Last letter from the MTC....hopefully!!

Hey, didn't I just write you guys?  Huh-ho, I think I did.  Craziness, this is probably my last email in the MTC, unless they surprise us by letting us write another before we leave.  Just think, the next time you'll hear from me will be over the phone.  What is a phone, anyway? 

As you may know, I got my itinerary last week.  It goes as follows:

On Monday we leave at 4 in the morning, fly out from Salt Lake to Dallas, then from 11:55-4:45 we're in the Dallas airport.  Wait, what's that?  A 5 hour layover?  Sweet goodness.  No worries about making time now, eh?

Then we fly to Heathrow and land at 7:30.  Haven't done the math yet, but that's the overnight flight.  Mmm, should be loads of fun.  After that, it's a brisk hour en a half layover between Heathrow and our flight to the Netherlands.  I'll let you know where I get sent from there, of course.  I doubt we'll take anymore flights in the Netherlands/Belgium.  It takes something like 2 hours to get from one end of the country to the other.  Needless to say, I'm going to waarschijnlijk be tired when we arrive.  I'm curious to see what the first thing we'll do when we get there is.  I'm going to make it my goal to get a waffle at least once a week.  Oh yes, and proselyte and stuff.

So apparently they're having great success over there.  I'm not sure whether our mission or Europe specifically, but someone was saying that the baptisms are aplenty.  It's because of the younger generation.  They're sticking less to their ingrained cultures and religious believes (devout Catholics and the like) and are more open to hear the word.  I'm excited for that!  I'm not expecting so much success numerically, but hoping to do the Lord proud.  That's all that matters, right?  Where's that one scripture where it says that even if you bring one soul to Christ, great will be the joy?  Ik weet het niet, maar het is belangrijk, ja?

It was awesome hearing about your Christmas celebrations.  Man, our dumb cat (the black one) is so boring.  Where'd we get her, anyway?  Who chose hey?  Probably a dummy.......ME!!!  HA!!

So Elder Burton left the campus to see the doctor on Tuesday.  I don't think he's got anything specific; he's just sick.  But, he did have to...ahem...participate in "Magic Tuesday" again.  Poor him. 

I'm glad you're getting Dad off his butt.  Sounds like he needs some exercise.  Work off that flab!  Grapje

I am so excited to finally be leaving here.  The MTC has been a fun experience, but...you can only take so much of hotdogs, fries and hamburgers.  Real food, real people, mmm.  Can't wait.  I want to just lose myself in the culture and work.  I'm sure these next two years will be a blast.  Before you guys know it, I'll be back home again, speaking Dutch and toting chocolate.  I hope you are still moderately the same.  Go ahead with your life--I expect nothing else--but stay the same people you are.  Keep your chin up, that's all you can do.

We heard from William R Walker last night.  He gave a great talk (they're all great, aren't they?) about ten things you can do to improve your time as a missionary.  He brought up some excellent points.  Two which I've already mentioned: losing yourself and loving the people.  And another.  Stay cheery!  That one got me especially.  That's what you always told me to do.  If we go and love the people and are excited about what we have to share, I'm positive they'll be far more excited to hear about it.  If you went up to somebody and said "Oh hey, yeah...  I've got this orange.  It's pretty great.... I s'pose.  Want some?" they'd probably refuse.  Psh, it's just an orange, whatever.  But if you went up and were super stoked, "HOLY MAN, this orange is totally delicious.  You'll never have any sweeter!"  Now that's intriguing.  Right?  Makes sense to me anyway.

Aha, I never heard of that Hugo movie you went to.  Has it been that long already?  Oh my gosh.

I'm glad Jeremy enjoyed the shirt I made him.  Sorry I didn't get anybody else anything.  And speaking of gifts, the Goeders gave me a $100 cheque.  THANK YOU!!  I have no idea how to cash it, so I'm sending it home in a letter.  Whamo, you're going to get a letter.  Be excited.

Speaking of letters--did I mention this already?--it'll be far more practical for people to just email once I'm over there.  mailto:    evan.burgess@myldsmail.net     Letters would still be nice, but I doubt it will take any less than two weeks to get there.  Heck, I sent a letter and it took 2 weeks until...the person whom I sent it to replied. 

Thanks for all your letters, by the way, and your support.  You are all the greatest!

I'm definitely going to miss our District when we finally get there.  We've got such a fantastic District.  You hear all the stories from other Districts and it sometimes shocking really.  Everyone in ours gets along, we keep our humour appropriate and don't insult each other or stuff like that.  And Elder Mower is the best.  I hope I'll get a companion as good as him.  I doubt it's even possible to get any better.

But, we'll see I guess.

Zombies, by the way.

I just glanced at Elder Mower's screen.  His title of his email is "yarrr, Mateys".  Oh my gosh.  He is hilarious.

It might be too late to send photos in the mail.  I might just wait until I have access to a real computer and just email them to you when I get there.  Is that possible.  By golly, I sure hope so.

I finished the Book of Mormon just the other day.  I started it the...1st or 2nd week we were here.  Pretty good, eh?  I think it almost took me a year to read it the first time.  It was great reading through it again.  I feel as though I've learned so much!  About the stories, the characters, the doctrine.  It's got to be the only book that you can read through literally hundreds of times and get something new each time.  But you have to be looking!  And praying.  Something to think about.

Ik zal jullie in de Netherland zien.  Eh?  De volgende keer ik zal jullie schrieven, ik zal waffle eten.  Ooo, en chocolade ook!  Leker.

Did I tell you that this is the only mission where you're encouraged not to wear a bike helmet?  Isn't that weird?  I heard it's because people will throw things at you if you do.  Hey, I'm not complaining, but it's kind of strange.  I hear when you come back as well, all your suits reek like pot.  There's something to look forward to.  Go to hug me and all you get is a noseful of stink.  Mmm.  I'll probably buy a new suit over there if it comes to that.  You can get them relatively cheap, no?

By the way, some words to remember.  Leker--tasty (more versatile than our word).  Leuk--cool.  Geweldig--awesome.  Uitsteken--fantastic.  Jammer--pity/unfortunate.  Sjonge jonge--oh boy (negatively).  There, expand your Dutch vocabulary.  Impress your friends!  Sound cool.  Graag gedaan--you're welcome.  It's geweldig when somebody speaking a pretty language like French or Spanish says "gracias, Elder!", and you reply with GRAAG.  *flem*-raa-*flem*.

Anydoodles, see you guys later!  To Holland I go!

As always, love yah all.

and don't have too much fun without me.

jullie geliefdste, Elder Burgess.

Vrolijk Kerst!

Merry Christmas!  Secret surprise email, ho!

Man oh man, it's totally Christmas day!  I miss you guys all so much, I hope you don't miss me too much.

Thank you so much for all the gifts!  You're all so thoughtful!  Those Buckyballs are the most entertaining/addicting thing ever.  I didn't even know you knew I was interested in them!  Thanks so much!  Uncle Ted and Aunt Rosemary, thanks for your gifts as well, and the other Burgess family, thank you too!  I loved your poem and the pictures you sent.  Uncle Dave, that's one doozy of a fish, 35 pounds?  Holy Moses!  Though, I think I hold the Burgess record for the biggest fish still.....even if it's a sturgeon.  When you catch a fish that's over 8 feet long and weighs 150lbs I think you deserve the title.  One day you might beat that.  Probably not soon though.  It's great to hear that Kavlin is preparing for a mission.  Let me know the moment he gets his call!  I'm eagerly awaiting. 

Man, that ping-pong paddle, play-doh replacement me is so funny.  I laughed pretty hard at that.  I found Travis in the line for Christmas lunch and asked him about it.  Fun times.  That replacement cat is super cute too.  I can't wait to meet her.  I hope you're still giving the old cat attention too.  Sometimes, even old things still require some loving.  Just look at Brett.  Heyyo!  Kidding.  But...am I?

Man, your gifts are so great!  Did I mention that?  I never realized how important pictures were to me before this Chistmas.  Honestly, the thing I was most stoked about were those photos.  I'm glad I can show off my family.  Out of all the things we have,  I think it's almost always appropriate to show off how great of a family you have.  And with a family this great, why not let the world know, eh?  Thanks for the pictures, everyone.  I'm glad I have a photo of every pet of the Thompson family too.  I think... 

This computer is ridiculous right now.  It freezes about every 2 seconds, so I can't see what I'm typing.  Luckily, it will still register what I'm typing, but it's super frustrating not being able to see what you're typing--or more importantly, the mistakes you're making.  I apologize.

Did you guys get some good loot this year?  What did Mom get?  Did she take it back?  What did Mia and Jeremy get each other?  What could Brett afford to get you guys?  I guess I'll have to wait until the mail room is back open to find out.  Don't hesitate to send emails, especially when I'm in the Netherlands.  It'll be far easier than sending letters.  What did you guys do for Christmas?  Where was Christmas dinner?  Who all came?  Did you do anything exciting with the ward?  Ah!  I want to know so much!

I can't believe I'm gone in less than a week!  Isn't that unbelievable!  I have so much candy that I still have to eat.  More than before, in fact.  Yeah, I just finished that huge bag of corn nuts when WHAMO I get another huge back of munchy deliciousness.  I'm sorry to say, I might have to leave some of my goodies behind.  Sorry guys, I'm only human.  I can only digest so much.

Speaking of digestion--and what an awful segway--Elder Burton has been feeling super sick lately.  Our instructo even told him to go back to the slaapzaal to rest for the day.  He's toughing through it like a champ, but a person can only take so much.  I hope he's good enough to fly out.  To make things worse, the doctor is closed for a few days, so he can't go there for remedy.  I hope he gets well soon.  Instead of praying for me this week, please pray for him.  He needs it more right now.

How was Christmas without me?  You know, it was definitely a different experience, but I don't really feel homesick.  I'm sorry if that makes you sad in any way.  I miss you all for sure, but I don't really feel any nag for home, you know?  It feels like I'm surrounded by family here, and the love is just as strong.  One Christmas in the MTC is all I need though, guaranteed.  Can't wait to celebrate it with you guys once again.

You know the only good thing about this computer freezing is the fact that everytime it freezes, so does the timer.  I've been typing for about 20 minutes now and it only registers 10.

Anyway, I'm hope you guys aren't sad that I didn't get any of you presents.  I don't think anybody wanted MTC shirts or American candy, sorry.  Maybe when I get to Belgium, or the Netherlands I'll send something home.  I hope it's not too expensive.  Besides chocolate, what would you like?  I'll try and find the most European/Netherlandic thing and ship that sucker back home.  We'll see.

So today, we had the priviledge of hearing from Elder Bednar, of the 12.  He's a great speaker.  He spoke for an hour and a half and I took a page of notes--somehow though, I can't remember anything off the top of my head.  I'm still the same guy you know.  We also heard a presentation from the motab choir.  It was excellent.  Did you hear it as well?  I highly recommend it.  It should be somewhere on the website.  Take a look.

Last night we watched the Christmas Carol movie or whatever it's called.  The Charles Dickens one.  Bah, humbug.  It was a great movie, though not as good as the Muppets one.  Still, it was awesome to watch a movie.  They gave us popcorn as well.  I mentioned it briefly before, but we had our Christmas dinner at lunch today.  Turkey, smash potatoes and stuffing.  Not nearly as good as home, but better than the regular menu.  Tonight we get to have sack dinners.  Yay. I'm just glad the workers get to celebrate Christmas with their families.  The workers are great people.

What else should I say?  I've got 15 whole minutes left.  Gee whizz.

I'm glad I can be an example to those youngins' back home.  Start preparing for your mission now, that's my most important piece of advice.  I felt so unprepared--like I had to learn the things everybody already knew.  Read the manual, get to love the scriptures.  Do everything you can.  I guarantee it will improve your MTC experience.

I've got to go now.  Maybe I'll have time to squeeze some in later, but for now....

Merry Christmas to you all!

Love yah lots,

Elder Burgess

WHAM....it's almost Christmas

Hoi jullie!  Hoe gaat het?  (hey, how's it going?)

So guess what day it was yesterday?  Magic Tuesday, yay!  We led on the andere Dutch so well--they thought they were going to see a General Authority or go to temple square or something.  They all wore their fancy ties and clothes and brought their cameras and stuff.  It was hilarious.  They weren't mad at us at all, which was awesome.  They came to lunch and more or less congratulated us on our leading them....astray.  When we did ours, everyone kinda did it at different times throughout the day.  The new Dutch missionaries had to wait until that evening--all of them.  That's right, four elders ruining our washroom all at once.  They weren't discreet about it either.  Fun times.  Aw, one of them got me to take a picture.  That's right.  They held it under the stall door.  Talk about kernasty.

I heard about Twyla from Cassie.  That sucks; I hope she gets better soon! 

Oh, and thank you all so much for your letters!  It's always the best to get letters from family, but I daresay it might be better to get them from friends.  Ah, don't hate me for saying that!

I love hearing your stories about what's going on, what with the Girlies, Jeremia, the replacement cat and everybody else!  Keep writing, all of you!  I'll do my best to write you back.  Eventually.

I can't believe there is less than 2 weeks until we leave.  It seems so far yet so near.  It's as though I've been here forever, but not enough.  Make sense?  I'm so excited though.  I can't wait to get there--to eat REAL food.  I also can't believe how fast Christmas is coming up.  Back home, everything seems to re-remind you of Christmas, what with the lights everywhere, the commercials, the flyer's, the music on the radio.  We've got none of that.  Elder Mower told me today that he was doing something (can't remember what) and was suddenly reminded that Christmas is in 4 days; the thought just struck him.  It's definitely a different atmosphere here.

I hope none of you forget the true meaning of Christmas this year.  Yep, here it comes, my spiritual rant!  Elder L Whitney Clayton of the Seventy spoke to us concerning the matter.  The very first, and most important gift ever given was Jesus Christ.  How profound is that?  God so loved the world that he gave his only Son.  And Jesus gift to us was the redemption of all mankind.  Sister Clayton also told us of how important it is to accept gifts graciously and with sincere gratitude.  I think this is no exception.  I hope we can all appreciate how great a gift was given on the first Christmas.

Speaking of gifts, I got the packages you sent me. I got the first one Monday of last week but decided until Wednesday to open it (after I had sent my e-mail).  Holy Moses, have I told you how much I love you lately?  THANK YOU SO MUCH!  I couldn't have asked for anything better!

That's crazy what Sister Courtney Smith said about those missionaries in Brussels.  It's amazing how the Lord takes care of us.  He works in mysterious ways, that much I've learnt, but he's always looking out for us.  I hope Sister Smith's mission is going great.  How long does she have left?

The language is coming along very well.  I think I have a pretty solid grasp on it, at least how the grammar works.  I don't feel as though I know especially much, and I'm terrified for that first time I hear a local speak while I'm in the Netherlands, but I'm optimistic as usual!  What else can you do?  We're going for 100% het Netherlands now.  We slip here and there, but I'm impressed with our language all the same.  It's amazing how much we've learnt in just 2 months.  Craziness.

I've been playing volleyball pretty consistently.  I guess I'm hoping one of these days it will really picks up and we'll have an amazing game.  I'm pretty sure my spike and approach have gone down the drain by now.  Still pretty fun though.  There are two four-square courts, but one of them is in the volleyball space and consequently cannot be used, the other is in the middle and usually has a huge lineup for it.  Looks pretty intense, I hear people talking about it all the time.  I think I'll stick with Volleyball though.  They just opened up a exercise room in 2M (that's the post office building).  It has machines and weights that you can use.  Ooo, also televisions and headphones you can luisteren to talks with.   I haven't been down there myself, but it sounds like a heel leuk place.  Maybe one of these days.

Ah, as for Christmas.  We got our schedule, and we're having a huge sacrament meeting Christmas day.  All 2,000'ish of us.  Wow.  Then we have personal planning for a while and stuff, not entirely sure.  What I do know, however, is that we're having a Christmas lunch--kind of like tijdens thanksgiving.  Then a sack dinner.  There aren't going to be staff at dinner because they want them to go home to celebrate with their families.  Aaand there's some other stuff, not sure what.  I'll let you know next email.  I also know that we're going to have somebody from up top addressing us.  Probably an apostle.  I'm hoping for Elder Uchtdorf (spelt right?) personally.

Hey, that's great news about Braden!  I hope his job brings him joy.  I have some advice for him, and anybody else.  Never forgot who you are.  Never forget about God and Jesus Christ.  Love your family with all your heart.  I hope whatever path you take, please stay faithful.  Braden, you have the greatest faith of anybody I know.  I hope you have success in your life, but more than that, I hope you always remember God--and all he's done for you.

I encourage all the young men to look forward to their missions.  I'm super happy to hear about their progress.  I don't want to discourage anybody, but Satan will try his hardest to keep you from going on a mission.  He does everything in his power to stop the truth.  This is the truth.

Oh hey, I'm happy to hear about Brett as well.  I'm glad he's finding his way with his music career.  I really am.  Keep going, bro!  I hope Jeremia are happy too.

Since the post office closes in two days, I don't think there will be enough time to send me any more letters or packages.  I don't know when it opens again, but I doubt anything would reach me before I left.  Continue using Dear.Elder.com though.  Perhaps, if there is anything you want to send to me, wait until I'm settled in the Netherlands or Belgium.  I'll forward you my address and what not.  Also, if you're emailing me, send your address in the email.  I'd love to write you back at some time, but that's a difficult thing to do without addresses!

I'm also grateful to hear stories about Sasa, Greg and the girlies.  It means so, so much to me.

Well, goede gelukkig, don't have too much fun without me!

Merry Christmas!

Love you all, SO MUCH.

I was thinking of Papa Joe and Mama Jean the other day.  I hope I'm doing them proud.

Tot volgende keer,

Ik houdt van jullie!

Totziens!

Thank you for your letters

Thank you ALL so much for your letters!  It's so great to get something from every one of you.  Warms my heart.  I may not be able to reply individually, but know that I appreciate you all so much!  Keep writing me, please!

First off, The MTC isn't accepting packages after December 23rd, so if you feel oh so inclined to send a package, you might want to do it soon.  I'm not sure how long it takes to send something, so... Not sure when they're accepting packages again either. 

So anyway, I've been seeing a lot of Bieb's lately.  His lunch is 20 minutes before mine, but his group takes forever to eat so I can usually catch him as he's leaving.  Just a "hey, how's it going, was sup?  How's the language?" kinda thing.  I think he's enjoying it here.  Looks like he's having a blast with his companions.

Our district might be the best ever.  Just saying.  We have a blast all the time.  We've got a top-notch group of spiritual guys here.  None of us have really had any issues with each other, as far as I can tell anyway.  I'd hate to have somebody in my district, or especially a companion whose guts I hated.  I'm going to eat those words, aren't I?

The language is still coming along of course.  Every week seems like a huge improvement of the language.  We get to go to a thing called TRC every week (have I told you this yet?), where we teach either member Nederlander's or return Dutch missionaries.  It's a great experience for both them and us.  Anyway, teaching them is so much more comfortable than it was the first time...... holllllly.

Als het een schlang was, zou het mij hebben gebeten!  Sjonge jonge!

I hope life is still kicking along fine over there.  Man oh man, I know so much more than I did before!  Mia, I think I could actually answer all the questions you used to throw at me now.  I'll tell you right now though, all the things you want to know are in the Book of Mormon.  Seriously.  That's got to be one of the most important things I've learned.  The Book of Mormon wasn't given to us as a mere suggestion.  "Here's a book, yeah...it might help a bit."  No no.  It will help.  It contains all the answers.  Ever.  Or at least ways to find them out.  Isn't that cool?  Als jullie vragen hebben, ik nodig jullie uit het Boek van Mormon te lezen.  Het bezacht alle antwoorden.  Clear?

We heard from Sister Elaine S. Dalton last night.  She's the Young Woman's General...something er' other.  It was a good talk.  Guess what she talked about!  Yep, missionary work.  I'm beginning to see a trend here.  It was a good talk.  I don't have my notes with me, but essentially, she told us to put our complete trust in the Lord.  He knows what's best for us and cares and loves us.  He'll take care of us if we trust him.  He'll help us feel comforted when we're sad and pull us through tough times.....and stuff.

As far as a phone call home goes, I think you know more about it than I do at this point.  I'll certainly try my best to call home while I'm in the airport--or at least when I arrive.  Somehow.  Don't you worry.  Just keep those few days free so I don't miss you.  I'd hate to call and receive an answering machine.  How much fun would that be?   None.

So I heard a little rumour.  But as rumours go in the MTC, they're usually fake.  ANYWAY, I heard that Elder Holland might be speaking to us on Christmas day.  They say it's a tradition they have here.  I kinda doubt it, but it would be cool all the same.  We've already heard from 2 apostles already, but who knows?  Maybe it'll be 3.

What else...food is still a chore and my volleyball approach is going down the drain.  You know, the usual.  I'm not sure how much weight I've gained--that scale is all over the place.  I weighed myself and was about 154 or so.  Weighed myself the next day, 150.  Hmm...  I'll have to try again tomorrow.

We're getting new Dutch missionaries today.  That's so crazy to think about.  It's like we're receiving a whole new influx of us.  The other Dutch group seemed so much better than us, as far as the language goes.  I hope we'll be able to make as much of an impression on these young'ins as the other Dutch did on us.  We're going to try and speak as much Dutch around them as possible, thereby increasing their respect for us.

I'm still optimistic as usual.  What else can you do, right?  I hear other missionaries worrying over the language or certain doctrine that is confusing to them.  I just shrug my shoulders.  I'll learn the language with time.  I'm not expecting to be fluent in just 2 months.  As for Doctrine?  As one elder in the district said, some things are just beyond us.  In which case, and taking advice from Sister Dalton, you just have to put your trust in the Lord and have faith that things will turn out for the better.

Did I mention I'm thankful for your letters?  I truly am.  Nothing bores me--I want to hear about everything that's happening back home--or as Sister Stout says "the haps".  What movies are coming out?  What's happening around the world?  I heard Belgium finally got a government--and had a grenade attack a few days ago.  Craziness.  What games are coming out?  What are you guys doing for fun?  How's school, how's life?  I WANT TO KNOW IT ALL!

And I'm super stoked for everyone that's planning on going on a mission.  I heard in a talk (and I think I spoke about this already) that Satan will try his best to get you NOT to go.  Pull through.  I guarantee, GUARANTEE, it'll be worth it.  Heck, I'm not even out in the field yet and I know this is what is right for me.

The temple is a great place.  When you go, you will be blessed.  After I went I received an answer to a question I'd been having.  It's an awesome place. 

I've also been reading about the afterlife, and kingdoms of glory.  We are expected to live up to God's commandments if we are to inherit His kingdom.   It was a difficult trek to get here.  And I've learnt so much already!  My life was pretty comfortable before, but I went out of my comfort zone, and was blessed for it.  I invite those that are thinking of going on a mission......to "go outside their comfort zone" too.    

I love you all so much!  I appreciate your support!

Until next time, totziens, en ik houdt van jullie!

Elder Burgess

Halfway there

So guess what?  I came back to the slaapzaal latste nacht, and peeked my head into the temp rooms.  I was going to ask "Anybody seen a Bieber here," when WHAM, there was Travis!  Craziness, eh?  It's awesome that he's finally here!  I can imagine how excited he is.  We talked for a good half hour or so last night before I had to slip off to bed.  I don't think he's going to be staying in the same room as me during his stay here, but fingers crossed, right?  S'good to see somebody from home.

Thank you all for your cards and letters!  Especially to you, Biebers, for the money!  Thanks a b'zillion!

So now I'm up on the top bunk in my room.  I decided to let poor Elder Mower have the bottom bunk for a while.  Plus I'm hoping it'll make him wake up earlier and to also make his bed.  His excuse was always "it's hard to make it up there" (and it is), but now he has no excuse.

I can see how greatly my Dutch is improving with each passing week.  We have SLY Saturdays, where daar is geen engels (where there is no English).  Most of the time we end up speaking English, but it still amazing how far we can get along with how much we've learnt.  We're trying to speak as much het Nederlands as possible during the week.  It's a difficult adjustment, but I think it's for the best.  I'm optimistic that I'll know enough Dutch to get comfortably along when I'm finally out in the mission.

So I just asked about the Christmas phone call.  Unfortunately, they said no.   However, we can call from the airport, so expect that call to come sometime early January. 

Last night we had Elder Snow from the Seventy and his wife talk to us.  They were both great talks about the importance of missionary work.  One thing that Sister Snow said in particular caught my attention.  She said something along the lines of "As we help save other people, we help save ourselves."  That stuck out to me because I'm interested in stories in the Book of Mormon where the Lord says to his prophets that they are blessed and will be saved for their obedience and work.  It's awesome to think of missionary work like that...  Neat-O.

So Elder Burton (the other Canadian in onze district) was released as our district leader.  Well, it's not technically a calling, but you get the idea.  Guess who got called as our new district leader!  If you guessed me - you're wrong!  Dear old Elder Mower is our new district leader.  I'm actually stoked about it.  Because now I get to go check the mail with him every day (which is exciting) without having to go to all the meetings during the week.  Yay!  Elders Burton and Andrews were called as our new Zone leaders.  Not quite sure what that means, but again, glad it's not me.  Is that bad to say?

How's life back home?   How's my boy, Angus?  Still whiny and such?  Tell the girlies to behave themselves or else.

I always forget the letters and stuff that have questions all over them.  In my defence though, I just came from the temple.  I love the letters you guys are sending.  It means a lot to me, even if I don't respond.  I'll try to actually send a letter one of these days.  I have neither stamps nor envelopes though, so I'll have to get those first.

Did you ever send me my book stuff?  I guess if you don't think I need it, that's okay.  But I'm trying to write my book and don't remember much of the things that I wrote down.  Could you send my plannings in either an email or a DearElder.com, alstublieft?  I'd greatly appreciate it.  Still, no worries.

How's the ward?  Any adventures happen during my absence?  I hope not.  Exciting things cannot happen when I'm gone!  You know how I hate missing out.  All my love to you guys (the ward)!  I'll try to make you all proud.

I feel like I'm making progress in the gospel.  I said a sincere prayer one night, asking how I could improve and stuff and the next day I delivered my message to our investigator so well.  It was like everything I learned just came together.  And likewise, when I give no effort or am not so sincere with prayer or scripture study, I can feel the lack of energy or spirit in the lesson.  It's crazy how truly noticeable the Holy Ghost sometimes.

Weeks are starting to fly past.  Someday's it's like the same thing happened as the day before.  My journal entries aren't so extravagant either.  Days feel like weeks and weeks like days I suppose.

Oh yes!  I played with some pretty good players Monday night for volleyball.  Half the team seemed to like setting for me and were halfway decent.  I got some great hits, which absolutely made my day.  It feels good to drill a ball and have the other team say things like "Gee, calm down, it's just MTC ball."  That means you're awesome and they know it.  Anyway, I'm going to try to play with those same guys who set me more often.  Hopefully we'll get some good players on a transfer day one of these weeks.  You know what would be great?  If Travis's gym time was the same as mine.  Holy man, that would be sweet.  Chances of that are very slim though...

Food's still the same.  They've served us hotdogs at least...8 times now.  Unbelievable.  And corndogs too.  What's even better than that is what I found in my powdered eggs one morning.  An ant.  Yep.  That's right.  A squished up ant, chilling in my eggs.  I thought the eggs were bad enough to begin with.  I think I'll stick to bagels and cereal for breakfast from now on.  Gross.

I can't wait to get out to the field where I can eat real food.  Mmm.

On a slightly sad note, the Danish Elders are leaving on Monday.  I'm going to miss them.  On the other hand, we're getting 9 new Dutchies.  5 sisters, 4 elders.  Ooo, we're going to have fun with them come Magic Tuesday.  They're also getting 7 new Danish elders, so I guess the ones we got now will be more than replaced.

Well, that's about all the time I got.  I love you all so much!

Till next P-day, totziens!

Elder Burgess

Life is good.

Hello

First of all, thanks to everybody who sent me letters and stuff for my birthday!  Thanks for the candy (Thompson's), thanks for the letter (Auntie Marilyn/Warren) and thanks for the box of goodies parents!  That card was hilarious by the way.  When I opened that package, I was super stoked.  Our room is looking more like home already, what with that ninja and raptor above my desk.  Thanks a zillion billion! 

This week raced by.  It seems like only two seconds ago I was writing a letter home.  Days are starting to meld together here.  I guess with having all the days virtually similar, that's bound to happen. 

Yesterday was fun.  We had Elder Ka...zu...Yamoshito of the 70's speak to us--as well as his wife.  His wife has only lived in America for 4 months so her English was pretty....  Still, she did a great job.  Once and a while she would stop to ask: "you understand?" or "k?"  Elder Yomashito's English was better.  He spoke to us about our relationship as missionaries with our onderzoekers, and how vital that relationship is for eternal salvation.  His message was uplifting and spiritual.

I am starting to appreciate the scriptures more.  It feels like I'm diligently seeking knowledge within their pages, marking things down and whatnot as I read.  I can feel the spirit as I do so.  It's amazing.  I invite everybody back home to do the same--truly pay attention to what your reading as you read.

It sounds like you're having a crazy time with the cat that replaced me.  I tell my district members about all the shenanigans it gets into--including its incessant knack of switching all the settings on Dad's computer.  Dad, maybe if you knew your way around your computer you could fix it!  I'm sure they have classes for that.

Life is still good on this end.  Meals are almost getting to be a chore now.  It's like I've almost given up on them.  I find myself caring less about what I eat, which could be deadly.  Still, I try to eat a salad at least once a day and I am staying away from hot dogs, burgers and pop.  Speaking of food. I've got about a zillion pounds of candy in my room right now.  The Thompson's sent me a package a while back with about 3 dozen chocolate bars.  I think I've eaten two so far.  Many departing elders leave behind a bunch of candy. I appreciate it, but please, no more candy!  I've got enough to last my entire mission.

The language is coming along really well.  I don't feel like we're SYL-ing (speak your language) enough outside of the class, but I'm sure in a week or two we'll be speaking it the majority of the time.  They have some pretty crazy grammar rules, especially concerning past tense.  I guess you could say that about any language though.  What should I say in Dutch?  I houdt von mijn familie.....for suresies.  It's weird, the Dutch people don't really say "I love you" at all.  It's just part of their culture.  The verb to love is liefde, but you can pretty much never use it as a verb.  You could say, "God heeft liefde voor ons" (god has love for us) but not "God liefdt ons" (God loves us).  Just doesn't work.  Instead, you have to say, "Ik houdt von u," Literally translated "I hold of you." 

My district has got to be the best around.  We work so well together.  We try to eat together in the eat-a-torium everyday and pray everyday before personal study time.  My ccompanion has got to be the best in the world.  Ever.  He's mellow about things, yet has a great sense of humour.  Plus, he strives to correct any problems we bring up in ccompanion study. 

Right now, our two onderzoekers (investigators) are David and Kim Swaan.  They are both our teachers role playing, but I treat them just like real investigators.  I think they're making great progress.  David really wants to know Christ because he knows the gospel can help him and his family, and is really interested in what we teach.  His parents are divorced and his little brother died a while back, so family is really important to him.  Right now, though, we have to teach him about the word of wisdom because he smokes and drinks a bunch.  In the Netherlands, everybody you will talk to offers you a drink when you come over.  It is considered rude if you refuse, or ever ask for water instead! (they always have a million litres of juice in their fridges).  So when David offered me something to drink - tea, coffee, beer, I asked for apple juice instead.  He scoffed and said something along the lines of "Bah, my little cousin drinks apple juice!  Have something real to drink!  Beer, tea!"  I settled for water.

Kim Swann might be the perfect investigator though.  Her mother and sister are both member's and she essentially keeps  all the commandments already.  She accepts everything we teach and all commitments we extend without any fuss.  Pssh, we'll have her baptised before the next letter I write.  Well, probably not.

Wow, only 5 minutes left.

I hope things are great on your end!  Don't miss me too, too much.  Just a regular too much will do.

Oh, for my birthday, I make only one request.  I would like a letter from each of my friends, if that's not too much to ask for.  Just a simple "hey, how's it going" and "what are you up to" would be the best present.

Have you ever heard the song "Come thou fount of many blessings, tune my heart to sing it's graaaaace"?

I'm getting a little sick of that song.  It was removed from the hymnbook several years ago because of copyright issues, but it doesn't stop them from singing it every two seconds anyway.  I think in a week we must have sung that song over 5 times.  One of our leaders even played the motab version in a lesson.  It's getting old really fast. The worst part is that it gets stuck in EVERYONE'S head so EVERYONE is constantly humming, singing or whistling it everywhere.   Oh well, the good with the bad, right?

Until next week, totziens, en ik houdt van jullie!

Elder Burgess

Week 3!!

Bam.

Life's still good in the MTC.  It's hard to pay attention sometimes because of the lack of sleep, but I'm making do.  We got a fan in our room -  left over from the other Dutch group which left on Monday.  Last night was my best night.  I went to bed and I swear five minutes later I woke up.  It was great.

Still loving my district.  They're all great guys.  Their names are Elders Mower (my collega), Mathis, Wayman, Burton, McKee, Stoddard, Andrews and Sisters Stout and Palinekova.  Sister...Palinelinaskjova is from Slovakia and speaks like, 5 languages.  How crazy is that?  She speaks better English that some people in our group.  Most of the guys are from Utah--a lot of the time less than an hour away.  Only Elder Burton, Andrews and I are from somewhere else.  Elder Andrews is from Colorado.

So yeah,  some minor, kinda boring details.  There are three bunk beds in our room, but there are only four of us.  I sleep on the bottom bunk, with Elder Mower above me and the other two in our room sleep on bottom bunks too.  The other guys in the district now have six people in their room--with two from a different district altogether.  It's interesting haveing it that way....we only really see those two guys, from a different district, at nighttime.

I mentioned earlier that the other Dutch guys left on Monday.  There were four of them.  They were awesome guys, super inspirational.  When they left, we crammed like 20 people in their room and sang "Till we meet".  It was really powerful.  I'll miss them.

The Danish elders, however, are here for a few more weeks.  There are only three of them.  (One of them has a glass eye).  They're super fun loving and hang with us all the time.  Ha, for the last few days, I've been going into their room and writing stuff like "take off, you hosers!,  Love Elder Burton" and they really believe it's him.  I wonder how long I can get away with it.

Speaking of jokes.  The...second night the new guys in the other Dutch room were here, I ventured into their room while one of the greenies was looking at pictures from home.  One of them was a girl, so I went "Ooo!" over his shoulder, thinking it was his girlfriend or something.  He looked up at me, somewhat solem-faced and said "that's my sister".  Wham, that was embarrassing.  I got my butt back to my room so fast.  How do you look someone in the face after that?  I think he understands I was just joking.

Last night, we had Elder Christofferson of the Quorum of the 12 speak to us.  OF THE 12!  How awesome is that?  Very awesome indeed.  He said some pretty great things, but one thing stuck out in particular.  He said something like "We need to yield our hearts to God."  That phrase goes so perfectly with what I said a few weeks ago, about having a new heart in me.  We gotta change ourselves if we are to be the Missionaries God wants us to be.  I dunno.  I'm not good with the squishy words.  I just feel like God's trying to tell me something, you know?  That I have to surrender myself to him.  Does that make sense?  I explained it better to my district during our mini-testimony meeting afterwards.  It's written somewhere in my journal too.

The language is coming along well  -  as well as the lessons/teaching.  I feel like we're teaching with stronger conviction, and really listening to the needs of our investigators.  Our "onderzoekers" (investigators) are just our teachers acting, but I take the lessons very seriously.  I'm super proud with our (Elder Mower and my) progress.  Before, we'd prepare our lesson and essentially read it off our notepads.  Now we discuss what they need and prepare a basic outline.  Everything we tell them is strung together on the spot--no more memorization or reading. Sweet stuff.  Dutch is way cooler than German.  Het Nederlands is leuk!  Don't tell Mama Jean that.

But man are there some crazy words.  Tegenwoordikijt means presence.  Pretty huge.  Some words just get gigantic, because a lot of the time, they just smoosh a bunch of words together to make it mean something.  In English, we've got a lot of specialized words that mean specific things.  Not so much in Dutch.  Singing hymns is awesome.  The "Spirit of God" has one part that has three "ge"s in a row.  If you remember, g's make a guttural *flem* sound.  Love that song.

Tell Mia happy birthday!  It sounds like you guys are still having fun without me.  That's kinda hard to believe.  Oh, and tell dad to stop moving my stuff around!  I want it to be exactly how I left it when I get back! Kidding, of course. 

Let's see...  Anything else?  We're going to have a big service day tomorrow for Thanksgiving.  We're putting together a billion million relief packages or something.  Should be interesting.  Thursdays are the worst--I'll pick service over Thursdays! 

Want to hear a Dutch sentence?  "Wij danken u ons te zegenen met uw Geest."  We ask thee to bless us with thy spirit.  Fun stuff.

Ooo, want to hear something interesting?

Vaccination is het nederlands is spelt "Vaccinatie"  Guess how it's pronounced--and I kid you NOT--"foxy-nazi."  Whoops.  That led to some interesting conversations for the first week or so! 

Hey, Sam, draw me a picture!

Love you a billion times over!

Till next P-day,

Elder Burgess

I'll get the language. I'll get the lessons. I'll be fine.

Hey, sorry it takes so long to get these.  I only get half an hour once a week. 

Life's great here in the MTC.  Food kinda rocks (mostly sucks) and still wreaks havoc on my guts.  I can't believe how much junk food they serve here!  We've been offered hotdogs twice.  Ker-gross!  What's worse is the number of people who take the hotdogs.  Three or four members of my 10-person district took them. 

The spirit is super strong here--especially Tuesday nights when we get to hear from a General Authority.  Last night we heard a talk from Elder Tad Callister of the Seventy.  It was about the apostacy after Christ's death.  It was super interesting hearing about all of the things that were lost or otherwise changed after Christ and his apostles were killed.  He counted off ten in total.  I don't want to get into detail, but it was an awesome talk.

One thing he said in particular struck me.  Something along the lines of "Satan tries his hardest at the advent of something great"  Apparently, when Joseph Smith was 14 or something, he stepped outside his house and a bullet passed right in front of him.  The never found the killer nor the reason for the attack.  But I figured the same thing applies for missionaries.  I hope Travis realizes this as well.  Reflecting on Elder Callister's talk, I realized that this is where I need to be.  Yes, the language is difficult, yes, teaching is difficult--and the two combined, impossible --but you know what?  I have 7 more weeks here.  I'm not worried.  I'll get the language.  I'll get the lessons.  I'll be fine.

Anyway, that's my spiritual message for the day.

We have an awesome district.  Have I told you that?  Our district leader right now is Elder Burton ~ the other Canadian.  We get a lot of grief from the Americans, but whatever.  I just go along with it all the time.    Oh, and I met Rubon today.  I went to EFY with him.  Great guy, it was good to see him here.  Cassie and Braden should know him well.

20 minutes left. 

My "collega" (co-lay-*flem*-ah) is Elder Mower.  He's a great guy.  We get along really well.  He's a drummer and stuff. You know that obnoxious hand-fart thing I can do?  He can do the same--but drop a beat with it.  So awesome.

The Dutch missionaries that have been here a while are leaving on Monday.  There are only four of them, but they've been a great help--with the language and getting us used to the MTC.  Most of the time they hang out in our area of the dormitories.  They taught us the art of the tie-slap and passive-life-ruining.  You calmly take people's nametags off and mess their shirt and tie around.  The Danish guys next to us are awesome too.  Strangely enough, there are three of them.  I think they leave on Monday as well.  I'll miss them.

Want to hear some Dutch words?  Gehoorzamheid.  (*flem*-eh-hore-zam-height).  That's how Dutch works by the way.  G's are Flem.  It's kinda gross.  The worst is how you say thank you.... "Graag Gedaan".  Flem-flem ker-flem.  Elder McKee lost his voice for a week.  I don't even think he's fully recovered yet.

Oh, tell everyone how grateful I am for all their gifts!  And their letters.  It means a TON to me!  Tell my friends to send me tons of letters!  It's great to know they care.  Sam and Cassie sent me one, but otherwise nobody else.  Tell them to use dearelder.com and that I probably won't directly reply (restrited computer use..  Still, keep em' coming.

As far as writing, I haven't really had time to write--let alone time to think about anything.  Days are so busy here.  You wake up, eat, go to class, eat, go to class, eat, go to class, bed.  Throw in Gym (Spoortzaal), and that's essentially our schedule.  Well, kind of.  Tuesdays and I think Fridays start later because we have gym in the morning.  We don't bothering showering until after gym so we just laze around in our room until 7:10-ish, then grab a bag lunch.  You can't go into the cafeteria (eetzaal) unless you are in proselyting clothes.   I've started writing a little something--a continuation of a book I started back home.  We'll see what happens with that.

Elder Wayman, Mathis, Mower and I (all the guys in my room) are trying to get to bed earlier so that we're not so tired.  When you sit in a classroom for 4+ hours it gets hard to stay awake, let alone pay attention.  We're hoping the extra sleep will help.

Oh, and Dalen, where's that dent your companion made?  We think we found it but aren't too sure.

Volleyball is getting better.  I figured out that being super-enthusiastic makes the experience pretty fun.  I cringe every time somebody scoops the ball or "bumps" it with both palms open and facing upwards, or whenever somebody drowns on the net, but oh well.  Hopefull they're better in Nederland.

Well, I'm running out of time. 

That's all I got for now. 

Love you ALL so much!

Elder Burgess.

Best district

First of all, thanks to everybody who sent me letters and stuff for my birthday!  Thanks for the candy, Thompson's, thanks for the letter Auntie Marilyn and Warren and thanks for the box of goodies parents!  (That card was hilarious by the way).  When I opened that package, I was super stoked.  Our room is looking more like home, what with that ninja and raptor above my desk.  Thanks a zillion billion! 

This week raced by.  It seems like only two seconds ago I was writing a letter home.  Days are starting to meld together here.  I guess with having all the days virtually similar, that's bound to happen. 

Anyway, yesterday was fun.  We had Elder Ka...zu  Yamoshito of the 70's speak to us--as well as his wife.  His wife has only lived in America for 4 months so her english was pretty....  Still, she did a great job all things considering.  Once and a while she'd stop to ask: "you understand?" or "k?"  Elder Yomashito's English was better, so his talk was slightly more...organized.  He spoke to us about our relationship as missionaries with our onderzoekers, and how vital that relationship is for eternal salvation and stuff.  It was uplifting and spiritual.

I'm starting to appreciate the scriptures more.  It feels like I'm diligently seeking knowledge within their pages, marking things down and whatnot as I read.  I can feel the spirit as I do so.  It's amazing.  I invite everybody back home to do the same--truly pay attention to what your reading as you read.

It sounds like you're having a crazy time with that cat that replaced me.  I tell my district members about all the shenanigans it gets into--including its incessant knack of switching all the settings on Dad's computer.  Dad, maybe if you knew your way around, you could fix it!  I'm sure they have classes for that.

Life's still good on this end.  Meals are almost getting to be a chore now.  It's like I've almost given up on them.  I find myself caring less about what I eat, which could be deadly.  Still, I try to eat a salad at least once a day and I am staying away from hot dogs, burgers and pop. 

Speaking of food...I've got about a zillion pounds of candy in my room right now.  The Thompson's (THANK YOU!!) sent me a package a while back with about 3 dozen chocolate bars.  I think I've eaten two so far.  Many elders leave behind a bunch of candy when they leave. I appreciate it, but please, no more candy!  I've got about enough to last my entire mission.

The language is coming along really well.  I don't feel like we're SYL-ing (speak your language) enough outside of the class, but I'm sure in a week or two we'll be speaking it the majority of the time.  They have some pretty crazy grammar rules, especially concerning past tense.  I guess you could say that about any language though.  What should I say in Dutch?  I houdt von mijn familie....for suresies.  It's weird, the Dutch people don't really say "I love you" at all.  It's just part of their culture.  The verb to love is liefde, but you can pretty much never use it as a verb.  You could say, "God heeft liefde voor ons" (god has love for us) but not "God liefdt ons" (God loves us).  Just doesn't work.  Instead, you have to say, "Ik houdt von u," Literally translated "I hold of you."  Craziness, eh?

My district has got to be the best around.  We work so well together.  We try to eat together in the eat-a-torium everyday and pray everyday before personal study time.  My ccompanion has got to be the best in the world.  Ever.  He's mellow about things, yet has a great sense of humour.  Plus, he strives to correct any problems we bring up in ccompanion study. 

Right now, our two onderzoekers (investigators) are David and Kim Swaan.  They are both our teachers role playing, but I treat them just like real investigators.  I think they're making great progress.  David really wants to know Christ because he knows the gospel can help him and his family, and is really interested in what we teach.  His parents are divorced and his little brother died a while back, so family is really important to him.  Right now, though, we have to teach him about the word of wisdom because he smokes and drinks a bunch.  In the Netherlands, everybody you'll talk to offers you a drink when you come over.  It is...considered rude if you refuse, or ever ask for water instead! (they always have a million litres of juice in their fridges).  So when David offered me something to drink -  tea, coffee, beer, I asked for apple juice instead.  He scoffed and said something along the lines of "Bah, my little cousin drinks apple juice!  Have something real to drink!  Beer, tea!"  I settled for water.

Kim Swann might be the perfect investigator though.  Her mother and sister are both members and she essentially keeps  all the commandments already.  She accepts everything we teach and all commitments we extend without any fuss.  Pssh, we'll have her baptised before the next letter I write.  Well, probably not.

I hope things are great on your end!  Don't miss me too, too much.  Just a regular too much will do.

Oh, for my birthday, I make only one request.  I would like a letter from each of my friends, if that's not too much to ask for.  Just a simple "hey, how's it going" and what are you up to would be the best present.

Ever heard the song "come thou fount of many blessings, tune my hear to sing it's graaaaace"? It was removed from the hymnbook several years ago because of copyright issues, but it doesn't stop them from singing it every two seconds.  In a week, we must have sung that song over 5 times.  One of our leaders even played the motab version in a lesson.  The worst part is that it gets stuck in EVERYONE'S head so EVERYONE is constantly humming, singing or whistling it everywhere.  Oh well. 

Until next week, totziens, en ik houdt van jullie!

Elder Burgess

First impressions

First of all, sorry for taking so long to write this.  Our first P-day (day off) is on Wednesday's.  Please bear with me for any mistakes.  I hate this keyboard and Dutch is muddling my brainthoughts.  The MTC is great!  It's excellent to be surrounded by so many missionaries!  You don't have to worry about vulgarities or mean-ness or anything else like that!  Plus the spirit is so strong here.  It's truly amazing. 

I love the letters you're sending me and I hope you write me frequently.  Like I said, we only get to e-mail once a week, but it makes a difference to me receiving all these letters. 

Learning Dutch is difficult, but I feel like I've already learned more in this one short week than all of highschool.  The teachers speak as much Dutch as they can and only speak English when they're: A) teaching us about gospel doctrine or B) we don't understand it. 

Sunday was interesting because it was a fast day.  I'm not sure what Sundays are usually like, but we had a huge devotional (2 hours) and later a 1-hour fireside.  The fireside was super interesting.  The guest speaker explained to us how some missions are still closed and how some have opened up recently.  He was a lawyer and consequently used many big, lawyer-ery terms that only Dad and Jeremy would understand.  Still, very fascinating.

I love my district.  It feels like I've known them forever already.  I'm stuck in a room with three "Utons" (like croutons but...utah?) but I don't mind.  My companion is a cool guy.  After getting to know everybody in my district, I wouldn't want to be with anybody else.  Oh, and our district leader is Canadian (woot woot) from Alberta, somewhere relatively close to Banff.  Fun times.

As for the food?  Meh.  That's really it.  I can't really remember any specific meals, they've all been the same.  They have a salad bar, a wrap line, a 'yellow' line (where they serve fast-food style 'food') and two purple lines, where they serve more traditional style foods.  I try my best to stay away from the yellow line.  It's unfortunate that the serving of vegetatbles with your meal are either minute or non-existant.  You have to go out of your way to get some colour on your plate.  I don't really mind.  I try to eat salad or soup every time.  I hear some nasty rumours of people gaining up to 40 pounds.  (I may have gained 1 or 2 already). 

Oh, here's something fun for you.  Yesterday was "Magic Tuesday".  Apparently only the Dutch missionaries get to participate in "magic Tuesday"....and only once during their stay at the MTC.  The Dutch missionaries who have been here a while kept saying "Oh, I loved Magic tuesday", "We still talk about magic Tuesday", "Magic tuesday is such a spiritual experience, I wish I could do it again" and "Bring your camera."  So I did bring my camera.  I'm not sure what I was expecting--maybe a awesome talk or the opportunity to speak with a General Authority or something--but the experience was far from magical.  We were directed to a small room which had a table.  On the table were bags, adorned with our names with "Biohazard" stickers on them.  Freaky.  A lady came in and directed us to go into the room next door so they could take our blood.  Even more freaky.  After that, the scariest part of all: "In order to travel to and stay in Belgium, we need both a blood sample from you, as well as a stool sample."  Yeah.  That's right.  Stool sample. 

There is nothing magical about Magic Tuesday.

On the plus side, Elder Eduardo Gavarett spoke to us that night.  Every Tuesday, General Authorities come and give talks.  His wife spoke as well, with a thick spanish accent.  It was great.  Elder Gavarett's talk was very profound and spiritual.  I was hit with a specific phrase "A new heart in me."  That line struck me so hard...it's hard to describe.  It's like he summed up this mission experience--that I must truly have a new heart to be successful in my purpose here.  I have to become somebody new...  Powerful indeed.

Anyway, it's great to hear from you guys!  Keep writing please!  Oh, and Mom, please tells others about dearelder.com  It is awesome.

Mom, send this to all my friends.

Love yah lots!

Elder Burgess, Zegelin von de kerk von Jezus Christus van de Heiligen der Laaste Dagen (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints)

Contact information

Here's my contact information:

Elder Evan Burgess

MTC Box 219

BEL-NETH 0102

2005 North 900 East

Provo, UT 84604-1793

evan.burgess@myldsmail.net
I'm really going this time!

News & news

First of all, my mission was delayed 6 to 12 weeks.  Bummer.
On a lighter note though, my trilogy is finally up on Amazon.com

Give it a look - if interested you can order them too.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=evan+m+burgess&x=16&y=18

Mah Books

Got them in the mail
woo!  Take a look.
They'll be on Amazon soon too!
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=evan+m+burgess&x=16&y=18
Order: Shatterbreath, Gathering Thunder, BlackHound,
           A Good Time To Run

                                              

 

Farewell talk

This is the talk I gave on Sunday.

Good morning.  Today I was offered to give a talk on any subject I wanted.  Seeing as I’m leaving on my...ahem...walkabout soon, I thought it would be appropriate to speak on service.

This is a very important doctrine in the church.  In John chapter 21, versus 15 through 17, we read the following:

 “So when they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my lambs.

 “He saith to him again the second time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, ^aFeed my sheep.

 “He saith unto him the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? Peter was grieved because he said unto him the third time, Lovest thou me? And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus saith unto him, ^aFeed my ^bsheep.”

A wise teacher once told me that there are three separate translations for ‘love’ in Hebrew.  There is love for oneself, love for family and love for man.  Jesus emphasized this third kind of love when he told Simon Peter “feed my sheep” three times.

To love your fellow man is to offer service.  It is one of the main principles of our church (why else would we willingly send our young men out on missions?).  When asked which commandment is the most important, Jesus answered saying “Thou shalt ^alove the Lord thy God with all thy ^bheart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy ^cmind.  This is the first and great ^acommandment.  And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt ^alove thy neighbour as thyself.  On these two commandments hang all the ^alaw and the prophets.”

Service should not be considered a “I did my good deed for the day” type of situation.  The thought to serve others is a continual practice; we should always be looking for opportunities to assist others.  And never should we help anybody for the purpose of self-gratification or reward.  President Kimball addressed this and similar issues in a talk he gave in March of 1981.  He stated:

“May I counsel you that when you select causes to devote your time and talents and treasure to, be careful to select good causes. There are so many of these causes to which you can give yourself fully and freely and which will produce much joy and happiness for you and for those you serve. There are other causes, from time to time, which may seem more fashionable and which may produce the applause of the world, but these are usually more selfish in nature. These latter causes tend to arise out of what the scriptures call “the commandments of men” rather than the commandments of God. Such causes have some virtues and some usefulness, but they are not as important as those causes which grow out of keeping the commandments of God.”

Service comes in many forms.  It doesn’t have to be something big like helping a friend move or rebuilding a porch.  Help somebody with a church lesson, open a door for somebody, give food for the elders...  The church offers many opportunities to serve—the soup kitchen being a prime example.  The possibilities are endless! 

And so are the blessings you will receive from god.

In the same talk, President Kimball touched on this.  He said:

“In serving others, we “find” ourselves in terms of acknowledging divine guidance in our lives. Furthermore, the more we serve our fellowmen in appropriate ways, the more substance there is to our souls. We become more significant individuals as we serve others. We become more substantive as we serve others—indeed, it is easier to “find” ourselves because there is so much more of us to find!”

Christ set the perfectly example for us; he spent most of his mortal life in the service of others.  Two years seems like a pale comparison to that.  Indeed, serving a mission isn’t the only form of service we can render for the church or others.  Charity, sacrifice and service go hand-in-hand.  Charity is the pure love of Christ and therefore the pure love of mankind.  How better to show our love for Christ than to show our love for others?

Jesus emphasizes this concept several times in the scriptures.  In Mosiah chapter 2: “And behold, I tell you these things that ye may learn ^awisdom; that ye may learn that when ye are in the ^bservice of your ^cfellow beings ye are only in the service of your God.” 

The hymn and poem “the poor wayfaring man of grief” is a wonderful example.  In the poem, it speaks of a man who is down on his luck.  Another man finds the poor man and takes care of him, feeding him, sheltering him and choosing to sleep on the floor so that the poor man may rest in comfort.  The more-fortunate man is even willing to trade his own life for the poor man’s.  The poor man reveals himself to be none other than Jesus and says: “Of me thou hast not been ashamed.  These deeds shall thy memory shall be, Fear no, thou didst them unto me.”

This famous poem is based on the events in Mathew chapter 25: “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.”

To love god is to love man.  To love man is to offer service.

Service requires more than just physically assisting somebody.  In a talk given in November of 1984, Elder Dallen H. Oaks had this to say (and I quote):

“When we think of service, we usually think of the acts of our hands. But the scriptures teach that the Lord looks to our thoughts as well as to our acts. One of God’s earliest commandments to Israel was that they should love him and “serve him with all your heart and with all your soul.” (Deut. 11:13.) When the prophet Samuel was sent to Bethlehem to choose and anoint one of the sons of Jesse as a new king for Israel, the Lord told him to reject the first son, though he was a man of fine appearance. The Lord explained, “Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.” (1 Sam. 16:7.)”  End quote.

He further stated:

“Numerous scriptures teach that our Heavenly Father knows our thoughts and the intents of our heart. (See D&C 6:16; Mosiah 24:12; Alma 18:32.) The prophet Moroni taught that if our works are to be credited for good, they must be done for the right reasons. If a man “offereth a gift, or prayeth unto God, except he shall do it with real intent it profiteth him nothing.”

I am very thankful for the service in this ward.  Every day I see great examples of caring men and women who devote their precious time in order to help those around them.  I know the bishopric has missed many hours with their families in order to serve us, and I cannot give enough thanks.

My faith in this church has been strengthen by all of you—especially my young men leaders—who weren’t just my ‘leaders’ but my friends.  Service can be as simple as being a friend.  Be there with somebody, through thick and thin.  You friendship helps more than you realize.

I’d like to express my thanks for the service that was rendered when my Mama Jean was in the hospice house.  I appreciate the men and women who were there to make her last moments comfortable and for each and every one of you who visited her.  We greatly appreciate it and we could not have done it without you.

And to my parents.  My loving parents; who have always been there for me—lending me support, teaching me, raising me up to who I am now.  I love them so dearly and I hope to do them proud.

I hope to do you all proud during my time away.  I hope to do the lord proud as I serve my fellowmen—as I serve him.

Testimony:

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