasting life."

Have a great week! 

-Elder Burgon 

Photo bombed by an airplane!!!

Service: Cleanup trash = find a toilet???!!!!!

Time for another haircut!
Thanks Mom for teaching me! Saves me $$$!!!!

Another Amazing Cali Sunset!!!