Long Time No See!

Man I've been slack a lackin on my weeklies. Feels like it's been a while fam. 

A lot has happened so it's 

been bueno bueno! 

Noteworthy things from the week :

-J__ and M__ are still on track for their baptism!! They just have their baptismal interviews this week and then they'll be baptized on Saturday! It's been so cool to see them learn, live, and love the gospel. We were talking with their mom during a lesson and she said J__ and M__ have been the ones encouraging the whole family to live the gospel. They are reminding everyone to do spiritual CPR. Go to Church, Pray, and Read the scriptures. It's awesome to see how they are becoming great examples to those that are around them. They are so much fun to teach and I can't wait for Saturday! 

-pic with President Oaks!! 

-President Oaks came to our mission! A little over a year ago, right before I got to LA, President Oaks was planning on coming to speak to all the missionaries here. But the night before he was supposed to come, he called President Haynie and said he had to cancel. But he promised he would come back before President Haynie finished his mission. Well about a month ago he called President Haynie again and said he wanted to come talk to the missionaries! So last Saturday we had an all mission conference and got to talk with President Oaks! It was so incredible!! We got to meet with a member of the first presidency and shake his hand!  One thing he said that I really liked was, "The lord reserves his choicest blessings for those who make commitments and then keep them. That is why the Gospel is a gospel of covenants!" Keeping covenants brings so many blessings. That's why it's so great to be on a mission helping others make and keep covenants! 

Have a great week! 

-Elder Burgon

Photos and Stories:

-last p day we went to Palos Verdes and planned to go to a shipwreck on the coast and take some pics. But we got there and found out the trail was a straight up cliff.  We definitely weren't prepared for the hike and came in our proselyting clothes... We decided to just yolo it. My MTC companion Elder Walker said, "I'm still gonna send it" and jumped down the cliff faster than we could believe. We all followed him down but it turned out to be a pretty insane hike so we got down to the coast and looked at how wrecked our clothes were getting and decided to turn back. Fun times. From this adventure we got the pic by the ocean, the comp pic, and the pic of our wrecked shoes.

-went to Handel's aka the best ice cream place in the world. We got a guy to take our picture for us and it turned out epic. "ok on three... 1... *click *!... 2,3."

 hahaha solid stuff

LA LIFE

While waiting for this weeks email to arrive enjoy these few pics with Elder Durham...

Nevadan #2

Hello Again! 

I think I've said this before but it's so true. The first week with a brand new missionary in the area is always amazing! The first week of last transfer when Elder Windous got here we were super busy and we found O__ who was baptized less than a week later. This week we we were super busy again and we started teaching J__ and M__!

At the beginning of the week we had to drop Elder Windous off at the airport. He took off on Tuesday EARLY in the morning. We woke up at 3:30 and had to be at the airport at 5:00. We dropped Elder Windous off and he got to spend the whole day flying to Jamaica. After that I got to crash at the Zone leaders apartment until we drove up to the mission office to pick up my new companion! His name is Elder Durham and he is from Nevada too! Just like Elder Windous. He is super cool. He's a musician so you'll have to check him out on YouTube and Spotify and tell me if he's any good His name for both is Easton Durham. 

Wednesday was our first full day to work and it was crazy. We had lots of lessons and we had an extra companion with us since his companion had to go to a leadership only training meeting. One lesson that was cool was with this guy named A__. He is really interested and loves a lot of things about our church he has heard a lot about the welfare program and really likes that. But he has a pretty cool background story. He was in the military for a while and then after he did that he had a hard time returning to civilian life. He tried everything and nothing worked for him until he tried hypnotism. He was hypnotized a bunch eventually he was able to ease back into regular life. Pretty crazy. But now he is doing the same thing for other veterans so he goes around hypnotizing people all day. Hopefully he doesn't hypnotize us during a lesson 

Some other cool people we started working with this week are J__ and M__! They are awesome kids whose mom is a less active member in the Tongan Ward. They are super crazy and energetic and they are wanting to be baptized on September 1st. We have gone over just about every day since we met them. There are always about ten kids running around the house as we teach so it can be pretty crazy. It's been lots of fun! 

Have a great week! 

-Elder Burgon 

Pics:

Before Elder Windous headed out for Jamaica we wanted to hike up to the Hollywood sign. So that was our plan for last p day. We got up there and hiked for a bit and found out that if you go the wrong way you can find some pretty sweet caves and other crazy stuff. After exploring those we started hiking in the right direction towards the Hollywood sign but it was extremely hot! We started hiking around 2:00 which wasnt the greatest idea. So 15 minutes in we decided it wasn't worth it and turned around.

I found a cool sculpture that works perfect as a comfy seat 

Elder Durham and I didn't take any pics this week so we took a selfie at the library

Elder Archeologist

Waa gwaan fambily?

Elder Windous will have to correct me if I am wrong but I thinks that how you say 'Whats going on fam?' in Patwa. Jamaica sounds pretty fun.  

Yesterday was transfer day and we got some crazy news! Elder Windous got his visa and he's heading out to Jamaica tomorrow!! Crazy stuff. It came just in time for transfers. I was hoping it wouldn't come for another transfer so we could stay companions. Elder Windous is a super awesome missionary. He's going to baptize the entire island of Jamaica. And the Bahamas islands are in his mission so he'll baptize all those islands too.  

For my transfer news... 

🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁

I'm staying in Inglewood! And my new companion is straight outta da mtc. I'm training again! So I'll find out tomorrow who it is. Suuuuuper excited! I love training! It's da best!

This week was also another great one. We did some more service to start off the week again. This time it was really interesting tho. As I was mowing down the weeds I ran over a brick that was covered by some weeds pieces of the brick went flying everywhere. After I recovered from my heart attack I tried to move the brick out of the way but it didn't budge. I moved the dirt around it a bit and found that there was another brick underneath it. And another brick underneath that once. Until we found a giant buried brick wall that ran right through this sisters front yard. She wanted us to get rid of it. So with nothing but a pic axe and a gardening shovel Elder Windous went full Archeologist mode and uncovered an ancient civilization also known as a random brick wall. Once we dug around it we had to break it up and get rid of it so Elder Windous spent the next hour smacking it with the pic axe until it would crack and he could break a chunk of off the wall. 

Man I tell ya. I sure am going to miss Elder Windous and his crazy fun experiences. They just keep on coming. The most epic one this week happened Thursday night and Friday morning. He has been having a little trouble getting a good night of sleep lately so some nights he takes a sleeping pill. But on Thursday he decided to take TWO sleeping pills and get a REALLY GOOD nights rest. Well the next day was crazy. The sleeping pills lasted a little longer than needed so in the morning when we came back from district council he could not stay awake. He passed out on the couch the second we walked in the door and he was as dead as dead could be. I woke him up at least four times and every time he'd get up for a second, look around, lay back down, and be asleep again in less than two seconds. Haha I don't blame him. Sounds like those sleeping pills are no joke. I decided to let him sleep and when he finally slept off the sleeping pills he said he couldn't remember waking up a single time. Plus he had crazy insane dreams of being eaten by bears and lots of other crazy stuff. It was hilarious. I don't recommend taking lots of sleeping pills haha. 

This week we also had the chance to teach one of our awesome friends named C__. I cant remember if I've said much about her yet but she is really cool. She is from Jamaica so it's pretty cool that Elder Windous has been able to teach her before heading over there. She is another example of some good member missionary work. She has a friend that was baptized a little while ago and then moved to Utah. That friend keeps on telling her a lot about the church and how great of an experience it has been for her to become converted and join the church. That is a huge help for C__ and makes it a lot more comfortable for her to keep commitments like coming to church and reading the Book of Mormon. Its my favorite thing to hear her talk about how she feels when she comes to church. She said its hard to make it because she works nights so she is always exhausted. But when she puts in the effort to wake up and come she is always so grateful she did. There is always a feeling that comes and tells her that she is doing what is right. I have really loved seeing the impact that church can have on people. Its so cool that we have time every week where we can take a break from the world, focus on our savior, and enjoy three hours of peace.  

Have a great week!

-Elder Burgon

Mama B here...Elder Burgon and Elder Windous were a great companionship. They were obedient, diligent, and unified. I was impressed with what Elder Windous had to say in his email about Elder Burgon. So grateful for the time they had to serve together.

"I'm especially going to miss Elder Burgon. I'd be putting it very lightly when I say he is a pitch perfect example of an upright and steadfast disciple of Jesus Christ. In this short month he has taught me more about missionary work than 18 years of me preparing for one. He is always exactly obedient and seems to have limitless energy when it comes to spreading the gospel. I don't know how he does it. I'm so grateful for the chance I've had to serve with him and hope I can be half of the missionary he is. LA is so blessed to have him and I can't wait to see the amazing things he does."