ATTENTION! ALEX IS IN LAS VEGAS NOW! DO NOT SEND YOUR LETTERS TO UTAH! HER NEW ADDRESS IS BELOW!...

Oi familia! 

I AM IN LAS VEGAS! 

I got off the pane and beheld numerous gambling machines right there in the airport.  (...okay I don't remember what they're called)  (slots?)  And I was overwhelmed by the big screens and scantily clad women on billboards!

Goodbyeeee Provo MTC.

Ha!  We were welcomed by President Ahlander and his wife and were fed a home cooked meal.  Something I forgot about whilst in the MTC. 

I was assigned my companions sort of like they do in Hunger Games.  Total reaping.  The whole ward came and they gathered as President Ahlander read "and your new companion is....... Sister Burch!"  I had to walk through the doors and down this line between the crowd and met my companions Sister Dewey and Sister Field.  I'm in a trio!  They are really awesome and great missionaries! 

My area is called Meadows.  We went right to work and had a dinner appointment in which the lady was eye level to me while I was sitting down.  I have never met a smaller woman!  After dinner we stopped by some people's apartments in a really sketchy part of Vegas.  In the dark.  We walked around this huge complex hearing police sirens in the background everywhere, but  I didn't feel the least bit scared.  I am protected!  (not trying to freak you out mom haha I am careful!)  These people called us over to them and wanted to know what 3 white girls were doing walking around at night (their words, not mine! haha!)  We told them and one woman had just moved here from St. Paul!  I was so pumped and we bonded.  She asked us to take her and her kids to church on Sunday.  Amazing! 

It's so good to be here and officially be a missionary in the real world!  But it's sort of hard for me to teach and pray in English anymore.  Who knew that would be something I would have to get used to? 

I love you all and will write more soon!  My new pdays are Monday, so that is when I will normally get to email. 

And my new address is:

4455 Allen Lane #140

North Las Vegas, NV 89031

Use it! :)

com amor,

Sister Burch

one step enough for me pt. 2

Me and sister Tait are tight, like unto a dish.  She will do great things in Oklahoma!  And one day we will see each other again in BRAZIL!

Our last PDAY!  Those lovelies are serving in Scottsdale Arizona until they get their visas!

selfie sunday... sorry!  I'm  just happy to be here!

I love you all so much and I am so thankful for all the letters/emails/and support I have received.  It means the world to me, you will never know!  I will get my new address up on here stat!

Eu sei que Deus nos ama muito.  Eu sei que temos propósito aqui na terra e que a obra e gloria de Deus e nosso felizidade!  Eu sei que Jesus Cristo vive e que ele murreó por nos.  Esta igreja e a igreja dele.  

abraços,

Sister Burch

one step enough for me

This will be the last time I write from the MTC, looking at the familiar mountains of Provo.

Next time I will be in the hot dessert of Las Vegas, Nevada!

To clear up confusion, I don't have my visa yet to go to Brazil, so until I do I will serve in Las Vegas.

And I am so pumped to get out.  Not that I don't love the MTC, it's just that if I have to eat another gravy soaked meal I just might cry!  

I don't have much time to write so here are some pictures of my MTC adventures:

Classic matrix.

my comp.  chipped her tooth so we got to escape and ride around provo!

caught in many rainstorms.  Utah be weird.

I got my reassignment!

Oi familia!  I know what you must be thinking, and no, it is not Friday.  But don't fret, I'm not breaking any rules, for I HAVE NEWS!

I have received my temporary reassignment!

....

and...

...

I'M GOING TO LAS VEGAS!!!!!!!!!!!

The west mission specifically.  I know next to nothing about it!  Except that I will leave the MTC at 4:30 am on Monday.

....WHAT!

That was unexpected.  Ah!  I am so ridiculously excited.  

I will probably get time to call you when I am in the Salt Lake airport early Monday morning, before  8:20 am.  So plan for that and keep your phones nearby!  (that's a hint to you, mom).  

This is my district and myself with our reassignments.  Elder Ashford on the left got his visa!

Someday, that will be me.  But for now, I sure am happy to be serving God in Las Vegas.

Há pessoas do Brasil na Navada, não?  

Eu vou enviar o outro email amanha.  E vou falar com voces na segunda!

Ate mais.

Sister Burch

ONE WEEK MORE

...and I hit the field!  The mission field of who knows where!  That's right, in a week I will either have my visa or a reassignment!!!  THE MYSTERY NEVER ENDS!  So make your guesses now!

...and pray it is a warm state as I packed little to no warm clothing....  Brazil....

This week was more of the same!  Studying, teaching, speaking Portuguese, happy times!  We're down to crunch time now though so I'm working harder than ever.  

Some fun stuff this week is that I got to be a host for new missionaries that came in on Wednesday.  I hosted a girl who was from Fiji and is serving in Colorado, how nuts!  It was awesome to see all their shiny new faces, completely overwhelmed, and not entirely sure what they signed up for.  (one girl was completely bawling and I did not know how to handle it...)  It's weird to think that was me not that long ago.  It seems like months ago!  

Something we have started doing here is TRC.  It's where real people come in who speak Portuguese and we teach them.  We taught a girl from Sao Paulo and it was the coolest.  We also taught a bunch of missionaries who served in Brazil and Portugal.  It gets me so excited.  

One of the highlights of my weeks are, however, getting to sing in the MTC choir.  It is so powerful.  This week we sang one of my favorite hymns at the devotional.  We sang a song called "Where Can I Turn For Peace"  

Where can I turn for peace?

Where is my solace

When other sources cease to make me whole?

When with a wounded heart, anger, or malice,

I draw myself apart,

Searching my soul?

Where, when my aching grows,

Where, when I languish,

Where, in my need to know, where can I run?

Where is the quiet hand to calm my anguish?

Who, who can understand?

He, only One.

He answers privately,

Reaches my reaching

In my Gethsemane, Savior and Friend.

Gentle the peace he finds for my beseeching.

Constant he is and kind,

Love without end.

I think something everyone seeks in this life is peace.  So many people don't know where to find it.  They look their whole lives in all the wrong places.  They turn to money, things, alcohol.  And they are always left feeling just as empty as when they started.  

Because the only thing that can truly give us peace and lasting happiness is Jesus Christ and His atonement.  

The song makes me think of when Jesus was walking out on the water.  His apostles were pretty freaked out and thought He was a ghost.  When they did see that it was Him, I probably would have been freaked out too, but Peter, however, asks Jesus to bid him come out on the water too.  He walked out on the water to Jesus.  And he got pretty far until he saw the giant waves around Him.

"When He saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me.  And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand and caught him..." Matt 14:30-31

Life is not easy, and sometimes our faith falters.  But Jesus Christ, as the song says, "reaches our reaching."  He will always catch us.  Beautiful.  

Anywho!  I love you family and miss you dearly!  

Oh, and HAPPY BIRTHDAY MAI EU AMO VOCE MUITO, NAO OBSTANTE VOCE E VIELO!

jajaja brincadora.  

com amor,

 

Sister Burch

PICTURES! :)

Week 3 in the MTC

Oi tudo bem familia!  I am half way done with my stay in the MTC!  Can you believe it?  This week flewwww by.  The pictures attached are of my district and I at the temple for our Sunday temple walk!  They are a hoot.  Me and Sister Tait also took a ride on the handlebars of a certain infamous MTC statue... we didn't read the "do not climb" sign until it was too late? haha

I'm still working hard studying Portuguese all day.  We also got a new teacher!!!  His name is irmao Pinho and he is Brazilian!  100%!  He's from Sao Paulo and I'm not sure I've ever met a Brazilian I didn't like!  His enthusiasm is contagious and he tells us hilarious stories about the country.  SOMEONE GET THIS GIRL A VISA! :)  He speaks rather fast, however, but I think it will really help my accent and ability to teach.  

All of the Portuguese classes got all switched around so we moved buildings and now we have to walk up 5 flights of stairs to get to class. 

The elevators are for "sick and afflicted."  I diiiid have a cold this week... 

The view though is incredible and the mountains are beautiful.  

My companion and I sometimes get a little stir crazy after 6 hours of class... so we have adopted a certain grassy knoll on campus that we study atop.  The simple things.  Meeting people at the MTC is incredible.  Everyone has a story.  We had some elders bear their testimonies in Creole to us which was sweet.  And I met a girl from Denmark (Dad!) who is going to serve in Florida!  

No word on a visa, though a few people in my zone have gotten theirs.  Pray for me!  

My motto this week has been this lovely scripture:

"Wherefore, be not weary in well doing, for ye are laying the foundation of a great work.  And out of small things proceedeth that which is great."

Every small worthwhile thing we do now, however tiring or difficult, will lay the foundation of a great work.  I have a testimony of this.  Our choices matter.  How we use our agency matters.  Nossas escholas sao importantes.  The SMALL decisions that we make everyday turn out to be perhaps the most influential for our future.  

I love you all and pray for you pelo nome, cada dia.  

com amor,

Sister Burch