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"Feel the rhythm, feel the rhyme, get on up, it's MISSION time!!"
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HOLY. COW. THIS. WEEK. HAS. BEEN. SO. INSANELY. AWESOME!
I think it's impossible to put this week in words but I'll give it a try! 
I started off the week by going to the mission office to meet up with my new companion! Training is the best!! Being around a new missionary always brings back lots of memories from the beginning of my mission. So much fun! Seeing all the new missionaries walk in the room looking tired and nervous reminded me exactly of my first day. Goooood times! President Haynie matched us up and my new companion is Elder Windous!! He is seriously soooo awesome! He's from Ely Nevada and if you can't tell from the title and start of this email he is heading to Jamaica!! How cool is that?! We actually have a person we are working with who is from Jamaica and one of our ward missionaries is from Jamaica! I'm guessing he came here for a reason 
just a guess tho.
Well I tell you what. I've seen this every time I've trained. Having a new missionary in an area, with all their greenie fire and optimism, ALWAYS brings miracles! And boy did we ever see miracle after miracle after miracle this week. It's probably because Elder Windous came to the mission super prepared and ready to kill it. The miracles started in the middle of the day on Wednesday, our first day to go out and do some solid missionary work. Normally in the middle of the day it's pretty slow because everyone is at work or out of the house, especially in the middle of the week like Wednesday. BUT! For this midweek, midday finding time it was the exact opposite of slow! It was fast! So fast that I felt like a chicken running around with my head cut off at times. As we went from house to house visiting members and talking to people I was starting to wonder if June 27th was some kind of holiday where everyone has work off and has to be available for the missionaries to contact. And be willing to set a return appointment with us. And give us food. Holy cow the food. What's that scripture say about not having room enough to recieve it? Yeah we seriously can't fit any more food in our fridge 
. We talked to lots of people and I swear we set hundreds of return appointments. Ok maybe a little less. But it was awesome! Super solid stuff. It also helps to cover two huge and awesome wards. There's a lot of people to teach and get to know and we are loving it!
Ok now for some more miracles!
At the beginning of the week we got in contact with Elder Dehlin and he told us about all the people that they had been working with in this area. There was this one person named O__ that he said was really cool but they hadn't had much contact with. We tried to get in contact with her but she doesn't have an American phone number. Luckily we have Facebook We sent her a friend request and waited for her to accept it. On Friday she accepted the friend request and we sent her a message asking when she was available for us to come by. She quickly responded and told us that she was available for us to come over right then! We went over and met with her and what do you know, Elder Dehlin was right. She is SUPER AWESOME!!! Our first lesson with her was incredible! She told us her story, incredible btw, and let me tell you this was some seriously good member missionary work in action.
So here is her story. O__ lives in Nigeria but Y__, her husband, lives here in Los Angeles. Y__s mother who lives in Colorado joined the church a while ago and has been telling O__ and Y__ all about it and encouraging them to attend sacrament meeting. Y__ eventually did attend sacrament meeting here in LA sometime last year and really liked it. Then he started encouraging O__ to attend but she didn't know where a church building was in Africa. But around Christmas time last year O__ flew to America to visit Y__ and his mother. On Christmas eve while she was in Colorado O__ decided to attend church with her mother in law. As she walked through the doors into the church building O__ said she felt something that she never felt before. It was a powerful feeling that she couldn't fully describe. She said it felt like home. Like she was getting a giant bear hug. And everyone there was so happy and seemed to have an aura around them. As she walked through the church building she felt so much love as everyone introduced themselves and got to know her. She said she was overcome with this feeling and she never wanted it to leave. She knew she had to keep coming to this church and her mother in law told her to get in contact with the missionaries. After Christmas she flew to LA to visit Y__ and she was able to get in contact with missionaries here. They came over and taught her how Christ's church has been restored to the earth and explained what those feelings she was having at church were and why she was having them. As they taught the lesson she knew it was true and she knew those feelings were the Holy Ghost telling her it was true. But the day after the lesson she had to fly back to Nigeria and start working again. Luckily the awesome missionaries that were here at the time were able to find the church building closest to her in Nigeria and get her the address and the Bishops phone number. Once she was back in Nigeria she did everything she could to go to church on Sundays even tho it was hard to get work off. She was able to attend church pretty regularly over there for six months learning everything she could just by asking questions in her gospel principles class. Even after her powerful experience she still had questions and concerns. But over time as she searched the scriptures her questions were answered, her concerns were resolved, she learned about Christ's baptism, the priesthood and proper authority, and she decided she wanted to be baptized with the correct authority like Jesus was. But she didn't want to be baptized just anywhere or by anyone. She wanted to be baptized in LA by the first missionary that taught her. So she flew out here and we met with her for the first time on Friday and she told us all this. Then she said she leaves to go back to Nigeria on July 14th and the only day her husband has to attend her baptism is July 3rd. So she wants to be baptized July 3rd. Four days after we met her! Hijole!
So I am sure you can imagine the scramble that has been happening to see if that is even possible. We talked to our district leader, he talked to the zone leaders, they talked to the assistants, they talked to President Haynie, and he wanted to talk to people in Nigeria. That sounds nice and easy in a streamlined sentence like that but boy was it crazy! Plus after getting everything approved we've had to relay all the info to the people in the ward, officially teach O__ the lessons, and coordinate the whole baptism . It's been crazy but I wouldn't have it any other way. Busy with setting up a baptism and helping someone come closer to Christ is the best kind of busy to be! And Elder Windous probably just had the most epic first week in the mission field ever. Twas a great week. We've been pretty pumped.
D&C 18:15-17 - And if it so be that you should labor all your days in crying repentance unto this people, and bring, save it be one soul unto me, how great shall be your JOY with him in the kingdom of my Father! And now, if your JOY will be great with one soul that you have brought unto me into the kingdom of my Father, how great will be your JOY if you should bring many souls unto me! Behold, you have my gospel before you, and my rock, and my salvation.
Have a great 4th of July!
Ether 2: 12 - Behold, this is a choice land, and whatsoever nation shall possess it shall be free from bondage, and from captivity, and from all other nations under heaven, if they will but serve the God of the land, who is Jesus Christ, who hath been manifested by the things which we have written.
HAVE A GREAT WEEK!
-Elder Burgon
#proudtobeanamerican
