The work is hastening on!

Hello everyone! I hope all is well for you. If I could sum up my week
with one word, it would be amazement. I am amazed how much the Lord
loves me, I am amazed how much I have learned from just being out one
month in the mission, and I am amazed how much I had been blessed with
before I came on my mission that I never realized until now. I have so
blessed to be out here in England. Much has happened since last week
and so I'm trying to figure out where to begin. After emailing last
Monday, Sister Schmidt and I explored the Redruth town centre. The
town centre is quite fun. It's a narrow road with all sorts of shops
along the sides. I sometimes feel like I am in a movie or something
and that it's too good to be true. In the town centre, they had a red
telephone box thing that is popular in England and I got excited about
that. I'm starting to see them more and more in the different cities.
As we explored around a bit more, we went to a little bakery and had
our first Cornish pastey (past-ee) as well as some hot chocolate. A
pastey is pretty popular in England. They are like chicken pot pies
but look different and taste much better. The pastey we had contained
a gravy sauce, carrots, potatoes, and steak in it. It was really good.
The food here in England is overall quite delicious. Lots of members
cooked us England dishes and they were really good. One of my goals is
to collect recipes from England so I can bring them back home and cook
them for all of you guys who haven't had the blessing of trying an
England dish. :) As far as missionary work goes, I have learned so
much! I've been out only about a month now but I feel like I have
learned more about myself and about the Gospel than I ever have before
in my entire life. It is amazing how much you can learn with the
studies that we do as missionaries. We have personal study for an
hour, companion study for an hour, and then for me, another additional
hour of studying because I'm a new missionary and in training. Sister
Schmidt and I are doing great though. We get along great and are
developing such a strong friendship. I couldn't have asked for a
better trainer than her. She is so patient and so willing to help me
out in anything that I struggle with. As we are re-opening this area
and have been starting basically from the very beginning, we have been
doing lots of finding and proselyting. We have also been contacting
some referrals and some less actives. It has gone really good. I'm
amazed how strongly I can feel the spirit as I teach and how confident
I have become as I go to approach people. I know this will really help
me in the future to come. Sometimes people look like they don't really
want to talk or most keep to themselves but Sister Schmidt and I start
up a conversation with them about life, etc. and I love when they open
up and bloom as they chat with us. We let them know who we are and if
they have ever heard of us and a lot of people haven't. Many aren't
interested in hearing the message that we have for them but it's ok
because as long as we plant a seed, then perhaps when the time is
right, it will grow :) Oh! We taught our first lesson this past week.
It was with a guy named Geoffry. He has been taught by one or two
different sets of missionaries but he just struggles with the concept
of God and believing that God is really there. His son is baptized and
goes to church but Geoffry hasn't received a witness that God is
there. We began to teach him about the Gospel dispensations and the
restoration and it went really well. He was receptive to it and we
have another lesson this week with him so we will see how that goes.
The member who taught with Sister Schmidt and I was shocked that it
was my first lesson that I taught because of how well the lesson was
done and some of the things I said. That made me feel good and I'm
grateful because it wasn't me who did all the teaching, it was the
spirit. That's what I love about missionary work, we can be
representatives of Christ but we can't teach anyone unless the spirit
is there. Overall, we have had a great week. We are continually
finding more people and our goal is to have a teaching pool soon. We
want to be able to teach people everyday each week. We have received
help with that because of the ward. We have worked really well with
the Redruth ward and the bishopric has been so helpful and so involved
in the missionary work with us.
I hope everyone back home is doing well. I wanted to share something I
learned about the atonement and how much I have learned about the
Savior's love for me:

Imagine you are on the earth by yourself. No one else is on the earth
with you. You look at yourself on the earth.  You zoom out into the
big galaxy and see earth being small and a very tiny you. Now you zoom
out again and in the enormous universe, you see a very tiny tiny
earth, and a small tiny dot that represents you on the earth. You are
the only one of the earth still. Now this is something that has
comforted me in knowing about the atonement. The Saviour loves me and
He cares for me. In fact, the saviour loves all of us and cares for
all of us so much that even with a small tiny spot on earth that
represents you, he would still sacrifice his life for you alone so you
could return to live with him and Heavenly Father again. He would
sacrifice his life for you alone  and because he would do that for
you, he would know exactly how you felt in times of trials and he
would know how to help you and carry you through the sorrows, pains,
and afflictions you may be going through. That's just it though, the
Savior has done just that already. He has sacrificed his life for us.
It just goes to show and illustrate, however, that even with you alone
on the earth, he would sacrifice his life for you because you are so
worth it to him and he loves you.

Love,
Sister Burtis