THE (Wii)KLY

Hi Everyone! 

Hope you all had a great week! 

It was another fun week in LA!

We had a lot going on in the mornings for some reason this week so we didn't have a single day with the regular morning schedule of exercise, get ready, plan, study, go out. It was kind of fun to mix it up for a week.

As far as an update on how the investigators are doing goes, its been great! We recently got in contact with a progressing investigator named E__ that missed a couple of lessons and wasn't responding to texts or calls. Normally that means they're not interested anymore. But, it turns out she had been pondering on the lessons we taught and had lots of great questions. We were able to have a lesson and help her understand a lot of things so it was a great surprise to find her still interested. We are planning to go to the visitor center with her on Sunday!

We are also working with the S__ family. They are super awesome and their testimonies always amaze me. They have all committed to be Baptised and want to be Baptised on the same day. The only thing holding them back is that the mom hasn't been able to get Sundays off from work yet. As soon as she is able to do that they will all be Baptised! Pretty exciting!

Another fun experience from last Sunday. We were driving to church and we stopped at a red light. We waited for a little bit then a truck came zooming thru the intersection obviously trying to hit a yellow light. He yanked the wheel and turned onto the road we were on and the whole truck started screeching as it lost traction and began drifting. It drifted until it was going sideways and it looked like it was going to flip. The driver overcorrected and the truck spun back around in the opposite direction until it came to a stop in a perfect parrallel parking position just inches from the curb. It was the most epic thing we've seen in a while. The best part was seeing the wife in the passenger seat freaking out in complete horror as her husband performed the coolest driving stunt I've ever seen. And the guy just turned around and drove away as if nothing had happened. Apparently, somebody has been practicing Mario Cart for years and finally mastered it in reality. We were screaming at the top of our lungs "DID YOU SEE THAT???!!!" 

Have a great week!

-Elder Burgon 

Mama B here...E. Lam, Eric's companion, shared some sweet things about Eric in his letter that really touched my mama heart. I thought I'd share his letter with you. Missionaries just amaze me!!!

Konichiwaaaaa!

This week's schedule has been pretty weird because somehow every morning we got stuff to do, doctor appointment, interviews and meetings. But all of them were enlightening and interesting. So it's good weird, just like me HA. And this week I've been constantly exhausted. I fell asleep all the time, on my desk, on the couch, even on the floor. My companion was talking to me the other day and I was knocked out after he stopped speaking for 2 seconds. He woke me up and I mumbled "keep eating". Apparently I had a dream of him pounding food in that 2-sec sleep. Missionary life to its fullest.

Despite all of that craziness, my companion surprised me with his immense love and patience for the people in this "great place" (mama B edited original text to reflect the teachings of the gospel ;o).

The other day we were knocking on a door. An old guy opened the door. We thought he would be nice because we were in a less ghetto neighbourhood. We started introducing ourselves and asked him a question. Then we asked him "how do think about our purpose in this life?" He quickly responded, "to survive." I could smell a strong hostility when he spake those words. So I decided to stand and see how my companion response because I was planning to leave. My companion continued on how God has a plan for us. The old guy interrupted before he could even finish his sentene, said "You've talked too much, bye" then slammed the door on us. I felt so sorry for him. I murmured to myself "white people..." (And it's actually true. Almost all the white people we came across were super mean to us) What amazed me was right after he got slammed, he remained silent. He didn't complain at all! When we moved to the next house, he still got that smiley face on him. That bad experinece didn't bother him at all. He reminded me of how Jesus Christ was being casted out by the people from his hometown. Yet, he continued to teach in joy and with perfect hope. The greatest commandment for us is to love God, but the greatest truth is that God loves us with all His might, mind and strength. His loving arms is always extended to us simply because He loves us. No matter the circumstances, as long as we turn unto Him, He will receive us. I encourage all of you to read this talk Until Seventy Times Seven by Elder Lynn G. Robbins. I can promise you after reading it, you will feel the inifinte love that our Heavenly Father has for us. Knock, the door shall be opened.

3 Nephi 9:14

Yea, verily I say unto you, if ye will come unto me ye shall have eternal life. Behold, mine arm of mercy is extended towards you, and whosoever will come, him will I receive; and blessed are those who come unto me.

Peace,
Elder Lam

Compilation of me dying in various positions 

(Warning: photos may cause disturbance)

(Apparently Eric is still working on his sleeping missionary pics portfolio and his companion is his current subject) haha

WORK TILL YOU DROP

Hello hello! This week was a solid week! 

Nothing too exciting just solid missionary work.    

On Friday I almost died tho! We went to a members house for dinner and while we were eating I noticed some sort of pepper in a bowl. So I picked one up and ate it. The wife looked at me like I was a little crazy so I assumed it was hot and just swallowed it almost whole. Worst decision of my life. The back of my mouth and my entire throat down to my stomach immediately lit on fire! I looked for a drink and all I had was some soda so I gulped it down but that was just like pouring gasoline on a fire. It only made it worse! So with sweat dripping down my face and smoke exiting thru my ears I excused myself to the bathroom and promptly died. Later that night after the literal burning of the bosom was extinguished I opened the mail that I had gotten at district meeting and found this awesome gem. Coincidence? 

There is something I've noticed about almost all missionaries. We are almost ALWAYS TIRED! Missionaries are always falling asleep if they get to just ride in a car. Staying awake during studies can be a struggle. And it's especially hard to stay awake if you go on exchanges in an area where they speak a language you can't understand. Because of that some legendary pictures have been taken. I decided to compile a few. 

I've thought about this a little bit and I've wondered why we are so tired. If we follow the schedule we should be getting at least 8 hours of sleep. In this mission we don't normally have to bike up and down hills all day long. Most of us have cars or take the bus if we don't. So I don't think it's a sleep or exercise thing. But, the mission can definitely be a roller coaster emotionally. I think this is where our general tiredness comes from. We talk to so many people every day. And we work so hard to help people progress in the gospel by trying to understand their concerns and think of how we can help them. Because of this it's almost like we are living the lives of all the different people we are working with all at the same time. Throughout one day we can experience great happiness as we share the gospel with someone new and they are interested. We can have a lesson with an investigator and start to see them understand their purpose in life and who they really are and what their potential is. We can see people start to repent and make changes in their lives to work towards reaching that potential. We can see seeds of faith growing into strong testimonies and we can see the gospel truly working in people's lives. At the same time we can feel super disappointed as we see people that have had these same experiences take a sharp turn on their path as they run into snags and trials and stop progressing and start heading back in the opposite direction. Sometimes solid investigators just stop answering texts and calls and seem to disappear. No matter what we do sometimes this just happens to people. And then again we can be super happy as we see people push through the snags and the trials and continue progressing and enter the gate of Baptism. It's this constant roller coaster of emotions that I think makes us all so tired. But although there is general tiredness among missionaries there is also widespread happiness! Happiness that can only come from living the gospel and sharing it. It's that feeling of tiredness that we have that let's us know we are giving it our all to do the work of the Lord! There is no greater work in the world than sharing this wonderful gospel with everyone all while walking the path of the gospel ourselves!

Have a great week!

-Elder Burgon 

Not a weak week

Hello everyone! 

This week was an adventure! 

There was some of everything.

First off a fun experience. We were going around looking at our area book trying to stop by some members to get to know everyone better. I was clicking on all the m

embers in the area and one popped up that had the last name Finau. I was like, "Could it be?? Nah it can't be. But we have to try!" So we went over and knocked on the door and someone said "Hey Elders! Come on in!" We went in and there were pictures all over the walls of the Finau family. When I saw all the pictures I knew this was place. I asked if he was related to Tony Finau and he said "Yeah I'm related to Tony. This is his house! He grew up here!" How cool is that! Tony Finau is from this ward! Maybe he will visit our sacrament meeting someday. That'd be fun!   

(with brother finau. The guy in the Lakers shirt)  

We have this really cool investigator named E__ that we were able to have a couple lessons with this week. She has a little baby that she stays home with all the time so it's been pretty easy to find times to meet. That's not too common so it's been fun. We've been able to bring Salesi with us who is a member from the Tongan ward that just got back from his mission in the Philippines a month ago.

(in the car with salesi) 

As I've been reading through the General Conference talks lately there has been one I've really liked. It's Behold the Man! by Elder Uchtdorf. It's just so great I have to share. 

"We have all sinned. Our sins would forever keep us from living with God, because “no unclean thing can enter into his kingdom.” As a result, every man, woman, and child was shut out of His presence—that is, until Jesus Christ, the Lamb without spot, offered His life as a ransom for our sins. Because Jesus owed no debt to justice, He could pay our debt and meet the demands of justice for every soul. And that includes you and me. Jesus Christ paid the price for our sins.

    All of them. 

    ‎

On that most important day in history, Jesus the Christ opened the gates of death and cast aside the barriers that prevented us from passing into the holy and hallowed halls of everlasting life. Because of our Lord and Savior, you and I are granted a most precious and priceless gift—regardless of our past, we can repent and follow the path that leads to celestial light and glory, surrounded by the faithful children of Heavenly Father. This is what we celebrate on Easter Sunday—we celebrate life! Because of our beloved Savior, we can forever drink from the fountain of water that springs up into eternal life. We can dwell forever in the mansions of our eternal King, in unimaginable glory and perfect happiness."

That just gives me so much hope and happiness! No matter what happens in this life if we repent and follow the path that leads to celestial light we can live forever in perfect happiness! That is the wonderful message of the Gospel that we can know for ourself and offer to everyone! 

Have a great week! 

-Elder Burgon 

Prayer is a REAL blessing!

Hey hey hey how's it going friends and fam? 

I have been crazy busy and I love it! The views of Palos Verdes will be missed but the work in my new area will be great! I got to this area and there were 30 new investigators waiting for me! This is a really fun area to say the least. It's closer to what I was predicting a mission in LA would be like before I came out. Lots of work! With all these investigators and with all the new assignments that come with being a district leader it has been one busy week! The area is really cool too. We live just east of LAX so there are always huge airplanes flying right over our heads! It's been a lot of fun to watch! 

Last P day was my bucket list day. We went around and did all the things I was wanting to do in Palos Verdes before it becomes the Long Beach mission! One of the things I was wanting to do was play basketball at the Korean bell. There is a really cool court there that I was dying to play at. So we did all that then I packed up and headed out to my new area! 

Elder Lam, my new companion, is so awesome! He's been a member for three years and has a really cool conversion story. While he was living in Hong Kong life was really crazy and stressful for him. He didn't really have any religious background but he said a little prayer asking for help to find his way in life. He then went outside and went on a walk to go get some food. While he was walking it started raining so he went inside an arcade because he forgot his umbrella. Inside the arcade there were two missionaries! He said the second he saw them he knew they were the answer to his prayer. He went up to them and started talking to them and they eventually taught him and he was Baptized! How cool is that! 

We've had a couple of other really cool experiences with prayer this week too! Last night we had a lesson in an area where we had to park pretty far away then walk to the lesson. It was dark and it isn't the most pedestrian safe area. Before we left for the lesson we said a prayer asking to be kept safe as we walked to our lesson. We got there all good and then when we were heading back to the car we were crossing a street at a crosswalk and a car came down the road and didn't see us and slammed on their brakes right before hitting us! We definitely felt protected and made it home safe! With that and with all the prayers I've said that have been answered this week with being district leader I feel like prayer is a REAL blessing!  

Being a district leader is super awesome! I'm loving it already. This week was really fun and I'm excited for this new area! Have a great week! 

-Elder Burgon 

The inside of a missionary apartment...

round 3!

NI HAO!!!

Talofa friends and fam and ni hao transfer 6! 

I think I need to throw some ankle weights on my good friend Mr time cuz he is moving too quick and Idk how this transfer is already over!

My final week in the TPV zone was a good one! On p day we went to the one approved beach in the mission! It's down at the southern end of Palos Verdes and it's so cool! It's pretty closed in with rocks and has an awesome cave. The beach is basically the backyard of President Galrath and the cave goes UNDER his house! It's pretty crazy. We hiked back thru the cave and I got kinda stuck but I survived so it's ok. 

Conference was so good Holy Cow! A temple in Layton?! and Elders quorum?! and ministering?! Exciting stuff! With every one of the announcements I just felt a confirmation that President Nelson is a prophet of God and that there is still revelation today! With the world as CRAZY as it is right now I am so grateful for a prophet to lead and guide us and help us see the path back to our Heavenly Father. 

Now for the transfer news! 🥁 🥁 🥁 🥁

I'm leaving! I'm going to Inglewood. Now I'll cover a Tongan ward and another English ward! And they called me to be a district leader. My new companion is Elder Lam from Hong Kong! He came into the mission with Elder Dehlin so I'll be finishing his training!  Maybe I'll learn some Chinese and Tongan now too!  Elder Dehlin is staying and gets to continue learning his Samoan! I didn't see this coming but it should be a fun adventure! 

Have a great week!

-Elder Burgon 

O A MAI OE???

Talofa friends and fam! 

It was another great week in CLAM! 

We had zone conference this week and Elder Dehlin got Samoan name tags which inspired him to go all out with learning Samoan. We've spent a good amount of time during meals and at night getting some practice in. Its been fun! We got to use a little Samoan at church yesterday with one of the members and the look on his face was priceless! He was shocked to hear some Samoan come out of our mouths.

Anyway, for the p-day and b-day last week we did some really fun stuff! We went hiking in Palos Verdes and got to see some more sweet views! It is really pretty being up on the Palos Verdes hill and looking out over the ocean. It never gets old! After that we went to Korean BBQ which was new to me. They bring out plates of raw meat and then you cook it yourself on a grill that's in the middle of the table. It was all you can eat so we stayed for two and a half hours just grilling some grub and chowin down.    

Fun news from the week: 

Our mission got approved to use uber. UBER! If that doesn't tell ya the work is progressing idk what will. For areas without cars or areas where parking is hard to find we can now just order an Uber. Plus it is a great opportunity to share the Gospel with the driver :) 

Yesterday we stopped by an investigator of ours who is awesome! His name is D__ and he is 16. Something hilarious always goes down when we go over there. Yesterday's excitement was when he whipped out an albino mouse mid lesson. I'm sure you can imagine... "I saw a pilar of light exactly over my hea(squeak)OHMYGOODNESSWHATISTHAT??"... "uhhh nothing. It's just my mouse. You wanna touch him?" He then ran back to his room and came out with a snake too...  I think the mouse is going to be a meal sometime soon.  

Anyway this week we also found another super cool investigator. His name is J__. He was actually found during a district blitz that we had last week and then we were able to have a lesson with him on friday. He grew up catholic but hasn't been actively practicing for a while. He is probably 25 and is excited to read the Book of Mormon and find out if it's true!

Have a great week! 

-Elder Burgon

BEST WEEK EVER!!!

Holy Cow what an incredible week!! Once again, Elder Dehlin wrote a funny summary of the week so that will be on the blog (see below). But man this week was so great I don't even know where to start! So much happened! Sorry this email is a longer one! There was just too much good stuff I have to share!

We started off by helping the Lui's finish up fixing their house from the flood. We got to paint the walls which was a lot of fun! Then on Tuesday we had new missionary orientation #2! I can't believe it's already been a month since Elder Dehlin got here. That's crazy! We went to where we thought new missionary orientation was but we got there about five minutes early and the gate to the church was locked and there were no cars there. We figured we probably had the wrong building. We eventually found out that it was clear up at the Westwood building!  That's all the way up at the top of the mission by the temple. So we hopped on the 405 and crawled through morning traffic and were extremely late to the meeting. We got to the meeting and it was the exact same new missionary orientation that I had after I had been to at the beginning of my mission! The same topics were spoken about the same trainings were given it was all the same! I loved it! It was fun to remember back to when I was going through it the first time! My favorite part was doing the trainings that I thought were really hard at the beginning of my mission and then doing them now and seeing how much easier they have become! It was a lot of fun! It eventually ended and we were driving back to our area and got about half way there and realized Elder Dehlin left his bag back at the Westwood building! So we stopped at a Ramen House for lunch (and had a sweet Ferrari park next to us) and then we turned around and went back up to Santa Monica to get his bag. It was an eventful day! 

I also had one of the best exchanges I've had yet on my mission on wednesday. My district leader came into my area and spent a day with me. I'm not sure how much I've said about my district leader Elder Hwang. Probably nothing. But he is INCREDIBLE!!! Super smart and an out of this world missionary! To give you an idea of the kind of genius he is, he is a professional cello player, spent 2 months messing around trying to figure out how to play piano and is now the best piano player I've ever seen, and he is going to study nuclear physics in college and wants to work for the Navy. He ultimately wants to contribute to ending world hunger by providing electricity to the parts of the world that don't have it by figuring out fusion energy. Yeah he's a genius. And he is just as smart in the gospel too. He basically has the scriptures memorized and can quote them on demand. I asked him a lot of questions about the gospel on our exchange and he would quote me some scriptures off the top of his head and share insights from books he's read and give me some amazing answers. I learned so much from going on exchanges with him! It was so great and I hope I can do it again before he heads home.  

We also got to do lots of service again this week! We helped a non member in Palos Verdes move from one incredible house to another. His view was crazy cool. We also helped plant trees around Palos Verdes at land conservation sites.

My favorite day of the week, even after all these great days, was sunday! Yesterday was so great! In Samoan sacrament meeting I was just pondering because the talks were given in Samoan so I couldn't understand. I was just thinking about the Gospel and I thought to myself "I wish it was fast Sunday so I could get up and share my testimony." Well at the end of sacrament meeting a member of the Lomita ward bishopric came up to us and said, "Elders I have a problem! I need a speaker!" I was like yes!! I can do it! So my wish came true and I was able to give a talk in the English sacrament meeting! It was great! I spoke on the Plan of Salvation and faith in Jesus Christ. Then after Church an investigator of ours text us and told us he had the flu and couldn't do our lesson that night. But, we were able to do a texting lesson with him and it was so cool! His name is N__ and even though he had the flu he kept his commitment and read 3 Nephi 11. He read it and loved it! He also prayed and had a strong confirmation of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon!! It was so great to hear! He said he had a comforting presence come around him and his days since then have just seemed brighter!! We are so happy for him! Later we went to give a blessing to a member who was injured at work. We talked with him and his family and found out that he served a 9 year service mission!! They love missionaries and at one point had almost every missionary in the Zone over to their house for a dinner! They are incredible and have had some amazing experiences. They know so many people in the area and gave us about 30 referrals!!! Like I said, yesterday was the best day ever! 

Thank you all so much for all the birthday wishes and for all you do! You're the best! 

Have a great week!

-Elder Burgon       

Elder Dehlin's email:

Again, sorry these are so long, I just write them cause I may or may not be keeping a journal so this is all my prosperity is gonna get.

Monday:

I painted a house all day, then, at the end of the day, our district leader called and was like "Hey so since you guys have done service for the past two P days I think you should know, if you do service, the Zone leaders will let you extend your P day so it doesnt end at 6," and were like... nice to know, or would have been two weeks ago. 

Tuesday:

So once upon a time, I was a new missionary. The End... That is currently.

So today we had New Missionary Orientation #2. As in the first one was the day I got here. We drove all the way east to the building they told us to be in and BAM, gate is locked, but some genius knows the code so I unlocked it. But it still posed the question, why was it locked. The answer came in a text from our AP, elder Jensen. He said and I quote, "ETA?" wtf. What do you mean ETA? Boy I am the freaking lone survivor and his compadre over here, I have literally, LITERALLY not seen another human being within 60 miles of this church building where in the goodness of all things are you? Of course our actual response was a little more like, "oh, haha, what building I think were at the wrong one." Turns out they changed the building to the one twenty minutes north. It also turns out that it was twenty minutes north through the FREAKING MIDDLE OF DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES WHY DID THIS HAPPEN TO ME!! Anyway, about an hour later we arrived at the actual building and listened to the last 15 minutes of the orientation. Pretty sweet. Nothing else happened.

Wednesday:

My companion went on exchanges with the district leader today. So his companion and I were all by ourselves. They are the Korean Elders so I was a wee bit nervous to not speak to anyone at all. Turns out we just built a fence on the actual greatest view in the world. Palos Verdes. If any of you ever get to go to Palos Verdes, youll know why I say this. This member had a view on a cliffside that looks out over all of Los Angeles, literally the whole city, and its not a small city. So that was pretty neat.

Thursday:

Today we helped a dude move out of his house at Palos Verdes. Yesterday I said that the one lady had the best view of all time, I was wrong. This man had a view of all of the town of Palos Verdes, with the ocean in the background. Tears were shed when we first looked out his massive sliding screen doors leading out to an overlook of some of the nicest homes I have ever seen, plus the ocean... And he was moving out of this house. Why? Ill never know. Some people just wouldnt know quality if it karate chopped them in the face and round house kicked their ancestors back to life. We spent all morning helping him move out, and then into his new (not as nice of a view) house. The member who invited us to help this guy out then bought us all Poke Me. Apparently LA does this thing where they take the worst food (sushi) and turn it into an even worse food (salad). That is what Poke Me is. They take all the stuff you put in sushi and throw it into a bowl, stir it up, and give it to you like you didnt just see that tunas heart still beating. Why California, why do you ruin everything. The End.

Friday: 

Yet another wise words from Hwang district meeting. Grandmaster Hwang (our DL) taught us about Judgement today. Basically he said that it is impossible to not judge. We have to judge people like who we marry, who were friends with and who we elect for government office and stuff, but we cant judge them permanently, only God can judge if people are a "lost cause," and the only times he really did that were like, Sodom and Gamora, and Noah and stuff. We can only judge people that are going to directly affect our lives, and everyone else, we treat with love and respect, and never treat them worse than yourself. But enough of that stuff, its boring.

Saturday:

We got lit.

Sunday:

Today was fantastic. We had church, which is wonderful as always. Elder Burgon got to give a surprise talk in sacrament meeting which was cool. After that, we came back and got a text from both our appointments for the day. Both cancelled, but one, N__, said he read the chapter we asked him to read. He basically said he read it, prayed to know if it was true, and felt so happy the rest of the day, and wanted us to give him another scripture to read. Pretty cool. After that we ate dinner with an awesome family that gave us enough food to take home that we could feed roughly 13 African kingdoms. We then went to a members house to give a blessing to this guy who got his foot ran over by a forklift. We stayed there talking for like two hours, which I mean, isnt supposed to be the "best use of our time," but I dont really care, we learned about how this guy was a church service missionary for 9 years with 3 mission presidents, and we got some way nice oranges, and got like 30 referrals. Even if we hadnt gotten the referrals, it would have been worth it. Also this guy at church was like, "hey kids come see me after church" all sketchy and stuff so of course we went and saw him. He opened his car, looked around, and then handed us four white shirts...Idk guys, LA is weird. He also has a smiley face pin on his suit every sunday. I mean this guy is in his 50s probably, (hopefully or else I just roasted the crap out of him) and he is walking around with a giant yellow smiley face attached to his suit like he is some circus clown. "Hey squeeze my nose and this pin will spit water into your eyes." That kinda stuff. Good guy tho. His name is Larry Bird, not even a lie.

There you have it, my week, pretty legendary if you ask me, which you are, cause youre reading this email.

-Elder Dehlin