Freshers Week and a New Missionary!!

Hello all! 

Wow, this was SO busy! We were constant, constant, constant. This week was "Freshers Week", the first week of University for Freshman. This means that there were thousands of students in Manchester, right next to the YSA building. Well, we decided to use this as an opportunity to introduce the gospel of Jesus Christ and tour of the Chapel to a lot of people. On Monday, a total of 130 students were contacted. Each day (Mon-Sat) we had 16-28 missionaries on the streets, plus members giving Chapel tours. 

Elder Wolf and I worked on Tuesday and Thursday from 10am-5pm, then on Saturday from 10am-1pm. We found a total of 15 people those three days, plus probably around 100 conversations. It was packed. 

One Tuesday, we felt impressed to message our Recent convert, Osvaldo, and tell him what we were doing. He expressed an interest in joining us on Saturday. So, on Friday we had a mini-briefing with him and helped him to practice (aka roleplay). On Saturday he joined us for the whole time, and was probably more effective than Elder Wolf and I combined . He was absolutely stellar! So, we had an extra missionary to join us. He enjoyed his time being a missionary. 

Now, member-missionary work isn't always joining the missionaries to Street contact in the heart of Manchester for three hours, but it can be through simple efforts. Simply being an example to non-member friends is an example of missionary service. We can also invite our friends to "come and see" what church is like (E.g. When you give a talk in church, baptism, confirmation, young men/women's activity nights, Relief Society/Elders Quorum activity nights, General Conference, etc.), or to "come and help" as we serve our neighbours, community and world. When we do these things, it plants a seed of gospel living in the hearts of these dear friends, and as it is nurtured they will naturally want to "come and stay" because they will have tasted of the fruit of gospel living. 

I am grateful for the opportunity to serve as a full-time missionary. It is truly a wonderful blessing! I love having two years, 10% of my life so far, to dedicate to the Lord. I especially love having a dedicated time to study the word of God. I recently, on the 14th of September, finished the Book of Mormon. I set a goal to do so and I accomplished it! I want to testify of the truthfulness of that book. It is another witness of Jesus Christ. I invite everyone to read it and ask God if it is true. Then listen intently and patiently for an answer. He will answer you!

I would also like to witness that President Russell M. Nelson is a prophet of God. He has been called to serve in this capacity and is given the strength to do so. He is just as the prophets of the Bible. They were called to prepare the world for the birth of Jesus Christ, and taught us how to repent and live the gospel. Today, from Joseph Smith to Russell M. Nelson, prophets have and will be called to prepare us for the second coming of Jesus Christ, and teach us how to repent and live the gospel. If we follow him, sustain him and obey his council, we will grow closer to God and qualify ourselves to receive His blessings, because of our obedience to divine law. 

I love God, our Heavenly Father, and His Son, Jesus Christ. 

I love you all and wish you a great week! 

See miracles. Be miracles. 

Elder Burns