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

I THINK I DIED...

... AND WENT TO HEAVEN

PV is kinda cool. 

Man I miss Inglewood a lot tho. I just had such a good time there. The wards were super awesome, the people I got to work with were super awesome, and my companions were super awesome. Just about everything was super awesome. Good times and lots of good memories. It was a party. But as much as I loved being in Inglewood, I think PV is going to be pretty awesome too.

Down here in the Korean Branch we teach lots of English classes. But this first week two were canceled and nobody showed up to the third one. So hopefully next week we will have better luck. But so far trying to to Elder Kim with his English and explain why we say things the way we do is pretty hard! English doesn't follow any of its own rules. 

My first full day here we had dinner with an awesome member. He likes to try and predict your future based off when you were born. And he has this interesting system that is supposed to keep you healthy and relaxed. These were his predictions and health suggestions for me:

Future:

Because I was born on 3/19/1999 at 12:50pm I was born in the year of the rabbit, in the month of the rabbit, and in the hour of the rabbit. Because of this I will be physically fit throughout my life, I will prioritize organization and cleanliness, and I will die early.  Cuz Rabbits. 

Health tips:

Also because I was born on 3/19/1999 at 12:50 pm my health composition is 3 wood, 2 earth, 2 fire, 1 metal, and 0 water. I'm not sure how this makes sense exactly but to him it did. The goal with your composition is to make everything equal and balanced. He suggested that I move somewhere hot to burn off the extra wood. To increase my metal he said I should lift metal chairs. Specifically chairs. And to increase my water he wants me to drink lots of hot water. Because cold water is bad for you. 

The pic of the food is from this this dinner appointment. He was talking about the future and health so much that he forgot eat. He literally ate two tiny pieces of chicken and then said, "ok elders I expect you to finish the rest." hehehe ok will do. We were slightly full. 

We had another fun dinner appointment too. It was with the 2nd counselor in the stake presidency and his fam. The really fun part was the view. It is literally the best view I have ever seen. I'll have to get a picture next time we go over. The photo that was taken at night is at their house but it's looking the opposite direction of the cool view. 

We also had a really great Zone Conference. It was with Elder Neilson from the church's mission department. It was one of my favorite zone conferences yet. President Oaks coming to talk to us was cool too but because Elder Neilson is around missionary work 24/7 he knew exactly how to instruct us. And he had lots of crazy stories about missionaries. He told us that once a week, somewhere in the world, a missionary is thrown in jail for no reason and the church has to try to get them out. He also told us that every day there is at least one missionary that gets punched by a random person on the street. Which actually happened to a missionary in Inglewood before I got there. 

But one thing I really liked from zone conference actually came from a talk by Elder Bednar. In it he talked about the redeeming power and the enabling power of the atonement and how the atonement is there to make bad men good and good men better. As we repent of our sins and learn from them we turn from bad to good. And as we go through trials and turn to the Savior for strength to endure them, we go from good to better on our path to perfection. 

Matthew 11:28-30

Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light

annyeonghee kahseyo! 

- Je ileum-eun Burgon chahng Lu ibnida

Pics:

-The future predicting dinner

-Elder Kim found his long lost siblings.

-View from 2nd counselors house

- there are a bunch of peacocks that just chill around here. Pretty sweet. 

- the comp

- a few pics from the old district

안녕하세요! annyeonghaseyo! Hello!

Hola mi amigos! 

I have some pretty crazy transfer news!! 

Would you believe it if I told you I'm changing companions again?

I just keep scaring them away.  

But this time I'm the one leaving. 

I'm going South!!! Super sad to be leaving Elder Durham. This was a suuuuuper fun transfer and we had some awesome stuff lined up for next transfer. We were honestly enjoying it so much and we were totally planning on being together for another transfer. Crazy. But this is the really cool part. Elder Durhams new companion is Elder Dehlin!! My trainee is finishing the training of my other trainee! Plus they are basically twins. They both have brown hair, they are about the same height, both are super cool, and their last names are going to be mixed up way too much. It's going to be pretty crazy. I can already tell ya they are going to be the most dynamic duo in da mish and they will probably convert everyone in Inglewood. I can't wait. But yeah I'm going down to the south and Elder Dehlin and I are actually just switching spots. I'm going to his area with his comp and he's coming to my area with my comp. And get this. I'll be serving in a Korean branch! I guess I'll need to brush up on my Korean. Should be super sweet! I'm covering the an English ward and the Korean branch. Crazy stuff! My new companion is Elder Kim. He's been on da mish for about 3 transfers I think. I'm looking forward to it!

Have a great week! 

-Elder Burgon 

Pics:

- Elder Durham was dying to eat at this
restaurant named raising Cane's.
So we went on p day with our zone leaders.
It was pretty far away and we only left the
mission boundaries on accident twice so we're all good.

- the district

- four out of the six Silvas. We were missing two. But this family is so awesome and I'm going to miss them so much!!! It's been amazing working with them for the last 6 months.

- Gustavo! Another amazing person in this area.
He is the biggest jokester in the world and
 always has a smile on his face.
It's pretty funny that he isn't smiling
in this pic because he is literally always smiling!

 

2,100 calories later!!!
-we grubbed at five guys.
The title of the picture says it all.

Pics of da Week

PICS:

-we found some sweet BYU graffiti. 

-How I felt after doing buffalo wild wings blazin' challenge. Basically my face was on fire and I swear I was sweating actual hot sauce for the next 24 hours. 10/10 would recommend. Will do again.

-Temple day!!! 

-Another temple day pic and a game of find the elder.

-We found bigfoot's size 22 shoes. I didn't take my actually shoes off and I was still able to put these bad boys on over the top of them. 

-One more for fun...to help everyone remember that missionary work is work! Exhaustingly wonderful work!!!!

This week was 🔥🔥🔥🔥

Wowzawhataweek 

and malo lei lei fefe hake amigos! 

This week was on fire for lots of reasons. 

We had J__ and M__'s baptism, our AC went out so it felt like our apartment was on fire, and our cockroaches got so bad that we wanted to actually set our apartment on fire. Oh and today we are going to Buffalo wild wings to do the blazin hot wing challenge so that will be a whole other level of fire 

Noteworthy things from the week :

-G__'s miracle! G__ is one of the people I have been working with for about 5 months now, just about the whole time I've been in this area. He is super awesome and I've probably talked about him a little in the past. But last week he got some pretty scary news. He hadn't been feeling good for a while so he went to the doctor and the doctor said he was showing all the signs of cancer. He said he was 99% sure he had cancer so they ran some tests. We met with G__ after he got this news and he was pretty nervous. He said he prayed and prayed this entire week and we kept him in our prayers as well. On Saturday he got the results back from the tests and it was the best news ever! He is cancer free!! He has also had other obstacles keeping him from coming to church but yesterday everything worked out and he was able to come! We have been super happy for him to say the least. 

-J__ and M__ were baptized on Saturday! Wahoooo! It was super awesome. Pretty crazy but super awesome. There is always opposition before baptisms and before we do good things in general and this baptism was no exception. We got to the church two hours before the baptism to fill up the font and get everything all set and ready to go. We got all the chairs and everything set up and started filling up the font no problem. We went to print out the programs and then the printer broke and we couldn't print anything. Welp oh well. Not a huge deal. Then a half hour before the baptism was supposed to start we found out the ward lost some jumpsuits and we were short one. So we had to scramble around and find another jumpsuit and drive to pick it up. We got back to the church about ten minutes before it was supposed to start and found out that J__ and M__ still hadn't arrived. We talked to them earlier and they said they were good to go so all we could do was wait. We waited. And waited. And waited. We just kept on twiddlin our thumbs and stressfully sweated buckets. We were really getting nervous when it was a half hour past the start time and there was still no sign of them. And then all at once they came cruising in and ran into the church. Pfew! It was un poco stressful. But the baptism went great! And the best part was hearing how happy J__, M__, and their mom all were. I love baptisms so much!! The spirit is always so strong even if things are crazy. 

Have a great week! 

-Elder Burgon

Photos and Stories:

 - We had our apartment sprayed for cockroaches this week and had to take everything out of the cupboards and off the shelves before they would spray. My wrists are currently crippled so Elder Durham had loads of fun digging around in the cupboards and found lots of suprise cockroach homes. This was what our apartment looked like after everything was taken out. 

- On p day we went to this tiny little state park and had lots of fun. We walked around for a while and then found a little waterfall. We climbed up on the waterfall and took some pics. After I got down I went to grab my car keys and realized that they had fallen off my caribeener and I had no idea where they were. I thought they had fallen into the waterfall and we all had a mini heart attack. We traced our steps through the park and made it all the way back to the car with no luck. We carpooled up and the other companionship drove so they unlocked the car and you can probably imagine our excitement when we found my keys in the car. We were very happy as you can see. 

- Another exciting event from P day. My compañero and our district leader decided to lose their man cards and wanted to get their eyebrows done. So we walked into this tiny little eyebrow place and they got their eyebrows 'threaded.' lololololol. Don't worry. Your boi E Burg kept his man card and didn't get his eyebrows threaded